As Slow as A Turtle.....

It was already morning and the moment Alice woke up, the first thing that caught her vision was Mark's smiling face. He was sitting at the edge of her bed. "Morning," he greeted. Alice slowly sat up and she rubbed the sleep off her eyes, she smiled as she greeted him back.

Mark was about to give her a morning hug when Alice blocked him with her hands. "I thought of it before I slept, I won't let you touch me unless it is an emergency or we are dating." she said in an embarrassing tone.

"What?" Mark whined in disbelief. "Aren't we a couple yet?" he asked.

"Well, I thought of it because you said that we should take things slow." Alice pointed out. Mark cursed himself for saying that.

"Okay, as slow as a turtle then." he sighed in disbelief.

"So do you wanna have breakfast?" Alice quickly asked before anything got awkward.

"Nah, I'm going home, do you have any plans today?" he asked.

"None really, I'm just planning on staying here all day." she yawned.

"Then come by my house," he offered. Alice thought for a moment before saying yes. After that Mark left and Alice accompanied him outside the house.

"See you next time pops," Mark waved.

"I hope you didn't do anything weird last night," he said darkly.

"I can't believe that you actually came," Mark chuckled when he saw Alice in his doorway. "Don't you think that you're overdressed?" he commented as he eyed her. She was wearing a white shirt, a cardigan, red tights, and brown boots.

"Well it wasn't easy getting out of the house, dad said you were already at my house last night and we had all the time together, so I had to make excuses," Alice said as she scratched her head.

"And those excuses are?"

"I told him that you asked me out on a date," she coughed. Mark shook his head in amusement as he led Alice inside the house. Alice greeted Mark's parents and they went to Mark's room.

Once they got in, Mark closed the door and Alice sat on his soft bed. "Nothing much changed since I last came here," she commented. She looked at Mark and she wondered why he looked so uneasy. "You okay?" she stated more than asked.

Mark nodded slowly "It's just that… you're in my room. Remember last time I said I won't let a girl carelessly enter my room? Well now you're in here," he looked away.

Suddenly the door opened and it hit Mark causing him to stumble forward, the one who opened the door was Ivan. "Brother, don't close the door when you're alone in your room with Aly," he turned to Alice. "Be thankful I came here in time, he's starting to have dirty thoughts of you just now," he smirked. Seriously, where on earth did this kid learn to smirk? "Your noisy friends are here too."

"Hey Mark!" all of a sudden Lance and the others went to his room.

"Why are you all here?" Mark asked as he stood up.

"Dude, we told you yesterday morning." Lance reminded him that they told him the day before that they were coming over to play video games.

"I think I know the reason why you forgot," Josh smirked when he saw Alice. Mark apologized immediately for forgetting and Ivan left the room.

"Were you really having dirty thoughts of me?" Alice asked bluntly causing the other guys to snort and Mark almost choked.

"N-no, don't believe anything that Ivan says," he said nervously. Alice shrugged and then they began to play with Mark's Wii.

The game they were playing was Ju-On the grudge and only Alice and Alex, the so-called daredevil duo, had the guts to play it.

"This is so damn scary, change the game," Gerald said while covering his eyes in fright. Alex only told him that the game is very intriguing and that they should continue playing it.

"Hey Alex, you went there before." Alice whined.

"No I haven't, I never saw this door before." Alex told her.

"That's because that's the door we came from, idiot!" Alice protested. The former just shrugged her off and entered the room anyway. Suddenly out came a pale woman with long hair and empty eye sockets. "Shake the controller you stupid head!" Alice shouted. Alex tried shaking the controller but the screen went black and the phrase 'GAME OVER' appeared.

"That was so damn freaky, let's change the game!" Josh yelped in one corner.

"What the hell just happened," Alice and Alex just stared at the screen in disbelief. They tried a couple more times but they just ended up dying, suddenly Ivan came into the room and asked if he could play. They agreed and to their surprise, Ivan was the one that finished the game from them.

"Good, now all of you can keep quiet. I'm studying for my exams," he smiled then he left the room.

"Mark your brother is so freakin awesome!" Alice squealed.

"Ivan is an enigma. Anyway let's go downstairs, lunch is probably ready." he harrumphed.

"So Alice, was Mark a bother at your house last night?" Mark's mother asked as she distributed everyone's food.

"N-no… not at all, he was well behaved." Alice answered, her voice cracking a bit as she recalled last night's events. Alice and Mark received smirks from their friends.

"Mark stayed overnight eh?" Josh chuckled.

"Did anything interesting happen?" Lance asked with a devious grin. Alice's flustered look was enough answer to all of them.

"How cute," Mark's mom giggled.

"How far did you go?" Mark's dad whispered.

"Dad!" he whined.

"How far?" his father asked again.

"Tch… just a kiss on the forehead." Mark scowled.

"Weak," he chuckled.

Once they were done eating, everyone headed back to Mark's room and they tried to finish another game. Alice and Alex were determined to finish it without any help from a kid this time. They managed to finish it after a few hours.

"We did it!" Alex cheered as he gave Alice a high five.

"Victory!" Alice whooped.

Mark only huffed. "Hey Mark, don't get jealous. We were just playing." Alex chuckled.

"I'm not jealous," Mark grunted.

"Oh come on Mark, just ask Alice to be your girlfriend already." Matthew cooed.

"I would but I can't yet." Mark scoffed.

"Why?" he asked.

"I unintentionally told her that we'd take it slow," Mark mumbled. Matthew burst out laughing "Where's that girl anyway?" both of them scanned the room and they saw Alice sleeping peacefully on Mark's bed.

"She's just as carefree as ever," Mark couldn't help but smile.

- - - - - -

It was the day that the winning class at the festival will receive their award, and what would be a better award than having an all-expense-paid trip to an amusement park? Truly it was an exciting day. They were all ordered to meet at the school's main gate and a bus would arrive to fetch them.

"Alice is running a little late isn't she?" Gerald asked no one in particular.

"I guess she is, the bus will arrive soon. She's the only one who isn't here yet." Lance sighed.

"I wonder where she is," Mark thought.

Then suddenly someone tapped his shoulder. "Hey Mark, my Al isn't the type to get late, what did you do?" Grant asked with suspicion.

"What do you mean your Al?! Shut up Grant," Mark huffed.

"Man you're so easy to tease," he chuckled. Then a familiar car stopped in front of them and Alice stepped out.

"Bye dad, thanks for the ride," she said. The window opened and they saw Alice's father, he leaned his elbow on the window.

"Watch this girl for me, but don't get to close alright?" he scowled. He narrowed his eyes on Mark "Especially you,"

"Don't worry pops," Mark grinned.

"Dream on pretty boy!" Alice's father shouted as he drove off.

"Pops? That's some guts you have, I thought her father hates you?" Grant asked.

"A lot changed," Mark chuckled.

"Everyone, the bus is here let's go," their class adviser said. It was totally a coincidence that Mark and Alice were assigned to sit beside each other.

"I have a feeling that everyone planned this." Mark inwardly groaned.

Mark looked at his seatmate who was currently reading manga from her cellphone. He eyed her and he noticed that they were wearing matching outfits. Once again, a pure coincidence. All of their classmates probably think that they're already a couple.

"Hey Mark," Alice called. Mark turned to her. "Can you move over? You're occupying too much space, I mean, we're too close." she said bluntly.

"What? Am not," he protested.

"But didn't I tell you that we can't be close and that you can't touch me for now?" Alice said as she eyed Mark's hand which snaked its way on top of Alice's own. Mark withdrew his hand.

"I never knew, it was instinct," Mark said in defense.

"You're bad at excuses Mark," Alice smirked deviously.

"Hey Alice, aren't you forgetting something?" Grant asked, he was sitting across them.

"Not at all," Alice answered, causing the whole class to snicker.

"I can't believe she forgot," Mark sighed. Ever since that question, the bus went silent, especially Mark. Alice never noticed it though.

After a long time of sitting, they finally arrived at their destination. "We're finally here!" Gerald cheered.

"I'm so glad, my butt hurts," Alex said as he stretched. All of them went down the bus and Alice and her friends together with Grant were all together.

"Hurry up, we have a lot of rides to go to!" Alice and Alex shouted in unison.

The others paled, with Alice and Alex leading them they know it would all lead to trouble. They have a long day ahead.