It's Complicated

Beca is standing on the weight scale while lifting her t-shirt to see her body.

"I'm not thin..." she mumbles.

She stares, with despair on her face, at the scale with some written number on it.

She is about to step down from the scale and Caleb suddenly opens her bedroom. She startles and tucks her t-shirt to hide what she was doing.

"What are you doing...?" Caleb asks her suspiciously.

"Nothing! Just checkin' on my weight!" she answers while fake giggling.

"Yeah, why did you do that?" he asks seriously.

"I... just wanna see how much I weigh! Nothing crazy! ...Hahaha..." she responds nervously.

"You know you're beautiful whatever your measurement is, right? ...Don't forget about that..." Caleb utters with a slight disappointment and agony on his tone.

He closes the door and leaves her alone in her room.

"Well, the thing is... I don't feel like that..." she mutters with a shaking voice.

-Felix's House-

Felix is just lying on his bed while throwing and catching his red ball.

It is the first ball that he has received in his life.

It has a sign saying, "Olsen."

His father gave it to him when he was a kid. As a professional basketball athlete, his father has always been teaching his son to be like him.

It's his dad's dream to see Felix wearing an actual jersey of a certain team in the future.

As his only child, Felix doesn't want to disappoint him.

However, he doesn't know what he wants to do in the future, at least not yet.

In Felix's whole life, he thought that being another professional basketball player is his fate. Now, he doesn't feel like that anymore.

The last thing that he wants is to be the next Olsen that the world can judge in the future.

It is not that he hates basketball. He just hates living under his father's name, living up to his so-called fate.

Will he be able to overturn that destiny? The expectations of his dad and society are just overwhelming for Felix as a teenage boy.

What will his father's reaction be if he says that he will not be striving to become a professional athlete, though?

Even the idea of imagining it is frightening him.

-Joanne's house-

Joanne is sitting alone in her bedroom.

She reads, "hydrogen peroxide," and the irritating scene passes through her mind quickly.

She stops typing on her laptop.

She hesitates for a while, but she finally moves toward the mirror in her room. She looks at herself in the mirror.

The judgments that she received earlier that day affect her a lot, even if her logic says not to.

It seems like even the most mature and logical people have a fragile side to them.

A side that they do not want other people to know. It may be a matter of pride or a matter of trying to be strong.

She looks at her reflection on the mirror.

Does she wish to be someone else that she's not? Does she wish to be another race but her own?

Does she wish to look different than she does now? She doesn't even know those answers.

"If being an Asian woman means I have to go through that every day, I don't even wanna be one..." she says while holding back her tears while looking at her reflection on the mirror.

Even though it disgusts her to feel like that, she still can't help it.

Joanne sees the tears in her eyes as she struggles to find a way out of the maze of her thoughts.

-Living room, Val's House-

Kai is sitting there anxiously waiting for Val.

Val walks down and stops in front of Kai who's shaking his legs nervously.

"Yo," she greets him while wearing a pair of ripped jeans and a leather jacket.

Kai looks at Val, who dressed up for the sleepover, with a disagreeing face.

"Why are you dressin' up?" he asks her skeptically.

Val rolls her eyes and answers, "I can dress up any time I want, urgh!"

She walks toward the refrigerator to get two cups of milk for both of them.

"You're not attracted to those dudes, right...?" Kai, who gets suspicious, asks her.

"Dude, I'm not dressing up to impress boys! What is up with you, Jenkins?!" she roars while slapping his forehead softly.

"Fine..." he gives up, but still wearing a sulky expression.

Val's father shows up and says, "Are you guys ready? Well, let's get moving!"

The three of them walk out of the house.

"You can sit at the back with Kai, Vall," her dad says softly.

She just nods and they all get into the car.

"Wait, where are you guys going, again?" she asks from forgetting where her father and best friend are heading to after dropping her.

"Bowling! Exciting right, ain't it, Kai?" William, Val's dad, shouts in delight.

"Well, yeah! Bowling rules!" Kai also screams to express his spirit.

"Hey! it seems like you're closer to Kai than to me lately, dad... ain't fair!" she complains while jokingly.

They all just laugh on the road to drop Val off at the basecamp.

Kai is indeed so close to Val's dad that he often calls his first name.

They also often go to places together.

It goes the same with Val and Kai's family. Val's father is kind of busy that he has to leave Val alone. But rather than just leaving her alone in the house, he just drops Val to Kai's house and let them babysit her.

It's always been like that since elementary school.

Kai is probably the person that Val's dad trusts the most when it comes to Val.

They finally arrive at the basecamp for the band's sleepover.

Kai stares suspiciously at the big house in front of them.

"I'll walk you there until I meet one of the dudes who gave you this ticket..." says Kai.

Val stares at her father while shouting, "come on!" from her expression.

"What are you looking at me for! I'm cool with it! I'm a cool dad! Do what you gotta do, Kai..." he says while looking away and smiling awkwardly to not piss her off.

They both get off of the car and walk toward the house.

Val is ringing the bell while holding onto the ticket tightly.

"If anything happens, you call me first. Got it?" Kai says with a serious tone.

Val rolls her eyes and utters, "nothing's gonna happen, dude! Chill..."

The door opens and Mike, the keyboardist, is standing there with Peter, the guitarist, at his back.

"Well, welcome aboard, Val!" Mike welcomes her.

"Great, you ain't confusin' it with any other night!" Peter jokes.

Mike and Peter then realize that another person is present there.

They stare at Kai with questions on their faces.

"Hmm, it's about time for you to talk... Your presence is questionable at best," she whispers then coughs and laughs awkwardly to hide what she said.

"Well, I'm Kai, her friend. I just wanted to make sure that she got here safe," Kai explains politely.

Kai stares at Val for a while and decides that it's probably safe to leave her there. He says goodbye to them and goes back into the car.

Val smiles at Peter and Mike and enters the white-painted house.

"You're the last one Val. Welcome!" Mike says delightfully.

"Oh, the others are here? What'll we do?" she asks.

Mike just smiles and Peters responds, "You'll see," while smiling mysteriously.

The mysterious yet exciting vibe is making Val's heart pound and she is struggling to hide her enthusiasm.

"Hey, Val!" Anika, the new drummer, shouts in delight.

"Wait, did you bond already before I came?" Val asks while giggling.

"No way! Sit here, Val!" Ryan, the new bassist, pats a cushion next to him.

They all sit in a circle and Mike says, "Welcome to my house or the basecamp of Fight of The Blue, and we are here to do the ritual."

"We're not going make you do anything weird, so... chill!" Peter says to break the tension of the word ritual.

"Well, we are going to play Truth or Dare. The next schedule will be revealed after we finish playing." Mike explains.

"There will be a category on each spin. So, you can't just blindly ask anything to the person." Peter adds.

"So, the first category is... the first kiss..." Mike says. His words get them all screaming and laughing at the same time.

"Woah!",

"Fun!",

"Dope!", they respond.

Then, they start to spin the bottle while shouting in delight.

The bottle spins and it stops at Peter.

They shout in delight and force him to answer it.

"Well, I've had it when I was in the 6th grade. I kissed her after confessing to her," Peter explains while holding his laugh.

They just smile and also struggle to hide their chuckles while hearing him.

They spin the bottle again and it stops pointing at Val this time.

They start to shout again with excitement on their tones. "Well, I haven't had one yet..." Val, embarrassed, answers.

Her answer totally shocks them out.

"What?",

"You're kidding right?",

"That's crazy!",

and the last response by Peter is, "Preposterous!" which makes them all burst to laugh.

They play with more categories, such as love, family, dream, dumbest thing that they've done, etc.

"Well, now that we've done playing this... We are going to..." Mike says and everybody starts a drumroll. "Roller skating rink!" Peter screams.

The idea of going to a roller-skating rink thrills them all and they shout in delight.

-Roller Skating Rink-

They start to wear the roller blade carefully.

"Now, let's go and have some fun!" They enter the rink and start to blade over it.

However, for an unathletic girl and a person who trips all the time, this activity is not easy for Val.

"Woah!" she screams in a squeaky tone while holding on to Peter.

Peter quickly grabs her and says, "Woah, easy girl! Are you okay?"

She holds onto him again to balance herself and say "Oh, I'm sorry! I'm not really good at this..."

Val responds while chuckling. Peter grabs her shoulder to make sure she doesn't trip herself again.

"It's okay, just hold onto me. Well... you may seem tough and all, but you can't handle a rollerblade, huh?" Peter teases her.

"Oh, gimme a break!" Val yells in a funny tone.

-Bowling Place-

"Way to go Williams!" Kai shouts cheerfully.

"Now, beat that..." William answers proudly.

Kai gasps jokingly and says, "Oh, I will buddy!" in a hilarious way.

Kai holds the bowl and rolls it on the lane. The bowl rolls smoothly and strikes all of the pins.

"Yes! Now, that's what I call a beat!" Kai yells in a jolly tone.

William just smiles and stares at Kai carefully.

"So, how's it been with Val?" William asks Kai.

"What do you mean? It's... it's been the way it is..." Kai answers softly while looking away.

"No progress at all?" William asks while looking at him.

"Oh, come on... It's not like that! I don't like her that way! Geesh, everybody keeps telling us this..." Kai denies while looking away again.

He tries hard to hide his blush.

"What did you feel when you had to drop her off to that basecamp, earlier?" William asks him.

Kai hesitates for a while and responds, "I-I was worried, of course. How couldn't I? My best friend was at an unknown place with a bunch of strangers..."

William, who's still not giving up, asks again "You didn't get jealous or anything?"

"J-jealous? Dude, no! Tch- W-why would I?" Kai shouts awkwardly while giggling to hide his nervousness.

"Well... Okay then. If that's what you said, what can I do about it?" William answers while trying to analyze Kai's expression.

It's been years since William, and probably the others have been trying to break into Kai's shells to know his feelings.

It hasn't been easy for William because it hasn't been uncomplicated at all for Kai.

Nobody has figured out Kai's and Val's complicated relationship because neither have them. They have been together since the 2nd grade.

It's not easy for them to grow up and see the matter of first love for the first time.

Butterflies in a stomach, heart beating faster, and the confusions are new and unfamiliar for them.

What do they feel? Will they be able to figure things out? Will they finally be honest with their own feelings? No matter what their feelings are, one thing is for sure. They want to stick together as they grow up and see the world clearer as they understand their feelings too.

Preview for the next chapter:

"Seriously?! We're in the mud and in the middle of a battle, for god sake!" Beca shouts.

"Relax, Beca! It's mud, not the end of the world!" the other girl answers.