MassaHJ
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Chapter 182: Yacht
🕑 Added 2025-08-08 13:45:45 +0000 UTCIt is mid-January, and we are all gathered on the yacht to celebrate Paige. I had bought some balloons and had her picture printed on them. On the regular balloon, though, the photo got distorted and made her look like she had a big head. When Paige saw it, she bit me (like I did it on purpose).
I had to replace them with special emoji-shaped balloons (the photos looked normal on those).
Everyone had bundled up for the cold January weather. Jackets, hoodies, and sweaters everywhere.
The guest list was: Carly, Sam, Freddie, Cara, Pippa, me, Missy, Lilly, Miley, Sheldon, Regina, and Cher.
"Woow, look at all this," Lilly murmured, impressed by the yacht.
"Yeah, too bad the owner is a nuisance," Miley remarked, a little too loud.
I raised an eyebrow. "What are you even doing here, Miley?"
"I was, kinda of, invited," she muttered, a little embarrassed.
"You have no shame," I scolded, but immediately got bonked by Pippa and Paige.
"You're the last person who should say that," Pippa scolded. "We crashed Miley's birthday the exact same way."
"No way! She invited us," I said, wronged.
Miley made a face and murmured, "Yeah, about that..."
"But she was happy to have more people at her party," Lilly said, smiling.
"Lilly!" Miley cracked.
Yeah, it was a little awkward, since the party didn’t have many people (surprisingly, Miley is not really popular at school, to say the least). I thought that would be a big party, my mistake…
"You're welcome here, Miley," Paige added kindly.
I cleared my throat and raised my voice to gather everyone’s attention. "We are here celebrating Paige's incredible achievement—solving the Poincaré Conjecture."
"Besides Sheldon, I think no one here even knows what that is," I added, seeing most not understanding a thing.
Sheldon scoffed, muttering, "monkeys."
"But know this—it’s a major achievement. Like, she could win the Fields Medal for this."
Gasps, blank stares.
Only Carly, Pippa, and Freddie seemed to understand what the award meant (besides Sheldon, obviously).
The award is given every four years, which is why the professors were pushing hard so Paige could be in the running this year (2002), or else it would have to be 2006.
"That’s basically the Nobel Prize for mathematicians," I explained.
Now the rest began to understand the magnitude of the award.
Sheldon, however, looked personally offended. He crossed his arms and scoffed louder this time.
I turned to three faces in particular. "Did you guys get that?"
Miley narrowed her eyes. "I know what a Nobel is."
"I know too," Sam said, arms crossed.
"Yep. Sheldon’s been talking about it since we were kids," Missy added with a nod.
Yep, Haley is still my bottom line. (I will never say out loud, but I might have created a scale Haley-Paige in my head)
---
Meanwhile...
"Atchoo!" Haley sneezed.
"Some cute boy must be talking about me," she said with a playful smile.
Alex looked over the edge of her book, scoffed, and turned the page without a word.
---
After the little speech, everyone came over to congratulate Paige.
"Too bad it's cold in January, we can’t enjoy the yacht to the fullest," Cher said.
"Don't worry, we're gonna party in July and August," I replied.
"Nice! We should already buy new bikinis, Cher," Regina commented.
Missy saw us and pointed out, "It’s strange not to see much reaction from the boys. Well, Sheldon is basically asexual..."
"Freddie is not a pig," Cara said.
"But I wouldn’t mind seeing you," Freddie added, a bit embarrassed.
Cara blushed. The two of them were about to drift into their own world when Regina groaned, "Don't start, you two."
"The surprising one is Jake," Paige said jokingly.
"Hey, I’m a gentleman."
This time, everyone nodded.
"A playboy, but a gentleman," Pippa added. "Oh, I remember the first evaluation I did—a gentleman bastard," she teased, making everyone laugh.
I pouted, then she kissed my cheek
"Okay, let's do something fun. We have karaoke, board and card games, movies, and a friendship quiz. Which one do we start with?"
Everyone gave opinions and, in the end, it was Monopoly in pairs (Missy made Sheldon be the banker).
"How do we split up?" I asked.
"How about besties?" Missy suggested. "Paige and I, Carly and Sam, Cara and Pippa, Miley and Lilly, Regina and Cher, Jake and Freddie."
"Let’s do it!" I spoke. "Come here, Freddie. Let’s show them who the best besties are!"
---
We started playing, and things quickly got competitive.
After a while, everyone had their ups and downs. Miley and Lilly, though, were really not having a good time financially.
"Sweet niblets. We’re out of money, Lilly. This is just like my allowance," Miley said, frustrated, tossing their last bill onto the pile.
Lilly groaned. "We should’ve bought that railroad!"
"Or not landed on three hotels in a row," Miley added, slumping back dramatically.
"We are the moguls, Freddie," I said with a smug face, facing the girls.
"That is just Freddie being lucky," Paige retorted.
I made an L on my forehead, mocking her.
Then my phone rang (an Iridium 9505, perfect for yacht trips—since my regular one had no signal).
I picked it up and answered, "Hey Brit. Something happened, or are you just lonely and want to annoy me?"
She yelled a little outraged.
"No need to be rude!" I said to her, irking her more
she scolded, then kept going.
"I’m not going..."
Britney was nagging me about going to the Chicago premiere. Unlike in my past life, Britney had participated in the filming of Chicago. I convinced her it was a great opportunity.
A win-win situation—Chicago was a massive Oscar success, and with Britney in the film, the box office would likely be even bigger than the original. She win more fame, I win more money.
"Come on, you are my bestie male friend. You need to go to this one or Crossroads," said Britney on the phone.
"Oh, this is a low blow, using the bestie card. Okay, I’ll go to this one," I replied.
I don’t remember the movie Crossroads, but it must be a girly one...
