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The first time Lucius ever pranked Grace was the only time he ever pranked anyone. And really, it was no fun at all.

It all started that day when Grace was busy helping out her school librarian with arranging the books into the old brown shelves. Since it was Lucius's free period too, Grace had somehow convinced him to help her.

Grace loved helping out old Mrs Henderson –the librarian– whenever she could've. Not because she loved reading and spending time here in the library, but mainly because Mrs Henderson was just really sweet. And really helpful whenever Grace somehow ended up punching random assholes in the school hallways.

Most of the time, it just took Mrs Henderson a few words to persuade the Principal to not call Grace's mom whenever that happened.

"Is it necessary, though?" Grace spoke up as she placed two leatherbound books up in one shelf while Lucius leaned against the trolley, tracing his fingers along the spines of the books. "To attend that Carnival."

"It's mandatory for you to attend it." Lucius replied, his eyes trained at Grace.

Grace looked at him with a confused frown. "Why me?"

"You're the best friend of one of the school's soccer teammates." He replied. "And since this whole event is a fundraiser to buy the new soccer equipment, I think it's necessary that you attend it."

Grace tried pondering over his words but ended up dismissing it with a wave of her hand as she turned back around to the shelves. "That doesn't even make sense."

"Does it need to make sense?" Lucius asked with a smile. "You come with me wherever I go. That's enough reasoning."

Grace picked up a book from the trolley and searched for its genre. "I guess you're right."

Lucius's smile didn't leave his face, even though he felt a little guilty of his true intentions behind this. But then again, it wasn't exactly his fault that he had lost a bet with one of his other friends. And as a consequence, he was told to prank Grace. "I'm always right, Rose."

Later that day, almost after evening, Lucius drove them both to the Carnival that was mostly set up by the school's soccer team. And really, it looked amazing. The place was almost flooded with people, mostly from school. There were so many booths and rides, lights and laughter filling the entire area.

Grace, on the other hand, thought the opposite.

"I'm feeling claustrophobic." Grace murmured with a concerned frown as she hugged her black coat closer against her chest. Among the numerous crowd, she couldn't spot a single familiar face other than Lucius's who was right beside her.

Even though Lucius thought that all the arrangements were pretty cool, he couldn't help but get a bit tense. Not that Grace noticed it, she was too busy making sure not to slam into someone.

"You're not claustrophobic, Rose." Lucius spoke up.

"You never know." She whispered in response, her eyes glued at the crowd around her. "So...where are we going first?"

Lucius looked around before his eyes stopped at one of the craziest rides. He grinned and before Grace could've realized what he was getting at, he gripped her hand and started heading for it.

It was scary and no one could've made Grace think otherwise about that specific ride. Or the one after it.

Lucius made sure to drag Grace along to every one of those rides. They visited almost every one of the booths, especially the ones that were arranged by their own school.

In the end, Grace had to threaten Lucius to buy her some candyfloss or else she'd punch him really bad for making her ride all those horrifying rides. Lucius agreed in between his fits of laughter, knowing clearly well that Grace would never actually punch him.

Deep down though, Grace couldn't help but acknowledge that she did indeed have some fun between this all. Of course this was terrifying and of course she was a tad bit angry at Lucius, but still it was all worth it. She loved the adrenaline rush amongst this all and she was glad that her mum had allowed her to come to this Carnival, even if it had been a little hard to persuade her.

Grace wished Jack would've come with her too. He loved Carnivals like such. But then again, Jack was too busy watching the latest episode of his favorite cartoon.

His loss, Grace thought as she licked her pink candyfloss and then took a bite of the sugary mess.

Meanwhile, Lucius took out his phone and looked at the recent message from one of his friends, telling him that all was set up. He glanced up at Grace and hoped that she wouldn't be too mad at him after this. After all, didn't she pull pranks on others and sometimes on him too?

Or maybe, I shouldn't really do this, Lucius thought.

But before he could've backed out, Grace spoke up, "All right. Where to next? And please don't say another one of those rollercoaster rides because I'm done with them."

"We can check out one of those haunted houses." Lucius suggested, although deep down he really hoped that she refused just so that he could back out from this stupid prank.

Grace seemed to think about it as she took another bite of her candyfloss, pushing back her long blonde hair away from her face at the same time. "Yeah. We should definitely go there."

Lucius let out a small groan which went unnoticed by Grace. He ran a hand through his brown curls, telling himself that this was the exact reason why he hated pranks in general.

Once Grace and Lucius were standing in front of the made up haunted house, Grace started feeling a little scared.

"This is just fake." She murmured as they both entered from the wooden gates. "Just fake."

"It is fake." Lucius commented with a grin as he looked at Grace. "You don't have to be scared."

"I'm not scared!" Grace defended herself. "It's just the jump-scares that freak me out."

Lucius laughed lightly and that was the only sound that could be heard within the haunted house as the doors closed shut behind them. They both started walking forwards and the creepy haunted tunes started playing in the backgrounds.

"Just so you know, there could be clowns in here." Lucius said.

Grace immediately reacted by gripping onto his arm. "Why would you say that? What's wrong with you?"

Lucius chuckled but didn't push her away. "I was just kidding."

"You know how much I despise clowns, Luca!" She hissed at him, all the while making sure that she kept on looking around. "You can't just bring them up right now."

"I'm sorry, Gracie." Lucius replied but he was still chuckling.

Grace gripped the back of his blue varsity jacket, stepping behind him. "You lead the way and I'll stay behind you."

"I thought you weren't scared."

"I'm not."

They both continued walking for what felt like minutes. Lucius kept talking from time to time just so that he'd get Grace to talk and know that she wasn't entirely freaking out.

Once they stepped into one of the darkest rooms, Grace started freaking out a bit more than before. She tugged lightly on Lucius's jacket in front of her. "I don't like this, Luca."

She didn't even know why she had agreed to this in the first place.

"It's fine. Just fake." Lucius spoke up as they walked ahead.

The silence kept on going on and on and Lucius didn't say anything at all. Not being able to see his face, Grace started to panic a little. "Luca?"

It was then that someone tugged at the back of her coat and she let go of Luca's jacket with a loud yelp. She turned around abruptly but failed to see anyone in the darkness.

"Luca, someone touched me!" She spoke up, turning towards Lucius once again. Only this time, he didn't reply. "Luca?"

There was just silence. Grace reached out her hands in the darkness but found no one around her. She gulped heavily and felt herself sweating up.

Just fake. This is just fake, she repeated in her head.

"Luca, if you're trying to fuck with me, I swear to God–"

That's when there came a rustle behind her. She turned around slowly, taking in a deep breath.

Someone's pranking you, she told herself.

After all, she remembered pranking someone just like this herself. Was Lucius really pranking her? But why would he? He never pranked anyone.

"Luca?" She tried calling out his name again but got no response.

That's when Grace realized that this was definitely a prank. She was all too familiar with pranks like such. She was about to trace back her steps and exit the haunted house when a dimly lit bulb switched on from the ceiling of the old scrappy room.

Grace trailed her eyes away from the ceiling only to notice someone standing in front of her. Not just one person, but more than one. And the most horrifying part? It wasn't even a person.

It was a clown. No, clowns.

"Oh my God." Grace whispered in fear as more clowns dressed up in black and white clothes stepped out of their hiding spots and stood in front of the gate she had just come in from.

Their creepy grins were plastered on their faces, their eyes trained on Grace and Grace only. It was nowhere near funny to look at 12 clown faces grinning at you.

Just as they started walking towards her, the dimly lit bulb flickering on and off, Grace started screaming.

The clowns seemed to grin even wider and come nearer. Grace looked around in panic, her voice lowering down into heavy breaths. She knew she was all alone in this and even if this wasn't a prank, she needed to protect herself.

Just as the first clown came within her reach, she picked up a broken baseball bat from beside her and smacked the clown on the top of its head.

"Ow, what the fuck?" The guy behind the mask complained in a whiny voice.

"No, you don't come near me, do you hear that?" Grace threatened, almost on the verge of tears. "I swear to God, I'm gonna kick you so bad if you take one more step towards me."

The clown backed out with a groan as he rubbed his head but the rest were still guarding the gate, the exit from here. Grace was aware that she would be getting nightmares out of this little stupid prank.

Luca was in a deep mess, Grace thought.

She gulped once again, feeling all hot and clammy with nerves. Grace knew she'd have to make a run for it, even if that meant stepping close towards those disgusting creatures.

I can do this, she encouraged herself.

Before she could've bursted into tears, she inhaled deeply and ran for the door. Grace didn't remember much, but she knew it was horrifying. She saw too many clown faces around her as she reached for the door, all the while screams tumbling out of her lips.

It was horrifying, one of the most horrifying circumstances in Grace's life. But she made it out of there. Somehow, between the stretched out hands of all those clowns and their creepy grins, Grace made it out.

•••••

"I cannot even believe you did that to me." Grace spoke up before stuffing a spoonful of strawberry ice cream in her mouth, savoring the cold berry flavor.

Lucius passed her a look of pure guilt and concern from the corner of his room, where he was busy painting. "I told you, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry I did that."

"You left me alone between all those clowns." Grace frowned and crossed her legs on his bed before digging her spoon back in the ice cream tub. Deep down, she was enjoying making him feel guilty. After all, she was the one who had been abandoned all alone between those creepy clowns. In her opinion, Lucius deserved this.

"I know, and I feel really bad, Gracie." He sounded extremely genuine.

Grace looked at him and his disheveled attire. Whenever he was in between one of his painting sessions, he didn't even care if the paint was almost everywhere. It was even on his cheek this time.

"I hate them so much." Grace forced the fear in her voice, though it wasn't that hard. She was still a bit spooked out even if it had been hours since they left that Carnival. "They were all grinning at me. And that other clown even came towards me. How could you be so mean?"

Lucius huffed and pulled the paintbrush away from the canvas. "Grace–"

"I'm not talking to you." She sniffed before taking another spoon of the ice cream. As an apology, Lucius had taken her to the nearest grocery store to get her favorite ice cream. He even bought some Skittles for her. It warmed up Grace but she still wasn't letting it go so easily.

Lucius stood up, leaving his unfinished painting, and went towards Grace before sitting down in front of her. "You can't not talk to me." He frowned. "I'm sorry for doing that. I didn't know you were scared of clowns...that much."

Grace eyed him accusingly. "I would've died in there, Luca."

His eyes widened a little. "Don't say that."

"Well, I was about to have a heart attack." Grace stated truthfully this time.

Lucius flopped down on the bed, looking up at the ceiling before running both of his paint splattered hands through his hair. "You're just trying to make me feel bad, Grace."

"Is it working?"

Lucius dragged his hand down his face, letting out a small groan. "Yes." He sounded helpless. "I feel so bad. I'm sorry."

Grace grinned a little at that before pushing away the ice cream and going over towards the corner of his room, where he was just painting. She sat down and looked at his unfinished painting, the moonlight shining over it from the glass windows.

"I know a way you can make up to me." Lucius looked over at Grace the moment she said that. He seemed a little surprised to find her near his painting spot.

"What do you mean?" He asked before standing up from his bed and sitting down beside her on the floor.

"You let me finish this painting." Grace spoke up, raising her brows suggestively at him with a grin. She knew how much she sucked at painting, unlike Lucius himself. But at the same time, she had always wanted to paint with him, paint something that they could always look back to and laugh at. Mainly at Grace's lack of skills.

"Just that?" He seemed surprised and relieved both.

"Of course not." Grace rolled her eyes before picking up a paint brush and dipping it in a bright yellow color. "You're going to give me a piggyback ride to school tomorrow. And help me with my English essay. And take me to the ice rink the next weekend. And give me a foot massage when I ask you to. And go to shopping with me next Thursday."

Lucius listened to her silently, his eyes widening a little at each condition.

"Also," Grace pulled away the paintbrush from the canvas and eyed her's and Lucius's painted strokes with awe. "I think I just painted something really good."

Lucius looked over at the canvas and a small laugh escaped his lips. "It's beautiful."

Grace nodded in agreement, a wide appreciative smile on her face. Lucius couldn't help but think how beautiful she looked at that moment.

"So, if I do all of that, will that make us even?" He asked.

"I think so." Grace nodded. "Though I do need to teach you a few things about pranks."

Lucius rolled his eyes and leaned back against the nearest wall, below the glass window. "I'm not doing any pranks ever again."

"But if you do, you should know that pranks including clowns are definitely not cool."

Lucius smiled lazily at that, his gaze fixated on Grace as she focused on the paintbrush and the canvas in front of her. "Noted. Anything else?"

"And you never pull pranks on me." Grace stated, her brows furrowing in concentration as she eyed the different shades of yellow on the palette.

Grace with paints was definitely a sight to see, especially for Lucius. He already knew how much preciously he'd be handling that painting once Grace was done. Grace never painted, she never liked painting. But she was doing it now and a small part of Lucius wished that he could capture this moment.

Lucius closed his eyes, a content smile on his face this time. It had been a very long day and he hadn't expected Grace to forgive him this easily. But he was glad.

Because no way in hell was he letting a few creepy looking clowns get in between the only thing that mattered to him the most.

Grace's and his friendship.

_______________________________________________________________________

I'll be publishing the next chapter tomorrow ♥

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Xoxo,

Crystal 🌿