Chapter 63: Reverse Psychology
Aiden arrived at the Linter Residence a few minutes later.
Clarissa promptly got off, her face beaming as Aiden secured the bicycle and began passing over the tools.
At the same time, Mary stepped out onto the front porch whilst pushing Gregory out via his wheelchair.
"Morning, Mr. Linter. Mrs. Linter." Aiden politely greeted as he walked onto their lawn.
"Morning, kid," Greg reciprocated warmly, as did Mary;
"Good morning, Aiden. We’ve been expecting you."
Then she tilted her head slightly at the sight of the lady trailing closely behind him.
"Good morning." Clarissa respectfully greeted with a warm smile, to which the kindly old woman replied;
"Morning, sweetie,"
"Are you perhaps, his girlfriend?" she curiously asked, her tone innocent.
Afterall, she’d seen them riding here together through the window before she stepped out.
"I wish," Clarissa casually replied as she began making her way over to the garden.
Mary and Greg briefly looked to themselves, and then to the stunning lady who simply shrugged as she explained with a slight shake of her head;
"And trust me, I tried."
"But his heart couldn’t be more locked out of romance right now." she added with a resigned sigh as she proceeded to begin her portion.
Though that clearly wasn’t the reason why the old couple had looked to themselves, Clarissa seemed genuinely unbothered by it.
She’d received that same skeptic look over the course of her life thus far... more times than she could count.
The kind that refused to believe that such a stunning young girl like her would ever want to get her hands dirty.
If only people knew the kind of father and mother she grew up with though, that initial perceived conception most seemed inclined to have of her, would fade faster than fine dust in the wind.
Afterall, her old man was a retired Sergeant Major in the Marine Corps and her mother was a trained psychiatrist.
Safe to say, she and her siblings had been lucky enough to grow up in a household that had fostered and nurtured their growth in all the right ways.
Not that Clarissa didn’t believe she also played a huge role in that by hardwiring her brain towards a more realistic view on things... a quality that had aided her immensely in achieving several of her goals.
Still, she found it rather pleasurable when the old couple quietly began chuckling between themselves, clearly amused by her words.
"No offense, dear. It’s just rare to see a lady like you out in the wild." Mary then let out to which Clarissa replied with a wave of her little spade, a light smile on her lips;
"None taken, Mrs. Linters."
"You sure you’re not interested, kid?" Greg on the other hand proceeded to be a wingman.
"She seems like a lovely young girl~." Mary pitched in with a motherly tease, the duo turning their attention to Aiden whom was already at the hedges.
"Nope." Aiden casually replied.
"But yes, she’s a really lovely lady." he added without much thought, his hands already operating the hedge clippers as he began to snip them down.
On their way over, the duo had already ironed out their portion of work, hence why the youth was already in action without further ado.
Suddenly, a tiny rock flew across the lawn, bouncing off his back!
"Hey! What was that for?!" Aiden immediately clocked whom had thrown it.
"Stop giving me hope, you smooth talker!" Clarissa retorted, her cheeks a rosy shade of red... on that earned a genuinely confused look from the coal-haired youth.
Then she bent down and began pulling out the weeds with her gloved hands, using the little spade as was necessary for the more stubborn ones as she kept humming to herself.
Once again, Greg and Mary looked to each other, this time in genuine amusement, their thoughts seemingly in sync;
Yeah... they’ll probably end up together.
In any case, the queen bee had begun raking the weeds into a neat pile as she proceeded to move to the next row of plants.
Half an hour later, Aiden was already done trimming the hedges, nodding to himself in satisfaction.
Then, after confirming with Greg and Mary if they liked it, he retrieved a rake and piled up the snipped parts alongside the dead leaves littering the lawn into one single heap.
Picking up the sack the old couple had placed on the only bench on the porch, the youth began chucking a handful of the snipped remains into it.
It didn’t take long before he equally chucked the little piles Clarissa had made into it, the sack slowly filling up.
Like that, the two teens settled into a steady workflow, Aiden soon moving over to the fairly wide lawn to mow it down a few minutes after.
Through it all, Greg and Mary offered supportive words and thanks of appreciation from time to time.
Then, about an hour and a half later, both of them were done with their respective portions.
Just as they proceeded to move on to painting the porch, Lizzie, Megan and Ben--a class representative of the junior class--arrived.
Judging by the squeegees in their hands and the splotches of dampness on their clothes, it was clear that they’d just rounded up the cleaning of the Alvarez’s residence windows. It was pretty big stucco house after all.
"Oh wow. You guys are almost done." Megan said to Clarissa who let out a muffled ’yes’ whilst chugging a bottle of water Mary had given her few minutes ago.
As the secretary briefly checked her copy of the spreadsheet though, Lizzie remarked a moment after;
"So, that leaves... repainting the porch, right?"
No sooner had she said that, Aiden walked right out the corner, two tin cans in his hands--sloshy, coagulated white paint in one and multiple paint brushes in the other
"Right on time." he remarked as he made his way over to the porch.
"We’ll be inside if you need anything." Mary on the other hand said as he pushed her husband in, vacating the porch so they could work on it.
Ever a man of few words, Greg simply nodded, a gesture the teens reciprocated as they got down to work.
"Ben, help me with moving some of the furniture onto the lawn." Aiden casually requested to which the black-haired youth with dark-brown irises promptly responded;
"Of course."
A few minutes later, they’d moved not just the bench, but a couple other furniture onto the lawn. Only after did the group begin repainting the porch.
Thankfully, with more hands on deck, it only took them a little over thirty minutes before they were done.
Currently seated on the lawn, Mary walked out again, this time with a tray of cookies and glasses of lemonade.
Upon offering it to them, the youths appreciated the gesture and took her up on it. That said, it really didn’t take long before Aiden was done.
Casually, he began carrying the furniture back onto the porch a few minutes later.
As the rest watched him, wondering how he was still brimming with energy despite all the work he’d done thus far, Aiden soon moved over to the bicycle and said;
"I’m betting the rest might need a hand here and there. I’ll go see if I can chip in a bit."
"Catch you guys later at school then?" he then asked of the quartet whom were currently still seated on the lawn.
Naturally, their replies came in the affirmative to which Aiden bobbed his head once in a curt nod and pedaled away. He did have a quest to complete after all.
"He’s definitely bound to be a workaholic that man," Clarissa quietly remarked, to which Lizzie whom was closest to her said, an unmistakable hint of annoyance in her tone;
"You speak as if you’ve known him forever."
"And you speak as if you’re jealous," Clarissa fired right back, her expression unfazed as she continued;
"Which, again, is rather weird considering; One, you’re in a relationship and two," she titled her head in quite possibly, her very first show of genuine annoyance towards Lizzie as she stated;
"You don’t even like him, do you?"
Considering Ben and Megan were seated in different areas of the lawn, far away from the duo, they remained completely unaware of the conversation the ladies were having.
In fact, from their perspective, it looked as if both individuals were having a casual chat.
That said, Lizzie suddenly found herself on the hot seat, the question catching her off-guard.
It was also why she said the very first thing that came to her mind without thinking twice in an effort to avoid the question;
"Well neither do you."
"And... you’ve just ratted yourself out." Clarissa rolled her eyes in smite, a catty smirk tugging on her lips as she added with a light sigh;
"Reverse psychology’s a bitch. Thanks mum."
"But back to you," she then turned her attention to Lizzie whose expression had long shifted in realization at how easily the queen bee had played her.
"I actually do like him, you know. I’m smitten, might I add. Down bad, in fact." she casually declared, to which she then pointed out;
"Which makes me inherently different from your selfish ass who just wants to monopolize his attention."
"But you already have it all though, don’t you Lizzie? Striking gold with genetics, dating a star quarterback, being in the cheerleading squad, being arguably one of the most popular students at school."
"So, what more do you want? Is your sense of self-worth so baseless that you can only attach it to how much attention you’re getting from people?" Clarissa asked, her tone getting progressively more annoyed by the second.
"Unless..." she audibly mused, to which she then said;
"...there’s something festering deep within you that needs some proper fixing. Which if I’m being honest, I’d recommend you get it checked sooner, rather than later,"
"Or trust me, high school will be the highest you’ll ever peak at. Everything from thereon out, inevitable crash and burns." she added harshly.
Honestly, Clarissa was starting to get angry... which was a rarity because the queen bee had a habit of not embracing that emotion as it was a serious buzz kill for her in most cases.
However, something about Lizzie’s shamelessness and selfishness just seemed to rub off her the wrong way.
And though she understood that there might’ve been some reason for her insecurities, she refused to let that stop her from hitting her with the truth. Even if that truth would be a bitter pill to swallow.
At this point though, Megan had noticed something off between the ladies... a hunch that was further proven right when Lizzie abruptly stood up, tears brimming on her eyelids.
Then, without so much as a word, she proceeded to walk away from the lawn, and perhaps back to the school grounds... much to the confusion of Ben whom was simply eating his cookies.
"What happened between you two?" Megan came around to ask, her eyes seemingly contemplating if she should go after Lizzie.
In response, Clarissa let out a deep breath through the nose and replied a moment after;
"Just some tough love, I guess."
As that event had played out though, Aiden on the other hand had gone about helping out here and there.
Which was why, a couple hours later after they’d all converged at school once more, his system finally updated;
-
[Quests Completed!]
⸢Exclusive Quests
› Look At You, Being Helpful
└ Become the single biggest contributor during Saturday’s community service – [1 LP Awarded!]
-
Honestly, just the spreadsheets he’d made and distributed alone would’ve sufficed to complete the quest.
However, since there were never quest specific details, Aiden often found himself pulling out all the stops and covering all bases just to ensure he completed a quest he felt inclined towards.
In any case, now that this was over, Aiden hoped to high heavens that the student committee would actually take things easy for the rest of the month, and quite possibly, the year.
Afterall, for as much as he would admit that he could be capable if he felt the need to be, he also had his own shit to deal with and a personal deadline he needed to beat.