Chapter 116: Popular girl street cred (4- Final)

Chapter 116: Chapter 116: Popular girl street cred (4- Final)

[Edward POV]

The interview continued for a while, and it even included my first Youtube video clip where I sang the song '7 years' at the cafe as part of my backstory. The additional 'discovered-by-singing-at-a-cafe' stuff played along with the American fantasy, and my whole experience was packaged in a movie-like manner.

Although I didn't like the narrative that they put behind me, I have to admit, they did a really good job with the interview.

"Oh my god! A tiny Edward! I'd almost forgotten that!" Haley suddenly teased as she saw the clip from when I was 170 cm. I turned to her and asked inexplicably, "You do know I was still taller than you even right then....right?"

She pouted and crossed her arms together before replying, "I know." She then asked, "How much money did they promise you when you sang at the cafe?"

I laughed a bit and said, "None. I did that for free."

"(GASP!) Impossible!" Jacob exclaimed.

Haley, Jenna, Abby, Jacob and Elsa all turned jaw-dropped as they all knew how much of a money-loving man I was. The fact that I did that for free was incomprehensible for them.

"No. That can't be it. You must have known that Pepper was a rich man, and you were making an investment-" Abby tried to justify my actions in a shivering voice.

"Nope. Although I knew he was rich, I wasn't aiming for that at all." I replied, causing the group to gasp once again. I grimaced towards them and said, "You guys are being very rude you know. I'm not THAT materialistic."

"You say that because you don't know yourself like we do." Haley said with a smirk.

"Maybe he was aiming for the live-play slot at the cafe during peak hour? " Jenna hypothesized.

"Or maybe he was going to use the song as blackmail material for the cafe owner– something about child labor.." Elsa added.

"No. I think he was aiming for the Youtube revenue instead." Abby joined in.

"Damn, None of my friends actually believe in me. Where is Enid? I need her to be on my side." I said jokingly as I turned around, looking for the hyperactive girl. The rest laughed out loud as they managed to poke fun at me.

"Seriously, where is Enid...or Alex?" I asked seriously after we all finished laughing. However, not one person could answer me.

...

[General POV]

"Ay Claire. Why are you so angry?" Gloria asked as she picked up Claire from Long Beach. "I am the one who's supposed to be angry! I drove 1 hour to pick you up." Gloria added playfully.

Claire finally broke her silence and she complained in a dispirited tone, "I...I failed."

"As a mother?"

"To bust Edward while he was sneaking into a party he wasn't supposed to be in." Claire explained before Gloria could assume more. Luckily for Claire, the ship stopped at Long Beach to pick up the celebrities before it sailed out into the open seas. She managed to get RDJ to sign a life-sized Iron Man cutout and had stuffed the thing inside Gloria's car trunk.

"Ayy. Why do you want to catch him so bad? He's a good boy!" Gloria defended.

"Well I know that now." Claire replied while becoming increasingly irritated. "He was not even there today."

"So why did you try and do something useless?" Gloria asked in confusion.

"I..." Claire hesitated for a moment while sneaking glances at Gloria – fearing that she would judge him.

"I drove for an hour. You can at least tell me why." Gloria said sternly.

"Alright. Allright!" Claire whined before she told Gloria everything, starting from her suspicion about Ed at the yacht party before, and Haley's phone call. Gloria laughed at her later on, saying that she was the one who thought too much, and she should've trusted her family more.

"Like today. Jay wanted to spend some time with Luke and Manny at the gym together. So I trusted them, and let them go on their own." Gloria said.

Claire scrunched her eyes in disbelief as she pursed her lips and asked, "Manny still doing the whole exercise thing?"

Gloria replied excitedly, "Yesss! I don't know what Edward said to him, but I never saw him more motivated than this. Jay seems annoyed at first, but now, he's also trying to motivate Manny."

In a mall nearby, Jay said sternly, "Get down and give me 10 more!"

"But Jay/Grandpa!"

"NOW!"

Manny and Luke sighed before they grabbed their spoon and counted the bites they took for the huge ice cream parfait that Jay bought for them. It has banana, strawberries, various flavored ice-cream, and it is served inside a huge bowl for a group of 10 people to share. But today, Jay made an exception for them.

[Jay's commentary]

"I cannot let Manny's case become the precedent for the whole... weight loss program. Gloria won't stop until she gets me to do the same thing. I CANNOT take the risk. I'm already 63 years old. I just want to eat my bacon sandwich in peace damn it!"

[commentary ends]

"Urghh, I think I'm going to puke." Luke said as his face paled. He threw his spoon and tried to run away.

"No you're not." Jay said as he grabbed Luke by his arm and then gave the spoon back to him. Luke rolled his eyes, but he scooped the ice cream together with Manny and ate it again and again until his stomach really hurt this time.

"Finish it, and I will let you go home." Jay said while eating a small ice cream cone on his own.

At the party, Haley finally found out where Alex and Enid had been hiding. She returned to the living room to tell the group with Tara joining them, "So. Alex and Enid are holed up in my room."

The other raccoon was pulling at Haley's skirt, making her scream in fear. Madelyn turned back in satisfaction, and she ran to her ex-boyfriend's car in fear of the retribution.

"Okay that's enough." I said to the raccoon as I pinched it by the neck with my fingers, as if I was picking up a kitten.

The girls watching were horrified and the boys were grimacing as they lost the opportunity to become the hero. With my [Animal affinity], I could sense that the animals weren't hostile, they were just scared to be kidnapped and thrown into this house.

The other free raccoon ignored the boy it was climbing onto and ran towards me before nudging my legs with its head, trying to free its little sibling.

"Let's get you back to your home." I said as I picked up the other raccoon and slowly walked away towards the door under the inexplicable gazes of everybody around and the throbbing sounds of music no one was paying any attention to.

"Hey what's up, party people!" Phil finally returned from the house sales, but he froze as he saw the sight in front of him. He quickly stuck his back against the doorframe as I went past him and brought the racoons outside of the house.

I placed them down on the grass and said, "Now. Where is your house?"

The critters were standing on their hind legs as they tried to show me where they came from, however, I saw a large racoon with a menacing growl on her face as I turned my head along with the little ones.

"Oh my god! Ed's in danger!" Phil said as he watched the show from afar together with the people left in the party.

"That's your mother?" I asked casually. The raccoons growled, barked, and even hissed, further intensifying the people's fear for my safety.

As I faced off with the creature, I heard the sounds of a car engine being ignited, and saw Brian and Madelyn in a sports car, smirking condescendingly at my misery from afar.

I smirked and pointed my finger at the car suddenly, confusing the people around, and also made the mother raccoon turn her head towards the car.

"They are the ones who kidnapped your children." I said casually.

"What the actual fuck-" Alex cursed in disbelief as she thought I was being stupid. An animal couldn't understand a human's words, unless you trained them for a period of time.

However, to the people's surprise, the mother raccoon started growling and gnashing her teeth at the people in the car, and it sprinted towards the open window of the car instantly.

"Go get them." I said while laughing before I patted the raccoons' children's heads and went back inside the house. The people at the party saw a legendary sight after that. The mother raccoon scratched Madelyn's face and bit off Brian's nose as it wreaked havoc inside the car.

Brian accidentally stepped on the gas pedal, and the car crashed into a tree nearby. Finally, the mother raccoon's anger was satiated and it leaped out of the car window before it went away together with its children.

"I'll call 911." Mitchell said as he sprang into actions. At this moment, Jay and the boys finally returned home from their excursion.

"What the hell happened here?!" Jay muttered after he parked the car. Not long after, another car pulled into the driveway.

"Sorry about your party. I really wish it could have ended better." I said to Haley after turning away from Jay who was standing at the door.

"A-Are you freaking kidding me? That is like...the most awesome party...ever!" Haley said with a smile.

"Yeah. We saw an accident involving a raccoon and a teenage couple. What more did you need?" Abby said while laughing at Madelyn's and Brian's misery.

"We could continue the party if you guys still want." Alex said. Suddenly Luke shouted, "I'm going to hurl-"

"Alex Honey, I got RDJ's autograph for you!" Claire walked into the house cheerily while holding the life-sized cut out on her hand. Luke was blocked by the cardboard cutout, and he couldn't hold it in any longer.

"BLUEEKK!" Luke puked all over the cut out, making Claire froze in her place. Then, Manny turned and did the same thing– to Gloria's shoes as she followed Claire into the house.

"Yeah the party's over." Alex muttered before she turned her back against her mother and walked away.

"Pfft- HAHAHA!" I laughed out loud as I saw Claire and Gloria's faces as one lost an autographed cutout, and the other her shoes. However, I received a phone call at that moment and my amusement quickly passed as I answered the call, but I kept watching the family so as to not miss out on their shenanigans.

"I'm sorry mom. Jay forced us to eat the jumbo sized ice-cream dessert until our stomach hurt." Manny confessed-slash-exposed Jay.

"Manny, Grandpa ordered us to keep that a secret." Luke whispered, but it was heard clearly by both Gloria and Claire.

"Trust them huh?" Claire said in an annoyed manner as she turned to Gloria. It turned into a full on argument between Gloria and Jay, while Claire was trying hard to chase after Alex. Haley stealthily backed away from being the center of attention, and was walking quickly with Abby to get closer to my position.

"Okay I understand. I'll fix it now." I said to the phone before I cut the call.

"What happened?" Abby asked.

"Nothing much. Just there's a few bugs in the website I need to handle." I explained.

"Wait. Your website still buggy? I thought you coded the hell out of it." Abby widened her eyes in surprise as she said that.

I lied actually. The website was actually kind of perfect. But it was under attack at this moment, so I needed to get online to back up the defenses even though I knew it could handle the infiltration.

"My laptop is back at the office. Can I borrow yours?" I asked the two girls.

"YES!!!!! I mean, Yes. You can. Let's go back to my place. Haley is...going to be busy cleaning up after the party...right?" Abby replied hurriedly before Haley could say anything.

"Y-Yeah." Haley muttered subconsciously.

"Great. Back to my place then." Abby said before she grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the house.

(A/N: Finally the party chaps are over. Now for a shoutout!)

"Ever wonder what would happen if an unlucky transmigrator received the task of spreading our world culture and "culture" ahem... to a cultivation world? Would he avoid getting face-slapped by some cliché young master? Or maybe cure an Old Master's erectile dysfunction just by making him watch a video of Stepsis getting stuck in a washing machine? Or maybe make the Elder of a Jiangshi Clan tremble in his shoes just by playing Silent Hill?"

You might want to check out my friend's new fic, "Cultivating Culture", written by "Extra26". The newly released fic is trending on Scribble hub, and now coming to your very own Webnovel platform. (Piggy: WN BETTER PAY ME FOR THIS!)