Something About Alice Murphy: BOOK 1

P A R T - F O U R

Chapter Four; Tipped Off.
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December 14th

A couple of days had passed since the gathering at the Eno's house on the Saturday, and now, at 8am on a Wednesday morning, Alice had made her way to school in the drivers seat, for the first time. "Just make sure you slow down gradually before you stop," Richard Murphy advised just after Alice had stumped her foot onto the break a little way down the road from her school.

"Okay," she smiled nervously and excitedly as she turned off the car and handed her father the keys.

"Alright. Well it was a good first try!" Richard smiled just before they both got out of the car, "We'll try again this weekend, okay?" He added as Alice slung her backpack over her shoulders and adjusted her bright yellow raincoat. They hugged warmly and he ushered her off to school so that she could organise herself and her locker before the bell rang.

The interior of the school had been covered with Christmas decorations, tinsel and sparkly lights... final game posters littered the walls and the floors. This Friday was the last day of the semester, and the winter wonderland school dance with the game just before in the second half of the day. Alice had bought her ticket along with her friends a couple of weeks back, but until then she had barely remembered it was happening. She bent down to pick up one of the posters under her shoe and hummed quietly... the dances at Summerland High usually had a reputation for getting slightly out of hand, and she wondered what it would be this time. Some kind of livestock animal in the headmasters office again? Or maybe someone would spike the punch or drape the entrance hall in toilet paper. No one was ever caught however, and the student body was constantly threatened with having no socials at all but they were never cancelled. All the threats from the staff seemed to be empty.

The school day carried on as usual, and at lunch Alice sat at her usual table with her usual two friends, eating the salads on offer and envying those who took a trip to McDonalds like most of the seniors did. "God I can't wait to be a senior," Olive mumbled as she picked at a floppy tomato. "All that freedom... I'm so jealous." She added as Alice smiled and picked at her salad with distaste. "I already know what I'm going to order. Double cheeseburger, twelve chicken nuggets, large fries and a sprite. Oh and an Oreo McFlurry,"

"Gross," Candice mused as she sipped her bottle of water with a straw.

"No its not!" Olive gasped playfully.

"Can you imagine the calories? The salt? Sugars? No thank you. And anyway, I'm thinking of going vegan," Candice then said, causing Olive and Alice to roll their eyes. "What?! It's healthy and also you loose loads of weight,"

"You're already minuscule," Olive shot at her and pinched Candice's bicep.

"Ow!" She yelled, slapping Olive's hand away and glaring as Alice chuckled under her breath. "I have a fast metabolism, okay. Don't hate me for my DNA, I can't change that," she muttered angrily before she sighed and looked back to Alice who usually stayed neutral in Olive and Candice's arguments. Playful or not. "So about this dance, are we taking dates?"

"To the winter wonderland dance? Why?" Alice replied, "can't we just go as a group?"

"We always go as a group. And I always have to turn down Freddie, who asks me every single time there is a dance. I feel bad saying no now." Olive spoke up, "And it might be fun this time to actually have boys to hang around with,"