Eleven O'Clock Number

MUSICAL #13: LES MISÉRABLES

"Soccer," Toby says finally, his tone far too triumphant, considering he's highlighting his own flaws. "I am terrible at soccer."

"Right," Allison huffs out a laugh. "Sure you are."

"I am! My co-ordination sucks!"

"Toby," she fixes him with a look. "You're a dancer. Do you even know what poor co-ordination is?"

"I do!" he insists. She rolls her eyes, but decides against pursuing the topic further, because once Toby's made his mind up on something, he can be almost as stubborn as her. Instead, she lets her eyes be drawn, out of force of habit, to Daniel, who's currently in possession of the ball.

"Yeah! You go buddy!" Toby shouts down to Daniel from next to her. "You...kick that ball!"

Allison snorts, but her eyes remain fixed on Daniel until he's passed the ball on. A few rows in front of her is Lydia, who at some point has turned around and is now smirking at Allison whilst mouthing something along the lines of "so not over him".

Allison makes a face at her and turns pointedly back to Toby, who is now staring down at his feet with a slight frown on his face, evidently in deep thought.

"Hey," she says, nudging his knee with hers. "You okay?"

"Huh?" Toby blinks owlishly at her, pulled from his thoughts. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine. Guess I'm just tired."

Allison studies him closely. "Why? Got a lot of homework?"

"Yeah," Toby nods, then pulls slightly further away from her to stretch out into a yawn.

"Your teaches must be killing you," she comments idly, hoping to draw some more out of him.

"Hm?"

"You know. With all that homework you're getting."

"Oh. Yeah."

Allison side-eyes him and says nothing more, but makes a mental note to investigate Toby's consistent lack of sleep as soon as the next opportunity presents itself.

"So," she changes the subject. "When are we going to watch the French one?"

"Les Misérables," Toby corrects absentmindedly, but he purses his lips in thought as he does so. "I don't know," he says. "You've got swim, and I've got Cinderella most days of the week, now..."

Allison remembers Cinderella and how Toby is in it, and for some reason the next thing she thinks of immediately after that is how Laura Bell is Cinderella and how Toby is her Prince Charming and how Laura Bell is super gorgeous.

"Right," she says. "Of course you do."

Toby looks at her strangely, but continues: "We could do a Saturday?" in a hesitant voice. "I mean, I know it's a weekend and all..."

"No, that's fine," Allison shakes her head. "If that's the only time we're both free, we're going to have to."

"Alright," Toby nods. "This Saturday okay?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Cool."

"Great."

An awkward silence ensues, and Allison realises that it's the first one she's ever had with Toby. They both sit side by side and watch wordlessly as Daniel scores a goal.

✦

"But Akhtar asked us to his party on Saturday," Lydia protests lazily as she lies on Allison's bed.

"Akhtar invited you to his party on Saturday," Allison corrects from her desk as she works through another Calculus problem.

At this, Lydia sits up in protest. "He did not," she insists. "He specifically said, me and you."