Chapter Seven

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All through her hour-long violin lesson, Allegra couldn't concentrate on the music pieces her teacher was trying to teach her, and all she could focus on was the fact that she was going to have to spend time with Alex the next day, something she certainly didn't want to do.

"G, not C!" her violin teacher sang in a high soprano.

"Oops," Allegra mumbled, playing the right note this time. She kept her eyes on the sheet music as she read the notes, and played the song until she got halfway through.

"Stop here for today?" Allegra's music teacher asked, looking at her with a slight smile.

"Yeah, okay," Allegra agreed with a nod, closing her music book and packing away her violin just as the sliding door opened.

"Hey, honey," Allegra's father said as he walked in. "Arabella," he said and smiled at Allegra's music teacher.

"Hi," Allegra murmured slowly, staring at her curiously at her father. Why had he addressed her music teacher by her first name? He always called her Ms. Collins (it was always a "Ms", as her teacher never specified whether or not she was married, and also refused to specify whether or not she was), never Arabella. Allegra shook her head with a slight sigh and picked up her things, turning back to her music teacher. "Thanks, Ms. Arabella," she said, walking out the still-open door with her dad. "See you next week!"

"Yes, see you next week, Allegra!" Ms. Collins said with a wide smile, waving goodbye as she shut her sliding door.

Allegra walked to the car and got in, waiting for her dad. She knew there was something off, based on the way that he had called her teacher by her first name. It was almost like they were friendly or something, which they certainly weren't. Her father barely even knew her music teacher. It made no sense.

"How was the lesson?" her dad asked as he shut his car door and turned the key in the ignition. He reversed the car out of the empty driveway began to drive back home.

"It was fine," Allegra mumbled, leaning over to turn on the radio. "Ooh, I love this song," she said - anything was better than having to talk to her dad after what she had witnessed - and turned up the volume.

"Asia?" her dad asked incredulously. "You like this song?"

"It was in an episode of Supernatural," she answered somewhat sheepishly, and began to sing along.

He laughed. "Yeah, I was gonna say... This song was done in the '80's."

"Mm-hm. Good song, though. Doesn't really get old."

"Classic rock never does. Never will. That's why it's so classic," her dad said with a chuckle.

"Ha-ha, very funny," Allegra murmured, momentarily forgetting the fact that she was trying to avoid her father.

"You mean punny," he said with a grin. Allegra laughed, despite herself.

"Can your jokes get any worse?" she asked him, lightly shoving him from the seat next to him as the song came to an end.

"I happen to be hilarious. You just don't have the sense of humor to appreciate my jokes." Allegra rolled her eyes. "Hey, don't roll your eyes at me, young lady. You're still seventeen, you don't get to do that yet. Say, you won't be allowed to do that when you're thirty." He paused, thinking. "How do you feel about going for a coffee? We could go to Starbucks or the Coffee Bean... "

"That does sound good, but I have an English paper to write a rough draft of. Maybe at the weekend?"

"Yeah, sure." Her dad smiled at her. "When's the rough draft due?"

"In a week, but I really want to outline it first and do some research, that okay?"

"Of course. You're so...organized. God, I wish I'd been like you in high school." He chuckled, turning onto their street.

"Why? What were you like?" Allegra squinted at her father as the car turned onto their driveway.

"Trust me, pumpkin. You don't wanna know." Her dad stopped the engine and got out of the car. Allegra did the same, grabbing her violin case and music books from the backseat.

Allegra shut the car door behind her and called out to him as they went through the front door. "You're gonna have to tell me someday, you know!"

***

Allegra was halfway through her essay outline, when her phone made a small ding sound from beside her laptop. The sound was so faint that she thought perhaps it was just her imagination, but as she looked down from her computer screen she saw that her phone had indeed lit up with a text message.

That's funny... Allegra thought, looking at her phone. The phone number at the top of her notifications bar wasn't one that she recognized, and nor should it have been. Jolie was the only one who would text Allegra, mostly because of how terrible she was at it. All the typos and tiny keyboards, Allegra didn't see the point of all that hassle. And besides, Jolie's text tone had always been a duck quacking noise, because of an inside joke that they had between themselves for years.

Allegra squinted at her phone and read the text. It read:

'Sup, blondie. You free tomorrow night?

Allegra sighed, knowing who it was from immediately. Now that she had forbidden him from using her nickname, he must have come up with another one to annoy her with. She decided to ignore the text and turned her phone's screen off. She then turned her attention back to the essay outline for English.

A few moments later, her phone notified her that she had yet another text, from the same number:

Aw, c'mon, you can't ignore me forever. You know you wanna hang tomorrow.

And by 'hang' you probably mean 'smoke weed', Allegra thought to herself. She let out another sigh - realizing whilst doing so that perhaps she did it too often - and picked up her phone, sliding her thumb against the lock screen and answering his text.

Maybe I can't ignore you, but I can certainly try not to encourage you in any way.

The key word being "try."

Allegra rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but be impressed by his literacy while texting. Most people their age would probably spell half the words wrong and replace everything with letters and numbers, and shorten words when unnecessary - like "obviously" to "obvi".

What do you want, Alex?

I need to be tutored, you know that. You're the only one who can help me. Apparently.

Not to be too boastful, but I probably am your best bet at getting your grades up.

Pretty confident there, eh, blondie?

If only I could talk like that to his face, she thought with a slight shake of her head.

Pretty cocky there, eh, Alex?

You know it, babe. ;)

Okay but seriously. I can't be expelled AGAIN. My dad will kill me.

Okay, fine. I'll help you. What subject will we work on?

History, I'm failing so bad in History.

Okay. I guess I can come over to your house after school and help.

I knew you'd succumb to my charms!

You've reached the end of published parts.

⏰ Last updated: Mar 26, 2016 ⏰

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