I woke up early the next morning, I got a much better sleep, but still had the same nightmare, Rick's starting to appear in it even more now, that was starting to make me wonder, do I seriously have feelings for him?
I got washed and dressed before anyone else, and went downstairs into the kitchen, I thought that I was going to be the first one there, but Elektra was already there, I tried not to make eye contact, and sat on the opposite end of the table, as far away from her that I could get.
"You okay?" She asked.
"What do you care?"
"Look, I'm sorry that I upset you yesterday...I was just jealous okay?"
"Jealous?"
"Yeah, you still have a mum and dad, you could have a chance to get out of here, whereas most of us here, aren't going to get out that easily."
"Well I might not get out that easily, you said yesterday. My mum and dad might not even make it."
Because I hadn't been looking at Elektra, I didn't notice what she had in her hands, it was some kind of book.
"What's that?" I asked.
"I felt really bad about what I said, so I...I erm...I got you this."
She slid the book across the table, it was a book on crochet patterns.
"Are you taking the mickey with this?" I asked.
"No, I know that you're really into crochet, and that's only just come out, I thought it's be the best way to say sorry."
"Wow, thanks Elektra. But you really didn't have to buy this to say sorry."
"It's alright...I still think that crochet it lame though."
I laughed, even thought Elektra is pretty mean sometimes, she can be alright sometimes.
"I promise that I won't tell the others."
"Tell them what?"
"About your soft side, I know that you'd like to keep the reputation."
Elektra chuckled and looked down at her hands.
"So are we alright now?"
"I don't think that we were ever 'alright'."
At that point everyone came flooding into the kitchen, Tee sat next to me and Rick and Tyler sat opposite.
"Couldn't sleep?" Rick asked.
"I slept better than I have been, I just wanted to get up early today."
Rick just nodded and began talking to Tyler.
"Where'd you get the book?" Tee asked.
I looked at Elektra, she was still looking down at her hands, picking at her nails.
"It's just a little gift from someone."
"Who?"
"Just someone."
I could tell that Tee knew who I was talking about, but she rarely ever snitches.
After breakfast I was going to be decorating my room, I didn't really want much, just white walls, I was going to add to the walls as a sort of collage or mural. I've always been into art.
Mike gave me a hand moving the furniture around, I moved my boxes of crochet into the hall so they wouldn't get covered in paint, we covered everything else up with cloth, Rick came to give me a hand with the painting, it was a big mistake for Mike to leave us alone.
"Hey Hannah, you missed a bit." Said Rick.
"Where?"
"There."
Rick put his paintbrush on the end of my nose leaving me with a bright white nose. I got my own back though, with the big paintbrush I had, I brushed it across Rick's face. We both laughed as we splatted paint onto each other, fair to say we went a bit far.
"Rick stop!" I said as Rick splatted me with his brush. "This is going too far."
"Yeah, alright."
I turned around to start painting the next wall, but I soon felt something hitting my back, I spun around and Rick was grinning ear to ear, I could just see a large white streak running down the back of my shirt.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist."
"Just cut it out now."
"Right, sorry."
Once we'd stopped messing around we began to work a lot faster. We were a complete mess but that's what friends do.
When we were almost finished, Mike came upstairs to see how we were getting on.
"What happened here?" he asked.
"Sorry Mike, we just got a bit carried away."
"Okay you two, go get yourselves cleaned up, I'll finish this off."
"Thanks Mike."
Me and Rick were still laughing as we went to the bathroom.
"You look like the abominable snowman." I said as I began to wash the paint out of my hair.
"You don't look so great yourself."
I smiled and flicked some of the water up at Rick.
"We're not starting that again are we?"
"Nah."
After twenty minutes of scrubbing, we were finally paint free, apart from our clothes. Mike had finished off the painting, the rest was up to me.
"So what are you going to do?" Rick asked me as we started to move the furniture back.
"I don't know, I'll just add stuff depending on how I feel. And I've already got an idea of what to do first."
I got a tube of black acrylic paint and squirted a small amount into my palm, I squeezed my fist tight spreading it around, before putting my hand firmly against the wall.
"There." I said, stepping back.
"Can I just do something?"
"Sure."
I handed Rick the paint and he did exactly the same, right next to where my handprint was. With the hand he had clean, he picked up a nearby felt tip pen and wrote above our handprints, "friends" in large writing.
"Yeah, that looks good. But could I just add something else."
"Yeah."
Rick handed me the pen and I wrote our names under each print in a smaller font.
Today has been great, I've had some fun messing about with Rick and I'm finally starting to fit in, I think that when mum and dad get better I'm going to really miss this place.
***
Rick's P.O.V
It was quiet again the next morning, downstairs that is, everyone was hanging out in their rooms messing around, I wanted a bit of peace and quiet to myself, so I sat in the kitchen working on a new song.
After ten minutes alone, Tyler walked in from the garden, he had something in his hands, he was definitely up to something.
"Tyler. What are you doing?" I asked.
"You'll see."
I shook my head, he's up to no good, whatever he has in his hands, it was going to scare someone, I knew it.
I didn't even get five minutes of silence afterwards, I was suddenly interrupted by a piercing scream coming from outside, I recognized that scream, it was Hannah, and something was very wrong, I dropped everything and ran outside, Hannah was jumping around, waving her arms like mad.
"Hannah! Hannah, what's wrong?" I asked.
"Get it off me! Get it off! Where is it?" she screamed.
"Where's what?"
"The spider! Get it away from me!"
She vigorously started pointing at her head, I noticed a dark body stuck in her hair.
"Okay, okay. Stay still."
Hannah was shaking like a leaf, she stopped jumping around and stood still, she squealed slightly as I gently pulled this spider out of her hair, it was only a small one.
"It's only a small one."
Hannah instantly backed away.
"Get that freak away from me! I hate spiders!"
"Okay, okay. Just calm down."
I put the spider down and looked up, Tyler was looking out of the window grinning wide.
"Tyler!" I shouted. "You've gone too far!"
Tyler disappeared from the window, but I dashed inside to confront him, he was just coming down the stairs, giggling like a monkey.
"Tyler, this isn't funny." I said, blocking his path.
"You should have seen the look on Hannah's face though, priceless!"
"Tyler, you really upset Hannah, she's got a huge fear of spiders."
"It was just a joke."
"Like when that water bomb went through my bedroom window causing Elektra to step on my records and break them was 'just a joke'."
"Yeah, but that was different, I was aiming for Gina, it was an accident."
"Just go and apologize to Hannah."
"Alright, alright. If you're going to be sticking up for your girlfriend."
"She's not, we're just friends."
"Yeah...at the moment."
I made sure that Tyler got talking to Hannah, but I couldn't help but think about what people have been saying recently about us two, I mean, sure, Hannah's a cool girl, we've got a lot in common, and to be brutally honest, I think that I have fallen for Hannah.