Shauna Case will play for Alice. (Picture to the side.)
Landon
We didn't paint in art class. We watched a documentary of Vincent Van Gogh and his famous paintings. His paintings were beautiful, his talent was one of a kind and I liked it all. Some students fell asleep, like Cece Jakes, but Bates didn't. She didn't sit beside him, she ignored him and sat beside Ryan. He was an athletic guy who loved to study. He was nice, after all, but I have never really talked to him much.
Now while I'm sitting at my house, feeling alone and sad. My dad isn't home and I despise my step mom, I'm an only child anyways. Sighing, I pull myself off my bed and head to the kitchen to grab a drink. My step mom is cooking dinner when I enter. "Oh, are you actually going to help me with dinner like a normal daughter would?"
"No one is normal, and I'm not your real daughter." I tell Mandy while grabbing a Dr. Pepper out of the fridge. "You are my step mom."
"Hey! No caffeine until dinner." She ignores my last comment. "Hun, hand me the spoon to stir up the noodles. Now!"
"I'm thirsty. What am I supposed to drink?" I ask, handing her the wooden spoon hurriedly.
"Something not fattening, I'd assume. Like water," she says with tightness in her voice, "it'll not add pounds to those hips of yours, some water."
"Gee, thanks." I mumble and go to my room. I did not like Mandy at all, yet, my dad still married her. I don't know how he saw past the cold and bitterness of her whole being, I used to think. But when he's around, she's all sweet and loveydubby to him. I lounged in my bed, looking up at the ceiling lost in thought. My dad was at work, he'd be home for dinner anyways. He'd mostly flirt with his wife, Mandy. My dad finally found love after my mom left him when I was five years old. I was glad he did, but I wasn't glad that it was Mandy.
"Landon!" She yelled my name. "Dinner is done! Get down here."
While I made my plate, she scoffed. "Jeez, Landon, you are stacking you plate full of spaghetti like you haven't ate in years. Your dad and I won't even be able to eat!" She laughs at her "joke" and snorts obnoxiously.
I scowl, but stay quiet. Sitting down at the table, I look at my food. I didn't even have that much food on there. It just spreaded out more. I sighed, looking down at my plate.
Maybe I did get too much, I start to think.
Even if I wanted to go to my room, Mandy nor my dad would let me. We had to all eat at the table. They tried to make it as if we were a complete family. To my dad, we were. Mandy agreed with him, only for herself and him, not me. She didn't like me. At all. To me, we weren't a family. I guess my dad was, I mean, he is my dad. I've grown up with him. Mandy -- no, I didn't grow up with her. She's not a step mom at all. It's only written down from marriage that she is. Her actions speak louder than any ink on a paper would or what she says.
My dad enters and smiles at us. He kisses Mandy and sits down. She had already made him a plate. "Hello ladies," he grinned at Mandy, "how was your day?" He wasn't technically talking to me, so I stayed quiet.
"It was great, except I missed you." Mandy answered, smiling at my father flirtatiously. My dad was tall and had black hair with brown eyes. He was smart and outgoing and very social. I like to think I got my awkwardness from my real mom and he brown hair.
"How was yours, darling?" He turned his attention to me with a bright smile.
"It was okay." I say and take a bite of my food. Mandy gives me a disgusted look before smiling when my dad glances at her. I wanted to throw something. She was being such a fake.
We stay in silence for a few minutes while we eat. Then my dad leans back in his chair. "Well, my day was swell. Work wasn't too bad, I went out to eat for lunch instead of eating at the office."
"Oh. Really? Where did you go?" Mandy asks, looking highly interested.
"The Outback. I went with a few friends, too. We should go there sometime. They do have some delicious stake." says my dad as he takes a drink of his water. I look at Mandy who shrugs, not looking like she wasn't really interested anymore. I signed, looking down at my food. My phone vibrates and I try to ignore it, I'm getting a call.
But it vibrates again.
"Um, excuse me." I get up and go to my room quickly to answer it. It's Alice, just like I had figured.
"Hey." I answer the phone as I paced in my room after shutting the door.
"Hi! You love me, right?" She replies.
"Yes," I say slowly as I drag the word out. She never started a conversation like that.
"Okay. Well, Friday we are going to a party." She tells me quickly.
"Party?"
"Yeah! Isn't that great?!?" She sounds so excited, yet her voice is lower than usual.
"Wait, whose party is it?" She needed to explain more to me. I was getting confused.
"Sierra, of course, her house is huge and supposedly -- rumor has it -- she and her friends are throwing a party. Everyone's invited. She will announced it tomorrow in lunch, it'll be epic. We have to go, Landon." Sierra was a rich, beautiful nice girl who loved everyone and everything. No, she wasn't a cliché mean girl. She's actually pretty nice.
"My dad won't let me go to a party, you know that." I tell Alice. My dad would disagree one hundred percent that I can't go. At all. He'd be furious I'd even ask, honestly. "So I can't go. Maybe we could just do something else."
"I already have it all planned out." She gushed. "I can say I'm going to yours and you are going to mine. Simple! Then when the party is over we can go eat or something then later on head back to our houses after changing."
"I've seen a movie like that once..."
"And it worked, didn't it?"
"It did, yeah. But then they got caught, that was bad."
"Yeah, well. This isn't a movie, ok? We can do it, come on, this is a once in lifetime event. We needa live a little, anyways. Obsessing with school, boys, drama, et cetera. We need the break; we need to live a little. Even if we get caught, it would be worth it. We'd have fun, just you and me together at an amazing -- may I add, huge -- party.
I bit my lip, trying to contemplate whether or not if I should uphold this absurd plan of Alice's. I guess we did need a break and have a bit of fun. "How would we get there?" I ask.
"My car obviously." She informs me. "If we do get in trouble, I'll take the whole one hundred percent. Okay?"
I groan. "Fine.."
"Yay! Ohmigod, you don't know how much fun we will have, Landon! I love you."
"I love you too, Alice. Now are you sure it'll work out?"
"Yes, don't stress or worry. I have it covered."
"Okay, okay." I let out a sigh.
What have I gotten myself into? I push down the worry bubbling inside me and walk back downstairs to finish my dinner. Mandy and my dad were talking -- when I walked in, they immediately stopped.
Well then.
"Who was calling you?" Mandy, turning her cold eyes to look at me, asked.
"Alice. Why?"
"Just wondering. I mean, this is family time. To eat and discuss how our day has been, stories, and more. No interruptions." Mandy tells me. "I thought you knew the rules, dear."
I actually wanted to give her sarcasm and tell her off, but I bit my tongue and blurted out a 'sorry' instead.
"It's fine," by the look she was giving me, it wasn't, but in front of my dad she pretended it was. "Just not again, okay?"
"Yes."
"Yes what?" My dad pressed.
I wanted to hit my head against the wall. "Ma'am. Yes. Ma'am."
Mandy smiled -- my dad saw it as her being pleased -- but she really meant that she was satisfied with me surrendering to her. I gave her a stare back in return, hating how she made such anger boil inside me.
"Excuse me, I need to use the restroom." Mandy said and leaves the table.
"So," my dad says.
I shift in my seat, looking around. "So?"
"Are you finished with dinner?"
"Yes, dad."
"You barely touched your food, darling." he says, looking at my food.
"I did too." I say.
"Okay. Well, you can go to your room if you please."
I nod. "Thanks." I needed to breathe anyways, they were suffocating me.
Author's note:
Hello :) I hope everyone is doing okay.
How do you guys like the story so far? Honestly, do you like it?
What do you think will happen at the party? Will they get caught?
What do you think of Landon's step mom, Mandy?
That was a lot of questions O-O
Oh well.
Anyways, vote and/or comment and I hope you enjoyed it.
Xoxo
Talia