Chapter 5
The announcement echoed through the empty halls of the large school. Everyone was almost asleep with boredom in their classes. I was pretty sure, Jess at the bottom of the room was snoring. I was practically shaking and vibrating with excitement, Alex rolled her eyes and sheook her head at me, but she was laughing .
‘Everyone who is renting an outfit for the dance please go to the gym and get your outfit, thank you’ said the monotone voice of the secretary. I jumped out of my seat, the teacher glared at me and gestured for me to sit down immediately.
‘Sorry miss, that’s me and Alex!’ I yelped in defence. The teacher grinned to herself at my excitement as I grabbed Alex’s arm and pulled her up off her chair, through the halls and into the gymnasium. The dresses were on the right of the gym and the guy’s outfits were on the left side. Brandon walked in with his friend and smiled at me. I waved exitedly.
Eventually Alex picked a cute, mini, fuchsia, peasant girl dress that looked gorgeous with her skin tone. I picked out a beautiful blue, long dress, that was too girlie for Alex’s style. The top was indigo, with a sky coloured satin belt, with a turquoise skirt with sky blue, gold and silver floral swirls. The top was nearly the same colour as my eyes. Everything was going perfectly; the dress, my date, my friends. I was ingrossed in complete happiness. On his way out, Brandon unconcsiously put his hand on my waist and bent down so his mouth was by my ear.
'See you later, Amsies... my lady' he grinned and walked out
'Oooh!' Alex whistled as a huge grin played on her lips as she jumped up and dow, her red curls bouncing.
'What?' I asked
'Nothin', that's just... so cute!' she giggled
'Shut up!' I hit her arm, she held it to her chest protectively.
I leaned against Brandon’s car gazing up at the clouds in boredom. I had tied my, still curly hair in a ponytail. I took out my phone and texted Alex
*S‘up, sista?! Watcha doin?* I texted, the reply came back almost immediatly
*Not Much... OMG! You know Carl? He got his hair done and it‘s kind of longish again! So funny! Called him Cody Simpson, So funny! He got so angry*
*OMG! What did he say?*
*Did I like Cody Simpson, I said no and he says then I hate u! LOLz*
*dat was a total pick up line! LMAO* I texted in excitment
*NO!NO!NO! Never gonna happen Amsies, sorry! Besides, I hate pick up lines, they're so generic and stupid*
*Yeah, me too! they're really stupid and actually insulting! But ah Alex! Why not?!*
*he has a girlfriend LOL*
*whatever! G2g ttyl!* I texted as Brandon and Joshua approached the car.
‘Hey’ said Joshua ‘Guess what? I got a date for the dance!’
‘You’re going?!’ I asked ‘you better get a costume then!’ I pointed out, he cursed and ran into the gym. I sat in the car when Brandon unlocked it. ‘He’s so stupid!’ I laughed
‘Yeah, he is, at least he has a date.’
‘I thought you were going with us’ I said confused
‘Yeah, but it’s not the same, never mind you don’t get it’ he sighed and rested his head against the head rest on the seat.
‘It’s okay, no one cares! Your reputation isn’t on the line here, relax’ I said, he rolled his eyes. ‘so… what outfit did you get?’
‘I got a prince costume thingie. It's ridiculous. What did you get?’ he smiled
‘A princess costume thingie’ I smiled quoting him. Joshua jumped over the door, into the car and sat in the back seat.
‘Got one! Lets go!’ he said.
When we got home Brandon’s parent’s gold Mercedes was in our drive way, sparkling in the sun like a carraige in a fairytale. We looked at each other in surprise. We got out of the car and I unlocked the front door of the house. Both our moms walked into the hall way from the kitchen, heels clacking on marble.
‘Brandon, Amelie? We have to tell you something…’ said his mom
‘Come into the living room please.’ said my mom we followed them into the living room and sat side by side on the couch. Looking up at them with curious eyes.
***
Amelie opened the door, our moms had guilty smiles on their faces as they walked into the hallway.
Brandon, Amelie? We have to tell you something…’ said my mom
‘Come into the living room please.’ her mom, Zahra, said sadly. We walked through the familiar double doors. We quietly sat beside each other on the large couch. We stared at our parents curiously. Joshua sat with his dad. Knowing he wasn’t part of this, he looked relieved. The curiosity was eating at me. Why wouldn’t they just tell us. What was going on? Why did they need to create suspense or tension or whatever directors or producers (or whatever our dads liked to call themselves) said...
‘We heard there was a dance at your school’ her dad, John began ‘and we were wondering who you were going with’ surprise and relief swept over Amelie’s features. She smiled, then.
‘Jared O’Rourke!’ she exclaimed excitedly, her mom’s expression was mixed with surprise, happiness but still disappointment. Amelie told her mom almost everything, so she probably knew about her crush on Jared. My mom looked at me, her manner was questioning. I shrugged at her with a smile.
‘Um…no-one’ I admitted, embarrassed. My parents looked surprised, they’d seen me with plenty of girls before and they’d probably be betting I was going with a pretty blonde or something along the lines of that. All the parents looked at each other, finally my mom said we could go off and “Hang out” we left the room Joshua and I went into the kitchen and ate some tortilla chips. After a few minutes Amelie came into the kitchen looking really pale and worried, her hair was all over the place and coming looser from her ponytail where it looked like she had run her hands through it repeatedly, she tightened it as she scurried past me, she didn’t even attempt to smile she took a hand full of the chips and a glass of coke.
‘Amziez? What’s wrong?’ I asked, smiling, a small smile appeared on her face,
‘Nothin’’ she said in a small voice. She brushed her hair out of her face and sighed heavily. She closed her eyes and rested her head in her arms that were folded on the table. I walked over to her and sat beside her and pat her back. This was a little bit intimate, which I didn’t mind but I could sense she felt uncomfortable. She looked up at me, her eyes were still dry, but had a sign of warning in them. I slowly drew my hand away. She sat up straight, I knew she wasn’t going to tell me so I leaned back into the chair, I still asked
‘Where were you?’ I asked
‘Snooping’ Joshua answered for her with a grin. She glared at him. I smiled not asking what she heard, if it was that important I would find out. She finished off the rest of her water and slowly picked at the tortilla chips. She only had three the rest she shoved them towards me without a word, I thanked her with a grateful nodd and ate them all. I wanted her to speak to me.
‘Amelie what’s going on?’ I asked, she shook her head ‘God! Will you say something?!’
‘I don’t wanna speak’ her voice cracked and tears rolled down her cheeks, that’s why she wouldn’t speak. Her sigh was shaky. I would have hugged her, but she’d only slap me. She wiped her eyes, no more tears came. She swallowed, she stood up, her dog, Daisy, ran through the door, she picked her up and put her under her arm, she walked out of the room and ran upstairs, I heard a door slam and crying, I was so shocked. I hadn’t seen her cry since I fed her favourite toy to Tiger when we were smaller. I looked worriedly at Joshua. We both went into the hall and ran up the stairs. We waited outside her room, our ears pressed to the door to see if she was really crying. She was. I whispered to Joshua:
‘What do we do?’ he shrugged as a reply ‘She’s your sister!’ I snapped
‘You love her!’ he said and pushed me through the door, I stumbled but found my feet after a second. She glared at me, incredulously.
‘What are you doing in my room?’ she asked, while turning away from the dog. She wiped her eyes.
‘Amelie…’ I said sitting beside her on the bed ‘what’s going on?’ she sniffed.
‘You’ll be told by your parents later.’ she curled up, but she was shaking. I pat her back, she didn’t stop me this time
‘You won’t do that when you find out what’s going on’ she said between gasps.'You won't even come near me'
‘Shh, Amelie, I’ll always be your friend’ or more, I hoped, but didn’t say. She let out, what was meant to be a humourless laugh, but was ruined by her crying, so she sounded like a goat with a identity crisis.. She shook her head in disbelief at the mysterious news. I was getting annoyed and curious.
‘Amelie, please tell me what’s going on!’ but she couldn’t speak any more, she was too upset, We just sat there, her crying and me trying to calm her and Daisy whining for attention. But my attention was on Amelie. Like always...