"Have you tried my idea?"
"Elliot, you really need to start waiting until about seven to text me."
"We can talk about that later. How did it go?"
"It worked..."
"That doesn't sound like a good kind of 'worked'"
"It isn't. He's being a jerk right now."
"To you, or other people?"
"Other people. If you insist on keeping me awake we should talk about something else. There are a few new people at my school."
"What did you do to them."
"Why do you assume that I did something to them?"
"The last new student I saw you meet ended up locked in the auditorium for a few hours."
"In my defense that wasn't unprovoked."
"And you tend to be provoked easily. What did you do to them."
"Nothing! You have no trust in me."
"Must I remind you of the ice cream?"
"What time are you referring to?"
Ice cream is a good weapon. It's sticky, cold, and wet. It doesn't get better than that. Ergo, the reason I don't know what he's talking about.
"Exactly."
"I'm sure that what ever incident you are referring to involved someone who deserved it."
"Nope. Not true."
"Nobody asked you anyway. I need to get ready for school. ttyl"
"ttyl"
I closed my phone, and got out of bed.
Instead of dragging my feet until it was time to go, I got ready quickly, and sat at the table.
"You're up early," my mom said turning around.
"Elliot has a bad habit of texting me before my alarm goes off."
"That explains it. You would never willingly wake up."
"I've woken up on my own before," I grumbled.
"You just keep telling yourself that," she said setting a plate of pancakes in front of me.
I would have tried to defend myself, but there was food in front of me. If I decided to press my case it might have gotten cold, and then it wouldn't taste as good. It would be a tragedy to waste the warmth, and the reason that pancakes are good. The fact that it's warm, is almost better than the fact that I can cover them with syrup, and not get in trouble.
Spearing a section, I happily put it in my mouth.
"I'm worried..." my mom said as she looked at me.
"Why?"
There is no real reason for her to be worried is there? If it was work related she wouldn't be telling me about it. When she says she's worried it usually has something to do with me.
"You're happy again. That either means what ever plan you had yesterday worked well, or you already have something planned for today."
"Na," I dismissed her fear, "I'm just going to continue yesterday's plan today."
"Are you willing to share that yet?"
"Nope," I said popping the 'p'.
"Since I didn't get a call from the school yesterday I'm going to assume that it isn't something that is too bad, and I'm not going to worry about it while I'm at work."
"That's probably a good strategy. If you worried about all the days I have a, not so nice, plan you would already be gray."
"That makes me feel so much better," she said rolling her eyes.
"I thought it would," I said completely serious.
I quickly finished my pancakes, and put my plate in the sink.
"Well," I said grabbing my backpack, "It's been nice talking to you, but I think it's time for me to go."
"Don't burn the school down," she called as I opened the door.
"No promises!"
I think I heard her whisper a word you can't say around little kids before I closed the door. Not sure though because if she did it wasn't very loud.
Regardless I started to laugh as I walked over to my car.
Driving to school was a little more interesting than usual today.
I was about half way there when I saw two people walking down the sidewalk. I could tell one was a boy, and the other was a girl. It was made obvious by the fact that the girl had hair down to her butt, and the guy had his spiked.
Nobody ever walks to school right now though. The temperature made that an extremely bad idea. Those two must be freezing their butts off.
As I got closer I realized two things. One, neither of them were wearing coats, and two, I didn't totally hate them.
I pulled the car over beside them, and rolled down the window.
"Brandy! Hero!" I yelled, "What are you doing outside?"
"Freezing," Brandy answered casually.
"Why?"
"Didn't have a ride to school."
"You do realized that we're still a few miles from school, right?"
"Yes."
"And you don't have a coat, because......"
She looked slightly more nervous when she answered that question, and I'm fairly sure she lied when she answered, "Couldn't find it."
"And Hero couldn't find his either?"
"Yep."
I rolled my eyes at her, and leaned over the passenger seat to open the door.
"Get in."
She gave me a look of relief, and jumped in.
Looking in the back I realized that my car wasn't the cleanest. As in, there was no foot space in the back.
"I think you should probably let Hero have the front seat. I don't think he will fit in the back."
She shrugged, and got out to let Hero take her spot.
"You can have the front seat tomorrow," I promised Brandy, figuring I could clean out my back seat tonight.
"You're going to give us a ride tomorrow too?" Hero asked slightly confused.
"You two are some of the few people I know that I'm willing to talk to. If you die because of hypothermia I'm going to be very upset. I've been needing someone who is willing to work with me in my classes, and Brandy is in most of my classes. Who knows you might be in my math class, and I'll have all my bases covered."
"Yes," Brandy said sarcastically, "That's the only reason we shouldn't get hypothermia."
"Don't worry, I'm sure the list will grow."
I'm fairly sure she rolled her eyes at that, but she didn't comment.
Maybe she thinks I'll take back my offer.
I'm not that mean though.
She's safe.
For now.
I pulled into a parking space, and turned to look at my two passengers, "I'm sorry for hastening your decent into the hell that is high school. I really hope you can forgive me."
Brandy laughed, "I'm fairly sure my brother will agree with me when I say, we would rather get here quicker, and be warm than take an extra ten minutes in that weather."
"So, I am forgiven?"
"I think I can manage to get over any feeling of displeasure I may have at arriving to school early," Brandy said smiling at me.
"Thank goodness," I said drawing out the words, "I thought you would hate me forever because of that offense."
Brandy started to laugh harder, and Hero got a wide smile.
"I don't know why you're laughing. I'm completely serious. Causing you to go to hell faster is not funny."
By the time I was done with that little speech, Hero had started to laugh, and Brandy was almost in tears.
I smiled, and listened to the two as they got it out of their system.
When they were both done they were gasping for breath.
I think they needed that. They were probably having a crappy day when they realized that they would have to walk who knows how far, in the middle of the winter, and they 'couldn't find' their coats.
Speaking of which.....
"Hey," I said to get their attention, "When are your birthdays?"
"March 16th," They said at the same time.
"Twins?"
"Yeah...." Brandy answered.
"Makes sense."
"I think the bell's about to ring..." Hero commented looking at the clock on the dash.
"Too bad...." I reluctantly said opening the door, "We will talk about birthdays later."
The first thing I saw when I walked into my math class was a pair of beautiful green eyes watching the door intently.
When he saw me his expression chanced from intent to hopeful, and in a second he was giving me a small smile.
I pulled my eyes away from his, and walked over to a seat in the middle of the room with Hero following me.
Turns out he does have math with me.
Not really surprising since the school was so small. I was bound to have one class with him.
My thoughts were interrupted when Hero threw a paper on my desk.
I thought passing notes was a girl thing.... Guess not.
I picked it up, and opened it.
"Why is that guy staring at you?"
It wasn't too hard to figure out who that guy was. I didn't even bother looking.
"He thinks I'm mad at him."
The note was back on my desk a couple seconds after I gave it to Hero. He was a fast reader/writer. That's gotta be convenient when he's taking notes, or passing them.
"Are you?"
"Not really."
"Then why aren't you talking to him?"
"The answer to that is very long, and confusing. I'll explain on the way home.... Maybe."
Truth be told I didn't really want to explain.
I don't know why, but talking about it made me feel more like a bad person.
Makes no sense. I was worse when I first played the game with Elliot. I put him threw hell, and I willingly admit it, but something about doing the same thing to Chance seemed.... wrong.. some how.
The note landed on my desk again, and I looked at it curiously.
"He looks like you socked him in the stomach."
I tore note up, and pushed the pieces to the corner of my desk.
"I think you should talk to him," Brandy said continuing the conversation we'd been having for the past hour.
My answer didn't change at all from the one I first gave her, "No."
"I gotta agree with her," Hero said looked over at me, "He looks like you're practicing Chinese torture techniques on him."
That's so not fair. It's two against one.
"He doesn't look that bad."
"Yes, he does,"
"You're going to leave him to suffer?" Brandy said, looking at me with disappointment.
"Yes."
Brandy sighed in defeat, and shook her head.
When she pulled her head up she got a confused look on her face, and stared hard at my neck.
"What is that?" she asked.
"Skin. You should check your neck, I think you have a little too."
She rolled her eyes at me, "Not that. The necklace."
"Oh," I said as realization dawned on me, "It was a present," I contuined, unconsciously tucking the necklace back under my shirt.
"From who?"
"That's not information I feel you need to know," I stated nodding my head.
"It's pretty. I think it's sterling silver. It kind of has that look to it."
"It is."
"You should wear it more often. It looks pretty with your eyes."
"I do. I haven't taken it off except to shower since I got it."
"Why didn't I see it yesterday?"
"Do you see it now?"
"Oh... Why do you do that?"
She's kind of getting on my nerves. I'm sure that one day I'll be happy for the fact that I have a girl I can talk to about this kind of thing, but right now it's annoying.
Besides, that's what Elliot's for. Of course Elliot now lives an hour away....
It might be a good idea to keep her around.....
I thing I need to answer her question to do that.....
What was it?
Oh yeah, "No real reason."
She raised her eyebrow at me in the, 'I know you're lying, but I'm not going to say anything about it,' expression.
"So... Do you guys want to come over to my house today?" I asked trying to change the topic of conversation.
"Sure," Brandy said.
I looked at Hero to see if he wanted to come too, but he kind of had this vacant expression as he stared off into space.
Brandy jabbed him in the side, and he blinked a few times.
"Sorry. I was trying to tune out the girl talk. What?" He asked looking from me to Brandy, and back again.
"Do you want to go over to Elizabeth's house after school?" Brandy repeated.
"Sure."
"It's settled then. Meet me at my car, so I can kidnap you after school."
"I'm starting to second guess my answer....." Hero said trailing off as he looked at me with apprehension.
"I'm your ride home."
"Never mind."
I laughed, and the worried look entered his eyes again.
That just made Brandy join in, and eventually Hero started to laugh with us.
I really should pull the quotation marks off the word friend when I'm applying it to them.....
Maybe later.
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A/N I thought this would be longer. It made me sad when I found out it was still only three pages. Anyway I hope you enjoyed it regardless. And I would like to say that I love to hear what you all have to say. So feel free to comment.