Chapter 10:
Beckinsile's Point of View
Beep. Beep. Beep. I groan, press snooze and roll out of bed.
"I don't want to go today. Am I not going to go through enough pain having Danika at my house tonight?" I shout to no one in particular as I go to the bathroom and brush my teeth. I wash my face and put on some mascara.
"At least I look presentable," I sigh and go to my closet.
"The daily struggle," I say as I search for an outfit.
I pull on a pair of jeans and a blue tank. I clasp my necklaces and slip into my TOMS before making my bed. I grab my bag and prepare to fake a stomachache. I can not go to school today. Seeing Danika tonight is enough. There's only so much a person can take. Ring. Ring. Ring. I pull my phone out of my bag and hold it up to my ear.
"Hey Beckinsile," I hear Oliver's voice oozing humor from the other end.
"Hello Olly Pop,"
"I got the stuff."
"Good, I'm going to need lots of sugar to make it through a whole night of Danika."
"We all are,"
"Would you kill me if I just didn't show up at school today?"
"Yes, I would. Is the little good girl going to skip school?" Oliver says in a teasing tone.
"I can only handle so much Danika."
"C'mon, I'll help you survive her, Becks."
"Fine but I'm still going to see how faking a stomachache works out." I hear Oliver laughing from the other side.
"You have fun with that. Just a word of advice....It never works." With that Oliver hangs up and I finish walking down the stairs.
My dad has already left for work and Gabe and Nate are already seated and eating breakfast. It still boggles my mind how they can get ready so fast. I clutch my stomach and pray my non-existent acting skills kick in. I groan and continue clutching my stomach as I make my way towards the breakfast bar.
"Quit clutching your stomach. Becky. We all know you're faking it." My mom says as she fills up her mug with coffee. "But that was a very valiant attempt, my dear." My mom hands me a plate of scrambled eggs and a mug of tea. I take my seat and poke my eggs with a fork.
"Why were you trying to get out of going to school, Becks?" Nate asks with a teasing smile.
"Two words. Danika Blackwell." I say as I take a bite of my breakfast.
"Here are three words that describe my feelings towards this conversation. I don't care." Gabe smirks as he drops his plate in the sink and kisses my mom on the cheek.
Nate does the same and then they walk towards the side door. I roll my eyes and leave my mostly uneaten breakfast on the countertop.
"Are you still hungry, Becky?" My mom gives me a concerned look.
"No, I'm fine, mom." I say as I kiss her on the cheek.
Gabe leads the way out to his car and I slip into shotgun, as usual. Nate slips into the back and we ride in silence.
~~~~~
"As promised, we have a pretest today to see where you are. It doesn't count for a grade but do your best so we can spend less time reviewing and more time learning." Mr. Meyers says as he passes tests out to everybody. I pull out a pencil and begin working. I take a deep breath as I write my name and the date across the top before starting the test. I can feel the nerves in my stomach tighten as I read the first question.
~~~~~
"That test was so easy," Oliver gushes as we walk towards AP Science.
"That test is giving me anxiety," I whine while taking my seat up front.
"You're over thinking it. It doesn't even count for a grade." Oliver chuckles as class begins.
"Today we will be doing an experiment about the effects of various chemicals on organisms that live in our rivers and streams. You and your partners will be testing the effects of chemicals on the organisms and water and then responding to the questions in your lab guide on page 1." Mr. Mitchell sends us off to do the experiment with a flick of his wrist.
~~~~~
We've cleaned up our experiment and responded to the questions all by the time the bell rings. I'm dreading marketing but Oliver tugs me along anyways. We get there and take our seats without running into Danika or her stupid boyfriend.
"See this isn't so bad, right?" Oliver rubs my shoulder in a teasing way and I shrug him off.
"Look who it is, little old Beckinsile." I roll my eyes at Danika's comment.
"Nice to see you too, Danika." I smile sarcastically as she sits down.
"What time should we be at your house?" She hisses as Mr. Walker begins to take roll.
"6:30," I mouth and turn my attention back to Mr. Walker.
After taking roll, Mr. Walker announces that we'll be watching a movie that's a sort of overview of the course. We don't have to take notes but paying attention would be very beneficial, according to him. I breathe a sigh of relief at not having to take notes and settle into my seat.
~~~~~
The movie was surprisingly interesting. I actually felt like I'd learned something and the fact that I was exempt from talking to Danika for the whole class made the movie ten times more interesting. I pull out my lunch and walk towards the cafeteria with Oliver. We take a seat with Xander, Eli and Cody.I take a seat next to Oliver and the boys begin to talk about their weekend plans. I begin eating in silence hoping to not be sucked into the conversation. I miraculously avoid the conversation for all of lunch and am grateful to leave when the bell rings.
Oliver and I walk to French in silence but it's a comfortable silence. We sit down up front; both dreading what's to come after the bell rings.
~~~~~
French was as unbearable as ever. More vocab and more conjugations; it was pure hell. I don't think I can last the rest of the year if this is all we're going to do.
"Why did French have to be the class I have every day?" I think as I text Ed.
Got a ride home...have a good weekend.
I slip my phone into my bag and follow Oliver to his bike. He hands me his second helmet and watches as I straddle the bike. He gets on after me and I wrap my arms around him. Oliver revs up his motorcycle and we speed out of the parking lot. I can feel the familiar whip of the wind as we drive down the main road to my house.
Oliver comes to a stop in my driveway where Gabe's car is already parked.
"I'm going to have a fit if I walk in and find him and Terra cuddling on the couch." I muse as I unlock the door.
I walk through the door and hear a female laugh coming from the living room. I groan and drop my bag on the front table before walking down the hallway to the living room. I can hear Oliver's heavier footsteps behind me as we walk into the living room. I find Gabe and Terra sitting on the couch laughing and watching some cheesy romance movie.
"Did you even go to school today?" I roll my eyes and cross my arms.
"Up until lunch. After lunch, Terra and I have a free period." Gabe smirks at me. "Who's your friend?" He puts his arm around Terra and they lean back on the couch together.
"This is Oliver," I say politely as Oliver gives Gabe a slight wave. I take a deep breath and then direct my gaze at Gabe. "Gabe, why don't you take Terra to a movie tonight?"
"Why should I do that?" He smirks as Terra gives him a confused look.
"Because if you don't mom and dad will definitely find about her and then you'll be forced to sit through a dinner with them and her in the same room." I smirk as Gabe gets up from the couch and pulls Terra up with him.
"But I wanted to watch a movie at your house, Gabe." Terra whines softly as Gabe pulls her down the hallway towards the front door.
"Maybe another time, Babe." Gabe mumbles as he grabs his keys and his jacket.
"No distractions now," I say as I lead Oliver to the kitchen.
"How do you propose we prepare for the gathering tonight?" Oliver says as he takes a seat at the breakfast bar.
"We should set up a space with a bunch of props we could use in a commercial..." My voice trails off slightly.
"We should make cookies," Oliver has a gleam in his eyes that makes it hard to say no.
"Why should we do this?" I ask skeptically.
"It's very hard for people to be mad when there's cookies involved." Oliver says knowingly as he looks up a cookie recipe on his phone. He begins gathering ingredients for chocolate chip cookies.
I help him get all the ingredients to the countertop and then we begin baking. I mix all the dry ingredients while Oliver mixes butter, sugar and eggs together. It's quiet; both of us are working furiously until Oliver decides to puff flour into my face. I look at him, mouth wide open before I smear some butter on his cheek. I giggle and wait for his move. He takes another little handful of flour and puffs it into my face. I laugh and put some butter on his other cheek. He looks mischievous as he grabs some flour and starts chasing me around the kitchen. I giggle as he catches me around the waist and holds onto me with one arm while sprinkling flour in my hair with the other. I try to get out of his grip but he holds fast.
"You're not getting away that easy." He smirks as he pulls me back towards our cookie batter. "We need a picture of you like this." Oliver chuckles as he pulls out his phone and snaps a picture.
"Hey, you need one too, Olly Pop. You're really making the butter work." I laugh as I take a picture of him with his phone.
"I'll text you them," Oliver says as we pop the trays of cookies into the oven.
I start brushing flour out of my hair and hand Oliver a cloth for his cheeks. He chuckles and wipes off the butter. I start to pile the dishes into the sink while Oliver struggles to put all the ingredients away. I can smell the warm cookies. The sweet aroma fills the kitchen as I wipe off the counter and hunt down a pair of oven mitts. I eventually find them and walk back over to the oven.
The aroma is filling me with a sense of happiness. I love the smells that cooking fills the house with. I open the oven and pull out the cookies. They're bubbling and smell even better outside the oven. I set them on the stove top and pull out a spatula. I wait a couple of minutes and then start taking them off the tray.
With Oliver's help, I get all the cookies off and onto a nice plate. I breathe a sigh of relief and put the spatula in the sink along with the other dishes.
"Good work, Becks," Oliver says as he takes a cookie off the top of the stack. I grab one too and raise it in a toast.
"Cheers to hopefully surviving tonight." Oliver and I tap our cookies and then he stuffs the whole thing in his mouth.
I laugh and take a bite of my cookie. It melts in my mouth perfectly. If these won't put Danika in a good mood than there's nothing on this earth that can. I cover the cookies in plastic wrap and put them in the pantry out of Nate's line of vision. I check the time and we still have a good two hours until Danika and Brandon arrive.
"We need to set up some props for the commercial. I have boxes of dress up clothes in the basement. Could you help me bring them up? We can find whatever else we need when we actually have a set idea for the commercial." I babble on as I lead him to the basement steps.
I walk down cautiously and flip on the lights when I reach the bottom. The basement is dark and cold. I don't like spending much time down here; it gives me the creeps. I go to the storage closet and search for my boxes of dress up things. I had thrown out most of the dresses but I still had Halloween costumes that I wore to Halloween parties throughout high school. I'd also kept most of the props so it shouldn't be hard to find something useful for our commercial. I point out the boxes to Oliver who picks up a few. I pick up the last two and we make our way back upstairs.
I take a deep breath when we reach the living room. I set the boxes in the corner of the enormous room and flop down on the couch. Oliver sits down next to me with a "what do you want to do now?" look. I shrug and reach for the TV remote. It's time to show Oliver my favorite hobby; binge watching crime dramas.
~~~~~
I hear a knock on the door after only two episodes. I groan and pause the show. Oliver gets up with me and we walk to the door. I can feel my pulse quicken and my nerves intensify. I'm not ready to face Danika yet again. Oliver takes a deep breath next to me. He gives me a "here we go" look as he opens the door. I want to reach out and stop his hands but he's already turning the knob. I guess I'll have to face her one way or another.