“Wake up! Sierra!” I felt something grab onto my shoulder and shake me roughly. “Wake up! Come on! We have to go!” I groaned and rolled over to see Amara’s face hovering over me, her hair pulled up into two pigtails on either side of her head.
“What?” I said groggily, rubbing my eyes.
“I said we have to go! You better hurry or we’ll be late.” She hopped from foot to foot sounding agitated.
“It can’t be that late,” I muttered “my alarm hasn’t even gone off yet…” I turned my head to look at my alarm clock only to see a black screen where bright red letters used to be. I let out a frustrated groan when I realized my clock had been unplugged. I picked up my phone and the display lit up. My eyes bugged out of my head when I saw that it was almost 8:30am. “Oh my GOD!” I ripped the covers off my body and rushed to my closet, pulling out a pair of old jeans and a baggy green knit sweater. I ripped off my pyjama shorts and tugged the jeans on, not caring that Amara was in the room. I pulled the sweater over the white singlet I wore to bed and shoved my feet into my blue converse. I grabbed my backpack (luckily I had packed it the night before) and bolted out the door after Amara.
Walking out the front door I saw Blake, keys in hand, next to the sleek blue sports car I had seen him drive to school in. He grunted when he saw me, shaking his head.
“No way Amara. It’s not happening.” Her mouth dropped open but before she could protest Blake cut her off again. “I put up with driving you to school but I draw the line with her.” He said pointing at me.
“But Blake!!” Amara started in a whiny voice. “You can’t just leave her to walk! She’ll be late!” Blake smirked.
“That’s her fault. She should have woken up earlier.” I heard him snicker under his breath and I sent him a death glare.
“I would have if you hadn’t unplugged my alarm clock.” I snarled at him. Amara stepped towards the car before Blake had a chance to reply.
“If you don’t drive her to school too I’ll tell mum you purposely made Sierra late right after she apologized and said she would try to be kinder to you.” She paused to let the message sink in and Blake’s expression changed to one of slight worry. “And you know how mum feels about provoking people who have apologized to you.” Amara crossed her arms and glared at Blake. He glared right back before he let out a frustrated groan and stepped away from the car.
“Fine! Get in, both of you. But in the back seat. I can’t let people think I’m associated with the two of you.” Blake pulled the door open and moved the driver’s seat so we could both climb into the back seat. Once we had our seat belts on and Blake pulled out of the driveway I grabbed Amara’s hand and smiled, mouthing Thank you. She grinned back at me.
“So do you have anything exciting happening today?” I asked Amara. She shook her head.
“No, just boring class work as usual.” She said with a shrug.
“You’re lucky, I have a maths quiz this morning.” I spared a quick glance to the front to see Blake’s jaw clench in frustration and I thought I heard him mutter a few curses. I smirked and looked back at Amara. Her glance flickered with confusion for a second until her gaze moved to Blake. A slow lazy smile spread across her face as she realized what my intentions were.“It’s meant to be a tough one so I made sure to study last night. I feel sorry for anyone who slacked off. They’re going to get slaughtered.” I laughed. All of a sudden the radio came on loud and clear. I leaned my head forward into the front of the car and turned to Blake angrily. “Excuse me, we are trying to have a conversation back here.”
“Which is exactly why I turned it on. I don’t want or need to hear your stupid conversations.” He replied with a smirk plastered on his face. I sighed and rolled my eyes.
“Fine, we won’t talk. But can you at least turn it down so our ear drums don’t burst back here?” I asked raising an eyebrow. He gave a curt nod and turned it down to a reasonable level. “Thank you.” I whispered before leaning back in my seat, sending Amara an apologetic look. She smiled in understanding and we both stared out the window in silence for the rest of the car ride.
When we got to school Amara gave me a quick hug and jumped out of the car, racing off to find her friends. Blake jumped out of the car just as quickly, slamming his door behind him. Next thing I knew I heard the beep beep sound of the car locking, Blake slowly walking away from his car swinging his keys around his fingers. A streak of panic raced through me as I tried the door handle but the door didn’t budge. I looked for the door locks but this car had the ones that went down inside the door. Blake had put his window down a tiny crack to let some fresh air in, no doubt planning to leave me here all day. I crawled into the front seat and screamed out the window at him.
“Blake! Don’t you dare leave me in this car!” I saw him throw his head back and laugh as he kept walking. Anger boiled my blood until I saw red. “If you leave me here I no qualms about breaking a window!” I shrieked so loud I made my voice sore. He must not of thought about that because he stopped in his tracks and turned to stare at me, narrowing his eyes. He quickly flicked his wrist at the car and I heard the beeping sound again. I quickly scrambled out of the car and slammed the door. It locked once again and I whipped around to find Blake and give him a piece of my mind but he was no where to be seen. I grumbled to myself and headed off in the direction of my locker.
When I finally got there I let out a small groan, seeing Nancy leaning against it. Looking at her face, I contemplated turning around and walking in the opposite direction and hiding until she left but then I would be late to class. I took a deep breath and approached her. “Good morning Nancy.” I greeted her sweetly.
“Don’t you ‘Good morning Nancy’ me!” She imitated, making me sound like a squeaky toy on helium. “You are such a bitch!” she was so angry I thought I saw steam coming from her ears. I sighed.
“What did I do this time?” I asked, feeling tired. Her face was getting a darker shade of red every second this conversation continued.
“I had to hear from Danny that Blake had moved in with you! DANNY!” she yelled, drawing the attention of everyone in the hallway. “I am your BEST FRIEND and I had to hear it from DANNY?!?!” My eyebrows shot up at just how upset she was over this. I put my hands on her shoulders and looked her dead in the eye.
“Danny asked about the movie night just before I went to bed and he blew up when I told him it wasn’t going ahead. I was planning on telling you all at lunch today. It’s not that big a deal that Danny knew first. I didn’t mean to upset you.” I explained calmly. Nancy took a deep breath and nodded her head. She stepped away from my locker door and I pulled it open, shoving all my crap in there and pulling out my books for first period, English. "You really freaked me out there." I said eyeing her suspiciously. "Is there something wrong?"
"No." I gave her a incredulous look at her one word answer. She never gave one word answers.
"Are you sure? That's your second outburst in as many days. And they both concerned me and Blake. Are you sure nothing's wrong?" I asked gently. I was very much afraid that she would blow up on me again.
"Nothing is wrong." She replied flatly before she turned and stalked off to her class. I walked into the classroom to find Cindy sitting in the back row next to my usual seat. I flopped down beside her and gave her a bright smile of greeting.
"Hey girl. What's up?" She said, returning the smile.
"Not too much. Nancy kinda freaked on me this morning." I shrugged.
"About Blake?" I nodded slowly, furrowing my eyebrows. "Oh yeah. She did that to Danny too. He told her we wouldn't have a movie night and she flipped her lid." I nodded in understanding and Cindy gave me an uncertain look, as if deciding whether or not to tell me something.
"What?" I asked, giving her a suspicious look.
"I think that Nancy might be feeling a little left out." My mouth dropped open, about to protest but Cindy cut me off before I could make a sound. "Danny and I are always hanging out together which leaves the two of you out, which I know you guys understand, and you never seem to want to go out anymore. I think Nancy just wants to go out and have fun. And we both know she's too she to ask anyone out on a date. She's just lonely, which leads to cranky, which leads to the bitch she's turning into." I sighed. I could see how that made sense. I had been avoiding going out. There was no particular reasoning behind it. To be brutally honest, my mother's constant critique of me was taking it's toll and I was just feeling a little depressed. The last thing I wanted to do lately was go out and party. I looked at Cindy with a determined look on my face.
"Movies are still on for Saturday, okay? You're totally right. We need this." I told her, smiling. "You and Danny get the movies, I'll handle the food. And as usual..."
"Nancy can just show up." We both said together before bursting into a fit of giggles. Our laughter finally died down when the teacher finally walked in and told us to pay attention. All I wanted was for my best friend to be happy. And if that meant the four of us having an all night movie fest while having to deal with Blake then that was what was going to happen.