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“Beautiful girls, all over the world, I could be chasing, but my time would be wasted…” *Click*
“Ugh, I really need to change that tune, it’s getting old.” It was eight in the morning and my alarm-clock (unfortunately) woke me from a peaceful sleep.
I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling for five more minutes and decided it was time to get up and get ready for school.
First I threw open the curtains and opened the window. It was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect for just a top and a light jacket.
I’d just opened my closet when I heard the *Ding* of my cell phone, Alice. “Wear the tie-die top, k?” We’d tie-died that weekend and promised to wear the tops we’d made on the same day, today apparently.
“Lynn, you up?!” Ouch, too loud for this time of day.
“No Liam, I’m shouting in my sleep!” Maybe just a little mean, but he deserved it.
“Okay, good. I’m out, you got everything covered?” Finally he lowered his voice, I was getting a headache from his shouting.
“Yeah, I’m good. Have fun at school today!” I made my voice sound a little maternal and Liam definitely didn’t like that.
“You’re not my mom.” I went downstairs to face him.
“No, and you’re not my dad.” I saw a flash of regret in his eyes and I immediately started to apologize for that remark, but Liam cut me off.
“Have fun at school too… Bye.” He turned and went out the door.
“Bye.” I managed to get out just before Liam closed the door behind him.
Liam was my brother and I loved him, but ever since the accident, we just couldn’t get along as well as we used to. Maybe that was because I reminded him of mom, just like he reminded me of dad. As you may have guessed by now; my parents died a few years ago and I was living with my brother. As crazy as that may seem, it was totally legal seeing Liam had been eighteen –and by that, an adult- when it happened. Well that, and I didn’t want to go into foster-care and live with strangers. And something told me that, even though it was hard, Liam didn’t want me to leave either. Anyway, we may not get along all that well, but we were family, so we had to look out for each other. I knew that was what Liam always tried to do, but sometimes I hated him for it. And by “it” I mean acting like my father.
Enough with the heavy stuff and back to breakfast. I was running late and I didn’t really feel like making bread, so I grabbed a banana, my bag and my leather jacket and left the house.
I’d promised to pick up Alice on my way to school, that meant I needed to leave a few minutes early and I had to find my extra helmet. The last of which was hell on heels, but I simply had to wear my black, laced heels. Oh, I forgot to tell you; I rode a motorcycle to school. You’d think, between the leather jacket I had on, the rock-band I was in (don’t worry that’ll come later), the motorcycle I rode and the heels with laces I wore, that I’d be a total bad-ass biker chick. Well, I wasn’t, I actually was really shy and quiet, just not with how I looked. That was just the only way -I wasn’t too scared of- to show who I was. Anyway, I digress again, apparently I’m pretty good at that.
So, I found the helmet, after spending too much time trying to find it, and I was on my way to Alice’s.
There was a lot of traffic, like you’d expect at eight thirty in the morning, and I was happy to be on my motor. It was a lot faster that way, because with my motor I could still fit between two cars stuck in traffic. And, naturally, I used this benefit a lot. The drive to Alice’s didn’t take that long, just about fifteen minutes, but that wasn’t why I‘d left my house a few minutes early. Alice was the kind of girl that could still be late after getting up three hours early. But we couldn’t be late this morning, due to a written exam we had during our Spanish class first period. So Alice had to be ready on time, meaning; she had to be ready in five minutes.
“Alice!” I decided to try and speed her up by yelling at her. I didn’t know if it was a smart decision, but Alice didn’t leave me with much of a choice.
“Yes?!” Judging by the sound of her voice, she was nowhere near ready, but didn’t want me to know that.
“Alice, I love you, but you got five minutes before I leave!” I meant it and made that clear, the “I love you” part was just to make it sound less harsh.
“Okay, mom, thank you!” Nope, no way she was going to be ready in five minutes. She wouldn’t have been so irritated if she could make it. Damn it.
“She won’t be ready in time.” That voice made me jump a little, not the voice itself, but the fact I didn’t see the person coming. That wasn’t really possible, since my head rested on my steering-wheel and my eyes were closed, but you get the point.
“Good morning to you too, Casey.” I replied with a hint of sarcasm in the tone of my voice. Casey was my brother’s best friend and Alice’s older brother (thought you should know).
“Good morning. And you already knew she wouldn’t be, didn’t you?”
“I had a feeling, yes.” I paused for a second and stared at Alice’s window, trying to see how far she was with her morning-ritual. “God, how long can it take someone to put on a top and jeans?!” I was getting my frustration out, but realized too late to whom I was talking.
It got me a smile. “Want to hear a secret?” It was pretty hard to tell if I’d actually want to know it.
“Sure” I said slow- and carefully.
Another smile. “It only takes my sister seconds to do that. The thing that takes her so long, is deciding what shoes she’s going to wear.” I smiled this time.
“Hey! Lynn?” Alice had heard it. And calling my name meant she wanted me to do something. So I hit Casey in the stomach with my helmet.
“Hey!” This came from Casey, directed to me.
“Thank you!” Alice.
“Happy to do it!” I shouted back to Alice. “But you could be right about that.” I whispered back to Casey. Alice owned so many shoes, heels to be precise, that it looked like she never wore the same pair twice.
Casey shook his head and quickly recovered. “Anyway… don’t you have any manners at all?”
“Huh?!” That question had caught me off guard.
“Screaming before nine am, I could have still been asleep!” When I saw his smile reappear, I knew he was joking.
“Well, I happen to know for a fact that’s very unlikely. With you having an appointment at nine and all.”
“I keep forgetting you and Liam are siblings.” That was true; this wasn’t the first time he’d forgotten that. “Not my fault though, you guys just don’t look alike.”
“Well, that’s funny, because you and Alice don’t look alike at all either, but I never forget you are siblings. Maybe you just don’t want to remember your best friend’s sister is also your sister’s best friend.”
“Wow, psychologist much? But maybe you’re right, or maybe I’m just forgetful. Besides with me and Alice it’s easy to see when we’re with our parents, but with you a…” I must have shown something, because right the second Casey looked at me, he stopped talking. “Uhm, never mind.” He tried to smile, but it wasn’t easy for him to. He really felt sorry for bringing up parents. I felt down, but returned the smile nevertheless.
I checked my watch again. “Liz! One minute!” A grunt came from her window.
“She won’t make it.” Casey accepted the change in subject as very welcome.
“No, probably not.”
“Didn’t you guys have a test?” Alice must have told him about that.
“Yup”
“Sucks”
“Yup”
“How’s the band?” Back to small talk it was.
“Same”
“Could we move on to multiple syllables please?” I laughed quietly and softly hit him again with my helmet. He overreacted with the sound he made, making it sound like I was really beating him up.
“Save some for me!” Alice shouted, still from her room.
“Well then hurry, ‘cause soon there’ll be nothing left!” I looked at Casey and he was making a gesture as if to fend me off. And we both laughed.
“This will take you forever.” Casey said when we both stopped laughing.
I shrugged. Then realized it was almost nine. “Don’t you have somewhere to go?”
“Well, I think Liam won’t mind if I’m late because I watched his little sister.” I shot him a glare, I didn’t particularly like to be seen as Liam’s little sister.
“Be careful who you call little, I’m seventeen.”
“Excusez-moi mademoiselle.” He said and made a bow. I just shook my head and turned towards the front door of the house, where I could see movement.
“Huh, maybe she’ll even make it.”
“That would be a first.” He looked skeptical, which was understandable in this situation.
“First time for everything I guess.” Even though this particular first time would be a downright miracle.
“Hmm, just wait until she comes out, I’m sure Alice figures out a way to make you be late.” How would she do that? Force me to wait longer? Sabotage my ride?
But sure enough, there was Alice, standing in the doorway. Her brown, shoulder-length hair a mess, complete with her blonde highlight vertically on top of her head, her make-up in her hair and yes, even food between her teeth. I let my forehead fall onto my steering-wheel and was pretty sure the whole neighborhood heard a lot of bad words, so to say. But that wasn’t all. To make the whole thing even worse; Casey was literally rolling on the floor laughing.
“What? It isn’t so bad, right?” I doubted Alice had even looked into a mirror after she got up; it was so bad.
“Oh my God, Alice! Do you own a mirror? It’s really bad, it’s a catastrophe!” She shot me a glare and shifted her gaze toward Casey, who was still laughing hysterically.
“Well, we don’t have any time to make it better now, do we? And you,” she pointed at Casey, “stop laughing for crying out loud!” She was getting real angry now.
“Five minutes, I’m not taking you to school like that.” I’d just have to drive faster, a lot faster.
“I’m not sure that’s fixable in just five minutes.” Casey had stopped laughing and decided he should join the conversation. This made Alice look even worse; she could seriously shoot fire with her eyes now.
“Casey, shut up! Liz, go inside now! If you’re not back in exactly five minutes, I’m seriously leaving without you.” This time I wasn’t even going to try making it sound less harsh.
“Okay!” Now it actually was obvious those two were related; they said this in the exact same way, at the exact same time. I had to suppress the urge to laugh, somehow it just didn’t seem appropriate right now.
Sure enough, Alice went into the house again and I was left alone with Casey, again. I got off of my motor and sat down on the sidewalk, next to where Casey now sat.
“Doesn’t this make you go crazy?” Casey was the one who broke the silence.
“What? Waiting for Alice? If that made me go crazy, I’d be totally insane by now. But you’re right, it is really annoying.” It was usual for Alice to be late and most of the time I didn’t think too much of it anymore, but now, it was really getting on my nerves. It wasn’t like I wanted to do that written exam so badly, but being late meant you got an F. I’d had those before, but I still didn’t like getting them.
“So why do you keep putting up with it?” Was this actually a serious conversation? I mean, I knew Casey could be serious, but he just never was when I was around. Well, there’s a first time for everything, I guess.
“She’s my friend.” It was as simple as that. This was something I’d only put up with for friends, simply because I knew a real friend would do the same for me if the roles were reversed.
“I admire you’re loyalty.” Did he actually mean that, or was he joking again? I didn’t know and probably wouldn’t find out if he was joking or not.
“Hello guys, I am now totally ready to go!” Alice came walking through the front door again, only now she didn’t look like a total mess. Something told me she walked out looking like a mess five minutes ago, just so I’d give her some extra time.
“See? I was right; it wasn’t fixable in five minutes.” This time I simply had to laugh at what Casey said. Alice, unsurprisingly, didn’t find it funny at all and opened her mouth to probably shout at her brother, but I cut her off.
“Well, maybe you should get over here and get on the motor, because we don’t have much time left.” She closed her mouth and walked towards us, but I didn’t like the look on her face.
“Maybe you should get on there too and stop flirting with my brother.” Excuse me? Flirting with her brother? It was a freaking miracle we weren’t fighting! Okay, calm down. She’s just angry at us and doesn’t know what she’s saying, forget about it. My head, and the rest of me, was fighting the urge to say something. Instead I got on the motor and started the engine. Alice got on and we drove off. Casey said something in the lines of bye, but I was too angry to hear it properly.
The way to school was pretty quiet, so were we. I still hadn’t quite forgiven Alice for what she’d said. At the time we arrived at school everything had cooled down a bit. Only, unfortunately for us, the school bell had rung a minute ago. We hoped we could still get to the lesson without having to get a note. All we had to do was get past the janitor’s office and we seemed to make it, but just before we’d passed, a voice said: “Where are you two girls going?” Damn it, we got caught. The voice belonged to one of the older janitors, Bertha, a small woman with short blonde hair and a very strict policy. Not someone you’d want to get busted by.
“We, uhm, are just trying to get to class.” Alice said with a huge, and fake, smile on her face.
Bertha started smiling, only it wasn’t exactly a warm, or genuine smile. It was the kind of smile that said: I know I’ve got you cornered right now.
“Well, I’m sorry to inform you that the lessons have already started.” Alice and I both knew that was a lie; she wasn’t sorry. She liked to catch students red-handed and give them detention, or at the very least a note. “Therefore,” Bertha continued, “I’m going to have to give you a note.” Alice and I took a quick look at each other and realized there was no getting out of this. Bertha looked as pleased as I’d ever seen her, while she said: “Name, year and lesson you were supposed to be in, please.” The “please” really was just a waste of energy; we didn’t care for it and she didn’t like to say it, but I guess it was just a standard.
“Caitlynn Rosette, junior, Spanish 101 from Señora Meras.” The pleased look Bertha’d had on her face just now had suddenly changed into a narrow-eyed fierceness that startled me.
“You too?” Bertha demanded, while looking at Alice.
“Y-yes.” I’ve only heard Alice stutter two times and both of those times she was really scared. I couldn’t blame her for being scared; Bertha was naturally scary, but this was a new record.
“Then the two of you are very lucky today; Misses Meras called in sick this morning.” Bertha obviously hated she couldn’t give us a note, but I was thrilled. No exam, no note and no Spanish! What more could a girl ask for?
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