Hope Cahill's first day of college wasn't exactly what she expected.
What Hope expected was, upon walking into her dorm, finding an equally smart dorm-mate with whom she would be able to have intellectual conversations with and study with. Maybe even make a life-long friend.
What she found was a girl with jet-black hair, a cinnamonish complexion, and fashionable clothing sitting at the desk on the left side of the room. She was facing towards the left wall, so the girl's profile was visible. She had the kind of nose people get surgery for, unless she already got surgery.
"Hullo," Her British accent was monotone, as if she didn't really care. "You must be my roommate, Hope Cahill?"
"Uh," Hope nodded her head.
The girl pointed to herself. "Isabel Vesper-Hollingsworth." She jerked her thumb back, pointing to the right side of the room, "That's your side."
Hope took her suitcase back up and moved it over to the dresser. "So, are you from Britain?"
Isabel looked over at Hope. "What gave it away?" She asked in a serious, but joking, tone.
"I'm from Massachusetts, Attleboro to be exact."
"Never heard of it." Isabel turned back to whatever she was working on.
"OK, um..." Hope sighed and just ignored the failing conversation. She began to unpack her bags and place things where she liked them. It took a long time, but Hope was eventually able to fall down onto her bed. She turned her head to look over at Isabel. "So, how old are you?"
"Eighteen." She answered, again, monotonously.
"I'm nineteen." Hope said with a smile.
"Why are you so late into college? Shouldn't you be a sophomore then?" Isabel turned around in her chair, as if actually interested in the conversation.
"My mom put me into grade school late," Hope shrugged. "I don't know why."
"What's your mother's name?" Isabel laid her head in the nook of her arm.
"Grace."
Isabel's eyes lit up. "Sounds familiar. Grace Cahill…."
Hope shrugged. "She travels around a lot, she's a map maker."
"Ah, so you're stuck at home with your dad a lot then?"
"Nope." Hope got up from laying down and sat on the edge of her bed. "My dad died when I was young."
"Oh," Isabel seemed to regret asking the question. "I'm sorry, I didn't know…"
Hope waved her hand, as if to disregard the question. "No biggy, gets asked asked all the time."
"My parents don't really care about me. They let me do whatever."
"Why?" Hope placed her chin in her hands, her elbows propped up on her lap.
Isabel shrugged. "I guess it's because I get into so much trouble in the first place. I do it just to get their attention, though." She huffed. "They don't think too highly of me, because I'm the younger sister."
"Ahhhh." Hope nodded her head. "I see, I see."
Isabel smiled as she turned back to her desk. "This might not be a waste of my time after all…"
Hope wasn't surprised the first time she walked in on Isabel with a man (keep in mind they weren't doing anything too dirty…yet.) It was an awkward silence, but Hope just walked over to her bed, put her bag down, and walked back out- but not before saying, "Abstinence". She then casually walked over to her boyfriend's room and stayed there for the night (Nothing dirty occurred - other than a make-out session or two - Hope was saving herself for marriage.)
The yelling and cursing she got from Isabel the next day was worth the look on both Isabel and the man's face (Hope never did learn the name of that man.) She made a mental note to do it more often.
"Alright," Isabel said one day, "from now on, we tell each other an hour or so in advance if we're going to bring a boy in here."
Hope, who was innocently drinking some soda, looked at Isabel questioningly. "Why? Because I keep walking in on you? I can't keep stowing off to my boyfriend's dorm, one of the professors are bound to find out sometime. I can't go to any of my other friends who are girls because they're all making out and having sex." Hope made a disgusted sound.
"Well," Isabel replied as she sat in her chair. "We're going to have to work something out."
And so, after hours of planning that could've been spent on studying, they came onto an agreement. If they were going to bring a boy to the apartment, they would warn the other either an hour in advance, with a special sign on the door that has yet to be made, or convince the boy to take the girl to his dorm instead. They would only bring a boy to the dorm 3 times a month so that the other having to stay somewhere else for multiple times a week wouldn't raise any suspicions.
For a long while they both obeyed the rules they'd set. Occasionally they'd run into a dilemma where they both invited a boy (in Hope's case, her boyfriend Tommy) to the dorm at the same time, in which Hope and Tommy had to go to Tommy's dorm because Isabel deserved their dorm. This always made Hope want to break Isabel's plastic-nose, but in the end they were still friends. There was only one instance that almost crumbled their friendship, but that's for another time (and of course, one accident that ruined their sisterhood eternally, but you all already knew that.)
You might be thinking, does Isabel bring in a different boy every time? The answer is, usually. Now don't go thinking Isabel a slut, she's not. Isabel just couldn't find a guy that doesn't have a British accent fetish. Hope had set her up on dates occasionally, but they all turned out the same. Guys only liked Isabel because of her accent, looks, and boobs (Which are most likely plastic, Hope decided - not that she looked. When you have cabin fever and are stuck with your 45% plastic roommate you try not thinking about what's real and what's not.) Hope felt sorry for her, she really did, but she was honestly surprised when Isabel came in and said:
"That's it! No more boys until I move back to England or get rid of my accent!" She flopped angrily onto her bed.
Hope removed her reading glasses. "What's with the sudden realization of semi-abstinence?"
Isabel just groaned. Hope took it as an acceptable answer.
They day Tommy broke up with Hope is a day Isabel would like to forget.
He wasn't even cute! Honestly, Isabel had no idea why Hope even liked the bugger. He had zits all over his face, the worst shade of blond hair, and the weirdest set of brown eyes Isabel had even seen! Not to mention those horrid glasses.
But the boy didn't matter, what mattered was that he'd broken up with Hope for some other girl no where near as beautiful as Hope.
The boy would never be the same after the Wrath of Isabel Vesper-Hollingsworth.
"Hey, Tommy." Isabel bat her eyelashes at said boy.
"Oh," He said uncomfortably , "Hey, Isabel."
"How've you been lately, Tommy?" She made sure to layer on the flattery thick, almost flirty.
Tommy darted his eyes around. "Oh, ya know. Listen, I gotta go. Victoria awaits."
"Is that your new girlfriend?" Isabel followed him.
Tommy's pace increased. "Yeah. So, uh, how's Hope?"
"Heartbroken." Isabel said as if it were normal. "She hasn't been able to keep a focused mind for days." Lies; Hope had been able to do nothing but study, as if her "low" grades (practically one hundreds all around) were the reason she no longer had a boyfriend.
"Well, that's, uh, too bad."
Tommy made a desperate move to get away from Isabel, but he wasn't quick enough. Isabel grabbed him by the arm and jerked him to a dark corridor.
"Look," Isabel said venomously, "You're going to apologize to Hope. You're going to give her a legitimate reason as to why," Isabel's grip tightened on Tommy's arm, "you so rudely broke up with her. But don't you dare ever try to get her back; she deserves way better than you." Isabel released her death grip on the poor boy, who scampered off into the distance.
Isabel took off the poison ring, and placed it in her pocket.
squiggle :)
"It's really weird," Hope said the next day after dinner. "Tommy came up to me during class, apologized, told me that he just wasn't that into me anymore, and left. He was shaking too." She knit her eyebrows. "To be honest I was thinking of breaking up with him about a week ago, he's kind of boring."
Isabel nodded. "I agree, total ass."
"Maybe not an ass-"
"Hope!" Ann, a sophomore and one of the girls' many friends, ran up to them on their trek back to their dorms.
"Yeah?"
"I'm so sorry about Tommy, I heard they don't know what's wrong-"
"What's wrong? Ann, Tommy and I broke up."
Ann seemed surprised. "I had no idea…" she then seemed to remember her purpose of being there. "He's in the hospital!"
This shocked Hope. "What? Why?"
Ann shrugged. "They don't know, some kind of poison, they're guessing-"
Isabel just smirked.
The day Vikram Kabra set foot in America was the day Isabel Vesper-Hollingsworth and Hope Cahill became frienemies.
"He's British!" Isabel gushed, "Which means he wouldn't like me for just my accent!"
"Keep in mind," Hope replied, "an American accent might be to him what an English is to those boys you dated."
Isabel's face fell immediately. "I never thought of that…" She flopped onto her bed and sighed.
squiggle :)
"Hey, can I sit here?" The sentence that threw everything off.
Hope looked up from her book and over the rim of her reading glasses only to find the nervous expression of Vikram Kabra.
He looked behind him, "I heard," he pointed - without looking I might add - to Isabel, "that you're from Britain."
Isabel, stunned, nodded. Then she realized that he couldn't see her nod, so she said, "Yes. Go ahead."
Vikram sat down immediately, "Crazy Americans!"
Hope cleared her throat.
Vikram looked up at her. "No offense," he said.
She shrugged before going back to her book.
"Is she mute?"
"No, just reading," She heard Isabel sigh, "She does this a lot, especially recently, after her arsehole boyfriend dumped her."
Hope's book was taken from her, "Excuse me, not to be rude," Vikram placed his thumb on Hope's page, close the book, and hid it under the table. "But why would someone break up with you?"
She shrugged.
"I need a better answer if you don't want me to bother you."
"He wasn't into me anymore, I guess."
Vikram feigned supreme shock. "No."
Isabel and Hope giggled at his odd sense of cheering Hope up. After the two calmed down, Vikram demanded an explanation on who would dare breakup with Hope. So Hope and Isabel took turns explaining, exactly, what had happened (Isabel, of course, left out the part of her sending Tommy to the hospital.)
"Do they know what's wrong with him?" Vikram asked.
Hope shrugged. "Some kind of poison."
Vikram looked at Isabel, who was - at all costs - avoiding eye contact with either him or Hope.
squiggle :)
That night, both girls talked about claims.
"I got his eyes." Hope said.
"No fair! Fine, I get his hair," Isabel said, proud of herself.
"Lips." Hope smiled.
Isabel growled at her friend.
The evening ended quite well, both girls couldn't contain their eventual laughter, and ended up on the floor.
"Wouldn't it be weird if one of us actually married him?" Hope mused.
"I don't really want to get married." Vikram muttered one day.
"Meaning?" Isabel asked, Hope could tell her heart died a little.
"My parents are setting me up for an arranged marriage as soon as I get home," Vikram's face squished up, as if he'd smelt something funny, "I don't want to go through with it. I don't want to get married to some girl I don't even know."
"Oh, my parents are doing the same…." Isabel mumbled. Hope had to wonder if she actually meant that, or if she was just saying it to sympathize with Vikram.
"You see, I wouldn't mind if it were either of you, you're both brilliant." Both girls cursed the blushes that appeared on their faces. "That's part of the reason I came to America for this little bit of college; so I could date without my parents knowing."
"Smart." Hope noted.
"Why thank you."
And thus began the conversation about uptight parents and arranged marriages. When Hope's turn came, Vikram and Isabel both said they were jealous that she could marry who ever she wanted.
"I almost wish I could get an arranged marriage," Hope admitted sheepishly. "Maybe that way I won't go through so much heartbreak by dating."
"No," Vikram said sternly. "You and me are going to a movie Saturday at noon. No exceptions." He got up and walked away fairly angrily.
Hope knit her eyebrows. "What was that about?"
"I think," Isabel said slowly, as if still trying to make sense of what happened, "he's going to prove some kind of point to you."
"What point is he trying to prove?"
"Arranged marriages are bad?"
They girls looked at each other in confusion.
Hope, after many minutes of attempted processing, said, "I have a date…with Vikram Kabra…."
Isabel, who seemed to finally realize this as well, pouted and replied, "No fair!"
"Well," Hope quickly countered, "it's not like he asked me to be his girlfriend or something! I'm sure it's just a one time thing!"
Isabel crossed her arms. "It'd better be. And no touching his hair! I claimed it, remember?"
Finally, the two friends were able to laugh at their odd predicament.
squiggle :)
When they went back to the dorm, Isabel immediately started helping Hope plan for the date, which was actually the next day.
"You have no decent clothing!" Isabel shrieked.
"All my clothes are decent." Hope muttered.
"Not dating decent." Isabel tapped her finger to her chin. "You'll have to borrow some of mine." She turned on her heels and walked over to her closet. As soon as she reached her destination, she began pulling out clothing, critiquing them, putting them against Hope, and even forcing Hope to try on a few.
It took a few minutes, but Isabel finally found something. She sighed, "It's not perfect, but it'll do…."
Hope rolled her eyes. "It's just a movie date, sheesh Isabel…."
Omigods you guys, the first draft was so horrible I started laughing. xD
But seriously read and tell me of any errors. But don't mention how OOC Isabel, Hope, and Vikram are, here are my explanations:
Isabel: She'll get ruthless later on.
Hope: We haven't really seen much of her, have we? So until then, enjoy my interpretation of Hope (that sounds so deep…)
Vikram: Haven't seen him AT ALL, but he'll get ruthless later on as well. ;D
Oh, and Tommy's some random ass I made up. :p
And now to the explanation of what-the-hell-this-is:
Simply what the title says, A Most Unusual Friendship.
In the sixth book, Isabel tells Amy (shark scene I believe) that she was close to her[Amy] parents. You might think she might've just been saying that to get info out of Amy, but I think she actually was close to Hope and Arthur, and so this was spawned after many months.
No seriously, I've had this in my head since March 2010. ._.
All it is is little tid-bits from Isabel, Hope, Vikram, and eventually Arthur's past involving each other. I'm going to go all the way up to where Amy and Ian are five/six years old. And yes, Little!Ian and Little!Amy will interact (so will Baby!Dan and Baby!Natalie, but not as much as Ian and Amy.)
Will I be posting more? Yes.
Will it be immediately/within the next week? No, probably not. You might not see another part until December starts.
-Makaria