Many thanks to my beta, The Wistful Bloom.
MONDAY
Inhaling steam and the scent of soap, Allison Reynolds begins preparing for the dreaded Monday. All day yesterday she'd vacillated between hope and despair. It seemed like maybe she just might have some friends at last. And a boyfriend! But people make promises they don't keep...
Toweling off, she considers her hair. She normally lets it flop however it wants to flop. Will she do something different today? Because of her new friends? Because of Andrew Clark? She teeters, utterly undecided, then combs her hair with her fingers as usual. If they don't like her how she is, no amount of grooming will help that.
It is harder to hang on to that philosophy in front of her closet. She finally decides on a plain black t-shirt with an embroidered vest and baggy trousers, completed with her Converse shoes. Feeling a bit dressy, she wears plain black socks rather than multicolored striped ones. Black eyeliner applied as thickly as ever, she is ready for breakfast.
Her parents are at the glass dining table as usual, exchanging murmurs about the newspaper. They ignore her morning greeting. Sometimes one or the other will look up and say "Morning." But that doesn't happen often. Allison prepares her bowl of cornflakes with pixie stix rather than sugar and eats it in the darkened living room. The maid, Helena, always prepares Allison's lunch the day before, just before leaving, so Allison grabs her paper lunch bag. Helena has her own ideas about what teenage girls should eat, and that includes olive loaf and pimento cheese. It is Allison who tucks a baggie of Cap'n Crunch in with her usual pixie stix.
It's cold this morning and Allison is glad of her parka, although she doubts she'll need it this afternoon. She waits in the driveway, next to the Cadillac. If she doesn't get to the car before her parents, they are liable to leave her behind. Today she only waits two minutes. The next five minutes she swears are the longest of her life. Will he or won't he? Will they or won't they? Who will keep their promises?
The car pulls up and Allison exits. She faces the facade of Shermer High. The stairs are bustling with students. Swept up in the crowd, Allison mounts the steps, head down. Reaching the landing, she walks right into someone. She looks up to see Andrew Clark. She steps back a little and darts a quick look at his face. He looks uncertain, which makes her bolder. She meets his eye and gives him the smallest of smiles. He relaxes and gives her one of his own quirky smiles; her heart jumps.
"Claire said she and Bender are meeting at the back doors. You know, where all the waste- I mean, heavy metal guys hang out." Andy puts his arm around her shoulders and guides her into the school, as if... as if she were his girlfriend.
She hears Andy greet a few people but her head is down so she doesn't know what the other students' reactions are. But she does hear Andy mutter "Bonehead," once. Finally they reach the back doors. Allison looks up just in time to see Claire and Bender entering, flanked by two other guys dressed much like Bender, in jean jackets and boots. They seem to be an honor guard. Bender looks as proud as she's ever seen him.
Andy nods at the guys and says to one, "Hey Brody."
Meanwhile Allison is timidly meeting Claire's uncertain smile. They both say "Hi," at the same time, then Claire adds, "We're all here."
"No, we're not, but here comes Brian. I told him we were meeting you guys here." Trust Andy to remember Brian. Brian's membership in the group had slipped the minds of all but Andy's.
Brian's appearance relieves everyone of the awkward silence that had followed. Brian is panting as if he's run all the way from the front of the school. Which, apparently, he has.
"I thought I would miss you guys, I didn't know my watch was slow and then Lester told me it was wrong, so I came as quickly as I could, and I am so glad you guys are still here." He looks around as if the gravity of the moment has just dawned on him. Bender raises his hand and, to Allison's surprise, Brian and Bender go through a complicated hand shake that ends with them bumping fists. Andy gently punches Brian on the arm, and Allison and Claire smile.
The bell rings just then. Over the hubbub of students shouting and talking, Bender says, "Meet up in the caf for lunch?" Everyone agrees.
To her complete amazement, Andy walks Allison right up to her locker, arm tight around her. She is able to look up now, and sees Andy receiving some odd looks. He is oblivious or is ignoring them, hailing a few other jocks, but otherwise absorbed in her, in Allison Reynolds. After she gathers her books for the day, Andy gives her a kiss on the cheek and they part for homeroom.
She is shell-shocked with pleasure, noticing very little of her surroundings and missing all of the announcements. She dreamily stares off for the next few minutes, surprised when the bell summons her to French class, her most loathed subject. She makes her way through the crowded halls to the proper room, drifts to the last seat in back and begins erecting her usual fortress of books and purse. Someone slides into the seat next to hers, an unheard-of event. She looks through her curtain of hair to see Bender slapping down a notebook and textbook.
Surprise causes Allison to part her hair and look directly at him.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer," is his response to her stare. Another smile creeps onto her face. This has been a morning full of more smiles than her week usually contains.
"Alright, Al, where's your homework? I didn't do mine. I need the answers."
Allison meeps at this demand. She begins flipping through her notebook and mutters, "I didn't do mine either."
"Had something else on your mind? I sure as hell did. The princess and sporto came through, though." He lapses into an uncharacteristic silence. Allison glances over. He isn't exactly starry-eyed, but he's about as spacey as she's ever seen him.
"Bonjour, étudiants." Madame Katz begins the daily torture that is French.
Andy is at her locker when lunch time comes, ready to escort her to the caf. She feels like a... well, like a princess, as stupid as that sounds. This must be the way Claire feels all the time.
She revises her opinion when they reach the table Bender has claimed for them. Claire is in tears. Bender looks pissed as hell, and Brian positively alarmed. Obviously, the guys have no idea what to do with a crying girl. Andy is equally baffled. Allison sits next to her and asks in a low voice, "Are your friends being assholes?"
"What did I ever do to them? How can they be so mean?"
"They're not really your friends, if they care about Bender. Friends accept each other as-is, no conditions."
"I thought Jean at least would understand. She called me... a... a slut." More tears.
Allison hears Bender mutter, "Slut my ass."
"C'mon Claire, you're better than them. They were always like that, you just didn't know it. Now you know."
It takes quite a bit more pep talk to cheer Claire up. Focused on Claire, Allison is only vaguely aware of Andy talking Bender down from some kind of violence. She is relieved to see him looking more calm when she can finally turn her attention away from Claire.
It's a subdued lunch period for all. When she and Andy reach her locker, Andy says, "I thought for sure Bender was going to deck Chad when he walked by. Everyone has decided to call her a slut. Thank god Brian was there to help me hold him."
Allison gives him a look and somehow Andy knows her unspoken question.
"Yeah, they're being assholes to me too, except the wrestlers. Who cares? Buncha superficial idiots."
He looks like he really means that. He must, because he pulls her closer for a real kiss, right there, in front of everyone.
That kiss sends her into a whirl of distracted delight that lasts all day. Andy is at her locker again when the last bell rings. He's going to walk her home. A boy is going to walk her home!
They talk about Claire most of the way. The richie kids are being about as horrible as Andy has ever seen them.
"I knew some of the girls were envious of Claire's popularity, but her best friend turned on her. Claire's a wreck. It's hard when so many people gang up on you."
"What about you, Andy? Are they ganging up on you?"
"Chad and Dennis and all of them? Hell no, they know I'd have them flat on the floor in seconds. And the guys from the team are behind me. As far as violence goes, I'm more worried about Bender. He's going to end up starting a rumble. All his friends are pissed too."
"A rumble?"
"Richies against the metal guys. All the metal guys are insulted on behalf of Claire. An insult to Bender is an insult to all of them. They're really tight. I had no idea they would all feel that way. It's a big mess."
Allison inwardly sighs. Trust guys to boil it all down to violence. But maybe that's better than girls, with their catty, back-stabbing ways. Screw it, they're all fucked up. She's glad she doesn't have any friends to worry about.
They've arrived at Allison's house and Andy walks her right up onto her front porch. She wonders why until he kisses her again, in the shadowy entry way. Just as she is really getting into things, Andy pulls away, a goofy look on his face.
"Bye, Allison. I'll see you tomorrow."