Surprisingly Charming

By: Tsugi

Chapter 1

Through the Door

Bring, bring, the phone rings.

"Oh, what do you want?" I said into the phone.

"How did you know it was me?" My best friend Alice said, sorta confused. (She's called 3 times already!)

"Caller ID," I chuckled.

Alison laughed sarcastically, "Ha ha, I knew that."

My name is Sandra. No, not "Look at me I'm Sandra Dee" either. If you call me that, you're gonna get hurt. My best friend, Alison, is a bit of a… oh, how do you say it? A… nit-wit, yeah, perfect. If you know who Rose Nylond is, you know my Alice.

"Wanna come over?" she asks anxiously.

"Guess so. 'Gots nothing' else da do," I said in the middle of a yawn.

"Great! I'm bored too! We can be bored together!"

"Oh, I forgot."

"What?" she asked, kinda worried.

"Nothin' , never mind," I said, upset with myself.

I was about to say "I really hate you sometimes" because I was supposed to go out with my boyfriend. But when Alice is bored, all heck is bound to break loose. Guess I'll have to call Benny and cancel. I'm sure he'll understand.

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"WHAT!? NOT AGAIN! My God! Why do you have to be friends with HER?"

"I don't know. Why do you have to be such a jerk?" I said, about ready to shoot the phone.

"God, I'm sorry. You're right. You better go baby sit her. She'll blow up the neighborhood," he said very happy. Not.

"Thanks. I Love you too!" I screamed and slammed down the phone. I missed the receiver.

"Yeah, yeah," I heard him say on the other line. I picked up the phone and heard the click. He had obviously ended the conversation.

He's such a… jock. Football player and everything, guess I'm lucky. I guess. I'm very unpopular. Especially since Alice. Oh, well. Who else would take care of her?

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Alice only lives about two minutes away walking. So I grabbed my purse and my keys. I turned my head and yelled up the stairs, "Mom, I'm goin' to Alley's! Be back before dark!"

"OK Hon! Be careful!" her voice echoed back.

"I will," I said and headed out the door.

To lock my door, you have to pull it a certain way. Picture this: me standing in front of the door with my foot on the facing pulling as hard as I could. Funny, huh? I hate wrestling with the stupid thing. Ding, ding! I won the match!

"Why don't your mom just get that fixed?" said a voice from my right side.

I jumped backward and fell off the porch. "ALLEY! DON'T DO THAT!"

"Sorry," she laughed looking down at the spradled mess of me. She quickly jumped off and helped me up.

"Don't I usually go to your house?" I asked rubbing my newly sore butt.

"We are. Just thought I'd catch up with you for a change.

I just stared for a few seconds. Oh, just thought of a good one. "Next time you decide to change, make sure it's your clothes," I said completely proud of myself.

"How did you know these were the clothes that I slept in?" she asked dumbfounded.

Whoosh! Over her squishy head again! My proud feeling just left with the breeze that didn't come. How can she be so naïve? My gosh! I thought I was weird. Compared to her, I invented normal.

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"Oh, no!"

"What, Alley?"

"I forgot my key and my parents are on a business trip!" Alley fell on the ground and put her knees up to her chest. "I can't believe I did it again! Every day, it seems like." She started to cry.

"Um… Alley?" I said sitting down next to her.

"What?" she flinched like I was going to hit her. I pulled her house key out from behind her ear.

"Did you use it as a pencil or something?" I asked her, trying to hold back a laugh.

"You know it won't write, right?" she said opening the door.

"Yeah, I knew. Not like it's magic or anything." I closed the door behind me. "Boy, it sure is cold in here," I crossed my arms and shivered. "Are you dead or something?"

"No, just hot," she said looking confused… again. "Let's watch Chamber of Secrets. I just bought it yesterday. Haven't seen it yet."

Alley's a new fan of Potter. Doesn't know much about the books. She's only read the first two and just got Sorcerer's Stone on DVD last week. Believe me, I have to explain a lot to her.

"Now, what's this one about?"

Yup. New fan, alright.

"The movies correspond to the books, stupid. You've read the second one, right?"

"Yeah, I knew that."
"I know," I sighed and put the DVD in the tray.

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"Ohmigosh! That was so cool! He can talk to snakes!"

That's the only thing she didn't remember from the book.

"A…and I just can't believe that Myrtle was a ghost!"

Guess not.

"God, read the book once more for me, willya?"

"OK! I liked it anyway!"

It's a turtle, it's a snail, no…it's Alice! The amazing moron! Heh, you gotta love her, though.

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After the movie, we decided to have a snack. "Whatcha want?" Alley asked looking through the fridge.

"I don't know. Whatcha gots?"

"Food, hopefully."

"I want chips," I said grabbing some bowls and a bag of Lays off the counter, "and a hotdog or two."

"Sounds good to me," Alley said digging for the hotdogs.

I had already fixed her a bowl and was refilling mine. "Are they done yet? I'm hungry. Seriously, hungry."

"Actually," Alley said turning the stove off, "yeah, they're done."

"Oh… yeeaah!" I jumped up out of my chair and grabbed the buns. We got our dogs plastered with ketchup and mustard. We sat down at the table and began to devour.

"Where did you get this?" I asked her with a mouth full. I held up a red star with a blue stick on the end.

"That? Mom gave it to me when she found I liked Potter. She said she found it in the alley behind the shop. It's a stupid kiddy-wand."

"I think it's pretty cool, though," I told her.

"Well, I guess so," she said as she shrugged her shoulders.

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Alley's mom is a…believe it or not…a mechanic. Her dad is a…wait, you'll love this…a fashion designer. No, their not gay. Just weird. Now you know where Alley gets it, huh?

My dad is a writer…never, ever, ever comes out of his office. I have no idea how I got here. Milkman, maybe? Anyway, Mom stays at home. You know, doin' the laundry, dishes, mom stuff. Dad is a Romance novelist. "Daniel Steele" is what mom calls him. Honestly, I think he should write horror stories. His romances are so bad it's scary. But he makes a decent living and that's all that matters.

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"Oh my God, I'm so bored! I feel like I've been hit by a 2x4!" I said sitting upside down in the easy chair.

"Did it hurt?" You'll never guess who said that.

Is she really as old as she says? She says she's 18. Two years older than me. Really doesn't seem like it though.

"Shut up, Alley!" I snapped.

"What?"

"Please God, give us something to do! Oh, and give this poor girl a brain. That works."

"Oh, you shut up! Hiccup! Hiccup!"

"Alley, I told you not to drink Coke!"

Coke always makes her catch hiccups.

"Wait, watch this!" Alley jumped up and ran in to the kitchen.

"What in the friggin' crap are you doin'?" I laughed.

"What? I saw it on TV about 6 years ago. It works!" She had a spoon pressed to her forehead and was drinking honey. And eating butter. Ugh! Can she get any weirder?

"Wan sum?" she asked spitting butter everywhere. Me and my big mouth.

"Ah, tuck in, Alley!" I said in a mock-British accent.

POP!

We both jumped. I got a face full of butter. We walked down the hall together. As soon as we turned the last corner, we recognized a strange door that was never there before. It had a book carved on it with the initials F and B on the open pages. It had no knob, no handle, or way to open it. We both said, "Whoa," at the same time. But this time, the door got buttered.

"Looks like God gave us something to do," Alley said.

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"Oh, gross!"
"Thorrie," she said.

"God, get rid of the butter."

"Right."

As she went to go to clean up, I started to examine the door. "Great," I sighed and knocked my head against the door.

"What?" she asked looking confused. Again.

"No knob, no handle, nothing'."

"Oh, yeah!" she giggled.

"What?"

"Watch this!" she ran back into the kitchen.

Oh, no, here we go again. What next?

She came back with the fake wand her mom found. "Alohomora!" she yelled very loud. Oh, my God! She remembered something. Amazing! I just looked at her.

"What? It was worth a try."

The ground started shaking. We turned and we saw the door swing open. "My God! You actually did something that wasn't stupid!" I said happy and scared at the same time.

"Yeah, I know. Very cool!"

Sometimes.

"Alley, you go first." I pushed her into the dark opening.

"Okay. Now that I'm already IN HERE!" She sounded a little mad but a lot scared. "Come on, Sandy," she said, curling her hand in a sort of taunting movement.

"Um…I think not. Remember, you are the one that cast that spell."

"Shut up and come on!"

"Gimme that wand!" I said, "Lumos!" It worked! Thank the Lord. It was dark. I hate the dark. Anything dark.

"Maybe that wand is magic!" Alley said surprised.

Man, I was starting to feel very proud of her. But she blew it.

"Duh, ya think?" I said knocking on her forehead.

The walkway seemed to go on forever. "Look, a crack in the ceiling! Light!" Alley said, apparently happy. It was a trap door.

I whispered, "Nox," and put the wand in my back pocket.

"Okay, push on three," I said

"Right."

I've been working on this story for a little while and I hope you like it. It's the first story I've ever written to let anyone read, minus school of course. So if you do like it please leave me a review. I beg of you! I love you all…. ::laughs maniacally::

By the way… this story started as a freaky dream I had.