Too Bad I Won't be Able to Forget

I wasn't really looking forward to going home. I mean, I'm excited to see my family again, just, not everyone else. Cammie was going with Bex to England; I wish I could go with them. But, on the other hand, I want to see my family again. I haven't seen them since I went back to Gallagher.

"Please fasten your seatbelts. We will be landing shortly," a voice ordered over the loudspeaker. I fastened my seatbelt and put my laptop away. I'm going to miss being at Gallagher. I don't have to hide the fact that I'm smart there, but I'm going to try to relax over Christmas vacation. No matter how hard it'll be.

I know Mom and Dad are going to be waiting at the airport, maybe Emily, too. No matter how much I love my sister, I won't snoop in her privacy. I learned early on that it's a bad idea. Even after I started going to Gallagher, I could still never fool her, and how could I be genuinely surprised if I knew she was going to be there? Emily is three years older and the exact opposite of me. She's drop dead gorgeous; I'm average. She's into sports; I'm not. She's had a million and one boyfriends; I haven't even had one. You see what I mean? The only thing I have going for myself is that I'm super smart.

The plane touched down, and I waited for the flight attendant to let us leave. She wasn't even paying attention to her job. She was flirting with one of the passengers, who didn't appear to mind.

"Excuse me, Miss? Are we allowed to get off now?" the passenger beside the guy she was flirting with asked.

She flushed bright red, "Of course, I'm so sorry. I hope you enjoyed your flight with Southwest Airlines."

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my carry on bag. I left most of my things at Gallagher; there was no reason for me to bring them home when I had clothes at home yet. As I walked off the plane, I spotted my parents behind the metal detectors, and my sister inspecting her fingernail, checking for any chips or dents so she could go get them redone. Emily was always like that though. As long as I can remember, everything about her had to be perfect; nothing could be out of place.

My parents must have spotted me because Mom was nudging Emily and pointing. Emily looked up and a huge grin appeared on her face. I smiled back, because even though Emily liked to be perfect, she loved nothing more than her younger, imperfect sister.

"Hey Lizzie!" Emily cried, engulfing me in a hug before Mom or Dad could get to me, "It's so good to see you again! I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too Em. You have no idea what it's like to not have you around all the time."

"If it's anything like you not being around, than I know exactly what you mean. I wish you didn't live so far away for half the year."

"Despite what you think, being at Gallagher isn't as bad as you think."

"Mmhmm, sure," she said as she released me from my hug.

Mom got to me next. "It's so nice to have my baby home with me again!"

"Mom," I whined.

"It's true, alright. The house has been so quiet without you. You have no idea what it's like to not hear you typing away at the computer all the time."

"Sorry," I blushed.

"It's not a bad thing, you were doing an extra credit assignment. I'm not sure why though…" Mom trailed off.

"Alright, it's my turn," Dad said while he tried to pry Mom's hands off of me. "I want to give my little girl a hug too."

I smiled and sighed, "If you insist…"

"You'll always be my baby girl, so quit trying to make me forget," Dad warned.

"Do you have any other bags, Lizzie?"

"No, I left most of my things at Gallagher. I have all the essentials in here," I said holding up my carry on.

"Well, let's gets get going then. I have dinner in the crock pot, but you must be hungry and ready to sleep in your own bed again."

"Of course. And I've missed your cooking so much." It was nothing compared to what Chef Louis makes, but it was still the food I grew up with.

"So I'm assuming you've had an exciting semester, right?" Dad asked, referring to Macey and the election.

"Yeah, it was so weird having all the cameras focused on the school. And of course Cam's mom was enforcing a strict no comment rule, so we weren't exactly allowed outside, even for gym." This wasn't necessarily true, but I had to make something up.

"So where'd you have gym?"

I laughed, "In the front hall. Do you know how hard that was? Especially when one of the teachers who had an off period was trying to get into the Grand Hall."

"Did you finish your Christmas shopping yet?" Em asked, interrupting Dad, knowing it was going to be some political question. I threw her a thankful glance.

"Yeah, I had it all shipped here and told Mom not to open anything, just stick it in my room and I would wrap it when I got here." I glanced at Mom, she loved to snoop, and so I wasn't too sure that she didn't.

"I didn't look at anything. Your father made sure of it. I swear."

I glanced in the rearview mirror and judged her expression. I might not be on the Cove Ops track, but I still knew the basics, like how to tell if an untrained person was lying or not. She wasn't, surprisingly.

"So yeah, I'm done, unless while I'm wrapping things I realize that I forgot something. Are you?"

"No, I was waiting for you to get home. You need to get out of the house while you're home. You sit in front of your computer way to much."

"What is it about all of you making fun of my being smart?" I asked indignantly. "Over the summer I was helping develop a new computer program for the FBI. Lie, but not totally. I wasn't helping create the program; I was creating the program.

"Only Lizzie would be doing something like that. But you see, you need to get out of the house. I don't care what the government wants, you need a life."

"Fine, I'll go shopping with you," I made it sound like I didn't want to go, but my sister knew the truth, we were like that.

***

"You ready yet? We're only going Christmas shopping," I called.

"I'm ready, but you're not," she replied tying her hair up in a messy bun.

"What do you mean I'm not?" I was wearing my Gallagher sweats, a tank top, a zip front sweatshirt, and flip-flops.

"Is this how you walk around…what's it called, Roseville?"

"No, but it's how I walk around school on Saturdays."

"No. Come on, I'll pick out what you're going to wear. I don't care where we are, you're not leaving this house looking like you just crawled out of bed."

"We live in the middle of no where in Alabama. Everyone who lives here has seen us in diapers. Who cares?"

"I do. Now come on."

Ten minutes later I was wearing jeans, a cute green top, black boots with thick heels, and makeup. "Now can we go?" I asked exasperated.

She glanced over me one more time, "Yes, now we're ready." She handed me a small black purse and grabbed her keys.

We were flying. Emily's car was far nicer than my Dodge Minivan, it didn't matter that mine was way more efficient. Em didn't really obey speed limits. She knew where she was going and how she was going to get there.

Soon, we were in the shopping district of the next town over. Emily parked the car and grabbed a map. My sister had a map of a city that only had 869 people. It was tiny. But no, this map was different, she had our whole day mapped out, which stores we would go to, how long we would be there, and what she was going to get at each store.

I knew my sister was serious about shopping, but not that serious. "Alright, let's go, we're right on schedule." Emily was an efficient shopper. She knew the sales and had coupons. The employees knew her by name and were happy to see her.

We stopped for lunch at a little café that was tucked away in a shopping mall. "Wow, that was amazing. I would never have thought to stop there for lunch."

"Neither would I until my car broke down and I was hungry," she laughed.

I laughed with her and glanced across the street. I did a double take. I swear I just saw Grant. What was he doing here?

"Hang on sis, I think I know that guy," I said walking away from her. "Grant?" I called, still slightly unsure of what I was seeing. But he stopped and turned around. Yup, definitely Grant. "It's Liz. From Gallagher?" I supplied.

He definitely recognized me then. "Liz, what are you doing here?" he asked surprised.

"Christmas shopping with my sister. I live in the next town over. What are you doing here?"

"My grandparents live here, so I'm here for Christmas."

"Neat."

"So where are your friends?" he asked.

"Well, Cammie's staying with Bex and her family in London—"

"Who's Bex again? She's Macey's friend, right?" he asked, confused. I felt like I had been punched in the gut, and that's happened before.

Just then, Emily draped her arm around me, "So, you know him?" She gave Grant her death glare, the one that said, "I've seen your type before, and you are so not good enough for my little sister."

"Yeah, he did an exchange thing with my school the second semester of last year. Emily, this is Grant. Grant, this is my sister Emily."

"Nice to meet you," Grant replied, remembering his manners.

"Yeah, she's Macey's friend."

"So where's Macey at?" Now he looked more interested. I read between the lines. He had only been befriending Bex to get to Macey.

"That's none of your business. You never really cared about Bex did you?" I accused.

"Of course I did," he answered a little too quickly.

"Liar!" I yelled and proceeded to use the heel of my boot to stomp on his foot. I turned and walked away, dragging Emily with me, knowing she would try to make apologies.

"Just what was that all about?" she demanded as soon as we were out of sight.

"He used one of my best friends to get to another of my best friends. Bex is still waiting to see if he'll try to contact her. Apparently not," I seethed.

"That's it. Someone needs a Starbucks. And someone else wants to hear the whole story, beginning to end," she commanded, then proceeded to drag me to the nearest Starbucks.

She ordered us both cappuccinos.

"So you see. He was just using her! Was I supposed to just sit back and not do anything?"

"Of course not. Friends watch out for each other."

I sighed. I still had one problem. "Should I tell Bex?"

Em bit her lip. "From what you've said about Bex, I wouldn't. She might try to get her own revenge. But if she's still waiting for him at the end of the school year, I would tell her that he's obviously not looking for her if she hasn't had contact in over a year. But that's just me."

"Okay…" I replied, pondering what she said. My sister was usually right with boy related problems, just like Macey.

"Emily? Is that you?" a voice called from behind me. I turned around to see who she was talking about and recognized his face, but I couldn't remember his name.

"Chase? What are you doing here?" she asked, surprised.

"Just wandering around waiting for my Mom to finish Christmas shopping." Then he turned to me and snapped his fingers a few times, thinking. "It's Liz, right?"

I smiled. "Yeah, it's Liz."

"Wow. I haven't seen you in forever, but that's because you go to Gallagher Academy, right?"

Great. I went to Gallagher Academy. It was going to be another Roseville moment. "Yeah."

"That's really neat. Macey McHenry goes to your school, right?"

"Yeah." So maybe it wasn't going to be another Roseville.

"That's really amazing. She must be really smart to be able to be going there." That was one of the reasons. "So…you're coming to my Christmas party Saturday, right? No drinking or drugs, just lots of Christmas cheer. And you can meet, or re-meet, some of the kids in town, because if you're home over the summer, then you're going to need someone to hang out with," he reasoned.

I glanced at Emily. She never said anything about a Christmas party. But she gave me this look that said I was going whether I wanted to or not, so… "Yeah, I'm coming."

"Cool. I'll see you two Saturday." Emily and I have known Chase basically our whole lives. We lived two blocks apart and there was a park in the middle.

"Bye Chase," Emily called. Then turned on me. "Now, since you agreed to going, we have to do a little shopping for you since you have absolutely nothing to wear. And I know because I've checked your closet."

Before I could protest, we were out the door and on our way to the nearest shopping center. I was beginning to notice a pattern.

So there you have it. Liz's Christmas Adventure. And I really didn't mean for Grant to be the bad guy, it kind of just happened. Please review guys, I love the reviews.