After that night at Pearls I seemed to be hanging out with them quite a lot as Bella had been a real bitch to me, every time I went out with her or went over to hers she either moaned to me or ignored me. I got along really well with Pearl and so it was an easy friendship, she even came and watched cheer practice once, and Tammie was really nice as well although she spent most of her time either with Trey or working at the library, and then there was Harry who I also spent a lot of time with or just bumping in to. I had already learnt quite a lot about them as a group of friends, Trey and Harry had been friends since first grade, then Trey met Tammie through work, and they have been going out for two years then Pearl was best friends with Rosie, who was Harry's girlfriend who died of cancer. None of them mention it that much, and when they did they talked about Rosie as if she was still alive so I don't bring it up.
"Hey" I said the bell tinkling as the door shut behind me.
Harry was arranging something that slightly resembled a funeral bouquet whilst Pearl was sitting on the counter twiddling the dials on the radio although she only seemed to be getting static with sudden bursts of some corny girl band.
"Oh hey," he said stabbing a drooping fern in to the arrangement.
"Been busy in here today?" I asked.
"Not really, only that same old lady with the little dog, you know the yappy one came in twice asking for white lilies," said Pearl.
"Yeah I know the one, always wears pink, I think she escaped from the old peoples home," I said making Pearl snort.
"My Mom says she loves flowers comes in sometimes three times a day," said Harry watching as a gaggle of freshmen rushed past all clutching pink beach bags, their flip flops clacking against the pavement obviously heading to the pool.
"Flowers make some people happy, personally for me it's summer," Pearl said jumping down off the counter.
"God it's hot in here," I said going over and turning on the fan.
"Yeah hey Harry can you take your break, lets go get some ice tea," said Pearl.
"I guess I don't think there's going to be a midday rush," he said finally giving up on his bouquet.
We locked up the shop and put the sign on the door saying 'back in half an hour' and headed on over to Coffee Break one of our usual hang outs now.
"Hey Sandra," I said going over to the counter.
"Oh hey Andie, Harry, Pearl," she said nodding over at the others who had gone to sit down at a table by the window, I smiled as I felt part of their group now as she said our names the words slurring in to each other slightly.
"Can I have two peach ice teas and one chai tea latte."
"Andie I have good news for you," said Sandra pouring the ice teas, "If you're still looking for a job, we have an opening as a waitress because Katie's leaving."
"Your kidding that would be great, thanks Sandra, when can I start?"
"Well I'm meant to interview you but I know you'll do a good job, so tomorrow at two if you come in I'll train you then you can start straight away," she said handing me the chai tea latte.
"I'll be there thanks so much Sandra."
"Don't mention it," she said shoving my money in the till.
"What was that about?" asked Pearl.
"I just got a job!"
"No way when do you start?"
"Tomorrow at two."
"Oh hey I can give you a lift if you want I'm working tomorrow as well," said Harry.
"That would be really great," I said looking out as the sun shone through the window.
I had been really nervous when Harry picked me up, because I had never waitressed before in my life and sometimes the coffee shop got packed. When I got there it was empty apart from Harry who got a coffee and sat at a window table giving me sarcastic looks every time I nearly blew up the espresso machine, so after Sandra trained me (which was pretty easy) I ended up standing behind the counter for an age until a fat man talking on his cell came in asking for a large black coffee. After that there was little rush of customers but then it went quiet again.
"Hey I'm going to open the shop so I'll meet you at four?" said Harry.
"Yeah ok, see you then," I said.
"Good luck," he said as he headed out of the coffee shop.
"Wow he's a looker," said Kristy another new girl who had annoying habit of chewing gum loudly.
I must have looked hurt or protective when she said that as she quickly added,
"Sorry is he your boyfriend?"
"No, no, just a friend," I said quickly feeling my self blush scarlet.
"So is he single?" she said twirling her hair around her finger.
"Yeah."
"So you think I'll have a chance?" she said in her thick country accent (she used to live in Tennessee apparently).
"Look I'm really not the best person to ask," I grumbled moodily.
She finally got the message and gave up, and started collecting the empty mugs scattered around.
The shift seemed really long and lonely Sandra was off for the day as she had only come in that morning to train me up so it was just me and Kristy, who eventually got the message that I wasn't in a sociable mood so left me to do all the work whilst she sat in the back room reading a magazine and chewing her gum loudly.
It was really quiet and there were about two hours where no one came in so I sat leaning on the counter staring out the window, it seemed pretty quiet in the florists as well as Harry just seemed to be pottering around spraying plants until he settled down to read a book on cultural flower arranging. After I realised I might look a bit creepy just staring out the window for such a long time I looked at the clock which said three thirty and since it was so quiet I thought Kristy could probably cope by herself for half an hour seeing as she had done no work for the entire day.
So I left her a note on one of the cup holders saying that I'd gone home early because I had a headache I realised that it was pretty harsh but I didn't really care as I strolled out in to the twilight.
Harry locked up the shop pretty sharply (I think he'd only been waiting around for me to get off work) and we got in to his beaten up jeep with the back open letting that weird end of the day summer breeze rush through the car.
Harry said we could go back to his for a while, I was pretty tired and normally I would just have asked to go home but this time I didn't protest as I liked spending time with him.
The car slowed down as we came to the outside of a little white house with a small porch at the front and a swing chair on it, but the most mesmerising thing about the house was the sprawling oak tree at the front, it had such a dense leaves and it was so big the canopy stretched the whole way across the street and the weak sunset shone through its leaves. At the base of the tree there were a mess of bushes and nettles snaking around the earth that was the front yard which looked more like a forest floor then a yard.
It wasn't until I was shutting the jeep door that I saw her, it was Pearl she was sitting on the porch and had tears running down her face, all her mascara smudged around her eyes.
I wasn't really quite sure what to do, I'd never been really good at those kind of things like comforting people, but before I could react Harry walked over and sat next to her, I was still standing by the car and something told me it wasn't my place so I just stood there and watched as Pearl tried to get some words out but ended up collapsing into a fit of crying, she was distraught and her crying started becoming more hysterical as she sobbed and clung on to Harry.
It terrified me the whole thing it reminded me of the night when my Dad left and how much my Mom cried and how nothing you could do comforted her.
Right then something lit up inside me and the world felt like it was crushing me and for one second I couldn't control my urge to run, I even moved away from the car ready to just sprint but then I sat on the ground at the base of the tree and found myself barely even breathing, like if I didn't breathe time would just stop moving around me.
We must have stayed like that for awhile maybe fifteen minutes, me with my back to Pearl and Harry and the world, I might even have fallen asleep because one second I was just sitting there listening to Pearls moans and the next I felt someone watching me and turned around to see Harry standing there his car keys in his hands.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It had been a week since that night when Pearl had broken down, no one had talked about it since, it wasn't really that I wanted to know what had happened but I hated leaving things unfinished.
It was Friday night and Pearl was picking me up, I didn't have a clue where we were going I assumed probably to the park or to get ice cream. I was just pulling on my faded old jeans when I heard the stammering of her old cars engine, I looked out the window and there was Pearl putting on some lip gloss in her open top car with its pale blue peeling paint. I clambered in to the front seat to see a big bag on the back seat with some ballet shoes poking out.
"Pearl where are we going?" I said.
"To my ballet class," she said pulling away from the curb.
"You do ballet?"
"Yeah, I've done it every Friday since I was five," she laughed.
"But what am I going to do?"
"Join in," she said blankly not taking her eyes off the road.
"But I can't do ballet and what am I going to wear?"
"I got some stuff for you," she said nodding towards the bag on the back seat, "Harry and Tammie are meeting us afterwards."
We pulled up to what seemed to be a little white house, although it wasn't a house as it had a parking lot at the front and an old chipped sign saying "Miss Matilda's School of Dance". There were three old women sitting on lawn furniture in the twilight and playing checkers at the steps and then some little girls playing hide and seek round a big silver birch tree. As we were walking to the door the old women smiled and chatted to Pearl about how good the pot plants looked at the front, inside the building it smelt musty and of strong perfume with hints of cigarette smoke.
Some prancy music was being played on a piano and the sound reverberated off the mirrored walls and the patter of feet moving around the wooden floor could be heard coming from one of the rooms.
"Ok lets go get changed," said Pearl leading me in to a little room with benches and hangers at the side of the room, and pink ballet bags scattered across the floor, some younger girls were getting in to tap shoes and having their hair put in to buns by the tired looking mothers.
"Hi Pearl," most of the mothers said smiling tiredly as the girls squirmed about.
"Oh Pearl you haven't heard anything about them fixing the roof in the other studio have you?" asked one mother sighing, "Because the examiners won't come with it like this."
"I don't know Suzie, but what do we need examiners for any way there so stuck up," Pearl said bluntly grinning.
"Well, I know but if Lily could have something to show for all the work she puts in, I just..," she said trailing off at the end as she looked up at the buzzing light in the small changing room packing up her daughters things, "Ahh well, see you soon Pearl and say hello to your Mom for me," the mother said looking drained and exhausted as she took the small girl by the wrist towing her out of the room.
Pearl dragged out some leggings a dance crop top and a long t-shirt which said 'Dance Tour 06' on it and shoved them in to my hands.
"Get changed then," she said dragging on a pair of white leggings herself.
I grumpily put the clothes on peeling off my tank top and tying my hair back when I realised pearl was staring at me.
"What?" I said.
"You got your belly button pierced," she said continuing to pull on her crop top.
"Oh yeah at the beginning of the summer," I said and pulled the long t-shirt over my bare stomach at that Pearl just raised her eyebrow and shrugged.
After I got my clothes on Pearl passed me a pair of creamy satin ballet shoes, they were pretty old and beaten up but they still looked charming with cream ribbons trailing off the side.
I siddelled in to the studio thinking there would be a massive class of 20 girls all clad in little floaty skirts and leotards leaning on the bar stretching, but instead there were four other girls sitting on some rickety wooden chairs talking to and old woman who was smoking a cigarette in one of those vintage cigarette holders.
One of the girls had really long hair which made her sort of resemble Rapunzel, another one of the girls was rather plump, she wasn't ugly though as she had a round heart shaped face that was framed by a mass of springy blonde curls and big blue eyes that sparkled in the dim light.
"Hi Pearl, is this your friend Andie?" said one girl whose face I hadn't seen when I came in as she had been sitting at the back with her face towards the window, she had an angular face which contrasted with her creamy pale skin, which was unusual seeing as we were in a heat wave and anyone who went outside either got tanned or burnt. She had a sharp blunt fringe which skimmed her lavender coloured eye lids and her hair was dyed a dark midnight colour, it looked like she hadn't slept in days, beside her was another girl with the same slightly angular features and deep green eyes, but they looked nothing a like, as this girl had a lean but soft shaped body, she was also quite pale but had summer freckled skin that looked baby soft and caramel coloured hair that was tied in a chunky plait.
"Yeah Andie that's Essie," Pearl said indicating towards the girl with the dyed black hair, she looked me up and down with her deep green eyes like she was surveying a piece of meat she was going to buy and then shrugged, as if I just didn't make the mark.
"then there's Elle, Essie's sister, and Riley," Pearl said first nodding towards the girl sitting next to Essie then to the plump girl with the heart shaped face.
"And I'm Payton," the girl with long hair cut in before Pearl could introduce her.
"Hi," I said sheepishly and waved bleakly.
"And I am Miss Matilda," said the old lady blowing out a stream of smoke.
"I've just had Lori moaning about the roof again," Pearl said bending down to readjust her ballet shoe.
"Oh that woman is so uptight, someone should really slip some gin in to her tea one day," Miss Matilda said in her husky voice probably from smoking too much.
The girls all laughed at this, Riley doubled over with laughter whilst Miss Matilda just looked out the window not phased by what was going on around her.
A small old man then came in to the studio, he had on a trilby hat and thick rimmed glasses and he scurried over to the piano as if he was in a hurry.
"Ok girls, lets get in to positions please," said Miss Matilda clapping her hands and then slumping back in to a chair as the old man started tinkering away on the piano.
The girls spaced out in the studio and Pearl dragged me over to the corner and told me to watch and then join in.
At first I was really nervous, until I realised it was just like cheerleading, it turned out I was actually really good at ballet as I twirled and spun around just listening to the faint music. Pearl was amazing at ballet, elegant and fluid whilst Essie was more static and fierce but still beautiful, and Elle was more graceful and poised, they all had their own styles of dancing but each one was unique. As they started doing harder things Miss Matilda took me to the side drumming in to my mind the different moves and positions, one thing I did find out was that Miss Matilda was not a patient teacher as she got exasperated when I tripped over my feet or hesitated on a move but after a while I got used to it and found my rhythm as she said.
"Ok girls, that will be all, see you next week," Miss Matilda said as Jerry the old man closed the piano lid with a loud clank before scurrying off again, "And I hope you will come next week young lady," Miss Matilda said to me giving me a pointed look.
Everyone squeezed in to the changing room pulling out various items of clothing and the air becoming clouded by a mixture of perfumes.
"You going out tonight Essie?" Pearl asked her whilst pulling a checked shirt over her head.
"Yeah I'm going out to that little Italian restaurant on Fifth Street with Finn," she said a slight blush creeping in to her normally porcelain pale cheeks.
"Oh that's cool are you two going out now, that's so cute!" cooed Pearl.
"Yeah I think so, well its official now were dating," Essie said grinning like a little girl which looked odd on her usually mature sharp face.
"How long has this been official?" Pearl asked curiously.
"Not long only a week."
"It's so obvious he's besotted with you," said Elle throwing back her caramel waves.
"Hmm, I know he likes me but he's not besotted, I wouldn't want him to be all drippy anyway like puppy dog love, and Finn's not like that," Essie said the superior edge coming back in to her voice.
"What about you Riley, are you and Connor dating now?" Elle said casually.
"We've been on a few dates but were not dating, not yet," she said hitching her bag on her shoulder as I slipped on my flip flops, "He's actually picking me up now," said Riley a gleam of anticipation in her eyes and there was a flap of excitement from Pearl and Payton, whilst Elle and Essie looked on disinterested.
Sure enough Connor was waiting outside the building in the musky twilight, he had floppy curly dark hair that he was constantly pushing out of his eyes and was wearing a band t-shirt and some dark blue jeans, he looked taken aback as the group of six girls bombarded him.
"Hi Connor," chirped Pearl whilst Essie huffed and flipped her hair about before finally grumbling that she had to be off for her date with Finn and Elle followed after shooting me a parting glance her sad eyes giving off the unspoken message that she didn't like me.
"You waiting for Harry and Trey?" he said pulling nervously at the collar of his t-shirt.
"Yep and I hear you are about to go on a date," said Pearl making Riley squirm.
"Urhh yeah," he said glancing at me as if I was an alien that had just dropped out of the sky.
"Oh this is Andie, Andie this is Connor Riley's date."
"Hi nice to meet you," I said shifting and then rubbing my arms as it was beginning to get cold.
"Well we don't want to keep you so see you soon Connor, it would be nice to catch up," said Pearl sneaking a wink to Riley as she clambered in to Connors old Volvo.
On the way to Tammie's house Pearl went on and on about my superior ballet talent until I finally had to snap at her and tell her to cut it out.
"So what was up with those two, Essie and Elle," I finally said after letting Pearl sulk for a while because I snapped at her.
"Well there sisters, Essie's a year older than Elle, they both like being all mysterious and detached."
"But why are they so…subdued all the time?" I asked.
"They never used to really be like that, Elle used to be this cute beautiful poised girl, and Essie was this elegant artistic type, but then about a year ago their Mom died, Dawn was really awesome an old school hippy, used to play tambourine and guitar in a band, she loved to tie dye and paint, she was an amazing artist, but she got cancer and died, it was all really sudden," she said sighing and switching on the radio so it was a quiet murmur.
"Oh that…must have sucked," I said struggling for the words.
"They didn't really handle it too well, now they just like to blame everyone for what happened," Pearl said as she pulled in to a little yellow house with a big porch and screen door.
Tammie and Trey were sitting in two rocking chairs with big mugs in their hands, and I quickly got out the car eager to end the conversation that I had just had with Pearl.
"Hey you two," I said dashing up the porch steps.
"Hey Andie, Pearl," said Trey nodding towards Pearl who was grabbing her bags out of the trunk of her car
"Your house is so cute Tammie," I said admiring the roses climbing up the trellis on the side of the house and the big fat ginger cat asleep on a swing chair.
"Thanks Andie, oh and Harry's inside making coffee go grab some," she said after catching me eyeing up her big mug of steaming coffee.
Inside the house was plain but quirky, there was thick cream carpet covering the floor and faded flowery wall paper everywhere, there were huge bookcases with glass doors crammed in to the small space and a big worn tan leather couch with patch works quilts thrown over it. I heard the bubbling of a kettle and went in to the tiny kitchen with it's yellow counters and lino floor where Harry was sitting on a stool drumming his fingers on the counter.
"Hey, I heard you were making coffee," I said.
"Yeah, that's what I'm doing, how was ballet?" he said smirking.
"Urghh you knew?" I said prodding him in the arm.
"Afraid so, I told her it was a bad idea," he said going over to the boiled kettle.
"Well it wasn't so bad I guess, turns out I'm ok at ballet," I said dumping sugar in to my milky coffee.
"So you met Essie and Elle?"
"Yeah, I did, there…nice," I said as I watched him move around the kitchen obviously at ease in the house.
"You just have to get to know them," he said stirring his coffee.
We went outside to join the others who were planning a trip to the pool the next day although I had cheerleading practice.
"Can't you just bunk one time?" moaned Pearl.
"No, absolutely not, my Mom would freak," I said taking a sip of my drink.
Pearl huffed loudly and folded her arms over her chest making Harry and Trey laugh as she threw a fake hissy fit.
"Just go without me, I don't mind, I just really can't miss cheerleading, sorry," I said.
"Fine, but you'll be missing all the hot topless guys at the pool Andie," Pearl sighed.
"I'll live," I said smiling at her.
"Well we better go, don't want to miss the game," said Trey getting up off the rocking chair he was sitting on.
"Yeah we should be off," Harry said checking his watch.
"You're not staying?" I said with a little too much urgency.
"No, were going to watch the game at Noah's, we didn't want to hog the T.V for you guys," he said.
"Oh," I managed to choke out, "Well you guys have fun, and I'll see you tomorrow maybe?" I said as Pearl was glancing at me like I had something on my face.
After Harry and Trey went to Noah's we went inside as it was getting cold, to have a proper girls night in, Tammie brought out massive tubs of Ben & Jerry's and Pearl insisted on painting my toenails.I was dubious about the idea of a sleepover wasn't that something you did 7th grade, but at Tammie's it was different . We talked about guys and sang a long to old 80's pop songs and made Pearl go out at eleven o' clock to get more supplies of gummy bears. At twelve we were all sitting on Tammie's couch watching an old 'Friends' episode and eating whipped cream when Pearl said,
"Do you like him?"
Tammie and I stared at her confused as Pearl squirted more cream in to her mouth.
"You know what I mean Andie, do you like Harry?" she said through a mouth full of cream.
"He's a good friend," I said slowly.
Pearl made a strange noise between a snort and a huff through her mouthful of cream that made both Tammie and I laugh.
"Sure, whatever," Tammie said after swallowing her mouthful.
"Lets change the subject!" Tammie said saving me, although the answer was obvious, of course I didn't like-like Harry he was just a friend.
NOTE: I have gone back and edited and changed alot in these two chapters so go back and read again because i cut out an reaplced a few scenes like the beach because they really sucked!
