Beth rushed down the empty hallway to her locker when the lunch bell rang, slipping her phone out of her pocket and called Paul.
"Hello?" Paul grumbled, her voice heavy with sleep.
"Were you asleep?"
"Mm."
"You told me to call you."
"I know. Did you find her?"
"Yes, I found her."
"And how is it going?"
"Good yeah, we..." Beth trailed off when Alison leant against the locker next to hers. "I've gotta go, ok? I'll call you tonight." Beth hung up and slid it into her back pocket.
"Boyfriend?"
"Husband." Beth answered with a playful grin, closing her locker and leaning her shoulder against it. "I'm getting the feeling you're stalking me."
"Stalking. Watching closely." Alison waved her hand dismissively.
"Looks like you have a stalker of your own." Beth nodded over Alison's shoulder making the younger girl turn around, rolling her eyes when she spotted Donnie. "I'm sorry but the guy is weird."
"Yeah, I can't believe I dated him for so long." Alison scrunched her nose up in disgust, turning back to Brth. "You want to have lunch with me? Us, I mean. Delphine, Cosima and I."
"Won't your rich friends be mad that you are hang out with me?"
"Yeah. But they won't know. What do you say?"
"You know, I would but I think I'm going to go out for lunch. I'm going to meet a friend." And she was. The only friend she had that wasn't part of the gang.
"Oh." Beth wasn't quiet sure but she thought she heard disappointment in Alison's voice.
"Another time though, yeah?" Beth found herself saying when she noticed the dejected look on Alison's face.
"Yeah, ok." Alison nodded, walking backwards away from Beth. "See you in class."
Beth bobbed her head, biting down on her bottom lip. "Ok."
Alison smiled, nodding once before spinning on her heels and strutting down the almost empty hallway with confidence that only an important mans daughter could posses.
Beth didn't take her eyes off Alison, which she thought was probably Alison's intentions judging by the was she was swaying her hips as she went, until the girl turned the corner and out of Beth's sight.
"Wow." Beth murmured, smiling as she shook her head. She took her helmet out of her locker before closing it and turned to leave, almost crashing into a group of what she assumed was football players, judging by the purple and black letterman jackets they were sporting. "Watch it, knuckleheads." She growled, shoving her way through the group of boys, rolling her eyes at the childish whistling and laughing.
Beth headed out to the parking lot, throwing one leg over her bike and pulling her hair over her left shoulder, pulling on her helmet.
It didn't take her long to get to the diner she had planned to meet her friend at.
"Wow, you are only ten minutes late." Sarah murmured sarcastically when Beth fell into the booth across from her, throwing her helmet and bag onto the bench, and sliding off her leather jacket.
"Well, I'm sorry. I was at school."
"School?" Sarah laughed but it dissolved into a frown when she saw the serious look on Beth's face. "Oh, shit, you're serious."
"Mm." Beth hummed, leaning her elbow on the table and resting her cheek on her fist. "It's for a job."
"Oh, and here was me thinkin' your were tryna broaden your mind." Sarah grins around the straw in her mouth. "What'd they got you doin'?"
"Just getting close to this girl." Beth sighed, running her hand through her hair, tossing it over one shoulder and looking up at Sarah.
"Why do you even do this? It's obvious you don't wanna to be doin' it."
"It's not that easy, you know that. It's not like quitting any other job." Beth murmured, distracting herself with the menu in front of her, which wasn't fooling Sarah in the slightest, Beth could probably name everything on that menu and their prices. "Besides, boss has been nothing but great to me since her took me in."
"That doesn't give'm the right to treat you how he does."
"He treats me fine. I have everything I ever need."
Sarah held Beth's gaze for a few seconds before sighing, she was getting sick and tired of having this argument with Beth.
"Beth," Sarah started, leaning across the table to get closer to her best friend. "As much as you don't like to think so, you're a criminal. I'm hardly the pinnacle of society but what you guys do, Beth..."
"I know, Sarah!" Beth hissed, slamming the menu down on the table.
"Usual, girls?" Both Sarah and Beth pulled their eyes away from each other to look up at the waitress who was staring down at them, her eyebrows raised expectantly.
"Yeah. Thank you, Heather." Beth gave the old woman a polite smile that dropped from her lips as soon as the woman left, her eyespot back to Sarah. "Just drop it, Sarah."
"Fine. But with a face like yours you wouldn't do well in jail."
Beth rolled her eyes, her lip hooking up into a smile as she fell back against the back of the seat with a huff. "Fuck you."
Sarah grinned, leaning back and chewing on the skin around her thumb nail. "So, what's the girl like?"
"Daughter of a millionaire." Beth shrugged nonchalantly, trying not to show that she was actually a little bit fascinated by this girl.
"For real?"
"Yeah. Hendrix. Apparently he's some sort of 'well respected software developer' who has been carrying drugs and disguising it with his business. It's some breaking bad shit. He owes boss money, a lot, judging by the action he's taking."
"Do I wanna know?"
"Probably not." Beth shook her head lightly, picking up a fry when their food was placed down in front of them and began chewing on it. "Plausible deniability."
Sarah nodded, taking a rather unladylike bite out if her burger. "Just don't get yourself thrown in jail or killed or some shit."
"You say this to me every time and I tell you every time that I won't." Beth grumbled, digging into the pocket of her black skinny jeans and pulling put a key, holding it up between her thumb and forefingers before sliding it across the table. "Key to the new loft."
"Why do they make you change places every time?" Sarah asked, taking the key and sliding it into her jacket pocket.
"Incase anyone from the previous job followed me there. Safety and shit."
"Safely and shit." Sarah repeated with a sigh, shaking her head. "Have you spoke to her yet?"
"Yeah, we get along good." Beth grinned proudly. "I've got some moves, Manning."
"Yeah, right. She must just be feelin' sorry for ya."
"She asked me to sit with her and her friends at lunch."
"And what did you do to get her attention?"
"Banged into her."
"Oh, my god." Sarah laughed, covering her face with her hands. "Man, you have no moves at. All, Childs."
"Say what you want but it worked, ok? It will be a piece of cake getting her to fall in love with me."
Sarah's eyebrows raised in surprise. "You're gonna make her fall in love with ya?"
"Yeah. I mean, I have to get her to trust me and what better mode of trust is there than love?"
"Yeah, no, sure." Sarah agreed, nodding as she lifted her hand towards Beth. "But ain't that dangerous? What if you end up falling in love with her?"
Beth chuckled and shook her head. "As if, man. I know this is just a job."
"Ok, whatever you say."
"I'm serious. I'm not an idiot."
"I'd beg to differ." Sarah grinned, ducking away from the fry Beth threw at her. "What's school like, anyway?"
"Shit. It's full of meathead in lettermans and I know all the shit they're teaching so it's not like I'm learning."
"Sounds shit." Sarah agreed, finishing her food and throwing money on the table. "I gotta go, I start my job today."
"Job? What job?"
"Down at the garage. Learning how to fix cars and shit." Sarah stood up from the booth, Beth following her.
"What time do you finish?" Beth asked once they reached her bike, throwing one leg over the vehicle and looking up at Sarah.
"Seven." Sarah leant her hands against the handlebars of Beth's bike as the younger girl pulled on her jacket. "I'll bring pizza home, yeah?"
"Yeah." Beth agreed, pulling on her helmet before starting her bike. "Now, get out of my way, I'm late."
"Just be careful, ok?"
"I will be, Sarah."
Sarah nodded, slapping the side of Beth's helmet. "Right. See ya later, loser."
Beth pulled out of the parking spot when Sarah moved aside, sticking her foot out to kick the girl before setting off towards the school.
She ran into the school when she reached it, not bothering taking the detour to dump her helmet and ran to the section of the school she knew English was, stumbling rather clumsily through the door of the classroom.
The teacher at the front stopped talking and all of the students stopped taking note, lifting their heads to look at her.
Beth eyes accidentally, or at least that's what she tells herself, land on Alison who was sitting in the second row, eyebrows raised and her lips pushed into a stern line.
Ok, uptight Alison is back.
"Sorry I'm late."
"I will let you off just this once, since you are new." The woman says, pushing her glasses up her nose and grabbing one of the copies of 'of mice and men' and handed it Beth. "Take a seat, we are on chapter three."
Beth nodded, taking the book from the teacher and moved to the old free seat in the class, third row, beside a girl was ridiculously good hair. She threw her bag under the table, setting her helmet on top before sliding into her seat.
"Hello," Beth turned her head to look at the girl beside her, smiling polite.
"Hey,"
"I am Delphine."
"Beth,"
The girl, French girl, judging by the accent, smiled and turned her eyes back to the book.
Beth didn't bother looking down at the book, she had read it in her own time, she knew what went on in the book. Instead her leant her cheek on her fist and let her eyes wander over to Alison who was sitting up poker straight, her hands clasped on the desk as she listened. She was so uptight and tense compared to earlier and Beth had an idea as to why.
One of Alison's rich 'friends' from this morning was sitting next to her.
Beth was beginning to realize that there was two sides to this girl. The uptight rich girl and the Alison she got to meet.
A smile etched itself across Beth's lips when Alison turned her head to look at her but, unlike this morning, Alison didn't smile back. Instead, her eyes moved to someone a few rows behind Beth before turning back to the front.
Beth followed to where Alison's eyes had previously been, landing on one of her rich friends who had, what Beth assumed was supposed to be, a intimidating look on her face.
Beth rolled her eyes, making sure the girl saw, and averted her eyes back to the front. Maybe getting Alison to fall in love with her wouldn't be as easily as she'd originally thought, not with guard dogs like these for friends.
English seemed to drag by once Beth resigned herself to not watching Alison. The girl beside her, Delphine, said a pleasant goodbye to her as they left the classroom and Beth followed a few steps behind Alison to find her next class.
"Miss Childs, take a seat up the back beside Cosima." The teacher announced when she entered, like she actually knew who Cosima was.
Beth's eyes scanned the classroom, landing on a girl in the back right corner with her hand up awkwardly.
"Motorbike?" Cosima asked when Beth sat her helmet on the desk.
"Yeah. Versys six-fifty ABS."
"Oh, cool!" Cosima said, giving Beth the impression that she knew exactly what model that was.
"You know about bikes?"
"I know about a lot of things." The girl replied and Beth could feel herself liking this one already. "My motorbike knowledge is mediocre, at best, though."
"You know makes and models, that's pretty cool."
Cosima just shrugged nonchalantly.
Beth moved her helmet onto the floor as the teacher handed her a textbook.
"So, are you the girl Alison was talking about?" Cosima asked, trying to seem offhandedly about it as she opened her book.
"I... Don't know?"
"She just mentioned a new girl called Beth. Said her jokes sucked and that she was trouble." Cosima said, her eyebrows raised as she looked up at Beth. "I'm not sure about the last part but you're the only new girl called Beth that I know of."
"I thought my joke was decent."
Cosima let out a small chuckled and nodded. "I'm sure it was, man."
"So, what's with Alison?" Beth's eyes wandered to the bored looking girl in the front row.
"What's with her?"
"Yeah, she's like two different people. Complete one-eighty personality change."
"Oh. Yeah, Alison's pretty... Complex."
"Complex?" Beth raised her eyebrows, looking back at Cosima.
"Yeah. I can't tell you much, it's not my place, but Alison has a lot of shit on her shoulders, a lot of pressure to be this perfect human being, perfect daughter. You know who her parents are, right?"
Beth shook her head, and that was hardly a lie, she didn't know who they were, not really. "She did seem shocked that I didn't know who she was, though."
"Her dad is a millionaire."
"Then why does she go to public school, I would've thought the daughter of a millionaire would have went to private school."
"Right? I've asked her the same thing and she just says she doesn't wanna go to pretentious private school." Cosima shrugged, "Complex." She added just as the teacher began her class, quickly whispering, "She seemed to like you, though," before settling down to listen to the man at the front of the class.