"Over here, Miss Isles." Maura sharply turned her head as she heard her name, her eyes falling on the familiar black car. A tall, well groomed man stepped out from the driver's seat, taking her bag from her and placing it in the trunk. He walked around to the side of the car, opening the door for Maura before she could do the task herself.
"Thank you, Jeremy," she smiled, her body temperature immediately cooling as she entered the interior of the car. She pulled her long hair away from her sweaty neck, relaxing against the leather seats. Jeremy resumed his spot in the driver's seat, pulling away from the school.
Jeremy was the Isles' butler and had been for a long as Maura could remember. He was a kind man, always polite and courteous, and though he was not a loquacious man, he was thoughtful and attentive when it mattered.
"How was your first day?" Jeremy asked, making eye contact with the girl for a moment in the rearview mirror.
Maura was appreciative of the simple question, certain that it was more interest than she would get from either of her parents. "It went well," she stated. "I believe I will enjoy many of my classes, though the environment quite differs from that of Willard," she informed him with an appropriate chuckle. She saw the corners of Jeremy's eyes wrinkle as he smiled dutifully as well. "I met a girl," she found herself adding, unable to suppress a tiny smile from tugging at her lips as she thought about Jane. "I think that perhaps we'll be friends," she dared to speculate, a strange, warm feeling pooling in her stomach at just the mere thought.
Jeremy smiled again, and though Maura could only see his eyes, she could tell this one was genuine. "I'm glad it went well, Miss Isles."
They did not speak for the remainder of the car ride home, and Maura was more appreciative of the silence than she had anticipated. The endless noise and clatter surrounding the high school atmosphere, along with the forced smiles and socialization had exhausted Maura, and she was glad to have a moment to herself to collect her thoughts.
And those thoughts mostly contained Jane. She was not at all the kind of girl Maura would have ever expected she'd warm up to. She was tough, a little bitter, almost cruelly sarcastic, but Maura had sensed the most genuineness radiating off her than anyone else she had encountered today. Of course, Maura realized quickly, even without the reassurance from Frost, that Jane's prickly exterior was somewhat of a front, but the fact that she had not pushed Maura away immediately like she predicted she did with most people in her life spoke volumes to Maura, and she hoped her desperateness to feel a sense of belonging was not skewing the vibes she got from Jane.
Maura had been so tangled in her thoughts that she was surprised when they pulled into driveway so quickly. The Isles' home (or perhaps mansion would have been the better term) was a small distance away from the city, tucked away down a secluded road with a few other homes that rivaled its size.
Jeremy opened the door for her once again, and the influx of heat suffocated Maura for a moment. Once they were inside, he handed Maura her bag, preparing to excuse himself, but Maura stopped him momentarily. "Will my mother be home for dinner?" she asked, trying to keep her tone nonchalant, but she could not mask the hint of hope that lined her voice.
"I'm afraid not, Miss Isles," Jeremy spoke regretfully. Maura did her best to keep her face from falling. "She's working late at her studio tonight."
Maura's mother was an artist, and a quite successful one at that. She had a high end studio in the city where she worked late into the evening more often than not. Maura was certain she could count the nights she'd been home for dinner, and she had to wonder why she bothered to hope anymore.
"Your father should be home in an hour or so, I believe," Jeremy further added, and Maura smiled appreciatively, giving him a nod of dismissal.
Even if her father did come home early, she knew he'd be too buried in his work for his presence at home to even be noticeable. He worked as a biology professor at Boston Cambridge University, completely devoted to his job and research. Her parents' jobs were an oddity considering their status, and their lavish lifestyle could only be attributed to the large sum of money her mother had inherited upon her father's death.
She padded up the spiraling staircase that adorned the foyer of their home, entering her immaculately organized room. After placing her bag on her bed, she immediately went to check on Bass, her African spurred tortoise, whom Maura had received on her tenth birthday when her father had promised her a pet. Prior to her birthday, she had watched a documentary on the History Channel about tortoises and learned that they could be pets, and the idea of owning such a fascinating creature rather than a typical dog, cat, or small rodent greatly appealed to Maura.
She smiled at the tortoise, who was now about the size of a soccer ball, a considerable difference to the tennis ball sized reptile she had received four years ago. She unlocked his cage, allowing him access to the hardwood floor of her bedroom. He enjoyed slowly dragging his body across the room, and he was usually good about eliminating his waste within the confines of his cage.
She watched him for a little while before reaching for bag, digging out her pile of homework. Though she had been quite truthful when she had informed Frost that her workload was lighter, that did not mean that she did not still have a great deal of busy work to complete, and Maura was not one to procrastinate.
She worked for a few hours before she heard a gentle knock on her door. It was Jeremy, informing her that dinner was ready. Jeremy cooked all the meals for the Isles' family. He also cleaned their home, scheduled events, and oversaw the estate. In fact, the only task he had not done himself was raise Maura, who had been cared for by a nanny until she was ten, at which age Jeremy himself had taken over the task of delivering Maura to any extracurricular activity or event she needed to be at.
On their way downstairs, she passed her father's study, finding him buried in his work, and she knew he would not be joining her for dinner. She sighed, the long mahogany dining table feeling especially empty tonight as she took her seat at the end. Jeremy brought her a plate of fettuccine Alfredo pasta, her favorite dish. "You remembered," she smiled appreciatively up at him, swallowing the tears that suddenly filled her throat.
"Of course, Miss Isles," he smiled briefly before disappearing back into the kitchen.
Maura ate in silence, a little too quickly as she reasoned she could not cry as long as she was chewing. After she finished eating, she intended to return to her room, but she lingered in the entrance of her father's study, watching him tap the end of his pen against the desk as he buried himself deep in thought. It took him a full five minutes to notice her, and Maura was not sure what kept her transfixed there for so long.
"Maura, sweetheart." The pet named sounded almost forced and unnatural as it left his lips. "Is everything okay?"
"Yes, of course," she quickly answered. "I just had dinner, and I thought I'd stop by because I hadn't seen you all day."
He nodded but made no attempt to continue the conversation. Maura held her breath, waiting for him to at least ask how her first day had gone, but his eyes darted back to his laptop, and Maura bit her lip hard as she left, once again escaping the notice of her father.
Maura could not remember not knowing that she had been adopted. It was a fact her parents had reinforced when she was young, not in a cruel or unloving manner, but in a way that they were certain not to keep this crucial information from her. However, she had no knowledge of her birth parents; her mother had gently let her know that it had been a closed adoption. It did Maura little good to think about the parents who had given her up, though she had more than once fabricated a story where they had loved her desperately and had been forced by unknown circumstances to give her a better life. It made the fact that her adoptive parents did not coddle her in any manner more bearable – she knew they loved her, but she had never felt like she was fully theirs.
She entered her room, plopping back down on the bed, watching Bass for a moment. He chomped on a lettuce leaf, plucked from a plate of fresh vegetables – Jeremy must have delivered it when she was eating. She smiled at her tortoise, glad for his companionship, to say the least. She then thought of Jane again, and felt just a little bit better as she resumed her homework.
XXX
When Maura arrived to the gym the following morning, Jane was already there, fully dressed and leaning up against the lockers.
"You're early today," Maura noticed, and Jane merely grunted in return, tracing circles with the toe of her tennis shoe against the concrete floor.
"How are you?" Maura attempted to keep the conversation going, reaching into her bag for her change of clothes.
"Pretty good. Tired." It was the universal answer of the high school student. "You?"
"I'm well," she answered. "A bit exhausted myself." She had not slept well the previous night, tossing and turning as she found herself overanalyzing every word she had said to Jane, worried that she was approaching concept of friendship in the wrong manner. And of course, she became even more frustrated when she could not stop thinking about it and even more cross when she could not fathom why it even mattered so much to her.
She tugged off her shirt and reached for her bra, feeling much more self-conscious today as she felt Jane's eyes dart to her bare skin and then immediately turn away. "You may go out to the gym in you'd like, and I'll meet you there," Maura suggested politely, feeling as if Jane were waiting for her. The assumption automatically made her heart rate quicken.
"Nah, I'll wait," Jane muttered as Maura quickly switched bras. Maura's heart fluttered. "Just because it will prolong the moment that I have to see Grant's face," she added in a hurry. Maura's face noticeably fell, but she quickly composed herself.
"When did this deep-seated rivalry with you and Joseph begin?" she asked curiously, remembering his name from when the coach had taken role yesterday.
"Second grade. Our schools merged together, and he was in my class. It took me a while to grow out of my, uh, baby fat." Maura noticed that Jane's dark cheeks became a little rosy from embarrassment. "So yeah, Grant chose the nickname Roly-Poly Rizzoli for me pretty fast, and he just never stopped being a jackass, even when I did finally grow out of it."
"Have you ever considered the possibility that he has a crush on you?" Maura mused thoughtfully, tossing her underwear aside and tugging on a fresh pair.
"Wha – hell no!" Jane automatically defended, and once again, Maura felt her eyes land on her for a brief second before she turned away once again. "That's just ridiculous," she huffed.
"It's actually not," Maura contradicted. "It could very well be the reason for his persistent bullying. He appears quite immature, and his continuous teasing may be his coping mechanism because he has still not developed maturity to handle his feelings for you in an appropriate or healthy manner. Have you noticed an increased pupillary response whenever you are around him?"
"Have I noticed a what?" Jane seemed quite irritated, and Maura wondered if she had taken this too far.
"His pupils widening – it's a sign of attraction." Jane jerked her head away so fast that Maura was certain she had crossed over a line.
"You almost ready?" she asked, itching toward the door. Maura quickly tied her shoes, wanting to ask Jane if she were angry with her, but knowing that she could not ask this simple question without fumbling considerably over her words.
"You watch for Grant's pupils widening," Jane proposed as she held the door open for Maura, offering her a tiny reassuring smile. "I'll be too busy punching him in the face."
XXX
Maura found Frost sitting at the same table she had found yesterday, and he grinned widely at her she sat down opposite of him. "How's it going?" he asked after he finished chewing.
"Pretty well," Maura answered, taking out her own lunch. An awkward silence passed between the two, and Maura wondered where Jane was.
"So, Frost – I assume that's not your real name. Perhaps a last name or a nickname..." she attempted to reboot the conversation, and she was always intent on knowing a person's proper name.
"Last name," he confirmed. "My full name is Barry Frost," he wrinkled his nose a little. "Yeah, pretty bad, huh? Jane says it sounds like the name of some kind of cupcake – so she's always calling me stuff like 'Cupcake' or 'Frosting' or 'Strawberry Shortcake.' I'll pretty much respond to anything at this point," he laughed, and Maura deduced that these kind of nicknames were given in quite a different manner than the snide remarks from Joseph Grant that angered Jane so greatly.
"Where is Jane?" Maura could not hold her question of any longer as she glanced around the cafeteria.
"Getting whatever pile of crap they're serving here today," Frost chuckled, and as if on cue, Jane slammed a tray of some unfortunate looking chicken marsala on the table beside Maura.
"Someone seems chipper," Frost raised an eyebrow as he took a bite of his PB&J sandwich.
"Yeah, well, considering that I'm probably about to die from food poisoning, I'd say it's appropriate," she growled, and Maura had to wonder if something beyond her unfortunate lunch was bothering her.
"I hardly think you'll die from eating your meal, but if you'd like, you can have half of my sandwich," Maura offered. She was enjoying smoked turkey breast on flatbread decorated with various vegetables.
"Nah, I couldn't take your food," Jane immediately protested, instead attempting to saw through her chicken with a plastic knife.
"No, please, Jane, I insist," Maura prodded, taking half the sandwich and placing it on a napkin before pushing it toward Jane.
"You sure?" Jane was still hesitant, but she seemed appreciative.
"Of course. I have plenty of food, and I'd hate to subject you to eating that."
As Jane took the sandwich, Maura couldn't help but to feel irrationally giddy as one of her cliché childhood dreams of having a friend to share lunches with came true. The topic of clichés brought her mind to another topic. "So I've been curious – is the high school caste system depicted in the media an actual reality, or is it merely played up as a source of entertainment?"
"Say whaty-what?" Jane muttered with a full mouth, and Frost's equally confused expression let Maura know she needed to rephrase in Layman's terms.
"The cliques you find in high school – I'd wager they are not nearly as extreme as what you'd find in a movie such as Mean Girls, but I am curious to know just how much the parody is based off of the reality."
"Well, we do have our popular crowd," Frost informed her with a flourish of his hand toward a table of pretty girls and their boyfriends. "Of course, there's not just one popular crowd. Thank heavens we don't have just one group of queen bitches who think they own the school. Cheerleaders do tend to sit together at lunch as well," Maura followed his hand as he continued his tour. "And so do the football players, some of the basketball players, and girls' soccer stays pretty tight knit, though guys soccer is a bit more scattered. Some normal kids, some moderately smart kids," he continued to scan his peers. "And here we have the techno savvy nerds." Maura's eyes fell on a table of mostly asian students, many of whom had a phone, laptop, or iPad out on their lap. "And the unfortunate nerds." He pointed to a group of misfits, and Maura noticed a great deal of glasses and sci-fi t-shirts. "And then just the unfortunate crowd," he turned his head a a few tables down, landing on a group perhaps even more mismatched than the previous. One girl wore a turtleneck and floor length skirt, despite the sweltering heat. "And a few goths or emos or whatever they try not to label themselves as," he finished.
Maura nodded, practically inhaling this new information, as she always did when she was in a new environment. "So what does that make you guys?"
"Sub-loser," Frost laughed, and Jane, who had been quite silent as she nibbled on her sandwich half, swiftly reached out to smack his arm.
"There's a difference between being a loser and loner," Jane defended.
"You're quite right," Maura chimed in. "There's a definite choice associated with loner."
Jane's smile was small but appreciative. "You can't tell me this is all new to you," Jane turned to Maura. "You must have had some sort of – what did you call it?"
"Caste system," Maura supplied for her.
"Yes. You must have the typical high school caste system at your fancy girls' school," Jane finished.
"Well, there are always popular girls," Maura admitted. "But I must say there was nothing quite as diverse as what you have here. Since all the girls at my school had similar financial standing, it did not leave room for much integration. Though of course, with aspects such a beauty that could not be determined by wealth, we did have a bit of cliques formed from factors like that."
"I bet you were in the pretty crowd," Jane blurted out without considering her words.
Maura blushed deeply. "I can't say I ever did find a group," Maura sighed lightly. "The girls at school tolerated me, but more often than not I'd find them smiling uncomfortably when I spoke, because, well, I talk like this...no one ever seemed interested in hearing what I had to say, at least not like you two seem to be." she admitted.
"Yeah, well, I don't know about Frost, but I think you're pretty weird," Jane replied with a smirk.
Maura's face fell immediately, to which Frost quickly responded. "Geez, she's just kidding," and he glared at Jane as if to force an apology from her.
"Yeah, just a joke," Jane assured her. "You need to lighten up."
"I apologize," Maura muttered. "I have never been very good at detecting sarcasm."
Frost laughed. "Jane will certainly have something to teach you."
She watched Jane grin wryly as she finished off her sandwich, and Maura reveled in the sense of belonging she had found.
A/N: Thanks for the positive feedback! Thanks to those of you who reviewed, and I appreciate all the story alerts - I'm glad to see I've gathered some interest. I have the basic plot of this story figured out, but I'm still looking for some ideas - mainly cute, somewhat romantic, or humorous situations I can conjure up for these girls, so feel free to suggest your own ideas at any time. And as many of my fellow writers out there know, reviews make us (almost) as excited as Rizzles does, so please don't be shy :]
