A/N: So, after another complaint, I feel that I have to further explain the reason for writing so far ahead of what I post. The reason is, more or less, in case I come down with a sudden case of writer's block, I'll still be able to post chapters at regular intervals…that means you won't have to wait nearly as long for an update as it will take for me to write one. Does that make sense?
A/N2: Also, as you read this, I am probably working on chapter 10. I'll post the next chapter tomorrow or Tuesday. I am going out of state Wednesday and won't be able to write much, if at all.
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Chapter Three- Actually Not That Bad
Alex glances down at her watch and releases a frustrated sigh. She leans forward in her seat to look out of her office and scan the club. She finally spots the brunette, trying to look busy despite the fact that there are no customers and nothing to do.
"Cooper!" The blonde calls over to get the other girl's attention. Looking up sharply, she quickly abandons her task of wiping the down the bar and walks over to the office.
"Yeah," Marissa drawls slowly, cautiously. She has tried to avoid the blonde and not do anything to get on her bad side since Alex opened up to her earlier…then proceeded to snap at her a moment later. As far as she knows, she hasn't done anything to cause the scowl on the other girl's face.
"Go home," Alex simply orders, before continuing to fill out the requisition form for next week's supplies.
"What? My shift doesn't end for…," Marissa pauses to reach over and grab the blonde's left wrist so that she could read the time, much to the chagrin of the blonde, "…another hour," she states.
"No shit?" Alex snarks, taking her arm back before going back to her paperwork. When she doesn't hear the sound of the other girl leaving, she looks back up with a quirked eyebrow. "Yes?" She asks, drawing the one word out in expectation.
"Are you just trying to get rid of me?" Marissa asks in attempt to keep the hurt out of her voice. "Is this about what you told me earlier about you and your parents and everything?" She asks helplessly.
"Marissa, it's 10:30 on a Thursday night. Aside from us, the place is empty. There's no reason for you to still be here. Go home," Alex explains slowly.
"What about you?" The taller girl asks softly.
"What about me?" She replies with a long-suffering sigh, knowing that she'll never get her paperwork done if the other girl continues to hang around.
"Are you leaving now too?" Marissa inquires. Alex offers no response other than glancing down at the stack of papers on her desk and an 'are you totally blind' expression. "I guess not," she mumbles to herself. "Anything I can help you with?" She leans over and looks at the papers on the desk.
Alex closes her eyes and rubs the bridge of her nose with a sigh. "I swear to god Marissa that if you don't leave right now, I will fire you on principle," she grumbles.
"And risk having to replace four people?" Marissa smiles at the empty threat, earning a glare from the blonde. "Okay, I'm leaving. See you in class tomorrow," she relents.
"Bye," Alex dismisses her distractedly, her mind focused on the other girl rather than her paperwork. Why is she suddenly so willing to hang around? She's usually the first one begging me to let her take off early when we're like this.
As Marissa slides into the driver's seat of her car, she finds her own thoughts drifting back to the blonde. Since when do I want to spend time with that bitch? "I guess she really isn't so bad," she allows, casting one last glance at the entrance before starting her car and driving off.
--
"Morning Coop!" Summer greets her friend in the parking lot.
"Hey," Marissa smiles back warmly. "Guess what happened yesterday," she grins excitedly as they begin to make their way to their first class.
Summer thinks for a moment. "Jessica Warner admitted to getting lipo over the summer," she guesses, earning a strange look from the taller brunette. "Come on Coop. People don't suddenly drop 40 pounds in three months. I even suspect she had a nose job. Did she admit to that too?" She rambles on.
"Uh, no. It's nothing to do with Jessica Warner."
"Oh," Summer nods sagely. "Crystal Weaver then," she says.
"I talked to her," Marissa replies, ignoring the other girl's comments, regretting playing the 'guess what' game with her.
"Ohhh," the darker brunette draws out, knowing who her friend was talking about. "How did that go? Did she get all pissed off and start making fun of you? Did she call you a whiny little pansy?" Summer asks, sounding sympathetic, expecting the answer to be 'yes' to all of the above.
"Um, no," Marissa replies, giving her friend another weird look. "I asked if she would stop being mean and she said 'okay'. Alex was actually pretty cool about it. She's not so bad after all," she shrugs pensively, catching the smirk on the other girl's face. "What? We were able to actually talk like regular people yesterday at work."
"Riiight," Summer draws out knowingly as they step into their classroom, smiling at the fact that this was the first time she'd ever actually heard Marissa refer to her boss by her actual name.
The duo take their seat just as the bell rings and Mr. Bowen comes into the classroom. "Morning class. Pull out your textbooks and turn to page 40," he grumbles crankily. Just as he's about to begin his lecture, Alex comes sliding in the door. "Ms. Kelly, late again I see. We're off to a good start this year, aren't we," he states snidely.
"Sure are. I'm sure to be on the Honor Roll in no time at this rate," Alex replies tiredly, her voice still thick with sleep. This results in a few scattered giggles.
"One more time and I'm sending you to Dr. Brown's office. I'm sure she'd love to see you this early in the year," Mr. Bowen threatens the blonde, referring to the principal.
Alex resists the urge to give him the finger. "Okay," she says placidly instead as she drops bonelessly into her seat, two desks behind Marissa. She drops her head down on her desk and closes her eyes. I should have just skipped
Marissa turns in her seat to shoot the blonde girl a strange look, but it is wasted since Alex has already drifted back to sleep. What time did she get home last night? She finds herself wondering as she turns back around in her seat, only to be met with a smirking Summer.
"Well class, I sure hope you've gotten started on that reading list," Mr. Bowen warns. "Pop quiz!" He declares with smug glee at the horrified expressions on the faces of his students. "Ms. Cooper," he barks, glaring at the brunette.
"Uh, what?" Marissa asks nervously. I'm just sitting here, why is he so pissed off at me?
"Care to wake up your little friend back there?" He asks sarcastically vaguely gesturing towards the sleeping Alex.
Marissa nods, resisting the urge to correct him about Alex not being her friend. She turns in her seat, and leans over to poke Alex in the arm in an attempt to wake her. That doesn't work as Alex simply swats Marissa's hand away, so, she grabs her arm and gently shakes her. "Alex, wake up," she hisses.
"What the fuck do you want?" Alex grunts irritably as she lifts her head to glare at the brunette, oblivious to the fact that they have the attention of the whole class.
"Pop quiz," Marissa informs her sheepishly.
"Oh," Alex mutters before putting her head back down.
"Ms. Kelly!" The teacher barks. "If you could just humor me long enough to fail this quiz, you can go do whatever it is that you do," he growls at her.
"Fine, whatever," Alex replies, pulling a pen out from behind her left ear and leaning back in her seat. Mr. Bowen nods in self-satisfaction before passing out the quiz. She rests her head on one of her hands and peruses the quiz in front of her.
Marissa, meanwhile, is having trouble of her own. It's less to do with quiz in front of her and more to do with the blonde behind her. Why should I be worried about her? What happens with Alex has nothing to do with me. She is shaken from her thoughts as she feels the object of her musings brush by her.
"Given up already?" Mr. Bowen smirks as the blonde hands him her quiz.
"Sure did," Alex smirks back sarcastically, arching her eyebrows as she turns and walks out of the room. Mr. Bowen's smile fades as he glances down at the quiz. Marissa is soon to follow the shorter girl out the door since she didn't even bother with the assigned reading after work the previous night.
"Wait up!" Marissa calls out to the other girl. Alex pauses and turns slightly to acknowledge the other girl. "I'm sorry. I totally forgot about the reading list," she says, digging through her bag to pull out the balled up paper Alex threw at her yesterday.
"What are you talking about?" The blonde asks, wondering if she came late into the conversation.
"The class reading list? From yesterday? The pop quiz that you just bombed was on the first two short stories on the list," Marissa prompts, concerned that the other girl may have gone retarded since the last time she'd seen her.
Alex glances down at the crumpled paper offered to her and chuckles. "Don't worry about it," she smiles before turning to walk away, leaving the paper behind.
"Hold on," Marissa calls back as she steps up to the other girl. "Why don't you seem to care about any of this?" She asks, gesturing vaguely around her at the school. "Do you want to run the Bait Shop for the rest of your life?" She inquires disparagingly.
"Well Mom, not that it's any of your business, but I aced the quiz. That's why I finished it so fast," Alex begins, her eyes burning with rage as she closes in on the taller girl. "Second of all, who are you to judge me? You're my employee. Not my friend or my girlfriend and certainly not my mom. So you can just fuck off," she growls before turning on her heel and stalking off, not even hesitating to just plow right through anyone in her path.
"Marissa, thank god," Summer pants as she runs up to her friend.
"You okay?" Marissa asks with an amused smile.
"I could ask you the same thing. You just ran off right after Alex left," she points out. "Everything alright?"
"No, I don't think so," Marissa replies softly, looking towards where Alex disappeared.
Summer narrows her eyes at her friend. "What did you do?" She asks, knowing the other girl well enough to know when she screwed up.
"Um, I may have accused Alex of being a slacker and a little bit of a loser," Marissa says guiltily.
"Coop! Oh my god. Why would you say that?" The short brunette asks, shaking the other girl by the shoulders as she does so.
"I didn't exactly phrase it like that, but I implied it heavily. Honestly though, she doesn't act like she cares about school or anything and she's just so…I just thought…" she trails off, not knowing how to word it.
"You just thought that she was stupid?" Summer asks, resulting in a small nod from the taller girl. She stares at her friend for a moment. "Since when do you even care about Alex Kelly anyways?" She asks, genuinely interested.
"Hey ladies," Seth interrupts as he approaches the two girls in the hallway.
"Hey Seth. What's up?" Marissa asks, glad at the distraction.
"Nothing much. Summer told me that you have six classes with Alex," he replies sympathetically. "So, how is that hot boss of yours?" He then asks with a barely concealed grin.
"Shut up Cohen," Summer snaps at the tall boy, smacking him in the arm for emphasis.
"What? I know that she is like a total bitch to Marissa and everything, but you can't deny it, she's still pretty hot."
"She's actually not that bad," Marissa cuts in.
"Now Marissa, you may feel like that now, but she might be a sensitive rebel punk with a heart of gold," Seth continues wistfully, ignoring what the other girl actually said in favor of assuming that it was negative. They pause a moment, the girls giving him an odd look. "Did you just say that she wasn't that bad?" He asks in confusion.
"Uh, yeah," Marissa responds, amused that he is so clueless.
"And Coop just pissed her off and, maybe, even hurt her feelings," Summer points out, trying to get back on track with their previous conversation.
"Is that true?" Seth inquires curiously, his attention shooting back over to the taller girl, who nods slightly, embarrassed. "Wow. And here you were starting to get me to believe that Alex didn't even have feelings to hurt," he tries to joke awkwardly, earning him another slap from his girlfriend.
"Seriously, shut up," Summer sighs. "You're going to see to her again today, right Coop?" She asks, turning her attention back to her friend.
"Well, yeah. I have five more classes with her today. It's unavoidable," Marissa replies obviously.
"Good. Then you can apologize for having been so insensitive," Summer nods.
"Hey. You're my friend why are you siding with her?" The taller brunette asks defensively.
"Because you finally get her to open up and be nice to you, then you go and accuse her of being a stupid loser," Summer reasons with a scowl.
"Ugh, you're right," Marissa acquiesces dramatically. "I'll apologize in our next class," she says. As if on cue, the warning bell rings, reminding them that they have five minutes to get to their next class.
"Yeah, I really hope you two kiss and make up. Take pictures," Seth grins, wagging his eyebrows suggestively.
"Ew Cohen. They are soo not even like that," Summer scrunches up her nose in disgust. "And I thought I told you to shut up," she adds as she drags her boyfriend off to their next class.
Marissa looks on in amusement. Taking pictures would be the last thing on our minds if we were making out. She scoffs to herself before stopping dead in her tracks. Whoa! Why can I even see us making out at all? She wonders with a stricken look on her face.
--
"I don't know!" An exasperated Marissa exclaims into her cell phone as she waits at a red light.
"Coop," Summer sighs on her end of the line. "She seriously just ditched the rest of her classes?" She asks warily.
"I guess so," Marissa responds. The light turns green and she makes a left turn. "But I'm on my way to the Bait Shop. Hopefully she's there," she adds.
"Won't you just see her at work?" Summer inquires.
"Yeah, but I don't want to put this off," the taller girl says. "Look, I'm pulling into the parking lot now. I'll give you a call later," she informs the other girl.
"Good luck," Summer responds, wondering briefly why her friend always seems out of sorts when her gorgeous blonde boss is concerned.
Marissa immediately spots Alex's Jeep in its usual spot in the back next to a dark blue Lexus. She jumps out of her car and makes her way to the entrance. Quietly, she opens the side door. Her eyes grow wide and she is frozen in place from what she sees before her. I should've waited until my shift started before talking to Alex.
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I know you must be wondering what Marissa sees when she walks into the Bait Shop. I'd tell you, but I need you to read the next chapter. To get the next chapter, you're going to have to bribe me with reviews. So…get to it.
Oh, and as I said before, if you want to see something in particular with this story, or if there are any inconsistencies or gaping plot holes, let me know. I may have the next several chapters written, but I can always change them if need be. Any suggestions will be taken into consideration and, if I can get them to work, I will.