The longer Clare stayed at the Bahndari home, the more she realized that she liked Alli. It was a little strange that she was being so nice. The last time someone had been that nice to her was the first day of her freshmen year, when everyone wanted to make a good impression, even those who didn't particularly care about what people thought about them.
But sometimes, you need to accept that there are people who care for you and that aren't completely cruel. Alli was exactly like that, and Clare appreciated it. Not too many people at Degrassi were "mean", per-say, but none of them were welcoming her with open arms either.
"Clare!" Alli screamed, bringing her out of her thoughts. Alli and Clare were on one team, playing against Bianca in a pudding war. Clare had known, from the dozens of times that's she'd been over, that Alli was one strange person.
Before Clare realized it, she was blasted with a thick glob of chocolate pudding. The rubber of the balloon snapped as well, making her feel a small sting on her collar bone, although the cool pudding relieved the short-lived pain she received. She ran her fingers through a strand of her hair; the pudding had splattered upward as well and covered her reddish locks.
"Give up?" Bianca corned her opponents, holding up a large, green balloon. A loud beep sounded, almost causing her to drop the balloon. Her mother was here to pick her up, but she would definitely not want pudding all over her car... Bianca acted as if she was about to throw the pudding balloon at Alli and Clare, but tossed it to the ground, before quickly grabbing the hose from the shed and washing herself off with it. Before leaving, she sprayed her friends with it, and then threw the hose down as they ran toward her to get revenge. Her mother beeped her horn again, making Bianca roll her eyes as Clare and Alli chuckled. Bianca grabbed her purse off of the fence, and climbed into her mother's jeep. She stuck her hand out, waving good-bye to her friends.
"Come on. We need to wash this stuff off before it stains our clothes." Alli suggested, wiping a tiny bit of pudding off of her eye. They both walked up to Alli's room. "Oh, I doubt you would want to wait for me to get done. You can use Eli's shower."
"Okay." Clare nodded, grabbing her bag to take into the bathroom. She felt a little weird that she had to go through Eli's room to get to his bathroom, but it was the only way. She tried not to look at anything in his room, since he deserved the privacy. She opened the door, surprised to see that someone already occupied the room. Thankfully, Eli was wearing a towel, although Clare felt it hard to concentrate on what was happening. A drop of water trickled down his collar bone from his hair, running down his chest and stopping at the towel that clung to his waist. She let her eyes travel back up his body, settling on his face. He didn't seem as embarrassed as her, even though he was the one who was nearly naked. Instead, his face held a blank expression. Her reaction would definitely be different… But he was a guy, and they were supposed to be more comfortable with this, right?
"Sorry." He muttered, trying to walk past her. She stepped aside to let him through.
After making sure that the door was locked, she stripped her clothes off and got into the shower. She wasn't in the shower for more than 45 seconds before she realized that she'd forgotten a towel. She shut the water off so she wouldn't be wasting it, and turned to step out of the shower. Something caught her eye, so she examined it carefully. On the side of the shower was a small, red spot. Blood?