Chapter 3: Sleepover
My mother was ecstatic that I made a friend on the first day of school.
"That is so great honey. When will I get to meet her?" she asked. We were sitting on the back porch lounging and drinking hot chocolate.
"I invited her for a sleepover on Friday." I said.
"Oh that's wonderful!" My mom exclaimed. She was so excited as if it was her sleepover.
"Are you planning on inviting her to the wedding?"
"Can I?"
"Of course. Maybe she can be one of the bridesmaids."
I beamed. I loved my mom. She was cool. She knew what teenagers wanted and would comply within reason.
"Well, I have homework to do." I said getting up. "Lots to catch up on."
"Ok. See you at dinner."
I walked up the stairs, my heels clicking. I changed my clothes into a white button up shirt with a brown Fair Isle Dress from RRL over it. I wore purple and black striped knee high stockings and brown heels. I wore a brown cap when I went outside. As I reached the second floor, Leah skipped down the stairs still wearing her school uniform.
"Hey LJ, I see you like your uniform" I said chuckling.
"I know isn't it cool? I like yours too. Can't wait till I get to wear it next year." We sat down on the steps.
"How was your day? Did you make any friends?"
"Yeah. DJ introduced me to some of his friends. We're going to the movies on Friday all together."
"That's cool. Who's DJ?" I asked a little confused.
"Daniel."
"Oh." I understood. She used his initials like I used for her.
"How was your day?" she asked.
"It was nice. I met a girl. Her name is Sandra Garcia. I invited her over for a sleep over. Mom even said I can invite her over to the wedding and maybe she can be a bridesmaid.
"That's cool." she said looking over her shoulder.
"Are you looking for someone?"
"Not really. DJ was planning on showing me something and told me to wait downstairs. Don't know what's taking so long."
"Don't you have homework?"
"Yeah. We're gonna do it after dinner. There's not much. We have the same schedule, so that's pretty cool."
I smiled. She and Daniel were getting along very well. Like best friends.
"Ok well have fun, I have catching up to do."
I went to my room and closed the door. For some reason I had a strong urge to listen to Latin guitar music. I went to my CD shelf and pulled out the Trio Caliente CD. I placed it into the CD player and pressed play. I liked to work with background music. Climbing on my bed I took out my homework and started doing it. After a while I picked up my cell phone and dialed Sandra.
"Hello?"
"Hey Sandra."
"Oh hi Alana. What's up?"
"So did you ask you mom about the sleep over?"
"Yea, she said it was fine."
"That's great. My mom is really excited about it too. Hey what do you think about being one of the bridesmaid's at my mom's wedding?"
"Really?"
"Yeah. My mom suggested it."
"I'd love that. I've never done anything like that before."
"Great. I'll tell my mom. Well I'll see you tomorrow."
"K, bye."
By the time dinner arrived, I had caught up on all the Stats homework and finished the assignment assigned for tonight. I was proud of myself. I was lucky to have a brain that absorbed information well. During dinner, we talked about how our days went and plans for getting ready for the wedding. My mom decided to go for a final fitting of her wedding dress this Saturday and said to bring Sandra along to try on her bridesmaid dress. After dinner I decided to do all of tonights assignments and catch up later. When I finished, I pulled out my Snow Leopard book and started to look through it. My father gave it to me on my 8th birthday. The cat itself was beautiful. Looking through the book made me miss those days when we all would go camping and run around in the snow during winter. Unknowingly I drifted off into slumber dreaming.
There was snow everywhere. The sun was shining, and rainbows glittered off the snow. Four Snow Leopard's ran through it playing and rolling around. The two little cubs ran after their parents over the heaps of snow. With every jump they sank into the snow like it was water. It was a beautiful loving scene. The family was together. They were happy. Nothing else mattered.
The whole week went smoothly. Sandra and I chatted and got to know each other better. I felt like we knew each other our whole lives. I caught up on Physics and English already. On Thursday I got home from school to a pleasant surprise. My car had arrived. It was a shiny red, Turbo 911 Porche convertible. Lester's jaw dropped. I smirked. Now I had my own ride.
"Thanks for driving me this whole week. Now that my car is here you don't need to worry about that anymore."
"Uh, yeah, no problem, sure." he stuttered staring at my car.
When Friday rolled around, Sandra and I were jumping for joy. Not literally of course. When I arrived to school, she put her things in my trunk and we went to class together. Everyone there stared at the shiny loveliness that stood in the parking lot. The day seemed to be too slow. We just left Physics and it felt like a whole day went by already.
"Arg, we'll never get out of here." I moaned.
Sandra chuckled.
"I think it's because there's something more fun waiting for us later."
"Yeah." I sighed as we entered English class. The whole day seemed to roll in slow motion. It annoyed me. Finally the final bell rang and Sandra said bye to her mom.
"You girls be careful. Don't do anything dangerous." she warned smiling.
"Ok bye mom."
"Bye Senora Garcia."
"Bye girls."
We reached the parking lot to a crowd around my car. We had to squeeze in and got in the car. I started the car. My CD player was finishing 3 by Britney Spears. As I rolled down the roof, a new song started, Energetic by BoA.
"Oh I love this song." Sandra cried.
"Really? Me too." I turned up the volume. We laughed and started to move to the beat. The people started to part as I weaseled my way out. From the corner of my eye I saw Cathy and Lester gaping with their mouth hanging open.
When we got home my mom was jumping up and down like a ball.
"Oh you must be Sandra. It's so good to finally meet you." she pulled her into a hug.
"It's nice to meet you too Mrs. Janes." Sandra said in shock.
"Oh please, call me Jane."
Sandra nodded. We went to my room and I closed the door.
I had Mary bring our dinner to my room. We watched 13 Going on 30, Mean Girls, and Sleepover. After the movies we did each other's nails and hair. Time flew by so fast that while talking on the bed we fell asleep.
"Miss Alana, please wake up." Mary's voice rang. I sighed and opened my eyes.
"What is it Mary?"
"You mother wants you girls to get to breakfast now. You will be leaving in a hour."
"Oh thank you." I rolled over and nudged Sandra.
"Hey S, wake up." She moaned. I chuckled to myself and went to take a shower. Mary brought me my clothes that I prepared last night. I wore a Fair Isle off-shoulder dress with black leggings and black heels. I did my makeup and let my hair down in waves. By the time I was done Sandra finally rolled out of bed and went to shower. I had Julian iron her outfit. She decided to wear black skinny jeans and heels. She wore a red, yellow, purple plaid button up shirt. I helped her apply some makeup and did her hair. I let if down loosely in waves and topped it off with a black French style beret hat. We grabbed our bags and went downstairs for breakfast. My mom and Leah already started eating. Mom looked casual but nice. She wore gray leggings and brown heels. Her shirt was a green, purple, khaki plaid tunic topped with a brown belt. Leah surprised me by wearing an Eileen Satin shirt dress with black leggings. I didn't even know she owned a dress. Her hair was up in a ponytail and she looked sleep deprived. She must of stayed up with DJ playing video games in his room again.
"Good morning girls." she chirped. "Did you sleep well?"
"Mhm." we mumbled while chewing our pancakes.
"Well, that's good. You're going to need your energy today. I decided to go on a shopping spree after the fittings. What do you think?"
"Are you serious?" I nearly screamed. She smiled. I loved shopping with my mom. She had great taste and had a great sense of style.
John and the boys were still sleeping when we left. Mom's driver Philippe drove up in a white AW e92. It was my mom's favorite car. She had it shipped down her with mine. Though she could drive, she felt like having a driver today.
The fitting went well. Mom's dress was a fairytale. It was white with some red veil fabric. Her veil was bordered with red flowers. It fit perfectly. Our bridesmaid dresses were also red. The dresses were sleeveless and modern mermaid style.
After the fitting it was lunch time so we went out to an Italian restaurant to eat. After we went on our shopping spree to the mall. After going through hundreds of shoes, shirts, skirts, shorts, dresses, pants, jeans, etc. we finally made it out of there 10 bags per person. Sandra went home after dinner because she needed to go to church tomorrow. Her family were strong Catholics. I've never gone to a church before I thought about going someday with her.
On Monday, during lunch, Sandra and I talked about the final wedding preparations. She offered to help with the private reception decorating that would be at our house. We planned some games for the young people that were going to be there. Lester and Cathy sat with us giving their ideas. I wasn't sure when we became so close but whatever.
Friday night, I standing on my balcony enjoying the view of the ocean.
"So how's the catching up going?" Lester suddenly asked.
"I'm done." I said flatly.
"No way. You're bluffing."
"Come and see if you want."
He disappeared and reappeared in my room a second later. He looked through my papers as I watched amused at his bewildered face.
"Wow, I didn't even know it was possible."
"It was easy. I know Spanish fluently so that didn't take long. I'm really good at math, so Statistics didn't take long either. English? Hello, I speak it everyday. The only real challenges were Physics and History." I explained indifferently looking back at the ocean.
"Wow. What school did you go to before?" he asked walking up and standing next to me on the balcony.
"I didn't go to any school. I was educated at home."
He was silent for a moment.
"So this is your first time going to as school with other kids." It wasn't a question.
"Yep." I sighed.
"There's going to be a Halloween party at Leopard's the Saturday after the wedding." he said.
I frowned.
"What?"
"You know. I promised to take you to the night club if you won the bet."
"Oh." realization hit me. "Leopard's is the name of the club. He nodded.
"Cool."
"It's a masquerade ball. You need to get a costume."
"I have a couple."
He raised his eyebrows.
"We went shopping last week. I decided to by some costumes for the Halloween party Mom was throwing for Leah and Daniel."
"Oh. Well I guess you're not going to be here then."
"I guess so."
Tomorrow was the wedding. It will be busy. Yet I had a feeling it was going to change something in my life.
