Disclaimer: we don't own twilight..
Chapter Three: Extra Credit And Sage Don't Mix
"Watch out for the puddles, Bella!" Christine called as we ran from the car. Alissa skipped past me laughing, kicking up water as she went.
I screeched as my foot sunk down into a hole of milky brown water. My jeans changed to a dreadful color.
Christine sniggered as she pushed open the doors, Alissa boots were making her slip on the steps. Her lips were moving but I couldn't make out every word she said.
"So?" Alissa asked us as we entered Skips Dinner. She shook her hair out from the rain. Droplets spinning off onto everything around, like a dog shakes out its hair till it's dry. I rubbed my hand over my face to wipe away droplets that had splashed there. Alissa didn't seem to notice though.
"So what?" Christine pulled her hair back into a pony tail as she spoke, it still fell past her shoulders. The wet ends curling together in slinky style springs. The rain had made her shirt a darker green.
Alissa gave Christine an annoyed look, tired of repeating herself.
"Come on." I said grabbing both of their arms and pulling them along.
I quickly guided us over to a booth before they started to fight, making sure to sandwich myself between the two.
Christine grabbed a menu and began to think up an order. Trying to pull off my gloves, the wet wool clung to my skin reluctant to be removed. Reasons I hate the rain could go on and on.
And on...
Alissa pushed wet hair from her eyes before speaking. "If you were listening to me outside you wouldn't need to ask twice. Seriously this is why I feel so unappreciated, you guys never listen to anything I say. You always -"
"Should I get cola or a smoothie? Or maybe..." Christine interrupted.
"See what I mean." Alissa sighed. She grabbed a menu and began her search. I don't know why she bothers, we come to Skips all the time. We practically have the menus memorized.
"I'll listen to you Alissa." She looks up and gives me a bright smile, "What crap are you going to drill into my mind today then?" I laugh making Alissa scowl.
"So, are you going to join?" Is all she said.
Alissa puts down her menu then retrieves a crumpled piece of paper from her shoulder bag. Surprisingly the paper hadn't gotten wet. Straightening it out as she passed it over the table.
Christine looked over my shoulder to see the paper.
It read,
Project Smoke And Mirrors
Ever wanted to make your own horror film,
Well now is your chance to write, direct and star in your own film.
5 teams, 7 students per group.
To sign up head to the computer lab at 12o'clock tomorrow,
Be there, or be scared...
"Be there, or be scared." I quoted, "Wow! Can that get any more cheesy."
"Lame!" Christine called, she returned to her menu.
Looking at the leaflet I saw it had been decorated with splatters of blood and green slime. The writing looked drippy and was blood red in color. There was a blurry cartoon image of Count Dracula in the corner. A picture of some crappily cut pumpkins sat in the opposite corner. It was supposed to look scary... I think.
"Cheesiness aside, it's an extra credit project. I need everything I can get to get into college." Alissa smiled. It felt strange to see someone so bright and jolly when outside the rain was pouring and the sky was grey. "I think it could be awesome!"
"Alissa, you think snails awesome." Christine said looking up from her menu. Her hand was twisted mindlessly into her ponytail.
"Okay. Number one: snails are awesome, do not disrespect the ability to carry your own home. Number two: I'm never wrong about these things. Why would I be now? Number three: At least i'm not a fucking killjoy." Said Alissa, ticking her points off on her fingers.
"Alissa! I am appalled by your language. Such bad words you speak." Christine joked. It was true Alissa didn't swear, well she swore only when necessary. It sometimes felt like talking to a child.
Alissa glowered at us, Christine said "Whatever Bella wants to do. My biggest concern right now is food..."
Christine looked back down at the menu, not really caring.
We sat in silence for awhile, neither of us wanting or needing to speak. The booth we were sitting in was a regular location in our world. It was perfect, the sunrays lit it just enough and we were further enough from the door as not to receive a draft.
I leaned my head back against the window and closed my eyes. The cool glass soothed my head.
Have you ever slipped into a day dream about nothing? Well this is a recurring thing for me. I just slip in and out of the real world, I'm not thinking of anything while it happens so I don't know where my mind runs off to, it just drifts...
When I opened my eyes, my gaze heads straight to the counter because standing there is the guy I've been crushing on, the most good looking guy I've ever seen, Edward Cullen. Cue dreamy sigh here..
I've had a crush on Edward Cullen since the beginning of high school, a week after class openings he actually bumped into me at the hallway and I ended up sending my things airborne, of course he helped me picked it up and said sorry before walking away. That was the start of my attraction to him, besides the fact that he was handsome and smart, he was also friendly to everybody and the fact that he helped me pick up my things just added points for him.
Edward is... Edward is a senior. I doubt he remembers me...
"Bella? Bellaaaa?" I heard the distinct sound of my name being called and also the sound of people talking, but I ignore them, "What the hell is she looking at like that?"
"Oh geez, she's busy daydreaming again. What's wrong with her, it's like somebody put a 'do not disturb' sign on the doorknob of her brain."
"Bella!" both Alissa and Christine shouted at me.
"Huh, What?" I asked dumbly.
"Whatcha looking at? We've been calling out your name like five times." Christine asked cheekily. "Is it the guy over there that looks like Dumbledore with the beer gut of Homer Simpson? He is so dreamy isn't he?" she added laughing. Even Alissa was laughing right along with her.
"Oh stop it, you guys, it isn't funny." I said, pouting.
"I'm sorry Bella, but please just stop daydreaming about Eddie over there and save it for nighttime." Alissa said.
"And when you're alone." Christine added.
"Okay, fine, and his name is Edward." I replied.
"Who cares? But anyways I was asking you if you wanted to join the project or not? I can register the three of us." Alissa said in a sing songy way, head tilted to the side.
"Yeah I think, I want to join, it could be good practice for me to write scripts for when I become an author, what do you say Christine?" I turned to my right and looked at her.
"Sure, no problem, go with the flow." Christine answered absent-mindedly because she was looking at the menu hungrily. "I want to order now" she said looking up, and when she does, she said "She comes in peace!" holding her hand up high. When I look at the direction she is staring at, I see Lorelei Pearce with her bags.
Lorelei is.. there is really not much words you could describe her except weird, she is a tall, red head that doesn't really talk to anyone. I could count on one hand the times she talked to me, but she is kind and means no harm, but I noticed, so did everybody else, that I'm the only one she talks to. Besides that she also always carries three little bags with her, which we don't know what's in it. It's strange really...
There are rumors going around about weed, needles and other fun stuff.
I smacked the back of Christine's head and said, "Don't be mean!"
I ignored Christine's 'ow' and 'sorry' and picked up the menu to decide what to order, Alissa did the same thing, but I still stole a last glance at Lorelei and saw she sat in a booth near the counter.
"Okay, I'm ordering a chocolate shake and burger with fries, how about you guys?" Alissa asked looking at me and Christine.
"I'm ordering a soda with a chicken sandwich" I answered her. Nothing big but nothing small.
"I'm ordering the same as Alissa but with a ham and cheese sandwich and an extra burger." Christine said, Alissa and I both looked at her with WTF expressions on our face. "What? I'm a growing girl, I need food and just because I'm on the small side doesn't mean my appetite is too." Christine defended herself.
"Okay, whatever, It's Bella's turn to order." Alissa decided to just ignore Christine's food trip, but something clicked inside my head.
"What? I can't order. I'll take a rain check and you order." I told her.
"What? Why?" she asked me, confused.
"Because, He's manning the counter, and I can't form coherent sentences in front of him" I answered with a 'duh' expression on my face. Seriously they should be used to my antics by now, I am with theirs.
Christine, not happy with us arguing over who's going to order and delaying her food, said "Oh come on, you're just going to order, It's not like you're freaking proposing to him." she pushed me out of the table and said "Go, shoo, order me my food woman." with a stern look on her face.
I stumbled a little, so I straightened myself and said "Fine."
Since I was already standing up, I had no choice, so I made my way to the counter with a blush on my face.
I smiled at Lorelei when I passed her, she didn't notice me. She just gazed into space. Her hands and eyes were busy twisting her hair around a string of beads. I'm not too sure of what this was achieving but it looked tricky.
Edward smiled as I walked towards him. He kicked off the wall he was leaning on and stood straight at the counter.
"Good afternoon ma'am, welcome to Skips, may I take your order?" Edward said to me.
"Uh, yeah, uh, I would like to have two burgers with fries with one burger extra, one chicken sandwich, one ham and cheese, two chocolate shakes and one mountain dew, please." I told him shyly. Sort of out of breath from my too long order.
"Coming right up." he said, smiling crookedly.
I watched him gather all of our orders, and I ogled his backside when he prepared our sandwiches and watched his muscles flex while fixing our drinks.
I should feel embarrassed that I'm staring at him shamelessly but my subconscious told me 'it's a once in a lifetime chance to look at him with an excuse, don't miss it' so I decided to follow her and watched him, like a hawk, well, my hawk eyes are currently scanning his behind and my mind has a picture of Obama saying 'not bad, not bad at all'..
"Here you go miss." I heard him tell me and effectively breaking me out of my haze. "That will be 28.95." he smiled genuinely.
"Oh yeah, here ya go." I handed him the money.
While he was ringing up my order on the register he looked at me and said "That's a lot of food for just you and your friends."
"Well…" I started to answer but I was interrupted when I felt something being thrown at me. It bounced from my chin and tumbled down my shirt.
"What the hell!" I screeched. I turned to see what was thrown at me and saw that it was leaves. Small and green...
I brushed away the leaf as Lorelei spoke, "Do not talk to him, it will end badly."
She continued her assault on me."Bad things are about to come." she keeps saying. The green of her eyes wild.
I picked up one of the leaves and looked at it, it looked like sage "What are you doing Lorelei?" I asked her, annoyed with her weird behavior.
"Don't talk to him, it will cost you." she answered cryptically and left. Running out of Skips and into the rain. The red of her hair becoming darker as the water touched it. Like fire she ran, not looking back but gaining many stares.
"Okay..." I said turning around and taking the tray from the counter. "Thanks, uh, bye."' I told Edward.
"You're welcome." he answered automatically, he looked shock as to what just happened with Lorelei. When I looked at our table I saw Alissa and Christine with their mouths open and dumbfounded faces. I also notice the whole diner was looking at me, I guess they saw the whole "throw sage at bella" show.
"Okay, I know Lorelei is quirky but that was waaaay beyond the norm." Alissa said as soon as I sat down. She reached forwards and grabbed her food.
"I know, what the fuck just happened back there?" Christine asked me.
"I don't have a clue either." I answered honestly "She just threw sage at me and told me not to talk to Elliot because it would end badly."
"Badly? What does she mean badly? Don't tell me, the freaks a psychic now!" Christine inquired.
"I don't know." I shrugged and started eating, wanting to drop the subject because, honestly, it creeped the freak out of me that Lorelei did that.
She's always been quirky but the quirkiness never reached anyone else.
Christine and Alissa just looked at me then to each other, before looking at their food on the tray.
"Food! Finally." Christine exclaimed happily, she then took her grub and started eating without a care who was watching her eat all of the things she ordered.
Another worker came to clear up the mess that scattered on the floor. Sighing and muttering as they did.
I snuck a glance at the counter to look at Edward, and there he was looking at me curiously, probably wondering why did that just happen. 'I haven't got a clue either, buddy' I thought to myself, then I heard Christine start telling a story of her day with her mouth full, distracting me from thinking of this hours happenings...
But down in the pit of my stomach there was a strange feeling...
It wasn't the dry meat on my chicken sandwich...