A/N: I'm back with chapter 4! Hope you like the story so far, guys!
Sorry for being late! I was editing the 5th chapter and lost track of time. Also playing Naruto Online... Kurama was invading the village and and beating my ass. Sigh..
Anyway! Today the girls are meeting Jack! Well, more like seeing him, poor boy was being chased by Decepticons.
Disclaimer: As usual, I own nothing but my OCs! That's it. And the main plot of the story.
Well, thanks for reading! Also, tomorrow we have two chapters again! And maybe I'll explain why I update like this. :)
Enjoy! :)
Chapter 4
- Strange Incident and Heavenly Breakfast -
Fortunately, there were no incidents while completing and signing the documents, and Ioana and Ale were admitted to the school.
Tamara had been anxious though, because she feared that something would come up, a problem or something, and the girls won't be accepted, but to her greatest relief nothing happened. She would finally have someone to talk to, other than her classmates, who weren't that nice, except for 4 or 5. Tomorrow would be a great day! Well, as great as a school day could get. School was boring, but with her friends there she knew that she would get through the day much easier.
- Later that day -
After getting home and taking a good nap, the girls went out to explore their new home-town. And also to buy some school books.
"Because you guys are new and didn't come when everyone did, you need to buy your books personally." Tamara announced as they rounded a corner and arrived in the center of the city, where a gas station, a drive-in and a few shops were.
"Hoff, I don't want to!" pouted Ale.
"We must." Ioana glanced to Ale on her right and turned to Tamara Can you show us where the town's library is?" she asked the girl.
"Sure! It's right there, you can see it from here." Tamy pointed up ahead, behind the gas station in front of them, where a shop with a sign above it was, 'Library' written in big red letters.
"I hope they still have some there, because we did bring money to order the books, but you know that there always is someone who forgets to bring the money. So, that classmate of mine came here and found out that they had them here too. I'd be more than happy to share mine with you guys, ya know, with us staying together, but the problem's in class. We don't have the same desks as we did back then. They're for one person not two, unfortunately, 'cause if they were we might have convinced Miss Beatrice to let us stay together. Also, Miss Beatrice is our homeroom teacher and our Math teacher too. She's very nice, though." Tammy explained.
Then she stopped and the girls noticed that they were in front of the library. They opened the door, that gave the usual bell sound, entered a small room with a reception desk and were greeted by an old, kind-looking lady.
"Ah! Hello Tamara! What a nice surprise!" the lady smiled. She couldn't have more than 70 years or so. Then she added "And who might these two beautiful young ladies be?"
Alexandra blushed and said:
"Ohhhh? Us?" Ale said in a high-pitched voice, clearly liking the compliment. "Hehe, thank you, but we aren't that beautiful. We're not even 18 yet. Next year we will be, though!" she laughed.
Tamara laughed too and introduced the girls.
"Miss Jenell, this, " she pointed to the short haired girl, "is Alexandra, and this," she pointed to the other girl "is Ioana. They're both new here and just joined my school. We were wondering if you have some of the books we need."
"It's a pleasure to meet such nice girls. Oh, I would be more than happy to help you with that. Come, let's see what I still have in the school and educational area." Miss Jenell said. She then proceeded to lead them towards the back of the library where big heavy shelves covered half of the wall, all under the school category.
"So? Which are the ones we need?" Ioana turned to Tamara. "Also, let's not forget about my sister and Esty. We must buy the books for them too." she reminded.
"Hmmm. I know, I know. We'll take for them too. Now, which ones?" came from the girl, who murmured the last part for herself and looked around, scratching her chin and trying to find the needed books. "Ah! This one!" she pointed to a small, but thick, blue book. It read 'Mathematics for XII'.
"Argh! Maths!" Ale groaned.
"And this one." she took a green book from the shelf. Biology. Another groan. "Also, the Science one!" she pointed to another blue book. This one was lighter, though, and thinner.
"Finally a good one." said Ale, grinning.
Tamara and Miss Jenell smiled amused at her, while Ioana just looked amused. Indeed, while Ale wasn't good at Maths or Biology, she was good at science and-
"Chemistry." Tamara said as if she read her mind, and unknowingly also finished her line of thought.
"Yay!" exclaimed Ale taking the two books from Tamy.
"Pfff." came from Ioana. "Anything else here?"
Tamy glanced once more at all the books.
"Oh! Yes! The English one! I almost forgot! Silly me!" she laughed and took the big heavy book from its spot and shelf.
"Good! Now anything else here?" asked Ale.
"Nope. Let's check the other category too." she suggested.
"Alright! Right this way!" said the old lady cheerfully, and hurried to the other section like she didn't have as many years as she had.
Tamy laughed and they followed her. On the other half of the wall were books from the 'Educational' category. There they found the rest of the books: French and Spanish - apparently they still had more than one language - and they got another groan for the French one, but a happy squeal for the Spanish, and history - another joyful sound -, and geography to which Ale gave yet another happy squeal. Each time Tamy pointed to a book Ioana took the needed amount of books.
"What about Music and Arts?" Ioana asked, looking at all the books, a small frown on her face.
"Oh dear, I forgot!" Tamara said, shaking her head. "Yes, there are for both." she turned around, looking at the shelfs and when she didn't find what she needed, she went back to the 'School' section. After a few minutes she came back with four purple and gold books and other four yellow and white ones. "Here they are, sorry for forgetting about them." she looked apologetically to Ioana.
"It's okay." the girl shook her head and giving Ale her books.
"Well that's all. Thank you for helping us out, Miss Jenell." Tamara smiled warmly.
"Oh, you're very welcome! It's only 350 dollars. I'm happy that I could help you out!" the woman answered, happy. "It was nice to meet you, young ladies." the old lady said, giving each a paper bag for their books.
"Yeah! Thanks Granny!" Ale grinned.
"Ale!" Ioana hissed at Ale, afraid that the girl might have offended the nice lady. "Be more respectful!" she said to her and the turned to the kind lady. "I apologize for my friend's rudeness." she said and bowed to the old woman, who smiled at the two of them.
To their surprise Miss Jenell laughed and shook her head.
"It's okay if she wants to call me like that, I have nothing against it! It reminds me of back when my own grandkids used to call me that! Now it's all 'Grandma' or 'Grandmother'! Why so formal? We're family, right?! Haha!" the woman laughed happily and full of energy.
The three girls smiled warmly, and nodded.
"Then, see you around girls!" she waved back.
"See ya Granny!" Ale returned.
The three then exited the library, each holding a bag filled with books. Suddenly they heard scared screams coming from up ahead, at the drive in they went past on their way. They rushed and saw two identical, fancy-looking, purple muscle cars, both pointing at a boy on his blue with pink highlights motorcycle. Suddenly, the bike got up on its back tire, like it had a mind of its own, and rushed at the two cars. The poor boy held on for dear life, screaming, but didn't fall. Luckily, the bike had just enough space to go between the two cars and took a sudden turn to the left, from their position, only to be followed by the cars. They passed the three shocked girls and disappeared from their view.
"What the...?" Ale managed to summarize up everything that the girls felt. Then she turned to Tamara, her eyes big. "Does this happen a lot...?" she asked.
"No... Jasper is usually very quiet... What just happened was something very strange. But... what's even more strange is that I know the boy that was riding the bike. That's Jack Darby. He's one of the only guys that don't pick up on the smaller students. He's very nice, but not that talkative. He also works here, at the Drive-in. To see him like this is weird." she explained her eyes still flickering ahead, as if waiting to see him reappear. She looked quite concerned.
"Well, maybe we should be more careful. If we don't see him tomorrow, we'll go check that he's alright. If we don't find him home either, then..." Alexandra trailed off, almost afraid to say what she thought she would say, " the police it is..." she said the word police with such malice and irritation she frowned.
Tamara laughed.
"Oh God! Don't tell me you're still scared of the police!" the older girl placed her hands on her hips.
"I'm not afraid! Just... I don't want them-" she looked around her for precaution, "to find out that I like to cross the street when the light's red, or scream "Screw the police!" when crossing said street." she pouted. She only got more laughter from her friend.
Ioana, while Tamara and Alexandra were discussing, still stared down the road, at the direction the boy and the cars took, frowning. While something like that would of been normal in a much populated town, as Tamara said, this town was very quiet and peaceful. Also... the way the motorcycle rose up was very... strange. "In a way too violent way for it to be normal." But, who knows.
"Ioana?" she heard Tamara call.
"Nothing. I thought I saw something." she answered. She didn't want to scare them with what might be only her assumptions.
"Oh?" Tamara looked too but when she saw nothing she shrugged. "Might have been your imagination."
"Hm."
"Can we go home now?" whined Alexandra.
"Yeah. Let's go!" Tamara smiled at her friend's antics. "Oh, Ioana, before I forget, here." she handed the girl a piece of paper. "It's tomorrow's schedule, as you said that it doesn't matter that it's Friday." earlier, when they were exploring around Ioana started asking about the school and whatnot.
Ioana just nodded, grateful.
The girls reached their home without any more incidents. Tamara then went in the kitchen saying that she would make dinner. The other two went and put their books in their shelfs. Then, after dinner, Tamara explained what books they would need and how the teachers were. Soon though, the girls turned in for the night, ready for tomorrow to come.
- The next day -
After a good night's sleep, the girls where ready for school. Tamara and Alexandra woke up much later than Ioana, who got up at 6 AM and started making breakfast.
Only nearly an hour later, did the two girls appear downstairs, and in the kitchen. What greeted them shocked them both. Ioana, who looked ready for school, had an apron tied around her waist, her hair tied up in a high ponytail and her attention down into a cooking pan, one hand clutching the handle, the other holding a fork, mixing whatever she had in the pan.
"Wha..."
It was then, when they finally saw the plates, one full of pancakes, one of sausages and ham, and one with nice, golden-looking potatoes. Finally, two big plates, each with a big delicious omelet. All of them were on the table, put exactly in front of their seats, and to the two girls it looked like Heaven on Earth.
"Oh... My... God..." was the only thing that Ale could get out, and in that moment, her brain was stopped by her hungry stomach.
So, in the next millisecond, she appeared in her usual seat. But, as she was about to grab her fork and dive it into the delicious food, her hand was gently, but firmly, slapped away.
"Cha!" Ioana slapped her best friend's hand. "Wait 'till I finish and join you! Where are the manners I taught you?" she glared at her like an angry mother did to her naughty children.
"Hoff, foame!"(1) was the desperate hoarse groan that, from Ale's point of view, was the most acceptable and sincere response. Instead, she got another glare.
Tamy, though, was more refrained, but only because she didn't want to be scolded like her friend. If she could have, she would have done exactly like Ale... But... The risk that Ioana would kick them out and not give them the feast that she made was too high! Everyone knew just how amazing Ioana was at cooking. Even the persons outside their friend group. Even the teachers. Thanks to the cooking 'contest' back in their 7th grade, they discovered their friend's talent, and, coincidentally, the next grade they had another cooking 'contest', and that time the whole class had to do a plate for every teacher in the school, including the principals. Let's just say that the teachers liked Ioana a lot more from then on. Not that they didn't, Ioana was a very nice and hard-working student.
Ale and Tamy watched as Ioana took a clean plate from a cupboard and put the omelet, they now could see, on it. It was smaller than the ones that stood in front of them. Even than the normal sized ones. Clearly, she wasn't going to eat like she should have. Ale was used to it, though, so she didn't comment. About that. About the heaven in front of her, though..
"Okay. Firstly - not that I have something against this, goodness gracious! May you and Sirv' (I know he helped you) surprise us like this again sometime soon! - what's the occasion? And, secondly, from where did you two get this much food? When I checked last night for a late snack, I saw that there wasn't that much food left in Frigiderius (2). Of course, after I finished my snack, there was even less." Ale said and grinned sepishly at the last part. She was really trying to contain herself, least she got another glare from her friend and got banished from the glorious food in front of her watering mouth.
"Firstly, I went shopping for groceries. I knew you were down, attacking the poor fridge, I heard you from upstairs. I'm surprised, because Tamara's room is just above, but she didn't go down to check if it was a burglar, or just the crazy girl she allowed to live in her house, with the hope she won't need to change her fridge every year from now on." Ioana looked amused at the two girls. "Secondly, it's our first day at school since school began! Also, I know it's late, but I also wanted to thank Tamy somehow for letting us stay with her." Ioana looked with big, brown, grateful eyes.
Tamara smiled warmly at her and then looked at all the food laid out.
"Hmm!You're welcome, dear! And thank you too, for this! It looks so delicious! But... I can't say that it looks like a typical American breakfast, not to complain or something!" she observed and quickly reassured the girl.
"American?" Ioana raised her eyebrow, looking a little insulted. "This," she gestured in a graceful movement at all the food, and the two girls seated at the table followed entranced her hand, then looked back at her face as she continued, "is a traditional Canadian breakfast." she finished with a proud air surrounding her.
"Ermm, you know we're not in Canada right?" Ale said slowly, afraid of her friend's adoration for the northern country. "It's like eating KFC at Mc Donald's or vice versa."
"Which you did." Ioana replied simply, looking expectantly at her.
"You didn't!" came the half-shocked half-amused snort from Tamy.
"She made me!" Ale defended herself. "I had bought from KFC, but of course, Ioana just had to shock me by saying she wanted only and only Mc! So, being the good friend I am, I agreed, but we couldn't go somewhere else, so we ate there, at Mc Donald's. Do you imagine how afraid I was, there, surrounded, the only one insane enough to eat from the 'enemy' inside the 'mother-base'!" Ale shivered with terror, as if reliving the past.
"Oh my God! I can't believe you!" Tamara shouted, cracking up at the mental image that Ale gave her.
Alexandra pouted.
"It ain't funny!" she crossed her arms, irritated, but she blinked after thinking again the whole story. "Wait. It is, in fact, very funny!" and she too, started laughing.
Even Ioana gave an amused smirk. Then, she grabbed her plate and sat down at the head of the table.
"Come now, let's eat!" she took her own fork and started to fill her plate with a little bit of everything that she had cooked.
"This is so delicious!" Alexandra managed to get out, trying to swallow.
"Eww! Ale!" Tamara laughed.
"Don't worry, I knew it would happen." she turned to Ale and gave her a familiar pink napkin she pulled out of nowhere, not even pausing from speaking, as if it was pure instinct, taking care of her friend. Tamara always liked how Alexandra and Ioana got along, the two were so close, predicting each other's moves with such ease and rapidity. It was really admirable. "So, how much time do we have left?" Ioana asked, first swallowing, and then pulling another napkin out of thin air to clean herself and Tamara laughed internally, only now realizing why the napkin looked so familiar. She knew exactly were it came from. After that, she got up and only then did the other two noticed she already finished.
Tamara looked at her phone and almost spit out the food in her mouth.
"Goodness! It's 7:20! We must hurry! I didn't even prepare my school bag! Or my clothes!" Tamara told the girls, panicking.
"Damn! I didn't either!" Ale was starting to get up, but was stopped by Ioana.
Ioana also put a hand on Tamara's shoulder, in a reassuring way.
"Eat slowly, it isn't good for your health if you hurry too much."
"B-but...! The school bag!" Alexandra whined.
"I already prepared all of them. Including Tamara's." Ioana answered simply, and started to collect the empty dishes on the table.
"The clothes!" Tamara reminded.
"Ironed and folded on your desks. Haven't you seen them?" Ioana turned towards them, with an eyebrow raised. "And before you ask, I asked Sirvat to go into your rooms to collect them, give them to me to iron and fold and then return them. He was careful not to disturb you. Now, if you're finished, go and change. I'll do so too, after finishing the dishes, 'kay?"
The two girls just nodded mutely and got up from the table. "As I said. Admirable!"
"Thank God for you and Sirvat, Ioana! Where would we be without you?" Tamara smiled at Ioana, eyes full of respect and admiration. "Poor Sirvat.. He's became half her servant by now!" the girl laughed silently, but not unkindly.
Ioana just smiled a little, always happy and ready to help her friends.
"It was nothing. You are very welcome. Now, shoo! Go change." Ioana teased the two, who listened to her and went upstairs to get ready.
"Thanks for helping me, I wouldn't have been able to cook everything and get the clothes done in time if it weren't for you." she gave a small smile to the air, fingering the pink rose in her hair.
- End of the chapter -
(1) = Hungry!
(2) = Ale loves to name things, no matter what they are or if they already have names.
