"Was I really seeking good or just seeking attention? No good deed goes unpunished." - Idina Menzel, No Good Deed, Wicked.

Aly's POV

That was a very productive day at the Vega's.

I mopped their kitchen and bathroom floors, wiped windows down, dusted, vacuumed and organized their dishes.

I'm such a good soul.

Tori's mom said I'm welcome to come over any time I feel like it. She just wants to use me for my amazing cleaning skills. I'm such a boss.

Tori and Trina looked all excited too.

Well, I can't have a Vega looking excited...so I don't think I'll ever be going back there again. Unless Andre and Tori get married and for some reason have a wedding in Tori's house or backyard or something and I have to go. Because Andre and I are tight.

Gwen's not home, although I do hear a car pulling up in our drive way so maybe that's her.

Beck said she just sort of went out. He also told me David called, so putting the pieces together I'm betting she went over there.

I already know why he called. I think you guys do, too.

I may have told him about Gwen's little false transformation. Can you blame me?

If there's anyone who can help New Gwen be Old Gwen, it's David.

I got that idea when I was watching a random episode of Glee that was on our DVR. Dianna Agron's character went all goth and shit, so Idina Menzel, who just so happens to play the lead role in one of my favorite Broadway shows, Wicked, convinced her to change back for her baby.

So I was thinking, well, obviously this chick loves her baby, so if that could change her back, then something Gwen loves can change her back.

And I don't think brownies could make Gwen be Gwen again.

That just left David.

Aren't I totally amazing?

But, if I'm totally amazing, than why did my room door just swing open revealing the face of a very angry muggle.

Hah, muggle. "You are the worst person on the face of this planet!"

I was amazing a second ago..."How am I the worst person on the face of this planet?"

Gwen crossed her arms and stared at me like I was playing stupid. Even though I am. "I walked to David's house and he told me that you told him about my new look. I could have told him myself you know!"

Oh I do know, Gwen. He would have been way more scared if I didn't warn him. "I just warned him. Don't you think it cushioned the blow? How did it go anyway?"

I hope that didn't come out wrong. Like, I don't want it sounding like I did it for all the wrong reasons. Like I want David or something.

And I don't want him.

Anyway, with my luck, she will take it the wrong way. "He didn't even...didn't even want to kiss me. But that's what you wanted, isn't it? You just don't want me to be happy! You or Beck!"

I'm lost. "Beg pardon?"

"You just can't handle the fact that someone of the male persuasion finally isn't paying attention to you!"

What the hell is she talking about? "Gwen, you know you and String Bean have been dating for like, almost four or five months right?"

Gwen rolled her eyes, "Ugh! Are you stupid? What I'm saying is that you just couldn't wait to tell David that I changed my image so he would b-break up with me and you could go back to having the attention of every single boy on this freaking planet!" Hm. Her voice faltered on 'break'. God Gwendoloser. Your boyfriend would never break up with you.

That's exactly what I'm going to tell her. "You changed more than just your image." Okay, so maybe I didn't tell her what I said I was going to. It doesn't matter. She already knows it.

Everyone does.

Everyone knows Gwen and David are soul mates.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Her voice was calmer now, but I'm not expecting it to stay this way, especially since our discussion isn't over.

If you haven't noticed, when Gwen gets angry, she turns a little bi-polar and a she doesn't just get angry. She gets super mega angry pissed off.

On a scale of chill to pissed, right now, obviously Gwen's angry, but no so much that she would stab me with a rusty spoon. Even though if she had one hidden in her bra, I honestly bet she would want to. "Because it's true?"

The calm facade faltered mostly because I didn't say something soothing, but when I have ever been known to be soothing? "It wasn't your place to tell him! It wasn't right."

Oh. You want to talk about things that aren't right?

I scoffed, "Shoplifting isn't all that right either."

"Neither is feeding someone a jank cupcake on purpose."

"Neither is smoking."

"Neither is letting your goodies hang out twenty four seven!"

"Neither is pretending to be someone you're not just to piss people off. Honestly, Gwendolyn, grow up."

"Neither is being a total bitch!"

I stopped and stared. No, not like the song. Okay, kind of like the song.

Gwen wasn't fazed at all by what she said. It kind of hurt. "Why can't you see things from my point of view? Or at least try! If this is who I am now, then this is how I am, who cares what anyone else thinks. Even if my own sister falls under that category! Ursula told me that."

"Anyone, not just Captain Herpes, who tells you to be yourself and this is what you come up with, couldn't have given you worse advice. Honestly, I'd like to see things from your point of view but I can't seem to get my head that far up my ass."

That's when my little sister slapped me across the face.

Ouch. Like, emotionally and physically. Damn this girl packs a slap. Sort of glad she didn't punch me. I might have ended up like Liv Jackson.

I felt my cheek and winced a little bit. "Gwen. I really suggest you leave my room."

There's her soft face again. Bi-polar super mega angry pissed, like I said. "Aly- I'm..."

"Go."

So she left. Without another word. Good.

It's not like I would have hit her back, I actually don't know what I would have done if she stayed in here.

With that though, I started pacing. Back and forth.

I probably would have made it another two rounds of pacing if my brother's RV lights wouldn't have been on, and Jade's car is in front of our house.

They didn't have roleplaying last night and if the lights are still on and Jade's here, they're not very well doing dirty deeds right now.

Jade says it's less sexy to, well, have sex in the light.

Wow. I'm a cleaning bug, Gwen's a poser and Beck is abstinent.

Do you see what bad news does to my family?

/ /

Happy Canada Day, guys.

Yes ma'am, it is in fact Canada Day.

If I haven't already explained it, which I think I have but can't remember, it's basically just Independence Day for Canada.

We normally just call my Grandma Joyce, our Canadian grandmother on our Dad's side, and say hi and chat for a bit.

We always talk about actually going to Canada one year for said day, but we never actually go, because of my parents work habits.

Poo on them. Gwen would probably change back to her old self in a split second if Jane bribed her with Canadian Canada Day.

Speaking of whom, this afternoon, I noticed she was honoring the tradition when she walked into the kitchen and seated herself two spots away from me at the breakfast bar.

What tradition, you ask?

Well, every year since we were about five and six, Gwen and I have always worn skirts on this fine June day.

I don't know why but we always do.

Of course, for Gwen this year she still had to keep up her rebel image by pairing her, gag, jeans skirt with an Alexander McQueen inspired skull face cutout tank top.

I say gag because I haven't worn a jeans skirt since I was about seven or eight. I almost told her that until Beck came in with his "Happy Canadian Independence Day" hair ruffling routine.

He didn't dare ruffle Gwen's hair, because she'd probably cry about how he was no also ruining her life or something that I don't care about.

'But Aly, how can you not care?'

The little gank slapped me in the face last night. Ergo, I don't care.

I was a little miffed that he had ruffled my hair, I admit. Mostly because I had just then blow dried it, since you know, I took a shower fifteen minutes prior to that rendezvous.

I didn't shower at eleven thirty because I was sleeping, though. I didn't sleep in today.

I was up at promptly seven o'clock am this morning.

Can you guess what I was busy doing?

You will win a prize of lovely proportions if you can tell me what I was doing this morning.

...

I was cleaning. You lose.

I spent my morning cleaning the entire house, yessiree. I did the upstairs, minus Gwen's room, the downstairs guest bedroom, the other rooms downstairs, mopped, dishes all that fun cleaning stuff, you know.

It took me about five hours, but my house is totally spotless right now.

I'm so happy.

Even though, here we are, seven o'clock at night, both my parents are home and no one has mentioned my cleaning powers. No praise. No nothing.

But here, I'll give you a second chance, can you guess what we're talking about?

It's not the baby, thank Buddha.

For once, it's Gwen. My parents are sitting here trying to get a 'whats wrong pumpkin' out of Gwen. It started out as "Gwenny, I think this charade has gone on long enough," sort of soft speech, but now it's turned into 'omg lyke wut can we d0 2 make ur lyfe better, gwen?' plead.

I'm going to lose it.

"Mom?" I interjected, hoping to tell her that I vacuumed the guest room, like she had been asking for two months.

"Not now, Aly." She waved her hand. "And furthermore, Gwendolyn-"

I shifted my eyes to my dad, "Uh, Dad-"

"Not now, Princess. -Gwen, your mother is right."

Oh really 'cause I wanted to tell you that I mowed the lawn so you wouldn't have to.

Not now, though. Not now.

Beck shot me a sympathetic look, "Als, do you wanna get out of here? We could go to Jade's or something."

Yeah. I want to get out of here. But...not before I do something. "I'll be right back. I just, uhm, need to go to the bathroom."

I silently stood up, not that my parents would notice or anything, and found my way up to my room.

Fine. If they won't pay attention to me wearing a Dolce dress shirt, a highwaisted skirt and louiboutons, it's okay with me.

Searching through my closet, I pulled out an outfit that I normally would never wear.

For this situation, I make an exception for coral bandeaus, destroyed short shorts and biker jackets.

I ran back downstairs, back to the very scene in the living room and took a deep breath. "Mom, Dad. I just wanted to let you know that I cleaned the entire house and-"

"Allison, we said not- oh my god."

The look on my parents and siblings faces mirrored the faces Beck, my parents and I had made on the very night Gwen came home looking like I do now. "Yeah, that's right. Maybe you'd pay more attention to me if I dressed more like her!"

Gwen stood up, looking me up and down. "Uh, I dress less like a three dollar hooker on Broadstreet and more like someone who's sick of her mother telling her what to do when her mother can't even keep her legs closed!"

Insert Gwen and Jane fighting.

Insert me leaving.

/ /

Another thing to add to my list of things my sister and I have in common is that we both end up walking to our boyfriends houses.

That answers your question as to where I went.

It took a lot longer than I thought it would.

It's much faster by car. I wish Beck would have taught me how to drive this week, that way I could have stolen his car and drove there.

Bad thing number one.

Bad thing number two is that when the sun goes down, it gets really cold. Hooker shorts and a light leather jacket aren't going to keep you warm.

Bad thing number three is that I can't even text my boyfriend and tell him that I'm coming over looking like a prostiteen because I left my phone in my bag at my house.

Bad thing number four- oh yeah, there's a four, is that I've been crying for so many different reasons.

I mean, my life has just gone from bad to worse and it's partly my fault. Cory's parents are probably going to demand their son break up with me when they see me dressed like this. My sister most likely hates me...

I knocked on the door of the Edison mansion and awaited the adults of the house to come out and judge me.

The door opened, but it wasn't an adult.

Let's just say I had to look down to see who it was. "Hi, Mandy." I wiped my eyes and smiled.

Mandy squinted to see who it was, as the outside light wasn't on because she can't even reach the switch, "Hi, Aly! Is my boyfriend here? Did he break up with his girlfriend? Where are your pants?"

"Uh..."

"Amanda! How many times have I told you to get upstairs to bed- Babe?" Thank you, little baby Jesus wearing a tuxedo. It's not his parents. It's him.

Too bad I'm not speaking. Why I'm not speaking I don't know. I think I'm crying. I really have no reason to cry, but I'm a drama queen and must overreact.

Cory leaned down to his sister and told her in a low voice to, "Go pick out your favorite movie and get upstairs. I'll be up in five minutes to turn it on."

She nodded happily and ran off. "Als, baby. What's wrong? Are you okay?" Cory took my hand but I just stood there.

I'm an idiot.

I have no reason to cry and no reason to be standing at Cory's doorstep. I could have handled the situation at my house a lot better. "I...I don't-"

Yeah. I'm pretty sure my super mega foxy awesome hot boyfriend just sort of picked me up and carried me into his house. No big deal.

I wiped my eyes for the final time after he put me down, "Are your parents home?" Oh because that's the first thing I should ask.

Cory shook his head after closing and locking the front door. "They're out at some college thing with Kellan and Britt. That's why we left San Francisco yesterday instead of this morning."

I'm so thankful for whatever college thing they're at. I completely forgot that they were out of town. Imagine me coming here and no one was home.

Like I said, I'm an idiot.

I started unzippering my jacket and my boyfriend looked both please and really confused. "I don't mean to be a jerk, but, what up with the absurdly sexy hooker outfit?"

"I'd rather not talk about it right now." I shook my head.

Cory leaned in and kissed my cheek. "We can talk upstairs, if you want. I just gotta go pop Mandy and Mikey's movie's on."

Alliteration.

/ /

After Cory had finally convinced Mikey that nothing was going to come out of his closet and eat him, and told Mandy for the fifth time that Mandeck is not going to happen, we were finally in his room.

I hope he knows this is where I'll be all night.

Like, seriously, I'm not going back to my house tonight. I don't care if they're worrying about me, because they're not.

Not being in that house for one night would do all of them some good.

"So, after your mom announced that she was pregnant, Gwen turned in to a rebel with a major case of skank face?"

I nodded. "And everything after that happened is just horrible."

Filling him in on everything that's happened in the past few days wasn't as complicated as I thought. "Ya' know, a new baby isn't really all that bad. I've been through it twice." He smirked, stroking my hair.

"Yeah, but that's because your family is decent. Mine is-" Yawn. "terrible."

Sorry for the yawn. I'm tired.

Cory chuckled and got off the couch. He walked to his dresser and pulled out one of his various graphic shirts and through it at me. "I figured you could wear it over your shorts when you go to sleep."

Oh good. He's realized I'm not leaving. But I hope he realizes I'm not wearing these uncomfortable shorts to bed.

I slid the t-shirt over my head and was immediately engulfed in the vast over-sized-ness of it.

Well, oversized for me, anyway. Normal for a boy such as Cory, who is currently taking off his pants.

Why is it that out of context, my inner dialogues would sound so dirty?

If he can take off his, I can take off mine.

See what I mean?

Let's break it down. I'm standing in Cory's bedroom, wearing a blue t-shirt of his and my Victoria's Secret underwear, whilst he's wearing blue and white boxers.

At least we match.

"You can sleep on the bed if you want, I'll sleep on the couch."

I love how he's talking about sleep and it's only seven thirty. He knows we're just gonna make out until my yawns are too distracting.

I rolled my eyes and couldn't help but smile a little bit, "Cory, that's stupid. We can just sleep in the same bed." I motioned to his bed and I swear to God his face grew the lightest shade of red.

That's the cutest thing ever. "Are you sure?"

"As long as your parents don't bust in and think we're having sex, it's fine."

This statement led to Coco turning on the TV and some intense Coral holding/snuggling/kissing time.

Good thing number one, we're not planning on having sex. Even though I'd totally do him right now if he had protection.

Good thing number two, I'm not drunk. If you remember the first official time I literally slept with a boy, I was drunk and he turned out to be an asshole.

Good thing number three, we're watching Top Chef.

Good thing number four, because of course there's a four, I know I say this a lot but I seriously love Cory Alexander Edison.

Goddamnit, Allison. Why are you crying.

Cory kissed my lips and noticed my tears, "Don't cry, baby."

I sighed. Or maybe it was a yawn.

"It's just that, I'm really happy. Right here, right now, with you."