Chapter Ten

Wish Upon a Star

By the time the day was over, Clear couldn't have been happier; not that she was in any mood to suffer through the boring exploits of her grandparents but anything was better then having to endure the public affection of Alex and Adrienne.

Yet there they were, suddenly the "it" couple, standing on the sidewalk, Alex with his arm around the blonde's waste, looking like he was dating a supermodel. Tod and his brother hung around, both making lovely-dovey eyes at Terry Chaney, who was talking to Adrienne and trying to pretend the others weren't around.

Tod glanced her direction and made eye contact with Clear, motioning for her to join them. With a painful frown, she waved her head and quickly headed the other way, shifting her backpack and her books. On top of seeing Alex "in love" with someone else, she had received a detention for being late to her class; she had already made up her mind not to tell her grandparents but the slip still weighed heavy in her mind. She had never gotten a detention before and she thought of the paper as yet another reminder that she was a different person living a different life now.

Clear took longer on the walk home this afternoon, too warped up in her thoughts to really care how long it took her to arrive "home." It wasn't her home yet and she doubted she would ever think of it like that, it was just a place to stay for the time being. But those weren't the thoughts on her mind as she strode down the sidewalk, chewing on her bottom lip and treading her fingers together. She was, as always, thinking about Alex and how her heart broke every time she thought of him with Adrienne.

As she arrived at home, Clear ignored her grandmother's attempts to make a two second conversation and trudged upstairs, tossing her backpack onto her bed. She pulled the pink detention slip out of her pocket and dropped it onto her study desk.

With a sigh, Clear walked over to her window and gazed outside, watching the wind shift through the trees and the clouds breeze across the sky. She pictured herself a million miles away from this place, walking down the bank of the Seine with Alex. A slight smile graced her face as she thought of pushing Adrienne into the river in Paris, or perhaps nudging her ever so gently off the top of the Eiffel Tower.

She pushed those thoughts from her mind, wandering away from the window, knowing that those thoughts would do her no good and do nothing more then make her even more upset. Clear knelt down on her knees and peaked under the small space between her bed and the floor, sliding out the worn leather case that held her father's equally worn guitar.

Clear popped the case open and strummed a few mournful cords, contemplating teaching herself to play so she could write heart-wrenching ballads about Alex. She scraped the idea when one of the strings snapped, nearly taking her eye out; she closed the case again, sliding it back under the bed. She'd always been a better artist anyway.

She pulled her notepad from her backpack and sat down at the old oaken desk that her grandparents had dug out of the basement for her. When she sketched, Clear found that it was easier for her to pretend that she was somewhere else, someone else for that matter, and push away all her problems. This time was no exception and she forgot all about Adrienne Grant as she gently drew pencil sketches of her and Alex with Paris landscape as the background.

By the time her grandmother called her down for dinner, Clear had filled up half her notebooks with the whimsical drawings of herself and Alex, sitting at quaint little Parisian cafes and touring the city. She remained silent all through dinner, mentally pretended that the pictures were a reality.



* * *

Clear pulled down the sheets on her bed, not too eager to go to sleep, knowing that she would only have to get up and see Alex and Adrienne together again in the morning. Not amount of pictures or wishful thinking would change that. Just like her mother's abandonment, Alex not being interested in her was a reality that she was going to have to face, no matter how painful it was.

With a sigh, she left her bedside and stood by the window once again, though now it was difficult for her to see the trees in front of her house, for the moon was only half full and the corner street light didn't work. But it wasn't hard for her to see the sparkling stars in the velvet night sky.

And staring at the stars, Clear found herself doing something that she hadn't done since she was six years old: wishing upon the stars. She remembered sitting on the front porch with her father, staring up at the sky. "You see Clear, all you have to do is focus on a star, concentrate really hard and make a wish, then all your dreams will come true." He'd told her, smiling down at his daughter.

And she had done just that, concentrating so hard that she squinted her eyes. "I wish I was a princess." She had said with all the brains of a six year old. Her father had just laughing, rolling his eyes.

Clear smiled briefly at the memory, picking a star and squinting her eyes tightly; once again she was the carefree six-year-old again, wishing upon a star. She pictured Alex's face as she mentally wished, pretending that she didn't feel foolish.

If wishes on stars really came true, Clear realized that she would never be unhappy.

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Sorry that chapter was short, but I burned my right-hand fingers so I've been pecking with my left hand. But, the pain will hopefully be gone by tomorrow so....I'll have another chapter tomorrow. The story is almost done but fear not, if you guys want me to, I'll do a sequel. Anyway, watch for another chapter of "Reaper F.D.3" and a story based on "From Justin to Kelly." Also, if anyone is interested, I actually got the idea for this chapter from the song "Wish Upon a Star" from "From Justin to Kelly." Please review!