Chapter 5: Time For Some FUN?

Last night I experienced a horrible nightmare, but I wasn't asleep. There was no way I could wake up. There was no way I could've stopped it. There was no chance of it disappearing. I should've never gone to her stupid sleepover, but no I insisted on going. Maybe I can skip school on Monday or the rest of the week, better yet the rest of the year. The ringing of my telephone knocked these thoughts out of my head.

"Hey Ashley, can I still come over tonight?"

I replied, "I don't know, Ellie. I'm not exactly in the mood for company."

"But I'm only one person, not company."

It is already two o'clock in the afternoon and I'm still in my plaid pajamas. I haven't eaten anything or done anything productive. In fact I haven't stepped out of my bed. I just don't feel like doing anything. I guess you could call me lazy.

"But I'm grumpy. Grrr!"

"I don't mind." Ellie said.

"You don't want to come over tonight. Toby is inviting JT over tonight and they always run around getting on everybody's nerves. I don't think you want that."

"I need a little entertainment. Besides I need a little cheering up. Please Ashley I need to get out of this house."

"Fine, but I warned you."

"Yeah, you did. I'll be over at seven." Ellie said and hung up. Great, now I have an actual reason to get out of bed. I slipped on my warm slippers and walked into my bathroom and stared at my hair in the mirror. Man, I really got to do something about this hair. It's driving me crazy. Hmm...maybe I can go get it colored before Ellie comes over. I take a long, warm shower, get ready and go downstairs.

Jeff asked, "Where are you going?"

"I need to do something about this hair. Do you mind if Ellie spends the night?" I asked while grabbing an apple.

"Sure, that sounds good." Mom walked into the kitchen holding the newspaper and an empty glass.

"Oh Ashley you're up." She said.

"I've been up."

"Are you okay? I was worried."

"Mom, don't worry about me. I'm fine. I need to go, but I'll be back in a couple of hours. Love you. Bye!" I said and headed out the door. This time I'm going to a different hair salon that isn't too far away from the house. It's just passed the ice cream shop and just guess who I saw when I came upon at the ice cream shop, yep no other than Manny and Craig. They were sharing an ice cream cone. Manny saw me, but just ignored me. I kept walking until I reached the hair salon, where everything would hopefully go smoothly.

"Hello how can I help you?" The hairdresser asked.

"Yes, I'm here to get my hair dyed. It didn't go too well last time as you can tell." I responded as I ran my hands through my hair.

"So this is an emergency? It's nothing that some hair coloring can't fix. Take a seat. By the way my name is Jane."

"I'm Ashley."

"Hon, do you have anything in mind?"

"Some red and black but please anything besides orange."

Jane smiled, "Okay I know what to do. Just relax, sweetie."

I read The Rolling Stones while she did my hair. It took a while, but it is better that being cooped up in my room. It can't be healthy being miserable all day. Soon there will be no more jokes about my hair. It will be back to normal, but I just wish everything else would go back to normal.

"Ashley, I'm all done." Jane said.

"Oh I love it. Thanks!"

"You're welcome, dear. Come back soon."

"I will. Bye!" I said and went home.

Jeff and the rest of my family liked my hair. Mom said it suited me so that was cool. I went to upstairs and cleaned my bedroom so it would look somewhat presentable. JT was already here and him and my brother were playing monopoly downstairs. The doorbell rang so I rushed downstairs.

"Ashley, Ellie is here!" Mom shouted.

"Yeah I know." I said.

"Thanks for having me over Mrs. Kerwin." Ellie commented.

"Awe, it's no problem. Girls, what do you want for dinner?"

"Let's make some pizza." I suggested and Ellie nodded. My mom took her backpack and sleeping bag to my room, while we headed into the kitchen.

"So I like the hair. It's so not orange." Ellie said.

"Thanks, but don't mention that again. It is in the past."

"At least I took plenty of pictures."

"Keep rolling the dough."

"So how was yesterday with Paige?"

"You had to go there."

"Yep, so what happened?"

"Drama, and more drama. Manny was there and so was Craig. He begged for my forgiveness and I ended up going home. That reminds me all my stuff is still over there. Great, I got sauce all over me." Ellie tossed me a washrag and I tried to get it off, but I just made a bigger mess.

"Well Iast night wasn't too great for me either. My dad called and said he wasn't coming home anytime soon. Then my mom crashed out on the couch drunk once again. She's a mess and I really miss my dad. He used to keep it all together."

"That's why you wanted to come over here, huh?"

"You caught me. Hey what is that noise?" Ellie asked and then we went to check it out. Inside my brother's room we saw Toby and JT in capes that were actually towels playing football with socks? Ellie and me watched them running around and yelling as if this was an actual sport.

JT shouted, "Touch down! Ooo, ooo! Yeah I'm good!" Then he started doing a victory dance. At least he was trying to dance. Ellie and I burst out laughing and couldn't control it any longer.

"Oh hi lovely sister of mine and Ellie. JT you can stop dancing now!" Toby shouted and JT stopped dancing immediately

"Hey ladies! Tobs and I were just playing a game of sock football. Toby was going to cry if I didn't play with him."

"No, I wasn't. This was your idea like it always is. I wanted to play chess."

"Um we're going to go now so you can settle this out. Pizza will be done in 20 minutes." I said and closed the door behind me.

"Are they always like that?" Ellie asked and giggled.

"Pretty much, but it's pretty funny isn't it?"

"Yeah it sure is. I'm starving."

"Me too."

After Ellie and I ate dinner we went upstairs to my room and decided to watch Ocean's Eleven. We painted our nails while we watched the movie. This was so much better than spending time with Paige and all her friends. She knew Craig was coming over along with Manny. In fact she probably set the whole thing up.

Ellie shouted, "I love this part. Can you pass the popcorn?"

"Yeah. Here so Ellie what is up with you and Sean?" I asked.

"What?"

"You heard me and let's try the truth this time."

"We're really good friends."

"Just friends?"

"Maybe more."

"Maybe?"

"Okay I like him and he likes me. Marco was right. We are secretly dating as lame as that sounds. I just didn't want you and Marco making a big deal out of it." I started laughing.

"I'm not so is it...serious? Are there sparks when you look him in the eyes? Better yet do you see fireworks when you kiss?"

"Excuse me, but that's very personal." Ellie blushed.

"Oh my Ellie you're blushing. I've never seen you this happy since...since you were dating Marco."

"That reminds me don't tell him."

I asked, "Why not?"

"Because he'll tell me 'I told you so.' Besides I should be the one to tell him."

"You're not going to tell him, are you?"

"I will!" Ellie said and ate some more popcorn while I munched on chocolate cream filled Oreos. I love chocolate. You can never have too much chocolate. Then there was a knock at my door.

"Come in." Ellie and me shouted in unison. Then Toby and JT ran into my room with cans of silly string in their hands.

"You wouldn't dare!" I said.

"Would I?" Toby smirked.

"I would." JT shouted and started to spray me with the green silly string. Ellie and me screamed loudly.

"This is war." I heard Ellie scream.

"Charge!" I said and grabbed my pillow. I threw it at JT's head and he fell to the ground. Then I grabbed the can of silly string and sprayed JT. This was too easy.

"Way to go, Ashley!"

"Now this is fun!" I shouted and chased JT into the hallway while he screamed like a girl.

"Look Toby Superman." Ellie said.

"I'm not going to fall for that one." Toby grinned.

"And he has your comic books."

"What?" He said and turned around and she snatched the can of pink silly string.

"You lied."

"Well would you look at that I did?" Ellie said and chased him into his room. That was the last time we saw those two boys all night. They were probably in Toby's room clutching their pillows tight.

"We won." I said and Ellie and me jumped up and down with joy.

"Maybe I should come over more often. This is so much more fun than I'm used to."

"Yeah maybe you can being Sean over next time."

"This is war." She said and sprayed some silly string at me and I got her back.

"I surrender." She yelled covered in silly string. Then I realized my can was empty.

"Well that worked out perfectly." I replied and we went back into my room. I was actually having fun, something I haven't had in a while.

We watched some cartoons on the Cartoon Network, and then Ellie drifted off in dreams of Sean, while I stayed up. I wanted to sleep but I couldn't. In fact I was wide-awake. Maybe it was because of all that chocolate I ate. Perhaps there is such a thing called too much chocolate and I had too much darn stuff on my mind. I switched off the lights and placed on my headphones on trying to tune out my thoughts.

Authors Note: So I finished chapter 5 and will start on the next chapter as soon as I can. What did you think? Read and Review. Thanx!