Miranda laid down on Gordo's bed and sighed.
"Gordo, what if Lizzie never remembers us again?" She asked as Gordo ran his fingers through his dark brown hair.
"It'll work out okay!" He sounded frustrated. "Just stop the questions okay? I don't know."
"Well I'm sorry, but aren't you at least a little bit worried?" Miranda sat up quickly, waiting for his answer. Gordo glared at her looking even more annoyed. 'What did she think?' he said to himself.
"Of course I'm worried!" He all of a sudden said. "She was my girlfriend for your information!" He blurted out. He shouldn't have said that, he thought. Miranda gasped.
"What, how come you guys never told me you were going out? I'm part of your lives too, hello? How could you?"
"Well-," But Gordo was interrupted by the ringing of his telephone and he was relieved as he didn't want to go into any details. He quickly picked it up and was surprised to hear the sound of Mr. McGuire's voice. Gordo spoke to him for a few minutes as Miranda waited anxiously for him to tell her everything. Then Gordo put down the phone and said nothing.
"Well?" Miranda asked desperately.
"Lizzie's back home." A smile spread over Miranda's face but Gordo continued. He told her about Lizzie wanting a Porsche, about her sensitivity and how strangely she had acted over the time she had arrived home. Of course, Gordo and Miranda had expected this but getting Lizzie back to her old self again was going to be challenging. Gordo and Miranda left immediately without hesitating and were soon at Lizzie's front door.
"Hi Miranda, hi Gordo! Lizzie's upstairs in her room although I'm not quite sure what she's doing. But just remember to be careful of what you say. We don't want her storming out again!" Jo said. Gordo and Miranda walked upstairs and turned the doorknob to Lizzie's room. They could hardly heave the door open because it was blocked with all this stuff scattered all over the ground. Lizzie looked up as Gordo and Miranda tiptoed through the sea of mess.
"Be careful! Don't step on that!" Lizzie cried as Miranda froze.
"Hey Lizzie!" Miranda said, trying to sound happy.
"Do I know you guys? And who said you can come in my room?
"Um, your Mom said we could." Gordo answered nervously.
"She's not my Mom, how many times do I have to tell you that? I'm only living with these people cos they promised to buy me a-,"
"We know Lizzie, your Dad- er, Sam told us!" Miranda interrupted.
"Don't interrupt while I'm speaking!" She cried. "Anyway, if these people were my folks, I think I would die of embarrassment! They are way too old for me; they're old enough to be my great grandparents for god's sake!" Miranda looked at her, then went to sit at the end of Lizzie's bed, but then stood quickly back up because Lizzie had told her off.
"What are you people doing here anyway? I never invited you guys and I don't even know you! So please, go now!" Lizzie said rudely.
"Well, before we go Lizzie, we just wanted to give you this." Miranda said as she shoved a rather thick book into Lizzie's hands. "It's scrapbook of pictures of all three of together. Please, just have a look at it."
Lizzie quickly opened the thick book and flicked through the pages roughly without even looking at the photos. Then she stopped at one particular page and stared down at the photo of her, Miranda and Gordo on their first day of high school.
"I don't have enough eye liner in this pic! And look at my complexion, it's just so off!" She cried. Lizzie ripped the page out of the scrapbook, scrunched it up into a ball and chucked on the ground. Miranda gasped began to get angry.
"Excuse me! Why did you just do that? That was one of the best pictures! Well so much so much for just trying to help you out!" Miranda yelled and she grabbed the book out of Lizzie's hands and made her way to the door. Gordo followed her while Lizzie gave them an odd look and Miranda slammed the door behind them.
"What happened?" Jo asked the two as she noticed the angry looked on Miranda's face.
"Lizzie tore a really good photo of us out of the scrap book and chucked it away cos 'her complexion was off'". Gordo mimicked. Miranda just breathed heavily in the background.
'Oh. I'm so sorry kids, but that's what she's like now. There's not really much we can do about it." Jo replied, looking sorry for them. "Why don't you guys stay for a while and have something to eat?"
"Oh, that's okay Mrs. McGuire. We've got a lot of home work to do and besides, I don't think Lizzie would want us to stay anyway." Gordo said, as though he felt hurt.
"Please, don't take everything she says so seriously. I'm sure she doesn't really mean it."
"Yeah, we know. It's just really hard cos we've never seen her like this before. It's really sad." Miranda said glumly. She missed her best friend so much. In the end Miranda and Gordo stayed while Jo made them chcocolate chip cookies and served them with chocolate milk.
"Oh my gosh! I've got it! M-maybe if Lizzie went back to a familiar place like high school, it might trigger her memory! And should start to vaguely remember things! It could work, it's possible!" Miranda said. Gordo and Jo thought it was a great idea but thought it would be hard to convince Lizzie to go to school. While they were discussing it, the sound of Lizzie's footsteps came thundering down the stairs.
"Jo, who the hell are you talking-," She stopped as she saw Miranda and Gordo and sighed. "I thought I told you freaks to bugger off!" Lizzie said as she sat next to Gordo and stuffed a cookie into her mouth.
"Lizzie, you listen to me! Maybe you would like to try and get to know Gordo and Miranda considering they were your best friends. And they still are!" Jo quickly added. "Maybe you three should hang out at the mall some time or go to the Digital Bean."
"What? With them? You gotta be kidding me! I'd die before I wanted to go out in public with them!" Lizzie spat. Gordo and Miranda looked hurt, but also furious at the same time.
"But you don't even know them honey!"
"So! I don't need to! I can already tell they are mutated aliens from outer space!" Lizzie cried. It looked like Miranda couldn't hold it any longer.
"THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD IT LIZZIE! WE'VE TRIED TO HELP YOU, BUT YOU'VE REFUSED TO CO-OPERATE! I JUST CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Miranda yelled as she stormed out of the house. Lizzie just gave her a look of disgust.
"Um, I better be going too Mrs. McGuire. See you later!" And Gordo sped out the door after her.
"I cannot believe you!" Jo said as soon as Gordo left. "You hurt their feelings!"
"Ugh! Serves them right! They shouldn't have been here in the first place!" Lizzie replied. Jo ignored her began on the topic about her starting high school.
"What? I never had to go to high school before. I'm smart already!"
"Okay, what's the square root of sixty-four?"
"I dunno, that's not important!"
"Lizzie, part of the deal for getting you the car was for you to obey us! And if you refuse to go to school, then you can forget about the car!" Her Mom demanded.
"Well, then I'll forget about staying here! I'm going to pack my bags right now!" Lizzie said bossily.
"No, wait! Ok, I'll make you a deal. You go to school. And if you don't like it, you don't have to go anymore. Okay?" Jo asked urgently. She knew Lizzie wouldn't continue going to school, but it was worth a try. She hated it when Lizzie manipulated her. Lizzie first hesitated, then slumped her shoulders and nodded. 'Probably better than listening to that old bag boss me around all day.' Lizzie said to herself. She went upstairs and inspected her uniform as Jo said she would start tomorrow. 'Great! Just great! I can't believe I have to wear these disgusting rags too!' She thought to herself as she shook her head in disgust.
It was the next day, and Jo had to go upstairs to wake Lizzie up at least ten times. By the time she was up, it was ten minutes before the bus left from the bus stop otherwise she would be very late to school. So her Mom packed her lunch and bag for her and stuffed a piece of toast in her mouth.
"You can't go to school on an empty stomach Lizzie; you won't be able to concentrate."
"Who says I'm going to concentrate!" Lizzie said as she pulled on her stockings on violently. After Lizzie had brushed her hair and teeth her Mom pushed her out the door, but sneakily followed her to make sure she made it to the bus stop. Eventually she did. Her Mom left, and the bus pulled up and its doors opened. Lizzie looked up at the bus driver.
"Well, do you want to come on or what?" He asked. Lizzie slowly walked in and saw a whole lot of kids just staring up at her. Near the back she saw Miranda and Gordo and rolled her eyes. 'Not those retards again.' She said to herself. She didn't know where to sit and she looked totally lost.
"What is Lizzie doing, coming back to school?" Miranda whispered to Gordo surprisingly. "She's not going to remember anything. Or anyone!"
"I dunno, maybe her Mom thought it was for the best. But I'm surprised Lizzie even listened to her, funny that. Maybe we should offer for her to sit with us." Gordo suggested.
"What? Are you kidding me? After all she's said to us? There's no way I'm going to go even near her!"
"Miranda just cut her some slack. I mean, she's lost her memory, remember?"
"Ok, fine!" Miranda said.
"Hey Lizzie!" Gordo called out to her. "Come and sit with us, there's a spare sit here!"
"Ew, no! I might catch some contagious disease or something! Gross!" She said fiercely from the other end of the bus and sat up near the front by herself. Miranda glared back at Gordo and refused to talk to him till they got to school.
Their first lesson of the day was Science and through out the whole lesson, Lizzie never bothered to listen or pay attention. Instead, she spent the lesson trying to blow things up during experiments and playing with the Bunsen burner.
"At least you're not the only one that thinks science is a waste of bloody time!" Said a voice behind Lizzie. Lizzie spun around and looked at the person who spoke.
"And who are you?" Lizzie asked as she walked over to the girls table. "I'm Isabel Russell. You're Lizzie right? The one involved in the accident?" She asked. Lizzie looked completely lost. "Anyway, I'm new here and this place already sucks! Wait, what am I talking about? All schools suck!"
"Tell me about it!" Lizzie agreed. "My so-called-Mom made me come here, and this place is full of dorks! I can't find any decent person to hang out with. And there's no way I'm hanging with those grots that keep trying to be friends with me. Plus, I always feel like I wanna talk to somebody, someone I can trust." Lizzie said as she shot Miranda and Gordo an odd look.
"Hey, you can hang out with me. I'm cool! I'll show you heaps of cool things, teach you new stuff and show you the latest fashions. It's will be so fun!" Isabel said. Lizzie agreed and thought it was a great idea.
After science Lizzie went to hang out with Isabel behind the school blocks.
"We're not really allowed to hang out here but it's the only place where students and teachers can't see us. I haven't been caught. Yet." Isabel said as she showed Lizzie the dark and gloomy area behind the building. Isabel sat down on the cold hard concrete and Lizzie did the same.
"So, you said you wanted to talk?" She asked curiously.
"Well yeah, Isabel."
"Just call me Izzy or Iz."
"Um, ok. Well, since the accident, I've always felt like, unhappy and I'm not happy where I live. I'm always miserable and I'm only living with these people cos they agreed to get me a car if I went home with them." Lizzie said. Even Isabel was stunned.
"Don't worry Liz. I've got something that will make you feel happy all the time. Well not all the time, but it will work. You just have to take it every day or so. It does depend how depressed you are." Isabel said.
"Really? Please tell me what it is!" Lizzie said excitedly. Isabel pulled out a small plastic bag filled with white tablets.
"What is it?" Lizzie asked.
"Gordo, what if Lizzie never remembers us again?" She asked as Gordo ran his fingers through his dark brown hair.
"It'll work out okay!" He sounded frustrated. "Just stop the questions okay? I don't know."
"Well I'm sorry, but aren't you at least a little bit worried?" Miranda sat up quickly, waiting for his answer. Gordo glared at her looking even more annoyed. 'What did she think?' he said to himself.
"Of course I'm worried!" He all of a sudden said. "She was my girlfriend for your information!" He blurted out. He shouldn't have said that, he thought. Miranda gasped.
"What, how come you guys never told me you were going out? I'm part of your lives too, hello? How could you?"
"Well-," But Gordo was interrupted by the ringing of his telephone and he was relieved as he didn't want to go into any details. He quickly picked it up and was surprised to hear the sound of Mr. McGuire's voice. Gordo spoke to him for a few minutes as Miranda waited anxiously for him to tell her everything. Then Gordo put down the phone and said nothing.
"Well?" Miranda asked desperately.
"Lizzie's back home." A smile spread over Miranda's face but Gordo continued. He told her about Lizzie wanting a Porsche, about her sensitivity and how strangely she had acted over the time she had arrived home. Of course, Gordo and Miranda had expected this but getting Lizzie back to her old self again was going to be challenging. Gordo and Miranda left immediately without hesitating and were soon at Lizzie's front door.
"Hi Miranda, hi Gordo! Lizzie's upstairs in her room although I'm not quite sure what she's doing. But just remember to be careful of what you say. We don't want her storming out again!" Jo said. Gordo and Miranda walked upstairs and turned the doorknob to Lizzie's room. They could hardly heave the door open because it was blocked with all this stuff scattered all over the ground. Lizzie looked up as Gordo and Miranda tiptoed through the sea of mess.
"Be careful! Don't step on that!" Lizzie cried as Miranda froze.
"Hey Lizzie!" Miranda said, trying to sound happy.
"Do I know you guys? And who said you can come in my room?
"Um, your Mom said we could." Gordo answered nervously.
"She's not my Mom, how many times do I have to tell you that? I'm only living with these people cos they promised to buy me a-,"
"We know Lizzie, your Dad- er, Sam told us!" Miranda interrupted.
"Don't interrupt while I'm speaking!" She cried. "Anyway, if these people were my folks, I think I would die of embarrassment! They are way too old for me; they're old enough to be my great grandparents for god's sake!" Miranda looked at her, then went to sit at the end of Lizzie's bed, but then stood quickly back up because Lizzie had told her off.
"What are you people doing here anyway? I never invited you guys and I don't even know you! So please, go now!" Lizzie said rudely.
"Well, before we go Lizzie, we just wanted to give you this." Miranda said as she shoved a rather thick book into Lizzie's hands. "It's scrapbook of pictures of all three of together. Please, just have a look at it."
Lizzie quickly opened the thick book and flicked through the pages roughly without even looking at the photos. Then she stopped at one particular page and stared down at the photo of her, Miranda and Gordo on their first day of high school.
"I don't have enough eye liner in this pic! And look at my complexion, it's just so off!" She cried. Lizzie ripped the page out of the scrapbook, scrunched it up into a ball and chucked on the ground. Miranda gasped began to get angry.
"Excuse me! Why did you just do that? That was one of the best pictures! Well so much so much for just trying to help you out!" Miranda yelled and she grabbed the book out of Lizzie's hands and made her way to the door. Gordo followed her while Lizzie gave them an odd look and Miranda slammed the door behind them.
"What happened?" Jo asked the two as she noticed the angry looked on Miranda's face.
"Lizzie tore a really good photo of us out of the scrap book and chucked it away cos 'her complexion was off'". Gordo mimicked. Miranda just breathed heavily in the background.
'Oh. I'm so sorry kids, but that's what she's like now. There's not really much we can do about it." Jo replied, looking sorry for them. "Why don't you guys stay for a while and have something to eat?"
"Oh, that's okay Mrs. McGuire. We've got a lot of home work to do and besides, I don't think Lizzie would want us to stay anyway." Gordo said, as though he felt hurt.
"Please, don't take everything she says so seriously. I'm sure she doesn't really mean it."
"Yeah, we know. It's just really hard cos we've never seen her like this before. It's really sad." Miranda said glumly. She missed her best friend so much. In the end Miranda and Gordo stayed while Jo made them chcocolate chip cookies and served them with chocolate milk.
"Oh my gosh! I've got it! M-maybe if Lizzie went back to a familiar place like high school, it might trigger her memory! And should start to vaguely remember things! It could work, it's possible!" Miranda said. Gordo and Jo thought it was a great idea but thought it would be hard to convince Lizzie to go to school. While they were discussing it, the sound of Lizzie's footsteps came thundering down the stairs.
"Jo, who the hell are you talking-," She stopped as she saw Miranda and Gordo and sighed. "I thought I told you freaks to bugger off!" Lizzie said as she sat next to Gordo and stuffed a cookie into her mouth.
"Lizzie, you listen to me! Maybe you would like to try and get to know Gordo and Miranda considering they were your best friends. And they still are!" Jo quickly added. "Maybe you three should hang out at the mall some time or go to the Digital Bean."
"What? With them? You gotta be kidding me! I'd die before I wanted to go out in public with them!" Lizzie spat. Gordo and Miranda looked hurt, but also furious at the same time.
"But you don't even know them honey!"
"So! I don't need to! I can already tell they are mutated aliens from outer space!" Lizzie cried. It looked like Miranda couldn't hold it any longer.
"THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD IT LIZZIE! WE'VE TRIED TO HELP YOU, BUT YOU'VE REFUSED TO CO-OPERATE! I JUST CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Miranda yelled as she stormed out of the house. Lizzie just gave her a look of disgust.
"Um, I better be going too Mrs. McGuire. See you later!" And Gordo sped out the door after her.
"I cannot believe you!" Jo said as soon as Gordo left. "You hurt their feelings!"
"Ugh! Serves them right! They shouldn't have been here in the first place!" Lizzie replied. Jo ignored her began on the topic about her starting high school.
"What? I never had to go to high school before. I'm smart already!"
"Okay, what's the square root of sixty-four?"
"I dunno, that's not important!"
"Lizzie, part of the deal for getting you the car was for you to obey us! And if you refuse to go to school, then you can forget about the car!" Her Mom demanded.
"Well, then I'll forget about staying here! I'm going to pack my bags right now!" Lizzie said bossily.
"No, wait! Ok, I'll make you a deal. You go to school. And if you don't like it, you don't have to go anymore. Okay?" Jo asked urgently. She knew Lizzie wouldn't continue going to school, but it was worth a try. She hated it when Lizzie manipulated her. Lizzie first hesitated, then slumped her shoulders and nodded. 'Probably better than listening to that old bag boss me around all day.' Lizzie said to herself. She went upstairs and inspected her uniform as Jo said she would start tomorrow. 'Great! Just great! I can't believe I have to wear these disgusting rags too!' She thought to herself as she shook her head in disgust.
It was the next day, and Jo had to go upstairs to wake Lizzie up at least ten times. By the time she was up, it was ten minutes before the bus left from the bus stop otherwise she would be very late to school. So her Mom packed her lunch and bag for her and stuffed a piece of toast in her mouth.
"You can't go to school on an empty stomach Lizzie; you won't be able to concentrate."
"Who says I'm going to concentrate!" Lizzie said as she pulled on her stockings on violently. After Lizzie had brushed her hair and teeth her Mom pushed her out the door, but sneakily followed her to make sure she made it to the bus stop. Eventually she did. Her Mom left, and the bus pulled up and its doors opened. Lizzie looked up at the bus driver.
"Well, do you want to come on or what?" He asked. Lizzie slowly walked in and saw a whole lot of kids just staring up at her. Near the back she saw Miranda and Gordo and rolled her eyes. 'Not those retards again.' She said to herself. She didn't know where to sit and she looked totally lost.
"What is Lizzie doing, coming back to school?" Miranda whispered to Gordo surprisingly. "She's not going to remember anything. Or anyone!"
"I dunno, maybe her Mom thought it was for the best. But I'm surprised Lizzie even listened to her, funny that. Maybe we should offer for her to sit with us." Gordo suggested.
"What? Are you kidding me? After all she's said to us? There's no way I'm going to go even near her!"
"Miranda just cut her some slack. I mean, she's lost her memory, remember?"
"Ok, fine!" Miranda said.
"Hey Lizzie!" Gordo called out to her. "Come and sit with us, there's a spare sit here!"
"Ew, no! I might catch some contagious disease or something! Gross!" She said fiercely from the other end of the bus and sat up near the front by herself. Miranda glared back at Gordo and refused to talk to him till they got to school.
Their first lesson of the day was Science and through out the whole lesson, Lizzie never bothered to listen or pay attention. Instead, she spent the lesson trying to blow things up during experiments and playing with the Bunsen burner.
"At least you're not the only one that thinks science is a waste of bloody time!" Said a voice behind Lizzie. Lizzie spun around and looked at the person who spoke.
"And who are you?" Lizzie asked as she walked over to the girls table. "I'm Isabel Russell. You're Lizzie right? The one involved in the accident?" She asked. Lizzie looked completely lost. "Anyway, I'm new here and this place already sucks! Wait, what am I talking about? All schools suck!"
"Tell me about it!" Lizzie agreed. "My so-called-Mom made me come here, and this place is full of dorks! I can't find any decent person to hang out with. And there's no way I'm hanging with those grots that keep trying to be friends with me. Plus, I always feel like I wanna talk to somebody, someone I can trust." Lizzie said as she shot Miranda and Gordo an odd look.
"Hey, you can hang out with me. I'm cool! I'll show you heaps of cool things, teach you new stuff and show you the latest fashions. It's will be so fun!" Isabel said. Lizzie agreed and thought it was a great idea.
After science Lizzie went to hang out with Isabel behind the school blocks.
"We're not really allowed to hang out here but it's the only place where students and teachers can't see us. I haven't been caught. Yet." Isabel said as she showed Lizzie the dark and gloomy area behind the building. Isabel sat down on the cold hard concrete and Lizzie did the same.
"So, you said you wanted to talk?" She asked curiously.
"Well yeah, Isabel."
"Just call me Izzy or Iz."
"Um, ok. Well, since the accident, I've always felt like, unhappy and I'm not happy where I live. I'm always miserable and I'm only living with these people cos they agreed to get me a car if I went home with them." Lizzie said. Even Isabel was stunned.
"Don't worry Liz. I've got something that will make you feel happy all the time. Well not all the time, but it will work. You just have to take it every day or so. It does depend how depressed you are." Isabel said.
"Really? Please tell me what it is!" Lizzie said excitedly. Isabel pulled out a small plastic bag filled with white tablets.
"What is it?" Lizzie asked.