1YAY! I'm excited. I got reviews. Only three, but hey, it's better than NONE.
Hannah: Aaaww thank you..yes, Aimee/Squid would be cute. But the only person who knows the couples so far is my best friend, who doesn't have internet that works long enough to check this anyway. Thanks for your review!
Squid Freak: Well thanks for your review, I will try to remember not to repeat myself! As for the grades thing..trust me, it's possible. Aimee is based completely off of me, and I was taking all advanced classes and completely failed math, and still graduated. I'm not sure how that worked either but it did! Thanks for your review.
D-Tent'sGirl101: Thanks for your review! Glad you like it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Holes. I don't own any songs that may or may not be played in this chapter. I do not own any stores in this chapter, any brands, any streets or schools or anything else that I cannot possibly own. If anything's familiar to you, outside of this fanfic, then I don't own it, and just because I write about it, please do not assume I do. Thank you.
The Dawning of the Rest of Our Lives
By Alianniae
Chapter Two--Summer: Shopping and Crushes
At ten in the morning, Aimee's alarm clock went off and everybody groaned, waking up. They all looked around with sleepy eyes, and Lemo snuggled deeper into the blankets of Aimee's bed and managed to fall back asleep.
The girls were all yawning as Aimee went over to look through the window at the house across the street. She grinned, seeing the window leading to Stanley's room was open and filled with boy's faces looking out. She shook her head and went over to her stereo, putting in Avril Lavigne's "Under my Skin" CD inside. She switched it to number eleven, "My Happy Ending," and turned up the volume.
It was a matter of seconds before everyone, even Lemo, was up, and they were all dancing around Aimee's room as they got dressed for the day. Then Aimee looked out her window to the driveway and seen no cars: they were all alone. She screamed and turned the volume up all the way and the girls danced downstairs into the living room, which was much bigger than her room.
"SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING!" All the girls sang along, dancing crazily all over the living room, not noticing the windows that were thrown open, nor the boys across the street that were now outside and watching them.
The song ended and the girls all giggled, and then screamed in surprise as Green Day's American Idiot came one, and Aimee realized that she must have put in her mixed CD instead of Avril's. "DON'T WANNA BE AN AMERCIAN IDIOT!" They all screamed, dancing everywhere, two pairs dancing on their own and then a group of three.
Somewhere in the middle of the song, Aimee noticed the window open and the boys watching. She called them silently over and then continued to dance her way over to the door to let them in. Instantly, all the girls screamed again and paired off with the boys, and some truly dirty dancing began with some of them, while others, such as Elisa and Zero, were more watching everyone else.
Squid began dancing with Aimee just as the song ended, but then Holiday came on, and everything started again. Armpit yelled "Switch partners!" and everything changed, as Aimee was passed to Zigzag and Krystle got Squid, everything changing except Elisa and Zero, who ended up sitting on the couch and talking quietly.
After Holiday came Boulevard of Broken Dreams, and then Simple Plan's Shut Up, Welcome to my Life, I'm Just a Kid, Addicted, and then slower songs came on, throwing them all off: Untitled by Simple Plan, We Belong Together by Mariah Carey, and then it seemed like Kelly Clarkson's entire CD came on, starting with Aimee's favorite song, Behind These Hazel Eyes.
About an hour and a half later, everyone was so tired they fell onto the couches and chairs, breathing deeply and laughing. Amazing, nothing had gotten broken, for which Aimee was glad, as the house was new.
She was sitting with Zigzag, who had been her partner for most of the dancing, except for a few songs in which Squid stole her from him. He had his arm around her, and just about everybody noticed Squid glaring at him.
X-Ray shook his head at Squid and looked towards Aimee. "Hey, Angel, when are we going shopping?"
Aimee looked around, confused. Nobody's name was Angel… "Uhm…X-Ray…nobody's name is Angel."
"Yes it is. It's your name, Angel. Your nickname." X-Ray said, smiling at her.
"Oh. Right. I knew that. Uhm…girlies! We're goin shoppin with the boys, sound good?"Angel asked, looking around at all the girls.
"Yeah, sounds good." They all said, their faces still flushed from all the dancing.
Aimee felt proud: she was the first of the girls to get a nickname. She felt accepted by the boys already, which was definitely a good thing. "Hey boys, what school are you guys going to?"
"We're all going to Mountain Vista High. You guys?" Zigzag answered her, looking down at her with a small smile.
"So are we! Well, I mean, I am, Ashley, Elisa, and Thuy are, and we're all going to be freshmen. Lemo, 'Mella, and Krystle are eighth graders at Rocky Desert High." Angel responded.
The boys, looking surprised, looked at Lemo, Kemella, and Krystle. "You guys are younger than everyone else?"
"Yeah, we are. Kemella's the youngest, though." Lemo answered from in between Magnet and X-Ray.
The phone in Angel's kitchen started to ring, and she groaned as she got up to answer it, losing her spot next to Zigzag, probably. She walked in there and picked it up, looking at the number.
"Oh shit! SOMEONE ANSWER THE PHONE FOR ME!" She shrieked, running back into the living room and throwing the phone at Ashley before dropping back down next to Zigzag.
Ashley, sitting basically on Caveman's lap in the big chair, looked at the Caller ID as the phone continued to ring. She raised her eyebrows and clicked the "Talk" button, bringing the phone to her ear. "Hello?"
"Hey…can I talk to Aimee?" The person on the other line was a boy, it sounded like.
"May I ask who is speaking?" Ashley asked, checking out her nails in the meantime.
"Uhm…this is Josh…her…boyfriend."
"I'm sorry, Aimee doesn't have a boyfriend. You must have called the wrong house."
"Yes she does! She does have a boyfriend! Me!"
"Look, Joshua, this is Ashley, her best friend. I know when she has a boyfriend. And she definitely doesn't have one. And even if she did, it definitely wouldn't be you."
"Oh. Well…can I still talk to her? Please, Ash?"
Ashley looked up at Aimee, who was shaking her head. "Nope, you can't. Now I suggest you stop calling before I get my uncle, who's a cop, on your ass. We can probably nail you for stalking her. So stop calling." She said before hanging up and rolling her eyes. "Will that boy ever learn?"
"Probably not. Thanks, Ash." Aimee said, taking the phone from her best friend.
"Who was that?" Magnet asked one of the girls.
"Our ex-boyfriend. See, Aim here went out with him for almost two months before he dumped her. Next day, he asked me out. Well, I, for some reason, said yes. After school, I called Aim and told her, and she hung up on me. Well, Lemo talked some sense in to her, but I guess before that she hadn't stopped crying over the news. Friday morning at school, Aimee and I got into this huge fight in front of everyone, and I ended up going over to Josh and yelling at him, breaking up with him. But he and I passed notes all day, and Aimee here was sitting right next to me when I was reading one of them. He said 'I love you' at the end of it. She was so hurt she was big time depressed until graduation. Two days after graduation she got back together with him. After a lot of…err…fooling around, Aimee dumped him. That was last month." Ash told the story, cutting most things out.
Aimee found herself angry, with tears ready to spill at hearing the entire story all over again. It had been a while since she had heard it all together, and now it made her so angry she wanted to kill Josh. Next to her, Zigzag put his arm around her once more and gave her a hug. She returned the hug, glad that a guy had understood other than her friends she had known longer.
"That's fucked up." Armpit commented, making Aimee, and everyone else, grin. It was true, it had been fucked up.
"Yeah, well, it's in the past. Now, he's nothing except a loser! Now, enough of story time! Let's go shoppin'!" Aimee said as everyone jumped up, and the girls rushed upstairs to grab their purses or wallets. They rushed back down and grabbed a boy's arm, leading him out the door and into the light.
They reached the mall on foot fifteen minutes later. They walked in, and were about to split before Angel stopped them. "Wait! Okay. Let's meet for lunch at…Applebee's, across the street, at…let's say three, sound good?"
"Yeah!" Everyone said in response, and in their groups, some only in couples and some with other couples, they split off.
Zigzag was with Angel, and the two set off, arm in arm, towards Forever 21 and Macy's. Zigzag was about to protest going in to either of them, but Angel gave him her puppy eyes and he let her drag him everywhere.
By three o'clock, Angel had an armful of bags and Zigzag had himself two bags, but was also carrying some of hers. They walked across the street to Applebee's to see that they were the last ones there, and it seemed as if everybody was carrying at least one bag.
"Awesome! Did you guys already put in our name?" Angel asked, looking around at everybody. It seemed as if she got the most stuff.
"Yeah, we did." X-Ray smirked as he looked towards the lady.
"Angel, party of fourteen! Angel, party of fourteen!" The lady behind the microphone said, gathering menus.
"Oh, you're very funny." Angel said as she passed, smacking X-Ray lightly on the way.
They were seated in the back of the restaurant, around a circled table in a random order, though all the couples were seated together: X-Ray, Kemella, Armpit, Thuy, Krystle, Squid, Angel, Zigzag, Lemo, Magnet, Ashley, Caveman, Elisa, and Zero at the end.
Angel was in between Squid and Zigzag, but her friends were on either side of the boys and across from her as well. Eventually the talk started, making all of them laugh and giggle at some of the responses. Within minutes, the waitress came to take their orders for drinks, and a few minutes after, everybody ordered what they wanted.
"You know what sucks?" Ashley asked, taking a sip of her Lemonade.
"What?" Kemella asked from the other side of the table.
"We all have to go home today. We can't stay the night at Angel's again."
A few groans of disapproval went across the girls, and the boys nodded along too.
"Yeah, we can't stay at Caveman's again tonight either."
"Well, everyone's got everyone's screen names, right?" Angel asked, thinking that later on they could stay in touch while they weren't together, as it seemed like a new group was being made.
"We'll have to give the boys ours." Thuy said, nodding slightly.
After that, they all broke into their own conversations. The food came and talk went around the table, as they laughed and joked and talked as if they'd known each other forever. After lunch came dessert, though some were too full to get it.
Angel, however, ordered Sizzling Apple Pie, and when it came her eyes were huge, as were everyone else's. She loved this, the smell and the taste of it. She grabbed a spoon and dug in, handing a spoon to Zigzag as well, telling him to help her along. They all laughed as the two finished for some reason, then paid the bill. The girls had wanted to just ditch but for some reason the boys weren't all that in to it, so the guys got together the money to pay for everyone's lunch.
After they walked out of the restaurant, the group split, the boys walking the girls to their individual houses, as they said they'd get their stuff later.
Squid walked Krystle toward her house, the two of them walking slowly. He couldn't seem to take his mind off of Angel and the fact that she was with Zigzag. Krystle stared at him, wondering what was up.
"You like Aimee, don't you?" She finally asked after five slow minutes of walking.
"Why do you say that?" He asked in response to her question.
"It's obvious…you can't seem to take your eyes off of her."
Squid smiled to himself, looking over at the girl he was walking home. "Yeah, I guess I do like her. She's very pretty."
Krystle shook her head, looking where they were walking. "She's awesome, Squid. She really is. She cares so much for other people, she'd put complete strangers' lives in front of her own. People say that she takes things too seriously, but that's just how she is. She's got a huge secret, you know. That's how she was raised. She doesn't expect people to play jokes on her or lie to her. She believes everything they tell her. But she just needs someone to understand her like Lemo does. Lemo is the only one who knows her secret other than Josh. Not even Ashley knows it. Only Lemo. Only Lemo seems to understand her, too…Josh never did. He was too…different. But she needs someone that can love her like a man loves a woman, not how friends love each other, but she needs that too."
Squid seemed surprised at what Krystle said, but for some reason he managed to believe all of it. Something told him that what she said was true.
"It seems like she likes Zigzag." He said quietly, feeling that he could open up to this girl.
"Never believe what it seems like with her. She keeps her real feelings inside, she never tells anyone anything other than Lemo and sometimes Ashley. You never know." Krystle responded, shaking her head. She wasn't too sure who it was that Angel liked, but she wasn't really one to know the girl that well, though she had known her long before the others had.
"Huh." Squid said, thinking silently. What if she did like him, but he wouldn't ask her out because he thought she liked Zigzag and not him? It'd suck for both of them. But they had all summer, even though it was already the middle of July, and all the school year after that.
"Well, this is it. Thanks for walking me home, Squid." Krystle said, hugging him through their bags.
"No problem, Krystle. You're an awesome friend." Squid said with a grin, waving until she got inside her house before turning around and heading towards his home.
Meanwhile…
"You know, I think Squid likes you." Zigzag said, kicking a pebble as he walked Angel home.
"You think?" Angel asked with a bored tone of voice, as her insides were very, very confused. She liked Zigzag, but something about Squid caught her eye, something inside, like a spark or something.
"Yeah, I do." He said, looking over to see her. "Who do you like?"
"I-I don't know. I kind of like this other guy, but something in Squid is like…drawing me to him, you know? Like a flame, or a spark. Something. I can't explain it." She admitted, looking ahead of her. Her house was coming closer and closer, as much as she didn't want it to. And then Zigzag would have to go home…that sucked.
Zigzag grinned, getting the feeling that he knew who the other guy was. But he knew that the other guy wouldn't do well for her, even only after a day of hanging out with her. "You know, I think Squid would be better for you than any of the other guys."
Angel looked alarmed, wondering what he was talking about. "Why do you say that?"
"He's different. He has a way of bringing people's best qualities out of their personalities. He can be a bully sometimes when you first meet him, but on the inside he's nice and caring. And from what I know of you, which really isn't much at all, you need someone like that." Zigzag said, nodding as they reached her house. "Well, I guess this is it. I'll Instant Message you later, okay Angel?"
Aimee nodded, still thinking what he said through, barely noticing as Zigzag kissed her cheek. She smiled though and hugged him before letting herself inside with her half a million bags and purse.
After she took a shower and got into her pajamas, she was laying on her bed, on her laptop, when a message came up from another person not on her buddy list.
Them: Angel
Angel: Who is this?
Them: It's Squid
Angel: Oh hey
Squid: Hey
Angel: How are you?
Squid: Fine
Squid: You
Angel: Fine. Kinda tired tho
Squid: Yeah me too
Angel: so what's up?
Squid: nothing much
Squid: you
Angel: nothing just really bored
Squid: me too
Squid: hey what are you doing tomorrow
Angel: I duno…nothing, I don't think
Squid: Would you like to come with me up on this trip? My mom is taking me up into these mountains, the ones you can probably see from your house. Hiking and stuff.
Angel: I'll have to ask, but it sounds like fun.
Squid: Yeah, she's bringing her new boyfriend and I didn't want to be stuck all by myself
Angel: Okay, well brb I'll go ask
Squid: Ok
Angel: my dad says it's fine, he's just gotta meet your mom first
Angel: is that okay?
Squid: Yeah. We'll be at your house at about nine tomorrow morning, is that okay?
Angel: Yeah that's fine.
Squid: okay, well see you tomorrow, I gotta go
Angel: okay bye
Squid: bye
Angel smiled and shook her head, thinking that this was most likely going to be called a date. She got back on her computer and invited all her friends, including X-Ray, Armpit, Zigzag, Magnet, Caveman, and Zero, and then the girls, into a chat room so they could all talk together.
Angel: Well guys guess what
Ashley: omg what happened?
Lemo: SPILL GIRLIE!
Elisa: whats up, angel?
Angel: Squid just asked me out on a trip..kinda like a date..tomorrow!
X-Ray: oh my god he did?
Armpit: well that was unexpected
Zigzag: I told you, didn't I ang?
Krystle: hahaha I knew he was going to
Thuy: how'd you guys know?
Kemella: well it was kind of obvious
Krystle: yeah it's not like he wasn't staring at her the entire day
Elisa: he was?
Krystle: yeah I was with him at the mall and every time we seen her and zigzag together he'd get all mad and want to follow them
Zigzag: he did?
Krystle: yep
X-Ray: sounds like squid's got himself a girl
Magnet: no, he's got himself a chica
Angel: I am not squid's girl
Angel: or his chica
X-Ray: well whatever
X-Ray: I gotta go
Elisa: yeah I gotta go too my bro's about to kill me for the comp
Ashley: me too bye everyone
Thuy: I gotta get up early too bye everyone
Armpit: well I'll follow them so talk to everyone tomorrow
Magnet: me too see ya
Krystle: see ya! Me too!
Kemella: my mom's not home yet but I gotta go too
Caveman: see ya I'm goin too
Zero: me too. Bye
Lemo: omg me too my mom's kickin me off bye
Zigzag: Bye
Angel: bye everyone
Zigzag: well it's just you and me now
Angel: yep
Zigzag: so when did he ask you
Angel: he messaged me a few minutes ago.
Zigzag: and you said yes
Angel: yea..you basically told me to!
Zigzag: yeah I know
Zigzag: but still
Angel: but still what?
Zigzag: I kind of like you too
Angel: well then why did you tell me to go with him?
Zigzag: because it's the truth
Zigzag: plus I think I like someone else more
Angel: who?
Zigzag: don't tell anybody
Angel: I wont
Zigzag: I like Lemo
Angel: you do?
Zigzag: Yeah
Angel: huh
Zigzag: well yeah
Angel: I can set you guys up
Zigzag: you can?
Angel: yeah. I'll see tomorrow since she's off already
Zigzag: ok thanks angel
Angel: no prob
Zigzag: well I gotta go
Angel: okay ttyl
Zigzag: ttyl
Angel sighed, shaking her head while smiling. She shut down her computer and put it away, then went downstairs into the dark and got a bottle of water before going back upstairs. She snuggled deep into her covers, closing her eyes and hugging her Care Bear tightly as she fell asleep, waiting for tomorrow.