Singing to myself as I finished in the shower and changed into something more comfortable, I exited my en suite not expecting Allison to be sitting on the end of my bed, hands resting in her lap and sitting like a perfect little princess. "Oh god!" Yelling out loud in shock, Allison jolted at my sudden outcry as if snapping out of a trance whilst I clung onto the doorframe for balance, catching my breath. "You scared the crap out of me Allison, what are you doing here?"
"Your…your mom let me in, she said it was okay." She explained as she blinked a few times, gathering back her train of thought. "Did you forget we were supposed to study tonight?"
"Pft, no." Total lie, I had completely forgotten. There goes my evening planned watching reality TV doing absolutely nothing academic. Allison smiled at me knowingly, catching on that I had completely erased all memory of our study agreement from my mind.
"I heard you singing just now. You have a really beautiful voice, I've never heard anything like it. Do you write any songs?" Now recovered from the unexpected intruder in my room I flicked out my hair and began the therapeutic task of blow drying it, ensuring it was sleek and silky all the while.
"Nope, I don't have that great an imagination. Besides I don't play any instruments so what kind of song would it be if there were no backing track?" Acknowledging I was right, Allison asked me a few more questions about my singing and taste in music. Somehow I began to open up a little, admitting that in actual fact I loved singing opera and was very good at it, and that I had a very varied taste in music. Soon enough it was all we could talk about and I learned a little more about Allison in the process, the two of us getting to know each other better as we waited for Lydia. My mom brought her up with some snacks and drinks, telling us to call if we needed anything.
"You have a really interesting house Cordy, there's so many books and artefacts. Are your parents historians?" Allison questioned as Lydia began to set up her usual station on the bed, spreading out her books, pens and notes before picking up her phone to text Jackson.
"Uh huh, they're both professors. My mom researches ancient European history whilst my dad focuses on eastern. Their research is directed mostly to civilisations and culture, particularly social living and trade, I think. They've told me a bunch of times but to me it's just old junk, though some of the pieces they've collected out on digs are quite beautiful. My mom is currently working on a family history project she stared a while back. She's managed to trace our heritage back twenty three generations so far." Allison found it utterly fascinating but as she started to ask more questions, I quickly found myself out of my depth so I suggested that she should take any history questions to my parents.
Currently I was failing history, which was quite disappointing for my parents who had devoted their entire lives towards it, but I just couldn't stand old things. My French was borderline miserable, my English could use a little more attention and I just hated math. The only subject I surprisingly had a talent for was biology, because last semester we'd done a project and paper on marine biology and it had actually appealed to me greatly. If I don't go into Olympic swimming or ventured into a singing career, I might think about that as a possible future endeavour. First things first, I need to get my grades up otherwise I'm going to risk being held back and I don't think I'll be able to persuade Lydia to do my homework for me much longer. Literally she is the only reason I'm still floating in that school.
Starting with English, I almost tore my hair out having to read such a stupid book which had no interest for me. It was all about people in old times that I just didn't care about, so it was hard to write any kind of notes on it when all I wanted to do was throw it out a window. "Seriously Cordy, if you don't get at least a 'C' on this next paper, you're going to get in trouble." Lydia reminded me rather unhelpfully as she continued scribbling away in her notepad.
"Can't I just look at yours?"
"Nope."
"One peek."
"Nuh uh."
"Please?"
"No."
"I'll buy you a new bag." Knowing her weakness all too well, Lydia gave it some serious consideration before passing, opting to watch me suffer in turmoil instead. Having paused in her own note taking in order to listen, Allison looked over to me as I dropped my head onto the book in despair.
"Is there something wrong Cordy?"
"This book sucks, it's boring and I can barely read it! I don't understand what half of these words mean without having to look them up and it's just so much effort." What I didn't tell them was that I actually struggled to read in general. The letters always seemed to get jumbled up and jumped around. It was hard to focus, but I didn't let it on to anyone because I didn't want to be the 'perfect' and popular girl to suddenly be branded with some kind of mental handicap. I'd done a fair bit of research myself after Lydia had guessed what was wrong with me, and it seemed like I had dyslexia.
Of course it's easy to find out for sure about these kind of things, but if word got out around school that I could barely read, no one would ever let me live it down. Especially Jackson. He would just love to hang that over my head for the rest of my high school career. No way was I going to let that happen. "You know, if you're struggling to read in your head, then maybe it'll help to read out loud, or get an audio recording of the book, that way you're using different stimuli to focus." I straightened up, staring at Allison like she was a freaking genius, because that's exactly what she was.
"How about that, I never thought of that." Lydia mused, pursing her lips thoughtfully before shrugging. "I guess I can loan you my notes. Here, I wrote these ones in blue. Your favourite colour." Smiling to me knowingly I sent Lydia a grateful look as she passed me the secret notes she had been hoarding for me so that I could copy. I could always read things better when they were in blue, so she had made a habit of always writing with a blue pen or highlighting important passages in blue marker so that I had a better time reading them.
After about two hours of studying we all finally decided to call it a night, to which I invited everyone to hang out a little longer, extending the invitation for everyone to stay over. At first Allison wasn't sure if she could, saying that her parents preferred her to be at home after dark but I just waved it off. "Please, your dad loves me I'm absolutely charming. I'll call him for you." Leaving no room for protest, I picked up Allison's phone and called her father, listening for his deeper voice to answer.
"Allison?"
"Try again Mr Argent, it's Cordy from the other night, remember me?" I trilled sweetly, plastering on the charm so that I could get my way. My voice always seemed to work it's magic as almost immediately Mr Argent recognised me and greeted me in a friendly manner. "Nice to talk again so soon, but I'm sorry that I actually have a favour I'd like to ask."
"Sure, is everything alright?"
"Everything is perfectly fine Mr Argent, Ali is here with me and our friend Lydia at my house still, but you see, we're having such a great time here and now that we've finished studying, we were hoping to have some girl time. You know, face masks, nails, ice cream and a movie? Would you mind if I stole Allison for the rest of the night? She can borrow my clothes and we have plenty of space and I can either drive her to school tomorrow or I'll drive her home early enough to grab anything she needs. What do you say Mr Argent?"
"Well, you seem like a responsible young lady so I have no issue with Allison staying over the night if that's what she wants. If you put her on the phone I'll talk to her, I'll bring over anything she might need." Happy that I had got my way, I thanked Mr Argent for being so awesome before handing the phone back to Allison who was just staring in a stupor, shocked that her dad had agreed so easily as I winked at her.
"What can I say? I have a silver tongue." Grinning at me, Allison spoke with her dad and mom, giving them a list of things she would need and Mr Argent agreed to bring it over so I swiftly provided him with the address before squealing. "You know what this means? Mani's and pedi's!" Lydia was already on the ball, putting away all our work stuff in order to prepare the den I had in one corner of my room, complete with cushions, loungers, fairy lights and a curtain which closed off the area for privacy with a flat screen TV mounted on the wall. I rushed downstairs to inform my mom that the girls were staying so she agreed to ordering in pizza. When Allison's father arrived, I opened up the door with the biggest smile.
"Hi Mr Argent, sorry for making you come all the way out here. Is that Allison's stuff?" Gesturing to the bag in his hand, Mr Argent nodded just as Allison came rushing down the stairs to meet him.
"Well, I won't intrude on you girls any longer. Have fun Allison, don't stay up too late okay?" However the look in his eye seemed to know full well that an early night was the last thing on our minds. Promising that she'd be sensible, Allison kissed her dad goodbye, thanking him for her stuff before the two of us waved him off.
"Now, I might sound creepy for saying it, but I have got to admit your dad is one good looking man." I said to Allison as I closed the door then ventured back up to my room on the third floor.
"Um…I guess? I never really thought about it."
"Of course not because he's your dad. If you thought it then that would just be gross. But, since we're on the subject…" I gave her a playful nudge with my hip as we continued to climb. I seriously need to suggest an elevator to my parents, there are way too many stairs in this house. "What's going on with you and Scott? Did he ever give you a reason as to why he bailed on you at the party?"
"Not really. I asked him what had happened but he just asked me to trust him and that he couldn't explain everything right then." Huh. Weird and totally not what I was expecting. I thought back to that night, how he had seemed to be in visible distress and I vaguely seemed to remember an impression of pain coming from him, if that were possible.
"Maybe he was starting to have an asthma attack and didn't want to appear lame in front of a pretty girl like you who he obviously totally obsessed with?" I suggested and I saw Allison visibly blush, making my wolfish grin grow all the wider. "And I see he's not the only one who's smitten. Look at those cute little rosy cheeks!" Teasing her with a poke to her face, Allison laughed a little and brushed me off.
"Why would he think something like that? Asthma isn't something to be taken lightly, I wouldn't have thought he was lame at all, and why wouldn't he tell me so after?"
"Who knows? Though when it comes to guys wanting to impress the girl they like, they don't like to let on any weaknesses. Maybe Scott just panicked being surrounded by so many people and it triggered something and he didn't know what else to do except run, then afterwards he felt like a total jerk and couldn't face admitting it to you afterwards. Guys have their insecurities just as much as we girls do, you know." Allison looked at me for a second, seemingly surprised at how astute I could be. "What? I told you, I know people and things, and things about people. I'm a walking people reading machine."
"I never thought about all that. Maybe I'll ask him next time I see him. You know, Jackson hurt his shoulder today in practice when collided with Scott?" I had heard and no, I felt no sympathy for Jackson. Knowing him he'd probably taken it upon himself to go pummel McCall just to establish his dominance on the field but it had backfired on him terribly. "Do you think he'll be able to play the game on Saturday?"
"It's Jackson, of course he'd play. He'd still play even if he lost an arm and both legs. That's just the way he is." Finally reaching my room, I pushed open the door to find Lydia had already picked out the movie for us to watch, her favourite one. The Notebook. When Allison admitted she had never actually seen the movie, the matter was very quickly settled, and after we'd plastered our faces with detox masks, changed into our pyjamas and made ourselves comfy with cushions and pizza, we started the movie and spent the rest of the night painting each other's nails, talking all the while. It was a good night, one of the last few normal nights I would remember for a very long time.