The Aislin Chronicles

Part XXXIV

A/n: Happy Thanksgiving! I promised two updates this weekend, so there will be another chapter posted by Sunday.

9-20-03

11:04 PM

So today we ended up making cookies. We did go out to lunch to see Francie, and then we were going to go shopping, but then Sydney just didn't feel like it, so we stayed in and made cookies. They're yummy. And Dad called to say that he'd be flying back soon, that felt really good to hear. Oh, and I also had a brief conversation with Jess today.

I answered the phone, and immediately she's like, "Amber Collins-White."

"Who?"

"Amber. She's like Lauren's best friend."

"So?"

"So Lauren tells her everything."

… "So?"

"She's not a biotch like Lauren is. If we explain the situation to her, she'd completely understand and tell us what really went down. If he shut Lauren down, she would have told Amber."

"And are you sure Amber's gonna tell us?"

"Oh yeah. This one time last year she ran out of money in her lunch account and I bought lunch for her. She so owes me. And, like I said, she's a lot nicer than Lauren."

"Great, you got her phone number?"

Pause. "Crap." Hangs up.

Jess always cracks me up, even in her moments of genius. Did she or did she not get my parents back together? Did she or did she not hook up Weiss and Melody? Maybe she can solve this thing with Ian too. I don't know. I'm still kind of confused what to think. Regardless of whether he's lying or not, she still kissed him. And that really bothers me.

Right, so I really don't want to think about this any more. I'm going to bed.

9-22-03

3:44 PM

I'm sorry I didn't get to write in here yesterday but there just wasn't enough time! Anyway, so yesterday afternoon I had just finished reading my English homework and was downstairs watching television with Mom when she grabbed my hand again and held it to her stomach. Now, she had been doing this all weekend long and I hadn't felt a thing, so I started to say, "Do you really expect me to feel anything?" but then I felt the baby kicking! I was so excited and I freaked out and started jumping around kind of singing that the baby was kicking.

The front door opened and I greeted Dad with a little "The Baby's Kicking" song and dance. He just started laughing at me, and Mom couldn't stop smiling, and Dad tossed his bags down on the floor and made his way over to Mom on the couch. He bent in a gave her a little kiss, and then kneeled down on the floor with his hand on her stomach.

He was so excited too, even if he wasn't dancing around like I was. Ooh, and then (ooh this is really cute!) he cuddled his face against her stomach and started talking to the baby, aww, it was soo cute. He was like, "Hi, baby, daddy loves you."

And ooooh my gosh I wanted sooo badly to tell them it's a girl. Like, ugh, how can they not want to know! It would drive me crazy not knowing. It did drive me crazy not knowing for like five months. I can't wait until January 15, or, well, around then, when she's born.

Oh, after that Dad decided he'd take us to dinner, but we weren't hungry yet (well Dad and I weren't) and Dad was a little tired from the flight, so we lounged around the living room for awhile just talking and sort of watching TV. It was nice. I finally remembered to give Dad a proper hello since I just danced for him when he came in through the door. I'm so glad he's home again. I get nervous when he's away even though he's not doing anything dangerous. But he's good, we're all good, dinner was good…

And today. Well, Jess and I are going through with this talk to Amber for the truth thing about Ian, but Amber's sick today. So. Ian keeps looking at me in math, and of course it's almost always while I'm looking at him, but as soon as he turns his head I turn mine away. I wish I could trust him and I wish I just knew that he wasn't lying. But honestly, I don't know him really well, and I really haven't known him for as long as like, Kathleen or Adam or Jess have. And… I just don't know. If Amber can help me out then great, but if not I don't think I can hang out with him anymore if he's gonna do stuff like this.

But, like I said, Amber wasn't here today. So life sucks for Aislin.

Hmm. I gotta go do homework.

9-24-03

3:44 PM

Gosh darn it. It's Wednesday and she's still not in school. Stop being sick, Amber! The world doesn't revolve around you, you know.

Um.

In other news, we took school pictures today. Ha. I'll actually be in the yearbook this year. Mm. Anyway, my hair was giving me a good day so hopefully it will be a nice picture. Oh crap. I have to start my book report. Ugh. If I at least start it tonight, I can finish tomorrow and turn it in Friday. Better go.

9-25-03

3:35 PM

Ahh! The world is a frustrating place.

Guess who's back to school today? Amber! But. Guess who else was sick…? Ian. The little jerk.

I want to talk to him so badly and I called over there just a minute ago, but no one answered. But then I realized that I don't want to do this over the phone anyway, and I guess I'll have to wait to tomorrow. Assuming he's in school tomorrow. Please please please let him be there tomorrow!

Okay, right, so Jess practically tackled me in choir this morning. "She's here! Amber's here!" We performed a little happy dance that Mr. English found very cute and then I skipped off to math, only to discover that– gasp –Ian was missing.

So it got to lunch, finally, and Jess and I were sitting with Kathleen and our usual lunch gang, and we were keeping our eyes out for Lauren. Kathleen said she usually comes in a few minutes late. While we waited, we noticed that Kathleen kept glancing over at something behind us. I turned around to see what she was looking at, and, of course. The boys table. Where Ian would be sitting if he was here today.

"Aislin!"

I snapped back around. "What?"

"You can't… Stare over there!" I gave her 'the eyebrow.' "I… Um… Quick! Act natural."

Jess and I just shrugged and I ate some more of my sandwich. I watched Kathleen though, her eyes were fixated on something walking behind us. Once her eyes were looking far off to my right I turned to see. Justin. That Justin kid. I think his last name is… Never mind. I can't remember.

"Way to act natural, Kathleen. Stare him down. That's not obvious."

"Shut-up. That's what I do when people walk by. I stare at them." She threw a fry at Jess's face. Then she bit her lip. "He's pretty cute, isn't he?"

"Justin? Sure, if you like 'em tall, blonde, and pretty-eyed." Kathleen nodded enthusiastically. We started laughing, then Jess stopped suddenly and grabbed my arm. "There she is! Let's go…" We got to Amber before she got to her table, and we asked if she would come talk to us in the foyer.

Well, the foyer had a bunch of annoying sevies there, so we dragged her out to the flagpole. Amber was probably really confused, and I don't know, I suddenly got really nervous or something, so Jess explained everything to Amber quite clearly. "Okay, so you know Ian Schmidt, right?" She nodded. "Well, Aislin and him have been like, almost going out since last year. And recently he went to the movies with Lauren, and –"

"I need to know if he made out with her," I blurted out.

Immediately Amber was like, "Oh! I'm so sorry! She started that rumor because she knew someone liked him, but I didn't know it was you!" She did looked really sorry, but, rumor? Yesssssss. Tell me more, tell me moooore. "No, they didn't make out. She tried to, but he like flipped out after one kiss. He was like, 'What are you doing?' and she was like, 'Come on, Ian,' and then he was like, 'No, I don't like you like that,' and left. Lauren was so pissed off."

All I could say was, "Wow." So he had been telling the truth. And I didn't believe him. I wouldn't believe him. I thanked her a million times and she went back to lunch, but Jess and I stayed in the foyer with the annoying sevies. They were being slightly less annoying than before. And we just talked.

Amber is amazing. Why is she friends with trash like Lauren? I gave Lauren a little smirk of my own today in Spanish. He likes me, not you.

And damn it, I still have to finish my book report. My labor never ends.

9-26-03

3:56 PM

Sigh.

The gods are against me.

All day long, all I wanted to do was talk to Ian. I mean, he was in school. We were in the same building all day long, like, seven hours, and could we talk once? No! All through choir I was so excited to talk to him, but once I got to math second hour we had a test and there was no talking at all. And of course it was freaking hard for me because hello it's math, I had no idea what I was doing. It took me forever to remember how to draw all those graphs, like, until after the bell. Of course Ian had finished, and still I wasn't done. Ugh.

The next opportunity was crushed too, because it was lunch, and since I hadn't finished my math test I had to go back and finish it.

Didn't see him in the halls.

Didn't see him after school.

But (aren't buts lovely? Not so much butts, but buts yes) there is an Activity Night tonight, the first one of the year, and I bet fifty dollars he'll be there tonight. I really, really, really hope he will. I'll cry if he's not.

11:01 PM

HE WAS THERE! He was there he was there he was there he was there!

Oh my gosh. What a night! So I got there with Jess a few minutes late, right? So we hung out with Kathleen in the gym for awhile, thinking that he might go there. But then he wasn't coming in there, so we started to wander around. We ended up in the cafeteria where they have the music and stuff. We caught the tail end of a Nelly song, and then I saw him.

I saw Ian.

Across the floor, standing with Chasen And Dee. Just talking. I started walking over there, and then all of a sudden that KC and Jojo song came on, you know, the one that's played at every single dance known to man? Yeah, that one. He turned around, and then he saw me, and our eyes locked, and then he walked over to me, and then we just started dancing. It was perfect. We didn't have to say anything right away. All we did was hug and rotate, which is basically what slow dancing is.

I mean, of course we talked afterwards. That's all we did for the rest of the time. We sat out in the foyer and talked for an hour and half, only pausing when a chaperone walked out. Them parents don't need to listen to our conversation. I told him how sorry I was for not believing him, and he was sorry for not telling me earlier what was going on. Lots more sorrys for lots more things. I told him I was going to Ireland soon, and about my baby sister, and about well, anything at all that has happened over the past two weeks.

All of a sudden a bunch of kids came pouring out of the cafeteria and nearly tackled us, but he pulled me up out of the way pretty quickly. I can see the headlines now: Girl Trampled to Death by Mass Teenagers. Not a pretty article.

I gave him a kiss on the cheek before we parted. I'm still not sure how I feel about the fact that Lauren kissed him. This was one of the many things we talked about. I guess I just have to accept the fact that she kissed him but he didn't kiss her.

Haha, I just remembered: I said something like, "I hate Lauren Putnam." And he said, "You hate her? She didn't sexually harass you." Aww, my funny Ian. How I missed him. We decided we would try to hang out this weekend. I hope we can.

A/n: There's your first Thanksgiving present, part two will be coming shortly I hope! Please review! And I'm sorry the last few chapters have been so Ian-centric. The next chapter is steering away from that for sure.