Chapter 3 - Wrong To Right

Summer came and summer went.

Alison never quite made it back to the West Coast.

3 summer months of traveling, sightseeing, hiking, swimming, surfing, staying up late, meeting new people she could see herself being friends for life with. She slept in run down motels, in her car and even on the beach. True to her word she called her Aunt and Uncle every three days and would tell them all about the towns, cities and states she had visited since their last conversation.

By the time summer came to an end she was sitting under a tree in a beautiful park in Chicago, Illinois. It was funny how she had started her summer there and was ending it there. Her Uncle had some papers overnighted to her hotel and she had picked them up that morning. She'd had a little breakfast and then grabbed some coffee and decided now was as good a time as any to read through them.

Amber eyes looked at the manila envelope as she pulled the papers out she sipped her half cranberry and half orange juice. Her eyes ran across the paper until it came across a number. A number that NEARLY made her faint. Apparently all the years her parents had worked and gotten raises in the positions they had with Intel had really paid off.

$35 Million...

What the hell was Alison supposed to do with thirty-five million dollars?

Today was an interesting day...a very interesting day indeed.

Now she just had to decide what to do with the remainder of her future.

Halloween - October 31, 2005

Darkness.

Relaxation.

Warmth.

Jostling...bouncing...Amber eyes slowly peeked open and watched as the dark chestnut hair woman with the sparkling emerald eyes jump up and down on her motel bed.

"Aria why are you awake?" Alison grumbled as she rolled over and tucked her head under her pillow with the hopes of sleeping some more.

Aria giggled as she continued to bounce on her friends bed. "Well I been up since 5 and I left you alone for an extra 3 hours. But I'm hungry and I know you're hungry and don't forget we have that Halloween party at Georgia Tech to go to tonight."

Alison groaned as she rolled out of bed as Aria continued to jump on it. She stumbled into the doorway of the bathroom as Aria stated she was ordering French toast and bacon for them. Alison stripped off her shorts and tank top as she climbed into the shower and let the hot strays engulf her.

It had been a crazy year and a half.

Once Alison had decided she wasn't going to attend college in the traditional way, she broke the news to her Uncle Tim who actually took it quite well. Alison couldn't bring herself to go home or to do anything much that she had planned. she enjoyed being on the road more than anything. When she'd been in Chicago last and read her parents will through and found out just exactly how much money she had inherited; she knew going home wasn't high on her list of priorities, but being responsible was.

Every semester Alison had attended college courses at a different college. She wanted a different education experience so she made sure to give herself one. She'd already spent a semester at Notre Dame, a semester at University of Chicago and current was enrolled at the Georgia State University. Her credits were 100% transferrable so every beginning semester wasn't difficult at all.

Coincidentally, it was how they'd gotten invited to the Georgia Tech Halloween party. She had gone into a creative writing class and the student sitting directly in front of her; Lena, was dating a 'Georgia Tech Football God' as she so eloquently put it. Alison and Lena became fast friends and she had invited her and Aria to the party.

Aria Winters.

She too had lost her parents at the tender age of 17 to a drunk driver in Chicago Illinois. Which was probably why Alison found herself going back to the windy city so often. The people were nice and always willing to help out a traveler and she'd met Aria on the University of Chicago's campus.

Aria was sitting at a coffee shop at a table outside as she was sipping her coffee and studying the pictures she'd taken of the school's basketball team. She was on the school newspaper and was in charge of all pictures everyone else was on the paper were writing columns. She looked up as her editor sat down at the table uninvited; normally she wouldn't have a problem with it, but that was her only quiet time for the day.

She didn't see the amber eyes watching the scene unfold.

"You know Aria. You could be a writer for the paper if you applied yourself better." Dennis stated. "I've read some of your side pieces and they are quite good."

"Well no Dennis I don't want to be a writer. My passion lies in pictures. That's why over half my class load is photography and why I asked for the photography position on the paper." Aria pointed out as she sipped her Mocha Latte.

Dennis leaned over and let his index knuckle brush against her bare knee. "I could always tutor you and help you with your writing." He pushed gently.

Aria flicked his fingers from her knee. She knew there was a reason she shouldn't have worn this damn skirt; she second guessed it a few times earlier that morning. "Once again, no thank you Dennis; it's photography I love and photography is where I'll stay."

Aria closed her laptop before sliding it back into the carrying case as she stood up, shouldering her laptop case and picked up her mocha latte before she squeezed the sides and popped the plastic top off and poured the remaining contents over Dennis's head. "And the next time you touch me without my permission...you'll get more than a luke warm mocha latte over your head...you'll be coughing up your balls." She walked away with a giggle in her voice and a bounce in her step.

Aria stopped in mid 'bad ass' strut when she hear a slow clapping sound and spun around and came face to face with a mahogany hair girl with nearly glowing amber eyes. They were about the same height and weight and she was pretty sure they were around the same age. "Something I can help you with?" Aria asked.

"Nope I just wanted to commend you for the coffee shampooing that you gave that jerk. He seemed like he was being pushy about something." Alison couldn't help laughing. "Alison Merker." She stuck her hand out.

Aria looked at the girls offered hand before she smirked and shook the offered hand. "Aria Winters...Alison, I think you and I are going to become the best of friends."

"Abso-fuckin-lutely." Alison agreed whole heartedly.

That was a little over a year and 3 months ago. Since then Aria had joined Alison on the road in her travels. Alison always made sure she picked a college where Aria's credits were transferrable. She even tried to get Aria to pick the next college they were going to, but Aria kept saying 'This is your journey I'm just a long for the ride.'

Alison loved having a travel companion and Uncle Tim worried a little less since finding out she'd met Aria and they were now traveling together. they were the same age and their lives were pretty much a mirror image of each other.

A couple of showers and a huge French Toast breakfast later the girls were food coma zombie walking through the costume shop giggling and trying to find costumes that would be original.

Suddenly amber eyes widened as well as emerald orbs; hands snatched the costumes from the racks as the girls spun around and faced each other immediate and in sync. They both couldn't hold their laughter in as they looked at each other's costumes before they squealed with delight 'PERFECT!'

Happy dances to the register went all around.

Alison looked at herself in the full length mirror behind the motel door. The Black velvet strapless dress that went to mid-thigh was perfectly cut into jagged triangle cuts fit perfectly it wasn't too tight or too loose. She had on black and red stripped knee high socks with black ballet flats. She had a black lace choker around her neck and black fish net gloves that went up to her elbows. Her mahogany hair was pulled up into a nice puffy bun at the top of her head as she smoked out her eyes and blacked her lips with a nice black lipstick. The topper was the black mesh wings w/ chains going from the top set of wings to the lower set.

Tinkerbell had always been Alison's favorite Disney character and the fact that someone had the ingenious idea to make a Gothic Tinkerbell costume was a thousand times more exciting for her.

Alison's eyes widened as she watched the bathroom door open and Aria came strutting out. She giggled at the thought of her strutting since she was dressed in a sexy peacock outfit.

It was a strapless teal dress that just seemed to bring out Aria's emerald eyes. The skirt of it was fluffed out with black tool underneath to give it its puffiness. Peacock feathers adorned the bodice up to lightly cover the tops of her protruding cleavage. When Aria spun around peacock feathers were fanned out at the waist across her lower back to give the appearance of a peacock tail. Her long dark chestnut hair was full of curls that seemed to bounce when she walked. Her feel were covered with 2 1/2 inch heeled pep-toe heels that matched the color of her dress perfectly. She also had a beautifully made teal mask with peacock feathers hanging off to the right to complete her costume.

"Wow you look AMAZING Aria!" Alison couldn't help as she circled Aria.

Aria fidgeted a little as she could feel Alison's eyes on her. "It's...It's not too much you don't think?" She asked. She might have been 18 and traveling the states with Alison and she loved to party, but sometimes her shy side would come out of its hiding spot.

Alison smiled as she shook her head vehemently. "No definitely not. You look beautiful and sexy and you might just get snatched up by some hot Georgia Tech dude walking across campus."

Aria looked at Alison skeptically. "Yea well walking around in that get up someone in going to want to tinker with your bell as well."

Alison pulled a face before both girls erupted into laughter.

"Okay okay that was lame." Aria admitted. "But you have to agree you look just as sexy as I do and some hot jock is going to swoop you up and tear that ass up."

Alison snorted extremely unladylike. "Please the last time I had sex was the night I lost my virginity and even then it wasn't all it was cracked up to be."

Aria chuckled. "You'll find someone who will make your eyes cross and roll into the back of your head. Then just when you think you've had enough he will make you forget your name, his name, my name; hell he'll make you have amnesia for a few days."

"That's a nice thought." Alison chuckled as they grabbed their motel room keys and Alison grabbed her car keys and they headed out.

Alison was leaning against the wall as she nursed a long neck bottle of beer. She wasn't much of a drinker, but she did enjoy ice cold beer. Her amber eyes watched as the vampire who had Aria in his clutches danced around the small college dorm to a nice slow song.

Aria and Alison had been standing next to each other when Dracula walked over and said 'I Vanna Vuck Vour Vlood.'

He was almost too cute for words and Aria sighed before she agreed and allowed him to take her to the dance floor.

And there they had stayed for the last 5 songs. They had done some bumping and grinding to the fast fun dirty songs but seemed to get along a lot better while the music was nice and slow.

3 Mintues later the music started bumping so hard she was nearly vibrated off the wall as she walked over to grab another beer she bumped into Lena.

"THIS PARTY IS NOT HALF BAD!" Alison attempted to shout over the music.

"WHAT?" Lena asked.

"THIS PARTY IS NOT HALF BADDD!" Alison practically screamed at the top of her lungs.

Lena giggled as she motioned for her to follow her. Alison grabbed another beer and followed the Zombie cheerleader as they excited one dorm room and entered another where half the Georgia Tech football team was squared away with a Playstation 2 with their Call Of Duty game.

Alison never could get into the game consoles that had started becoming popular. But it was quite fun to watch as boys got into the games, shoving and pushing each other when they killed the other.

"So is this the infamous Alison, me and my boys keep hearing about?" A tall slender but muscular guy asked as he stood up and dropped a kiss on Lena's lips.

Lena giggled softly. "The one and only. Alison this is my boyfriend Reggie. Reggie this is Alison." She watched as they shook hands.

"So you're the traveler. My girl has been telling me about the traveling you've been doing and the college hopping. Where are you going next?" He asked curiously.

Alison shrugged her shoulders. "Don't know; I haven't really decided yet. I'm kind of enjoying the weather that Georgia is providing. And since the next semester will be in the dead of winter I don't see me going someplace cold. I'm sticking to the warmer states for a while; Texas, Arizona, maybe Seattle but just because I love the rain and someone said it rains 90% of the time there."

Someone calling out Reggie's name broke his focus on the conversation and tossed him the Playstation 2 controller. Apparently it was his turn to fight or die on the game.

Alison watched a little bit of the game as she and Lena talked. She'd gotten a few text messages from Aria that were nothing but happy faces. Alison smiled apparently Dracula had found his match in the sexy peacock and hadn't ruffled her feathers...so to speak.

Alison let Lena know she was going to go back to the other dorm to check on Aria and grab another beer. She walked across the hall and saw Aria in a mean lip lock with Dracula before she turned and grabbed another beer from the ice chest near the door. She started to walk through the door when she ran into a solid wall.

And everything went from wrong to right
And the stars came out and filled up the sky
The music you were playing really blew my mind
It was love at first sight

A pair of giant hands came out and steadied her in her ballet flats.

"Hello." A deep voice said.

"Hello." She stated before she could see the navy blue 96 on the gold jersey. "Football team?"

Her eyes continued to travel up until they came in contact with a pair of stormy grey orbs. "Yea...how'd you know?" A deep baritone voice answered.

Alison smirked. "Lucky guess..."