A/N: Hey ya'll. sorry for the long wait, although it was shorted than usual... :D i'm improving haha. This chapter is short, and basically a filler. I had to write it this way though, so Joey and Alice could talk. XD. anyway, i wont bore you with my AN, get onto reading. :D
DISCLAIMER!!!: I really do forget to put this on a lot, than to those of you who remind me, but guess what? this is the last time i have to disclaim it because stephenie meyer gave me the rights for my birthday present!!! nah, i dont own it. if i did, i would probably live somewhere that people couldnt salk me haha.
Alice's POV
I walked to school, singing again. Today though, I sang the love song, 100 Oceans that I wrote last night. For some reason, I could not get it out of my head.
I couldn't believe it was only the second day of school; it felt like it should be summer by now! With all that happened yesterday, I am surprised Joey even agreed to meet me.
Trying my hardest to think of a way of telling Joey without actually saying it, I continued singing, not even noticing that Joey was standing behind me.
I finished the romantic song, and then realized Joey's presence. Not again, I thought.
"Mr. Whitlock." I nodded my head in acknowledgement.
"Miss Alice." He followed my example.
"Can we talk?" I said bluntly.
He nodded, and walked over to the run down playground across the street from our high school.
I ran over to the swings immediately, just desiring to swing back and forth and forget all my troubles; though I knew that was impossible. I motioned for Joey to join me and he obliged.
"You know we never got to play twenty questions at your house yesterday…" I reminded him.
"My apologies, I do believe our sisters had a good time together though…and you seemed to enjoy about seven minutes of it." He said curtly.
"Joey. Listen. I cant tell you exactly what happened, because, well I am afraid to. But if I give you clues and you piece them together, I would be thoroughly appreciative. Especially because I do not want you thinking what I think you are thinking." I proclaimed all in one breath.
"Okay. I want to understand what happened. Because if he hurt you or …" He just sort of let the mind wander on the last part of his statement.
"For starters, I didn't enjoy the game. I think that was the worse seven minutes of my life." I said in all honesty. His face seemed to brighten, and then fall again in realizing what James had more likely done.
"Okay. Just tell me, Alice, did he hurt you?" He asked me with sadness in his eyes. I couldn't decide whether to lie to him, which would be a better choice so he wouldn't go and kill James, or to tell him the truth so he would know. He deserved to know.
"Yes." I whispered. His face became full of anger and rage. He did not say a word; we just sat there swinging.
"Mary Alice you must tell someone besides me. Perhaps the police?"
"Joey. The reason I didn't tell you last night is because he told me that if I told anyone what had happened that I'd be sorry." I whispered again.
"He must pay for what he did to you." Joey almost growled.
"It's over now, can't we just leave it at that?" I truly did not want to tell anyone else.
"How can you say that?" He jumped off the swing in perfect grace, and walked off. I tried to do the same, but being the klutz I am, I fell over and landed on my wrist. Pain rushed through it, although I had felt worse so I just ignored it.
"Joey. You said that you would listen." I reminded him.
"My apologies. It's just. Alice, he needs to pay for hurting you. I swear I could just go and rip his head off…"
"That wouldn't solve anything!" I nearly yelled. "Please, Joey, you have to promise not to tell anyone. Not even Jewelea or your parents."
"You have my word." And I believed him. "But we should go unless you want to be tardy for school."
We walked down the concrete path to school together in silence. I knew we would talk at some point in the day, he was in all my classes for heavens sake, I just desired it would be sooner rather than later.
In biology, I sat in the same seat as the previous day, as did Joey. Most of the students had already arrived, and were up chatting to the others. Joey and I simply sat without conversation.
"Joey. I hope you aren't upset with me." I whispered without turning my head.
"I could never be upset with you." He paused. "I just cannot seem to remove images of him…and you…" I could tell he was growing angry again.
"No, Joey. James is an ignorant, pig, sad excuse for a man. You cannot think those thoughts anymore, okay?"
"I know you are right. But… I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm actually en-"
Mr. Kappy, again, interrupted at the worst possible time. Today, class was more like a class rather than an introduction like yesterday. We were forced into a seating arraignment, done randomly by Mr. Kappy.
"Mary Alice." He called, and I corrected him that I prefer being referred to as simply Alice. He changed the appropriate words and pointed to a desk about four away from mine, still in the front row. "Joseph Whitlock." He pointed to the desk next to mine. I grinned a small grin, and Joey walked over with a smile on his face as well.
"Why does this not surprise me?" I asked Joey.
"You think I had something to do with this?" he asked, making it more obvious that he in fact did.
"Joey, come on." I rolled my eyes to emphasize my point.
"Fine, I might have requested a seat near yours…" He said bashfully.
Class finally ended, not after Mr. Kappy explained to Joey and I that he is ready and able to rearrange the seating chart, several times in fact.
Margie ran to us in the hall. "Alice!!" she sang.
"Yes, Margie?" I turned around to see her smiling hugely. Something very important must have taken place. Today, her lovely fire red hair was pulled back into pigtails that I was just dying to tug at like we had years ago.
"Guess who the new editor of the Everson Gazette is?!" She screeched, then we both jumped up and done in excitement. Joey just looked at us lie we needed to be placed in a mental facility.
"Come, Joseph, happy dance with us!" Margie ordered him. He raised his eyebrows, as though that was answer enough.
"I'd prefer not…" He explained.
"Come on. Live a little!" I told him, than I grabbed his hand to force him to perform the happy dance, but I was distracted by the electric current that ran through my vein as I did so.
"Well, we're going to be late for arithmetic." He tried to convince me not to make him dance.
"Fine. But you're so dancing at lunch, pet!" Margie told him, and than ran off into her biology class.
"She really is something else isn't she?" Joey asked.
"Yes. But she's the best. If you ever have a problem or just need someone to talk to, she'll be there in an instant."
We left it at that, because the tardy bell rang. We had to run to class, both laughing hysterically, and me tripping more than one time.
Ms. Riley simply glared and ordered us to take a seat anywhere. Arithmetic and history past horribly uneventfully. Margie talked to Joey through most of the latter, getting to know him while Mr. Cullen left the room.
All three of us walked to the cafeteria together, only to be stopped before we even walked through the doors by none other than James.
A/N: o.0 cliffy! kinda. hah. so review! please! i expect atleast five reviews or i am not updating until sunday or later :0