I was encouraged to write more. You guys really made my day!
"Are you sure?"
"Yes Phoebes'. For the last time, I am fine!" I know she cares for me and all but seriously! Asking this every time we talk is kind of pushing my buttons.
"Alright." She says, but I know she's not convinced. "Just…talk to me whenever, okay?" I can hear the sadness in her voice and now I feel like a jerk.
"I promise if anything gets out of hand, I will go to you." I said, making sure I sound confident and reassuring with determination.
"I don't know Helga…" She's doubting me?!
"What do you mean 'I don't know Helga'? When have I ever broken a promise to you?!" I want to hear her try to pin things on me. I, Helga Geraldine Pataki, only break promises if for a solid, good reason, and none of those were promises passed through the lips of dear Phoebe!
"Well… there was that time you promised you'd pay me back for all those lunches I got you." Oh, she's going there? I can go there.
"You volunteered. No pay day." I said bluntly. I bet she can't think of ano-
"And when you said you owe me one for stopping you from confessing your feelings when you were sleepwalking due to junk food."
"Which you did a horrible job at by the way." I scolded. "We're lucky the old football head was asleep and didn't hear any of my heartfelt confession on his fire escape. " Then I added, "Plus, even if I owed you for all of the things you did for me, I repaid that by getting you and Geraldo together over fall break!" HA! Top THAT off Phoebe!
"Which reminds me of just earlier when you promised to be nicer to my boyfriend." She giggled the last word.
"But Geraldo… mean Gerald had it coming to him!" I protested. "No one makes fun of my unibrow!" I mean NO ONE! You can be the president of these fifty states, you'll be seeing fifty stars if you talk smack about me!
"Yes and he will be punished appropriately, but-"
"Phoebe! I never knew you had such a dirty mind!" I exclaimed with a Rhonda gasp ( you know, the WAY over-the-top- gasps that makes you think they were drowning a second ago.), laying my widened and on my heart. I smirked at the mental image of Phoebe probably redder than Cherry Pop Yahoo.
"Oh Helga, get your mind out of the gutter!" she says, but I can hear her voice is slightly squeakier than normal.
"And technically I never broke the promise. I'm still trying." I pouted in defense.
I heard her sigh before saying, "Well I have to go now. Remember what we discussed."
"Yeah, yeah," I mumbled. "You know it's gonna take a while."
"A girl can dream can't she?" and with a 'love you, bye!' she hung up, not even waiting for my response.
Yes, a girl certainly can dream.
Thankfully before I got home, everyone went out to celebrate a teaching award Olga received.
Three months ago.
In Scandinavia.
I walked to my desktop and went to Skype. No one was on yet, so I sent out a call and waited for a response.
Olga…I knew she couldn't be all good. Like Kelly Clarkson (not a fan. I just so happen to know the song.) once said, or sang, or whatever, "Everybody has a dork side". I wonder just how dark her dark side can be? Some say the nicer the guy the darker the side. That would explain Lila. Also with that being said, how dark is Arnold's dark side?
Ding. Ding.
Looks like someone is on.
"Hey Helga."
"Sup Cin-" Then I get a good look at her. Her hair was in a messy ponytail that looked like it was poorly fixed multiple times over. She has brown bags underneath her bloodshot exercised eyes. You could see the capillaries popping out in the white part of the eye. Clearly, she hadn't slept in a while. "What happened to you? You look like you got run over by the Sandman driving a minivan!" I know it was stupid but she looked like the fistfight against her and sleep was a losing one.
"Yeah, it's just all of my AP classes catching up with me." She says, angling the camera towards her wooden desk assaulted with papers.
"If you're tired, go to sleep." I say. She's one of the few people I actually give a crap about when it comes to their health, otherwise you're on your own. "I can always talk to Angi."
"No." she says stubbornly. "I need a distraction anyway."
Ding. Ding.
"Hey guys." Angelica says in a preppy tone. Sadly, she can't trick us like she can everyone else.
"Sup" I said
"Hey" Cindy yawned.
"Whoa, you look terrible! What happened?" Angi Exclaimed.
"I tried telling her to take a rest but she's being mule." I replied, "A blonde mule."
"I am perfectly fine, thank you very much!". I understand retaliation, but this is just immature.
"Come on Cin!"
"No!"
Fighting is officially fruitless now. I swear we're related by some means. "Fine, but if you start snoring, I'm leaving."
"Whatever. You're both just crazy." We hear her mutter.
"Says the girl who got caught staring at her neighbor with binoculars." Angelica laughed, earning me a weak glare.
"Moving on" I said, "How well was the week?"
Angelica's happy façade finally fell, but oh did she look mad. "I was just watching Strawberry Sherbet out of the corner of my eye like usual, and he was talking to Dill and Tommy. I didn't know why but Dill showed him something on his phone and his eyes went wide."
"Wider than usual?" I snickered, but was silenced with an atomic glare. "My bad, just kidding. Go on."
After a few more seconds of glaring at me, she continues. "Everyone began snickering and looking at him. Then people started pointing at me, which normally gives me pride but then…"
"What happened, Angi" I pressed on.
"I got a text message of a photo of Strawberry Sherbet sleeping with a teddy bear snuggled under his arm, and when I say sleeping, I mean mouth open wide and drool on the side!" she exclaimed.
Man, I can't imagine a football jock with a teddy bear, snoring loudly and drooling. "Awe, that is sick! Right Cindy?"
Silence.
"Cindy?" I said
A mutter comes out, but we can only barely make out the words.
"Cynthia." I growled in irritation, only to be answered with a giant bulb of blonde hair. "I knew she was tired. Let's let her go, Ange-"
"WAKE UP YOU LAZY BLONDIE!"
"Angelica! Why would you do that?!" I spat angrily. Seriously, right when she was getting much needed sleep, she just goes and messes it up.
"Wha-? Who did that?". The girl was looking around like there were ghost in her room.
"Stop it, you look stupid."I said and her wide eyes narrowed into a glare at the camera.
"Angelica You dumb airhead!"
"Well excuse me for being so boring and talking you to sleep!" Angelica retaliated.
"I would say you're more of a bedazzled airhead." I cut in. What? All of that glitter she wears on a daily basis has probably blinded half of California by now.
"You" Cindy stated, pointing at me. "have no say in this. I was busy thinking on-"
"Thinking?" Angelica and I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Yes thinking." Ugh, she can act so snobby sometimes.
"About?" I pressed on.
"Things that are nothing to you." She guarded
"like…Chocolate Swirl?" The second I said that her eyes popped open. I seriously love these code names.
"U-um…"
"We heard you talking in your sleep." Angelica cleared up bluntly.
"HA! I do not talk in my sleep!" Cindy laughed nervously. "And even if I did, which I don't, it would definitely not be about…" she trailed off. Both me and Angelica have a smug smirks on our faces. I could feel half my unibrow rise in defiance with one of hers as if saying "oh really".
"You're forgetting why we talk instead of going to a stupid therapists. I feel like I'm the only sane one hear!" Angi exclaims with a funny smile. "We tell each other everything, right?"
Well, not everything. I never told them about Jennifer a.k.a. Dr. Bliss…and by the look on Cindy's face I can see she has some secrets of her own.
"Sure, everything".
"Yeah, we're good friends." Me and Cindy mutter.
The smile on Angelica's face becomes an annoyed line. "Girls, am I right? Because I tell you guys everything."
I look down at my fingers and I know Cindy's doing her nervous habit of looking anywhere else but the angry bedecked blonde "I can't believe you this! I'm out, good-bye!" and with and a click our three split screens become two.
Silence fill the air or the screens. Whatever, I'm sure you get it, but only for a minute or two.
"So…" I start awkwardly,' Chocolate Swirl, eh?
I only had tonight/ 4:00 this morning. Yet again, thanks for encouraging me to continue this, but alas it will be quite short (or short for my taste).