This is a fairly short chapter because I wanted to build on Claire and Allison as characters and develop their friendship. - mimujer

Every Friday, Claire's dad picked her up from school. It was tradition for them; they would drive the long way home and talk about how their weeks had been, and if the weather was nice they would get ice cream and sometimes he would take her shopping or drop her off at her friend's houses. No matter how much stick she gave her parents, she always looked forward to spending the time with her dad every week.

On Friday, March 26th, Mr. Standish was late.

It happened sometimes. He would get held back at the office with paperwork or get caught up speaking to his colleagues and he would forget the time. Despite all this, though, it still upset Claire none-the-less.

On this particular Friday, Claire couldn't wait to get home. After royally embarrassing herself at lunch time in front of John Bender's friends, and waiting for him all week only for him to not show up, she couldn't wait to have the weekend to herself. It would be free of detention, a break from school and homework, and she'd already planned to draw herself a hot bath as soon as she got in.

So she eagerly left the building, told her friends she would call them the next night, and went outside expecting to find her dad's car already there for her, but it wasn't. She waited a little while longer, watched all the other kids leave; some got on buses, others walked, many got in their own cars or had their parents pick them up. Five minutes after the bell had gone, she watched her own girlfriends drive past her in Heather's car, but they didn't take any notice of her. Soon the traffic coming from the school building slowed, and a few teachers began to exist. That was when she finally accepted that her dad was going to be late tonight.

It really was not Claire's week.

She huffed to herself as she walked over to the steps leading up to the school, dropped her bag on the ground with a thud, then herself into a sitting position, pulling her legs up and wresting her arms on them while she sat with her head in her hands, frowning at the ground. For the first time since last Saturday, she felt like a self-entitled princess was cursing at her father for screwing up her plans, and for being so damn unreliable. She was cursing at herself for yet again getting her hopes up over an unreliable man, for thinking that her dad might make up for her current disillusionment with the male gender. Instead, he only destroyed it further, and it was only 4 o'clock.

Figuring there was nothing better for her to do, Claire sighed loudly and unbuckled her bag, rummaging around in it for a moment before producing a fairly thick book from it. On its front cover, embossed in bold and block capitals, read the name 'ANNA KARENINA'. The spine was in bad condition, and the pages were creased and folded over at the top; a sign that the book was truly 'read in'. Claire quickly flicked to the middle of the novel and found the page she had last been reading from, and began focusing on the words.

"That's some heavy reading." A female voice brought Claire abruptly out of the Russian world depicted in her novel and back to Shermer, Illinois. It was tough, remembering her current situation and location. She had been enjoying the complicated romance of someone else so much that she didn't want to go back to her own, while she still sat on the steps outside of the school building. Her eyes darted upwards quickly to see Allison Reynolds staring down at her, and Claire shut her book with a satisfying thud.

"Allison! Hey," she said, plastering a smile on her face. Claire hadn't yet forgotten how Allison had treated her the other day in front of everyone, and likewise Claire hadn't yet forgiven her. So she watched the girl closely, trying to figure out what sort of mood she had decided to be in today. Allison stared back, raised her eyebrows, then dropped down to sit next to Claire on the steps. She smiled at her, echoing Claire's own smile, except Allison meant hers. It was small and it was timid, but it was real. Claire's mouth fell open and she broke eye contact to put her book away.

"Hope you don't mind me sitting here with you," Allison offered as a conversation starter.

"I don't really have a choice in the matter," Claire muttered back, rubbing her forehead with her pointer finger.

Out of everyone Claire had met in her life, even people like Bender, Allison was the only one that she couldn't quite figure out. There was something about Allison, some sort of motive, that threw Claire off every time. She was just different, in the most extreme way possible. She went way beyond anyone else in the school, beyond the punks and goths and preps and burners. Allison was her own person-her own island, if you will. She wore gym sneakers with pretty skirts, and covered her face with her hair when she had made an effort with her makeup. Over the course of the week, it was hard not to notice her wacky fashions. But it wasn't just that; Claire was almost afraid of her. She lied, tried to catch Claire out and make her feel like an idiot, and she was unpredictable. On Saturday, Claire had assumed Allison would be the first one to want to smoke with Bender. She didn't even try it once. Claire assumed she would be into darker, heavier bands, maybe similar to John's taste. Allison liked Prince and Phil Ochs, and danced like no one was watching.

There was something unnerving about a person who cared so little of what everyone thought of them.

The girls sat in silence for a while, both trying not to look at the other. Claire sat with her hands in her lap, her back straight, staring ahead at the road, willing for her dad to drive up any moment and save her. Allison sat with her hands on her ankles, slumped forwards, chin rested on her knees, looking up at the clouds and daydreaming to herself.

Allison couldn't figure out Claire just as much as she couldn't figure out her. She thought that it wouldn't have been so difficult to understand a girl like her; she liked pink, shopping and getting manicures. Her hair always looks bouncy and fluffy as if she had just walked out of a hair salon, and Allison imagined that most people watched her whenever she walked down the hallway. Claire was the sort of person that had everything going for her. She had friends, probably more than she could count on both hands, and she was beautiful. She was book smart and borderline street smart, although she still seemed dumb when matched up against someone like John Bender.

That was another thing Allison didn't get. Claire could go for any other guy, but she seemed hellbent on getting Bender to like her. Maybe it was because everyone else already liked her, but he was determined to make her feel like he didn't. He brought her down to earth when she was feeling too high and mighty, and knocked her down when she needed to be. And occasionally he was mean when there was no reason at all, but Claire still stuck around. Allison assumed Claire had daddy issues.

"Are you waiting for someone?" she asked, finally looking down from the sky and to the redhead sat beside her.

"Are you?"

"I'm waiting for my dad to pick me up."

Claire nodded. "Yeah, me too."

"He's a bit late, isn't he?"

"What about yours?"

"I always get out late on Fridays."

"Why?"

"It's when I go to see my therapist. The guidance counsellor. Whatever you want to call it. Every Friday after school until 4."

"Oh."

Claire bit her lip; she didn't know what else to say. Allison pressed her lips together; she didn't know how to reply.

"You-you were mean to me earlier in the week," Claire suddenly blurted out.

"Huh?"

Claire huffed to herself, and turned to face her company. "When you kept saying I was embarrassed of all of you, and making me look like an ass in front of John. That wasn't nice of you, and frankly I don't want to be friendly with someone who's going to be like that."

Allison had a bemused look on her face, "Why do you let yourself get so worked up?"

"I'm not worked up, I just don't want to be treated like shit by everyone! First I have you, a girl I thought was my friend, telling all of my other friends that I'm basically a bitch, and then I have John giving me an even harder time by completely ignoring me all week, and on top of that I have homework to do this weekend and my dad hasn't even showed to pick me up from school, when he promised he would, and-" Claire was cut off from speaking, because Allison had put her hand over her mouth. Claire frowned even more, and shrugged it off, but Allison's hand stayed pressed to her face as the other girl tried to convince Claire to stop wriggling around.

"Stop moving, Ginger Rogers, let me say something!"

Claire rolled her eyes, but stopped, all the while thinking to herself how much she hated the nicknames everyone seemed insistent of giving her.

"Promise to be quiet and I'll take my hand off. Okay?" Claire nodded. "Okay." And Allison moved her hand away. "If this is the sort of thing people have to do to get you to stop talking, then it's a problem. You talk too much and don't think before doing it. For one, people don't treat you like shit, they worship the ground you walk on. You're popular, remember? It's jerks like your friends who treat me like shit, but do I let myself feel sorry or get hurt by it?"

"Then why do you go to the school counsellor?"

Allison's eyes widened. "I said no talking." She paused. "I never said you were a bitch, that was John Bender. I give you a hard time because you'd do the same right back if you weren't so sensitive. I'm the bitch, that's just the way I am. That's my excuse, at least."

"Can I talk now?"

Allison blinked at Claire a few times, then nodded once.

"Do you always push people away from you?"

"Don't we all?"

"No. I don't. At least I don't intend to. Allison-look, life's not some big drama for you to get kicks out of laughing at. Maybe I'm an emotional person, that's not a bad thing. But you don't have to knock everything just because it's not what you like or it's too, I don't know, mainstream for you. It's not a bad thing to fit in sometimes."

"Now you're just assuming things about me you don't know."

"It's true, though, isn't it? You claim that you don't like things to be edgy but you just want attention."

"I take it back, I'm not the bitch, you are!"

"Or maybe we both are? Maybe we're not that different? I don't like things that are different, you don't like things that are the same. How different is that?"

"Shut up, Claire," Allison said through slightly gritted teeth, then picked up her bag hastily and began to get up.

"No, you made me listen to you, now you listen to me. When people are mean to me I'm gonna react, that's normal. You're reacting now to me being mean to you, it shows you're just like everyone else!"

"I never said I wasn't like everyone else, but I don't want to be like people like you. I don't want to be like what my parents want, like how my sister is, or girls like you!"

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry for saying those things and I'm sorry if I annoyed you in the first place, I'm sorry I don't shut up and it annoys everyone, I'm sorry that I can tell secretly no one really likes me, not like I want them to," Claire said in a haste, her voice wobbling. Allison sat back down again, and as she got closer to Claire she realised that her eyes were watering.

"I'm sorry, too," Allison began, her voice quiet again, "I'm sorry I'm defensive and I give you stick for no reason. People don't like me like I want them to, either."

"Brian and Andy like you. Bender likes you. It's funny, I thought you were his type of girl when we all first met. I thought you were already friends, or you and him would…"

"Stop, that's gross." Allison mimed sticking her finger down her throat and vomiting, and Claire began to laugh.

"I know. I assumed things. But what I said is still true, they all like you. I like you-but only when you're being nice." A smile drew across Allison's face.

"I go to the school counsellor because I was a problem child," Allison began, taking note of Claire's confused look at the change in conversation, "You asked me why I go, so I'm telling you. When I was younger I used to lash out at people because I wanted attention. So, you were right. It builds on the image, doesn't it?"

Claire nodded, and began to dab her eyes to rid them of their wetness.

"If you think I'm going to explain all the rest of my life secrets to you in front of our school, I'm not. I don't want to talk about how I am anymore and I won't talk to you about the way you are. Let's call it me being 'edgy' and 'pushing people away'. But I will offer a truce."

Claire smirked at Allison's remarks, but then sat up straight and nodded to show her sincerity, "I accept your truce. Are we friends?"

"We're neutrals."

"I guess I can accept that."

A short time later, Claire's dad finally pulled up in front of the school, only an hour late to pick his daughter up. Claire made to stand up, and Allison followed suite. The atmosphere was slightly awkward between them, but as they both dusted off their clothes and arranged their bags, they kept smiling at each other. Claire even offered Allison a ride, but the other girl declined and claimed she was going to just walk home anyway, though Claire seemed skeptical of how much truth was in that statement.

If there was anything at all she had learned about Allison today, it was that a lot of the time it was wise to just take everything she said with a grain of salt. If you really, truly wanted to get to know her, Claire assumed that it would just take a long time. Claire thought about Andy, and how smitten he seemed lately with the girl, and she almost wanted to feel sorry for him. But she didn't, because Allison reminded her of a more severe version of John. He was difficult too, and he dodged around a lot of things, but at least he told the truth, even if it got him into trouble. She was the Andy of her and John, and she didn't want to feel sorry for herself anymore, even though John was the most truthful of them all, and Allison the most complex.

As Claire walked down to the car, after saying her goodbye's to Allison, she turned around to look at her once more before getting into the car. She lifted her hand to wave, and in reply, across the distance, Allison tried to mouth something back.

"What?"

Allison cupped her hands around her mouth and spoke again: "John has detention here tomorrow!"

Once Claire took her seat in the car, her dad was extremely apologetic, claiming to have been held back in the office. He smelt strongly of menthol cigarettes and Chanel perfume. Claire told him she just wanted to go home, and then turned away from her father and stared out the window, watching Allison sit back down on the steps as the car pulled away. She wondered how Allison knew she was looking for John, and why she would help her out with something like that after everything. Maybe they really were friends.