Chapter 2: No Musical Interludes

Hardbeck (19:15) Why are we bothering anyway?

violetsaregrace (19:16) SUCKING TOO HARD ON YOUR LOLLIPOP, OH LOVE'S GONNA GET YOU DOWN

Hardbeck (19:16) no musical interludes. Please.

violetsaregrace (19:16) Okay (: I'm done!

alosexgod (19:17) Rich, don't worry about it. Tell her she's pretty

violetsaregrace (19:17) Awwwwh… exactly!

alosexgod (19:18) Soz hadn't finished. Pretty fit and your house or hers for Napalm Death sex sess?

violetsaregrace (19:18) EW. No! Don't listen, Richie!

Hardbeck (19:19) Wasn't. What an absolute pile of cowshit, Als. That's why you're a virgin.

alosexgod (19:20) Fine! If you don't want my help…

(alosexgod has left the chat)

Hardbeck (19:20) Thank fuck for that

violetsaregrace (19:20) That wasn't very nice of you though.

Hardbeck (19:21) Er… Have we not been hanging out for the last 6 years? That's how we always are.

violetsaregrace (19:21) Tell him you're sorry!

Hardbeck (19:24) Fine.

violetsaregrace (19:25) Good! Anyway just tell the Metal Princess that you couldn't help but notice her. Ask some questions about music, classes and other extracurricular activities… Then ask her out!

Hardbeck (19:26) You make it sound easy.

violetsaregrace (19:26) That's because it is easy. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

"To summarize: Keep it short, speak confidently, ask about her and look in to her eyes." I say, looking up from my sheet of bullet points for my quick session with Rich on how to talk to girls. I am rather proud of my list and totally did not waste any time preparing it the night before. It has been two days since meeting the Metal Princess and the time to strike was now!

I fold my sheet in half, laying it neatly on the table in front of me. We are sitting around a small coffee table in the common room. Rich is slumped in his seat, which probably looks like a complete juxtaposition (it's my own personal word of the day!) to me as I sit with my back straight. Alo is sitting next to Rich and seems to be paying more attention to my advice than Rich was.

"Okay…" I start to say slowly, as nobody says anything. "Why -"

"So no looking at any other parts of her… body?" Alo asks, in between little coughs. Rich turns to his best friend with a sort of disbelieving look before turning back to me.

"He means can he get away with blatantly staring at her cleavage?" He shakes his head as he rephrases Alo's question.

"No, no, that's not –," Alo begins to defend himself before probably seeing both mine and Rich's expressions. "Well, yeah."

"Hmm…" Is all I can really manage to say as in my head I am wondering how often boys actually did that. Were they constantly trying to sneak a look at girls' cleavages? I had only given the tip of looking into a girls' eyes, because with Rich being as nervous as he was around girls (apart from Franky and me, but we don't count) he might look down at his shoes the whole time. I don't think Rich would ever try to look at a girl's cleavage in a first conversation, Alo is obviously different.

"Anyway, maybe we should do a practice run? Rich is the gentleman, Alo is our Metal Princess?"

"Prepare yourselves for a truly spectacular performance!" Alo grins, rubbing his hands together in enthusiasm before sitting up straighter for this practice.

"I really, really don't want to do that." I make a small tsk-ing noise at this before giving my most encouraging smile.

"You need to practice at least once before you try it out on a proper girl. It'll be fun!" I'm surprised that my small encouragement for him to get involved actually works as I watch him shuffle in his seat but still with no more enthusiasm than a few seconds before.

"Uh… Hi, I'm Rich." He is mumbling, but this is something I have become completely accustomed to over the years that I had known him. I call it 'Rich Talk'. What you can expect from it: mumbles, grumpiness and never-ending comparisons between superior metal music with anything else. Honestly he's silly, but I think the Metal Princess will be the perfect fit for him.

"I'm Daisy," I can't help the giggle that escapes from me as Alo not only names himself after his favourite cow, but also puts on an incredibly feminine voice. Rich rolls his eyes and shoots me a glare. I try to compose myself once more.

"Right, Daisy. Uhm… So I'm in your History class and –,"

"Yeah, I know, I've seen you too. I've just wanted to rub my hands all over your moisturized body -,"

"Ah, well way to fucking go, Als. Cheers." Alo and I are too busy laughing to pay attention to the moping Rich who then folded his arms across his chest and slouched even further into his seat.

I once again have to compose myself as I know I should really be supporting Rich rather than laughing at him right now. Poor thing, for all his 'Rich Talk' he just needs someone to help open him up emotionally. Or perhaps just someone who potentially hates things as much as he does so they can live together complaining about everything together.

"Oh, Rich," I start to say as I stand up and sit on the arm of their sofa so that I am just hovering above Rich's head. He continues to look across the room, refusing to look at me. "I'm sorry; perhaps we should have practiced with me as the girl instead of Alo."

"You want to now?" He says in such a way that I don't know whether he is suggesting we try again or simply asking if that's what I wanted to do.

"No, I think you're ready. You're going to do brilliantly, I can just feel it!" I chirp, my extremely encouraging smile appearing on my face once more. Rich finally turns to look up at me then and I give him a light pat on his shoulder. His lips begin to turn upward slowly and I can't say I am surprised that he is brightening up now; I have done this a few times where I'd managed to get him to cheer up if he was in a worse mood than he usually was.

"And there's no way she'll actually know about your moisturizing habit." Rich and I both break away from the smiling to acknowledge Alo once again. I smile at Alo, as I don't want to giggle again as that might upset Rich some more, but the moisturizing situation is something we did occasionally tease Rich about. I secretly don't think it's that weird a thing to do and it must be rather… pleasant to have such soft skin. I just wish I could remember to keep to my own cleansing and moisturizing routine. Daddy did buy me some wonderful Clarins products, but I'm sorry no princess can possibly have enough time for that every morning!

"We should go! If we get to History now then we'll have to wait outside the room for at least five minutes and it's the perfect opportunity to approach Miss. Daisy," I say, quickly standing up and fetching my bag. I poke Rich to inspire some action in him and he swats my hand away as he slowly stands up himself.

"Fucksake, enough with the pestering already." He mutters angrily and I assume he was trying to say it quietly to keep me from overhearing, but I heard every word, Hardbeck. More pestering coming your way!

"Alright, mate, good luck." Alo says, standing up himself and pulling a reluctant Rich into a hug.

"Awwwh… Okay, that's enough. Richard, let's go!"

Rich made me hide behind a plant. The plant itself is located at the side of the corridor where our History classroom is. I was completely right about us having to wait outside for the teacher, but Metal Princess wasn't there yet. We were standing around in silence and I could see Rich's nerves growing greater with each passing minute so I finally had to ask if he was getting clammy hands. This simple (caring and innocent, I might add!) question seemed to push him over the edge. He insisted I was distracting his concentration and I had to move somewhere away from him before the Metal Princess showed up.

Two minutes later and I am slowly realizing I underestimated how early we were to class. I peek out from the leaves of the plant and finally see Metal Princess walking down the corridor. Rich must've seen as well as he sneaks a peek at me so I wave rather manically in return. He rolls his eyes and turns back to the Metal Princess.

I continue to smile, seeing Rich make a casual greeting to her. She, at first, looks rather surprised with one perfect eyebrow raised, but I hear her say her name in return. It seems I was successful. I begin to look away from the scene before me, turning instead to the leaves to inspect how healthy it is. An unsettling feeling is beginning to sit in the pit of my stomach. I know, of course I know, why the scene before me wasn't making me entirely… happy. Rich is my best friend and now he'll have to split his time between a girlfriend and his best friends. It's not like I even attend all our hangout sessions now due to all my extracurriculars, so with the addition of Rich's girlfriend my time spent with Rich is going to be significantly reduced. If Alo had a girlfriend though… Well, I would actually be really happy for him, it would be cute. I am happy for Rich though as well! Maybe there's another reason I'm not entirely happy and trying to distract myself with the plant's healthiness (it looks like it needs to be watered more often so I'll definitely mention it to my Dad) and maybe it's because I don't have anyone talking to me in that way. A little awkward, blossoming romance never hurt anyone, did it?

"Are you searching for a social life on that leaf, Disney?" I blink rapidly at the realization someone was trying to get my attention. I turn around to find the blonde girl and the girl with the modern haircut behind me, obviously finding the fact that I am scrunching a leaf in my hand highly amusing.

"Disney?" I ask, in a tinny, slightly scared sounding voice.

"You've made comparisons to Disney movies in nearly all of our English classes." The girl with the modern haircut supplies, obviously being the girl-talk translator for the blonde one.

"Don't worry, we think it's cute." The blonde one says, giving me an extremely toothy smile. She runs a hand through her hair, possibly waiting for me to give some sort of reply, but I can't think of a single thing to say that wouldn't be incredibly lame. "I'm Mini and this is Liv."

"Nice to meet you!" I greet, finally stepping away from the plant. She raises her hand to her mouth before continuing on in a mock whisper.

"This is the part where you say your name."

"Oh… Yes, I'm Grace." I say, a little sheepishly. Rich needs help in talking to girls and it appears I also need help in the same department. I have practically grown up with my boys, I didn't really need any girls in my life. My parents were sure I was going to become a 'tomboy' which lead to my Dad increasing my number of ballet classes and getting me a subscription to 'Teen' magazine. Franky came along when we were fourteen, and yes, a girl, but also so completely different from the girls who now stood before me.

"So cute!" Mini says to Liv with a nod in my direction. They stand in silence for a little while before both nodding at each other and then turning once more to face me. I wring my hands together nervously. I DON'T UNDERSTAND GIRL CODE EITHER!

"Gracey… Can I call you that?" I nod, but she is already continuing to talk. "We like you."

"In a friendly way," Liv clarifies and I nod again, pulling on my satchel more.

"Yeah, we're not lezzers," Mini says, laughing a little so I decide it was only polite to also giggle. "But yeah, you seem… alternative. You have cute clothes. Very cute. And I feel somewhat sorry for the type of people you've been stuck with since you started college."

She gives a sideways glance to Rich who I see is now talking a little more animatedly about, probably, music. I figure she is a bit confused by my friendship and think it best to clarify the situation.

"Oh, no, actually they've been–,"

"So we thought we'd save you."

"Take you under our wing."

"Exactly… So what do you say to a shopping trip this weekend?"

I quite enjoy shopping, but there are only a very limited number of people I can do that with. In fact only one person – my Mum. So, what's the harm with one day trip? It sounds bloody marvelous actually. Rich will most likely be on his date anyway.

"Yaysers, that sounds so amazing!" Both Mini and Liv are smiling now and I begin to feel my heart soar like it's riding on a rainbow. I've never had girly friends before! We'll probably paint each other's nails, have sleepovers and laugh over One Direction's haircuts.

"Excellent! A bit of retail therapy is always needed. We'll exchange numbers tomorrow in English, because the slightly gay Mr. Parker awaits." She leans closer and pulls me into a small hug.

"Bye!" I say, giving a small wave to them both.

"Toodles!" Mini exclaims, before sauntering off down the corridor with Liv next to her. As she passes Rich she whispered something to Liv and I wonder if they are talking about our shopping trip. Gahhhhh, I'm so excited!

And there it is! I know, I know, this was basically a filler chapter but I must personally say, I am excited for the next chapter! Keep reviewing because I love them dearly and yes they get my butt moving. XOXO