Hey, hey, welcome back. How did you like the last chapter? Gale wasn't everything you expected was he? Hence the name of the story: "The Unexpected". :D I don't want to do too much POV switching, but for this chapter I kind of needed to. So half of this is Gale, the other half is Delly. It's short and this is a late update. The crappiest combo EVER. I know.

Am I a part of the cure?

Or am I part of the disease?

Coldplay, Clocks

Chapter 6- Investigation

Gale

Being home alone when you're a kid rocks. You can do whatever you want. I used to pull a Risky Business and run around with no pants while listening to Old Time Rock and Roll. But when you're home alone as an adult, it really sucks. Most of the time all you can think of is work, but seeing as how I'm currently unemployed, I'm bored as hell. I walk around the kitchen and find a note from my mom.

I need you to pick up Delly at three o'clock.

I'm getting Rory, Posy, and Vick.

Of course. The blonde savior needs to be picked up by me, meaning we'll be in each other's presence for a good fifteen minutes. It's not the fact that my mom is trying to set me up to talk to Delly, it's the fact that she's trying to do it all nonchalantly as if I were a normal person and Delly was an old family friend. If the little angel really were a family friend, I wouldn't have only two memories of seeing her; when she was twelve and I was sixteen and I had to drive her home after babysitting Rory and Vick while I was on a hunting trip with friends, and when I danced with her at the school's Halloween Masquerade. Both memories were awkward and very faint, yet somehow I ended up with her as the one to save me.

"Stupid girl." I mutter under my breath making toaster waffles. Then I come up with an activity for my day; snooping. I take my breakfast into my room and look her up on google. I find her on facebook easily, thanks to the internet gods. Delly's profile picture is what I imagined, a sterotypical I'm-making-a-heart-with-my-hands-in-front-of-my-face-and-smiling shot. Most of her posts are girly and feel more like tweets you'd hear from a Disney Channel star. Her status reads single and I get bored within seconds. One of her old posts reads, I'm now on Instagram! with a link. I click it without hesitation. Her profile name is clever, HeyImDelilah and I stop myself from humming the song. 214 pictures. What the hell? I've got time to kill.

Most of the pictures are simple and very spur of the moment. Things like coffee from Starbucks with the caption Screw my New Year's Resolutions, I can't live without caffeine. Or pictures of the seven Harry Potter books; Best. Series. EVER. I find a few that are vaguely interesting. Delly in blue wig with pink lips standing next to a small ashen-skinned girl with (obviously fake) glittery eyelashes. Underneath it reads Just finished my first flash mob! If you didn't catch it here's the link. I'll watch it later. Another attention-getter; a picture of a necklace with a charm shaped like a clam with a pearl. This necklace makes me think of Austin, and what a jerk he was. In the words of Katy Perry: No one can steal my pearl! I begin to sense a pattern of Katy Perry and sure enough one of the pictures is Delly in a California Gurls costume standing next to Katy herself in an ice-cream dress. OMG! Met Katy Perry at pre-show meet and greet. I just want to eat her outfit! She's super nice and gave me a pass to dance onstage with her! Heading into the arena, I'll post more pictures later. Even I think it's pretty cool that she got to meet her. The latest picture is of Delly standing next to that girl again. Delly's in a blue suit and dark sunglasses like PSY and the little girl is dressed as the ginger from the music video. Rue and I (plus some of the Dance Team members) are doing Gangam Style for our Talent Show. Do we look the part? All I know is that she likes Katy Perry, Harry Potter, and someone named Austin was a jerk to her. It only took four hours.

Delly

"So, did you get the link I sent you?" Rue asks. I pull my backpack onto my shoulders.

"Yes." I say. "Definitely helped. But improv is still hard."

"Relax, you know Clove will help us." Rue says. "Only a week till' everyone gets back."

"I know, not to be cheesy, but this is going to be the best summer ever." I say. Rue nods her head. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye." Rue says running to catch the bus. I take my own time walking to the front of the building and waiting for the red truck to pull up. I can already feel summer starting to arrive, the sun is nice and warm and all the dandelions are at the point were they're blooming, but not causing allergies. The moment is ruined when the Hawthorne's truck rounds the corner and I can hear the Black Keys on the stereo. I swear, everyone looks as the hunk of red metal pulls into the parking lot. Gale pulls up right in front of me wearing Aviator sunglasses. He rolls down the window nice and slow with a look of complete and utter impatience on his face. Gale turns down the volume just enough so you can still hear it, yet somehow also hear the sound of everyone around me gawking at him.

"Any day now Delilah." He says, it sounds like a line from a movie.

"Oh, right." I mumble coming back to reality and opening the door. I sit in the front next to him and Gale removes the sunglasses.

"Seat belts are required by law if I'm not mistaken." He says. I buckle the belt as quickly as possible and the glasses go back on. He turns the music back up and the windows close. We speed off like I'm his hostage and the cops are on our tail.

I'm a lonely boy, I'm a lonely boy

Oh woah oh, I got a love that keeps me waiting

Gale turns off the stereo as the song finishes. His eyes stay locked on the road and a smirk crawls across his face like a caterpillar.

"Was that really necessary?" I burst.

Still looking ahead Gale responds with a simple, "Was what really necessary?"

"That, back there." I say making wild gestures with my hands. "The whole thing where you were picking me up like some badass boyfriend who rides a motorcycle."

"Woah, woah. Who said we were dating?" Gale asks finally looking at me.

"No one! That's what it was like." I say. "Like you were kidnapping me and you wanted everyone to know."

"Okay, captor is a step up from boyfriend, but no. I don't know what you're talking about."

"The music and the sunglasses and the truck, you just did all of that to get attention."

"Think whatever you want Delilah, I'm just picking up precious cargo."

"Stop doing that."

"What?"

"That." I say. "Where you put me on the spot and say things like I'm made of gold and then I'm stuck with my mouth hanging open like a ditz."

"First off, you're blonde, it's a given that you're a ditz." Gale says. "Two, I'm just stating the fact that my mom is putting you on a pedestal to save me."

"And I have enough pressure from her. I don't need it from you." I spit.

"And Venus is a flytrap." He says. "Feisty there, weren't we?" I roll my eyes and scoff folding my arms.

"Look, we're going to get set up like this a lot more, I'm here for the whole summer." I say. "We might as well get grudges out-of-the-way." Gale shrugs like it's no skin off his nose.

"So who's Austin?" He says after a long pause. "I became a one-day member of the C.I.A. today and saw something about him being a jerk on a picture from Instagram."

"Ex-boyfriend." I say. Gale looks at me. If he would just take off those sunglasses I could see his reaction.

"Huh." He says. "You don't burst into tears or go into a rage while mentioning him. Care to explain, or did you do the whole 'just friends' thing?"

"I dated him Freshman year after crushing on him since seventh grade." I begin. "Super cute, really nice, one year older usually dated the girls you would expect him to. He sent me a Valentine and we went to the Spring Fling together. Sort of progressed from there, even over the summer. Then in September he started acting weird."

"He was gay wasn't he?" Gale interrupts.

"No." I snap. "He started asking me to wear different clothes and straighten my hair all the time. At first I thought he just didn't want other guys looking at me but then I saw he was making me into his old girlfriends. I didn't care at first because I really liked him and I thought that if I had to change my look, I could handle it. Then he started- I don't know- making me dull. Everyone's always told me that I'm some kind of bright light and around him I guess I dimmed. Then Austin told me to wear makeup, become a cheerleader and stop hanging out with my friends the 'theatre geeks'. So I said no and I broke up with him."

"Really?" Gale asks like it's the most unbelievable thing in the world.

"I looked him in the eye and I said, 'You know what? I don't need this. I don't need you telling me what I need to be. You either date me or leave me, you don't get to change me. You want a perfect girl, go buy yourself a Barbie. I'm done.' Then I spent the next three days listening to Pearl by Katy Perry." I say. "Simple as that."

"Oh. Okay then." Gale says. We arrive at home and I go for a jog. We go through the rest of our awkard day until I go to sleep.

Then I cry in unison with Gale.