Alissa sits in her bed and lays her laptop on her lap. She hears her Mom repeat her question, "You joined a club?"
She nods and places her mug on the end table, "Yeah, I joined this search group. They were looking for volunteers."
"Oh wow, really?" Her mother starts, "That's nice to hear. Although I didn't expect you'd join search groups even though your father and I know how brave of a girl you are. Just make sure it isn't dangerous."
"I'll be fine." Alissa smiles at her parent's concern,
"We know," her father interrupts, "But make sure you still have time at night for school works. Those clubs can take their own time of their own-"
"Yeah, Dad. Got it." Alissa nods, fighting the urge to sigh at her father's obsession over her school. She just looks away to distract herself. But as she glances from afar, she sits up, thinking she caught a quick movement outside of her room. She could have sworn she saw a shadow move.
"Alright, we'll let you get to bed, honey."
Alissa keeps her eyes outside her room, "Yeah, I'll call you guys soon," she says and her mother ends the call as she glances back at her laptop. She shuts it and places it on her bed as she walks outside her room,
Her mind makes up of countless possibilities on who or what it could be,
She immediately thinks of It. It's him, she was sure of it.
Alissa looks around her small studio apartment in the dark. She switches the light on to scan the room, but she spots nothing out of place. She switches the lights off but still had her eyes outside. Suddenly, a flare of light moves across the room, and she realizes its from the lights outside her open window.
Alissa sighs and returns inside her room and shuts it, revealing Pennywise behind the door, waiting outside. She leaves her door open a crack, heads back to her bed, sits up trying not to look directly at her door in anticipation. She sits there, pretending to look through her laptop. A few minutes have passed and she hasn't heard anything. She finally gives up and sleeps it off.
"Hey," Paul calls Alissa who's standing far from the search group. He notices this, "Let's?"
Alissa turns to look at him and she nods, "Yeah."
They both join the search group as they orient the volunteers. Paul smirks everytime the leader of the group speaks up with the other leaders, reminding everyone to be safe, and to blow their whistles if they find anything. The leader separates the small group of eighteen people into pairs. Paul shouts first, "I got a partner!"
Everyone's heads turn to look at him as he points at Alissa who's trying not to show everyone how embarrassed she is of Paul's confidence,
Paul grins as the leader acknowledges them as the first pair,
Alissa tries to smile at everyone still looking at them both.
Paul keeps up beside Alissa as they head over near the river.
"Why'd you decide to join the search group?" Alissa decides to speak up to try to suspend the hanging awkwardness between them. She wasn't used to her new friend yet, she thought. She wanted to know more about him.
"Justice, Alissa." He says with a warm smile,
"I know that but, surely there must be a deeper reason?"
"Do you have a deeper reason, Alissa?" he returns the question to her,
She licks her lips as to prepare a lie, "I feel for these kids." She says, "Aside from the fact that you signed me up here yourself."
Paul laughs at her, "That's true. But look, we're having fun, aren't we?"
Alissa glances at Paul as he refers to the mission as something fun. She shoots him a dead look. "Fun?" she repeats, trying not to snap at him,
"Yes. We're getting to know each other now."
Alissa looks away, "You know searching for kids isn't a joke."
"I never said it was a joke. I said it was fun." Paul chuckles softly and starts walking backwards, still keeping up beside Alissa, "But I do know have a joke!"
"You can save it after the search." Alissa could not help but snap at Paul,
Paul's smile drops. Tight-lipped, he starts walking normally, "Is there something bothering you?" The clown inside Paul begs to come out and confront Alissa. He wants to piss her off even more. Her anger to him really ticks him off, but he finds it amusing as well when she gets aggressive,
"Nothing."
Paul needed her to be aggressive. He needed that. He missed that.
"Surely you won't act bitchy if nothing bothered you about this."
Alissa looks far away and doesn't say anything. In her head, she decides not to tell him anything. Who was he, anyway? He didn't deserve the truth about everything. She didn't trust him all that much. All she ever did was confide to a stranger...or so she thought. She didn't know she'd meet him again. She's been sharing a lot about her while he didn't.
"You must be stressed," Paul speaks up,
"I'm not." Alissa responds,
Paul walks closer to her, "Why don't you join me tomorrow after class?"
Alissa glances at Paul,
"Go to the dance studio near the restroom. The dancers club will be there, dancing away!" He says enthusiastically, trying to tempt Alissa. But it seems not to work.
"I'm not sure-"
"You need to relax, Alissa." He says, "Cool down for a while with me."
But then, this would pave a way to finally know something about him, Alissa thought. Plus, she has homework to do: she needed to snap photos of something in the active field. Dancing was an activity she'd like to take photos of.
"Fine."
Paul grins, "Awesome!"
"But only because I need it for homework." Alissa defends herself, trying not to sound to him like she wants to hang with him at all.
"Homework or not, you're welcome there."
"You think your friends won't mind?" Alissa asks,
Paul smirks, "Oh, they won't." he reassures her. She looks at him, nods and keeps walking along the river.