Breaking Down the Unbreakable

The rest of school was just a blur of people. Mostly Ali and Evan asking what was going on, and why I was getting special treatment and stupid stuff like that.
I'm pretty sure I just blocked it from my memory so that I would never have to remember the mob of angry girls that seemed to form in the walkways around me as I went between classes.
Seriously! I went to the bathroom during 5th and I honestly had to wait 15 minutes for a girl to leave. She'd been giving me dirty looks and cracking her knuckles as I walked in. So I sat in the stall pretending to have really bad cramps until she left.
Hey! It worked!
But then again, Ali said I looked distracted, and since all I can remember was his smile. Art wasn't even a big deal and I knew he was still watching, but I don't remember anything from after choir until the end of 6th.
Ali told me I had to wait for her so she could come over and we'd get ready for Evan's party together at my house. (But mostly I think she just wanted to see if Seth would walk around without a shirt again.)
So once the final bell rang, we met up with the group for a bit, walking down the street. Until we'd part ways.
"Hey, why don't any of you have a car?" I turned to Ali once we'd turned from the 3 guys seeing as Evan had gone home during 6th to take care of party plans.
"Oh, that's easy to explain." She brushed some hair away from her eyes as if preparing for a presentation. "So Chase never needs one because he just skates everywhere. Like he'd skate to Europe if there were a bridge across the ocean. Ethan is saving every cent he can for Columbia next year. The kid hasn't bought a pack of gum without weighing the consequences of his savings. Levi is on restriction because his grades aren't up to par. He claims music is the only thing he needs, but his parents said if he doesn't get his grades up to at least B's then he's going to be on house arrest."
She paused for a minute. Either she was letting me process the information or she just really needed to breathe again.
"Evan has a philosophy that walking will keep her body in shape, and anywhere too far to walk her dad's driver can take her. I mean seriously! If I had a driver, I wouldn't bother getting a car I couldn't drive other people in without a licensed driver in the front seat. And me? I have no money."
She smiled at me as we rounded another corner onto the street where I'd had my encounter with Seth 24 hours earlier.
"So where was it?" Yeah, somewhere between the smile and our current walk, I must have let slip about what had gone down with Seth after yesterday's detention.
"Up by that fire hydrant. Seriously, it wasn't a big deal." I think I was doing a pretty good job of making my focus on the sidewalk look normal. Maybe she thought I was embarrassed.
"Was it really?" Or maybe she thought I really didn't care.
"Yeah, why?"
"Because you have been nothing but smiles and bouncy feet since choir." She pointed at my feet as I noticed the small skip I'd been walking with. Stupid feet! Stupid smile! Stupid me!
"Oh my goodness! I'm usually a naturally happy person. Is that against some law in this town?"
"Only if you suddenly became a million times happier after one boy smiled at you."
"Wow! You are amazingly unbelievable." I tried to change the subject, but she caught it.
"And you are amazingly in total denial!" I turned in a flash making sure to watch for the evil crack that screwed me over the day before and had my mouth perched to tell her just how wrong she is, when a familiar smirk peering through a very familiar window with a recognizable best friend seated close by.
"So ladies. Where are you off to?" Ok, so I may have thought his smile was amazing, but he was still a jerk!
"Are you really that dumb?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Now, now. I was just asking a question." Innocence was not a good look on him.
"A question to which you already know the answer. So it was a waste of my time, and you breath."
"As was that explanation."
"Bite me!"
"Where?" Oh, I just wanted to scream. So i did the one thing I could think of. I flipped him off.
"Now that isn't very lady like." We turned the corner into the flower neighborhood
"I have never been what anyone would call a lady. A lady wouldn't be able to knock you onto your back in 10 seconds flat."
"I'm guessing you couldn't either."
"Oh. Nice try, but I'm sorry that answer is not correct and you didn't form it in a question, so since you wagered everything, you're down to a big fat zero!" So I watched Jeopardy a lot as a child.
"Then I'll just have to try harder, won't I?" He winked at me. The whole winking thing is SO overrated. Then, no joke, he turned away from me, like I had just become a bush by the sidewalk and looked at Ali. "So Ali, you guys going to the party tonight?"
"Don't answer that." I whispered. I'm not sure if she got the message.
"You know what Seth. You really don't have any money left, and as you know, that's the end of the game, and even if it wasn't, you aren't using your points very wisely, and I don't know how you ever got in the game in the first place." She got the message! And she's a jeopardy girl! I love that girl!
"You heard her. Shoo fly." I waved him off and turned with Ali towards the front door of my house, when I heard a familiarly hyper voice call to me.
"Riley! Did he give you a ride this morning?" I looked up to see Mrs. Rider working in the garden.
"Yeah, he did." I smiled at her heading up the walk again.
"Oh, good. You've got a ride for the year, okay?" I smiled in what I hoped was a grateful gesture and walking into the house hearing slight protests coming from a certain boy.
"His mom likes you." Ali stowed her bag next to mine on the stairs and followed me into the kitchen where my grandpa was waiting with milk and cookies. Yeah, a little cliché, but darn good!
"I think I figured that out, thanks. Hey Papa! This is Ali." I gestured to her. "Ali, this is my grandpa."
"Call me Paul." He smiled and handed me the tray of cookies and milk, knowing we wouldn't be staying downstairs long.
We booked it up the stairs as fast as we could without looking suspicious, and without spilling the milk. I knew how much Ali wanted to get a hold of my hair and make me look all sexy.
But it didn't matter how long we spent that night making ourselves sexy-ified.
Nothing could prepare me for the night ahead.