To Get to the Top!

The next day as Carlee was shutting her front door she was greeted by the sight of an unknown and mysterious vehicle in her driveway.
Its engine was in park, rumbling against the silence of her neighbourhood.
Front windows were tinted and upon closer inspection Carlee diagnosed the car as Lamborghini and one belonging to a very rich man.
Stepping closer to the car she tugged the passenger handle up and pulled the door towards her, bending down to see the driver’s identity.

“Get in” Alexander grinned at her through ray ban sunglasses, hair tousled.
“How the hell do you own a Lamborghini?” She gaped at him as she relented and climbed into the passenger seat.
“It’s my dads, I borrowed it,” Alexander shrugged, “Which means buckle up, or we’ll be late”
“Late?” Carlee glanced around the inside of the car, fingers fumbling with the seatbelt as she took in the comfortable seats.

Alexander ignored her as he reversed from her driver way, driving slowly until he passed the stop sign at the end of her street.
Carlee’s stomach tightened when she took in the boy’s appearance, a white collared shirt with black dress pants.
The top button of his shirt was undone and the collars were popped up like a goof ball, though he looked quite handsome.
Taking her eyes from his body Carlee watched the roads, trying to determine their destination.
Alexander was quiet until he pulled into the parking lot of some restaurant Carlee had never visited in her life, tacking it down to not being as wealth as the Gaskarth’s.

“We only have to run in, say some hellos and goodbyes. I have about fifteen minutes of spare time between this”
Confusion rapidly spread throughout her mind until Carlee stepped out of the car, following after him, “What exactly is this?”
Alexander smiled over his shoulder as he led them up the restaurants gavel entrance, “My dad has a business partner in there right now. I’m expected to shake hands and make the family look good. I’m sorry I’ll have to drag you around, but it’s the only time I have”

Starting ahead Carlee slipped through the door as he held it open for her, eyeing the fancy décor with a slight distaste.
Alexander slipped ahead once they were inside, ushering her behind him as he walked directly to a table with a group of four.
The couple was definitely not young, hair greying and skin shrivelling on their faces, though their smiles were welcoming and their clothes were flashy.
Beside them sat a younger boy with brown hair combed neatly back, a squished looking face that reminded Carlee of a pumpkin being thrown from a three story building.
At his side sat Mr Gaskarth, the presence of the room.
He huffed and awed at his son almost immediately, leaving his chair to make sure introductions were made properly. Handshakes here. Smiles there.
Carlee couldn’t help but think it was all too played out, too practiced and too expensive.
Alexander brushed his brown locks to the side after his handshakes, forming his lips into that perfect grin that made everyone feel welcome.

“Oh, and this is Carlee Smythe. She’s helping me with some studies. I hate to be rude, but I promised her earlier that we would work on some projects today” Alexander suddenly introduced.
“Ah, how punctual,” The man grinned, “Quite the son you have here”
“Thank you,” Mr Gaskarth grinned back, “I’m quite proud. He’ll be taking over the family business one day, you know”
Carlee watched as the still standing brunette pursed his lips for a moment before smiling pleasantly again, his mind obviously checked on exiting soon, “Yes, well I hate to sound rude and duck out, but I’m sure you’ll all have a lovely time without me. So if you’ll excuse us?”
Mr Gaskarth pursed his lips together, a thin line forming between the flesh openings, “Of course. Must keep those studies up... We’ll be seeing you later than, I presume?”
“Yes father. Excuse us” Alexander answered quickly, rushing away with a hand on the small of Carlee’s back, “I’m terribly sorry about dragging you along. It only took about ten minutes anyway. So once we get to my house we can start on History and then I’ll take you wherever you need to go”
“Ever have time for a break?” Carlee found herself speaking as he opened the door for her.
“Never” He answered dryly; shutting the passenger door on her once she was secure inside.

As the passenger door opened up Carlee turned in her seat to face him, eyeing all his pre-driving rituals as he did them.
Step one, put on seatbelt.
Step two, toggle radio switch.
Step three, turn on car lights.
Step four, start car.
Step five, scan.

“So do you do that a lot?”
“What?” He asked her as he reversed the car, and pulled back onto the road.
“Meet random people with quick helloes and even faster exits?”
“Sounds about right... Dad knows a lot of people” Alexander shrugged, slowing down for the red light.

Carlee kept silent after that, she didn’t feel much need to make friends with Alexander, let alone have long conversations with him.
It was just going to be a quick acquaintance to help her father’s aspiring career.
The plan felt almost flawless, no gut churning incidents, no suddenly guilty conscience thanks to Michelle and no wavering doubt.
Alexander knew what he wanted; help with some history homework.
And Carlee knew what she wanted; helping to put some attention on her father’s career.
Both could provide for each other until the job was done, and this was all Carlee would concentrate on as she was led up the path to Alexander’s home.
Instead of eyeing the exterior in distaste like she usually would, or concentrating on the fine detailed carvings of staircase banisters or overloaded ‘simplistic’ paintings that hung on the walls, Carlee kept quiet.
The classic aura of the Gaskarth home was completely blocked out and all that ran through her mind was the current situation.
Alexander coughed her awake a second later, closing his bedroom door and pulling out a comfortable computer chair for her to sit upon.

“My teacher gave me twelve assignments to do. If I get at least an eighty on all of them I’ll pass just fine”
She watched as he opened the red computer desks compartments, shuffling through neatly organized binders until he found the correct homework.
Carlee shuffled through the papers that asked for mostly forum topics, annoying little papers that summarized whatever situation you were concentrating on upon that point.
Carlee admittedly hated forum topics as they expected you to sound like a text book, without actually being one.
If there was any shortage in words, or an increase you were given deductions.
Rules were set in stone and if you failed to recognise it, you paid the heavy price.
Of course, forum topics aren’t as bad as one might think when looking at it this way, as they allowed you some freedom of speech.
Letting you put your own emotions into how history shaped our world, what we hated or loved most about it and to just vent into a page about why we were writing it exactly.
Shaking her brown hair out Carlee bent over her knees to get a closer look at the pages, adjusting her pink framed glasses to absorb the words better.

“Have you started on these at all?”
“Only the first one” Alexander replied.
“Where is it?” Carlee asked him, like a teacher would a student.
Huffing off his cushioned bed, Alexander flicked on the computer monitor to wiggle the mouse and take down the blinking screen saver.
Tapping a few keys on the keyboard he brought up a simple run of the mill document program and opened his project.
The words standing out at font Arial, text size 12 and all bold, italic and underline off.
Scooting forward Carlee began going over his words, examining the comprehension as well as the effort.
“Sir Edgar? Who the hell is... Sir Edgar?”
Grinning Alexander bent down to her level, darkened brown eyes watching her with mischief, “A parrot?”
Thinning her lips out Carlee tousled her hair and leaned back, “We’re going to have a long day ahead of us”
Straightening up from his crouch Alexander swept his hair away from his face once more, “Better get to work then since that long day is about five hours”

Carlee sighed under her breath but kept a smile plastered on as she made a grab for Alexander’s textbooks, flipping them open to the correct pages.