No Need For Introductions

After lunch I ventured all the way to my U.S. History class and dropped my bag onto the floor by my desk. Oli turned around in his seat to face me, a brilliant smile on his face.

“Wha’s up, sugarplum?” He asked, the smile stretching further across his face.

Oh, the Sykes boys and their charm.

I smiled a sarcastic-looking smile at him. “Hey Oli.”

“Did yeh—“ He looked around and leaned closer to me, dropping his voice a little lower. “Did yeh finish the ‘omework last night?” I nodded my head slowly, and he continued. “Do yeh think I could borrow it?”

“Sure.” I muttered, leaning down to pull the half-crumpled piece of paper out of my backpack. The sloppy words were scrawled across the page, adorning the white paper with a dark-silver color that it more-than-likely didn’t have before I had written on it. “If you can read it, you can copy it.”

“Than’s.” He smiled. “Yeh a lifesava’.”

“I know.” I agreed, pulling my history book out and turning to the next chapter; it was always a good thing to be a little ahead, right? One of the weird things about me; Every time I finished a lesson, I always read the next chapter. No matter what class it was in, I was always at least a chapter ahead—all except for Algebra II, of course.

A few minutes later, I heard some paper rustling and I felt something land on my head. I looked up to see my paper falling onto my desk, and Oli staring intently at me.

“There yeh go.”

I took the paper and put it under my book, looking back down at the history-filled pages. “Thanks.” I mumbled, going back to reading.

The class went by so slowly, and honestly; I almost fell asleep. It was ridiculous how after lunch, everything goes so much slower; like, slow motion almost.

When the final bell rang, Sidney and I met at our lockers like we always did. She seemed all happy and giddy, and it freaked me out a little.

“What are you so happy about?” I asked, shoving all of my books back into the locker.

She shrugged her shoulders. “Can’ I be ‘appy that I’m stayin’ with me best mate after school today?”

“I guess…” I trailed off, walking out the front doors with her at my heels.

The venture home wasn’t anything out of the ordinary; Sidney and I chattered along carelessly about what we would do when we arrived home, or what we were going to have for dinner. Halfway between the school and home, the same car buzzed by that passed us every day; the car containing Oli, Tom, and the rest of their friends. Of course they had offered a ride to us numerous times, but we always refused. For some reason, we would much rather walk the whole way home, than ride in a vehicle full of smelly, perverted boys. Another reason; I tried my hardest to avoid Oli whenever possible. I couldn’t help myself if I liked him, but I sure as hell wouldn’t catch myself falling for him.

Sidney had known, for quite a while, about my little ‘crush’ on Oli, but she was blithely unaware of the extent of that little crush.

As soon as we made it to my house, Sidney and I trudged our way up the stars and into my room. I dropped my backpack onto my bedroom floor, and Sidney’s black messenger bag was soon lying beside it on the dark-stained hardwood floor.

My shoes clunked along the floor as I walked over to my desk, sitting down and opening up my laptop. I pulled up my Myspace page. I quickly typed my e-mail address and then my password into the designated areas, and checked the awaiting messages and comments.

Sidney pulled a chair up beside me, resting her chin in the palm of her hand.

“I have a message from Oli…” I trailed off, clicking on the unread message.

Sidney smiled knowingly, letting out a small giggle. “Ooooooh…”

I narrowed my eyebrows at her before turning back to the screen. A few seconds later, my slow internet connection finally pulled the message up for me to read.

Sender: Olisaurus
To: Bailey

Hey thanks for letting me copy your paper in history today.

Sidney looked at me with disapproving eyes. “Bailey, stop lettin’ ‘im copy ‘is work off of yeh. ‘E’ll never learn anythin’ if yeh keep doin’ ‘is work for ‘im.”

“This is the first time in a long time that he’s actually copied off of me.” I defended myself, scoffing the slightest bit. “And he’s not going to graduate if he fails this class again.”

“An’ that’s ‘is problem, not yours.” She scolded, looking back at the computer.

I shrugged my shoulders lightly, clicking the ‘reply’ button and typing my reply.

You better be thankful. I just got my ass chewed out by Sid for letting you copy. Thanks ;)

“Yeh make me sound like a bitch.” She laughed, slapping me playfully on the arm.

“Aren’t you?” I asked, widening my eyes and rubbing the place on my arm where she’d hit me.

She shrugged. “Yeah, but yeh don’t ‘ave to go tellin’ me brother ‘bout it.” She spoke, laughter filling her voice. She stood up and walked over to her messenger bag, pulling her Algebra book out of it. “Bailey…”

I looked over at her, and she was holding the Algebra book up for me to see. “What?”

“Homework.” She smiled.

I groaned, slamming my head down on my desk. “Do I have to?”

“Do yeh want ‘elp on yeh Algebra ‘omework, or not?” She sighed, dropping the book down onto the mattress.

I nodded my head and started to get up, but my laptop made a noise signaling that I had a new message. “I’ll be there in a second.” I mumbled, turning back to my laptop.

Sender: Olisaurus
To: Bailey

Sorry :( Can I ask you for a favor? Since she disapproves of my cheating? Tell her I’m glaring at her right now.

I laughed as my eyes scanned over the message, and then turned back to Sidney. “He said he’s glaring at you right now.”

“Tell him I don’t give a fuck…” She said flatly, flipping through the pages of the Algebra book.

I placed my fingers on the keys and started typing again.

It’s alright. She got over it. And sure. What do you need?

She doesn’t give a fuck if you’re glaring :P

I pressed the ‘send’ button and walked over to the bed, pulling my book out of my backpack. “What page do we start on?”

She glanced down to the bottom of the page, reading over the page number. “326.”

I turned to the right page, and we got started with the homework. Mrs. Davis was insane if she thought that we could finish 60 problems in one night. Sidney and I worked together, and only got through 36 of them before we could barely hold our eyes open anymore.

“Fuck this.” She mumbled, slamming her book closed and shoving it off of the bed. She stood up and went through my drawer, more than likely searching for something to sleep in; shorts and a t-shirt or something.

While she was stealing my clothes, I opened another message from Oli.

Sender: Olisaurus
To: Bailey

Do you mind coming over tomorrow after school and helping me study for that test? If I can’t cheat off of you, then I sure as hell need someone to help me study. Is she smiling? I know she’s smiling. And she can shove it up her arse. Lol :)

“Damn.” I laughed. “You and Oli get pretty brutal towards each other, yeah?”

She nodded, pulling on a pair of shorts. I didn’t bother sending him another reply; he was probably asleep by now. I’d just talk to him tomorrow at school.

After finding a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and putting them on, both Sidney and I fell fast asleep on my bed.

&&

My alarm went off around 6:30, but Sidney and I didn’t get up until almost 6:45. She rushed into my bathroom to take a shower while I stood in front of the mirror on the back of my door straightening my hair. After getting every strand just as straight as I wanted it, I glanced around the room for something to put in it. Today was one of the days that I just felt like ‘accessorizing’. I caught a glimpse of a thin purple headband lying on my desk, and wandered over to grab it. I stuck it in my hair, fluffing it a little to give it some extra body, before deciding I didn’t like the way it looked. I dug around in a few drawers before I found a blue zebra-striped bow and clipped it in my hair, re-fluffing it along the way.

“Mhmm…” I mumbled to myself, liking the final outcome of my hair. I staggered over to my closet door and pulled it open, grabbing out a plain black t-shirt and a pair of denim skinny jeans. I heard the shower turn off as I was pulling the skinny jeans onto the lower half of my body, and then Sidney emerged shortly after, fully clothed. All she needed to do was her hair and make-up.

“Yeh not ready yet?!” She asked, glancing over at my clock. “It’s 7:15!”

I gave her a questioning look and gestured towards her hair. “You aren’t ready either.”

She blinked a few times. “Shit. Sorry.” And after that, she was back in the bathroom.

I quickly changed shirts and slipped on a pair of plain blue Vans before joining her in front of the bathroom mirror. She already had my makeup out, layering on her eyeliner and mascara, so I sat on the side of the bathtub until she was finished. When she was done, I quickly stole my makeup back and did my own while she ventured off to find some shoes.

“Yeh ready?” She asked, poking her head into the bathroom.

I nodded and shut my makeup drawer, scurrying out of the bathroom and grabbing my backpack off of the floor. She followed me out of my room and down stairs, shouting a goodbye to my mother as we power-walked down the driveway. We were already running a little late.

“Hmmm hm hm hmmm. Huh huuuhhhh…” Sidney hummed as we walked along.

“What are you humming?” I laughed, glancing up at her energetic face.

She shrugged, the smile still sticking to her lips. “Some song the guys were playin’ the othe’ day durin’ band practice.”

Of course, Oliver’s band. They had band practice at the Sykes’ house almost every day; well, the days when they weren’t too busy partying and playing video games. Even their band practices consisted mostly of partying and playing video games. It seemed as if these boys didn’t have anything better to do with their free time.

“Hm.” I nodded, kicking a rock along the sidewalk as we walked.

I heard a car approaching and looked up to see the familiar black Honda passing us, Tom’s head sticking out with a goofy grin spread across the front of it. “ ‘Ey Sid ‘n Bailey!”

Sidney let her hand fly up to flip him off, not taking her eyes off of the pavement before her. “ ‘E’s such an idiot.”

I laughed a little as he intently flipped her off as well, smiling and ducking back into the car as the car disappeared from our sight.

“Aren’t you a little hard on him?” I laughed. “I mean, he’s only a sophmore.”

“ ’Sophmore’ me arse.” She laughed. “ ‘E acts like a little kid.”

I shook my head. “He doesn’t act like a little kid. I’ve never had a little kid try to feel me up before.” I pointed out, laughing slightly.

She threw her head back, a loud laugh coming out of her mouth. “It still makes me laugh every time…”

“It’s not really all that funny…” I mumbled, faking a glare at her.

She nodded her head, still laughing hysterically. “But ‘e’s such a big flirt. Fer once yeh should just flirt back at ‘im. See what ‘e does!”

“Nope.” I scrunched my nose, shaking my head. “He might… Like it.”

She erupted into another fit of laughter, clutching her stomach as we walked. We were now approaching the front of the school, and people were crowded into their little ‘groups’ on the front lawn.

“Tom!” Sidney called, waving a hand in Tom’s direction.

I turned to look, and he was standing with Oli, Matt, Vegan, Lee, and Curtis. They were all leaning casually against a brick wall, each of them with a cigarette in-hand; all except Tom, of course, who didn’t smoke. Unless it was weed. He didn’t really care for cigarettes too much, or so he’d told Sidney and me.

He glanced at Sidney and waved us over, immediately turning back to the rest of the guys.

“Come on.” She told me, starting over towards the boys. As soon as we reached them, she scrunched up her nose. “Yeh boys smell awful.”

Oliver mimicked her, scrunching up his nose as well. “Well go away then.” When his eyes fell on me, he smiled. “ ‘Ey Bailey.”

Sidney scoffed, her eyes becoming wide as she glared at Oli. “No. No, no, no, no!” She grabbed my wrist and tugged me. “Olleh, eyes off of ‘er.”

“What?!” He asked, his voice squeaking a little as he tried to make himself sound innocent.

I, however, had no idea what was going on as we walked quickly away from them. “Where are we going?”

“Away from Olleh.” She said sternly.

“Why?” I asked, raising my eyebrows as I lightly tugged my arm away from her grip. I could feel heat from where her hand held tight to my wrist.

“ ‘E gave yeh the look.” She seethed, ushering me inside the front doors of the school just as the bell rang.

We walked towards our lockers, pushing through the large crowd of people. “What look?”

“The look.” She repeated, stressing out the word ‘the’ as she spoke. “The look ‘e gives girls when ‘e wants ‘em to go to bed with ‘im.”

I realized that she was walking slightly faster than I was, and I struggled to catch up with her again. Her long legs took quick, long strides as mine took short steps. I had to walk twice as fast to keep up with her.

She had to be crazy to think that Oli wanted to do… that… with me. I thought about telling her that she must not be mentally sound for even thinking such a thing. I was ordinary. Nothing like the girls that Oli usually chased after; although he never really had to chase anyone. Girls worshipped the ground that Oliver Sykes walked on. The last girl I’d seen Oli with was blonde, had big boobs, and walked around in mini-skirts and high-heels all the time. I, however, had dark—almost black—hair, average-sized boobs, and wore jeans and converse most of the time. I was definitely not his type. No matter how much I wanted to believe that he gave me the look, it was utterly impossible.

“You are crazy.” I laughed, watching her as she slammed her locker door open and began pulling random books out. I opened my locker door gingerly, grabbing my English book out and holding it close to my chest.

She shook her head, laughing slightly. “ ‘M not crazy. It’s true.”

“Whatever.” I chuckled, turning and walking to English.