How to Date Alexis Brighten

I waited for them at my locker. I’d called them the night before, knowing exactly what I had to do.

“Alexis,” Melody greeted me. “You sure about this?”

“Oh, I’m sure,” I said with confidence, my jaw set.

“Finally,” Lacey exhaled. “You’re back.”

“I didn’t go anywhere,” I pointed out, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

“You totally bailed on us, Alexis. These past few weeks you’ve just been AWOL,” Amelia chimed in.

“Well, I’m here now, so quit bitching,” I snapped, glaring at her.

“You really are back,” Lacey commented. “With a vengeance.”

“Oh, yes,” I said. “Let’s do this.” I turned on my heel and walked up the hallway with confidence, my head held high, hair flowing down my back. Amelia, Lacey and Melody walked beside me, a little bit behind. I was the clear leader. I kept my gaze steady, my features set as we continued down the hallway to our destination: the music room. Now that I had my ‘wingmen’ on side, I was ready.

It was like when I was a child, and I was the worst at playing hide-and-seek. I’d always give away by position, unable to hold in my laughter when the person that was ‘it’ came close by. If I happened to be ‘it’ I’d get so frustrated and feel so completely lost on my own that I’d just give up.

I’d walk inside and sit down to watch TV, leaving the others outside in their respective hiding places. It was a clever trick, in hindsight, as when they all eventually came back inside to join me, I’d announce at the top of my lungs ‘found you!’ – proclaiming myself the winner. I’d always forged my own path while others followed and this was no different. I was doing this, for me. Ready or not.

When we reached the music room, I stepped forward, of course, and opened the door, charging in, followed by the girls. Fletcher stopped playing immediately to glance up at us. He looked irritated and sighed, putting down his guitar beside him. It was lunch time, and how Fletcher managed to talk the teachers into letting him use the music room for practice, I’d never know.

“What do you want?” He said, his tone sharp.

“Answers,” I said, stepping closer to him. The girls remained in the doorway, their eyes fixed on Fletcher. Melody was standing awkwardly, glancing around the room, avoiding the gaze of everyone. Lacey stood inside the door a bit, her hand on her hip, eyebrows raised. Amelia stared at Fletcher, her expression portraying that of boredom. He sighed and glanced at them, before turning his attention back to me.

“And you need your army for that?” He said now, just as I’d expected.

“They’re here to stop you from getting away,” I said evenly. He raised his eyebrows and stood to face me, eye-to-eye, slipping his hands into his pockets casually.

“Yeah?” The way he said it almost sounded like a challenge. One that I wouldn’t back down from.

“You like to take off when things get hard,” I said, looking down my nose at him.

“Is that right?” Fletcher said, a slow smile spreading across his face. He shook his head slowly before meeting my eyes once again. “You seem to know an awful lot about me.”

“You’re not that hard to figure out,” I said, the corners of my mouth pulling up in a smirk.

“Why am I at the special school, then? I’ve seen you hanging around. I’m not stupid,” Fletcher said, the challenge in his tone once again.

“You’re borderline retarded?” Lacey sneered. Fletcher let out a short laugh in response. “Yeah, my mother likes to think so,” he said.

“I know what you did,” I said, my voice lowering, hoping that he wouldn’t catch me out on my bluff. Fletcher’s smile disappeared and a small frown was present on his features. He looked back at me, his light brown eyes holding a hint of worry, before plastering that goofy smile right back on. The frown had only been displayed in a fleeting moment, but I’d caught it. There was a tiny bit of doubt in him. And I was sure as hell going to use it.

“You best be keeping out of my business,” Fletcher said, his voice so low I barely even heard it. With that, he pushed past me and made his way to the door. I nodded at the girls to let him pass, and they did, staring after him.

“Why didn’t you just slap him?” Lacey said the second he was out of earshot. “I would have.”

I’d told them all about what Fletcher had done. His cutting remarks, the list. Everything. I’d left out everything about Daniel because I knew what they’d say. It was totally him who wrote the list. ‘Look at the facts,’ Melody would say. ‘The handwriting matches.’ I wouldn’t tell them, because I just didn’t believe it. There was a part of me - quite large, actually – that just knew that Daniel couldn’t have written the list. Not in a million years.

“I know you would have,” I said to Lacey now. “But that’s not how I work.”

“Because you’re the ice queen?” She said sarcastically.

“Something like that,” I said with a small smile, pushing my way past them.

“Then lead the way, you’re icy highness,” Lacey said. “We’ve got your back.”

And for the first time in forever, I actually believed her.

______

That was how we found ourselves still in school, long after the final bell had rung. Lacey had pulled in a few favours, and managed to get her hands on just the set of keys that we needed. This time, she led the way, and I let her, falling back with the others.

“This is crazy,” Melody said. “What if we get caught?”

“Don’t be such a wuss, Mel,” Lacey dismissed her.

“You’re really hung up on this guy, huh?” Melody said, turning to me.

“I’m not sure ‘hung up,’ is the right expression,” I said.

“Then what is it?”

“I don’t think now is the right time to be getting into this,” Lacey hissed.

“There has to be a reason for this madness,” Melody said.

“Don’t be such a goody-two-shoes,” I said. “Start living.”

“I don’t define participating in criminal activities as ‘living’,” Melody said. Lacey and I rolled our eyes. “Lighten up, Mel,” Amelia said suddenly. “This could actually be fun.”

“Your funeral,” Melody said with a shrug. She turned on her heel and left, walking up the hallway away from us, towards the front doors.

“Hey! Just don’t expect to be sitting with us tomorrow!” Lacey called after her. She ignored her and kept walking.

“I can’t believe her,” Lacey said. “I told you when we first met her, Alexis. She wasn’t cut out to be in our group. Too sugar and spice and all things nice and all that. Total killjoy.”

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

“It’s not even criminal,” Lacey continued. “Technically it’s not breaking in. Not when we’ve got the key.” She jingled the keys in her hand for emphasis and I smiled, following after her.

When we reached the front office, Lacey fiddled with the keys before opening the door, making her way inside. Amelia and I followed after her, heading straight for the door marked ‘Student Files.’

“I don’t know why I didn’t think of this,” I said, as Lacey and I thumbed through the cabinet marked with an ‘M’. Amelia kept watch at the door, in case anyone came.

“I’m just more street than you,” Lacey said with a laugh.

“Probably,” I agreed, my fingers gripping a file that read Murray, Fletcher.

“Got it,” I said, pulling it out. Lacey kept the spot with one hand, whipping out her phone with the other. I flipped through the file, nothing suspicious coming up, until I reached his discipline record. “Look,” I said, nudging Lacey with my shoulder. “He’s had detention almost every week for years.”

“What the hell does he get up to?” Lacey asked.

“According to this, insulting and swearing at teachers, defacing school property and being violent toward other students,” I read from the file. Lacey snapped a picture of it on her phone.

“I always through he was kind of dorky, but never violent,” Lacey said, as I flicked to the next page. “Me, too,” I replied, my eyes widening when i saw the last page in the file.

“He’s got community service?” Lacey screeched, snapping a picture of the page.

“Guys! Get outta there!” Amelia said, already taking off.

“So much for loyalty,” Lacey said as I put the file back in. Lacey slammed the drawer shut and we dashed out the door, twisting the lock before pulling it shut. Just as we were making our way through the front office, back to the main hallway, the door knob moved as someone tried to get in. I heard the person on the other side of the door fumble around in their pockets for the keys.

“The window!” I hissed at Lacey. She dumped the keys on the front desk and ran across the room to the window, propping it open. “You go first,” I told her.

“What if you get caught?” She asked me, one leg already out the window. “I’ll deal with it,” I said, pushing her to make her move a little faster. We were on the first floor, but the brick building the office was situated in was still a good two or three metres from the ground. Lacey carefully got out, hanging onto the window sill until her feet were about half a metre from the ground. Then she let go. The creaked as it opened slowly and I had no choice.

There was no room for caution. I dived out the window head first, rolling when I reached the ground. I thanked God my mother had made me do gymnastics as a child and took off at a sprint across the front lawns and down the street, Lacey following quickly beside me.
When we were a good distance from the school, at least a block over, we stopped to catch out breath. Lacey took her heels off and held them in one hand, staring at them in disgust.

“How we manage to run like that in these, I’ll never know,” she said. I laughed and took mine off also, holding them in one hand as we walked down the pavement side by side.

“That was really something back there,” Lacey said after a moment. “I can’t believe Amelia bailed, though.”

“We’ll get her back,” I said with a smile.

“I swear, I thought you were done for sure, and then you just jumped right out of that window like some sort of ninja!” Lacey exclaimed, throwing her head back and laughing.

“Thank God my mother made me do gymnastics,” I said, laughing along with her.

“I swear, the CIA should hire us or something! That was serious spy stuff back there,” Lacey said. I laughed and linked my arm with hers.

“It was pretty badass,” I said with a smile. Lacey agreed and we walked the rest of the way to her house, a few more blocks over, bare foot and smiling from ear to ear. Our hearts pounded in our chests, the adrenaline still coursing through our bodies. Lacey sent me the pictures she’d taken on her phone before deleting them.

“There’s no way I’m keeping a hold of the evidence,” she said.

“Is that why you dumped the keys?” I asked her.

“Yeah,” she replied. “They’ll probably just think they misplaced them.”

“Nice,” I commented, just as we reached Lacey’s house. We walked inside and went straight to her room. I flopped down on her bed as she went to the kitchen to get us drinks. I used the zoom function on my phone to get a good look at the picture Lacey had taken of the last page in Fletcher’s file.

So, he had community service. That was why he’d been hanging around Isaac’s school for exactly the same amount of time every week day. I scrolled down to find out exactly what he’d done to earn himself the time.

Lacey came back and handed me a can of coke, which I took, thanking her, as I zoomed again, trying to make out the text.

“The camera on my phone is totally dodgy,” Lacey said. “Sorry about that.”

I ignored her and peered closer still, the words suddenly clicking in my brain and becoming clearer. I dropped my can in shock, the contents spilling over Lacey’s bed.