Little Red and the Big Bad Wolf

“Hey!” I exclaimed when the other end of the line picked up. Instead of answering right away, Puck yawned loudly in my ear.

“Hi. What’s up?” He sounded tired, and I felt badly. I had probably woken him up…though it was about time. It was one thirty, after all.

“I was just wondering if you wanted to come over and help me unpack a little. Aileen said it was cool. But if you were sleeping then…you can go back to it.” Holding back a little snicker, I lied back on my soft sheets and stared up at the smooth, dark ceiling.

“Sorry, I can’t. I’m…I’m not feeling too well.”

“Ugh. That sucks. Text me later, okay?”

“Sure. Bye, Red.”

I hung up my cell and threw it next to me, watching the sheets ripple around it. That meant that I was going to have to unpack, one of the most boring tasks in the world, by myself.

“Hey, Ellie,” Aileen started, knocking on my door. “Is Noah coming over?”

“No, he’s sick.”

“Oh, okay. Well, good that he’s not coming. We don’t need his germs.” She threw open the door so that I could see her before she shuddered. I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Do you want help unpacking?”

“Wanna do it for me?” Giving her a big grin, I knew that she wasn’t going to go for it, but it wouldn’t hurt if she decided to be an angel and agree.

“No.”

“Damn.” Chuckling a little, I stood up and clapped my hands together. “Alright, let’s get to work!”

* * *

The next week passed by quickly, mostly filled with more of Aileen and me getting used to each other a bit more, learning each other’s habits. And not seeing Noah…Puck, at all. Not seeing him was making me think of him as Noah, which was strange. All because that was how Aileen referred to him.

“Ellie, you up?” Aileen called through my room the exact same time my alarm went off. Her voice was muffled, as if she was brushing her teeth as she was talking.

“I am now,” I groaned, throwing my legs over the side of the bed and trudging over to my bureau to pick out some clothes.

It didn’t take me too long to get ready, since I was perfectly used to applying my makeup as quickly as possible, so I was sitting at the kitchen table at five past seven, staring out the window blankly.

“Someone tired?” Aileen snickered as she passed by me to throw some eggs in a skillet.

My only answer was lying my head down on my arms and whining loudly, “I hate school!”

“School’s better than work,” she informed me as breakfast sizzled. “School takes up less time.”

“You can say that, I guess, but when you get home from school, you have homework, which can take a couple of hours, depending on the person. When you leave work, you’re done.”

“That’s not always true. People could send you home with more work to do. And what about writers? They have to sit near their computer all day and put out page after page of writing.”

“Oh, the horror,” I joked, taking a sip of the cup of orange juice that Aileen had snuck in front of me. “But they’re still working on their own time. Being a writer would be awesome, staying up all night and sleeping in, writing when the urge strikes you. I wish I could write well.”

“Then work on it,” Aileen grinned. She shoved my lunch into my hands, along with a plate of breakfast. “You better be done in ten minutes or you’re walking to school.”

“Okay.” After sitting down and yawning, I scarfed down some food and shoved my lunch into my new bag for school.

“Ten seconds!” Aileen called as she slipped out the door. Sighing, I picked up my Converse and darted out after her, making sure that the house was locked. The last thing I wanted was for some creep to break into Aileen’s, um, our house and steal stuff.

“You all ready for school? Have everything?”

“I think so,” I grunted, yanking the back of my shoe over my heel. I loved Converse, but the fact that the back got stuck under my foot all the time drove me crazy.

“Then let’s go.” She put the car into reverse and pulled out into the street, checking for cars every couple of seconds. Getting into a car accident was kind of an inconvenience, so it was better that the whole ordeal was avoided.

When Aileen pulled out front, I climbed out of the car and bid her goodbye before hurrying into the school, finding my new locker with ease.

“Ellie!” Kurt’s voice sounded from down the hallway as he scurried to meet me. “Oh my God, I haven’t seen you in, like, a month. We’re sitting together at lunch so that you can fill me in everything that’s happened. How is Aileen?”

“She’s great. I really like her. I kind of wish that she’d been around more, you know? I feel like we could have been close.” I shut my locker and stared at the floor for a second before bringing my eyes up to meet Kurt’s blue ones.

“You can get to know her now,” he reminded me. “Okay, I should be getting to English, but I’ll talk to you at lunch!”

“Right,” I nodded, but he was already on his way to class, weaving his way through the mass of students.

A glance at my schedule told me that I had chemistry first, so I started, slinging my bag over my shoulder. The whole way, I was looking for the familiar Mohawk, wondering where in the world he could have been. Was Puck still sick, and so he had to miss the first day of school? That didn’t sound like something that his mom would let him do…

Biting my lip, I settled down in my seat in the classroom, taking in the other students, all talking animatedly as they caught up on what they each did over their summer vacations.

“Ellie,” a too-sweet-to-be-genuine voice greeted. Turning to my left, I got an eyeful of Santana slipping into the desk next to me, putting her bag on her desk, making it easier for her to get away with texting during class. “How was your summer?”

“Fine,” I shrugged. “Yours?” Maybe, just maybe, she was going to try to mend all of the crap that we’d gone through in the past? A new year, a new start? It didn’t seem likely, but I wasn’t going to be the first one to throw a punch if she was willing to make amends.

“It was great. Really, it was wonderful. So I have some good and bad news for you.”

“Yeah?” My heart started to pound a little bit. Mr. Schue hadn’t kicked me out of Glee, had he? I had a feeling like he would have told me first if he had…but things happened.

“Well, the good news is that your boyfriend is still really great in bed.” Her smile grew across her face as my stomach sank. She didn’t mean…right? Puck would never do that to me.

“And the bad news?” I snapped back, trying to hide my impending fear.

“I think you can figure that out for yourself.”