A Daydream Away

Don't get me wrong. I love my brother to absolute death. He's been there for me when I needed him the most but sometimes I can't stand how Rian treats me. I appreciate the protection but making decisions for me like that is just beyond uncalled for.
"Uh Claire? Earth to Claire."
I snapped out of my train of though and looked over to my best friend Faith as she closed her locker. "Oh um sorry. What were you saying?"
She shook her head. "Forget what I said, are you alright? You've been really spacey since we got to school."
I sighed. I didn't want to hide anything from her. She was the only friend I had. Here at Delaney Academy, along with all the other school I'd gone to, I'm known as Rian Dawson's shy smart younger half sister. Yup that's right, I'm Rian Dawson's HALF sister. Same mom, different dad. Not very many people knew that. As much as I wanted to remain unknown and invisible to the world, that was clearly imossible when it came to my brother. Everyone wanted to be my friend for all the wrong reasons and I absolutely hated that. No one wanted to get to know me, that was until Faith came into the picture.
I met Faith Florczak in ninth grade. I was sitting alone in the hallway just studying up on an English test, that I was gonna take the following day, when Faith came up to me and asked for directions to her first class. She was new to the Academy so I didn't mind. She stood out a lot. Not many kids at school had piercings or dressed like she did. I was terrified of her at first but that soon changed. We ended up having a few classes together and became good friends. she was the only person who took the time to get to know the person behind my shy exterior.
"Claire!"
"Huh, oh uh again sorry. It's just that Rian..."
She groaned. "Eww gross."
I couldn't help but giggle. "Faith, be nice."
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh alright."
"So like I was saying, Rian was being his douchey self yesterday."
"When is he not? Anyway, what did he say to you?"
I sighed and held my textbooks close to my chest.
"He's forcing me t go to the dance with Zack
Merrick."
"Muscle head Zack Merrick?! What why?! We were suppose to go together and tear that shit up."
"Yea that Zack and well because apparently he likes me. I know we were suppose to go together but you know how Ri is."
"Zack likes you?!"
I nodded. Faith then pulled me into a tight hug.
"You poor soul, how ever did you get so unlucky?"
I giggled and pulled away from her death grip.
"Faith!"
"I know I know, 'be nice' but sometimes I just can't help it. Robert only did that because he hates me. I remember him calling me a 'bad influence' when he first met me. Since then he's hated my guts."
"Calm down Faith."
"I am calm Claire!"
"If this is you calm, I'd hate to see how angry."
"Oh I'm a bucket of rainbows and sunshine when I'm fucking mad!"
She then took a deep breath and leaned against
the wall. "So now what are we gonna do?"
"About what?" I asked.
Faith giggled. "For a brainiac, you sure have a
strange way of showing it."
I just stood there quietly and glared at her. She
shook her head and smiled. "I was talking about what we were gonna do about the dance."
I sighed and shrugged. "I don't know but we'll
think of something, I know it."
"Alright then. Well I'm gonna head to class. See ya later Claire."
She ruffled my hair as she began her journey to
her class on the second floor. I took a deep breath and began making my way to my own class. I was too concentrated on the whole dance situation when I was suddenly bumped into by some guy.
"Sorry about that." was all he said to me as he
handed me my books that he had knocked out of my hands.
I thanked him but doubted he even heard me. i
wasn't very social when it came to talking to
people other than Faith and Rian. As I walked into my AP Pre-Calc class, I immediatey took my assigned seat and began writing down the notes and homework assignments that had been posted on the front board into my spiral for the class.
School went by rather quickly and I was starving. I ended up skipping lunch fully knowing that my brother and his friends would tease me about Zack liking me. I hate being the center of attention. I hid in the library for the entire lunch period. As I was putting all my textbooks and finished homework into my locker, I felt someone's presense behind me.
"Why weren't you at lunch?"
I sighed and turned around to see the angry
expression on my brother's face. "I wanted to
finish all my homework assign..."
"Your last class is a free period, you could've done it there."
"Okay well I didn't feel like waiting til then." I shut my locker and tried walking around him but sadly the death grip he had on my arm stopped me from going any further.
"If that was your way to rebel against going to
that dance tomorrow with Merrick, it's not gonna work. What I said yesterday was final."
"Rian, let me go. You're hurting me."
My begging only made him tighten his grip. "Not until it's gotten through to you..."
"Damnit Dawson, let her go!"
Faith shoved Rian away from me which in return caused him to finally release his grip. "Stay out of this Faith. This has nothing to do with you."
"If my best friend is involved, then it does have
something to do with me!" Faith then turned her attention to me. "You okay?"
I nodded and tried to shake off the tears that were slowly forming in the corners of my eyes. "Yea I'm fine."
She gave me a sympathetic smile. "Alright if you say so. Now let's get out of here."
I nodded again and walked out of thhe school
building, ignoring all of Rian's yelling. Thank god I was spending the night at Faith's. I didn't wanna deal with Rian if I had gone home. On the drive to her house, Faith and I blasted Blink 182 as loud as possible and sang along with Mark and Tom at the top of our lungs. When we arrived, I noticed that my sleeping bag, small duffle bag, plus my dress and mask for the ball tomorrow were all sitting in Faith's room.
"My mom must've dropped them off like I asked." I thought to myself.
"You hungry Claire?" Faith asked, taking off her
shoes and placing them in her closet.
I shook my head. "Not real..."
My empty stomach made itself known causing me to turn bright red in the face.
Faith cleared her throat and smiled. "So is pizza
okay?"
I nodded. "Yea, sounds perfect."
She giggled. "Alright I'll go call my mom and tell her to pick some up on her way home." She then walked out of her room and left me alone.
It wasn't long before Faith's mom showed up up three boxes of yummy pizza. We took a box up to Faith's room so we wouldn't take so many trips to the kitchen. We made ourselves comfortable on her bed as The Nightmare Before Christmas played on tv. It was currently at the part where Jack Skellington discovered he was in ChristmasTown.
"So what are we gonna do about tomorrow?"
I shrugged, never removing my attention from the movie. "I don't know. I really don't wanna go to the dance with Zack."
"Then don't."
"But my brother..."
"Screw your brother. Just do what you wanna do. You can't let him tell you what to do all the time Claire."
I sighed. "I know..."
"So what's it gonna be, go to the dance with your bestest friend in the entire world or spend it with that doofus of a football player, Zack Merrick?"
I giggled. "Ok you win."
"Woohoo! Friendship shall always triumph over evil. We are so getting our party on."
I nodded. "If you say so."
"Oh but I do. Who knows maybe something
unexpected will happen."
I looked at her strangely. "Like what?"
"I'm not sure but you never know."
I rolled my eyes and went back to watching the
movie. Once it was over, Faith and I went straight to bed.