Scream, to Be Heard

Chapter 2
“Let’s just get this over with.” Alex muttered to himself as he shoved his cell phone in the pocket of his sweatshirt. He told his mother he’d be out, and he began to walk down the street. The thought of him going over Bailey’s house hadn’t left his mind since the day he’d been assigned partners with the girl. All he could do is dread it. I mean she hadn’t seemed all that strange when he’d talked to her that day, why was this going to be so terrible? “Because she’s a drama kid.” Alex answered his own question, pulling up the hood of his sweatshirt as it began to drizzle.
He approached her house and sighed. Better now than never. The boy strolled to the front door and rang the doorbell. A taller woman answered the door.
“Hello!” She answered cheerfully. He faintly heard New Found Glory playing from upstairs. Well, at least her brother was cool.
“Um, Hi. I’m Alex. I’m here to work on and English project with Bailey.” He rubbed the back of his neck as she shut the door behind him.
“She’s upstairs in her room. I’d call her down, but she probably can’t hear anything over her music.” Alex was confused. Her music? Chicks listened to New Found Glory? Her mom kept talking.
“So you can just head on up there, first door on the right.” He was scared of all the Grease and Cats posters that probably lined her walls. But he agreed.
“Oh, okay…thanks…Mrs. Cooper…”
“Please, just call me Ellen.” Alex had always thought it was awkward calling adults by their first names, but he didn’t argue. He sang along to ‘Head on Collision’ (which also happened to be the song in which he named his band after) as he walked up the stairs. 'Well, at least she had one redeeming quality.' The boy thought to himself as he knocked on and then opened the door to her room. He held his breath, but when he saw her room, he had no need to. The blonde looked up from her notebook, the one supposedly filled with gay porn.
“Oh. Hey Alex.” Bailey looked back down and continued writing or whatever she was doing. All he could do is stare at the walls. Band posters. Everywhere. And not shitty bands either, but the good ones, like Blink-182, New Found Glory, Green Day, Yellowcard, Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters, all stuff Alex listened to. But that wasn’t all he noticed. Along the far wall were 3 guitars, a bass, and a ukulele. If he didn’t know he was in Bailey Cooper’s bedroom, he’d think he was in heaven (that sounded a little weird). The girl had obviously picked up on his strange behaviors.
“Gaskarth? Y’okay?” Alex shook his head.
“Uh, yeah. Let’s just get this over with, okay?” He snapped.
“No need to be so testy.” She laughed and put her journal down, reaching for a notebook on her dresser. Alex came a little closer.
“Feel free to sit down or something,” Bailey noted whilst pulling out the worksheets for the projects. The two of them sat on her bed for a while, working out the majority of a project not even they understood. Alex couldn’t help but imagine how Rian was doing with Maria. He wouldn’t be getting very much done, except for staring down her shirt. But the taller male had to remind himself he would have done the same thing. About fifteen minutes had passed by. Alex decided to break the tension.
“You play guitar?” His voice cracked, and he blushed with embarrassment. The boy didn’t quite know why, however. It’s not like he was trying to impress her or anything. She laughed lightly.
“Yeah, I do.” Bailey’s lips were still curled into a smile as she looked over at her little collection of instruments. She was quite proud of it, and it made her happy when he had asked about it.
“You any good?” Alex asked. He didn’t know any female guitar players. At his school, anyway.
“Well I mean I’d like to think so, but I don’t know. I guess. I taught myself so I’m probably not all that great,” she laughed awkwardly. The male nodded, impressed. He’d been taking lessons since he was younger, and he’d thought that was difficult. It’s not that she was just teaching herself acoustic either, although seeing the Ibanez in the corner showed that she had as well, but she was teaching herself tabs. And that’s impressive, for a girl anyway. I mean she probably sucked. But the more he looked around her room, and the more music that played from her CD player, the more he thought this whole partner thing wouldn’t be all that bad. I mean at least he could enjoy some good music while he had to work with this weirdo, right?
Bailey, on the other hand, thought that Alex was the weird one. 'He wears that fucking hat like he’s from the ghetto or something.' She thought. A lot had been going through her mind since they had been partnered together. The majority of the girls in the class had been jealous. Alex was, after all, quite the heartthrob. He was in a band, he was tall with killer hair (but she still wasn’t thinking about that), and he was a bad boy. I mean what else could the girls want, right? Normal little whore girls, anyway. At least that’s what Bailey thought. She didn’t mind the band thing, in truth. In all honesty, she had a thing for musicians. 'Musicians that weren’t dick heads that dress like they’re rappers. What the hell is up with that, anyways?' She shook her head subtly as she sorted out verbs from nouns and whatnot. Alex didn’t notice.
Still, it wasn’t as terrible as either of them had thought. And as Bailey tapped her foot along to ‘My Friends Over You,” she knew Alex was humming along. At least the boy had decent music taste. She had just been getting used to having the kid around when lightning struck, and the power was out.
“Fuck, really?” She blurted out, the room being almost totally dark. Alex laughed, and he didn’t know why. This meant he couldn’t go home, and it also meant that he couldn’t have band practice because, well, obvious reasons. Bailey went into her closet and fumbled around, looking for some lanterns or candles or something. She found both, and lit them around the room.
“Well, this kinda sucks.” She sighed as she sat back onto the bed, squinting to see the paper. Alex checked his cell. A text from Rian.
Rian: How’s the freak? No practice today bcuz there’s no fkcng power! Hah. have fun @ her house man. Have fun.
The boy responded with a simple ‘k’, not feeling like explaining that her room was one to make all of them jealous.
“I guess that’s the end of that,” Alex sighed, almost gratefully. He really didn’t feel like working on this project anymore. He was all grammar-ed out. The option of going home rang in his ears, but looking out to the pitch black afternoon filled with rain and lightning, he didn’t think that was such a good idea.
“I guess so,” she laughed lightly. The blonde usually just played guitar and sang when the power went out. But not in front of Alex, she wouldn’t. He probably thought she was weird enough already, just because she was in drama club. Why did people have to make nasty assumptions like that? Why couldn’t they just get to know a person first? She’d never understand it, and assumed Alex wouldn’t either. Because he was Alex, the ignorant band boy with the fantastic hair that she still wasn’t thinking about.
“I mean I’d go home but I don’t want to…you know…die…” Bailey held back a laugh. She didn’t want this boy to think she thought he was funny, because he’d probably get around to thinking that she liked him or something. And that wasn’t at all the case. Or at least she had thought at the time.
“It’s probably better if you stay here,” she added uncomfortably , “unless you want my mom to drop you off back home or something-”
“Nah its fine I don’t have practice today anyways.”
“Alright, mister ‘let’s-just-get-this-over-with,” she said sarcastically with hand quotes and all. Alex had grown irritated with himself. He could have just gotten a ride home from her mom, and he would have gotten the fuck out of her house. 'I mean, her and her smart ass comments. Normal girls just smile, bat their eyes and look pretty, right?' Because those were the types of girls Alex hung out with. The sex-craving, dumb-as-a-post skinny girls who only liked him for his looks. But he didn’t know that.
Another fifteen minutes passed and the storm had seemed to clear. Alex said goodbye, and he walked down the street to his house. 'What the hell just happened?' He asked himself, taking a beer out of the fridge and plopping down on the sofa to watch some TV. His phone buzzed. Rian.
Rian: I came by like 10 mins ago….r u still at bailey’s??
Alex rolled his eyes and replied.
Alex: I just got home, power was out.
The boy flopped down, confused. About what, he didn’t know. He did know that he’d have to go back there soon to finish the project though, or he’d fail English and have to stay back a year. And that wasn’t really an option right now.
“What the fuck is wrong with meeeee” He groaned, switching the channel to MTV and taking another swig at his beer.