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Everything Has Changed

Chapter 1

~ ~ ~ 12 years later ~ ~ ~

FRANK’S POV

“Dante, time to get up!” I say. He groans and puts his red comforter over his head.

“Do I have to?” he whines.

“Yeah, sorry buddy. Just give it a chance, this year could be different.”

“Everyone’s the same and it’s boring.”

“Maybe someone different will come this year, you never know. Just give it a chance.”

“..fine..but I’m trusting you..” he says, getting out of bed and stretching before slouching down.

“What do you want to wear today?” he bounces up to his closet and looks around. He finds his black jeans and puts them on. He’s short like me so he has to roll them up, yet he still finds a way to step on the backs and ruin the fabric. He has to put on a belt to the smallest hole to hold them up.

“Daddy!”

“Yes, Dante.” I ask.

“Where’s your old shirt with the smily?” I laugh to myself. I had a small ‘Blink 182’ shirt that I kept and it shrunk like 4 sizes, so it fits him..mostly..not really.. It’s too big, but he doesn’t care.

“It should be in your bottom drawer!”

“Found it!” he says. He comes down the stairs with his high top converse’s on. One had blue laces and the other had green.

“Brush your teeth?”

“Yup!”

“Good, you should at least to try to brush your hair.”

He has shoulder length black hair that’s always messy. All summer he begged and begged and begged to die part of his hair bright red. I finally caved and let him do it, so a strand of his hair is bright red.

I quickly made his lunch and scribbled a note in it.

“Have a great day, Dante, and be yourself!”

I hand him his lunch and backpack right as the school bus pulls up.

“Do you have my coffee?” I nod and I hand him a thermos that is way to big for him. He loves coffee, so I let him have decaf if I mix it with hot cocoa.

“Thanks!”

“Have a good day!”

“Love you, Daddy!” he yells, running for the bus.

GERARD’S POV

“Alice it’s time to get up! It’s your first day of 2nd grade, aren’t you excited?” I ask my daughter. She puts the yellow comforter over her head.

“No! I miss New York!”

“Sorry Ali, we had to move, but I grew up in Jersey, just give it a chance.”

“..okay Daddy, but I’m trusting you.” she gets up out of her bed and stretches.

“What do you want to wear today?” I ask. She shrugs and goes to her closet. Any normal girl would pick a pretty pink sundress and ballet flat-type shoes.

Not Alice.

She finds her old jean jacket and looks at it for a moment. It hasn’t fit her since spring, the sleeves are too short.

“Daddy, where are the scissors?”

“Why, sweetie?” I respond

“You’ll see.” she smirks. I go to the drawer and get her the scissors. She wastes no time, setting her jacket down and beginning to cut off the sleeves very carefully. In no time, it’s a vest and it looks professionally done.

She digs through her clothes to find a black tank top with little ghosts on it. Then she finds her grey skinny jeans. Her tongue sticks out as she rolls them up to capris and puts on bunched up socks, one blue and one pink, and her beat up converse. Finally, she puts on her -now- vest.

I smile at her. “Do you want me to do your hair?”

“No, I got it!” she says, grabbing a hair clip and twisting a strand of her long black hair and clipping it back.

I quickly make her lunch and put a note in there.

“Have a great day, Alice, and be yourself!”

I hand her her lunch and backpack right as the school bus pulls up.

“Have a good day!”

“Love you, Daddy!” she yells, running for the bus.

ALICE’S POV

I walk up the bus steps as the driver starts to drive. I walk down the isle, everyone looking at me. They all look the same, boring. Typical. There’s no seats until the very back there’s a small boy with long black hair with red in it. The red catches my eye and I ask if I can sit with him. He nods. He’s reading a comic and trying to balance a thermos in his hands. I take a deep breath and I smell coffee.

“Are you drinking coffee?”

“Yeah, my dad lets me drink decaf mixed with cocoa.” he says.

“I love coffee, my dad does the same.”

“Do you want some?” the boy asks

“Sure.” I say as he hands me the thermos.

“Thanks.” I say “I’m Alice, by the way.”

“I’m Dante.” he smiles. He has a tooth missing in the front. “Is this your first day?” he asks

“Yeah, me and my dad just moved from New York.”

“Oh, cool.” the bus stops and all the kids run off. I just look at Dante and he’s still reading. When everyone is off he puts his comic in his bag and we make our way off the bus and into the school.

DANTE’S POV

Finally, someone different.

She’s wearing cool clothes and she’s not like the others. This is what I’ve been wishing for. We both walk into Mrs. Green’s classroom. I look at all the familiar faces and Alice’s.

“We’re going to have a wonderful school year, class!” I look at Alice and we sigh at the same time. We wait and wait until recess.

“Finally, she shut up!” Alice says, walking outside. We look around at all the kids running around like animals. I never run around with them.

“C’mere Ali.” I say, she follows me. I climb up a tree to the highest branch I can reach. “This is where I always go.” She sits with me and looks around. She sees the other children, but she doesn’t focus on it, she sees beyond them.

“You can see the mountains, they’re beautiful.” she says

“I love them. Do you see that tree, way far away, the tallest one that’s taller than all the others? I wanna climb to the top of it.”

“Well, why don’t we climb higher on this one?” she looks up. We’re only about halfway up.

“Because I’m short and I already tried, I can’t reach the next branch.” I say, wrinkling my nose. She smirks and stands on the branch. She holds onto the tree as she reaches as far as she can and she can barely touch the next branch. She bends down and jumps and grips the next branch. I smile at her. She sits so she’s straddling the branch and reaches down her hand.

“C’mon, Dante!” she says. I stand up and grab her hand. Before I know it we’re at the top of the tree.

Wow, she’s awesome.

I’m straddling the branch and she’s just sitting regularly on it. “I feel so tall.” I say. She giggles.

“We’re so high I feel like we could touch the clouds.” she says. She puts her hands up in the air. I do the same we start trying to touch the clouds we see. The whistle blows for morning recess to be over. She jumps and starts to fall off the tree. We’re really high up.

“DANTE!” she screams

“ALICE!” I grab her hand mid air and she dangles from my hand. It’s not that she’s heavy, but I’m not very strong so I feel my arm start to burn. Her other arm hooks onto one of the smaller branches connected to the big branch below me.

“Okay, Dan, you can let go.” she says as I let her slip from my grip and she holds onto the other branch with both arms and inches her way to a large branch at the base of the tree. I start to climb down with her and soon enough, we’re back on the ground.

“Thanks for saving me, Dan.” she says, hugging me.

“No problem, Ali.”

We sit through class until lunch time. We’re allowed outside to eat so we go back to the tree, but on a shorter branch this time. I open my lunch and my dad wrote on it. It says:

“Have a great day, Dante, and be yourself!”

I open it and it’s a PB&J sandwich. “What do you have, Alice?”

“PB&J. My dad can’t cook anything. But he always writes me notes.”

“Same! My dad can’t even cook cereal right sometimes. And he tries to make up for it with a note. What did your dad put on it?” she shows me the note

“Have a great day, Alice, and be yourself!”

“Mine says the same thing!” I turned around my note so she could see.

“Have a great day, Dante, and be yourself!”

“Except my dad has messier writing.” I add. She laughs.

“Mine is an artist so he writes all the time..sorta.”

“That’s so cool!”

“I guess so, he draws for a comic book company.” she smiles.

“That’s SO cool!! Mine owns a music shop, but he’s in bands so he makes most of the money playing gigs.”

“That’s so amazing!!!” she jumps. She looks at my shirt for a moment.

“Is that a Blink 182 shirt?” she asks

“Yeah, it was my dad’s but he shrunk it so now it’s mine.”

“You’re dad must by tiny.”

“He kinda is.” I laugh. “But you know Blink 182?”

“Yeah, my dad loves music and we dance to that all the time. What other music do you like?”

“I love my dad’s band, they’re Pencey Prep. I’ll show you their stuff if you ever come to my house. But he’ll play Black Flag and Misfits all the time. But I really like Nirvana too, even though he doesn’t like ‘em as much”

“You have awesome music taste!”

“Thanks, Alice. So do you.”

“Y’know, Dante..you’re not like the others. It seems like everyone is all the same and boring. I mean just look at them.” she points down at all the animals. “All the boys are wearing plain blue shirts and shorts with the same hair cut and running around like animals and all the girls are wearing frilly pink skirts playing ‘House’ or something. I’ve never been like the others. I’ve never liked the others. But you’re different. I like you, Dante, you’re finally the person I’ve been looking for.” I smile and take a bite of my sandwich.

“I could say the same about you, Alice.”

I hold my hand out “Best friends” I say.

She takes my hand and shakes it, “Forever.”
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