It's Nice To Have A Friend

5) One Memory Is Stronger Than A Thousand Lies

"What happened with Hal?"

Alice looked at Mary with teary eyes and knew that she had to come clean, to really tell what the reason was she suddenly left. They deserved to know, whether she was ready or not.

Mary and Hermione gave her a roof above her head, Fred saw the good in her even while he had no idea why she had suddenly dropped them, and FP... she knew he wasn't ready to hear her story, but this way she could give him the slightest bit of the explanation he deserved.

She had her window to tell her story, and so she finally told them what caused her to break apart from the people closest to her heart.

"I was about to fail senior year," She began, taking her time to catch her breath and think about what she was going to say.

Four pair of eyes looked at her attentively, and it made her nervous. FP was confused and she could read it all over his face.

"You were about to fail? But Alice, you always tutored me. You've always been one of the smartest people I know, it doesn't make sense." He tried to understand, but it didn't seem like a very likely story.

Alice knew what he was saying was true. She didn't like to brag, but she was smart. Smarter than most of her Northside classmates had ever been. But at school it had never been about brains. Things were far more complex.

"You know how life was for us, FP... the material wasn't too hard, but I simply got behind. We were both deeply involved in the Serpents, and before I knew it, I was failing." She locked her eyes with him, and she could see a flicker of guilt in his eyes, which she couldn't fully grasp.

"Our teachers didn't really care if I was smart or not, when you are from the Southside they will find a way to make you fail."

"Yeah, that very much sucked." FP gave her a sympathetic smile, the first one since her return.

The gap between North- and Southsiders had always been enormous, and the teachers there loved to make it even bigger. Talent wasn't recognized when you wore a green snake on the back of your leather jacket.

"Somehow, Hal seemed to know. He promised to help me. That's how it all started." Alice looked up at her friends, who all still listened carefully.

Even FP listened to what she had to say for the first time since she had returned, and she was grateful for it.

"I was skeptical at first, but I was desperate. So, I agreed." For a moment Alice looked down at her hands, as if she could find some courage there.

"Maybe if a Northsider was helping me, my teachers would see that I was really trying. It's stupid, but that was how the political game at school worked." Alice chuckled bitterly.

Hermione, Mary and Fred shared a guilty look. They had never really understood the awful dynamics that were going on at school, but FP did. He knew that like no other.

"I was at the Cooper's almost every single day to bust my ass off to graduate with you guys."

There curled a sad frown around her lips. Alice thought back to those years, when she knew she was smarter than her whole class together, but simply didn't make it.

With life on the Southside there was always something that needed to be fixed, that she needed to hide, or that asked for attention. She might have had the brains, but she never had the time. If she needed to work with someone like Hal to graduate with her friends, it was worth it.

"But it didn't stop with helping me with my grades." Her eyes glossed over, and she had to look at her hands to ground herself. Those memories were frightening, but she wanted to be able to tell her story.