Young Forever

Chapter 7

"I'm home!"

Aaliyah opened the door to her house.

"Welcome back dear," Mr Taylor said. "How was your outing?"

"Pretty good," said Aaliyah.

"Did Monica control every single aspect of what you guys did again?" asked Mrs Taylor.

"No, well..... Yeah, yeah she did."

"That girl..... I wonder if she even listens to her parents" said Mrs Taylor.

"And how's Angela, that smart girl?" asked Mr Taylor.

"She's nice, dad," said Aaliyah.

Aaliyah went to her room to change. She sighed. The outing was nice and it was nice that she spent time with Angela. But she felt like her opinion wasn't heard. If only she could work up the courage to stand up to Monica every once in a while. But she was her friend. What could she do?

Suddenly, a bright flash of light filled the room. A small figure appeared.

"Rosalia. Long time no see" said Aaliyah.

"Well Aaliyah, how are you liking being thirteen again so far?" asked Rosalia.

"It's nice. I got to befriend Angela, like I wanted" said Aaliyah.

"Ah, that's nice. And how about you and Monica?"

"Well..... I did try to.... give my opinion today, but.... she didn't listen. She never does."

"Don't worry. You have plenty of time."

"Yeah.... I thought being assertive would be easy but still...."

"It takes time. Don't worry. And by the way, how's that Angela girl?"

"Oh she's great. We have more in common than I thought. I wish I could spend time alone with her."

"So why don't you?"

"Well, I don't know if she'd.... want to spend time with me."

"You never know unless you ask, don't you?"

"Yeah.... Yeah. I'll ask her tomorrow at school."

"That's great. Well, good luck with that. I'll take my leave now."

"Sure. Goodbye Rosalia."

Rosalia disappeared in a bright flash of light. Aaliyah lay in her bed and pondered on her meeting with Rosalia. She regretted certain things from her time as a teenager. She was popular, of course, but she wished she was more assertive towards Monica. And she also wanted to befriend the smart, mysterious girl, Angela. She'd always wanted to know more about Angela and now she could. Spending time alone with her will help her get closer. But would Angela feel the same?

Next day at school, she met Angela at her locker.

"Hey Angela" she said.

"Oh, hi Aaliyah" Angela said. "Yesterday was fun, huh?"

"Yeah, it was great," said Aaliyah. "Listen, I was wondering-"

"Hey Aali!"

Monica and Hannah appeared from behind.

"We were looking for you everywhere," said Monica.

"Oh, hi Monica, Hannah" said Aaliyah.

"Oh, hey Angela. Fun time yesterday huh?" said Monica.

"Yeah" said Angela.

"Why don't you sit with us at lunch again today?" said Monica. "We wanna know more about you."

"R-really?"

"Yeah. You're so mysterious, you know. You never spoke to anyone until now so we have to know more about you."

"Wow... thanks. Sure, I'll be there."

"Great. See you later girls. We gotta get to class now."

Monica and Hannah went over to their class.

"Hey Aaliyah, what did you want to tell me?" asked Angela.

"Oh, I just wanted to ask you-"

Just then the bell rang.

"Well, I'll tell you during lunch, okay?"

"Okay. See you then."

Angela and Aaliyah parted ways.

Aaliyah made her way to the class and sat down. She heard someone whispering about her from behind.

"Wow, Aaliyah is actually late this time?" a girl whispered. "She's always the first one in class. So odd."

"Next thing you know she might be failing a subject" someone else whispered.

Aaliyah sighed. These kids sure loved to gossip, didn't they?

Regardless, she'd have to wait till lunch time to ask Angela the question.