Ready? Not Really.. (Fem USUK) •IN EDITING•

Amelia

A/N
A THOUSAND READS????
ILY GUYS AHHH
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Tap, tap.
Tap, tap, tap.
"Stop that," Alice said without looking up.
I raised an eyebrow and continued to tap the eraser of my pencil against my desk.
Tap, tap, tap, tap-
"I said stop."
"Wow, lame-o, Ally." She shot me a look and went back to solving some math problem. I sighed loudly, hoping she'd look up again so I could see her eyes- I loved them and hated them at once, and it was overwhelming sometimes.
She didn't look up.
I pouted. Jerk.
So it was two days later. Not much interesting happened. Alice was as spacey as ever, Maddie poked fun at me constantly about my crush whenever Ally wasn't paying attention, and I was just trying to get through high school without totally embarrassing myself.
So, the usual.
Except for the hand holding. That was not the usual, although, I wouldn't mind if it became the usual.
Alice didn't ever bring it up, so I decided not to talk about it either.
We weren't doing it at that moment, much to my disappointment. Her knee was pressed against mine, though, and it provided a momentary relief from wanting to kiss her more than anything. Her leg was hella warm. Like a fucking heater.
I tried to look at her eyes again. It was amazing how, even with a pixie cut, her hair still managed to block the view of her face.
I wrinkled my nose.
The teacher came around, passing back the results of the quiz. I probably flunked it since I was so wrapped up in the fact that I was fucking holding Alice's hand that day.
My teacher finally came to me and put the paper on my desk face down. I tried to read her facial expression, but alas, she was the one person on the planet with zero personality.
"What did you get?" Alice asked casually. I glanced at her paper. She wasn't solving shit. I could see a doodle of a bunch of swirls in the corner of her paper.
"I'm scared to look," I admitted. I moved the paper to the far edge of my desk with the tip of my pencil. Alice looked at me curiously. "I totally failed."
"How come? Isn't this your best subject?"
I shrugged. "I was thinking during the test."
Alice raised her eyebrows. "Did it hurt?" I narrowed my eyes at her. Smartass. "But really, what were you thinking about?"
I couldn't tell what was going on in her head. She looked somewhat interested. But.. I don't know. Her eyes looked sorta foggy, and there was a crease in between her eyebrows. She looked like she was daydreaming. Which she did a lot, according to Maddie. But still.
"Stuff."
Alice rolled her eyes. "Stuff," she repeated mockingly. "If you won't look at your grade then I will."
"Fine. Whatever." I thought for a moment then added, "Just don't laugh when it's a sucky score."
She looked unconvinced. "I'm sure it's fine." Ally took the paper in her hands, and her eyes grew huge. "Oh my god, Amelia."
"What?" I asked, suddenly terrified.
The look left her face and she smiled smugly. "Nothing. I just knew that would freak you out." She slid the paper back over to me. 91%. Not too shabby.
"Asshole." I sighed in relief. She smiled more and went back to doodling.
"Hey guys!" Maddie said out of nowhere. She popped up beside me. "What did you get?"
"Amelia flunked, apparently," Alice said, gesturing to my 91. Maddie rolled her eyes.
"I wish I could fail like that. Move it, sis." She pushed me so that she could share my seat, which in turn meant I was even closer to Alice. Like, really close. Her breath was actually audible now.. cute little puffs that tickled my ear.
Maddie and her secret evil twin plans would be the death of me.
"Christ, Amelia," Alice grumbled. "You're right on top of me."
"Take up less space."
"Well if you would sit in your own goddamn chair-"
"Alright, lovebirds," Maddie interrupted. "Shut up."
We both turned and glared at her. My face started to heat up. "We aren't lovebirds." I tried to communicate with her via twin psychic powers that mentioning my crush was not okay.
...Which didn't work. Maddie looked quite satisfied with herself. She kept on talking like nothing was wrong. "So what did you get, Ally?"
Alice shifted in her chair, giving me more room so my leg wasn't right on fucking top of hers. Thank god. "I have no idea. I haven't gotten my quiz back." She sighed and put her chin in her hand. "Maybe it got put in the trash where it belongs."
Right at that moment, the teacher came back along the row of desks. "Madeline, why aren't you in your seat?" She looked annoyed.
Maddie smiled innocently, which was extremely aggravating since she pulled it off wonderfully. Teacher's pet. "I was trying to help Amy with a math problem, ma'am."
The teacher's eyes drifted to my quiz. "I highly doubt she needs any help, Madeline." She looked down at her stack of papers. "Speaking of needing help.." She slid Alice's quiz over to her and walked away. Alice grabbed it before I could read the score.
Her face turned a few shades paler. "Fuck."
"What'd you get?" I asked slowly.
"Fuck," Alice repeated.
"That's an interesting score. Didn't know they graded with curse words now."
She shot me a look. "You aren't funny, Amelia."
Maddie leaned over to look at her friend. "Is it that bad?"
"Yeah.." Alice let out a sigh. "Needless to say, I failed." She balled up the paper and shoved it into her bag without a second glance.
I frowned. She looked pretty disappointed with herself, which didn't fly by me. "That doesn't mean anything," I said before I could think. "You're way better at other stuff, like writing and dance."
Alice looked confused, her eyebrows knitting together. "How do you know I'm good at writing? You aren't in my class."
Fuck.
I was thinking of her journal.
Fuck, fuck, fuck me.
"Maddie told me," I said after a brief pause. Maddie looked at me, and I knew this would come up later.
"Yeah," she said, covering my ass before I totally screwed up all chances with my crush. "I told her about that essay you wrote on women getting paid less than men."
Alice looked proud. "You really thought it was good?"
"Yeah!" I felt horrible for lying. "It was cool! You really got your point across, dude."
"Thanks." Alice smiled at me. I felt like a little shit. At least she thought I cared about her English paper.
Then she looked at her quiz and looked unhappy almost immediately. "My mum is going to be so angry. She said she might send an extra thirty dollars this month, but I highly doubt that'll happen now." Her leg started to bounce anxiously, which, in turn, moved my leg with it.
"You should get a tutor," I suggested.
"I don't know anyone that would want to help me," Alice said, frowning. "I'd ask Sakura, but she's busy the whole month doing her internship program thing."
"That sucks."
Maddie's eyes widened.
"Yeah, it does," Alice sighed.
Maddie started to stare at me. It was pretty unsettling. Her gaze practically bore into my skull.
"Was your score that shitty?"
"Yes."
My sister poked me in the side. I finally looked at her. She was grinning. "What the fuck is it, Maddie? You're acting weird."
"You should tutor Alice!"
"What?" My crush and I said simultaneously.
"Yeah! You're good at math, and Alice needs the help!"
Alice looked horrified. "Maddie, I really don't-"
"Yeah, like I don't think.." I started.
But my twin would have none of it. "It's a perfect setup!" She looked extremely proud of herself. I tried to communicate with her through looks, but she refused to look me in the eye for just that reason. "You should totally do it!"
"No!" I screeched.
"No wa-" Alice glared at me. "Wait, why did you say no so quickly? Do you really hate me that much?"
"What? No!" I said quickly. "No I don't!"
She looked skeptical.
"Do it!" Maddie piped up.
"Shut up!" I hissed.
"You should do it, Ally!" Maddie said, switching her attention to my crush. "You always say you wish you were better friends with Ames, right?"
Alice's face turned bright red. "I- wh- excuse me?"
My heart did a backflip. I glanced over at her. "Do you really?"
"N-No!" she sputtered. Her green eyes were huge. "That sounds like something a fifth grader would say!"
"She totally did," Maddie argued. "I guarantee it."
"Maddie, I swear to god.." Alice looked mortified. I wasn't really sure why. If it was true, that was really sweet.
"It's okay!" Maddie put a hand on my shoulder. Oh, hell, no. No way was she about to embarrass me. "Amy is totally on board with tutoring you! In your room, even!"
Just kidding, she did. My sister sucked.
"What?" I hissed. Maddie knew I was not okay with a single bit of this. I'm pretty sure I told her that I liked how Alice smelled. Like, a lot. And I was not about to be shoved in a contained space with my crush where she slept and got dressed and where the whole fucking space smelled like vanilla and Alice.
Maddie clapped her hands. "I'm glad we set this up, you guys! How about you start this afternoon? Alice doesn't have practice on Mondays!"
Alice swallowed hard.
"Well I have-" I started.
"Oh!" Maddie added. "And Amelia only has cheer in the mornings on Monday and Wednesday, so you're all good there!" She stood up. "Man, this was a really good talk, guys! This afternoon at 4:30, okay? Think of it as a friendly bonding time over math! Okay? Okay!" She went back to her seat as quickly as she had stolen mine.
Alice and I looked at each other.
"You.. want to get to know me better?" I asked hesitantly after a moment.
Alice looked at her lap. "It sounds horrible when you say it out loud."
I smiled. A happy warmth had settled in my stomach. Alice wanted to know me better! Holy shit! "I think it's sweet."
"Yeah?" She looked up.
"Yeah."
"Oh. Okay."
We stayed silent for a few seconds.
"My room?" She asked.
"I guess so."
"Okay."
"Yeah."
I looked down at her, and she was looking at me. Her eyes were hypnotic, the way they caught the light, and the little flecks in her irises.
Her face turned red. Fuck, I had been staring, hadn't I?
"Okay," she repeated. She hunched over her paper and went back to doodling.
I turned in my seat to glare at my sister, but she avoided eye contact and smiled to herself.
Jerk.
When I turned back around, I noticed a flower in the corner of my paper drawn in blue ink. I glanced at Alice, but she was just shading in something she had drawn earlier. But hey, her pen was blue!
I drew a flower beside hers. It wasn't nearly as pretty as the one she had drawn. She was too artistic.
I looked away again then back at my paper. Another little flower had joined the others, a delicate rose this time.
I couldn't help but giggle and add another flower.
We kept doing this back and forth until Alice had stopped waiting until I turned around and just doodled with me. We made a little meadow on my paper, with roses and sunflowers and tulips that were black and blue, and grass made of Alice's precise pen-strokes.
She smiled at me. "Your flowers need some work."
"I guess you should tutor me, huh?" I joked. She shrugged and scooted closer so she could reach more blank paper to draw on.
I tried to act casual when I put my cheek on the top of her head, my hand still working besides hers.
Maybe it was just in my mind, but I think her breath hitched for just a second.