Just When Nothing Could Be Better

chapter 2

"hurry up" she said I (as always) had my head stuck in my locker, trying to find math text. Finding the yellow book hidden in the corner and lifted it in victory at her. But instead of on the book, her eyes were fixed on my hair.

"Do you think I'll be able to find an egg in there?"

"It's not a nest" I said, trying to smooth down my the tangled mess. Ha! Even my hair is messed up. Told you I'm talented.

"Alice"

I turned around to see Barry running towards us, his dark hair all over his chocolate brown eyes. He skidded to a halt and put his hands on his knees, bending over, trying to catch his breath. Behind him Nash was walking towards us, his face blank and hands in his pockets. And all I could was frown in confusion.

Introduction time. My mom used to work in a kindergarten before and it is no surprise that I was joined there too. That is where she met Riley, running behind a little Nash, her spectacles falling off her nose. Aaannd it was friendship at first sight. My mom and Riley became inseparable best friends while Nash, his cousin Barry and I started growing close. Until, out of the blue my father forbid me to talk to them. Yup, the weirdest in the world of weird stuff. But we continued to meet at school anyway. But then there was a fight when we were 8 and we never exactly talked to each other after that. Of course it's not like we haven't forgiven each other, we just chose our paths and went in the opposite direction. Which brings us back to today, to another weird thing in the world of weird stuff.

"Umm.. hey?" I said, which sounded more like a question to me.

I looked at Debby, who shrugged at me, looking just as confused as I am.

"Do you have a group for the bio project?" he asked, after catching his breath.

We had a project? Crap, we had a project. When is the submission?

No. It can't be. Please, let it not be_

"The submission's on Monday"

"No", I shouted out loud.

They gave me a weird look." Uh, relax we have a whole weekend to finish it", Barry said.

I gave him an incredulous look. That project in a weekend? It took me a whole week to finish my calculus worksheets for holiday homework.

OK, you did those worksheet all by yourself. You'll be doing this one with the help of three other people, and they won't let you follow your 50 minute break and 10 minute work schedule. So breathe, Allie.

"ok, where are we meeting?" I asked.

******

I tried not to roll my eyes at my 7 year old cousin Sam as he tried to steal a chip from his sister's plate. Claire noticed and slapped his hand before he could even reach the plate. I missed George, the eldest among us. Even though Claire and I were the ones expected to get along well seeing that she's only one year younger than me, George and I are the only ones who actually get along here. Sometimes, I wonder how the sibling trio manage to live together at home. I really take pity on uncle seth and Helen. Anyway, George was at his friend's home and this dinner couldn't possibly get more boring

"Anyway, did you hear that the Haschels' are moving out of town", a nasal voice interrupted my thoughts. The sentence cought my attention.

" What do you mean they are moving out?" I asked, suddenly interested in their conversation.

"They got a great opportunity in Florida. They are moving tonight, leaving Barry here to finish his education."

She continued with the details on how she got the 'juicy piece of news'. Something about her neighbors change of topic when grandma was trying to poke her long nose in her son's ' unfaithful married life '. Not her exact words as she tends to call this gossip concern. Beats me how people restrain from punching her in the face to break that abnormally long and sharp sniffer.

I tuned out the rest of their conversation, pondering over what she said.

********

I walked up the familiar driveway to the mount Olympus like mansion looking like a zombie, the colour of the skin under my eyes in contrast to the pearly white walls. We had reached home late last night and it took me all my will power to get me out of bed today.

Ringing the bell, I leaned against the wall, closing my eyes for a minute. I heard the door open and opened my eyes to see a tall woman with black hair and blue eyes standing at the door.

She immediately pulled me into a hug.

"Missed me, Riley", I teased.

"Nah, was too busy enjoying the peace", she said, giving me a cheeky wink. I chuckled at that and made my way upstairs to Nash's room.

I lifted my hand to knock on the door but it had to be opened by Barry at the same time. Everything after that within the blink of an eye. Barry stormed out of the room looking over his shoulder and saying "I'll go check if she's_"

Yup, that's when he crashed into me and the next moment we found ourselves on the floor.

"Found her" Barry groaned while I sat up and massaged the sore spot on my head. All this time we had failed to notice that had erupted in the room. I glared at Nash which shut him up but he still had a victorious smirk on his face.

I entered the room, taking in the appearance. It had changed a tad bit and there was a book shelf in a corner filled with books of all kinds.

"So, what is the project going to be based on?", I asked

"Biology"

'Blank stare'

***

We've been trying top come up with ideas for the project for an hour. So far no luck.

"Why don't we just observe the movements and stuff of an animal or an insect and write about it?" I suggested.

"Yeah, we could observe the animals we have here"

I shot Nash a confused look.

"We could either observe the poodle i the garden or a unique animal I'm related to. It's name's Barry, it looks like a monkey but has nostrils of a gorilla. " ,he said with a straight face.

I snorted unattractively at that.

"That hurt bad" Barry said, screwing up his face and putting his hand in his heart for dramatic effects.

"Guys, be serious here", I said. The faster we did this, the faster I can go home and get the sleep threatening to take over every minute.

" What are you talking about? You don't want us to be Sirius." Barry said. " When have you seen him doing a project. If we were Sirius, we would never have finished what we have done till now"

"And what we exactly have finished till now?"
"Absolutely nothing"

Nash and I shared a look.
"Avada kedavra" we said in sync, using our pencils as wands.

"Ok, this one really hurt" he said.

"It couldn't"

"But it did"

"But it possibly couldn't"

"Why so?"

"Because Avada kedavra is a curse for killing" I said, with a straight face.

***

a/n

hello guys, hope you're enjoying the story. 

i just wanted to say that this the edited version of the first two chapters. There are a lot of changes so I request you to read it once.

vote, comment and share.

love, smriti