Bending the Rules

Chapter 7 : Surprise In The Lobby

■ This chapter is quite too long, I have made it long and there are some interesting things that would happen in this chapter! I hope you'll enjoy =)♡ ■

Bagel was a good boy all night. He slept quietly beside Tori's bed, curled up on a winter parka that Tori had spread out on the floor for him. At seven in the morning she jumped up, suddenly worrying that perhaps he wasn't ''that'' housebroken. She clipped on his leash and took him downstairs.

Frank was at the door this morning. "Morning, Miss," he said, yawning. He did a doubletake when he saw Bagel. "He does look a lot better now, doesn't he?" Tori just grinned.

When she got back upstairs, Aunt Tessa was up. She was in the kitchen, and Tori could smell toast and coffee.

"Good Morning," said her aunt.

"Hi!" said Tori.

"Would you like some breakfast?"

"I'd love some!"

Aunt Tessa looked at Bagel with the same tiny hint of amusement Tori had seen yesterday. Tori was almost daring to hope that her aunt was warming up a little.

"Toast?" Aunt Tessa said to the dog, breaking off a corner and handing it to him. "Don't grab," she said.

Bagel, bless his furry little heart, took the little triangle of toast as delicately as could be from Aunt Tessa's fingers.

"Good boy," she said.

"He really is nice, isn't he?" said Tori hopefully.

"He's not bad," said her aunt drily. "Let's see how he does when you leave him home alone."

"I'm going to do that for a little while today," said Tori. "Kind of a practice session. I'm going to the Museum of Modern Art with Lara, th one you met last week."

"I remember her."

She didn't say anything about how nice it was that Tori was going to the museum. They ate their toast and jam in silence.

Tori spent the morning working on French and biology homework. She had to do a biology lab, which was picky, painstaking work, drawing a microscope slide of a leaf. Her lab partner, a girl named Francine, was completely useless. Francine always wore black and deep purple, bruised-looking lipstick. She had two rings in her nose and a total of nine in her ears. She never, ever smiled; it seemed to be against her creed. And she never, ever did her biology homework, either, which meant that Tori had to do it all. Francine was too busy hanging out with her depressed, dressed-in-black friends and listening to depressing music.

Maybe Tori was a rebel, but she was a cheerful rebel. She didn't have much patience for dramatic misery. She wished she had Chelsie, who was also in the class, for a partner. But Chelsie had a boy named Arturo who wore a plastic pocket protector.

At 11:30, she gave Bagel a hug. "You be good," she told him. "I'm going out for a couple of hours. I'll be right back."

Bagel wagged his tail, but he didn't look so happy.

Lara was standing in front of the museum when Tori got there at twelve on the nose. Beside her was Barbie.

"G'day!" said Tori, surprised and pleased to see her. "What're you doing here?"

"Well, just like you, I haven't had a chance to see a lot of museums in New York yet. So when I talked to Lara on the phone last night, I decided to hitch up with you guys."

"That's great!" said Tori. "You can protect me from any of all stuffy museum vibes."

"This museum's not stuffy at all," said Lara as they went through the revolving doors. "You'll see."