Corrupted Jewel

Friday- Morning Chaste (section 4.5)

Ø  Friday Morning-Chaste House-Eleanor’s Room

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Still tired, Eleanor leaned out of bed and reached for the alarm clock. Once her fingers touched that cold, red box, she opened her eyes to see that light was shining through her teal window curtains. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she pulled her blue sheets and comforter off and got out of bed. She headed over to her off-white dresser and pulled out a red, short sleeve plaid western shirt and a pair of dark faded blue jeans. As she pulled her designer shirt over her head, there was a knock at her door.

“Come in!” she said as she walked over to her makeup stand.

Parker opened the door and noticed Eleanor grabbing for her eye liner. He walked over to her and stood right behind her so that way they could both see each other in the mirror.“Hey. I was just curious if you were going to be up on time. Last night was crazy,” said Parker. He was wearing his favorite band, Trapt, t-shirt, and black jeans.

“Yeah it was. Is there a reason why you are in here so early?” asked Eleanor.

“Yeah. I wanted to know what you got out of my head last night.”

She dropped her eye liner on the counter and looked Parker in the eyes. “All I got was that you were not being honest with yourself. I don’t know what you were trying to hide but I just got a fuzzy feeling.”

“Okay. Well I will meet you downstairs.”

Parker turned from the mirror and walked out the room shutting the door. Eleanor finished putting on her eye liner and lip gloss and grabbed her homework off of the floor and shoved it into her bag. She grabbed her purse and her keys along with her bag and headed downstairs where everyone should have been waiting for her.

“And here comes the sleeping beauty of The Chaste House,” Lillian said as Eleanor took the last step off of the stairs and on to the hard wood floor.

“Says the flirt of The Chaste House,” Parker chimed in.

“Enough, all of you,” Tiffani said with a refreshed look on her face. She turned and headed for the door with Parker and Lillian at her heels. Eleanor walked out the front door last and locked up the house. Eleanor turned from the house and presses the button to unlock their blue Hummer H3T. Everyone climbed in and headed off to school.

The cousins parked their Hummer, in their usual spot, in the front row of the student parking lot. They all climbed out of the car one by one, noticing the glares that they get every day from the student body. Tiffani grabbed Lillian by the arm, as if to be her escort, and walked into the school building heading to their lockers. Eleanor and Parker were not that far behind.

Rounding the corner, where their lockers were located, Tiffani stopped dead in her tracks as she spotted Jonny and his friends talking at their lockers. Eleanor and Parker stopped right behind Tiffani and Lillian with a confused look on their face. Lillian turned to Tiffani and waved her hand in front of her face trying to get her attention.

“Hello! Earth to Tiffani!” Lillian shouted.

“Oh. What? Sorry, I kind of zoned out there for a second,” explained Tiffani, trying to cover up the real reason why she stopped.

“Are you okay?” whispered Lillian.

Tiffani looked at her and saw that she is really worried about her. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just remembered something.”

The four of them started walking again closing the gap to their lockers. Parker and Lillian’s lockers are right next to each other, with Eleanor and Tiffani’s on the either side of them.

Eleanor recalled the night before and decided to bring it up. “Tiffani, where were you going last night? I saw you walking towards the back of the yard,” she asked.

Tiffani was just about to reach for her math book but stopped in a heartbeat. She took a quick glance behind her where she felt Jonny’s gaze on the back of her head. She turned away before anyone could see her smile back. “Oh that. I just went for a walk. I had so much on my mind that I could not stay seated any longer.” As she said this, Tiffani did exactly what she and Lillian had talked about that same night. She pictured a brick wall being built around the real reason and stayed calm as she tried to lie her way through the question.

“Ok,” Eleanor said, sensing something more than that. She tried to look into Tiffani’s head for the real answer but only came across something blocking her way. She threw her hardest blows at the brick wall, only to get no response of it trembling. She was proud that Tiffani found a way to keep her thoughts to herself but at this particular moment, she wished that she had not suggested it.

“Hey Eleanor, will you go with me to the pop machine? I am in the mood for a Dr. Pepper and I really need some caffeine before I step into my history class with Mr. Zelko and his boring lectures,” Parker said with a huge smile on his face as he always did when he talked about caffeine.

“Yeah, sure,” Eleanor replied.

Eleanor closed her locker and headed down the hall with Parker at her side as they headed in the direction of the pop machines.

Lillian and Tiff closed their lockers at the same time. As if they knew what the other one was thinking, they both head off in the same direction towards Tiffani’s favorite bench in the commons and waited there for the warning bell to sound.

“I have something to confess,” Tiffani said as she took her normal spot on the bench while Lillian took the empty space next to her.

“What happened now?” asked Lillian as she flipped her hair when she noticed a football player and a baseball player soaking up their presence. She knew all she had to do was bat her eyelashes and they would drop their books, and that’s exactly what happened.

“I didn’t quite tell El the truth about me leaving last night.”

“Then what’s the real reason?”

“Well, I did need to get away from the house. So I walked to the back fence and jumped over it. I started to walk, not knowing where I was going. Well, I ended up at Jonny’s house. He was talking to himself and said that he was pathetic, so I said that he was. I thought that he heard me coming but I ended up scaring him. We didn’t do anything but talk.”

“Are you sure you didn’t do anything?” asked Lillian as she gave her cousin a flirty wink.

“I’m sure.” Tiffani said with a chuckle escaping from her throat.

“El doesn’t really need to know that. It’s not like you did anything wrong with the guy. Don’t worry about it. As long as you keep your thoughts away from her then you should be fine. If I was you though, I would stay away from them until we figure out why Eleanor can’t get a read on them. They might be dangerous,” Lillian said.

Before Lillian could say anything else to Tiffani, she spotted the captain of the football team smiling at her. So she told her cousin that she will see her at lunch, and stocked off towards the player. Tiffani watched Lillian leave.

That just made my day a little worse. She thought as she pulled out her sketch pad and began to draw a sunset.