FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL

Chapter 3

GUYS PLEASE READ THE SILVERLIGHT. IT IS A NOVEL ABOUT THESE CHARACTERS AND I PROMISE YOU WON'T REGRET READING IT! :))

Alice

Later that day, I sat hunched over my homework, my face twisted in concentration. I was currently doing Math and it was very difficult. Despite the fact that schoolwork came easily to me, today it was particularly difficult.

I was done in about an hour and made my way to the kitchen in the hope that dinner was ready. My mom was sitting on the couch going through some magazine, probably looking for more tips in flower arrangement.

Our house was fairly small with three tiny bedrooms, a bathroom, living room and a kitchen. Although it was small, I still liked it: the cute front garden and backyard were my favourite places. We had made the house as homey as possible by painting the walls, buying some new furniture and putting mom's flowers in every room. It was not much, but I knew this was going to be my home, especially since now that mom had made up her mind to settle down in this town.

It was seven, and we normally had dinner at this time so I was shocked to see my mother sitting on the couch, while there was nothing on the table yet except some plates and cutlery.

"Het, mom," I said." Aren't we having dinner?"

Ny mom looked up from her magazine to smile at me. Now that I looked closely at her, she did look like she had dressed up a little. Her face had a thin layer of makeup and she was wearing a long salmon dress.

"Oh didn't Max tell you?" asked my mom, surprised." I told him to tell you that we are having dinner guests today."

I was surprised. We normally did not have dinner guests over. Once or twice a month, mom would bring home one of her colleagues for lunch, but that was it. This was a school night too so I was very curious to know who would be coming.

"Who's coming?" I asked my mom

"Oh, I went to the supermarket yesterday and ran into a really old friend of mine from college. She's married now. So I invited her whole family over." She seemed happier than she had in a very long time. So I smiled,

"That's great! What's her name?"

"Roxane Sanders. She has two daughters and one of them should be in your class." she said, turning a page.

"Oh," I said. Eleanor Sanders. That reminded me about what had happened in school today and I smiled thinking about how it had felt to finally be liked by someone in this town. Until then, I had always hated my life here at Crescent and I found myself missing the other places we had lived in.

But now, I was not sure whether I hated this town anymore, and I was even considering doing the rest of seventh grade from school inside of doing it at home.

"You should probably get ready," my mom instructed. I made my way back to my room and threw open my closet." My closet was small and cramped. Clothes were piled over one another and it was hard to pick an outfit with all of then on top of each other.

I ended up choosing a a casual jade-green dress that came down to below my knees and a pair of green pumps. I left my hair loose and it was cascading down my back in its natural curls. I walked into the living room only to hear someone knocking at the door and my mom opened the door to reveal the Sanders who were standing on our door, their black Sedan parked a few metres away.

They were all looking just like how all rich people do: glamorous. Mr Sanders was wearing a dark blue business suit and was smiling broadly. The woman next to him, whom I assumed to be Roxane Sanders, his wife , was wearing a deep red cocktail dress with red wedges and gold earrings. A younger girl who could only be Eleanor's sister smiled shyly. She was clad in a cute pink dress that made her look as innocent as an angel. I assumed she must be about ten years old. Lastly, there was Eleanor. Her dark brown hair was pulled into a braid that hung off her left shoulder and she had a pale blue formal dress on that came down to a little below her knees. I could tell she was wearing a little makeup too.

"Hi , Alice," she smiled as soon as we had all said our "hellos" to the adults.

"Hi," I smiled back

, leading her to my room.

"You look really pretty," she said after an awkward silence. She really was a nice person, I realised.

"Thank you," I replied grinning and then added." You look great too."

"Thanks," she smiled." I like your room. Where'd you get that?" She was pointing at a black beaded book bag that was sitting near my bed. It was nothing special: just some bag I had gotten a really long time ago.

"Oh, I got it a really long time ago back when we moved a lot." I told her.

"It's really pretty," she said." So you guys move a lot?"

"Not that much now," I said plopping down on my bed." But we used to, so my mom could find a proper job after my dad left us, but she says Crescent is a really good place and we'll be settling down here."

"I'm really sorry about your dad leaving you. How do you like it here at Crescent?"

I paused before answering. I decided to just tell her why I didn't like the school. Even if she did tell people, I would start my private tuitions in a weak so it wouldn't matter anyway.

"It's okay: the city, but the school? Not so much."

"Is this because of Michele? Because she isn't worth it," Eleanor said.

"Yeah, but I don't like it when no one says a word in my defence. They all agree with her and no one thinks she's wrong." I felt like I had said too much. I had only talked to her today for the first time. She was a popular person and if she wanted, the whole school would soon know about this. But somehow, I felt like she was not like the others. She was a good person at heart from what I had gathered and so far she was the only person I actually liked in school now. Her and her other friend: Emily Rene. They were both very understanding.

"No, you've got this wrong," Eleanor told me." No one says anything because they are afraid Michele will pick on them too. She's a bully and people are scared so you need to stand up for yourself. She insults everyone who insults her, except me that is. If she ever said a word, she knows it won't end well for her. No one really likes her."

This was a shock. So there were other people like me. They were scared. It sounded almost stupid. But then again, this was Michele Peterson we were talking about. I could tell why she was afraid of Eleanor. Eleanor could get people to stand up to Michele and I was pretty sure Michele was jealous of Eleanor. I had now come to realise why people actually liked Eleanor: it was because of the way she acted and not how she scared people.

Eleanor and I talked about random things for a little while until dinner was ready. It was a lovely dinner filled with warm conversation and funny comments made by Eleanor's adorable little sister.

Soon , it was time for the Sanders to go , and I found myself hugging Eleanor goodbye, as if we had been friends for a really long time.

"You have to eat lunch with us tomorrow," said Eleanor, waving.

"Sure," I grinned, waving back.

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A/N

Thanks for reading!! I'm writing Alice's chapters through the eyes of a seventh grader so that's why it sounds a little different compared to how i usually write. Now you know how Alice became friends with Emily and Eleanor so I'll write someone else's chapter now. Whose do you guys want it to be? And guys, please please please vote and comment! :)