Emerald

Chapter 2 - Nice Jammies

Picture of Riley to the side.

1 night before the previous chapter...

Tim-Tim's POV:

I woke up to the sound of tapping on my window, continuous and demanding. I rolled over, forgetting where the bed ended and fell face first into the hard floorboards. Groaning, I got up and separated the curtain shielding the sun's glare from my eyes to see one of my closest friends there waiting for me. Riley. And dayam, did she look hot.

Riley has got to be one of the prettiest girls in school. We're childhood friends, and as we grew up together, I kind of accidentally fell in love with her.

Too bad it's totally one sided.

She has these amazing grey eyes framed by long lashes that models would axe murder to have, and they could read me like an open book. Her fiery orange red hair stood out in any crowd making her easy to spot. She's one in a million. Her pale skin shone like the moon, untouched from blemishes, and to her dismay, a tan.

Then I realised that I've been standing here, staring at her for the last five minutes or so, like some creep. Her brows dipped down in annoyance as she clicked her fingers together repetitively in an attempt to gain my attention.

"Hello? Ben?" She asked. She's been calling me that because we met at Wal-Mart as kids, and we both fought over the last tub of Ben and Jerry's cookies and cream. I, of course, refer to her as Jerry now.

"What? Oh yeah, sorry," I said, coming out of my reverie. I opened the window so she could climb through. Jerry stepped through with the grace of a practiced dancer before sitting cross-legged on my bed.

"Do you know how long I was standing outside your house tapping your window? I'm fairly sure your neighbours think I'm some kind of stalker now."

I couldn't help the laughter that erupted from my throat. Yeah, she had a point. My neighbours were way too judgemental and nosy for their own good.

"Ben, you do realise that school starts in 10 minutes?" she questioned, a perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised.

It was only then that I realised that she had a school bag hanging off her left shoulder, and she was already decked out in her uniform. She turned back towards the window, and slide out, graceful as always. Before leaving, she turned back to me her eyebrows raised, head cocked sideways, her mouth twisted in a small grin, suppressing her bubbling laughter.

"Oh, yeah, nice jammies." With that final comment she took off down the road towards the school.

It was then that I looked down and realised that I was still wearing my favourite purple dinosaur onesie jammies.

"Crap." Not the best way to impress the girl I love.

...

I made my way through the thick swarm of rushing student bodies towards Jerry's bright beacon-like hair. Finally. Lunch time.

"Hey Ben. How was your day so far?" Jerry asked once she's swallowed a mouthful of Cafeteria Slosh.

I internally winced in memory of my day so far. I'd come to school late today, getting off with a warning. My first period Math's teacher had it out for me today for reasons beyond me. That monster of a teacher seemed to have a timetable of dates with kids names on it, deciphering who she hated for the day.

I know, right?

I hadn't payed much attention to my second period English teacher, resulting in him confiscating my Spiderman comic. Who does that? Comics are my life, especially when they're Spiderman. So yeah, screw that guy. And Science? Hell, I don't even want to go over what happened in Science. I don't even think I managed to get all the ash out of my hair before I came here.