All Bets Are Off

Chapter Eight - Ella Fordman: The Girl of Double Dates and Catastrophes

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Picture of Tobey (played by Landon Liboiron) to the side.

Dedicated to BubblyPenguin for being the sweetest girl. As a personal favor to me, please check out her book Strings of Harmony. I promise you won't regret it!

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I didn’t try to dress up as much that Friday night. For some reason, I figured that Tobey wasn’t the kind of guy who cared about that kind of stuff. He seemed like a guy who would accept you no matter what you wore.

            So instead of going all out in clothes that ‘normal girls’ would wear, I just dressed in a billowing-white halter top I’d gotten at this chic boutique Leslie and I had visited a couple of months back when we went for a weekend away to see one of our favorite bands, Cheap Shots and Foul Plays. Our parents had trusted us enough to let us go to see them a couple hours away, as long as we checked in with them every night, midday and morning. We’d stayed at a nice resort for the Friday and Saturday night, and we had finally gotten a taste of freedom and independence. It had been an amazing night, and this gorgeous top was a reminder of those fun times. I just hope I didn’t spill some food or drink on the gorgeous ivory fabric. I’d never forgive myself.

            I also picked out a pair of white tights from my closet, but they had been designed to be artistically splattered with paint, so that it came out as white with long sprays and drips of pink, orange, yellow, blue and green paint across it. What was even more awesome about it was that the paint was glow in the dark, too. That had been a major selling point at the time, trust me. And finally, I pulled out some white wedges, a couple of white and coral anklets, a few chunky bracelets and decorative rings, and tied my hair up in a tight, controlled bun at the top of my head, where a few curls fell out and framed my face.

            When I was done, I packed a tube of lip gloss, and my wallet into a small purse and tucked the white leather strap over my shoulder, before squirting some perfume onto my neck and wrist and stepping out of my room, shutting the door behind me.

            The house was silent around me, as my mother was out at a teacher staff meeting, and my father was doing something at the lab he worked at.

            In the two days since I’d asked Tobey out, Phoenix had somehow also acquired a date, this time a girl called Demi, a pseudo-nerd. You know, the type who wore fake glasses and always carried around books in an attempt to be the mysterious, mousy, quiet nerd type. Whatever, I wasn’t gonna judge her. It wasn’t like I really cared that much, anyhow.

            The doorbell rang downstairs, and a small smile crept onto my face as I shut my door and hurried down the stairs excitedly and skidded out into the foyer, almost falling into a wall. I opened the door with a loud exhale of breath, and Tobey cocked an amused eyebrow at me, smiling a little in a crooked way.

            “Whoa, you okay?” he asked, chuckling slightly.

            I nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, sorry. Just making sure my clumsiness is still working. Apparently it is.”