Cloverfield

5: Le coup de foudre

"Get in pairs and speak the conversation on page six with your partners," the teacher said after giving his lesson.

Alison looked around. No one here seemed... normal. There was one guy with long hair and small glasses. His chin was shaved badly. Then there was a girl who was picking her nose. Ew. A boy who was staring straight ahead.

But then Ali laid eyes on a pretty brunette looking around in the back of the room until she met her gaze. She came over to her. "Wanna be my partner?"

The brunette's breath caught. She nodded, smiling.

Alison liked her smile. "I'm Alison. But you can call me Ali."

"Emily. But you can call me Em."

"Well, bonjour, Em."

Her new friend giggled. "Bonjour, Ali."

The blonde looked at the textbook. "Enchanté." Nice to meet you.

"So..." Emily peeked at the textbook, too. They were so close, their arms were touching. Ali was warm. "Comment ça va?"

Alison thought about how cute was her accent. "Ça va bien, merci. Et vous venez d'où?"

"Je viens de États-Unis. But I'm also Filipino, Korean, Irish and Scottish."

"Whoa. Now you wanna be French?"

Emily chuckled. "I don't think that's how that works."

Yup. Alison definitely loved her laugh.

And she still did as she heard it one more time. In that moment, she had flashed back to the day they'd met. Well, she had heard her name before: Emily Fields, the Sharks' super star. She couldn't believe how shy the best swimmer in school actually was after she started hanging out with her. Emily could have been snooty or cocky, but she was all but bad. So pure. So innocent. The first time Ali did a dirty joke, Em took a while to get it and Ali had loved it. Never change, she had told her.

"You did not," Emily said, still giggling.

Alison had made up a story about how she'd ran from a raccoon chasing after her and gotten on someone's back by the field in Cape May to make her laugh. "I told him to run and he was hell of confused so he turned around to look at me, but he saw the raccoon, too, and carried me to the second floor."

"No way. Shut up!"

Ali loved how she saw through her bullshit and laughed anyway. She grinned, which stopped for a second when the bell rang. She groaned. "You don't know how much I wanna skip right now. I'd rather spend my time with you."

"And why don't you?" Em asked.

"Because you wouldn't skip class."

"True. My mom would kill me."

Alison got up from the bench against the wall and Emily mimicked her. They said their goodbyes and went their own ways.

x-x-x

At home, Alison laid in bed at night, reading a book for English. But her brother Jason had told his parents he would have some friends over and they were so loud, she couldn't concentrate, specially with the pot in the air coming from his room.

Ugh, now dad's gonna shout at him. He told him to at least do it in the yard. She's sure her dad's gonna throw him out soon. Jason graduated with Ian and Melissa two years ago, now he's in Yale, but he's failing most of his classes--she could smell the reason why--and he's just a pain in the ass to live with.

Ali stood up and opened her window. She was tempted to go over and tell them to go out or tone it down, but (a) she didn't want to be in the same room as older and creepy dudes and (b) she would seem like a downer, even though she didn't care about stranger's opinions. Or at least that's what she wanted to believe.

She remembered all the parties Jason threw in his senior year. She'd been eleven or twelve so everything had been scary for her--the sex, the alcohol, the smoking, the drugs--it was like a whole new world. But that world also filled her with curiosity... even though she hadn't given in back then.

Alison came out of her room. Her subconscious suspicion had been right. Some friends over meant a party. Smoke was all over the air, coming from her brother's room and she could hear the music and people downstairs clearer. He was so lucky their parents would be returning home tomorrow by late morning.

Who had parties on a Tuesday? she wondered for a second, but then reminded herself her brother was a pothead. He couldn't think straight. He hasn't for years--Ali once saw him take a drink from the hose.

Okay, I need some fresh air. She went downstairs and exited to her back porch, but there was three familiar girls smoking there: Casie Buckley, Zoe Schwartz and Brianna Huston, whom she used to play field hockey with on the varsity team.

Brianna noticed her. "Hi, Ali. No time, no see."

"Oh, hey," Alison answered, hesitating for a second. She hadn't expected to have a conversation right now, especially with them.

She sat next to them, composing herself by trying to ignore the awful smell. "What's up?"

"College parties seem fun, Als," Zoe said, but she seemed out of it. "But they don't compare to house parties."

"Do you guys know my brother?"

"I told you before I thought he was hot so I talked to him. But I guess you were right, he is moody. He's just pretty look at," Cassie concluded and then noticed how Ali was shivering from the cold wind of the night. "Want a drag?" Her younger friend looked at her weirdly. "We're not in school. And c'mon, we're still friends."

Alison accepted her cigarette and took a long puff, trying not to wince when the smoke hit her lungs. She wanted to feel like she was their age, that's how it used to feel like when they talked about boys.

"What are our summer plans, people?" Cassie asked as she drove her Jeep. She'd just gotten her license and loved to give them rides home after practice.

Brianna lowered her sunglasses. "Lose ten pounds. And get a boyfriend, of course."

"A summer romance would be awesome," Zoe sighed.

"I want a boyfriend, too," Ali declared.

Cassie passed by Hollis College, where students were sat on benches or stone steps with iced coffee. "Like who?"

Ali noticed three shirtless guys playing Frisbee on the lawn and pressed on the horn. The guys looked up and grinned. Ali blew a kiss as Cassie drove away. "Like them, maybe," she joked.

Cassie's jaw dropped open as she looked at Ali. "You should be my new bestie. I'll kick aside these bitches and make you my co-queen bee."

"Hey!" Zoe said good-naturally.

"I'm kidding!" Cassie said, but then winked at Ali.

And now that they all smoked, maybe that was the way. They didn't keep in touch a lot with their own lives in the way, Alison arranging a new group of friends the next school year and the older girls being seniors had made it hard.

But she realized she'd missed them, warming at the memory. It had felt good to be admired and respected back then. Way after her mom began attending to events for children, not even bothering to spend time with her own, and her father stopped going with her, deciding to focus on his own work.

Ali took another drag and started talking about how her brother was still the same. And as she spoke, she also realized that she had changed. But she didn't know if that was good.