Trying to Make Lemonade (With a Bowlful of Limes)

Chapter 2

"How was your day Alea?" Mr. Bale asked his daughter.

"it was alright." she sighed. "what did you have to do that was so important that you missed sending me on my way to my first day of school?"

"I'm so sorry sweetie, I had an important meeting with my manager about an upcoming movie in Australia and I couldn't skip it."

"did you take the offer?" she asked.

"of course i did sweetie! It's a supposed 65 million box office movie, the most anticipated movie of next year!" he bounced excitedly as he relayed this information.

"does that mean we have to move again?" Alea asked in a small voice.

Her dad instantly deflated.

"no hunny, im going over there for a year and a bit and your staying here with your friend Kiana. I already spoke to her mom and it's all settled." he said softly.

"your leaving me daddy?"

"oh Alea, your 17 now, I trust you enough to be with Kiana till i get back. I love you."

"I love you too dad. When do you leave?" Alea asked, a bit more upbeat.

"Um, that's the part I didn't exactly get to negotiate as I had hoped..." Mr. Bale ran a hand through his hair.

"I leave in a week."

"A WEEK?!" she screeched.

"When exactly were you going to get around to telling me this?!"

"Alea, I just found out today. This is the first time I could have spoken to you about it! Can you just try to understand?" Mr. Bale pleaded with his daughter.

"Yeah... I guess so..." silent tears began to stream down Alea's face.

"Can we make our last week together count though?" she asked.

"For sure sweetie. I'll also have unlimited texting and calling while im there and we can skype everyday after school. I promise. I love you Alea."

"I love you too daddy."

Their chauffeur, Horatio, pulled up to the extravagant house and went around the limo to open the door. They both thanked him and went inside.

Upon stepping through the door, Alea noticed her dad's suitcase sitting in the hallway. Sighing, she picked it up and dragged it to the elevator.

She stuck it in her fathers room and hopped over to her own. Checking her phone, she saw that she had four new text messages.

*Hows it going with your dad? :)*

-Brent

*i got your fall on tape... If you want to save your image, bring me brownies tomorrow ;) <3*

-Alex

*Hey girl, I didn't see you AT ALL today! Text me, I miss you.*

-Rebeckah

*I have ice cream and The Titanic ready when you're done.*

-Kiana

Alea smiled as she realized how much her friends cared. She told Brent that it was going alright, texted her other bestie, Rebeckah, that they'd have to catch up tomorrow and that she missed her too, told Alex that he was gonna have to settle for a Starbucks and then texted Kiana.

*I'll be over in 30.*

-Alea

Pulling some sweats and a hoodie on, she went downstairs to find her dad. Wandering past the living room, she found herself in the kitchen watching her dad talk on the phone.

"right now? Uh huh... Yeah, we do need to configure details, but I was gonna spend the evening with my daughter... Uh huh. Fine. Buh bye."

He hung up the phone and jumped about a foot in the air when he noticed Alea was also in the kitchen.

"How much did you hear?" he asked sheepishly, his hand rubbing the back of his neck.

"it's okay dad, I'm going to Kiana's for a movie night! I might sleepover, so don't wait up. Love you." she hugged her dad, grabbed her keys and hopped in her car.

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"YO, Kiana, I'm here open-" the door flung open and Alea was yanked through.

"What took you so long? I was DYING waiting for you to get here. Like c'mon, I was expecting you twenty minutes ago!"

"Yeah. Where's the ice cream?" Alea muttered, scanning the living room.

"On the coffee table."

"All Canadian Moose?"

"You know it! And Dark chocolate... And cookie dough. Kiana is prepared." She winked and put the movie in the DVD player.

Grabbing one of the two spoons and the All Canadian Moose ice cream container, Alea grabbed a blanket and cuddled up to a pillow. Kiana came to sit down beside her, grabbed the cookie dough and cuddled with another pillow as the opening credits began.

Half an hour into the movie, the doorbell rang.

"I got it." Kiana said.

"Good cause I'm a mess." Alea sobbed into her cuddle pillow.

"yeah I know!" Kiana smirked.

Kiana approached the door and opened it to find Brent and Alex standing there, Alex with a box of chocolates and Brent with a teddy bear.

"Hey guys, what are you doing here?"

"well we we're at Brent's house just hanging out, but he was texting Alea and apparently she sounded upset or something, so, being her best friend, he had to go see if she was okay. So we went to her mansion, only to find she wasn't there but there was a note saying she was here, so here we are! And I brought chocolate cause I'm hungry." Alex rambled.

"okay, you guys can come in! Alea's a bit of a mess though..."

"What's going on Kiana?" Alea's muffled voice rang through the house

"Hey Alea!" Brent called through the house.

"Brent?!"

"Yeah it's me!"

"Dont come in here, im not in the mood." Alea buried herself further into her blankets.

"Hey Alea, come out into the light there hun." Brent pulled the blanket off of Alea and smiled at her.

Looking up at Brent with her tear stained face, her eyes squinted as she was engulfed in light.

"Hey." she said in a small voice.

"Hey." Brent smiled softly at her as he handed her the teddy bear.

"His name is snuggles. I thought you might need some cheering up." he sat down beside her and grabbed his own blanket.

"Thanks. You're really the best friend I could ask for. I so don't deserve you." she replied, her voice small and quiet.

"No, it's me that doesn't deserve you. You're there when I need you, so it goes the same way when you need me. The Titanic is about to sink though, so I'm gonna go get you a kleenex box..." he stood up and lumbered into the bathroom.

As she sobbed, Alea thought about the boy that bumped into her during art. She wondered what his name was, and if he recognized her from all the magazines. Or maybe he didn't pay attention to the tabloids. She was so curious, she decided to ask Alex about it after the movie (since he seemed to be pretty content next to Kiana on the couch).

Alea tuned back into the movie just as the main characters are holding on to each other before they die. Bursting into a fresh round of tears, she cried into her pillow some more.

'what a terrible ending.' she thought as the credits rolled and she slipped into a peaceful slumber.