Limelight

Chapter Seven

~~Impressions~~

"As your chauffeur, I honestly don't know what you guys would do without me," Said Blair in a dry voice as she drove down through Midtown.

Today was the first day back to school after the summer break and Aaliyah's first day of public school and Senior Year. Suffice to say, her nerves were sky-high. She was a mixture of terrified and excited about a new experience, one she always wanted to have, but now that she was here, her panic was starting to set in. 

Most of her knowledge about high school was from the few movies she'd seen, which had racked up in the last week that she spent hanging out with Blair. She made it her mission to watch as many movies, in the span of seven days, as possible, and Aaliyah was impressed by her determination, but she also liked her sleep, and she didn't get much of that in the last week, with the number of movies she watched on top of her already busy schedule. Not that she was completely complaining, she did like Blair's taste in movies, she loved the Disney animations like Princess and the Frog, Tangled, and Moana, she couldn't help but gag at the more classic movies though like Cinderella, which she wasn't alone with. Blair complained that if she had been Cinderella she would have run away from home a long time ago, but she did adore the Prince, who went all around the village looking for Cinderella to make her his Queen. Aaliyah found it weird, but she chose not to comment. She didn't see much sense in chasing after love. If it was true, it would find you, and not run away.

They watched other movies too, from chick flicks like The Notebook and 1o Things I hate About You to more adventure movies like Wonder Woman, The Jurassic Park World movies, to heartfelt movies like Everything, Everything, and every other Amandla Stenberg movie, they also watched loads of book adaptions, like The Hunger Games,  The Maze Runner movies and even The Mortal Instruments, which Aaliyah complained about. It is terribly inaccurate and it hurt her to watch, Blair found her disdain hilarious.

Aaliyah was surprised she managed to find time to practice and work on her music. When she wasn't practicing on her own on the Waters' piano on the balcony, she was at the studio, working with Xavier, who'd she'd rather not think about.

She was also terrified about school. But that was more or less due to her own superb ability to overthink and overdramatize situations. She worried that no one would like her and that she wouldn't fit in, she worried that she would slip up and say or do the wrong thing, and though Blair and Jacks reassured her that she was incredibly loveable, Aaliyah couldn't help but worry.

"I'd be sitting in the front seat of Christian's car," Jacks said in a monotone voice, Aaliyah smiled, lifting her gaze to meet his in Blair's rearview mirror. He had his head in his phone, but when he glanced up briefly, he locked eyes with Aaliyah in the mirror and dropped a wink and a smile. Aaliyah looked away quickly, her stomach turning a little.

Jacks mentioned some time ago that Christian went to Buchanan High School too, so he counted as one more friend, though Aaliyah wasn't sure how much more shameless flirting she could take. Aaliyah had Blair, Jacks, and the rest of his dance crew on all her socials and since then, she had woken up almost every morning with a new cheesy pick-up line. Blair said he reeked of weed and desperation and that she shouldn't take it personally. She didn't, but it was starting to get annoying.

"Yep. Christian's rusty old Chevy that needs an oil change every other week and filled to the brim with junk food wrappers and lingerie from his most recent flavor of the week," Blair said glancing at Jacks over her shoulder, and then grinned, "You'd be so much better off."

Aaliyah scrunched her nose up at that, Christian was incredibly good-looking, but he had pretty gross habits. "You're exaggerating," Said Jacks, "It's once a month." He muttered.