The Day, yours truly, Raura. (On hold till further notice)

24. The Masquerade P I

Yes, it was true that Laura loved school. Anyone of her devoted followers would answer that as a true statement if asked, but somethings get in the way of others. For Laura it was her job occupation; professional actress. Laura had been putting off her chemistry homework for a few days, but gladly returned to bite her in the butt. She sat on her bed with her stomach full of breakfast and she wrote away until her hand started to cramp up. Her mattress was covered with textbooks and stray papers with messy scratch equations on them and her notebooks were stacked one on top of the other. She pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose as they slid back down to the tip of her nose, and she tried to focus and understand the brain-mangling chemistry equations. She rubbed her eyes every so often, and tried not to fall asleep. The worst part about homework, was the work part. Laura was too often tired from work. Way too tired to have to handle school work. Nonetheless, here she was; with her glasses strapped on and her hair out of her face diving deep in her homework.

There was a slight knock on the window of her bedroom. It was far too tender of a knock for Laura, who was so focused, she wouldn’t even have noticed if the house burned down, to hear. The light finger knocking on the glass turned into a full on fist punch the second time. Laura’s head popped up at the bang and her eyes caught sight of the figure at the window. Long, golden blonde locks dominated most of the image, but Laura didn’t need to see a face to know who it was at her window.

She threw her pencil on her bed and tossed her chemistry sheet to the side, then walked to her window and lifted it open.

“Laura, thank you so much!” Ariana breathed as one shoe-less leg stepped inside over the window. She tumbled down to the hard wood floor with her heels in one hand and her black leather jacket thrown over the arm. She gave a sigh of relief and laid down on the spot. Laura stared at Ariana and took the jacket from the floor as well as the glittery gold heels and set it on her bed.

“Ariana, where have you been?” Laura asked and sat down next to her on the floor. Ariana sat up in her short gold dressed and placed one leg over the other.

“I was just with some friends. But, I’m okay though. You don’t have to worry, Laura.” She said and began to tie her flowing blonde hair into a pony tail. Her hair looked like it had been curled the night before, but after all the hours, it lost its bouncy twirls and settled for flat, tangled twists. But even in its worst condition, the hair was absolutely beautiful.

“Look, I know you were with Christopher, and I won’t tell anyone.” Laura said sympathetically.

Ariana’s green eyes widened into big lime colored lollipops, then turned to stare at Laura’s warm chestnut eyes. “I told her not to tell! Does Zio know about this?” She asked exasperatedly. Laura shook her head quickly and placed her hand on Ariana’s shoulder. “Relax. They think that you were at a sleepover with a friend.” Laura smiled warmly.

“At least Teresa counts for something.” Ariana muttered as she leaned her back on the foot of Laura’s bed. Laura nodded in her agreement and stood up to close the window which was still wide open and bringing in a cold breeze. “Is there a reason that you snuck in through my window and not the front door?” Laura asked as she shut the window tightly and locked it.

“I figured that the front door was locked and I didn’t have a key. Plus it would’ve been really awkward to ring the doorbell and have your parents open the door.” Ariana said sheepishly. Laura knew what total embarrassment felt like, but she never knew what that embarrassment was like. Ariana started to close her eyes and lean her head back on the foot.

“You must be tired,” Laura said as she cleared a spot on her bed for her cousin. “I can make you some coffee, or maybe breakfast. Have you eaten—“