Chapter 7 Alicia's Dream

Alicia explained that the doll she had given me was called Rori, after me. I guessed that she had gotten this doll recently…probably from Jordan. She had another doll named Savannah, and she said that they were both tired, so we should rock them in our arms. Jordan came in as we were doing this, and chuckled at the sight of me with a baby-doll moving slowly back and forth in my arms. I smiled, but blushed a little. It was one thing to have your boyfriend’s sister naming a doll after you, a whole other thing to actually have him watching you rock it! About ten minutes later, Ms. Lykes came home from work( I thought it was pretty crazy that she had to work on a Saturday, but I guess some people do) and grabbed Alicia, explaining to us that Alicia needed a check-up. Jordan hugged his mom and Alicia, and wished her a good visit, and I sat on the floor, stroking Tootsie’s fuzzy little head. Jordan came back to the floor when they had left, and he smiled at me.
“What?”
“Nothing, I just didn’t think that you liked cats.”
“Oh, well, I do.”
“So, who’s your favorite Disney princess?”
“That’s kind of a weird question, coming from you, Jordan.”
“I know, but I still want to know.”
“Why?”
“Just curious.”
“Umm…well I guess I’d have to go with Belle. She falls in love with a beast, I mean, how much worse can love get?”
“Oh cool. I thought you’d be more of a Cinderella type.”
“Why?”
“Well, because…” he hung his head a little so that I couldn’t see his eyes, then said,” You’re beautiful, but you don’t really have a good…or good looking family.”
“Aww, Jordan! Thanks!” I leaned over, and hugged him, holding him close.
“Well, do you want to know anything weird about me, then?”
“Yea, actually, I do,” I said, as I sat back up straight from the hug.
“What is it?”
“Well, I kinda wondered what you thought of you and me…you know, together.”
“Well, I guess I’d consider you my girlfriend, if you’d like.”
“Well, I guess I’d consider you my boyfriend, if you’d like.”
“Yea, I’d like that.” We both cracked up, though I’m not entirely sure why, and fell back together. Jordan checked his watch, then said, “Hey, will you come with me to do something?”
“Sure.”

Chapter 7 Alicia's Dream

Jordan stood beside me, with a wet cloth hanging limply from his hands, a worried, and almost pained look on his face. He turned to me, and in a quiet voice, asked, “Is she okay?” Then he turned to Alicia, and looked her over once before hugging her tight, then going back to what he had been doing previously. I decided to spend a little time with Alicia; she reminded me of Destiny in the way she talked, and played, and I liked that. I would still have to get used to this family that didn’t really feel like my own. We talked a little about our excursion to Disney World. It’s not exciting enough to put into print, so I will only mention the important parts. Alicia brought up Disney princesses, and said that her favorite was Ariel, or the Little Mermaid. She said she liked Ariel because she was pretty and that she did what was right. I complimented her saying, “Well, then, Alicia, she’s a lot like you.” She giggled and gave me one of her baby dolls to play with. I actually hadn’t ever played with dolls; the Black’s had never given me any toys when I was younger, and the little they did give me had been Chris’s old He-Man figures or toy cars that had only two or three wheels.

Chapter 7 Alicia's Dream

I left the room, and just as I was about to go to the bathroom, I heard a scream. I ran to the source of where I thought the scream might be coming from, and saw Alicia sitting in the middle of the living room floor, staring at her finger. It was pulsating and gyrating quite rapidly; almost as though she were having a really bad muscle spasm. It nearly scared me, and must have scared her, but a minute after it had started, it stopped. I sat down next to her, and said, “Alicia, how did your finger do that?” She stared at me as though I had just asked her to stick her hand in the microwave. She continued to stare at me until she realized that it no longer hurt, and then she replied in a voice barely above a whisper, “I don’t know. I was playing with Tootsie,” she rubbed the back of the Lykes’s cat Tootsie’s head, “And all of a sudden my finger went cwazy.” I examined her finger, checking for any hint at all that something had gone wrong with it, but found nothing but her tiny little forefinger, intact and the same as it had always been, at least the same as it had always been over the few days I had known her.

Chapter 7 Alicia's Dream

I finally woke up at noon, but instead of being on a very uncomfortable shuttle bus seat, I was in a bed very much unlike my own, but with the same comfort. Jordan was lying on a bed right next to mine, his eyes wide open, staring at me. He had his chin resting on his hand, mesmerized with me, I guess. I stared back at him with a stare very intense, but, instead of it being funny, even when I raised my eyebrows in a sarcastic gesture, we fell into the pools of each other’s eyes. I couldn’t see for the brown in his eyes, and he must have been lost in my blue. The world, though cliché sounding, seemed to stop spinning. I couldn’t see anything else but his eyes. I really don’t remember what happened after that, though I know that nothing totally naughty went on.
“Jordan?”
“Yeah, Rori?”
“Where are we?” I said, and then he laughed as he carefully made up both of our beds.
“We’re at my house.”
“Your house? I didn’t know this was your house, Jordan!”

Chapter 6 Journey

I knew I would end up in the principal’s office. Probably end up going to court for breaking her jaw. I sat there, in that unfamiliar, yet seemingly comfortable chair, wagging my foot in time with the death tune playing in my head. The principal came out, and dragged me into her office. Consequences will come, I told myself, as I sat in her very un-comfortable plastic, black chairs.
I looked up at her, and she smiled. Huh? Why would she smile? Though it was more of a smirk.
“Mary, I don’t want this happening again, and you won’t do it again, will you?” I thought of every consequence before saying, “No ma’am, that won’t ever happen again.”
“Good, Mary, now, since no one has heard about it, we will keep it hushed, as long as you promise never to do it again.”
“Of course, Mrs. Langstrom, I won’t ever do anything of that…caliber again, and will make sure to apologize.”
“Good, thank you, Mary, for your services.” She shook my hand, and I left. I loved my awesome Irish luck.

Chapter 6 Journey

Then, unexpectedly, a girl with dark blond hair, Old Navy jeans, a bright blue t-shirt that displayed a “Top Gun” depiction, and ugly brown slippers, came up to me.
“Hey, Cinnamon!” Everyone who was “cool” called me Cinnamon, a funny saying of my real last name, Zimmerman.
“Yeah, what do you want?”
“I want my ten bucks!”
“What ten bucks? The ten bucks I owe you for our bet on Jordan and Aurora?”
“Yeah, if you don’t give it to me, I’m gonna punch your face in!”
“Yeah, right, you wouldn’t even touch my face!”
“Oh yeah?” She swung out her fist, and déjà vu hit me hard…literally. My nose started bleeding, and all the students were watching, but I didn’t even care. I had my own life to think about. I swung out my own fist, impaling her cheek, probably breaking her jaw. My knuckles hurt like hell, but that was okay; I had won. She dropped down on the ground, whimpering like a little baby, trying to see if her jaw was okay.

Chapter 6 Journey

I stalked through the halls, looking around for Jordan. Since I had studied him earlier in English, I knew he was wearing a blue and black polo, dark jeans, red DC’s, and a black baseball hat that had the slogan, “We are all unique, just like everyone else.” I smiled as I thought about his hat, and then nearly ran into Aurora.
“Excuse me!” I yelled at her. Unfortunately, she did not flinch at all.
“I’m sorry, you might try being more careful next time.” Ooh. She had gotten me good, and now everyone was staring at me as she walked away. I watched her as I took refuge from at least some of the stares at my locker. She stood with Jordan at his locker, and they looked as though they had not a care in the world that anyone else was there.