A/N: due to my increasing dissatisfaction with my original chapter thirteen, I've decided to write an alternate ending. So, this chapter follows after the original chapter twelve.

Alternate Ending

Chapter Thirteen: That Was a Charming Smile.

She felt sorry for him all of a sudden. It seemed that there were words lingering on his lips that he could never let go of. Instinctively, she reached over and grabbed his hand, gently letting their hands form a bridge and dangle between them. Upon her bold move, he flinched, not very drastically, but a flinch nonetheless.

“It’s about my sister.”

“What?” Ally raised her head, being pulled out of her intense stare on their holding hands.

“My mother is trying to make me forget about my sister,” he said rancorously. Then, he tilted his head at her and grinned sourly, “Pretty sick and twisted, isn’t it?”

She didn’t know how to respond. There seemed to be too much of his life that he hadn’t told her about, ever. But then again, why should he have?

“I don’t understand,” she said gently, “what is it about your sister?”

The grip on her hand tightened slightly, but not enough to hurt.

“I’m sorry,” she glanced down at her dress, “You don’t have to say anything if it makes you uncomfortable. I’m always so bad at gauging the pace of a serious conversation.” Then, she stopped speaking abruptly, sensing a rambling spell was about to be placed on her.

“No, you should know this.” He jerked her hand a bit to make her look up again. When she did, he opened his mouth again, “My sister,” he paused, “has passed away before the summer.”

What? She wanted to say, “I’m terribly sorry,” but found that she could not speak these words. At this point, it seemed as if words were too casual and superficial. She drew her arm around his shoulders, pulling closer and closer toward him until her head rested in the crook of his neck.

“Ow! You stepped on my toe!” Kris whispered loudly in a strained sort of way, massaging her toe with her fingers as she sat down behind a rosemary bush.

“Shhh! You are too loud,” Jerome didactically put up an index finger to her mouth.

Frustrated, Kris vigorously pulled on her leg and glared at him with venom in her eyes.

Suddenly realizing his mistake, he jumped up and almost yelled an apology.

“I can’t believe you sat on my ankle,” Kris thought while giving him more daggers with her eyes.

Suspiciously, James turned around briefly. That’s strange; I definitely heard a sound.

“What’s wrong?” Ally asked, looking at him with worried eyes.

“Nothing,” he sighed heavily, but another sound came from behind. He jumped up, “I swear, there’s something back there.”

“Are you sure?” Is he getting delusional? Ally asked herself.

“Are you sure that Luke really left?”

“What?”

He knew that she was too trusting of others. It didn’t matter though because he was about to find out himself. Walking determinedly with big strides, he approached that suspicious bush with all the commotion. Either he was scaring the rosemary or there really was someone behind it because the plant was trembling, shaking all of its blunted thorn-like leaves.

By this time, Ally had followed up behind him. She, too, was curious of whether Luke was really spying on them. However, when she and James walked around that bush, she shouted, “Kris!”

“Hi,” Kris responded sheepishly with a grin.

“What are you doing here?” Ally asked while pulling Kris up from the ground.

Before Kris could respond, Jerome jumped in, “Just collecting some rosemary, ’cause…erh…Kris said that she wanted to try out this new recipe.”

“Really?” Ally said sarcastically, drawing out the syllables as long as possible.

“Yuh-huh,” Kris answered playfully.

The parking lot grew increasingly quiet and then to the point of complete silence, as more and more cars were driven away. James, however, sat calmly in his car, arms resting on the steering wheel as he quietly thought about his sister and then inevitably, Ally. She had always been on his mind these days, and even if he tried, she would not go away, not that he wanted her to go out of his sight or his mind.

Suddenly remembering something, James reached out to the glove compartment in front of the passenger seat and fumbled for the photo that had rested in there ever since his sister’s death. He pulled the framed photo in front of him, gently placed in the palms of his hands. Then, he ran his fingers over the frame with softness unprecedented. The girl in the photo seemed to smile back at him at this action, despite the fact that she always grinned back with innocence in this still photograph. This captured momentary bliss. This reminder of what had had been. This surrender to memories, still haunting. This perfection, this reality, this love.

He wanted to clutch at the bouquet of flowers that she seemed to be offering to the camera. He wanted to tuck away the stray locks of her hair. He wanted to pull her into a full embrace. He wanted to say, “Live again!” because he wanted to see her again, as his dearest sister.

Out of complete impulse of the moment. He practically kicked open his car door after grabbing the photograph, not really caring what the few people still left in the parking lot thought of him, and ran out toward the park. He saw the swings that he and Ally had sat on and conversed from, and he smiled. Squinting his eyes under the dim lights, he raced toward the rosemary bush and kneeled down next to it.

He laid the framed photo next to the plant and sank his fingers into the cold earth. Brushing away the mulch on top, his hands reached the moist soil underneath. He dug into it, deep, and grabbed a chunk of soil to form a pocket. Then, he pushed deeper and deeper, pulling out more chucks of earth in the process. His hands were dirtied, but he didn’t care. The process of digging was exhilarating. He felt as if he was energized again. Gingerly, he took up the photo and placed it down at the bottom of the pit. After kicking the dirt back in, he knew that he could now live again.

“Hi, Ally, and um, Kris,” Luke said nervously as he stood in front of the two girls who looked at him with all smiles. Ally was smiling out of habit while Kris was grinning out of amusement, thinking, what the heck is this nerd trying to pull?

“What do you need, kid?” Kris asked bluntly. This would be entertaining.

Luke awkwardly twisted his fingers, eyes darting back and forth between Ally and Kris, not really knowing how to respond to the prosaic question.

Lucky for him, Ally was there to ease the situation. “Luke, why don’t you sit down with us?” she offered kindly.

With gratitude, Luke sat down at Ally’s side, so that Ally’s body blocked his view of Kris, who sat on the other side. Without seeing Kris, he suddenly felt more at ease with himself and spoke, “Well, I wanted to ask you…”

“What’s going on? Can I listen?” Kris grinned like a Cheshire cat as she leaned forward to see Luke’s face.

All of a sudden, Luke seemed to get nervous, “Well, I was just asking Ally, um, what time you would like to leave for the science competition next weekend.”

“I would prefer leaving at nine, of course, you have the final say on when the team should leave,” Ally said.

“Ok, nine it is then,” Luke said, but when he saw Kris’s Cheshire grin, he suddenly grew unsure of himself.

“Why do you always get nervous when I talk to you, Luke?” Kris asked, completely ignoring Ally’s glare for such a prosaic, blunt question.

He was shocked by Kris’s straightforward demeanor. For a moment, he didn’t know what to say. Shifting his eyes between Ally and Kris, he desperately wanted Ally to defend him. Just when Ally was ready to say something, Kris had nudged her to prevent her from speaking. Out of desperation, Luke was forced to speak.

Taking a few breaths, he calmed himself and said, “I’m not nervous when I talk to you.” Surprisingly, that came out without a single stutter.

Smiling, Kris jumped up and tackled him with a hug. Luke, on the other hand, was dumbfounded. “Welcome to a new social level, Luke,” she said.

Ally laughed at that. The social hierarchy in high school really was silly, but few dared to step out of the societal norms. Speaking of which, she still hadn’t given James an answer.

Suddenly, her phone started to ring, making Kris comment that it was her secret boyfriend.

“Hi, mom,” she spoke into the phone and then to Kris, “it’s just my mother.”

Meanwhile, Kris started prodding Luke with every awkward question imaginable. Like, whether or not Luke had ever had a crush, or if he had liked either of them, both of which Luke denied quickly and definitively.

“We are having some of my mom’s work friends over tonight,” Ally explained as she got off the phone, “I’m gonna have to get home on time today.”

“I’ll drive you,” Kris offered.

Skeptically, Ally eyed her best friend, “So, you don’t have to go to a party, for once?”

To her surprise, Kris actually blushed. What happened to the wild blonde side? “I’m having a date with Jerome later tonight, so I’ll have to get home early, too.”

“Really?” Ally said excitedly, “You two are really together now?”

“Of course!”

“So, he wasn’t exactly a one-night stand?”

“Guess not,” Kris said nonchalantly.

Of course not, Ally thought, smiling.

Mrs. Worsham busied herself around the stove; here’s some soup bubbling zestfully; there’s some chicken sizzling. Lifting up the heavy plates, she waltzed toward the dining room where Mr. Worsham was setting the table, carefully and meticulously arranging the plates as if it were a certain kind of art, requiring a sense of balance and harmony in color and size.

“Ally, could you get the door?” Mr. Worsham turned around quickly to face his daughter.

“Oh,” Ally was caught off guard. She had enjoyed watching her parents strolling around the dining room and the kitchen. Her mom and dad had always cooperated so well, as if they were the gears in a clock, rolling against each other in perfect unison. The dinner scene was so perfect that it could’ve been an advertisement billboard.

She swiftly turned to approach the front door. Adjusting her dress a little bit (her mother always made her dress up when they had company), she turned the knob.

“Mrs. Farrell!”

“Ally, how are you?”

After she saw Mrs. Farrell, she had almost expected James to be there as well. But, seeing James, his tepid (if not full out hateful) relationship with his mother would prevent him from coming anyways. Subconsciously, she sighed out of relief because if he really did come, she would get nervous…for obvious reasons.

“Jen! Welcome,” Mrs. Worsham gracefully strolled into the living room, “Come see what I had prepared for diner…” With a regal air, Mrs. Farrell followed.

Ever since Mrs. Farrell had arrived at their house, she and Ally’s mother had been talking about some big convention in Los Angeles. Ally couldn’t really join the conversation, not that she wanted to, but it was getting sort of boring. She glanced at her father and then grinned subtly; he looked bored as well, stabbing his food as ungraciously as possible.

At least she wasn’t the only one annoyed.

“I heard that the convention center has a huge indoor pool…”

There it goes again…

If only she could get away, even for two seconds, she would be happy.

“How come I haven’t received the invitation, yet?” Mrs. Worsham said after being told that she should’ve gotten a packet of information through mail.

Ally smiled. Here’s her chance.

“I haven’t checked the mail yet,” she said, “I can go check if you had gotten that stuff, mom.”

“Thanks, hon.”

The escape almost seemed too simple. She could see her father eye her jealously. Sorry, dad, she thought, but I just can’t sit still anymore.

Once out of sight from the adults, she practically ran out the door. Shutting it behind her with relief, she sighed contentedly. The stars at night were beautiful. Some faintly flickered, near death. Some shone brightly with long-lasting confidence. She could make out some of the constellations, but her knowledge in astronomy was limited. On the other, she was free to romanticize the stars her own way and sigh at the beauty that lit her innate brilliance.

She slowly proceeded toward the mailbox. After all, what was there to hurry? The night was so quiet that she could hear the soft clicking sounds from her heels. Every click echoed her every step.

She pulled on the tab of the mailbox and opened it up. Ah, there really was a thick packet. She took it out and carelessly held it in one hand. Lifting her gaze to the sky again, she wanted to enjoy the stars once more.

A beam of unnatural light grew brighter and brighter as it approached her. She squinted her eyes and jumped onto the lawn for fear of being hit. The car soon rolled slowly to a stop in front of her.

The bright headlights vanished in a flash. Now, she could make out the silhouette of a figure in the driver’s seat, but the face was still indecipherable. The figure emerged from the car and stood tall in front of her.

A charming smile he flashed to her.

A/N: so, I hope you liked this chapter. however, the alternate ending is not finished yet! there will be one more chapter to complete the story.