"Should I take that to mean that you're not a crazy fan girl?" he asked, looking at her doubtfully.
"Yes! My friend has the crazy fan girl part down pat," Elise replied. "Don't get me wrong! I mean, I love Simple Plan but not to the point of being a crazy fan girl. I'm more of a Nickelback, or Skillet person."
"Same here, I'm mostly here for my friend… My name's Jason, Jason Carmicheal." He said, as though wondering why he was still standing there talking to some random; if pretty; girl that had knocked into him. Elise was just thinking the same thing as a matter of fact.
"Oh, nice to meet you Jason. My name is Elise, Elise Gallette." She said, sticking her hand out for him to shake, then pulling it back awkwardly as he just stared at it. "Well…" Elise said awkwardly, turning towards where she had last seen Paige, "I should probably… go find… my friend… Paige…now."
"Yeah," Jason said, turning to go as well, "I should probably go find my friend, Nathan as well."
"Well…" Elise said yet again, adjusting the glasses covering her grey-blue eyes. "I guess I won't see you around then?" Jason just shrugged as though it could go either way and he wouldn't care. Smiling awkwardly, Elise started shoving through the crowd, turning back only once to see if Jason was there. He wasn't, and Elise could only ponder on how he managed to get through the crowd so fast. "ELISE! WHERE WERE YOU? I WAS LOOKING EVERYWHERE FOR YOU!" Paige screamed, appearing next to her suddenly like the Cheshire cat in 'Alice in Wonderland'. Sighing, Elise motioned that they should try and find a clearer area, and then she would tell.
Elise already had a short temper, but with hundreds of people screaming and getting in her way, she finally cracked it. "GET THE HELL OUTTA MY WAY!" Elise shouted, and shoved past the stupefied crowd. When Elise and Paige had gotten to a clear area, Paige just stared at her. "Wow…I didn't know you could scream that loud…I must be teaching you something." Paige said, quietly for once, sounding almost proud of her best friend.
"Yeah well, they got on my nerves…" Elise said trailing off, not at all ashamed of her actions.
"Well…WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I WAS LOOKING FOR YOU? IT TOOK ME FOREVER TO FIND YOU!" Paige yelled, her quiet moment well and truly over.
"First, OW! Second, don't yell so freaking loud! Third, OW!" Elise said, being her sarcastic self and holding her ears to emphasise her point.
"Whatever," Paige said, waving Elise's protests off as usual, "Are you going to tell me or not?"
Elise sighed, and started explaining. "I was walking back to where you were after I had gone looking for a drink, and got knocked to the ground by someone. I was getting up, but I knocked into someone else. I apologized and he asked me what I was doing on the ground, and I told him, and…yeah…" Elise said, leaving out the awkward bits. Of course, Paige just had to pick up on the fact that it was a guy. "You said 'he', was he hot?" Paige said, eyes shining at the thought. Elise shrugged and mumbled incoherently until Paige gave up the questioning. Sighing in relief, Elise looked up and saw that the intermission was over. "Oi! The intermission is over; we should go back to our spot." Elise said, sighing as Paige squealed and dragged her off.
The concert was over, finally, and Elise and Paige were heading to their favourite skate park for some practice before heading home. Yes, it was like ten at night, but Paige and Elise had too much energy to go to sleep, so they decided to let off some steam at the skate park. Elise pulled her skateboard from nothing, as she somehow manages to do on a startlingly regular basis, and raced ahead of Paige to get to the ramp first. Paige was still standing there, wondering how the hell her friend managed to do that. Then tried to copy her, and failed miserably which just made her angry. Sprinting after Elise, Paige yelled, "HOW DO YOU DO THAT YOU STUPID BITCH! I HAVE TRIED AND TRIED BUT I STILL CAN'T DO IT!" Elise just laughed, and sped up. While Paige was yelling obscenities behind her, all Elise could think of was what trick she would try next. It was a pretty humid night, so Elise took off her black and purple flannel top; leaving her in a black tanktop and grey acid-wash jeans; and threw it onto the bench near the ramp.
After practicing a few tricks, Elise walked over to the bench that Paige was sitting on and sat down next to her. Paige was pouting and Elise could tell that she wanted to join in, so Elise reached under the bench and pulled out Paige's skateboard. As Paige ran off, squealing with happiness like a five year old, Elise looked around and saw a bunch of bewildered faces looking at her. Elise sat for a moment, then stuck her tongue out and ran off to join Paige. Elise was too busy laughing at Paige crashing, to notice a pair of green eyes staring at her, with a pair of hazel eyes staring at Paige.
"Dude, I swear that was the girl I knocked into at the concert." Jason said, looking over at his best friend, Nathan.
"Who's that girl with her? And how did she pull that skateboard out of nowhere?" Nathan asked, not caring one bit about Jason knocking over some poor, innocent girl.
"Don't know, don't care. But I think I'm going to go practice on the ramp." Jason stated, picking up his board from its resting place near his feet, and making his way over to the ramp that Paige and Elise just happened to be practicing on.
"Paige," Elise yelled to her friend, "You need to bend your legs more!"
"SHUT UP!" Paige yelled as she stacked…yet again.
Chuckling to herself, Elise looked at her phone to check the time and realised that her parents weren't going to be happy. "OI! PAIGE! WE NEED TO GET OUR ASSES HOME!" Elise yelled, starting to gather her things.
"WHAT! But I just need to finish practicing this one bit!" Paige complained, making puppy dog eyes. Elise sighed and was about to answer, when she saw a boy getting onto the ramp and executing the move Paige was trying to do perfectly. "See, Paige? I told you that you need to bend your knees more!" Elise said, watching the boy that now seemed slightly familiar heading towards her. "SHUDDUP! You said legs not knees!" Paige yelled childishly, trying to retain any form of dignity she could.
"…Can you…bend your legs in any other place?" Elise asked hesitantly, knowing that with her it was quite possible.
"Well –" Paige started contemplatively, but was interrupted by Elise yelling out, "SHIT! IT'S YOU!" Turns out, the boy Elise had noticed earlier was, in fact, Jason.
"What's so shit about it being me?" Jason asked when he reached them, sounding hurt.
"Well…you don't really expect to see someone you met at a concert, to be at the same skate park as you, now do you?" Elise said matter-of-factly.
"Unless they're a stalker." Paige chimed in helpfully.
"She has a fair point." An unfamiliar voice said from behind Jason. Jason jumped in surprise, and turned around to reveal a boy with hazel eyes, light auburn hair and pale skin. Paige was staring, and Elise thought that she saw a bit of drool on the corner of her mouth. Elise nudged Paige and looked pointedly at her mouth, until Paige noticed and wiped the little bit of drool away.
After this brief exchange, Jason was staring at his friend who was staring at Paige, who was making a point of staring at the ground, while Elise was standing on the sidelines smirking to herself. "It's like a love triangle," Elise exclaimed suddenly, "Jason is in love with dude-whose-name-I-don't-know, dude-whose-name-I-don't-know is in love with Paige, and Paige is in love with the ground!"
"Oh, Right. Elise this is Nathan O'Reilly, Nathan that's Elise Gallette. And I'm guessing that is Paige." Jason said, realising that they hadn't been introduced.
"Yeah, Jason this is Paige Jameson, Paige that is Jason Carmicheal." Elise said, figuring she should probably introduce Paige.
"Nice to meet - wait a second…" Jason said, stopping to think for a second, before coming to the same conclusion as Nathan.
"I'M NOT GAY!" Nathan and Jason yell at the same time.
"I wasn't talking about you Nathan, I was more talking about Jason, but now that you mention it…you do seem pretty in sync…" Elise said thoughtfully, putting her hand on her chin in a thinking pose.
"NO WE ARE NOT!" Jason and Nathan yelled. Then they looked at each other, "STOP DOING THAT!"
"SHUT IT!" Paige yelled, interrupting their little 'lovers tiff'. "And by the way Elise, I don't love the ground." Paige then looked at the ground for a second before saying, "Even if it does look strangely pretty today."
"But Paige," Elise exclaimed, continuing the act, "How could you love the ground? You must know that it can never love you back?"
"I do," Paige sniffled, looking off into space, "But somehow I always find it in myself to hope…" After holding their poses for a few seconds, they both burst out laughing at the boy's confused faces. Paige and Elise were always pulling those random little scenes and many had been taken in by them. It was one of their favourite past times. Elise struck a heroic pose suddenly and announced, "Thus ends another chapter in the lives of Paige and Elise!" This sentence brought on another round of laughter, this time including the boys who had finally caught on, or at least thought they had. Paige, Elise and Jason were rolling around on the ground, while Nathan was standing there trying to smother a grin. Until Paige thought he wasn't being stupid enough, so in the end he was pulled onto the ground next to a bunch of people laughing until they had to stop, for fear of breaking a rib.
Surprisingly, Paige was the first one up, and she checked her phone for the time. 11: 37 showed on her phones screen in big, blocky letters. "SHIT! ELISE WE NEED TO MOVE OUR ASSES!" Paige yelled when she saw the time, jumping up to get her board and jacket. Elise bolted upright, and rushed around grabbing her stuff. She paused when she saw two boards where hers had been, but grabbed one and ran over to where Paige was struggling to shove her stuff into her bag. Elise threw her jacket on top of the pile and turned away from an annoyed Paige, back to a confused looking Jason and Nathan. "Sorry, but me and Paige need to get back to my house; she's having a sleepover; because otherwise my parents might blow up…if they haven't already." Elise said, trailing off sheepishly at the end. Suddenly, Paige yelled out, "SUCK IT YOU STUPID BAG!" Everyone turned to see her with her arms above her head, glaring at the overstuffed bag, almost bursting at the seams. Elise sighed, looking away from her crazy friend, and started to walk back to her stuff. "I guess I won't see you around, then." Jason called out, stealing what Elise had said earlier. Elise smiled and shrugged, copying what he had done. Remembering the possibility of coming back home to a couple of parents-in-pieces, Elise ran over to where Paige was waiting impatiently, yelled goodbye and sprinted off, Paige following close behind yelling something about a bitch, and making things appear and then disappear. Jason and Nathan watched them go, wondering whether they had been dropped on their heads as babies.
Elise was running away from a very frustrated Paige, a street away from her house, when she noticed that the board she was carrying seemed different. Hers still had tiny little bits of black paint on it, this one seemed a lot more worn out. Elise looked at the wheels and noticed that they were green instead of purple, it was that she realised she had grabbed the wrong board. Stopping in her tracks, making Paige shoot past her, Elise looked at the board closely to see if she could find a name or something, and deadpanned when she saw the name, 'Jason Carmicheal' in fading black sharpie. Paige stopped, panting heavily, and walked back towards Elise, too tired to do anything more than swat her on the arm. "Watcha stop for?" Paige asked, gaining her breath back quickly. Elise stayed quiet and continued staring at the name in disbelief. Paige, following her eyes, saw the name and burst out laughing. Shocked out of her daze, Elise looked at her; possibly mentally unstable; friend and glared, thinking that she would probably never get her own skateboard back. What were the odds that they would meet each other again? Elise grabbed Paige and pulling her along, Paige still chuckling under breath; the pair made their way to Elise's house in the middle of the street and walked in quietly. Elise was relieved to see no pieces of her parents lying on the floor, so she motioned for Paige to be quiet and crept down the hall towards her room. Almost home free, Elise allowed herself a small smile; maybe no-one would have to blow up tonight.
Chapter 2
As it turns out, no-one blew up. But Elise's parents were waiting up for them in her room. As a result Elise was grounded for a week except for school; Paige's mum, Annette, was called because Elise's parents couldn't exactly do anything. But in a way, that was just as bad, Paige's mum was pretty strict. But I guess that came from being divorced, and raising two kids single-handedly. Paige's little sister, Chloe, was evil, but Annette never noticed. You could say Chloe was the favourite, but Paige never really minded. Annette didn't particularly trust any of Paige's friends, including Elise, but she put up with it. Once Paige got home, she was forbidden from her music for a week, which to Elise and Paige was like the worst punishment imaginable. Without music, they couldn't concentrate on anything really, so homework was going to be torture for Paige. Luckily, Elise's parents knew how important music was to Elise and said she was allowed to listen to music, as long as it wasn't blasting at top volume like it usually was. The morning after the concert, Elise woke earlier than Paige and stared gloomily at the board she would have to use now. It didn't help that the next day was school. Or that when Paige woke up she wouldn't stop pointing out how unlikely it was that she wouldn't ever get her own skateboard back. Or that her brother ate her bacon, again.