[Disclaimer: Allison is 19-years-old, Lily is 18-years-old, Chase is 26-years-old. The only thing that breaks rules/laws in this story is that a teacher is fraternizing with a student.]
Mr. Daniels' psychology class was silent as usual. But to some of the students they got an odd chill up their spines. The kind of chill that you get when the weather may turn bad, or even when it seems as though something in the room is out of place. Whatever the cause of the chill the students all felt its effect, and many of them could not wait till last bell.
Allison watched as Mr. Daniels strolled from one side of the room to the other with long broad steps. Somehow this seemed to put her mind into a place of slumber, because the only thing she remembered from class after the last bell rang was the homework pages for that night and her friend Lily tapping her on the shoulder and getting her awake so they could get a ride from Lily's mother.
"Ally! Yo, Freidman, wake your ass up girl! Time to get outta this junk heap of learning, and back to my place for some pizza and movies." Allison thought the sound of Lillian's shrill voice mimicked that of a large parakeet which had become ravenous for attention.
"Yeah, yeah... I know, Lily." Allison sighed as she forced herself out of the rickety school desk-chair, despite the fact that her left leg had fallen asleep from resting it on her right knee while she napped.
She reluctantly followed Lillian out to her mom's clunky soccer-mom SUV, and climbed into the back seat next to her friend. Their bag and purses lay at their feet in a less-than meaningless pile of materialism. Allison had always wondered where Lily had gotten her fashion sense, and now that she could see Lily's mother's purse resting between the driver seat and the passenger seat she realized that Lily's mistaken obsession for white with pink polka dot pattern wasn't her idiocy, it was her mother's. Allison had an inward giggle at her own sarcasm twirling itself around those sad thoughts.
"O-M-G, Ally! Guess what?" Lily's mother had a voice near identical to her daughter's, and yet so different to the point you could tell she was obviously a chain smoker while Lily was younger.
Allison, with a heavy inward sigh replied, "What is it Ms. Hagerman?" Allison knew that she hated being called by her married name. Her husband was everything but the ideal spouse.
"Call me, Barb, hon." she corrected in lightning speed, as though she could not even fathom the idea of sharing one retched thing with the man she, less-often than not, called her husband.
Barb continued, "I just got you and Lillian tickets to go see Green Day in concert next month. What do you think of that?" Allison hated Green Day, almost as much as she hated Ms. Hagerman and her sad excuse for a husband. She also hated it when 'Barb' called her daughter by her birth name and refused to acknowledge her nickname outside of her home life.
"That sounds like fun" she bluffed. Allison knew she would not be able to go anyways. Her father was too busy to worry himself with worrying about her. So much so he skipped the whole thing and never let her go to concerts or anything out of the city without him, unless of course it was for a school function or could better her education about his bustling business.
Lily was excited about Green Day, and had always seemed oblivious that Allison hated all music that wasn't classical or symphony. Lily also never stopped to wonder why Allison cringed when her mother called her 'Lillian' instead of 'Lily', and when Lily herself called Allison by 'Ally' she never noticed Allison's cringe at that either. For a supposed 'best friend' she wasn't very good at knowing anything about her friends. Lily was too worried about parties and fun events to care about anything other than herself and her mother's happiness.
Barbara-Lynn Hagerman continued to drive, she knew Allison's taste in music wouldn't be the same as Lillian's, but she figured what it is going to hurt anyways. Barb knew about Jameson Freidman and his adopt-a-daughter relationship with Allison. She even use to date Jameson before he became the prick he was today. She felt sorry for Allison, but she knew that, because Jameson would never let Allison go to the concert, that Barb herself would end up going with her daughter by default. Whether or not she felt guilty of slighted deception, she was determined to spend time with her daughter.
The SUV veered into the driveway of the small sub-rural community of, Shady Springs, and all Allison could think about was what her father would come up with for her to do instead of going to the concert. Although, as previously mentioned, it's not like she was looking forward to Green Day or any other concert that wasn't played by a symphony or an orchestra in a perfect acoustical environment. Allison loved classical music, almost as much as she loved her Psych teacher, Mr. Daniels. She only wished that someday he would see her desire for him and free her from the ill-fated-heiress destiny of her and her controlling adoptive father's architecture company. She hated architecture so much more than anything she could ever think of.
"Lily... Do you think--" Allison started to ask a question that she knew the answer to, but unlucky for her, one of the few times Lily actually listened just so happened to be now, at that moment in the guest room.
"What's up Ally?" Lily asked in her high-pitched bird voice. Once again the name 'Ally' caused Allison to cringe inside.
Allison thought for a few seconds of how exactly she wanted to phrase this question before asking it. She knew that as soon as Lily found out about her love of Mr. Daniels she would gossip to every girl in their school about it, until eventually she would just be forced to give up any hope of being saved by her knight in shining mental armor.
