Picture Perfect

Chapter 9

To Alice, Devi Vishwakumar was the epitome of confidence. Sure she was also an overachiever and a perfectionist and she was basically the teacher's pet but, Alice found her enthusiasm for life exciting. Not that she wanted any part of it, Alice just liked to watch.

For instance, they were now sitting side by side in the bus headed to their Model UN event. Ben Gross had not arrived yet, but he did send Alice a text message that morning.

"Meet u at the school entrance at 9."

"Already here. Had 2 help Devi with smthing."

Devi had her own phone in hand, huffing and puffing about how Paxton-Hall Yoshida had not even texted her yet. "Seriously, how hard can it be?" she complained, peering over at Alice's phone instead. "Who are YOU texting?" Devi asked in an accusatory tone, as if Alice texting someone was some sort of crime.

"No one," Alice pocketed her phone, switching subjects easily. "You know Devi, it's not the 1900s anymore, girls can make the first move," Alice said.

"Pfft, as if. You'll see, HE'LL be the one crawling over to me," Devi replied.

And that was what Alice enjoyed. Watching other people's drama. When it came to her own drama, however, she was less enthusiastic about it.

"You didn't reply to my text," of course Ben Gross was part of it. He was suddenly standing in front of them, arm draped over the seats in front of the two girls.

Before Alice could reply Devi was the one who choked on her water, "Wait, you guys are on texting terms?"

"We work together, of course we're on texting terms," Ben countered, incredulity written all over his face.

"Uh, we work together too, she's never texted ME before," Devi spat out.

"Maybe because you're really hard to work with?" Ben drawled out.

Before it turned into a full blown argument Alice piped up in between them, "Okay, she isn't hard to work with," Alice clapped Devi's shoulder, reassuring her. "And I didn't see your message, let's save the arguments for Model UN guys," Alice dissuaded.

She could practically feel the two of them rolling their eyes at each other, "Alice, come on, we got some business to talk about," Ben jerked his head forward, signalling that he wanted Alice to follow him.

Right away Devi's hand snatched Alice's arm, "Woah, woah, woah, she's sitting with ME," Devi looked Ben up and down, judging him.

"It's not gunna kill you to be alone through the bus ride, Devi, aren't you used to being alone anyway?" Ben poked fun at her.

Alice groaned to herself inwardly. The two of them were like squabbling siblings. There was no way to stop them from getting at each other's throats. "Oh-kay, since you two get along SO well, how 'bout you two sit together?" Alice gathered her things before anyone could stop her, "I'll sit over there, where it looks like there's some peace and quiet," she pointed over to the very back of the bus, for some odd reason, there was a single seater at the last row. "Catch y'all later!" Alice had dodged Devi's hand swipe by mere seconds and hurriedly placed herself away from the pair.

"Look what you did," Devi glared at her arch-nemesis.

"Me? I wasn't the one getting all possessive over her. Hold on, is something going on between you two? You swingin' that way Dave?" Ben smirked.

"Oh, funny, I was about to ask the same thing. Good ol' Ben Gross getting antsy cause Alice Lee didn't reply to his text message. If YOU don't smell something fishy I bet your girlfriend can," Devi was beyond satisfied with the what-the-crap look on Ben Gross' face. Unfortunately for him, the teacher had come, ushering them into their seats deeming him unable to retort with a comeback of his own.