365 Days

359 // 358

359 // 358

Friday night means date night for Mum and Dad, which means movie night for Olive, Quentin and I. Our movie night started at 5pm because we had to put Quentin down at 6, although I let him stay up until 6:30 because I'm a good sister. It's now half past eight and we are in my room watching movies, eating chocolate and drinking tea. In other words, we have a movie on my laptop on my bed, there is a bowl of chocolate on the carpet between us and our tea has gotten cold on my desk.

"Can we put the plan on a piece of paper at least?" I ask, holding up my notepad and pen.

"Fine. You're writing."

"I know."

I title the page How To: Turn Alex Stanton Into A Decent Human Being, and then turn to look at Olive. We are already in our pajamas but she has her short strawberry blonde hair up in a ponytail, with hair sticking out at all angles.

"Before we start that," she pauses, standing up and walking to my laptop. "I have another thing you might want to add to your To Do Before You Go Rejoicing Out Of This World List."

"Do you have a website you get these off or..."

"I have my resources," she grins at me, before turning back to the screen. "Alcohol. Yes? No?"

Ooh, I haven't thought about that. "Yes. I definitely want to try it."

"Okay. Number nineteen; try alcohol."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

"Anyway, back to the plan."

Olive falls back to the carpet opposite me and chips a piece of chocolate off the block. "Mmkay," she says through her food. "Well what you said at school is totally on the right track. We need to get info from the guys on what he likes, but you also just have to get to know him."

I screw my face up at the thought of having to spend time with him. Even worse, pay attention. "Fine."

"Good. But that's only a small bit of it. He needs to get to know you to be able to fall in love with you. I think you are his type and-"

"I am not Alex Stanton's 'type'," I say, quoting the word 'type' with my fingers.

"You are," Olive says, before moving on. "Anyway. He needs to get to know you and to do that you'll have to spend time with him. You might have to try to be a bit nicer to him but I don't think that's necessary. He's not going to give up trying to sleep with you but- HOLD ON A SECOND!" She cuts herself off, her face brightening with realization. "You want to have sex before you die! Are you thinking of doing Alex?"

"No!" I exclaim. "I can hardly bear being in the same room as him, let alone - ew. Just no, Olive. It's not happening."

"Fine," she huffs, seeming upset about that. "Then who are you going to do it with?"

"Why do you sound sad about that?" Then I realize... "Wait. Do you want me and Alex to get together?"

"Maybe," she smirks, but drops the act when she sees my reaction. "I'm kidding, Koda. Well, for the most part."

"Care to explain?"

"Don't get shitty with me, just hear me out."

I'm listening.

"Okay, so, Luke and I were talking yesterday about you and Alex and the fact that he's never going to win his game. Then Luke said that the only girl he could think of that would ever be suited to Alex is you. You know, you're not susceptible to his charms and a lot of guys like you. Then we got talking about if you guys ever dated and I don't know Dakota, I can kind of see it."