Life, Love & Cupcakes (Rewritten)

Life, Love & Cupcakes 8.

I was sitting in maths, absentmindedly chewing the end of my blue pen. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my friend Ellie staring at me curiously, but I don't think I cared that much.

After a few minutes, she sighed and asked, "So...are we gonna do this activity?"

I looked at her, shaking myself out of my thoughts. "Yeah. Let's go." We started to work on complex matrices together, but after a while, I had started thinking about other things again, and Ellie was doing all the work.

It had been two weeks since Dad left with Adam. Mum was always at work, earning money for the things Dad wasn't here to pay for anymore, and boy was I lonely. Sam would usually come over after school, or we'd go out together for the afternoon, but he still had his curfew to worry about. Whenever he left to go home in the evening, I would immediately crave company. Even on my birthday, which had been a week ago, Mum had been working late and Sam had still been told to get home by seven.

I came back to the present and leaned over our worksheet. "How's it going?" I asked Ellie.

Luckily, Ellie wasn't the kind of person who would get angry over me zoning out. She would, however, joke about it. "Back from Wonderland, Alice?" She giggled.

I gave her a cheeky grin. Ellie could always cheer me up. "Are you implying I'm going crazy?" I replied, pretending to be offended.

"Oh, no," Ellie smiled. "I just think you might be hallucinating a little."

"The white bunny doesn't think so," I pouted.

"And why aren't you two doing your work?" It wasn't Ellie who had said that. We both stopped laughing and looked up at Mr Web, our teacher.

"We're talking about Alice in Wonderland, Sir," Ellie said sweetly. "Have you seen it?"

Mr Web gave her a long, careful look, before saying, "No, Ellie, I haven't seen it. And even if I had, I'd hardly think a maths classroom would be the best place to discuss it."

"But there's all sorts of things in Alice in Wonderland that relate to math," I replied cheekily. "There's the distance she falls down the rabbit hole."

"And the ratio of her normal size to her size when she shrinks and grows," Ellie added, giving him a sweet smile.

Mr Web gave the two of us warning looks. "Look, girls. I appreciate how hard you're trying to make me laugh, but this is hardly the time. Please, just keep doing your work." As he walked back to his desk, Ellie and I burst into giggles. Mr Web shot us a hard glare, expecting us to stop, but it only made us laugh harder. It was the first time I'd laughed and meant it in ages.

"So, I was wondering," Ellie began, pushing away our maths books, "what are you doing this afternoon?"

"Um...truthfully? I was just gonna chill with Sam."

Ellie scoffed. "Really? Well, forget that. We're going out."

I looked at her carefully. "What? This doesn't sound good..."

"Ouch! Why?"

"I don't know...it's just...your ideas of going out and having fun are kind of different to mine." I think 'kind of' was an understatement. The last time Ellie had gone out with some of her friends, they had ended up in the police station.

"Chill. It'll just be me and you, and trust me, I've learnt my lesson. Pleeeaaaase?"

I groaned. "Fine. I'll tell Sam after class, and I'll meet you somewhere after school."