The Precise Art Of Staying Alive

Chapter 14 - The Precise Art Of Pigtails

I stared at the ceiling; a random book I'd plucked from the library clutched to my chest. Music blared from my headphones, and the room was tinged in blue, thanks to the mood lighting, one of the few modern touches to the house. I kept thinking about what had happened in the library, but the more I thought about it, the more confused I was. I couldn't quite figure out Theo, why he acted the way he did, how he would act. He was a mystery to me, and that was something I was unused to. Whilst Nicole figured out problems and logic, I figured out people, who they were, what made them tick. But Theo was nothing but a large question mark scrawled across the page of a book, blocking out everything else. Most of the time he was cold and distant, in the dining room he'd acted almost normal, joking and teasing like any other teenager and in the library, he'd seem to come alive, like something had switched on inside of him, letting loose the sharp intellect and secrets locked inside of him.

I sighed, my mind running through all of my conversations with him for the thousandth time and finding no answers. I rolled to the side, pausing Lana Del Rey, and stood up, using the remote to turn the lighting back it's normal warm glow. I went to stand by the window, feeling the cold emanate from the steel of the empty fireplace. In the few hours we'd been inside, the weather had remained grey and overcast, and I could make out flat clouds hanging across the sky through the tops of the trees, swaying slightly in the breeze. The view so unfamiliar, so removed from the bustling city that I was used to that for a moment, I was confused as to where I was. It still seemed insane that I'd won the competition, that I'd been able to come to Lake Meurtre, more so that Nicole and Nadia had been able to come too.

The competition had been announced six months prior, and it was open to the entire city, although due to what Theo had pointed out on the car ride to Lake Meurtre, it was probably likely that students from poorer districts would win. The winner of the competition would receive a trip to the picturesque and fairly affluent Lake Meurtre, and the runners up from their school and their year would accompany them, most likely so that it wouldn't be excruciatingly awkward. The aim to write an essay on challenges that we had faced, the only requirements that it was at least two thousand words and that the essays be truthful and accurate in their depiction of any events.

I'd written about something I'd experienced as a small child, around seven or eight and whilst the essay definitely wasn't good, the event had caused a stir in Queens, which was enough to earn me some points with the judges. After all, who didn't want to hear about one of the main players in the Rockaway Beach tragedy? I had no idea what Nicole had written about, but clearly it had been good enough to win, despite her hatred for English.

I remained at the window, my eyes fixed at a point just beyond the horizon, my mind swimming with thoughts and queries that I couldn't form into thoughts. I'd never been the type to sit still and think things through, but something was nagging at me, telling me to slow down, to think for once.

After a couple of minutes, if that, I found my mind wandering and sighed, too tired to keep on sorting through meaningless things. I walked to the door of my room and across the hall, letting myself into Nicole's room. Nicole was sitting on the V shaped couch in the corner of her room, surrounded by textbooks. I sat next to her, shoving textbooks aside, and leaned my head on her shoulder.

"I'm bored." Nicole lifted the textbook off her lap and half-turned to face me.

"Have you tried not scrolling through your phone for five hours?"

"Hey! I was thinking." I objected.

"And how did that work out?" Nicole asked sarcastically.

"Shut up. Besides, aren't you glad that I wanted to talk to you?"

"Maybe. You did shove all of my textbooks to the floor though, so that negates it a bit." I sighed, kneeling on the floor to stack Nicole's textbooks next to her, and taking the one from her lap.

"We should do something." I suggested, looking around the room.

"Like what? We're going shopping and having the party tomorrow, and then two days after that we have the ball, which I'm pretty sure will all take a while to prepare and clean up." I gave Nicole a look, and she sighed, standing up.

"Fine. What do you want to do?" Nicole asked. I stared at her, tilting my head to the side.

"I'm going to do your hair." I suggested, an evil smirk beginning to cross my face. Nicole eyes widened and she began to shake her head.

"No, no, no. Not like you did at that party, with the pigtails." Nicole began, and I grabbed a pair of hairbands from her chest of drawers.

"I would never..." I said innocently and Nicole stood up, the fear on her face only partly a joke.

"Okay?" Nicole agreed reluctantly, pulling her hair out of her tight bun and letting it loose around her face. I hooked a hairband around my wrist, softly gripping half of her hair and twisting it to the side, before pulling it through the hairband, looping the hairband around her hair and pulling it through again, all lighting quick. As soon as I'd let go of the hairband, Nicole jerked away, half of her hair tied up in a high pigtail.

"No!" She gasped, turning to the mirror and I burst out laughing at her face, a mixture of shock and fear.

"I hate you so much!" She exclaimed, but a smile was creeping up at the edge of her mouth.

"You won't get away with this." I smirked, leaning against the wall like a villain in a Bond movie.

"Oh, but I have." I said in between laughs. Nicole raised her hands to her head, beginning to pull her pigtail out.

"No, please don't pull it out! It looks so good." Nicole raised her eyebrows and I immediately knew I'd made a mistake.

"Fine, as long as I get to give you pigtails as well." I opened my mouth to object, very loudly, when there was a knock on the door and River cautiously opened the door, peeking into the room and only looking slightly confused when they saw Nicole with her hair half-done in a messy pigtail.

"Nadia asked me to get everyone and bring them downstairs, but you don't have to. I don't want to interrupt." River said, looking confused as they looked between us. I felt a smile begin to creep across my face and carefully bit it down. I was about to burst out into laughter, and a brief glance at Nicole showed me she felt the same way.

"No, it's all good. We'll come downstairs." I said hastily, and Nicole glared at me. As soon as River had turned away, I stuck out my tongue at Nicole, and Nicole narrowed her eyes.

"Later." She mouthed, and Iburst out in giggles, unable to hold in my laughter anymore. Me laughing seemedto trigger Nicole's laughter, and she began laughing as well, falling into myshoulder as she bent over, gasping for air. I put my arm around Nicole as wewalked downstairs, my head resting on her shoulder, barely seeing through thetears in my eyes. I loved being with Nicole, being able to laugh at the mostsimple, mundane things. Being with Nadia made me feel alive, like I was walkingon the edge of a cliff, like electricity running through my veins, but beingwith Nicole made me feel warm and safe, like I was cocooned in a blanket, mybody light and airy. I was just glad I didn't have to choose between them