Waking Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed (Brittany)

[Brittany Barnes]

Brittany yawned as she shut off her beeping alarm. She sleepily made her way to the bathroom, brushing her teeth as she waited for the shower water to warm. She finished brushing her teeth and got into the shower automatically. She had the routine down so much, that she could do it in her sleep...and probably had a few times. Brittany relied on the shower to wake her up enough until she was able to have caffeine which usually came in the form of a soda or a red bull since she wasn't the fan of coffee and didn't really mind having sugar early in the morning.

Her shampoo smelled funny but the only other option was using Aly's shampoo and Brit didn't want to smell like Aly so she went on using her normal shampoo. She finished her shower, and threw on a robe, wrapping her towel around her hair as she made her way back to her room.

Yawning once more, Brit pulled the towel off of her head, only to see blonde in the mirror. "AHHHHHHHHHHH" she shrieked. She new it was Aly at once...the funny shampoo smell...bleach...Brittany had been too tired to notice...but now it seemed unmistakable.

"I'm going to kill her," Brit said aloud, although she was alone in her room. She rushed to her closet to get dressed so she could stomp over to Aly's room and yell at her, but her closet was empty. It was completely empty...all the hangers gone. All that was there was Aly's cheerleading uniform, which Brit had the urge to throw black paint on but of course she didn't have any. She rushed over to her chest of drawers...but all of those were empty too. Aly had left her a pair of clean underwear which she appreciated but as for the rest...Aly was as good as dead.

Brit threw her pajamas back and on ran downstairs, her hair still damp and a tangled mess. "Where's Aly?" she demanded to her mother who was still in the kitchen, making some coffee.

"I think she's still up in her room," she said rather pleasantly. "You dyed your hair again, it's almost your natural color--looks good, Brit," she smiled, obliviously.

Brittany frowned and turned around heading back up the stairs. She felt bad being mean to her mother, but she really couldn't possibly be nice to anyone right now...not until she at least got her clothes back.

Aly's door to her room was locked of course and Brittany kicked it. "You are SO dead," she yelled through the door, "And if you think I'm wearing that cheerleading uniform...you've really gone mental!"

Brittany kicked the door again, but with no response from Aly, she stomped back to her room and threw on her sneakers. She didn't care, she'd wear her pajamas to school before she'd wear a cheerleading uniform.

Brit hastily ran a comb through her hair, and put her contacts in and grabbed her skateboard before heading downstairs.

"Is it PJ day at your school or something?" her mother asked confused when Brittany returned downstairs.

"No!" Britt said angrily before heading out the door. Skateboarding to school, she calmed a little, but she still wasn't in a good mood as she headed down the hall to her locker, only to realize that once again the Silver kids were there. As soon as she saw them she remembered hearing it, but if anything it worsened her mood even more. With her luck she'd end up sharing a locker with Sarah Brody or someone equally as annoying for the week or however long they'd be there.

Brittany opened up her locker, and threw her skateboard inside, not caring when it made a bang. Twirling a strand of her new blonde hair made her even angrier. She knew say Evan would like it no matter what color her hair was, but it really made Brit mad that it had been done out of her control...and that it was Aly that had done it to her. Sure there were a few orange streaks, left over from what used to be bright red, but it was mostly blonde...mostly normal and boring.

Brittany grumbled as she grabbed her books for first period and slammed her locker shut.


No Tag or Tag if someone wants to endure the wrath of Brittany

[Eddie O'Flaherty]

To say Eddie was nervous would be an understatement. He had been awake for about an hour before his alarm went off, due to a combination of nerves and another dream that he vaguely recalled had something to do with her again. So full of nerves and haunting thoughts of a girl he didn't want to think about, Eddie decided to get up early and make sure he didn't look like a complete tool on his first day of school on the West Coast.

After a long shower and a cup of coffee with his mother, Eddie started going through his clothes to meticulously select what to wear. Formal was straight out, Eddie knew that right away. The trick was going to be finding the right balance between looking nice and looking casual. The weather was going to get up to 95 degrees today, so Eddie decided against jeans and went with a newer pair of khaki cargo shorts. He also decided on wearing a white long sleeve tee, and so now had to figure out what to put over that. Should he wear a polo, and look nice? Or perhaps a t-shirt. He had a lot of t-shirts, preferring those that had bands he liked or those that he found funny. Bands were out, he didn't want people to judge him based on his music tastes right away. He settled on a black t-shirt with a picture of an astronaut planting the US flag on the moon. Underneath, it declared “Finders Keepers.” Eddie liked the humor. He grabbed a pair of black Pumas and he was off.

***********************

Gould wasn't a difficult drive, and Eddie's dad dropped him off with promises of a new car for Eddie by the end of the school year. Eddie didn't mind being dropped off necessarily, but he knew with rehearsals starting and hopefully baseball in the spring, he'd need to be more independent for his parents' sake. Being entirely unfamiliar with Gould, both Eddie and his father weren't sure which door to go to, so Eddie ended up entering the building near the gym. It took him a good while to find his way around to a row of lockers, and when he did he was met with a streaky haired young lady grumbling and slamming a locker. She didn't look like she was in a very good mood, but Eddie had no other options.

“Hi, umm... excuse me. I'm looking for locker 138 and I have no idea where I'm going. I'm new.”

[Brittany Barnes]

When Brittany heard the voice, she turned around, ready to yell at the person who was undoubtedly going to make fun of her for her blonde hair and wearing her pajamas to school. But then she saw the timid looking boy and heard him continue on. She let out a sigh, after all, Brit normally wasn't a mean person. Sure she liked to give it to both the popular and stuck up rich kids, but this guy seemed normal enough. And he had a funny shirt.

"Yeah...its this way," she said, looking down the hall. Her locker was at the very end, Evan's locker was on the way to 138 and so were the rest of her friends. Her friends would probably laugh at her but at least that wouldn't be in the same mean way that she was expecting from Aly and her friends.

"I'm going that way," she said, "I can show you." Whether she ran into one of her friends at their locker or just ended up going straight to class--she was heading that way. "Nice shirt by the way," she added, after all, Brit was a fan of T-shirts, especially rocker/band ones and clever ones. He had a clever one on.

Continuing down the hall, she spoke up again, "So you new to Gould or are you a Silver kid?" she asked, figuring it must suck to start your first day of school and have double the kids around. Although the Silver kids had spent a bit of time at Gould after the earthquake, she supposed it was still possible to be confused since they hadn't been here that long...

[Eddie O'Flaherty]

It must have been Eddie's lucky day, because when this girl whipped around he was almost sure he had made a mistake. She seemed prepared to give him a tongue lashing he wouldn't soon forget. But as it turned out, she didn't. Better yet, she had agreed to help him find his locker! “Thanks a ton, really.” Eddie figured he should try to be especially nice. This girl didn't seem to be having the best of days. He also noticed her check out his shirt. He smiled a little. He had made a good decision.

“Thanks, I like funny shirts, at least shirts I think are funny. A lot of people don't get some of them.” He smiled at her. Everyone else he had met so far seemed pretty well put together, but this girl seemed a bit like a mess. Granted, it was early in the morning and the day wasn't anything special for her. But she wasn't put together, not like everyone else. Eddie liked that, and he found himself thinking she was really cute. “I like your pajamas.” Crap. Did that really just come out of his mouth? Eddie tried as best he could to ignore that he said it.

“I'm new to both, really.” Based on the way she phrased the question, Eddie assumed she was a Sphynx. That was too bad, but he would be at Gould for a while. “I'm supposed to be in Silver, but apparently we can't go there or something. I heard there were rats. But I just got into town Friday night. So I am entirely new. To Silver, to Gould. Hell, to LA.

[Brittany Barnes]

"Yeah--I like T-shirts too. They usually don't have funny ones for girls though--a lot of them are really lame," she pointed out. Sometimes Brittany preferred boys clothes for that reason. All the girls shirts had dumb sayings like 'cutie' or 'everyone loves me.' Brit didn't like shirts like that. Brit was pretty skilled at finding cool ones in girls sizes but more often then not she just bought the boy's one in a kid's size because they fit her better. After all, Brittany wasn't a particularly large girl, in fact, she was rather on the small and petite side.

When he complimented her pajamas, Brit's cheeks reddened a little...not because of the complement, but because of the reminder that she was in her pajamas. "Yeah...my step-sister stole all my clothes," she said. "I think its to get me back because I brought an exploding cake to her friend's birthday party--at least my joke was funny, and delicious," she reasoned. "Also stuck a fake love note into her locker on Valentine's Day--she still believes that though, which will be funny cause the guy is totally full of himself--well, I wasn't really the one who did that, but I'm sure that I'll get blamed for it. I'll have to think of something real good to get her back...because the clothes and the hair..." Brit shook her head, "she went to far this time." She wasn't really sure why she was telling this guy all this when she didn't even know his name, she supposed she just needed to get it all off her chest, that and Brit didn't really mind talking to people. She wasn't unfriendly after all, she just tended to be wary of people because so many of them were like Aly or Sarah and totally stuck up.

When he said that he was new to both, Brit felt a little sorry for him. "Wow--you really got shafted then, didn't you. By the time you get used to things here you'll have to go back to Silver. That sucks," she said very matter-of-factly. She thought that Gould was the better of the two schools but part of that was because that's where all her friends were. She honestly didn't know many Silver kids so didn't know what it would be like if she went there.

"New to LA too...where ya from?" she asked conversationally. She'd grown up here of course and had lived all over the city in Riverside, Compton, and now El Segundo. Her friends lived all over the place too so she was pretty familiar with the city.

[Eddie O'Flaherty]

“Yeah, girls have it tough!” Eddie was glad to find some common ground with this girl. He had always thought girls t-shirts often had the stupidest sayings on them. “You either have your choice of 'Look at me, I'm a princess and I need attention!' or 'I'm hot and sexy, but a bitch, but for some reason guys are supposed to like that, so you should want me!' It's like they're trying to induct you into a sorority before you even get to college. Lame.” Eddie chuckled a bit at himself. His nerves about the day were definitely starting to lessen.

Eddie saw the girl blush, and smiled to himself. He hoped he was making something of an impression on her. As he listened to her story, he started looking at her hair. He didn't know very many girls back home that would ever do something like this to their hair. He found it very intriguing. “Wow, you're full of tricks, aren't you? Wish I could have seen that cake, I bet it was something.” Eddie realized he had been staring at her hair for a few seconds, which was awkwardly to long. He hoped she didn't notice. “But, uh, yeah. You should probably think of something good to get her back. Though your pajamas look comfortable, and I guess I didn't even realize something was wrong with you hair.” Eddie paused a moment, deciding whether or not to say what he wanted to, but he did. “I think it's really pretty.” He tried to make it sound casual.

“Mm hmm, it's been... sucky. All my friends seem pretty far away. Some of them say they want to come out here for Spring Break, which would be awesome, but I know it's expensive and their parents might not go for it. And to be honest, we always talk about doing a lot of awesome stuff, but looking back we never really did it.” Eddie thought about home, real home, and realized he didn't want to bring himself or this very interesting girl down. She was having her own rough morning, from what it sounded like. “I'm from Iowa. It's a hell of a lot different than LA, that's for sure. Now I live in Riverside.” Eddie thought about the last few days. They hadn't been bad by any means. He was going to be closer to his brother, which was cool, and his mom was making a lot more money. Hopefully he'd get an awesome car soon. There was a lot to look forward to. “But here's been pretty cool, too. I auditioned for South Pacific at Silver and I got the lead. And I've met some pretty nice people. So there's that. And, umm, if you want, I'd love to help you plan a good revenge against your step-sister...”

[Brittany Barnes]

"Yeah I know...they're so lame. Sometimes I can find cool ones but a lot of times I just buy the guys' ones in a little boy's size," she said with a shrug. As they walked she checked where her friend's lockers should be. No luck so far, but this guy didn't seem so bad. She didn't really mind talking to him at least.

"Oh yeah--the cake was awesome. That wasn't really my idea either but I helped. We're always pulling pranks and stuff. I had this one idea awhile back about farm animals in the locker room but we haven't been able to do that yet...it's hard to track down the farm animals," she went on, glad that he seemed to like pranks. Brittany could appreciate anyone who could appreciate a good pranks.

Brittany made a face when he said her hair looked pretty. "Yeah...I guess a lot of people like blonde...but its just not me. I mean my natural color isn't that much darker than this...but I like my hair to be more exciting that that. Until this'moring it was this awesome bright red, but I think my evil step-sister put blonde bleach in my shampoo," she said shaking her head. "I should put like blue dye in her shampoo. I think I have some too but the problem with the colored dyes is they're way easier to notice. Blonde looks like its white so it just looked like normal shampoo." Brittany thought about this...there had to be some way to get Aly back. Sure she could come up with something...and she was sure that if she couldn't Evan or Mal or someone would be able to help her. Either way, she'd find some way to get back at Aly. If Aly thought she'd won the war, well then, she had another thing coming.

"Yeah...that does suck," Brittany confirmed. She'd never been to Iowa so she really didn't have much to say about it. Brittany hadn't grown up with a lot of money so she hadn't really traveled much. "Oh Riverside--I used to live there," she said. "I'm in El Segundo now though," she added with a shrug.

"Oh that's cool," when he mentioned he'd gotten the part in the school play. "I guess Gould didn't have enough people audition for our play so they're asking Silver students if they wanna be in it. I suppose I could audition, but I'm in a band. I like that better. I kind of shy away from anything that could be considered school spirit. I don't really have any," she said. "Not that being in the play is a bad thing...just not me I guess."

"But yeah...if you have any ideas for Aly--totally let me know. She's like your typical school bitch...popular...pretty...wears designer clothes...thinks she's the shit, you know that type."

[Eddie O'Flaherty]

“You know, I probably shouldn't admit this to you, but I sometimes have to buy shirts in a boys extra large cause I can't find a small or medium.” Eddie knew he was smaller, but he felt okay about it around this girl. “A lot of the girls I've seen around LA are like these six-foot-crazy leggy blondes. Wannabe startlets or something. Makes me feel like a Mini-Me around here.” Eddie joked around about it, but it was true. Just walking through a grocery store yesterday made him feel tiny, especially with girls. He didn't like being shorter than girls. But he wasn't shorter than the girl walking next to him. In fact, she was about the same height that Jessie was. But this girl was much different than Jessie. Jessie wouldn't have been caught dead in a good t-shirt. “I know a lot of good websites that sell shirts, they do guys and girls. Most do the standard American Apparel tee. I could give you some addresses some time.”

Eddie laughed at the farm animal idea. “I don't know, at my old school it pretty much was a bunch of farm animals in the locker room! That place was a total hole.” Eddie laughed again. He missed a lot of things about home, but the school itself was not one of them. “My school was a dump, really old. They wanted to make improvements, but they couldn't afford it and the city kept voting down a tax hike.” Considering a large portion of Iowa's population was becoming senior citizens that didn't have kids in school anymore, it made sense. They didn't want to pay to improve something that ha no direct effect on them.

“Awesome Bright Red, huh? Was that the name of the color on the box?” Eddie was trying to flirt with this girl, but he didn't want to make it too obvious. He had no idea who she was, really, just that she seemed cool and was very cute. For all he knew, she could have a boyfriend. “It sounds like it was really cool, though. Think you'll try to dye it back, or go for something different?” Eddie kind of hoped she'd dye it back. He could see hints of orange in her hair, and he thought it looked good on her. No one back at his old school had that kind of punk look at all. Seemed like most were either normal or emo/goth.

El Segundo sounded familiar, but Eddie wasn't sure where it was in relation to Riverside. “The Segundo, huh? Is it cool there? And yes, I know Spanish and that's an exact translation. The Segundo.” He didn't know much Spanish at all, to be honest, but he assumed there were certain parts of LA where he'd need to know it. He planned on taking it next year if he could.

“Umm, well... I guess I never really thought of the play as school spirit, but it's supporting the school. Not like sports or anything, though, like we don't have cheerleaders. No one is sitting there going 'Man, City High is totally ROCKING that Shakespeare!'” Eddie thought about it for a second. Why did he do school theatre here? In LA there was no doubt tons of places he could audition. “I just always did it for myself, I think. And in Iowa it's not like there's much theatre to do elsewhere.” But a band was similar enough, or so Eddie thought. It's just performing in a different way. “That's totally cool about being in a band. What's it called?” Eddie wondered if he had maybe heard of them. Maybe he even knew this girl before he even met her! It was LA,after all. “I used to do some karaoke back home, I always loved that. Performing is just... I don't know, it's awesome to affect a whole room of people, you know?”

[Brittany Barnes]

Brittany couldn't help but giggle when he admitted to getting kids clothes sometimes. She didn't think it was necessarily a bad thing not to look like a super model...she certainly didn't, but it was still kind of funny to think that a boy in high school still shopped in the children's department sometimes. Although he was bigger than she was, so it wasn't as if she could make fun of him too much, nor was it in her nature, unless the person she was teasing was a good friend or someone she especially disliked like her step-sister. "That would be cool though if you could write down the sites--I'll definitely have to check them out. I'm always looking for new and different stuff," she explained.

"That's too bad. The schools here are pretty nice...well for schools at least," she shrugged. He couldn't have been too poor though because Riverside was a decent area, but Brit did understand what it was like to be poor. Between her parents divorce and her mom's second marriage, she'd lived in a cramped apartment in Compton, barely making ends-meat. She certainly knew what it was like to go without, which was probably one of the main reasons she wasn't a spoiled brat or one of those girls who needed to be doted on all of the time.

"It should be called that, but no it was Infra-red, but I think awesome red is better--I should write a letter to the company," she said lightly, although she wasn't actually going to do that. She was sort of oblivious to his flirting because she just wasn't used to it. Brit had always been one of the guys so when a guy was interested in more than friendship with her...it tended to go over her head. She even hadn't really been aware of Evan's flirting until he'd gone ahead and ask her out. If he hadn't and it had been up to her, they probably would have remained just friends. Although she was glad it had all turned out the way it had. She was glad that it hadn't been left up to her. "I don't know if I'll dye it the same color or not," she said, twisting a strand of her yellow hair, "I hadn't really been planning on redyeing it any time soon, so I hadn't really thought about what color would be next. Maybe I'll keep it like this for a bit though...pretend I like it...bet that would piss Aly off..." Brit mused wondering what Aly's reaction would be if she pretended to love the new hair.

"Is it?" Brittany asked when he mentioned the exact translation, "I mean I know the el part means the but I guess I always thought that maybe Segundo stood for something," she said with a shrug of her shoulders. "I don't really know Spanish...taking French...but I can't really say I know that either." Brittany made okay grades when it came to language because she'd memorize the material but the problem was, that she didn't really retain any of it.

She laughed when he talked about cheerleaders at the school play, "Yeah, I know that...I'm not really in any extra curriculars though," she said. "Like I said, it's just not my thing. I'm not really the type to be everyone's best friend or go out for prom queen or anything," she said. Maybe if there was a club at school that only her friends were in she'd join, but she didn't really want to deal with anyone else. New people were okay sometimes, like this guy seemed okay, but a lot of times people could be quite disappointing.

"My band...we're called The Rioter's," she said proudly. "We play at this bowling alley on Sunday nights...sometimes we'll get other gigs, like we played at a costume party the school held but I guess we're still mostly in the garage stage of things still," she said. "Karaoke can be fun to do but I hate when people go up there and do something really cheesy. I know what you mean about the performing though--like I could play the guitar if I wanted, but I kind of like letting Ian be the guitarist and that way when I sing I can like run and jump around and stuff. It's more fun that way."

[Eddie O'Flaherty]

“Infra-red? Like the invisible type of light? I agree, sounds like Awesome Red would be a much better name.” Eddie joked. She was joking back too, but it didn't seem like it was in a flirtatious way. But, then again, Eddie had never been much of a ladies man and struggled to figure out what girls were thinking. “Maybe you should just start your own company and give the dyes real names so people know what they're getting!” Yikes. Lame. Eddie almost cringed after saying that joke. But he thought he was doing okay. This girl was still talking to him, and it had bee a good while now. Stick in there, Eddie. Just try to make a friend!

“Well, if you keep your hair that way it does look good. At least it didn't come out all weird and splotchy. And there are still some cool orange streaks to give it some flair.” Eddie just wanted to be helpful. He knew a lot of guys hit on girls by being total jerks, but that was never his way. If a girl really wanted a jerk, then what kind of girl was she? And he wasn't even necessarily hitting on her, just flirting. God knows if he was ready to date another girl after Jessie, but it had been a while. “If you can trick her into thinking you like it, maybe you could trick her into dyeing her hair a color she'd never normally do. Yellow is one of Gould's colors, right? Maybe we could get some people to gether and try to convince all the cheerleaders to dye their hair like a flourescent yellow or something?” Eddie wasn't sure how they'd ever do it, and in fact he didn't think to stop his mouth. It was probably a stupid idea. “Or, I don't know, something else...”

Eddie laughed. He thought his knowledge of Spanish was bad! “Oh, yeah. The Segundo. Back home my favorite Mexican restaurant was The Fuente. And I'm really glad we don't have to deal with The Niño anymore!” He was poking a little fun at the girl, but he hoped she figured it was all in good fun.

Sunday nights. So last night, but Eddie missed it. He'd have to make a point to try to show up sometime. Once he figured out where the bowling alley was, at least. “The Rioters, that's cool.” Eddie tried to imagine her jumping around on stage, and he smiled. There's nothing about this girl he didn't like so far. “I'd like to check you out sometime.” Eddie flushed red, realizing what he just said. “Uh, the band. I'd like to see all of you. Playing. Ummm...” Eddie had to think of a way to dig himself out. “Yeah, cheesy karaoke. It's not good. Back in Iowa it was hard to find a good place. They were usually either bars, or it would all be country music, which sucked. That's the cheesiest of the cheesy. It's like Kraft Macaroni and Karaoke!” Okay, that was terrible too, but at least it wasn't him putting his foot in his mouth. “My favorite song to sing is 'Oh, Darlin!' by The Beatles, but I have to kill my voice to sing it so I don't do it too often.” Eddie just hoped this girl didn't think he was a total spaz at this point.