Chat with Lisa before Seminar

When you wake up on Wednesday morning, you half expect another revelation to drop out of the sky and shake your world. Then you notice a loud buzzing noise that won’t stop. Is this a sign of the end times? Are these the Revelations you’ve been half expecting? But no, it’s just your alarm.

After a quick stop at the dining hall and another Calculus class with your charming classmates and a Professor Luck that’s looking more tired than usual, you head over to Writing Seminar. Annalise, Lisa, and Charmaine are, as usual, all there early. Annalise and Charmaine are caught up in a conversation that neither of them seems terribly interested in, while Lisa is busy texting on her phone.

You take a seat next to Lisa, tapping her on the shoulder.

“Alex,” your twin sister says, still texting on her phone. “You’ve got something important to say?”

“Did you hear the news from dad?”

“What, the usual drivel about the economy going to shit?”

“No, about the lawyer on my case,” you say. “We got approached by someone who wants to take it on.”

“So you’re going to sue the hell out of Lucille,” Lisa says, glancing up at you. She looks oddly amused by the thought.

“I’ve thought about it,” you say, and then you drop your voice. Charmaine and Annalise are chatting, but they could easily overhear. “But this news about the lawyer changes things. She’s her mom.”

Lisa’s eyes widen as you nod your head in Charmaine’s direction.

Bad news, she mouths, and then she glances back at her phone, texting away.

You’re mildly miffed until you realize that she’s texting you.

Keep on your toes. That girl definitely pulled some strings, she writes.

Yeah? What makes you say so? you reply.

Just give it the smell test.

It’s fishy… you write. But it’s a small town. Not hard to imagine her mom could find out.

Have you seen the way that this girl looks at you? she writes.

It’s nothing special, you say, mostly honestly. Especially compared to the other tail you’ve been chasing, Charmaine’s shown you practically nothing.

Yeah, but she treats every other guy ten times worse. You better watch yourself around her.

Oh, now somebody’s getting jealous…

You glance up at Lisa and raise an eyebrow. The look she returns you is less than amused.

Shut the hell up. I’m trying to give you good advice. You don’t want to get mixed up with her.

Come on, what’s wrong with Charmaine? She seems like a nice enough girl. Not like you. You give Lisa a winning smile.

She’s not that bad, as far as girls go, your sister concedes. But you could do better.

She glances up at you with some look in her eyes, and your heart skips a beat. She puts her phone aside and plays with a strand of her hair, tilting her head towards Charmaine and Annalise.

“Ew, you’re such a prude,” Annalise says, puckering her face.

“I just have morals,” Charmaine says, crossing her hands over her chest. “Unlike most people.”

The two of them fall into a stony silence. Lisa glances back at you, an I told you so if you’ve ever seen one. You shrug helplessly.

It’s right at that moment that Lucille and Brooke come into the classroom, followed closely by the professor.

He gets the attention of the class with a buoyant wave of his hand and says: “Big day today! We’re going to discuss the prompt for the paper due next week. So I want to hear it all! The Freshman 15, good or bad, let’s hear your thoughts!”

Lisa +10
Charmaine -10