‘Cool. Adding it.’
Bianca watches, amused, as everyone starts listing things. Scotty wants Alexandra to try his Xbox, Cory wants to take her bowling, Daisy wants to have a sleepover and do manicures, pedicures, face masks and have some kind of pillow fight and watch DVDs (she jokingly suggested the Princess Diaries or Enchanted) and, finally, after the list has reached four pages, Bianca says, ‘Supermarket.’
Everyone looks at her.
‘She’s never seen half the stuff we eat, guys,’ she explains. ‘I gave her basically everything in the house for breakfast and she’d never even seen toast before. I could get some money and we could go to the supermarket and just... buy her some things to try.’
‘Marshmallows!’ Cory exclaims.
‘Bananas!’ Daisy counters.
‘Chocolate,’ Scotty suggests.
Bianca looks at Alexandra. ‘You okay with this?’ she says, gently.
Alexandra nods, excitedly. ‘Oh yes!’ she exclaims. ‘I cannot help but wonder of your world and the wonders it contains.’
‘Well, it’s not like we have unicorns,’ Bianca says. ‘But we have some cool stuff. Disneyland, for instance is pretty cool.’
‘Disneyland!’ Cory exclaims.
‘We are not taking Alexandra to Paris,’ Daisy tells him, deadpan.
‘Who was talking about Paris?’ Cory retorts. ‘Florida, baby!’
‘We’re not taking Alexandra out of the country!’ Scotty shouts.
‘Fine, but when she doesn’t know who Mickey Mouse is, don’t come crying to me.’
‘Ooh.’ Daisy writes something down. ‘Early morning Disney Channel.’
‘Agreed.’ Cory leans over her shoulder and eyes what she’s writing down. ‘Bubble bath?’
‘Every girl should know the wonders of a bubble bath, Cory.’
*
Bianca’s hand is almost numb from where Alexandra has been clinging to it throughout the film. They decided to cross ‘cinema’ off the list to start with and went to see the newest Harry Potter which, incidentally, scared the living daylights out of Alexandra. And Cory.
It took them until about half way through the film to finally convince Alexandra through hushed whispers that it wasn’t real, that it was fiction and entertainment. Then, no matter how scary she found it, she started to quite enjoy it.
Daisy has already promised to break out her DVDs to show her the rest.
‘Come on, let’s do the supermarket next,’ Bianca says. ‘I don’t know about you guys but I’m hungry.’
‘Popcorn not enough for you?’ Cory says.
‘No, because you and Alexandra ate it all.’ Bianca smirks and runs on ahead with Alexandra, leaving the other three to walk a few feet behind. ‘You having fun?’ she asks Alexandra, gently.
Alexandra nods. ‘Oh yes,’ she says. ‘Your friends are so nice to me and your world is exciting.
Bianca smiles. ‘I’m glad you feel that way.’ She tightens her grip on Alexandra’s hand and pulls her in a little. ‘I like having you here.’
‘I like being here.’ Alexandra beams at her. ‘What is this ‘supermarket’ of which you spoke?’
‘Ahh. It’s this place where you buy food and stuff. This way.’ Bianca leads Alexandra down the street and onwards for ten minutes, the two of them chatting idly as they go. When they arrive at the supermarket, the automatic doors catch Alexandra by surprise.
‘Magic!’ she exclaims.
‘Nah, just electronics.’ Bianca shoves Alexandra in through the door and into the shoppers.
Daisy, Cory and Scotty catch up behind them, bringing a trolley with them, and Daisy says, ‘So, where do we start?’
‘Fruit,’ says Bianca. ‘Then sweets and chocolate.’
‘Fruit?’ Alexandra enquires. ‘We have fruit in my world.’
‘Really?’ says Scotty. ‘Even... bananas?!’ He produces from seemingly nowhere a large bunch of bananas. Alexandra raises an eyebrow.
‘We have bananas,’ she says.
‘Hm...’ Daisy picks up a melon. ‘What about this? You like melons, don’t you Alexandra?’
Bianca smacks Daisy around the head and the redhead bursts out laughing. Alexandra, however, just takes the melon and says, ‘We do not have melons.’
‘We’ll take that then.’ Bianca pops it in the trolley and the small group spends the next ten minutes going through the sweets section.
‘Try one of these, too,’ Bianca says, adding a packet of Sour Skittles to the trolley.
‘And this!’ Cory drops some Lemon Sherberts in.
‘Are we trying to make her fat?’ Scotty enquires, contributing large amounts of fat free and sugar free sweets to the trolley.
‘One binge won’t hurt, Scotts,’ Daisy says, practically leaping on him and wrapping her arms around his neck from behind. ‘You’re just jealous because your metabolism is slow like Homer Simpson and you eat one chocolate and you start to look like him.’
Scotty huffs. ‘Hardly,’ he says, haughtily. ‘I just don’t want her getting fat and blaming us.’
‘A large stomach is a sign of wealth and nobility where I am from,’ Alexandra announces. ‘But my family and I prefer to spread our wealth to the people and help them to eat, rather than eat ourselves.’
‘See?’ Daisy says. ‘She doesn’t mind!’ She hops down off Scotty’s back and grabs a large box of chocolates, full of truffles and creams.
‘How much is this all coming to?’ Cory asks.
‘Uh, forty I think,’ Daisy says, consulting her list upon which she’s been jotting down prices.
‘All right.’ Scotty tosses a big bag of fruit sweets at Bianca, who puts them in the trolley. ‘We done?’
‘Yep.’
*
They emerge back into the sunlight from the warm interior of the supermarket and head straight for the nearest area of grass, which happens to be a small park.
‘Here.’ Bianca spreads out the bags and reaches for the first item: a large box of chocolates. She’s never been as horrified by anything as the discovery that Alexandra’s world does not have chocolate. ‘Try this.’
Alexandra accepts a dark chocolate truffle and bites into it. After a moment, her face lights up and she looks almost reverent. ‘I have never tasted anything so exquisite!’
‘I know right?’ Bianca grins. ‘And that’s not even the best one. Here, try this, it’s a champagne truffle.’
The group spend the next half an hour feeding Alexandra random choices from the large collection of sweets and chocolates and noting which she likes and which she doesn’t. Sour Skittles, for example, cause her to wrinkle her nose, do this funny head-shake-shudder and squeal. She’s not a fan of those. She seems to like milk and white chocolate, although dark is her favourite, and she doesn’t like it when the chocolate is accompanied by citrus. Lemon truffles are completely off the menu.
She’s sitting, sucking on a cherry lollipop, Cory watching her intently, when Daisy says, ‘We should take her to a theme park. She’d love that.’
‘If you can afford that, feel free,’ Bianca says, ‘but I blew all my allowance today on this.’
‘Cory!’ Daisy grins at him.
‘No.’ Cory shakes his head. ‘I’m not allowed to spend any large amount of money until July. Something about spending way too much on my guitar.’
‘Damn.’ Daisy looks displeased.
‘That’s okay, we can do it another time,’ Scotty suggests, cheerfully.
‘Sure.’ Daisy lounges back on the grass and checks her phone. ‘It’s getting late,’ she says. ‘Mum’ll be wondering where I am. Oh, wait. No she won’t.’
‘Dais...’ says Cory.
Daisy shrugs. ‘Hey, at least neglectful parents is something we all have in common, right?’ She laughs. ‘Hand me the chocolate.’
She breaks off a large strip of milk chocolate and savours it as Bianca watches. ‘Is that how you guys became friends?’ Bianca asks the group. ‘You bonded over your
mutual issues with parents.’
‘Nah, I became friends with Daisy because she broke my leg in drama,’ Cory says.
Bianca blinks. ‘You what?’
‘We were doing a rehearsal and she slipped, landed on top of me, pinned my leg wrong and snap. She felt so bad she went with me to hospital and kept coming to my house with movies and chocolates.’ Cory eats a truffle, as though to illustrate. ‘We bonded.’
‘I’m sure there’s a word for ‘bonding’ with someone who abuses you...’ Bianca muses. Daisy hits her on the shoulder and she laughs.
‘Daisy’s right, though,’ Cory says. ‘We probably should go home. Else the parents will choose this one time to notice our absence.’
‘Yeah, you’re right. And I have to smuggle a princess and a whole lot of chocolate into my room without my mum noticing,’ Bianca says.
‘That won’t be too hard,’ Scotty replies. They laugh for a moment and then, as a group, stand up. ‘Come on,’ he says. ‘I’ll walk you home.’
*
Once they’re home and Alexandra and Bianca have changed out of their uniforms, the two girls sit on Bianca’s bed and go through the sweets some more.
‘Try some Smarties.’ Bianca proffers them in Alexandra’s direction and the princess spends the next ten minutes sucking the chocolate out of the middle of each one individually and then eating the shell.
Bianca finds this adorable and very amusing. ‘You’re a strange one,’ she says, with a smile.
‘I am normal,’ Alexandra says, completely seriously. ‘It is your world that is strange and unusual. You have such peculiar customs and mannerisms. You touch and attack each other without provocation but without meaning harm... and you accept me so readily.’
‘You’re lucky my friends are accepting people,’ Bianca says, finding it strange that all of a sudden Scotty’s friends are her friends, too. ‘A lot of kids wouldn’t be so accepting. They’d think you are weird and treat you badly.’
‘I have been considered ‘weird’ for a lot of my life,’ Alexandra says, quietly. ‘I have always dreamed of a prince who will come to me, of a person I could be with forever, of a world with no conflict, united beneath my gentle rule. Most people do not understand this.’
‘You gonna be Queen Alexandra some day?’ Bianca enquires, tucking in to a piece of shortbread.
Alexandra nods. ‘I am,’ she says. ‘And you shall be Queen Bianca.’
Bianca chokes on her shortbread. ‘I...what?!’
‘As my Prince Charming, you will one day rule at my side.’ Alexandra smiles. ‘You will be a wonderful Queen, I believe.’
‘Look,’ Biance says, softly. ‘Not only do you seem to have some major issues with getting genders confused, here, but also you aren’t listening. I’m not your Prince Charming. One day, I’m sure, your prince will come, but Alexandra... I’m not him, I’m sorry.’
Alexandra looks down and nibbles on the strip of chocolate. There are tears in her eyes, so Bianca determinedly looks away, wishing she could make Alexandra understand and not have to upset her.
‘I think you are my Prince Charming,’ Alexandra says, quietly, not looking back up or meeting Bianca’s eyes. ‘Whether you say you are, or whether another may call himself such. I will always believe this.’
Bianca sighs and she’s about to argue some more when she notices Alexandra looking at her again and smiling. The atmosphere has changed, so she lets it go.
‘Thank you, Bianca,’ Alexandra says.
‘What for?’ Bianca says.
‘Today. Missing a day of your ‘school’ to give me a day full of enjoyment and adventure.’ Alexandra leans across, kisses Bianca’s cheek and rocks back onto her heels. ‘This day meant much to me. I will remember it always.’
‘Hey, it wasn’t just me,’ Bianca says, trying valiantly not to blush. ‘Scotty, Cory, Daisy... they helped too.’
‘And tomorrow I shall thank them, also,’ says Alexandra. ‘But for tonight, my thanks belongs to you, and only you.’
Bianca smiles. ‘You’re welcome, Alexandra, you really are.’
Nine
Two weeks after Alexandra’s unexpected arrival into the world, Bianca wakes up, yawns, and turns over. Despite the fact that for fourteen days she’s woken up and found Alexandra beside her, she still wakes up and expects to find the bed empty and to discover it was all a truly crazy dream.
Once more, however, she finds her bed not empty and Alexandra is there, curled up in a ball on the other side of her bed, wearing Bianca’s Hello Kitty pyjamas. Her palm is beneath her cheek, her hair is fanned out over the pillow and her lips are slightly parted as she sleeps soundly. There’s about two feet between the two girls on the mattress, a respectable distance agreed upon by both of them the first night.
It occurs to Bianca as she watches the blonde sleep beside her that she really has no idea how she’s managed to hide Alexandra’s presence in her house from her parents for this long.
She takes a moment to muse this and figure it out. Every morning, the two of them shower, dress and come downstairs. By the time Julia rouses, it appears like Alexandra has merely arrived to walk to school and Julia never asks or even wonders, nor does she get up early enough to make sure her daughter is up for school and find Alexandra in her bed. Every evening, Bianca sneaks the other girl upstairs, then comes thundering back down the stairs to announce her arrival back home. Every night before sleep, Bianca sneaks some food upstairs and they have a mini picnic on her bed. None of her family notice this, either, and although it hurts a bit, she figures it’s better this way.
Her time in boarding school impressed a need for privacy on her long ago and because of this, after all of one argument, Julia never walks into Bianca’s room without knocking and when she knocks Bianca stuffs Alexandra into the wardrobe so fast the blonde’s head spins. Despite that, Alexandra always stays completely silent and Julia never notices anything wrong in the room.
She doesn’t come in very often.
So far they haven’t been caught, and this is exactly how Bianca plans for it to stay.
She turns away from Alexandra in the dark and towards the clock. If she’s lucky – very, very lucky – it’ll be three, maybe four in the morning and she can get another few hours of well-deserved rest before Alexandra-the-Rooster crows and all hope of sleep is lost. Her eyes land on the clock, which proudly proclaims in large red numbers that is it five fifty nine, which means it will go off in...
As soon as that thought enters her mind, the alarm does just that with an ear piercing series of high-pitched beeps. Bianca groans and slams her hand into the off button, praying to all that is good in the world that she turned it off and not onto snooze.
Alexandra stirs and turns onto her back, staring up at the ceiling with bleary eyes.
For a moment, Bianca thinks she might doze off again and they can just be late for school because she needs some more sleep. She just does. It’s, like, a necessity at this point. This wonderful thought disappears almost immediately, however, when Alexandra bounces to her feet, rushes towards the window, throws open the curtains and exclaims, ‘Good morning, world!’
Bianca turns away from the horrifically bright, violent, very, very horrible light and groans, throwing her pillow over her head.
Sometimes she hates Alexandra and wishes she had never, ever come into her life.
She pokes her head out from under the pillow, bravely, and lays eyes on the princess as she perches, daintily, at the end of the bed and brushes her golden hair.
Okay, Bianca only hates her on when it’s morning and early. The rest of the time...
She emerges a little more and eyes Alexandra as the blonde gives her the largest, most heartfelt smile she has ever had the pleasure of witnessing, and returns to the brushing of her hair.
Yeah, the rest of the time she’s really quite fond of this girl.
*
‘So, we have the party tonight,’ Bianca announces, as she pours cereal into a
bowl for herself and watches Alexandra butter and apply marmalade to a slice of toast with the skill and precision of a girl who’s been doing it all her life, not just a couple of weeks.
‘We do?’ Alexandra enquires, looking up with her big eyes shining with interest. She takes a bite of the toast and Bianca smiles, fondly. Out of everything Bianca has given her to try, toast and marmalade is the thing that has become Alexandra’s favourite food.
‘Yeah, didn’t you hear the conversation on Friday? Cory’s having his sixteenth birthday party tonight. Some club around the corner. His mum – they’re rich gits, to be honest – booked the place for the whole night and we’re invited. Both of us.’
She doesn’t add that Cory’s exact words were, ‘You’ll come, right Alexandra? Right? Right? Right? Oh, and you, too, Bianca.’ Alexandra was just too busy admiring the marvel that was a pen to really notice and Bianca really didn’t want to draw attention to it.
‘That sounds simply marvellous!’ Alexandra announces. She claps her hands together and Bianca wonders where the toast disappeared off to. ‘Whatever shall we wear?’
She seems to already be planning ball gowns in her head, so Bianca interrupts her thoughts, quickly, with, ‘I have two party dresses. There’s a green one and a pink one. I gather you’d like the pink one?’ She laughs and Alexandra follows suit, smiling from ear to ear.
‘Pink is my colour,’ she says, happily. ‘Oh, this will be an excellent night! I cannot wait! Your friend, Cory, is such a gentleman.’
Bianca snorts at this, knowing full well that Cory is not a gentleman. At least... not around Bianca. She sobers when Alexandra gives her a wide-eyed and honestly confused look.
‘I mean... he’s not my friend,’ she corrects, quickly. ‘He’s our friend. He knows you as well as he knows me...’ She pauses. ‘In fact, I think he knows you better. You do spend an awful lot of time talking to him...’
‘Cory and I possess a lot of interests in common,’ Alexandra says, brushing crumbs from her hands and standing up from the table, walking into the kitchen. Bianca wants to ask what time, exactly, Alexandra has spent playing endless hours of Call of Duty, since that’s the only interest she’s aware of that Cory has. ‘Our conversations are always pleasurable.’
A Hole in the World Page 7