Brown Girl

Flightless Bird, American Mouth.

"How was dinner, brown girl?" Christina nudged Alisha as the three of them gathered around Alisha's locker.

"Interesting..." Alisha said, removing her books.

"And here we thought she was going to leave out the details." Mira sighed, making Christina roll her eyes.

"Hey, girls." Colt joined them, putting an arm around Mira shoulder, giving her a sweet kiss on the lips.

Christina groaned. "Great, now we're gonna have to deal with their mushy s**t every day."

"Did someone say s**t?" Joey interrupted, joining them.

"Yeah, it's something you need to take once in a while, Joe." Colt smirked making all of them chuckle.

"Don't get all cocky just cause you got a girlfriend, okay?" Joey raised his hands.

"Did someone say girlfriend?" Alex interrupted, joining them.

"Yeah, it's something you don't have the balls to get." Alisha snorted.

~

"Okay, people, settle down." The maths teacher, Mr.Satuki, a petite Asian man entered the class. "Today, we're going to have a surprise test."

This erupted groans from the class.

Alisha grinned. She loved tests.

"Someone's awfully dull for a test." Alex muttered from beside her.

She turned to him, grinning. "I love tests. Especially surprise tests!"

He looked at her for a moment. "You are such a mystery to me."

"You know," Alisha began.

"Chandler says that to Joey in the third season when Julio writes a poem 'Empty Vase' for Monica that Joey understands but Chandler doesn't." Alex completed her sentence.

Alisha smiled like a little kid. "Hey, you're a Friends freak too!"

"Now that I can add to my resumé." He shrugged making Alisha roll her eyes. Their chatter was cut off by Mr.Satuki distributing the papers.

Alisha began to give the 'easy as a cake' test furiously before her pen was snatched away. She turned to glare at Alex, because of whom there was a huge line on her paper.

He continued writing his test, oblivious to her glare, using her pen. Muttering curses, she fished out another one from her bag. But soon, that too was snatched away.

Alex just pretended, as if he didn't do anything, as he continued writing with the second pen, throwing the first one on the floor.

She growled and snatched the pen from his hand and started writing only to have it snatched again.

Groaning, she turned to him and whisper-screamed. "Do you get some sadistic pleasure out of torturing me?"

"Dude, I'm not Christian Grey." He snorted, making her growl. Huffing, she snatched the pen again and slid away from him and desperately tried to finish her test before he could snatch the pen again.

Smiling, he picked the first pen off the floor and completed the test but not before he scooted towards her and annoyed her throughout the test while kicking her in the shin.

~

"What's wrong, Alisha?" Joey asked, as he saw Alisha stare at Colin's empty table in concern during lunch time. It was only the both of them, since Mira and Colt had decided to have lunch out of school, Alex was back in the principal's office and Christina was in lunch detention.

"He's not here." She sighed.

"Who?"

"Colin."

"He must skipping school or sick or something." Joey shrugged.

"No, Joey..." She sighed.

He looked at her in concern. "Hey, is everything okay?"

Then she proceeded to tell him what happened the previous day, about how he confessed his feelings to her and she turned him down.

"Well, shit." Joey breathed.

"s**t? That's all you're going to say?" She scoffed.

"You hurt the guy pretty bad, Al." He sympathised. He was the only one who did call her 'Al'.

Alisha groaned. "I know, I know! But I don't see him that way, Joe."

"Yeah, but that's not how he's going to see it. He's going to think of you as the girl who broke his heart." Joey explained. "Relax, Al. He must be getting over the rejection, avoiding you."

"No, there's something wrong. I just know it, Joey. This is not like Colin. He never does this." Alisha shook her head.

Joey sighed. "Okay, if it means so much to you, we both will go to his house after school to check on him, okay?"

"You sure?" She bit her lip.

"Yeah!" Joey smiled making Alisha give him a hug.

"Thank you!" She exclaimed.

"You're welcome." He smiled, pulling away. "Now pass me that plate of fries...."

~

"Let's go?" Alisha asked Joey as they stood in the parking lot after the last period bell.

"Where you guys off to?" Alex asked, coming from behind.

"Joey and I have got some work to do." Alisha said while Joey nodded.

"Okay, have fun." He shrugged, a bit suspicious, and went off to his bike.

"I think lover boy's jealous." Joey smirked.

"I think lover boy's fine." Alisha rolled her eyes, walking to her car while Joey followed her.

They reached Colin's house in about fifteen minutes, and stood in front of the door, ringing the bell.

An old petite lady answered. "Yes?"

"Um, we're friends of Colin, ma'am and we were just wondering if Colin was around?" Joey spoke.

"Colin...." She trailed off, thinking hard with her eyebrows furrowed. "He just came home! Yes, he's sleeping right now but I'll tell him that you were here."

Alisha sighed in relief. "Thank you, ma'am. Please tell him Alisha dropped by."

"Alisha." She repeated the name. "Okay, I sure will."

"Thank you, again. Hope you feel better." Alisha smiled, remembering that she was in the hospital last week.

"Better? What happened to me?" She was surprised.

"I'm sorry, but Colin said that you were in the hospital last week." Alisha informed.

"Hospital? I've not been to one in eight years. I'm fit as a pickle." She chuckled. "That boy is always blabbering nonsense."

"Yeah, he is. That silly buddy of ours!" Joey chuckled back awkwardly. "We'll take your leave then."

"Okay, kids." She smiled and closed the door as Alisha and Joey headed back to her car. Alisha was too shocked to think about anything.

"He lied to me." Alisha whispered as she sat in the passenger seat. "He lied about his grandmother being in the hospital!"

"Woah. Hold up. What happened?" Joey asked, as he drove.

Then Alisha proceeded to tell him everything about her relation with Colin.

"Man, if I didn't know better, I say you stay away from him, Al." Joey said seriously. "He really is bad news."

"No, Joey. He's just a boy. He's a good friend...I can't ditch him like that." Alisha defended him.

"Look, Al," He said as he pulled into her driveway. "Friends don't behave the way he did. It's not normal."

She didn't say anything.

"If you don't believe me, ask anyone." He shrugged. "They all will tell you the same thing."

"Okay," she nodded. "Let's talk to Alex."

"Because my opinion doesn't matter, apparently." Joey muttered sarcastically making Alisha roll her eyes.

~

They both got out of the car and headed to Alex's house. They entered the house without knocking and went right up to his room. Joey had done this practically a million times.

"Dude, we need to talk." Joey barged into Alex's room, followed by Alisha. where Alex was completing his homework on his study table.

"Are you breaking up with me?" He asked sarcastically, looking up from his books, not even a bit surprised at their unannounced entry.

"It's serious." Alisha said and sat beside Joey on the bed.

Alex rolled towards the bed. "What's the matter?"

Joey and Alisha told him the whole story about what has been happening for the past month.

"So he confessed his feelings for you last night and you didn't tell me?" Alex asked Alisha.

"We're really going to focus on that, right now?" She glared at him.

"Fine." He sighed. "Basing on what you guys have told me, Colin seems to be bad news. You should stay away from him."

"I told you!" Joey exclaimed.

"I don't know..." Alisha trailed off covering her face between her hands. "It doesn't seem right, you know? It kind of seems a bit rude."

"Alisha, the way he behaved with you isn't normal! You have to keep a distance!" Joey tried explaining.

Alex took Alisha's hand. "Look, try talking to him. Maybe he's going through a rough patch. But if his behaviour is still the same, you have to keep your distance."

She looked at him and nodded. "Okay, I'll talk to him. Find out what's going on."

"Good." He whispered, squeezing her hand.

Joey groaned. "Why am I always the third wheel?"

"Shut up, Joe." Alex smiled, leaving Alisha's hand and regretting it instantly.

"Only if you get me some food." He smirked.

"I'm also kind of starving." Alisha added.

Muttering, Alex stood up. "You guys just use me."

"But you love us, anyway." Joey sang, standing up and giving Alex a hug. Seeing this, Alisha too joined in the hug.

"I feel like the dressing between a sandwich." He grumbled, as Alisha and Joey crushed him from two sides.

Laughing, they let go of him.

"Go make us some sandwiches." Alisha ordered plonking on the bed and Joey slapped Alex's ass, guiding him out of the room before joining Alisha, who was chortling at Alex's reaction.

Alex gave him the 'what the hell, dude?' look and walked away to make some sandwiches.

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