When she stopped by the convenience store to talk to her mother about the events of what happened that day, her mother passed her a clipboard of the request for job hires only to see a bolded name at the top that read 'Noah Park' and she handed back the board suspiciously at her mother wondering if her mom knew Noah's last name.
"I saw it on his card payment when he stopped by the other day," her mother said.
"Huh? When?" Alice asked.
"I think it was a couple of days ago at night. He seemed quite down."
"Hmm, I would have to ask him about it," Alice said.
"Do it, sweetie. I think he needs a friend."
Alice slid a look over to her mother.
"And he's also handsome."
Alice sighed before lifting a hand in a goodbye as she exited knowing exactly where she got her like for pretty faces from. It seemed as though she would be seeing Noah's face around more often now since he was determined to keep his word at applying to the convenience store. She sincerely thought he was joking, but she was learning that Noah was an unpredictable man.
It was weird to think about it, and Alice was startled by the speaker on the intercom telling her to come in. Alice pressed on it again making Claudia's pretty face appear on the screen, and Alice grinned as she leaned in closer to the camera and tapped it to act as if she had no idea what was going on.
Claudia rolled her eyes. "Just come in, stupid."
Alice covered her laugh with the back of her hand. "I'm sorry."
The gate clicked open, and the latch that held the black tall gate together slipped open making her able to push the gate forward so that she could step inside. She could never get over the beautiful driveway of Claudia's house with the circle driveway and the fountain in the center that served for a lot of their shenanigans when they were younger.
The greenery was overflowing with the wonderfully kept lawn and lovely flower beds Alice knew that the gardener, Mr. Tapia, worked hard on and was quite fond of. She kept her stroll slow with her platform white sandals hitting the stone pavement and waved over to Claudia to see that she was out on the doorstep waiting for her.
Alice would often wonder why Claudia's family had decided to purchase such a large house when it was only Claudia as a child when she was younger, but it was go big or go home it seemed. She and Claudia crossed paths by chance when Claudia had transferred to Alice's elementary school for a month when her parents had first bought the house.
She and Claudia had immediately become friends when they were kids, because Alice was determined to be nice to everyone, and Claudia was a bright kid which made Alice more often than not stay by her side since Claudia would have all the ideas, and it would be up to Alice to execute them.
Alice hung out at Claudia's house often since during that time, business for her parents was doing well, and they were quite busy making Alice ask if she could stay over at Claudia's which they would always agree to. Claudia's parents were kind-hearted people who would always spoil Alice from their first meeting.
The two months went by fast, but it was a core memory for her. Running around on the grass holding butterfly catchers and screaming when Claudia would catch a grasshopper instead with all the housekeepers chasing after them to make sure that they didn't hurt themselves, but as children they were free.
They split during junior high, but they kept in touch through phone numbers albeit Alice would have to use her parents back then while Claudia had her own number. They didn't even talk much during the long period of time that they didn't see each other, but they kept in touch enough to continue to support one another.
When Claudia heard that she got into INVU, Claudia was overjoyed since during the last year of junior high, Claudia worked hard to get into the academy since her parents made her go to cram schools to try and pass the entrance exam.
She on the other hand didn't worry too much about high school since she was going to attend the next step from the school that she was at.
It was a shock to Claudia that Alice had passed the INVU test without preparing for it, and Alice herself thought that it was a fluke or that she was extremely lucky, but in the end, she did realize that she was prepared. Her studying habits were strong and similar to what she was doing when she was still in junior high.
What started as a random thought to study ahead had become ingrained and she became somewhat irritated if she wasn't able to do so. The classes she was taking in junior high were advanced for her level as well, so she didn't feel as though it was out of range despite never ever thinking about attending the academy in the first place.