Survival Of The Fittest

((Continued from: A Side Lesser Shown))

The past hour since she had left the mall seemed to have simply flown by for Ali Grayston.  She had left the mall -- she and Gregg apparently having decided on a prime time to exit as traffic had actually been minimal when she'd left the parking garage of Central Mall.  From there, she'd headed down to the Blockbuster Video nearest to Gregg's house and, eventually, he too had shown up.  Ali could only attest his lateness to the fact that he'd been forced to park several sublevels below the mall.

They'd spent probably twenty minutes in the rental store rummaging through various different movies until, with a bit of subtle hinting on Ali's part -- consisting mainly of subtle hints like "Let's rent that one!" -- Gregg had finally picked out a few videos for later in the evening.  Even now, it was beyond her how the dear boy, who had spent the past two years of his life working at a movie theatre, could be so oblivious to pop culture and the latest box office hits.  Then again, with Gregg, a lot of things didn't surprise her.  In a way, she figured, it was all part of his charm.

Twenty minutes in Blockbuster had been more than enough and she had inevitably ushered her rather indecisive counterpart out the door, videos in hand.  From there, they'd been forced to part ways briefly as Gregg headed back to his house to grab his things -- and if her assumption was correct, tell the overprotective woman known as his foster mother where he was going.  Then again, it was never a problem when Gregg wanted to come to the Grayston household.  His foster mother had always been rather fond of Ali, or so Ali liked to imagine.

In fact, and she was pretty sure Gregg was unaware of this, but she and his mother had gone out and had lunch together on several occassions.  It was almost as if she thought of Ali as the daughter she never had, and for someone like Ali who didn't share a genuine closeness with very many people, it was a nice feeling that was gladly received.  Of course, she had ulterior motives for wanting his mother to be as fond of her as she was, but those hadn't come up until just recently, and by then her relationship to the Archers was already a sealed deal.

She and Gregg had parted ways at Blockbuster and she had hurried back down the little street called Ramsgate Drive in beautiful Kensington Heights to make sure everything was just right.  The house, as always, was absolutely spotless.  Bianca, the resident maid tot he Graystons, always made sure of that, and she always did an amazing job.  By now most of the hired help had already left the premises for the evening, and Bianca had gone out at Ali's request, leaving her the house to herself.

After dumping the movies she'd carried home with her onto the glass coffee table in the den, she'd started the electric fireplace, assuming that after a swim the two could spend the rest of the evening in this room.  She'd decided to go swimming first, having assumed that the later into the evening hours it got on the April afternoon, the less effective the unseasonable heatwave they were underoing would be on the waters of the pool.

From there, she'd gone upstairs and ditched her current attire in favor of the little black bikini that had been hanging up.  Now, she looked herself over in the mirror, having already put the bikini on.  She grinned satisfactorily at the fact that both her bellybutton ring and her lower back tattoo -- the one her father had inevitably signed for on her sixteenth birthday in another case of "whatever princess wants, princess gets" -- were clearly visible.  Some people thought it was disgusting for a girl Ali's age to have a tattoo, but she rather liked it.

Not thinking much else of it, Ali pulled a breezy black skirt on, finally getting it situated to where it came a few inches above her knee.  Next came the white polo that had been laying on her bed.  It didn't really matter what she put on, she figured, seeing as they'd go swimming as soon as Gregg got here anyway.  Slipping on a pair of black flip-flops, Ali gave herself another once-over in the mirror and smiled to herself before bounding down the stairs and flopping down on the plush couch located in the den where she would await the arrival of her counterpart.

((Continued from ;; A Side Lesser Shown ))

After leaving the video store - out of there rather quickly, mostly in thanks to Ali not allowing him to linger on something for too long, as well as a quick phone call to his mother to tell her the plans and any suggestions of anything good that they could watch. The list, was rather long, and Gregg simply picked up whichever title he saw first, hopefully would be good, but Ali had interjected to his choice. Probably far to in shock that he had done this in the span of two minutes since entering the store to say anything. He figured, musing slightly to himself.

Yeah, that had to be it.

Strolling across the length of his room - having already changed in his swimming shorts, was now more or less gathering clothes to wear after they had finished swimming. Stepping over canvas painted to show different scenes, different people, anything and everything he had thought up in that span of time since he had begun painting. Sighing somewhat, he stepped on over another drying painting - the one he had started on when Ali had called - in order to remove one of the many articles of clothing from the floor. He'd really have to start learning how to wash clothes, instead of just tossing them wherever he pleased and hoping that maybe his mother would pick them up, seeing as none of the hired help wanted nothing to do with the 17-year-olds room.

Awkward, truth be told, that the people you had paid wouldn't even bother with his room - mum probably agreed with him.

Women...

Gathering spare clothes and hand, and slipping on one of the many pairs of sandals he owned, stepping out of his room and shutting the door behind him, he made his way through the halls, starting down the stairs – smiling a bit at the sight of his of his foster mother sitting on the couch, TV on and tissue boxes in hand, seems she was having a movie night all her own. Stepping into the living room itself, he glanced toward her – coughing slightly to at least tell the other that he was in the room, because goodness forbids if he didn't, woman wouldn't pay him any mind away from her movie.

"I'm heading over to Ali's now, I'll be back later alright?"

"As long as I don't get any phone calls at two in the morning that begin with "Mrs. Archer? We have your son..." I don't care when you get back." She mused, glancing toward him with a bit of grin.

Gregg returned the smile lightly, nodding, "Course mom, make sure if I do, do anything illegal - I won't get caught."

"Not quite what I meant but, I have faith in you Greggory."

That had been some ten minutes prior, and now the only sound he had was the slightly buzzing from the car radio and the sound of blowing wind. Quite the combination couldn't have anything better. But pulling into the lovely area, which Ali lived, he lived somewhat close, though nothing quite this far nice. Sighing a bit as he came to a stop sign, glancing off a bit before pulling along and turning down the street that he had gone down many times before.

Traveling down the road for a few more moments, the sight of Ali's house finally came into view, sighing slightly as he moved to pull into the driveway. Gathering all his things before climbing out and shutting the car door firmly behind him, and locking it up. Doubted anyone in this neighborhood would go through the trouble of breaking in to a car that was made some thirty years ago - but really, you never know. Sighing at that thought, he simply shook his head, padding along the driveway and onto the walkway that lead up to the front door, looking himself over once he got there.

Brushing at his shirt a little, he glanced up, leaning off a bit and pushing a finger against the lighted doorway - hearing it sound throughout the home from where he stood, which he continued to do, least till Ali answered the door.

The ringing of the doorbell in front of the extravagant Grayston household could only mean one thing to Ali: Gregg had finally arrived.  With a quick flick of the remote control, the picture on the big screen television that Ali had taken to watching some evening program on quickly faded into a dim gray.  After disguarding the remote control on the glass coffee table in front of the couch, Ali bounced up from her seated position and hurried from the den.

Bounding up the three stairs that formed a short drop-off into the household den, Ali proceeded to jog down the corridor a few feet before finally coming to a screeching hault in front of the large mahogany door.  A wide smile formed on her features as she opened the door, revealing her companion to indeed be standing on the other side.

"It's about time," she stated playfully.

Her hand extended downward just enough to grab the blonde-headed boy standing at her doorstep by the wrist.  After ushering her companion into the Grayston household, she promptly closed the door behind them.  Continuing to grasp Gregg by the wrist, Ali ushered him out of the small foyer and into the Graystons' kitchen.  The kitchen was large and roomy, and the back wall covered in full-sized windows that allowed a nice view of the pool just outside.

"I almost started to wonder if your mom kidnapped you and forced you into watching "The Notebook" again, you know," she mused once again.

Of course, Ali knew that movie had been showing on television.  In fact, she had been watching it herself just prior to Gregg's arrival.  She also knew that his mother was heavily into chick flicks, and so she could only surmise that right about now, Mrs. Archer was doing the same thing she had just been -- sitting in front of the television staring longingly at the pictures on the screen.  The movie had all but faded from her mind now, though, since Gregg had finally arrived.

She wasted no time in virtually dragging Gregg through the kitchen and out the glass door toward the pool.  In truth, she'd been looking forward to this as well.  She hated swimming alone, and although Gregg could always be counted on to join her if the whim arose, he'd been so busy as of late that they just hadn't had time.  Leaving Gregg to ditch his attire for something more suitable, Ali wandered to the small dressing room that had been built near the pool and confiscated a couple beach towels from within.

Returning momentarily, she took the liberty of tossing the towels on the nearby lounge chair before promptly relieving herself of the polo and skirt she'd pulled on a while before in favor of the black bikini she adorned underneath.  Meandering over toward the blonde-headed boy, she grinned mischeviously.  She had every intention of pushing him into the pool... at least, that was supposed to be the plan.