Precision & Skill

The iPad was stationed to the right of Nayeli, and the girl got to work on her nails while Alice got comfortable in her seat. She looked up to see the bright lights of the salon and listened to the pop music that was popular which was unfortunately overplayed at times. The salon that was introduced to her by Claudia on a whim had become a place that she had come to love a lot.

"Tell me, anything interesting has been going on lately for you?" Nayeli asked as she filed down Alice's nails.

Alice shrugged. "It's not too bad on my end. I haven't been doing anything special since I've been studying so hard for school and for the upcoming entrance exams for university. Something fun going on is that there is an end-of-the-year recruitment carnival for the next incoming students of my school, so that is exciting. My homeroom has been working hard on it."

"That's interesting. Tell me more about it."

"Well, the dean went by to every single homeroom class to set out this competition for the best one to come up with an activity during the carnival that will win a prize at the end," Alice explained.

"Do you know what the prize will be?"

"Not yet."

"I'm surprised that the students would put in a lot of effort to it."

Alice smiled since she didn't tell Nayeli about where she attended knowing that it would bring a different attitude to her whether that be better or for worse. She just wanted to be normal. "It's different for my school because the prizes are guaranteed to be worth your time. Some students don't put in the effort as you say, but to be fair, it is quite competitive."

"What were the prizes from last year?"

Alice hummed. "This is the first year they are doing something like this."

"Wow," Nayeli said. "Let's just hope that it isn't like a ticket to the nearest zoo or something."

Alice burst out laughing. "You seriously have no faith."

"I really don't," Nayeli said as she fought a smile.

"But it's been a lot of fun lately surprisingly," Alice admitted. "When it first started, I thought that I wouldn't like it. I was able to do new things and meet nice people."

"It's the high school dream to be able to do so, Alice. So enjoy it."

"I will," Alice smiled.

Nayeli looked up when Alice's tone changed, and Nayeli gave her a knowing smile. "Meet a special person?"

Alice shook her head. "Not in the way that you think."

"There must be someone who has caught your eye by now right?"

There was a flash of irritation that Alice was able to mask before shaking her head with a smile, but it was a bit tiring for Alice to always speak about such a topic with girls since it seemed to be the only topic that they wanted to talk about. There were many other things that Alice wanted to know rather than someone's love life such as aspirations and daily life for goodness sake.

She knew that Nayeli was being extremely kind about it, but it was still tiring in the end since Alice had always needed to deal with these questions with a bright smile on her face despite having Noah's face come up in her thoughts to taunt her. Even when he was out of her sight, he seemed to be able to do his job of annoying her.

There was a bit of silence as Nayeli got back to work, and Alice let Nayeli concentrate on her nails while Alice drifted off into thought. It was unfortunate that everyone thought that she seemed to have a lover of some sort when she could barely even get a boyfriend, and she shook her head knowing a lot of girls only wanted to gossip about such matters as a light topic but that wasn't the case for her.

Claudia had been looking at her in scrutiny lately, and Alice had no clue as to what it would be about since Alice didn't remember doing anything that could make her angry or anything that would have been deemed as suspicious because she definitely would remember if she did something like that rather than be absolutely confused and look like a fool.

Alice stared over her shoulder to scan the area to see where Claudia was, and she was sitting at the opposite end of the salon talking to her nail tech. They seemed to be having a good time judging by the true nature of Claudia's laughs, and Alice turned her attention back to Nayeli and tilted her head as she watched Nayeli paint her nails with definite precision that took a lot of practice and skill.