╒══════════════════╕
Chapter Ten
Invalidation at Its Finest
╘══════════════════╛

     TORI SAT ALONE IN HER BEDROOM WITH HER HEADPHONES ON and plugged into her phone as she lied on her stomach on top of the mattress. She didn't know how many times she had listened to her favourite band's new album but she kept listening to it anyway until the lyrics were engraved into her memory. Another thing that was engraved into her memory was the heated make out session between MF and Sweet Pea. She got a glimpse of the logo on the back of her leather jacket and saw the Serpent logo, even though Serpent jackets weren't allowed but the Serpent girl clearly didn't care at all. Knowing that MF was a Serpent only increased her insecurities. She was a girl who had that badass personality and didn't care what people had to say or think about her and she had the body that Tori could only dream of having but never actually achieve. MF was a Serpent and so was Sweet Pea, just the perfect match.

     She turned up the music louder and focussed on the drawing in front of her. She wanted to rearrange her bedroom because she was getting tired of the same look so she was using her spare time to sketch some ideas. Since it was the weekend, she had enough time to plan every detail on one day and rearrange everything the next day. She even invited Cheryl to come over and help and maybe give her some last minute ideas. Although her mother didn't approve of her friendship with Cheryl, she still allowed her to invite her to help rearrange her bedroom. Tori was slightly nodding her head while sketching out ideas and the music was so loud that she didn't hear her mother knocking on the open door to her room. It took a while before Tori looked up and saw her mother standing in the doorframe. She took her headphones off and rested them around her neck as she sat up.

     "I started the laundry but the hospital called and wants me to come in today so I won't have time to finish everything," her mother said. The woman already had her nurse scrubs on and her bag so she had to leave pretty soon. "When that load finishes, I need you to put it in the dryer and get started on the others."

     "Okay," Tori said while slightly nodding her head.

     "I love you, call me if you need anything," Tori's mother said while walking over and planting a kiss on her forehead.

     "Love you too," Tori said while smiling.

     The older woman left Tori's room and headed down the stairs. Tori heard the door open and close and looked out the window as her mother got inside the car and left. She went down to the basement to check on the load of laundry that was already in the washing machine and it was going to take almost half an hour for it to finish washing. She went back upstairs to continue working on her sketches and she saw a new text message from Cheryl. When she opened the conversation, Cheryl was asking Tori to send the first few sketches she has so far. Tori flipped through the pages that had the first two plans sketched out and took photos of each page to send to Cheryl.

     While she was waiting for Cheryl's response, she continued working on the third sketch like she was doing before her mother came in to tell her that she had to head over to the hospital for a shift. Her phone dinged and she looked on the screen to see that Cheryl had sent her response and thoughts about each sketch so far.

     The first sketch was basically a flip version of what her room looked like at the moment. It didn't seem like Tori was thinking outside the box when they both knew that she could be more creative than that. The second one was better and had a little bit more "Tori" to it so it was currently under "maybe" for Cheryl. When Tori finished the third sketch, she took a photo of it and sent it to Cheryl. Third time's a charm, she thought to herself as she waited for Cheryl to respond. When her phone dinged, she checked for Cheryl's response and smiled at the words the redhead had typed out and sent.

     Cheryl:     Definitely that one.

     Tori typed and sent a simple "okay" and put her phone down on the nightstand. She closed her sketchbook and went back down to the basement to check the laundry. She spent the next few hours doing the laundry and sorting through her clothes and her mother's clothes and folding them. By the time everything was folded and put away, it was dark outside and the only light source in the bedroom were her strings of fairy lights on the walls. She put her sketchbook away and went back downstairs to the kitchen to look for something to eat. She only found leftovers from the night before sealed into a plastic ice cream container stored in the fridge. She microwaved some of the food and put the rest back in the fridge before sitting down at the table and eating by herself.

     When she was finished, she rinsed her plate and put it in the dishwasher. The fatigue started to kick in and she turned off the lights in the kitchen but left the living room lights on so the place wasn't completely dark when her mother came home. She carried herself up the stairs and into her room where everything was illuminated by the soft glow of the fairy lights on the walls. She didn't even bother looking for a pair of clothes to sleep in, she just stripped down to her underwear and crawled under the blanket. She turned off the fairy lights and buried her face into the pillow as she let her body relax under the softness of the duvet.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

     "I'M SO GLAD YOU CALLED ME OVER HERE TO HELP," CHERYL CHIRPED when Tori opened the door and let the redhead inside.

     "Well, who better to ask than Cheryl Bombshell, the Queen of Design, fashion wise and decor wise?" Tori asked while smiling.

     Cheryl smiled back as she held up a box decorated with cherries.

     "I brought some old stuff I don't use anymore, I thought that maybe you could make use of them," she said. Tori looked at the cardboard box that Cheryl was carrying and lead her upstairs to her bedroom. Cheryl put the box down on top of Tori's bed and looked around the room with her hands on her hips. "Man, you weren't joking when you said you needed to redecorate."

     "I thought that maybe we could move the bed and the bookshelf first before we move anything else," Tori said.

     "Take care of the bigger stuff before we deal with the smaller stuff. This is why you're so smart," Cheryl said while smirking.

     Cheryl picked up the cardboard box she brought and put it somewhere else. Both girls placed their hands under the bed frame and Tori counted to three before they both lifted with all their strength and moved it away from the wall before they had to put it back down for a while.

     "This is heavier than I thought it would be," Tori said.

     "Imagine how heavy it would be if it was just you lifting it," Cheryl pointed out.

     "Good point," Tori sighed.

     "New plan. You push, I pull."

     "Got it."

     Cheryl pulled one end of the bed and Tori pushed the other end and once the bed was right where they wanted it to be, the both pushed from the foot of the bed until the headboard touched the wall. The bookshelf was moved from beside the door to right beside the window. Once that was taken care of, Cheryl pushed the dresser to a spot closer to the closet and Tori moved the nightstand to the side of the bed that was closer to the window. Once everything was where they were supposed to be, they started working on the decorations. Cheryl insisted that they take down the fairy lights from three of the walls but keep one string of lights right above the headboard.

     "I still can't believe you have every single Michael Jackson CD," Cheryl said while looking through all the CDs Tori kept in a black and white paisley patterned box.

     "They don't call him the King of Pop for nothing," Tori chuckled while taping her posters in different places.

     "As for what's in the box I brought over, there's some nail polish in there and some jewelry I thought would look really good on you," Cheryl said as she put the CDs back in the paisley box.

     "Is that all that's in the box?" Tori questioned.

     "There's also some face masks that I know you'll love and some bath bombs," Cheryl said while shrugging her shoulders.

     "They're not exactly stuff you found lying around, are they?"

     "Fine. I thought if I put together a gift box of all your favourite things, you'd see how sorry I really am."

     "Cheryl, I already know how sorry you are and I'm past that now," Tori said as she sat on the carpeted floor with her redheaded best friend.

     "So you forgive me?" Cheryl asked.

     "Of course. You're my best friend and I love you," Tori said as she wrapped her arms around Cheryl's shoulders. "You wanna watch a movie?"

     "Free Willy?" Cheryl asked.

     Tori pulled away and looked at the redhead with fake shock on her face.

     "You just read my mind," she said. "You get the movie started, I'll get the popcorn."

     Tori went downstairs to make the popcorn while Cheryl got the movie started. Once the popcorn was ready and put into a large bowl, she went back upstairs to her room where Cheryl was waiting on the floor with the TV on. Tori sat next to her and placed the bowl of buttered popcorn between them as Cheryl pressed play. The girls spent the next hour and a half watching the movie until it was time for Cheryl to go, leaving Tori alone with her thoughts.