❝𝙤𝙝 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙜𝙧𝙖, 𝙢𝙮 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙜𝙧𝙖, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙤 𝙙𝙖𝙢𝙣 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙖 𝙥𝙞𝙚𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙩.❞

•°. *࿐ "𝐀𝐍𝐃 Frank said that you're a slut." said Mandy Milkovich, looking into Allegra's closet while Reggie was listening to all the shits she just told her.

"And what did you say?" Allegra asked, playing nervously with her fingers.

"What kind of question is that? I had always approved of him, you little canadian bitch." Mandy smiled, showing her friend a short black dress with the biggest décolleté Allegra had ever seen.

For a second Reggie almost forgot that she bought that dress for her mother's wedding — but never wore it.

With a pleasant smile on her face, Mandy took off her t-shirt and skirt, throwing her clothes in Allegra's bed. Then she tried on the dress, making a face at her friend and pointing to the the length and style of that black piece of velvet.

"I look like a piece shit." she finally murmured, bending the lower part of the dress to make it shorter. "Ian definitely won't like the way I look."

"Are you still in love with him or something?" Allegra asked again, starting to feel bad after she realised that she kept asking stupid questions that clearly irritated Mandy.

"He's fucking gay, canadian bitch. And he fell in love with another Milkovich. But we're still friends and I know that he'll make jokes about this hideous dress. This is the only sexy thing you have in your closet?"

Why was Allegra helping Mandy to pick an outfit for that dinner with the Gallaghers? Why was Allegra helping someone who constantly called her 'canadian bitch'? Or why was Allegra even friends with someone who treated her like that. Probably she was too sensitive and didn't understand Mandy's personality at first but they had been spending some time together since Allegra moved in Canaryville.

They first met when Allegra arrived at her aunt's house. Mandy hadn't paied attention to Reggie's story before she mentioned drugs and all the bad things she did when she was in college.

"You know what? Give me those scissors."

She cut Allegra's dress, making it way sorter than it was before. Then she looked in the miror with all the joy dancing in her light blue eyes. Eventually, everything looked good. The makeup, outfit and hairstyle gave Mandy her consecrated 'bad girl' look.

On the other hand, Allegra wore a black tank top with a cardigan over it — because she didn't want to 'show too much' skin, and her favorite pair of jeans.

"You should join me. It'll be so fun for you to meet Lip, Ian, Debbie, Carl and Liam. They're all so nice... excepting Lip. He can be a dick sometimes, just because his IQ has more digits than my body count."

Allegra giggled and let Mandy grab her hand, starting to dance together in her room — without music. They both seemed to be so happy even if they didn't have a reason.

Eventually they left Kevin and Veronica's house, deciding to stay in the middle of the garden as long as Mandy smoked a cigarette. On the other side, at Gallaghers' house, Carl was playing outside — or he just wanted to kill a pigeon with his trashy slingshot — when he saw them. At first, he looked at Mandy and made a face at her and then he took a look at that beautiful girl that sit next to Mandy, Allegra. She seemed to be so pure, with that small grin in the corner of her mouth which made her the coolest girl on the face of this Earth — on Carl's eyes. He stared at her for almost five minutes without saying anything, just smiling like an idiot he was, until Mandy laughed and said:

"Ayo, neighbor! Stop staring at us and go announce your older brothers that we're here!"

"They are here! They are here! They are here!" yelled Carl, running into the living room as fast as he could.

"What the fuck Carl?" Lip asked being really exasperated of his brother's behavior. "Who's here?"

"Mandy and a really nice-looking girl. I don't know what her name is or why is she here but she looks good. So good."

"Oh, her name is Allegra and she's Veronica's niece." said Ian softly, peeping through the window to see if the girls were still outside.

Lip spotted Carl's enthusiasm so he let his younger brother set another place at their table, watching how Ian welcomed the 'guests' with his arms around Allegra and Mandy. If Lip didn't know what Ian's sexuality is he'd automatically assumed that his brother had been seeing Allegra since he left and went to college.

"Reggie, he's Ian."

Allegra looked at the freckled boy and smiled, being absolutely fascinated by his adorable way of blushing. For five seconds the girl almost tried to count those small freckles that colored his pale face.

"My name's Allegra but you can call me Reggie if you want."

"Pleasure to meet you. I really like your—"

The ginger was about to compliment Allegra but he was interrupted by Carl who seemed to got angry because his brother put himself in the spotlight.

"Ian, shut the fuck up! The dinner is ready!"

Everyone was sitting down at the table in the pure silence when Carl took a look at Allegra — who, in her turn, looked at Lip — and then cleared his throat.

"So, Algebra, why are you here? Have you ever had a boyfriend? Do you like drugs? Or dead animals? Or fights? Or blood? Or stitches?"

Mandy giggled and smoothly nudged Ian who started to laugh like a little child. Debbie tried to analyze the situation because, in the first place, she didn't understand anything from her brother's reaction. But Lip was annoyed than ever. He had mimed a 'shut up' in an aggressive manner before he got up from the table earlier in that evening. He lit a cigarette and sat on the stairs, preparing himself for the personal bullshits Allegra was about to talk about.

"My name's Allegra, not Algebra. And yes, I had a girlfriend and we broke up when I arrived in Canaryville. And no, I don't like drugs but I was expelled from my college because I tried to sell them to my roommate."

"Jesus Christ! You tried to sell drugs? Ian, Allegra is the perfect girl. Now tell me 'my name's Allegra, not Algebra' , when's the wedding?"

"Carl, Allegra can be your mother." Ian chuckled while Lip rolled his eyes and stubbed out his cigarette. "Although I don't think that she could be pregnant at seven."

"Also I guess she's a lesbian so Carl's chances are lower than his IQ." said Lip kissing Carl's head. "But don't worry dude, there are a lot of girls that are in love with you... and your strange addiction to electrocute dolls."

"They have to pay for their sins."

Allegra grabbed Mandy's hand and looked at her, trying to not laugh like Ian did some minutes ago. The whole situation made her really happy and somewhere — probably in the darkest part of her soul, she felt like, somewhat, the Gallaghers will be more than simple neighbors to her. They were chaotic but she found peace in their chaos and decided to live there forever.

"Actually I'm a bisexual woman but... Ugh—" she cleared her throat, listening to the sound of Carl's breathing. "As Ian said, Carl, I'm older than you and a little birdie told me that our relationship is not going to work". added Reggie and everyone stopped for a minute just to look at her. "Okay, I'm feeling like Snow White right now."

And she was right. All the Gallaghers were looking at her like the seven dwarfs looked at Snow White when they found her in their house.

"Lip is Grumpy! Lip is Grumpy!" said Ian and Carl at the same time, the sound of their voices made everyone burst out laughing.

"Allegra isn't Snow White. You really forget that the person who raised us and cared about us is in jail. You're really happy for no reason. This girl just arrived in our neighborhood and y'all treating her like a princess." murmured Debbie and a tremendous silence fell over the room. "I miss her."'

"Yeah, we all miss her. She went to jail and I couldn't go to college because I became the guardian angels for this assholes."

"Yo Lip, Allegra can help you. You both act like two pensioners and you'll make a good duo together. Maybe she can be 'the new Fiona'." Mandy shrugged and looked at Ian who nodded — even if he was surprised by the fact that Mickey's sister said something smart about that knotty problem and stopped acting like the troublemaker she was.

"Nobody can replace Fiona. Not even... this canadian bitch." Debbie got up from the table just like Lip, took Liam in her arms and went upstairs.

Allegra was about to go back to her aunt's house when Lip came closer and put a hand on her shoulder, looking into her dark brown like he felt sorry for all the shits Debbie just said. Ian and Carl had been staying in their room since Debbie left and Mandy was sitting on the coach, smoking a cigarette, drinking beer and trying to fall asleep.

Reggie looked up, back at the blonde boy, offering him a courteous smile, like nothing happened — or everything was just a dream. In fact Debbie was right. A stranger would never replace their beloved sister who did a lot of shits for them. Maybe she tried so hard to be loved by the Gallaghers and tended to abuse the 'Veronica's niece' privilege. In her opinion, the Gallaghers were forced to like her because she was related to their neighbor. She felt disappointed. Disappointed by the fact that her expectations were too high and she probably had said some bullshits that offended Debbie.

"I'm sorry, Allegra."

"It's okay... Lip. I don't think it was my fault, actually but I'm sorry for destroying your dinner."

"You did nothing wrong. Our dinners are like this one every single day. I just wanted to say that I was thinking about what Mandy said and she was right."

"What I fucking said? Oh... You want Reggie to help you with your siblings?"asked Mandy happily, drawing imaginary hearts in the air

"Yeah. So... Allegra, would you like to help my with this shit? It's okay if you don't want to but remember... Nothings lasts forever. You can say 'Fuck you, Lip Gallagher' and move one whenever you want."

alicia speaks!!

helloooooo everybody!! i'm so so happy to be here right now, after i wrote the first chapter of this book. i have big big plans for the plot and i hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as i did when i first read it.

also i'm so so sorry for the grammar/spelling mistakes or phrases that didn't make sense but i swear that i tried my best <3