The weekend was like it usually is. Boring. I got my homework done, watched TV and DVDs. There was a family party on Sunday that I had to go to. I spent the party making small talk with aunties and uncles. It was the same conversation over and over again—How is school? What grade are you in now? Eat! Eat! Adults don’t know how to talk to kids, not that they really cared what I thought. When I was lucky enough to not be talking to them, I was reading. It was a book I had to read for English, so it was a good excuse to keep busy.
I knew I had to ask my parents about next weekend. After avoiding it all weekend, Sunday night I finally asked my mom. She gave me the evil eye and acted like I wanted to run off to Las Vegas with a guy to get married. I sat there letting her talk and talk. There was no point to argue with her, it would only make her mad and I wouldn’t be able to go. I just tried to tune her out. When she started sounding reasonable again, I reminded her it was for a class assignment, showed her the paper and reiterated that it wasn’t a date. Hell, his little brother was even going to be there. That Saturday was my cousin Kathleen’s birthday. The only way she would let me go to the carnival was to go to Kathleen’s immediately after. She also insisted that I didn’t drive. She wanted Patrick to drive, so she could meet him. Again, not that it was a date, but there would be no talking her out of it, if I wanted to go.
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On Monday, Patrick brought in his video camera and we filmed the video portion of our lab.
“Can you go to the carnival?” Patrick asked as he reset our project.
“Yeah...” Now I had to find some way to ask him if he would drive.
“Cool. You want a ride? I can pick you up.”
Well, that was easy. I guess I didn’t have to ask. “Sure, if you don’t mind.”