on my stomach. His weight felt as though he would crush me, but it didn’t matter- he easily silenced the noise from the other room. “I wish I were a dog. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about my parents or having friends, or going to school.” Grant whimpered as my parents’ screaming intensified. My body stiffened as a loud bang came from their room. I was about to jump into action when Grant settled both of his strong paws against me and pushed my body back down onto the bed.
“Grant, NO!” I shrieked. “I have to help my mother.” A low, uneven growl vibrated through his body. “Come on boy.” He growled again, terrifying me. “Bad dog.” I said quietly; my voice cracked betraying my authority. But it seemed to work; Grant whimpered and put his head down in my lap, nuzzling against my stomach as if he was sorry. Just then another THUD, but this time it was their bedroom door slamming. I held my breath and watched the bottom of the door as my mother’s shadow passed by. I listened to her footsteps on the stairs and then out the front door. My father usually was the one to leave; my mother probably had no idea where to go. Grant pushed down onto me even before I could formulize the thought to get out of bed and go after my mother.
“What has gotten into you?” I asked him. Grant looked at me as he stretched out further, daring me to tell him to move. “Ok, ok.” I gave in and mussed the hair between his ears. I lay back on the bed, thankful for the quiet, but worried what the next day might bring.
I guess I should’ve known that nothing would be different from last year. The only difference was my days were shorter and I was a year older. I waited on the porch for Jillian to pick me up for the first day. We only had one class together since I was ahead in school and she was behind. She had to take a full class load to be able to graduate in June.
“Come on boy, you have to stay in the backyard while I’m gone.” Dad refused to let him stay in the house with no one home.
I put up more found signs at my father’s request since the others kept blowing away.
“It’s ok.” I nuzzled my face into his thick hair around the base of his neck, half rubbing him, half roughing up his fur. “I’ll be home before you know it.” I clicked the gate shut and ran to the curb to meet Jillian.
“I can’t believe how big Grant is. Did he get bigger in the past week? Or is that just me?” I looked closely at the dog, turned monster, lurking behind the slats of the wooden fence; he was pacing like an exotic animal at the zoo.
“I don’t know.” My eyes fixed with one of his through the slats; he looked wilder than he had just a moment ago. I could swear his eyes had changed color. “He is a mature dog, I don’t think so.” Then I hesitated … “Ok, no more hamburger and rice for him.” I giggled as Jillian pulled the car away from the curb.
My first period I spent trying to figure out whom I pissed off to be paired as Office Assistant partners with Courtney Wilcox, West Brooke’s head cheerleader. As far as Jillian and I were concerned, she was the biggest bitch on campus. As far as she was concerned, Jillian and I were social road kill on high school highway.
Mrs. Stone showed us the student registries and the files. She pointed to a large stack of yellow sheets. “These are new admission forms and it’s your responsibility to have them all filed by the end of the term.” I looked at Courtney mindlessly picking at a piece of her nail. Mrs. Stone should’ve just said that it was my responsibility; Courtney wouldn’t do any of the filing.
Courtney settled into a chair at a desk that was emptied when half of the secretarial staff got laid off; hence the need for more student workers in the office. “Ms. Quinn, could you watch the counter for a few minutes while I take these to the nurse’s office?” She held up a huge stack of files.
“Sure.” I muttered as I glanced over at Courtney, now filing one of her nails.
I answered the phone several times and helped several freshman girls find their classes when the most beautiful guy walked through the door. At over 6 foot 5 inches tall he nearly blocked out the sun coming in the office windows. His sandy brown hair was cut in a short, disheveled way that would only work on someone as handsome as him. He had a perfectly defined jaw line and eyes so brown and inset that it didn’t look like he had any retinas. I tried to busy myself with meaningless paperwork, so I didn’t stare as he stopped to look at the bulletin board just inside the door. Another freshman girl sauntered up to the counter with her schedule.
“Hi, can you tell me where Ms. Fitzgerald’s class is?” One look at her schedule and I felt instantly terrible for her. Ms. Fitzgerald gave too many quizzes on Shakespearean literature and she had Ms. Quintero for Spanish.
“Sure you go back out the doors to the right until you reach the next set of doors. Go through those and it’s the first door on the left.” I smiled, trying not to glance at the guy as he stood behind her waiting his turn. My eyes briefly met his and I looked away, both nervous and embarrassed that he caught me gazing at him. The freshman girl hurried off to her class and the boy stepped towards the counter; his head cocked slightly forward with a lazy smile on his face. I’m sure he had melted more impressive girls’ hearts than my own with that look.
I barely squeaked out Hi when Courtney bounced her hip into me. “You can take your break now.” She mumbled to me. “Hiya. How can I service you?”
SLUT. I sulked back to the desk she had been occupying and started going through the yellow admission slips she had carelessly shuffled together so they were now out of alphabetical order. Courtney blatantly leaned over the counter towards the guy showing him what little cleavage she had. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, so I made up a conversation.
I’m Hot Guy SO-and-SO. You’re a sexy, dumb blonde cheerleader – wanna take my Beemer out to my parents’ place in Malibu for the weekend baby?
OH my hero … SWOON …
Gag. Twits.
“Earth to humanoid?” Courtney’s perfectly polished pink nails waived in front of my face.
“What?” I shook off my depiction of their gag-tastic conversation as Courtney looked at me annoyed.
“What does he do with this?” She shook his senior enrollment form in my face. He didn’t look like a senior; he looked old enough to be a Coach or even a teacher.
“It doesn’t have a parent’s signature.” I handed it back to Courtney, stating the obvious.
Courtney rolled her eyes and looked at the slip; obviously annoyed that she didn’t catch that before asking Lacky Lacey, a nickname that I’m glad lost its popularity by my sophomore year when I made the top five percentile of the class.
The boy leaned over the counter; the sun flowing in the windows behind him hugged his perfect silhouette. “Can you help me?” His long finger extended to point at me. I stopped breathing; someone may need to call the nurse to revive me.
I pointed to myself. “Me?” I looked at him in disbelief as he grinned larger.
“Yeah. This one has no idea what she is doing.” He crooked his thumb as though he was hitching a ride and pointed at Courtney. I had to suppress a laugh as he widened his gorgeous brown eyes and raised his eyebrows.
“Umm … sure.” I willed myself up and out of the desk to the counter; my legs betrayed me with every step making me feel like I was walking on jell-o. Courtney slinked back to the desk and sat on top of it, crossing her legs showing off more of her upper thigh than humanly possible without being naked. “This has to be signed by your parents.” I held out the yellow slip; instead of arms I had spaghetti noodles.
“I’m emancipated.”
“Just because you are 18 …”
His hand reached out and the tip of his fingers barely brushed mine on the paper. Shock waves vibrated through my whole body making my heart skip more than a few beats. “No, I mean I’m legally emancipated. You know, the whole court thing and all …”
“Really?” I asked without thinking. Courtney laughed behind me.
“Yeah, people can do that retard …” Courtney said loud enough for me to hear.
Bitch.
His
eyes held me there in an uncomfortable stare until I had to look away.
“Ummm …” I stalled feeling like a complete idiot. “Ok you need to sign here. I think they’ll ask for your paperwork.”
“Paperwork?” He raised his eyebrow and leaned forward on the desk to rest below my eyes, making it hard for me to concentrate.
“Yeah. Uh” DAMN. Now I’m saying UH. “I’ll have to check with Mrs. Stone, but since you don’t have a parent’s signature, you’ll need to show you’re emancipated.”
Mouth and brain connected? Check.
Breathing? Check.
Heart Beating? Check.
“Oh ok.” He responded. As he leaned back from the counter I finally started to gain control of my head. “I’ll have to bring that back. Can I go to classes today?” He was in motion and out the door before I could answer.
I stared at the door waiting for my heart to slow down and my mind to catch up. “Could you be any more spastic? Have you ever had a boyfriend?” Courtney reclaimed the spot behind the desk as more students walked up to the counter.
“You could put those back in order.” I pointed to the slips she had messed up.
“NO WAY.” She held her hands out in front of her. “These hands weren’t made for manual labor.” Yeah. No shit.
c h a p t e r
FOUR
I followed Courtney all the way to my second period photography class; regardless of whether she was in my