~~~~~
I feel someone shaking me, I jump sitting straight up. “Whoa! What the?” I turn to see everyone looking at me. I hate it when I fall asleep in class. Thankfully I didn’t drool all over myself.
During lunch, I see Julie trying to take pictures of her and Pru. I notice Julie is the only one making the kissy face, Pru looks bored out of her mind, which I admire. Every time I look in their direction, Julie has her arm stretched out as far as it will go taking self portraits. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the point. I mean seriously, is it really necessary to document your look, minute by minute?
Girls in high school have their own set of rules. One, keep track of the competition, from what she wears to who she knows. Two, what does she drive? Three, who has she done? Four, who are her parents? The list goes on and on. Guys, well we don’t get that deep, we just want to know what’s for lunch? I’m not what you’d call the ladies man, sad but true. I haven’t had a steady girlfriend since eighth grade and I’m not totally sure if two weeks is considered a steady relationship. Our school is so small that we are environmentally friendly, relationships are frequently recycled yet Julie Tidsdale isn’t worth recycling to me.
“Hey Shane, did you see Julie trying to get the new girl to be her new bestie?” I say as I shove a French fry in my mouth.
“She’s just dumb, I can’t stand that girl. I can’t believe I’m friends with someone who had their lips on that pain in the ass,” Shane says as he digs frantically through his backpack. He pulls out permission slips for his home economics class.
“Being you’re the only guy in school who hasn’t made out with her, don’t hate. It was eighth grade; I’ve raised my standards since then. Is that a home ec slip?” I ask pointing at the paper in his hand.
“Oh, don’t hate Abe, I’m sure not taking cooking classes from my mom, if you know what I mean?” Shane says as he laughs to himself.
Even though I agree with him about his mom’s cooking, I’m not going to admit to it. “I’ll see you at the meeting. I’ve got to stop by my locker before math so I’ll catch you on the flip side.”
There are only a few of us in The Future Business Leaders of America club, most of us joined just to put it on our college application. Shane and I signed up last year, thinking it would get us out of class; just to learn it is an after school club. I sit next to Shane and wait for the teacher to send around the signup sheet.
We’re in our meeting for about five minutes when the door to our annex opens and Pru walks in, without Julie thankfully. I look up in time to notice her staring at me. I look over at Shane and he plays it off like he doesn’t notice. I think to myself ‘don’t sit behind me, don’t sit behind me, don’t sit behind me’. Of course she does. I pray my deodorant is still working. She sits down I get a whiff of a sweet smell, the light sugary smell of cotton candy. I close my eyes and say a silent prayer that I don’t smell like gym socks. She doesn’t look like she has to worry about college applications, she probably comes from money. Our group leader Carrie introduces her, of course we all know who she is, but we all say our hellos and finish making up a class schedule.
Shane and I are walking out to his car when I hear Pru calling out my name. This girl is planning on giving me heart failure before the day is up.
“Hi, you’re Abel right?” Pru asks with one hand-held out to me and the other pulling down her hair, letting it flow over her shoulders.
“Uh, yeah,” I say, trying my best not to sound special needs.
“I’m Pru, I was hoping I’d get a chance to meet you today. You’re Shane, right?” She holds her hand out to him and they shake hands, all the while she never takes her eyes off me.
“You hoped you’d get to meet me all day?” I ask and watch as she smiles broadly.
“Well, yeah,” she stammered. “In English class I thought your eyes looked like you’re nice. That girl Julie told me a little about you, so I thought you’d be a cool person to know.”
“Alrighty then,” Shane said, bumping his shoulder into me slightly.
“I moved here from out near Choctaw. Sounds lame right? I know it isn’t that far away, or as glamorous as Miami or Vegas, but it is still a big change.” As she talks, I’m thinking about how perky she is for someone suffered through their first day in a new school.
We talk for about 20 minutes until Shane says he has to get home. We say good-bye and get in the car…. not before noticing the car she is getting into… a 2011 white with inferno orange racing stripes SS Camero! Only the coolest car at school: clearly blowing away Shane’s 2005 mustang.
I no sooner get in the car when my phone starts blowing up with messages from everyone in FBLA. I don’t usually get texts, but when the new girl in school actually walks up and introduces herself to you and everyone else wishes it was them, that makes for good gossip.
After dinner, I sit with my mom watching some dancing show where they have three judges and men wear tight glitter costumes. I don’t know anyone that will be caught dead in those outfits. Who comes up with those clothes?
“Mom, I think this show has stolen part of my soul. I have some reading for English class and a math paper to do.” I grab my backpack off the couch and casually head to the stairs. I pause and say, “Oh, we have a new girl at school, her name is Pru, she moved here from Choctaw, I think.” I am trying to play it off as nonchalant as I can. My mom starts the Spanish Inquisition if she thinks I’m interested in a girl.
“Pru? That’s an interesting name. Is she pretty?” mom asks. She hits pause on the TV so she can give me all of her attention. She wouldn’t want to miss my expression in case I show some interest in someone.
Here we go with the twenty questions.
“I didn’t really seem to notice one way or the other. Look, I just told you because you always ask if anything happened at school today. Well, we have a new girl, and that is about the most interesting thing to happen here in Piedsville in about a month. Oh, and George got braces over the summer.” I turn back to head up to my room.
“You can get your attitude in check,” she snaps. “I only wanted to know if she is pretty. Go read,” she starts the show back up and I ran up the rest of the stairs.
I take the stairs two at a time trying to reduce my speed before I get to the landing at the top of the stairs. My ‘toxic waste’ sign tilted sideways on my bedroom door, I flip it with my finger straightening it until my door closes behind me and skews it again. I slip my I-pod into my docking station and pick up my required reading. I chose The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. We have a list of books to read, with a book report due once a month, throughout the school year. I wish they had let us read something cool like Harry Potter; at least I wouldn’t be bored to death with this dumb assignment.
I ran downstairs to grab a snack. I hear my phone buzzing on my nightstand when I get back to my room. I pick it up and see there is a missed call from an unknown number. I listen to voicemail, recognizing the husky voice as Pru asking me to give her a call. Now this is an unexpected turn of events. I dial her number and on the third ring she answers.
“Pru? This is Abel, um, you called?”