Stacy round fic
Title: The other side of things
Author: greendragon06
Pairing: Stacey/Claudia
Timeline: High school
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, they belong to Ann M Martin (and all the ghost writers)
Word Count: 3,116
Written For: ozqueen who wanted Stacey with Claudia or Dawn, after she had been away in NY for a while and realized she felt differently about people
Rating: Mention of drugs and sexuality, so pg-13 or so. I'm sorry, I can't get it to do the cut for some reason.
It’s been three long years since I’ve lived in Stoneybrook- sure, I’d come back a few times- the first year- but it had been three years just the same. I got caught back up in the joys and dramas of living in a big city. It wasn’t until the summer before my senior year that my mind began to slow down and think about things. When I did though, my mind was racing again. I had to apply to colleges- college! I couldn’t even begin to feign knowing where I wanted to go. My friends in New York just couldn’t understand that. They were all going to fashion or design school, turning modeling into a full-time career, or at least had known where they were going since they were six years old.
I decided to go talk to my father about it. He said it was okay to not know what I wanted to do with my life, that was part of growing up. He asked me what I did know about what I wanted with my future, any little thing. That’s when I said it, that I wanted to be with my friends in Stoneybrook.
So now here I am today, on the first day of my last year of high school, at Stoneybrook High. I don’t know why, but I didn’t tell anyone that I was coming back- I figured that I would just run into people at school. The first person I ran into was Kristy, on my way to my locker. I saw her do a double-take when she saw me- and like good ole Kristy- she loudly says “Stacy! How the heck have you been? Thought I wouldn’t see you again! ” We chat for a minute, but we know that classes are about to start. The last words she said when she left were, “Wait til everyone else finds out, maybe we’ll all sit in the same room.” That makes me think. The last time I visited, it seemed like schedule conflicts and that everyone still got along. Now though, maybe that isn’t so true anymore, that the babysitters club was not enough to hold together friendships. My first class is calculus. I’m only surprised for about twenty seconds when I see Maryanne sitting in the front row. I sit down in the third row, planning to say hello to Maryanne on the way out of class. At the end of class, I do just that. I go over and say hello to her and we walk together down the hall until she gets to her next class. I duck into the bathroom quickly to check my makeup, and who do I see but Dawn, sunny California Dawn who I used to spend hours talking on the phone with, but she looked different, thinner than I remembered and the smile on her face looked fake, like it took her effort to smile. I left the bathroom almost as quickly as I had entered. It’s just too hard to look at her like that and I know that I will have to ask someone how she got that way.
The rest of the day went on smoothly. I saw Jessi in the hall and waved to her, but I knew I wouldn’t see Mallory, Shannon, or Abby because they didn’t go to school here. Last period of the day for me is art class. I started taking art in New York as an easy elective. The beginning art classes always are. But I’d found that I really liked it. So, I was able to sign up for the most advanced art class at Stoneybrook. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before, but as soon as I entered the art room I knew that Claudia would be there. Claudia and I didn’t stay in contact after I went back to New York. I had spoken to Dawn a few times- Dawn who was not the person I used to know- and Maryanne too, and remembered to write Christmas cards to everyone, but I never got one back from anyone. But, for some reason, I went to the back table where Claudia already was and said, “Is there room for one more?” We talked while we worked-luckily, because it was the advanced class and only seniors, we were allowed to work on what we wanted and we were allowed to talk as long as it didn’t get too loud. And it didn’t get too loud, most of the artists didn’t even talk because they were too involved in their work. Claudia though, she was the queen of multi-tasking. She painted, talked to me and I’m sure, was trying to decide what candy to eat when she got home. Because it was the last period of the day, Claudia and I walked out of school together.
“Well,” I said “my car is in the back lot, I better get going to it, I haven’t actually un-packed everything yet.”
“You have a car? Sweet. How about you give me a ride to your house and I help you un-pack some?”
I knew I could use some help and Claudia was good company besides. So I drove home with Claudia and yelled in the door that Claudia came to help me un-pack some before we did our homework. My father peeked his head out of the den, smiled and said, “Glad to see a friend over to help decorate her room.”
After being up in my room for a few minutes and un-packing some posters, I asked Claudia a question.
“What’s up with Dawn? I saw her in the bathroom this morning and she looked so… different.”
“I don’t talk to her anymore- well, I should say she doesn’t talk to me. She got in with the popular crowd and a lot of them are into drugs-she is too- I’ve seen her smoking pot before. I tried to get her to see what was happening to her-so did Maryanne- but nothing worked. So every once in awhile, I see Maryanne and ask about Dawn, but it’s never anything good I hear.”
I was very disappointed to hear how lost Dawn was, but I didn’t want to stay too long on a depressing subject, so I started talking about how much of a pain US History class was. I couldn’t believe it when dad called upstairs to ask if Claudia was staying for dinner. She’d said she was, so over dinner we both told my dad about our classes and then talked a little bit about art. I drove Claudia home, but I didn’t want her to leave and I could tell that she was reluctant to go home too-probably because she didn’t want to do homework. That wasn’t the reason for me though. I only had homework in calculus and while it would probably take an hour to do, I didn’t mind-I liked math. I wasn’t quite sure why but I tried not to let it bother me too much.
Almost immediately things started to become routine for me: Math with Maryanne, Art with Claudia, and usually lunch with Claudia, but sometimes with Maryanne too. I saw Kristy, but she was always too busy with sports or student council to talk much, always promising to try to make some time over the weekend. But I knew she wouldn’t unless a game got rained out and she didn’t have homework.
Claudia comes over to my house a few times a week where we do art, talk about art or watch movies. We even filled out college applications together, to art schools in NY, Chicago, and a small but up and coming one in Mass. I was spending more time with Claudia than anyone else and I realized that neither of us ever had dates- unless she was going on dates, but I didn’t think so. It got me thinking though- I’d dated some boys in NY, but not here and not for lack of cute boys- Alan Grey had turned out to be quite popular for one, but I just didn’t seem interested in anyone. I told myself it was just because I was worried about school and getting into college.
As much as I tried to ignore it, as soon as I realized I wasn’t even interested in dating, it bothered me. Bothered, not because I really wanted to date at a busy time in my life, but because I began to think that maybe I did want to date right now, but not any of the boys in Stoneybrook, not any of the boys in NY, not any boys at all, but one specific girl. That was something I couldn’t ignore. I spent hours with her everyday and now that I knew I liked her, would I be able to be around her without it showing? Should I tell her I liked her? I began to think again on how she didn’t have a boyfriend either. Maybe that meant that she liked girls-and if she liked girls- well, that was getting ahead of myself, now wasn’t it? It was Sunday night, so I decided that I would ask her over after art, like often happened, so at least that wouldn’t be a problem. Trying to figure out how to say I liked her- that was something different. In the morning, I couldn’t decide what to wear- I wanted to look fabulous, but I didn’t want to look too much out of the ordinary, it was harder than I ever thought. Finally, I decided to wear a shirt I wore fairly often-a brown and green blouse, but instead of with the normal jeans, with a pair of nice dress pants.
When I asked Claudia if she wanted to come over she looked worried.
“Is everything okay Stacey? You seem a little nerve wracking or something.”
“It’s just- I’ll tell you when we get to my house, okay Claud?”
“Okay, just relax, you’re my best friend. I worry for you. “
“I’m really your best friend?”
“Yes. Now calm down and actually watch what you’re painting- it looks a little messy.”
I looked at my canvas and saw I had indeed messed it up. I shrugged and tried to figure out how to incorporate the big mess. I was a bit calmer- but only until class ended. I almost passed my own house. Claudia must have known something was wrong, because she put her arm around me as we went up to my bedroom. We sat down on my bed and then I told Claud I had something I wanted to talk about and she said there was something she wanted to talk about finally too, so we sat there for a moment while I composed myself.
“You know how I haven’t dated any boys this year, even turned down an offer to the homecoming dance?”
“Yeah, So? You don’t want to date, so what?”
“Well, it’s not that I don’t want to date….”
“You just don’t know whether or not your dream date likes you?”
“Yeah, you can say that again, see- it’s a girl.”
“And you wanted me to find out if she liked girls?”
I stared at her.
“What’s wrong Stace?”
“Well-uh..just…”
“Didn’t you already know that I’m a lesbian?”
“Well… No.”
“Oh, sorry I guess I just thought you knew, I mean you talk to Maryanne too, and she knows.”
“I guess I assumed you told me or something. Anyhow, this somehow makes it harder, would you like to go to the movies sometime, as a date?”
Claudia nodded her head and gave me a hug. I felt relieved and then tensed up. “Uh so, now what?”
“We do what we normally do, except now, we’re exploring romantic possibilities. Girlfriends are like, friends but more at the same time.”
I laughed when I realized how silly I was, that dating Claudia would be like if I had been close to any of my past boyfriends before we dated, so this would be so much better- I already knew her. Then my heart sank, what would my father think? I knew he liked Claudia, but would he still like her when she dated me?
Claudia must have seen something was wrong because she told me that whatever was wrong, she would help. So I told her my worry about my father and she said that parents were always the hardest people to tell, but if I wanted, she would be right there when I told him. We talked about it for awhile and decided to tell him at dinner.
“Dad, Claudia’s staying for dinner!” I shouted down the stairs to him.
“Well of course, she usually does when she comes over after school,” He replied.
At dinner, I kept picking at my salad and Claudia kept looking at me as if to say ‘When you going to tell him?’ Finally, I cleared my throat and said, “Dad, Claudia and I have something we want to tell you. We like each other and are going to the movies Friday, a date.”
And to my surprise he said, “I was wondering when you were going to say something honey, it’s been so obvious to me, but I didn’t want to say anything until you were ready, so you’d be more comfortable with it.”
Claudia looked just as surprised as I did. “You sure took this better than my parents did,” Claudia replied.
“I saw it coming, they may not have, if Stacey told me before I realized I would have been in shock too,” replied my father.
Claudia stayed a little while after dinner, mainly so my father could tell her the rules of dating me. They were, surprisingly more lenient than the ones he gave me in NY. He explained after she left that the leniency had to do with not being in the big city anymore, and that girls mature faster than boys. I was still amazed how great my father was taking it all, I gave him a hug.
The school days dragged on until lunch time came and then dragged again until it was time for art class. Everyday that week Claudia came over after school and we talked for hours, discussing which movie we wanted to see. It wasn’t that we wanted to watch different movies as much as we were trying to decide what kind of movie was best for an official first date. Comedies were too cliché, as were romance and scary movies, so that left kid’s movies, foreign films, and dramas. We decided on Wall-E, it looked cute and fun and neither of us said it, but it would take off the pressure. Once we decided that, we went back to acting like normal teenagers. I was still half thinking about what to wear. How could I compare to Claudia, who could always pull together an outfit out of anything and make it look fabulous.
Friday afternoon, as we were walking to the car, Claudia asked if we could stop by her house, so we did. She went up to her room and when she came back down, she had a box of sugar-free candy for me. I blushed but accepted them, putting them in my purse and we were off to the movies. When we got there, Claudia insisted on buying the tickets, so I tried to buy her soda and popcorn, but she wouldn’t let me, saying that she was paying for this date. I told her I was paying for the next one and she agreed reluctantly. So we went and watched the movie. Somewhere in the middle of the previews, Claudia put her hand on top of mine and we held hands the whole movie. After the movie was over, I asked Claud what she wanted to do next.
“The mall for shopping and then dinner, ” She asked.
I readily agreed and we went off to the mall. I bought Claudia new pastels and she bought me a poster for Wicked, my favorite musical. We window shopped for awhile, and tried on clothes, but Claudia said we should go to a thrift store tomorrow and buy cheap clothes to alter and decorate. I couldn’t think of anything that would scream ‘I’m with Claudia’ more than Claudia-altered clothing. So I agreed, and we went to find someplace to eat. We needed to find someplace that had food I could eat and food that Claudia would want to eat. We decided on the pizza joint right outside the mall- I could get a salad and Claud could have her greasy, fatty food. Surprisingly she got the veggie pizza and I ended up eating a slice of it.
“You know, I’ve had a really great time tonight- this whole week,” I said in between bites.
“Me too. Stace, me too.” She replied, her mouth full of pizza.
When the food was all eaten and the bill was paid, we headed out to my car.
“I don’t want to go home yet.” Said Claudia.
I looked at my watch. “Neither do I and we still have two hours until my curfew,” I replied.
“What do you want to do then?” She asked, turning in the seat next to me to look directly at me.
“I don’t know… spend time with you away from people,” I replied blushing.
“The park playground? We can talk and swing at the same time.” She smiled.
It sounded perfect to me. We did just that, swung and talked. Then we got tired of swinging and started walking slowly back toward the car.
“Claud - stop for a moment?” We were under a street lamp. She stopped and I leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips. It was warm and wet and pleasant. It was much more enjoyable than any kiss I’d ever had with a boy. Claudia smiled at me and I beamed back at her. Then I drove her home. We agreed to meet up again tomorrow to go to the thrift store up town.
When I got home, my father was sitting at the table with a cup of tea for me and we talked a little about my date with Claudia, but more about my future. I told him I wanted to illustrate- and maybe even write- children’s books. Then we talked about his job for awhile, before I went up to bed, where I sat dazed in my bed, thinking about Claudia. Only a few more hours, and I could see her again. I smiled and lay down, falling asleep quickly with thoughts of Claudia invading my dreams.
Author: greendragon06
Pairing: Stacey/Claudia
Timeline: High school
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, they belong to Ann M Martin (and all the ghost writers)
Word Count: 3,116
Written For: ozqueen who wanted Stacey with Claudia or Dawn, after she had been away in NY for a while and realized she felt differently about people
Rating: Mention of drugs and sexuality, so pg-13 or so. I'm sorry, I can't get it to do the cut for some reason.
It’s been three long years since I’ve lived in Stoneybrook- sure, I’d come back a few times- the first year- but it had been three years just the same. I got caught back up in the joys and dramas of living in a big city. It wasn’t until the summer before my senior year that my mind began to slow down and think about things. When I did though, my mind was racing again. I had to apply to colleges- college! I couldn’t even begin to feign knowing where I wanted to go. My friends in New York just couldn’t understand that. They were all going to fashion or design school, turning modeling into a full-time career, or at least had known where they were going since they were six years old.
I decided to go talk to my father about it. He said it was okay to not know what I wanted to do with my life, that was part of growing up. He asked me what I did know about what I wanted with my future, any little thing. That’s when I said it, that I wanted to be with my friends in Stoneybrook.
So now here I am today, on the first day of my last year of high school, at Stoneybrook High. I don’t know why, but I didn’t tell anyone that I was coming back- I figured that I would just run into people at school. The first person I ran into was Kristy, on my way to my locker. I saw her do a double-take when she saw me- and like good ole Kristy- she loudly says “Stacy! How the heck have you been? Thought I wouldn’t see you again! ” We chat for a minute, but we know that classes are about to start. The last words she said when she left were, “Wait til everyone else finds out, maybe we’ll all sit in the same room.” That makes me think. The last time I visited, it seemed like schedule conflicts and that everyone still got along. Now though, maybe that isn’t so true anymore, that the babysitters club was not enough to hold together friendships. My first class is calculus. I’m only surprised for about twenty seconds when I see Maryanne sitting in the front row. I sit down in the third row, planning to say hello to Maryanne on the way out of class. At the end of class, I do just that. I go over and say hello to her and we walk together down the hall until she gets to her next class. I duck into the bathroom quickly to check my makeup, and who do I see but Dawn, sunny California Dawn who I used to spend hours talking on the phone with, but she looked different, thinner than I remembered and the smile on her face looked fake, like it took her effort to smile. I left the bathroom almost as quickly as I had entered. It’s just too hard to look at her like that and I know that I will have to ask someone how she got that way.
The rest of the day went on smoothly. I saw Jessi in the hall and waved to her, but I knew I wouldn’t see Mallory, Shannon, or Abby because they didn’t go to school here. Last period of the day for me is art class. I started taking art in New York as an easy elective. The beginning art classes always are. But I’d found that I really liked it. So, I was able to sign up for the most advanced art class at Stoneybrook. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before, but as soon as I entered the art room I knew that Claudia would be there. Claudia and I didn’t stay in contact after I went back to New York. I had spoken to Dawn a few times- Dawn who was not the person I used to know- and Maryanne too, and remembered to write Christmas cards to everyone, but I never got one back from anyone. But, for some reason, I went to the back table where Claudia already was and said, “Is there room for one more?” We talked while we worked-luckily, because it was the advanced class and only seniors, we were allowed to work on what we wanted and we were allowed to talk as long as it didn’t get too loud. And it didn’t get too loud, most of the artists didn’t even talk because they were too involved in their work. Claudia though, she was the queen of multi-tasking. She painted, talked to me and I’m sure, was trying to decide what candy to eat when she got home. Because it was the last period of the day, Claudia and I walked out of school together.
“Well,” I said “my car is in the back lot, I better get going to it, I haven’t actually un-packed everything yet.”
“You have a car? Sweet. How about you give me a ride to your house and I help you un-pack some?”
I knew I could use some help and Claudia was good company besides. So I drove home with Claudia and yelled in the door that Claudia came to help me un-pack some before we did our homework. My father peeked his head out of the den, smiled and said, “Glad to see a friend over to help decorate her room.”
After being up in my room for a few minutes and un-packing some posters, I asked Claudia a question.
“What’s up with Dawn? I saw her in the bathroom this morning and she looked so… different.”
“I don’t talk to her anymore- well, I should say she doesn’t talk to me. She got in with the popular crowd and a lot of them are into drugs-she is too- I’ve seen her smoking pot before. I tried to get her to see what was happening to her-so did Maryanne- but nothing worked. So every once in awhile, I see Maryanne and ask about Dawn, but it’s never anything good I hear.”
I was very disappointed to hear how lost Dawn was, but I didn’t want to stay too long on a depressing subject, so I started talking about how much of a pain US History class was. I couldn’t believe it when dad called upstairs to ask if Claudia was staying for dinner. She’d said she was, so over dinner we both told my dad about our classes and then talked a little bit about art. I drove Claudia home, but I didn’t want her to leave and I could tell that she was reluctant to go home too-probably because she didn’t want to do homework. That wasn’t the reason for me though. I only had homework in calculus and while it would probably take an hour to do, I didn’t mind-I liked math. I wasn’t quite sure why but I tried not to let it bother me too much.
Almost immediately things started to become routine for me: Math with Maryanne, Art with Claudia, and usually lunch with Claudia, but sometimes with Maryanne too. I saw Kristy, but she was always too busy with sports or student council to talk much, always promising to try to make some time over the weekend. But I knew she wouldn’t unless a game got rained out and she didn’t have homework.
Claudia comes over to my house a few times a week where we do art, talk about art or watch movies. We even filled out college applications together, to art schools in NY, Chicago, and a small but up and coming one in Mass. I was spending more time with Claudia than anyone else and I realized that neither of us ever had dates- unless she was going on dates, but I didn’t think so. It got me thinking though- I’d dated some boys in NY, but not here and not for lack of cute boys- Alan Grey had turned out to be quite popular for one, but I just didn’t seem interested in anyone. I told myself it was just because I was worried about school and getting into college.
As much as I tried to ignore it, as soon as I realized I wasn’t even interested in dating, it bothered me. Bothered, not because I really wanted to date at a busy time in my life, but because I began to think that maybe I did want to date right now, but not any of the boys in Stoneybrook, not any of the boys in NY, not any boys at all, but one specific girl. That was something I couldn’t ignore. I spent hours with her everyday and now that I knew I liked her, would I be able to be around her without it showing? Should I tell her I liked her? I began to think again on how she didn’t have a boyfriend either. Maybe that meant that she liked girls-and if she liked girls- well, that was getting ahead of myself, now wasn’t it? It was Sunday night, so I decided that I would ask her over after art, like often happened, so at least that wouldn’t be a problem. Trying to figure out how to say I liked her- that was something different. In the morning, I couldn’t decide what to wear- I wanted to look fabulous, but I didn’t want to look too much out of the ordinary, it was harder than I ever thought. Finally, I decided to wear a shirt I wore fairly often-a brown and green blouse, but instead of with the normal jeans, with a pair of nice dress pants.
When I asked Claudia if she wanted to come over she looked worried.
“Is everything okay Stacey? You seem a little nerve wracking or something.”
“It’s just- I’ll tell you when we get to my house, okay Claud?”
“Okay, just relax, you’re my best friend. I worry for you. “
“I’m really your best friend?”
“Yes. Now calm down and actually watch what you’re painting- it looks a little messy.”
I looked at my canvas and saw I had indeed messed it up. I shrugged and tried to figure out how to incorporate the big mess. I was a bit calmer- but only until class ended. I almost passed my own house. Claudia must have known something was wrong, because she put her arm around me as we went up to my bedroom. We sat down on my bed and then I told Claud I had something I wanted to talk about and she said there was something she wanted to talk about finally too, so we sat there for a moment while I composed myself.
“You know how I haven’t dated any boys this year, even turned down an offer to the homecoming dance?”
“Yeah, So? You don’t want to date, so what?”
“Well, it’s not that I don’t want to date….”
“You just don’t know whether or not your dream date likes you?”
“Yeah, you can say that again, see- it’s a girl.”
“And you wanted me to find out if she liked girls?”
I stared at her.
“What’s wrong Stace?”
“Well-uh..just…”
“Didn’t you already know that I’m a lesbian?”
“Well… No.”
“Oh, sorry I guess I just thought you knew, I mean you talk to Maryanne too, and she knows.”
“I guess I assumed you told me or something. Anyhow, this somehow makes it harder, would you like to go to the movies sometime, as a date?”
Claudia nodded her head and gave me a hug. I felt relieved and then tensed up. “Uh so, now what?”
“We do what we normally do, except now, we’re exploring romantic possibilities. Girlfriends are like, friends but more at the same time.”
I laughed when I realized how silly I was, that dating Claudia would be like if I had been close to any of my past boyfriends before we dated, so this would be so much better- I already knew her. Then my heart sank, what would my father think? I knew he liked Claudia, but would he still like her when she dated me?
Claudia must have seen something was wrong because she told me that whatever was wrong, she would help. So I told her my worry about my father and she said that parents were always the hardest people to tell, but if I wanted, she would be right there when I told him. We talked about it for awhile and decided to tell him at dinner.
“Dad, Claudia’s staying for dinner!” I shouted down the stairs to him.
“Well of course, she usually does when she comes over after school,” He replied.
At dinner, I kept picking at my salad and Claudia kept looking at me as if to say ‘When you going to tell him?’ Finally, I cleared my throat and said, “Dad, Claudia and I have something we want to tell you. We like each other and are going to the movies Friday, a date.”
And to my surprise he said, “I was wondering when you were going to say something honey, it’s been so obvious to me, but I didn’t want to say anything until you were ready, so you’d be more comfortable with it.”
Claudia looked just as surprised as I did. “You sure took this better than my parents did,” Claudia replied.
“I saw it coming, they may not have, if Stacey told me before I realized I would have been in shock too,” replied my father.
Claudia stayed a little while after dinner, mainly so my father could tell her the rules of dating me. They were, surprisingly more lenient than the ones he gave me in NY. He explained after she left that the leniency had to do with not being in the big city anymore, and that girls mature faster than boys. I was still amazed how great my father was taking it all, I gave him a hug.
The school days dragged on until lunch time came and then dragged again until it was time for art class. Everyday that week Claudia came over after school and we talked for hours, discussing which movie we wanted to see. It wasn’t that we wanted to watch different movies as much as we were trying to decide what kind of movie was best for an official first date. Comedies were too cliché, as were romance and scary movies, so that left kid’s movies, foreign films, and dramas. We decided on Wall-E, it looked cute and fun and neither of us said it, but it would take off the pressure. Once we decided that, we went back to acting like normal teenagers. I was still half thinking about what to wear. How could I compare to Claudia, who could always pull together an outfit out of anything and make it look fabulous.
Friday afternoon, as we were walking to the car, Claudia asked if we could stop by her house, so we did. She went up to her room and when she came back down, she had a box of sugar-free candy for me. I blushed but accepted them, putting them in my purse and we were off to the movies. When we got there, Claudia insisted on buying the tickets, so I tried to buy her soda and popcorn, but she wouldn’t let me, saying that she was paying for this date. I told her I was paying for the next one and she agreed reluctantly. So we went and watched the movie. Somewhere in the middle of the previews, Claudia put her hand on top of mine and we held hands the whole movie. After the movie was over, I asked Claud what she wanted to do next.
“The mall for shopping and then dinner, ” She asked.
I readily agreed and we went off to the mall. I bought Claudia new pastels and she bought me a poster for Wicked, my favorite musical. We window shopped for awhile, and tried on clothes, but Claudia said we should go to a thrift store tomorrow and buy cheap clothes to alter and decorate. I couldn’t think of anything that would scream ‘I’m with Claudia’ more than Claudia-altered clothing. So I agreed, and we went to find someplace to eat. We needed to find someplace that had food I could eat and food that Claudia would want to eat. We decided on the pizza joint right outside the mall- I could get a salad and Claud could have her greasy, fatty food. Surprisingly she got the veggie pizza and I ended up eating a slice of it.
“You know, I’ve had a really great time tonight- this whole week,” I said in between bites.
“Me too. Stace, me too.” She replied, her mouth full of pizza.
When the food was all eaten and the bill was paid, we headed out to my car.
“I don’t want to go home yet.” Said Claudia.
I looked at my watch. “Neither do I and we still have two hours until my curfew,” I replied.
“What do you want to do then?” She asked, turning in the seat next to me to look directly at me.
“I don’t know… spend time with you away from people,” I replied blushing.
“The park playground? We can talk and swing at the same time.” She smiled.
It sounded perfect to me. We did just that, swung and talked. Then we got tired of swinging and started walking slowly back toward the car.
“Claud - stop for a moment?” We were under a street lamp. She stopped and I leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips. It was warm and wet and pleasant. It was much more enjoyable than any kiss I’d ever had with a boy. Claudia smiled at me and I beamed back at her. Then I drove her home. We agreed to meet up again tomorrow to go to the thrift store up town.
When I got home, my father was sitting at the table with a cup of tea for me and we talked a little about my date with Claudia, but more about my future. I told him I wanted to illustrate- and maybe even write- children’s books. Then we talked about his job for awhile, before I went up to bed, where I sat dazed in my bed, thinking about Claudia. Only a few more hours, and I could see her again. I smiled and lay down, falling asleep quickly with thoughts of Claudia invading my dreams.