NaNo 2005 Fic: Untitled
This is very unfinished, only 4,181 words, and it was written (apparently) in the first 2-3 days of November 2005. I have no memory of the plotline after this, because I stupidly didn't write out an outline at the time. But I was intrigued by this fic as I reread it today and I thought some of you might want to see it. So, here it is. I haven't changed anything but the formating and a couple of misspellings since 2005.
Untitled
original fiction
PG
It was dark and dreary, with lightning flickering in the distance. I was swimming in a lake by my house. It was a stupid thing to do, swimming in a lightning storm, but I didn’t care. I had come out to the lake only five hours before because of an argument with my friend, Anna. She thought I was a typical extremely stupid boy, which I am not now, nor was I then. But she thought so nonetheless, and I stormed off and jumped off the dock without even changing into my swimsuit. Ever since that moment five hours ago, I had been alternately swimming and lying on the dock, letting the scant sunbeams dry my skin.
Off in the distance, in the opposite direction of the lightning, I can see the lights off the city, which isn’t far from my house in the suburbs. Anna lives with her parents in an apartment downtown, but she goes to the same school as me, a private “rich-kid” school that takes about an hour to drive to every morning. Even longer for Anna, who lives another half an hour away. The school is in the country, and it even has a horse stable where some of the kids take riding lessons. Horses have never been my thing, but Anna loves it. Only a few other kids from my school live in my area, and none of them are my friends. A large, bodybuilder-looking guy lives only a few houses down from me; something that is very dangerous to my health, as we are sworn enemies. Even our parents hate each other. Perhaps I should explain.
Everyone who goes to this private school, called Adams’ Grove Academy (for the founder of the school, Richard Adams), has either a very rich or very important family. The mayor’s kids, annoying twin girls a year younger than Anna and I, and many other city officials’ children, including the police chief and our state senator were all immediately accepted into this very exclusive school. Anna’s father is a prominent lawyer who has his own firm and people fetching his coffee every morning. My mom is the mayor’s secretary and my dad is a judge at the local courthouse. The bully of the school is one Mitchell Greene, whose grandfather is one of the founders of our city, which obviously hasn’t been around that long. Mr. Greene, who is dead now, was pretty old then. He and the court system were always at odds over some minute issue or another, and neither of the parties involved usually won, which meant that the very same issue would be brought up at the next city meeting to bicker over again.
I was drying out on the dock when the rain hit, which immediately reversed the drying process that had nearly finished my clothes. I got up from the dock and ran towards the house, through the large backyard of my elderly neighbor, who had let the land run wild and take care of itself, which, needless to say, hadn’t done a great job. When I finally made it to my backdoor, my legs had cuts from the thorns and my feet were covered in wet grass and mud. My parents weren’t home yet, and my older sister Miriam was upstairs “studying” with her boyfriend of the week. I knew that she would only come out of her room if I insisted I was dying, so I didn’t bother being quiet. She knew I wasn’t in the house when she got home, so she shouldn’t be surprised when I come in.
I sat down at my computer and checked my email, replying to a few and taking notes on my calendar when friends told me party dates and themes. In my social circle, there was a party every week, sometimes even more often. I had never thrown one myself, but Miriam let me sit in on a few of hers last month. With all of our important parents taking business trips or vacations without their children, unsupervised parties were most common, though I knew a few parents would agree to a small get-together every now and then.
After surfing the net for another five minutes, I found myself bored and looking for something to do. This was not uncommon, but usually I would just call Anna and either invite her over to my place or drive on down to hers. But no longer. We were fighting, but over what, I didn’t quite understand. My name had come up a lot in the argument, so I assume it was something I had done. I stood up from my chair and moved to the couch, quickly flipping through the TV channels in search of something interesting. The activity occupied my brain for all of a minute, so I rolled off the couch and drifted into the kitchen. Taped to the fridge was a small note that hadn’t been there when I left. I plucked it off of the cold surface and brought it closer to my face to read. I really did need some glasses.
Jason,
I’m staying over at Kelly’s house tonight. Tell mom and dad for me.
-Miriam
PS: We’ll probably go to the mall later, so my cell phone won’t get signal. Don’t worry if you can't reach me, I’m sure I’ll be fine.
So she wasn’t up in her room making out with Mark or Matthew or whatever his name was. I had the house to myself until six o’clock tonight. That thought brought me back to my previous boredom. What was I going to do with myself for three hours? Being the good student that I am, I already had all of my homework done. I picked up the nearest comic book and started reading. It was horrible. Who knew comic writers could be so stupid? I grabbed a soda from the fridge and took a tour of the house, searching for something to do. The library-slash-office only held boring law books and old poetry. The music room, which held a baby grand piano and Miriam’s flute was small and stuffy and had nowhere to sit besides the piano bench. But I sat anyway and played a few notes. My heart wasn’t in it so I stood up and picked up the flute. I thought briefly of plugging the mouthpiece with gum, but I knew it would only get Miriam in trouble with her music instructor, who would then turn on me during my weekly piano lesson. Anyway, I was a good kid and I wasn’t about to lose my driving privileges over something so stupid that I did out of boredom.
I thought again about calling Anna and I had my cell phone out with the number half-dialed before I came to my senses and put the phone back into my pocket. As I did so, I noticed the state of my dirty, wet clothes and I decided to change before my parents came home.
As I climbed the stairs to my room, I thought about my schoolwork. I was great in Math and PE, and I wasn’t bad in Language. The only thing I had problems with was History, which troubled me. I actually liked history, and learning about how stupid the guys who came before me were. I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t getting above-average grades, like in every other subject.
My thoughts then turned to my friends. I made a list of them in my head and started planning a party for the weekend after next. My parents were going to the Bahamas on a three-day cruise for their anniversary. Miriam would divide her time between her boyfriend and Kelly, spending very little at the house.
Anna, Beth, Jamie, Lindsey, Aurora, and Kinsey were all the girls I could think of that would come, so I started on the boys. I had a few good friends on my soccer team, Bill, Michael, and Jess. I could invite Kristen, I thought, but she is Mitchell’s ex-girlfriend, so I’d probably get beat up in the boys locker room the next school day. I took Kristen off the list. Jake and Matthew would probably come if I asked them in person, and Adam would probably hear about the party from someone and beg me to let him come.
I was sure the list would expand as time went on, but twelve people seemed to me like a good size for my first party. I pulled out my cell phone to ask for Anna’s help in planning the party until I remembered that we weren’t speaking. I searched through my closet for something clean to wear, and then I called Jess. I hadn’t spoken to him since last soccer meeting, so I had to search my address book for his phone number. He told me he’d come right over, as he was home alone and bored as hell. Just like me.
Jess is my best guy friend. During elementary school we were inseparable, but when we reached high school, I met Anna and we started to drift apart. At soccer meetings, we would act as if nothing has changed, but back at school, we rarely saw each other. Every now and then, I’d sit at his table during lunch, but more often than not, he was in an empty classroom with some girl. When we were younger, we looked similar, but at 16, you would never have guessed it. Jess has dark brown hair, which he lets hang into his equally dark brown eyes. My hair lightened with age, and is now an even, medium-brown color, but I keep mine cut short. My eyes are hazel, and bigger than Jess’s. He used to say I always look wide awake, even when I’m dead tired. Our clothes styles have also changed. I’m usually more clean-cut with layered shirts and almost-new jeans, but Jess went in the opposite direction. His school uniform is his favorite pair of worn-out jeans with holes in the knees, and hooded sweatshirts. Our personalities are like how we dress; I’m a straight-A student and easygoing, and Jess is a B or C student who chooses his friends carefully and hates everyone else.
At 3:12, Jess opened the front door and collapsed onto the couch. I heard him come in from upstairs so I ran down to greet him. By the time I got there, he had already opened a soda and turned on the TV.
“Hey, Jase, how’s it goin’?” he asked, turning away from the television to look at me.
“Bored, but what else is new? Glad you could come, by the way,” I answered, plopping down next to him and stealing the remote.
“Yeah, I was bored too.” He thought for a moment. “Where’s Anna?”
Anna and I are always hanging out together. Except for the soccer meets and gym class, I’m rarely without her. I argued with myself about whether to tell Jess about the fight I had with Anna earlier, and after a few moments of silence, I gave in and started the story, hoping for some insight into why Anna stormed off.
“Whoa. I thought you guys were really tight,” he said when I finished.
“I thought so too. I don’t even get what we were fighting about. Actually, I don’t even know if we were fighting. She may have just been mad at me for some reason. Can’t guess why though,” I said dejectedly.
“Well, why don’t you call her and ask?” I don’t know how Jess manages to get so many girlfriends.
“Because she spent the better part of this morning yelling at me about whatever it was. I’m supposed to know by now.”
Jess scoffed and punched me on the shoulder. “I’ll call her then,” he said, reaching for the phone next to the couch. Jess is one of the few people I know who doesn’t have a cell phone. He dialed the number and waited while it rang.
“How did you know her number?” I asked curiously. He and Anna had never been great friends.
“I’ve only watched you dial it about five hundred times, Jason. Even I’m not that unobservant. Hey, Anna,” he interrupted himself suddenly. Obviously, she had answered her phone. “Yeah, it’s Jess.” Pause. “Yeah, no, I haven’t finished it yet. I’m sure Jason has though, he always finishes his homework early.” Pause. “Anna, hold on a second.” Jess turned to me, covering the mouthpiece with his palm. “When did you guys fight this morning?” he whispered.
“Around nine. Then I stayed out by the lake until about two. What did she say?”
“I’ll tell you when I’m done. Anna? Sorry, I had to uh, do something. Yeah, so I was talking to Jason earlier this afternoon and he mentioned that you had some kind of fight or something this morning. Can you tell me what’s goin’ on?” Pause. Jess smiled slightly. “Oh, I know how that is. Yeah, don’t you hate it when that happens?”
I glared at him and mouthed “tell me” about three times before he wrapped up the conversation.
“Yeah, well, I’d better go. See you at school, then. Yeah, you too. Bye.” Finally, Jess hung up the phone. I grabbed his arm and turned him back to me, sending another glare his way. “She wouldn’t tell me about the fight.”
“BS! What did she say?”
“She said…”
“What?”
“She said that you weren’t listening,” Jess finished simply.
“I could have told you that. Did she tell you what she was saying that I wasn’t listening to?” I asked impatiently.
“She said that she was going to tell you something important, but you weren’t listening to a word she was saying so she got mad, called you a jerk, and went home,” he replied, seemingly ill at ease.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked suspiciously, narrowing my eyes.
Jess fidgeted for a moment before answering. “I know what she wanted to tell you, but I promised not to tell. She wanted to be the one, you know?”
I replayed the one-sided conversation in my head before asking again. “I didn’t hear anything about any promises. C’mon, you can tell me.”
“No, I can't,” Jess said sharply, looking down at his hands.
“You already knew about whatever she was going to tell me. You don’t even like her that much! What is going on?”
“Just shut up, Jason! You don’t know anything about it and I’m not going to be the one to tell you. Drop it,” Jess stood up and walked around the couch, into the kitchen.
“Fine,” I said after a moment of listening to him rummaging around in the cabinets. “Bring in some popcorn or something, we can watch a movie.”
Jess reappeared with a bowl of popcorn and a handful of candy and I popped in a DVD. We settled in to watch Alien Scorpions From Planet BD893, possibly the worst movie ever made.
Two and a half hours later (we paused and replayed the worst parts), Jess and I went out to his SUV. The large vehicle was black and had grey leather interior and was decked out in the best stereo equipment money could buy. Jess had played around with the idea of starting up a band a while back, but we only had a guitar player, Jess, and a classical pianist, me. No one in our whole school was willing to do drums, base, or vocals with us. Still, Jess had about five demo CDs of guitar solos he had written strewn across the front seat.
We chatted and played around outside for a few minutes, then Jess said he had to get back home and I went back inside to clean up the popcorn and candy wrappers. About ten minutes later, the boredom started to settle again. Then the phone rang. I hurried to answer it.
“Jason?”
“Yeah, Mom,” I said disappointedly.
“Your dad and I are going out to dinner and a concert when he gets off work, so we won’t be home until around eleven-thirty or midnight. Where’s Miriam?”
“Oh yeah, she said to tell you that she’s spending the night at Kelly’s. Tomorrow is a parent-teacher conference, by the way,” I said, suddenly remembering.
“Right. I nearly forgot about that. What time was our appointment?”
“I don’t know, Mrs. Bingham called you, not me.”
“I’m sure I have it on the calendar. I can’t believe you have two days off from school in one week.”
“Hey, I can't help it that today’s a holiday,” I laughed.
“Well, I’ll probably see you in the morning. You should leave the door unlocked for Nita. She mentioned that her key was sticking in the lock,” she said, referring to our housekeeper, who came by every other week.
“Yeah, Mom. Will do.”
“It seems awfully quiet. Is Anna there?”
“No, but Jess just left a few minutes ago.”
“Oh, well, have fun by yourself then, honey. Goodnight.”
“Yeah, ‘night. Bye.” Why was everyone asking about Anna? I can function without her.
I hung up the phone and logged back onto the computer, where I spent about twenty minutes chatting with a few friends. I asked Aurora, Kinsey, and Michael if they knew anything about whatever Anna wanted to tell me, but all three said they had no idea what I was talking about. I said goodbye and went back into my room. Searching desperately for something to keep me occupied, I searched through my school bag. At last, I pulled out Treasure Island, which I had finished ages ago. I already wrote the report on it, and it had gotten and A. I don’t know why I kept the book in my bag, but it didn’t matter. I had something to do. I read the first chapter, then threw the book at the bed, where it bounced and snapped closed.
Maybe I couldn’t function without Anna. I made up my mind to call her. Until I checked my watch. Her family has dinner at exactly six-thirty every night except Sunday. “Damn,” I said aloud. I’d wait half an hour, then call her, I decided.
My thoughts then returned to the party that I had neglected to mention to Jess. I pulled out a notebook and started making lists.
GUESTS
Anna Marks
Jess Jacobson
Beth Allan
Jamie Cunnings
Lindsey Carson
Aurora Bellingham
Kinsey Jameson
Bill Stevens
Michael Griffiths
Jake Miller
Matthew Miller
Adam Louis Adam Louis ADAM LOUIS
I debated for several minutes whether to invite Adam. On the one hand, I didn’t like him that much, but on the other hand, he wasn’t horrible and, although he was a nerd, he’d find a way to get himself invited anyway.
SUPPLIES
-Food
Chips, Pretzels, Crackers, Popcorn, Pizza
-Drinks
Soda, Punch, Water
-Entertainment
Games - Group games?
Music - Rock, Techno, Pop. General dance music.
I left the rest of that page blank so I could add more later. I made a mental note to ask Jess about the music stuff. Better yet, I thought, I’ll make another list. I’m good at lists.
TO DO
Ask Jess about music
Spread word about party
Ask Miriam to get out of the house on party day
Buy supplies
Clear Living Room for dancing
Find good group games
Call Anna and ask her what’s going on and why Jess knows about it
Call Jess and try to get an answer out of him
I was running out of productive things to put on my list. Jess is very stubborn, and if he’s made up his mind not to tell me, he won’t. Now that I had my three lists, I had to call Anna and both tell her about the party and get her help on the matter, and ask her about… whatever was going on.
I heard the grandfather clock downstairs ringing, so I fished my cell out of my pocket and hit the speed dial. A moment later, Anna picked up.
“Anna?”
“Jason. How are you?” she greeted me formally, but not coldly. She wasn’t that mad.
“Anna, I’m sorry. For not listening to you. Earlier this morning, I mean. I talked to Jess and he said that he couldn’t tell me. What was going on, I mean. But will you? Tell me, I mean? It’s kind of driving me crazy,” I said, stumbling over the words. I wasn’t usually like this.
“Yeah, Jess called me from your house, I assume he wouldn’t tell you what I said?”
“Yeah. But will you?”
“Not on the phone. What exactly did Jess say?”
“He said he promised not to tell me and that you wanted to tell me. I really wish I knew what was going on, you know,” I said, letting my frustration leak into my words.
“I’ll tell you in person, I promise,” she said placatingly.
“Oh, I wanted to ask you about a party, thrown by yours truly, in a couple of weeks. I have lists made and now I just need a second opinion. Can I come by your place tomorrow? Or tonight, if possible. I’m bored out of my mind and my parents won’t be home until midnight,” I pleaded.
“What about Miriam, can’t you do something with her?”
“She’s at her friend Kelly’s for the night.”
“Oh, well, I guess you can come over as long as you don’t stay forever. Mom would kill me if you stayed longer than an hour; I still have homework from last week to finish.”
“Okay, I’ll be there in half an hour. Thanks, Anna. G’bye.”
“See you.”
I hung up, feeling three-hundred-percent better than I had before I called. I immediately picked up the phone again and called Jess, but he was out, so I left a message, telling his mom that I called Anna and for Jess to call me back later. I checked my watch. I picked up my jacket, stuffed the lists in the pocket and ran to the garage. I threw myself into my car, tossing the jacket to the passenger side and then I searched my pockets for the keys. Realizing I didn’t have them, I ran back into the coatroom, grabbing my keys off their hook on the wall.
I got to Anna’s apartment only five minutes late. There was the city traffic to deal with. After a quick hello to her mom and dad, I took the stairs two at a time to get to her room. Her door was closed, so I knocked lightly. Unlike my door, which has posters and signs taped to it, her door is empty, clean, and normal looking. That says nothing about the interior of her room though. I heard her say something, presumably “come in,” and I turned the handle. The inside of Anna’s room is covered in old movie posters and snapshots of her or her family at a great many famous locations. One of my favorites is the one of Anna at the Grand Canyon, pretending like she’s about to fall in. Her bed is made; a simple, solid color blanket covering the plain white sheets. I found Anna at her desk, alternately writing on a sheet of notebook paper and typing into her laptop.
“I’ll be done in a second,” she mumbled, concentrating on her homework.
Anna has long, strawberry-blonde hair that hangs down to her shoulder blades. Her eyes are light blue, almost grey, and she’s actually a very pretty girl. She only wears a touch of makeup, and she always wears her hair up in some twisted knot at school. That day, she was wearing her typical day’s outfit; a short-sleeved t-shirt and a zippered jacket over it with a pair of well-worn, fitted jeans. She finished whatever she was working on and spun her chair around to face me.
“You said something about a party,” she said, smiling.
“Yes, I did,” I replied, pulling out the crumpled lists. I handed them to her and watched as she looked over them.
“Who’s Aurora Bellingham? I’m not sure I know her.”
Aurora Bellingham just moved here from New York City. Her mother, a stunning woman, was, and is still, a magazine fashion model. Her father is somewhat of a local hero. His name is Jimmy B. Bellingham, and he’s a country singer from around here that made it big. Really big. That’s why Aurora goes to Adams’ Grove.
“Aurora is the new girl in our calculus class,” I answered, deciding that Anna wasn’t looking for that much background information. Anna nodded, not looking up from the last list.
“I like your To Do list,” she said, handing it back to me. I read it and turned back to her.
“Will you tell me what’s going on now? You said you would tell me ‘in person.’”
“You haven’t finagled an answer out of Jess yet?”
“Its not crossed off the list,” I said sheepishly.
“I… I don’t think I can talk about it right now. Later though, I promise. Now, did you want to plan this party or not?”
......
hahaha cliffhanger! Hopefully this year's NaNo fic will turn out with a bit higher wordcount, eh?
Untitled
original fiction
PG
It was dark and dreary, with lightning flickering in the distance. I was swimming in a lake by my house. It was a stupid thing to do, swimming in a lightning storm, but I didn’t care. I had come out to the lake only five hours before because of an argument with my friend, Anna. She thought I was a typical extremely stupid boy, which I am not now, nor was I then. But she thought so nonetheless, and I stormed off and jumped off the dock without even changing into my swimsuit. Ever since that moment five hours ago, I had been alternately swimming and lying on the dock, letting the scant sunbeams dry my skin.
Off in the distance, in the opposite direction of the lightning, I can see the lights off the city, which isn’t far from my house in the suburbs. Anna lives with her parents in an apartment downtown, but she goes to the same school as me, a private “rich-kid” school that takes about an hour to drive to every morning. Even longer for Anna, who lives another half an hour away. The school is in the country, and it even has a horse stable where some of the kids take riding lessons. Horses have never been my thing, but Anna loves it. Only a few other kids from my school live in my area, and none of them are my friends. A large, bodybuilder-looking guy lives only a few houses down from me; something that is very dangerous to my health, as we are sworn enemies. Even our parents hate each other. Perhaps I should explain.
Everyone who goes to this private school, called Adams’ Grove Academy (for the founder of the school, Richard Adams), has either a very rich or very important family. The mayor’s kids, annoying twin girls a year younger than Anna and I, and many other city officials’ children, including the police chief and our state senator were all immediately accepted into this very exclusive school. Anna’s father is a prominent lawyer who has his own firm and people fetching his coffee every morning. My mom is the mayor’s secretary and my dad is a judge at the local courthouse. The bully of the school is one Mitchell Greene, whose grandfather is one of the founders of our city, which obviously hasn’t been around that long. Mr. Greene, who is dead now, was pretty old then. He and the court system were always at odds over some minute issue or another, and neither of the parties involved usually won, which meant that the very same issue would be brought up at the next city meeting to bicker over again.
I was drying out on the dock when the rain hit, which immediately reversed the drying process that had nearly finished my clothes. I got up from the dock and ran towards the house, through the large backyard of my elderly neighbor, who had let the land run wild and take care of itself, which, needless to say, hadn’t done a great job. When I finally made it to my backdoor, my legs had cuts from the thorns and my feet were covered in wet grass and mud. My parents weren’t home yet, and my older sister Miriam was upstairs “studying” with her boyfriend of the week. I knew that she would only come out of her room if I insisted I was dying, so I didn’t bother being quiet. She knew I wasn’t in the house when she got home, so she shouldn’t be surprised when I come in.
I sat down at my computer and checked my email, replying to a few and taking notes on my calendar when friends told me party dates and themes. In my social circle, there was a party every week, sometimes even more often. I had never thrown one myself, but Miriam let me sit in on a few of hers last month. With all of our important parents taking business trips or vacations without their children, unsupervised parties were most common, though I knew a few parents would agree to a small get-together every now and then.
After surfing the net for another five minutes, I found myself bored and looking for something to do. This was not uncommon, but usually I would just call Anna and either invite her over to my place or drive on down to hers. But no longer. We were fighting, but over what, I didn’t quite understand. My name had come up a lot in the argument, so I assume it was something I had done. I stood up from my chair and moved to the couch, quickly flipping through the TV channels in search of something interesting. The activity occupied my brain for all of a minute, so I rolled off the couch and drifted into the kitchen. Taped to the fridge was a small note that hadn’t been there when I left. I plucked it off of the cold surface and brought it closer to my face to read. I really did need some glasses.
Jason,
I’m staying over at Kelly’s house tonight. Tell mom and dad for me.
-Miriam
PS: We’ll probably go to the mall later, so my cell phone won’t get signal. Don’t worry if you can't reach me, I’m sure I’ll be fine.
So she wasn’t up in her room making out with Mark or Matthew or whatever his name was. I had the house to myself until six o’clock tonight. That thought brought me back to my previous boredom. What was I going to do with myself for three hours? Being the good student that I am, I already had all of my homework done. I picked up the nearest comic book and started reading. It was horrible. Who knew comic writers could be so stupid? I grabbed a soda from the fridge and took a tour of the house, searching for something to do. The library-slash-office only held boring law books and old poetry. The music room, which held a baby grand piano and Miriam’s flute was small and stuffy and had nowhere to sit besides the piano bench. But I sat anyway and played a few notes. My heart wasn’t in it so I stood up and picked up the flute. I thought briefly of plugging the mouthpiece with gum, but I knew it would only get Miriam in trouble with her music instructor, who would then turn on me during my weekly piano lesson. Anyway, I was a good kid and I wasn’t about to lose my driving privileges over something so stupid that I did out of boredom.
I thought again about calling Anna and I had my cell phone out with the number half-dialed before I came to my senses and put the phone back into my pocket. As I did so, I noticed the state of my dirty, wet clothes and I decided to change before my parents came home.
As I climbed the stairs to my room, I thought about my schoolwork. I was great in Math and PE, and I wasn’t bad in Language. The only thing I had problems with was History, which troubled me. I actually liked history, and learning about how stupid the guys who came before me were. I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t getting above-average grades, like in every other subject.
My thoughts then turned to my friends. I made a list of them in my head and started planning a party for the weekend after next. My parents were going to the Bahamas on a three-day cruise for their anniversary. Miriam would divide her time between her boyfriend and Kelly, spending very little at the house.
Anna, Beth, Jamie, Lindsey, Aurora, and Kinsey were all the girls I could think of that would come, so I started on the boys. I had a few good friends on my soccer team, Bill, Michael, and Jess. I could invite Kristen, I thought, but she is Mitchell’s ex-girlfriend, so I’d probably get beat up in the boys locker room the next school day. I took Kristen off the list. Jake and Matthew would probably come if I asked them in person, and Adam would probably hear about the party from someone and beg me to let him come.
I was sure the list would expand as time went on, but twelve people seemed to me like a good size for my first party. I pulled out my cell phone to ask for Anna’s help in planning the party until I remembered that we weren’t speaking. I searched through my closet for something clean to wear, and then I called Jess. I hadn’t spoken to him since last soccer meeting, so I had to search my address book for his phone number. He told me he’d come right over, as he was home alone and bored as hell. Just like me.
Jess is my best guy friend. During elementary school we were inseparable, but when we reached high school, I met Anna and we started to drift apart. At soccer meetings, we would act as if nothing has changed, but back at school, we rarely saw each other. Every now and then, I’d sit at his table during lunch, but more often than not, he was in an empty classroom with some girl. When we were younger, we looked similar, but at 16, you would never have guessed it. Jess has dark brown hair, which he lets hang into his equally dark brown eyes. My hair lightened with age, and is now an even, medium-brown color, but I keep mine cut short. My eyes are hazel, and bigger than Jess’s. He used to say I always look wide awake, even when I’m dead tired. Our clothes styles have also changed. I’m usually more clean-cut with layered shirts and almost-new jeans, but Jess went in the opposite direction. His school uniform is his favorite pair of worn-out jeans with holes in the knees, and hooded sweatshirts. Our personalities are like how we dress; I’m a straight-A student and easygoing, and Jess is a B or C student who chooses his friends carefully and hates everyone else.
At 3:12, Jess opened the front door and collapsed onto the couch. I heard him come in from upstairs so I ran down to greet him. By the time I got there, he had already opened a soda and turned on the TV.
“Hey, Jase, how’s it goin’?” he asked, turning away from the television to look at me.
“Bored, but what else is new? Glad you could come, by the way,” I answered, plopping down next to him and stealing the remote.
“Yeah, I was bored too.” He thought for a moment. “Where’s Anna?”
Anna and I are always hanging out together. Except for the soccer meets and gym class, I’m rarely without her. I argued with myself about whether to tell Jess about the fight I had with Anna earlier, and after a few moments of silence, I gave in and started the story, hoping for some insight into why Anna stormed off.
“Whoa. I thought you guys were really tight,” he said when I finished.
“I thought so too. I don’t even get what we were fighting about. Actually, I don’t even know if we were fighting. She may have just been mad at me for some reason. Can’t guess why though,” I said dejectedly.
“Well, why don’t you call her and ask?” I don’t know how Jess manages to get so many girlfriends.
“Because she spent the better part of this morning yelling at me about whatever it was. I’m supposed to know by now.”
Jess scoffed and punched me on the shoulder. “I’ll call her then,” he said, reaching for the phone next to the couch. Jess is one of the few people I know who doesn’t have a cell phone. He dialed the number and waited while it rang.
“How did you know her number?” I asked curiously. He and Anna had never been great friends.
“I’ve only watched you dial it about five hundred times, Jason. Even I’m not that unobservant. Hey, Anna,” he interrupted himself suddenly. Obviously, she had answered her phone. “Yeah, it’s Jess.” Pause. “Yeah, no, I haven’t finished it yet. I’m sure Jason has though, he always finishes his homework early.” Pause. “Anna, hold on a second.” Jess turned to me, covering the mouthpiece with his palm. “When did you guys fight this morning?” he whispered.
“Around nine. Then I stayed out by the lake until about two. What did she say?”
“I’ll tell you when I’m done. Anna? Sorry, I had to uh, do something. Yeah, so I was talking to Jason earlier this afternoon and he mentioned that you had some kind of fight or something this morning. Can you tell me what’s goin’ on?” Pause. Jess smiled slightly. “Oh, I know how that is. Yeah, don’t you hate it when that happens?”
I glared at him and mouthed “tell me” about three times before he wrapped up the conversation.
“Yeah, well, I’d better go. See you at school, then. Yeah, you too. Bye.” Finally, Jess hung up the phone. I grabbed his arm and turned him back to me, sending another glare his way. “She wouldn’t tell me about the fight.”
“BS! What did she say?”
“She said…”
“What?”
“She said that you weren’t listening,” Jess finished simply.
“I could have told you that. Did she tell you what she was saying that I wasn’t listening to?” I asked impatiently.
“She said that she was going to tell you something important, but you weren’t listening to a word she was saying so she got mad, called you a jerk, and went home,” he replied, seemingly ill at ease.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked suspiciously, narrowing my eyes.
Jess fidgeted for a moment before answering. “I know what she wanted to tell you, but I promised not to tell. She wanted to be the one, you know?”
I replayed the one-sided conversation in my head before asking again. “I didn’t hear anything about any promises. C’mon, you can tell me.”
“No, I can't,” Jess said sharply, looking down at his hands.
“You already knew about whatever she was going to tell me. You don’t even like her that much! What is going on?”
“Just shut up, Jason! You don’t know anything about it and I’m not going to be the one to tell you. Drop it,” Jess stood up and walked around the couch, into the kitchen.
“Fine,” I said after a moment of listening to him rummaging around in the cabinets. “Bring in some popcorn or something, we can watch a movie.”
Jess reappeared with a bowl of popcorn and a handful of candy and I popped in a DVD. We settled in to watch Alien Scorpions From Planet BD893, possibly the worst movie ever made.
Two and a half hours later (we paused and replayed the worst parts), Jess and I went out to his SUV. The large vehicle was black and had grey leather interior and was decked out in the best stereo equipment money could buy. Jess had played around with the idea of starting up a band a while back, but we only had a guitar player, Jess, and a classical pianist, me. No one in our whole school was willing to do drums, base, or vocals with us. Still, Jess had about five demo CDs of guitar solos he had written strewn across the front seat.
We chatted and played around outside for a few minutes, then Jess said he had to get back home and I went back inside to clean up the popcorn and candy wrappers. About ten minutes later, the boredom started to settle again. Then the phone rang. I hurried to answer it.
“Jason?”
“Yeah, Mom,” I said disappointedly.
“Your dad and I are going out to dinner and a concert when he gets off work, so we won’t be home until around eleven-thirty or midnight. Where’s Miriam?”
“Oh yeah, she said to tell you that she’s spending the night at Kelly’s. Tomorrow is a parent-teacher conference, by the way,” I said, suddenly remembering.
“Right. I nearly forgot about that. What time was our appointment?”
“I don’t know, Mrs. Bingham called you, not me.”
“I’m sure I have it on the calendar. I can’t believe you have two days off from school in one week.”
“Hey, I can't help it that today’s a holiday,” I laughed.
“Well, I’ll probably see you in the morning. You should leave the door unlocked for Nita. She mentioned that her key was sticking in the lock,” she said, referring to our housekeeper, who came by every other week.
“Yeah, Mom. Will do.”
“It seems awfully quiet. Is Anna there?”
“No, but Jess just left a few minutes ago.”
“Oh, well, have fun by yourself then, honey. Goodnight.”
“Yeah, ‘night. Bye.” Why was everyone asking about Anna? I can function without her.
I hung up the phone and logged back onto the computer, where I spent about twenty minutes chatting with a few friends. I asked Aurora, Kinsey, and Michael if they knew anything about whatever Anna wanted to tell me, but all three said they had no idea what I was talking about. I said goodbye and went back into my room. Searching desperately for something to keep me occupied, I searched through my school bag. At last, I pulled out Treasure Island, which I had finished ages ago. I already wrote the report on it, and it had gotten and A. I don’t know why I kept the book in my bag, but it didn’t matter. I had something to do. I read the first chapter, then threw the book at the bed, where it bounced and snapped closed.
Maybe I couldn’t function without Anna. I made up my mind to call her. Until I checked my watch. Her family has dinner at exactly six-thirty every night except Sunday. “Damn,” I said aloud. I’d wait half an hour, then call her, I decided.
My thoughts then returned to the party that I had neglected to mention to Jess. I pulled out a notebook and started making lists.
GUESTS
Anna Marks
Jess Jacobson
Beth Allan
Jamie Cunnings
Lindsey Carson
Aurora Bellingham
Kinsey Jameson
Bill Stevens
Michael Griffiths
Jake Miller
Matthew Miller
Adam Louis Adam Louis ADAM LOUIS
I debated for several minutes whether to invite Adam. On the one hand, I didn’t like him that much, but on the other hand, he wasn’t horrible and, although he was a nerd, he’d find a way to get himself invited anyway.
SUPPLIES
-Food
Chips, Pretzels, Crackers, Popcorn, Pizza
-Drinks
Soda, Punch, Water
-Entertainment
Games - Group games?
Music - Rock, Techno, Pop. General dance music.
I left the rest of that page blank so I could add more later. I made a mental note to ask Jess about the music stuff. Better yet, I thought, I’ll make another list. I’m good at lists.
TO DO
Ask Jess about music
Spread word about party
Ask Miriam to get out of the house on party day
Buy supplies
Clear Living Room for dancing
Find good group games
Call Anna and ask her what’s going on and why Jess knows about it
Call Jess and try to get an answer out of him
I was running out of productive things to put on my list. Jess is very stubborn, and if he’s made up his mind not to tell me, he won’t. Now that I had my three lists, I had to call Anna and both tell her about the party and get her help on the matter, and ask her about… whatever was going on.
I heard the grandfather clock downstairs ringing, so I fished my cell out of my pocket and hit the speed dial. A moment later, Anna picked up.
“Anna?”
“Jason. How are you?” she greeted me formally, but not coldly. She wasn’t that mad.
“Anna, I’m sorry. For not listening to you. Earlier this morning, I mean. I talked to Jess and he said that he couldn’t tell me. What was going on, I mean. But will you? Tell me, I mean? It’s kind of driving me crazy,” I said, stumbling over the words. I wasn’t usually like this.
“Yeah, Jess called me from your house, I assume he wouldn’t tell you what I said?”
“Yeah. But will you?”
“Not on the phone. What exactly did Jess say?”
“He said he promised not to tell me and that you wanted to tell me. I really wish I knew what was going on, you know,” I said, letting my frustration leak into my words.
“I’ll tell you in person, I promise,” she said placatingly.
“Oh, I wanted to ask you about a party, thrown by yours truly, in a couple of weeks. I have lists made and now I just need a second opinion. Can I come by your place tomorrow? Or tonight, if possible. I’m bored out of my mind and my parents won’t be home until midnight,” I pleaded.
“What about Miriam, can’t you do something with her?”
“She’s at her friend Kelly’s for the night.”
“Oh, well, I guess you can come over as long as you don’t stay forever. Mom would kill me if you stayed longer than an hour; I still have homework from last week to finish.”
“Okay, I’ll be there in half an hour. Thanks, Anna. G’bye.”
“See you.”
I hung up, feeling three-hundred-percent better than I had before I called. I immediately picked up the phone again and called Jess, but he was out, so I left a message, telling his mom that I called Anna and for Jess to call me back later. I checked my watch. I picked up my jacket, stuffed the lists in the pocket and ran to the garage. I threw myself into my car, tossing the jacket to the passenger side and then I searched my pockets for the keys. Realizing I didn’t have them, I ran back into the coatroom, grabbing my keys off their hook on the wall.
I got to Anna’s apartment only five minutes late. There was the city traffic to deal with. After a quick hello to her mom and dad, I took the stairs two at a time to get to her room. Her door was closed, so I knocked lightly. Unlike my door, which has posters and signs taped to it, her door is empty, clean, and normal looking. That says nothing about the interior of her room though. I heard her say something, presumably “come in,” and I turned the handle. The inside of Anna’s room is covered in old movie posters and snapshots of her or her family at a great many famous locations. One of my favorites is the one of Anna at the Grand Canyon, pretending like she’s about to fall in. Her bed is made; a simple, solid color blanket covering the plain white sheets. I found Anna at her desk, alternately writing on a sheet of notebook paper and typing into her laptop.
“I’ll be done in a second,” she mumbled, concentrating on her homework.
Anna has long, strawberry-blonde hair that hangs down to her shoulder blades. Her eyes are light blue, almost grey, and she’s actually a very pretty girl. She only wears a touch of makeup, and she always wears her hair up in some twisted knot at school. That day, she was wearing her typical day’s outfit; a short-sleeved t-shirt and a zippered jacket over it with a pair of well-worn, fitted jeans. She finished whatever she was working on and spun her chair around to face me.
“You said something about a party,” she said, smiling.
“Yes, I did,” I replied, pulling out the crumpled lists. I handed them to her and watched as she looked over them.
“Who’s Aurora Bellingham? I’m not sure I know her.”
Aurora Bellingham just moved here from New York City. Her mother, a stunning woman, was, and is still, a magazine fashion model. Her father is somewhat of a local hero. His name is Jimmy B. Bellingham, and he’s a country singer from around here that made it big. Really big. That’s why Aurora goes to Adams’ Grove.
“Aurora is the new girl in our calculus class,” I answered, deciding that Anna wasn’t looking for that much background information. Anna nodded, not looking up from the last list.
“I like your To Do list,” she said, handing it back to me. I read it and turned back to her.
“Will you tell me what’s going on now? You said you would tell me ‘in person.’”
“You haven’t finagled an answer out of Jess yet?”
“Its not crossed off the list,” I said sheepishly.
“I… I don’t think I can talk about it right now. Later though, I promise. Now, did you want to plan this party or not?”
......
hahaha cliffhanger! Hopefully this year's NaNo fic will turn out with a bit higher wordcount, eh?