Untitled (NaNoWriMo) Part 3/?
I know, I haven't posted anything in over a week. I've been really behind in my writing. I have just over 16k total, while I'm supposed to be past 30k >.<
I plan on trying to catch up this weekend and on Thanksgiving break, though.
I'll leave this post just for NaNoWriMo stuff and post something else later relating to my life and its goings-on.
This is the writing from days 7 and 8.
After having finished their coffee and snacks, the girls headed over to Kirsten’s house. It was, luckily, not too far from Starbucks. They passed rows and rows of typical suburban houses, most of which were only one story (unlike Cammie’s two story house, but that was because five people had lived there until Todd moved out). Eventually, they got to a blue-grey house with a quaint white fence around a patch of grass. “We’re here!” Kirsten announced as she threw the door open and brought the girls in.
Inside was a house kept very clean and organized by a busy housewife. There was nice wooden furniture, scrubbed tile and hardwood floors, and doilies with vases of flowers on top near the entrance and on the dining room table. Cammie was surprised. Even when they had guests over, there was no way they could get the house to look this neat. Granted, Cammie had a 10 year old and a 6 year old in her house, while Kirsten only had one older sister and, judging by the litter box in the kitchen, a cat.
“Home sweet home.” Kirsten said, dropping her backpack at the door and putting her shoes on the shoe rack. Cammie and the other girls followed in suit. “Come to the kitchen, I want Cammie to meet my mom.” The girls followed Kirsten into the kitchen. As they got closer, the sound of Pachelbel’s Canon got louder and louder. When they finally entered the kitchen, they saw a woman with stick straight red hair stirring something in a bowl as she hummed along to the music. She appeared to be very wrapped up in what she was doing. “Hey mom, we’re home.”
Kirsten’s mother looked up and smiled, putting her bowl down on the table. “Girls! Oh I haven’t seen you all summer. I would hug you, but well…” she held up her hands, which had flour on them. “Tina, will you be trying out for soccer this fall, like in middle school?” Tina nodded. “Good girl. Never give up something you enjoy doing. And Jaime, I heard the debate team could use some new members.”
“I’m definitely planning on checking it out, Mrs. Larson. Thanks.” Jaime said.
“Wonderful.” Mrs. Larson’s eyes then rested on Cammie. “I don’t believe we’ve met… I am, of course, Kirsten’s mother. Are you a new friend of hers?”
Cammie nodded. “Yeah, I’m Tina’s lab partner. She invited me to hang out. My name is Cammie.” She extended it to shake, but then quickly withdrew it when she remembered that Mrs. Larson’s hands were coated in flour from cooking.
“Well make yourself at home, Cammie.” Mrs. Larson said with a warm smile. “I’m trying out a recipe I found for banana bread. I hope you girls like it.”
“It tastes the best with Nutella.” Kirsten said with a smile. She turned to her mother. “We’ll be in my room.” Then she planted a peck on her mother’s cheek before showing everyone down the hall to her room.
Like the rest of the house, Kirsten’s room was neat and organized. The walls were a soft shade of orange with white Venetian blinds and white wooden furniture. Whoever had designed this room (probably Kirsten herself) had done a very good job coordinating colors and furniture styles. Kirsten sat down at the black swiveling chair by her desk and Tina and Jaime sat on the bed, leaving Cammie with a red bean bag chair near the door. “So Kirsten,” Jaime said, now that they were in a private space, “who is this Aidan boy you mentioned during lunch?”
Kirsten turned slightly pink. “Well, he’s just this boy in my Art class… Aidan Blair… he’s a sophomore.” She gave a small smile. “He’s rather nice actually. And I heard him talking about trying out for Water Polo, so he’s athletic….” Her voice faded.
“Oooh…” Tina said, obviously interested now that Kirsten had mentioned that he was an athlete. “What does he look like?”
Kirsten bit her lip. “Wavy brown hair. Green eyes. He has the build of a swimmer, so he had lean muscle and wide shoulders…” she shrugged. “Nothing too special, but I love his smile.”
“Awww…” Tina gushed. “Little Kirsten’s in love!” This only made Kirsten turn pinker. Jamie laughed.
“Leave her alone, you guys.” Cammie said with a laugh. “She barely even knows the poor guy.” She then turned to Kirsten. “He went to my middle school. And yeah, he’s a great guy. I’m sure he’ll like you, just talk to him. And be yourself, Aidan hates phonies.”
Kirsten gave a small smile. “Thanks…” she said. “Can we talk about something else now?” she asked.
“Well… I have something…” Tina said. “Trevor wants to ‘get back together’ with me.” She said, putting finger quotes around the words ‘get back together’.
“What?!” Jaime exclaimed, obviously shocked. “Is he crazy?”
“I don’t know, probably.” Tina said. She then turned to Cammie. “Trevor was this guy from like seventh grade… he went to the first school dance with me and after that declared us boyfriend and girlfriend just because we slow danced once.” She shuddered. “As soon as I found out, I ‘dumped’ him. Now he wants a second chance.” She rolled her eyes. “Some guys… they just don’t get it, do they?”
Cammie shrugged. “I wouldn’t know… I’ve never been asked out.” She admitted. “The only experience I’ve had with guys is as friends.”
“Seriously?” Jaime asked. “Well is there anyone you’re interested in? We could help you in that area… that’s what girl friends are for, after all.”
Cammie shook her head. “Thanks for the offer, girls, but I’m fine, really.” She said. “If I find someone, yeah I’ll tell you. If not, whatever. I have better things to worry about.”
Jaime nodded. “Good choice.” She said. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty picky when it comes to guys, so I don’t dwell too much on it. Right now, just making it through high school and getting into a good college is more important.”
Suddenly, Tina jumped up. “Ooh! I have this awesome new song on my iPod. Kirsten, can I plug it into your iHome so I can show you?” Kirsten nodded and smiled, so Tina scooted over closer to the iHome, which was on the night stand by Kirsten’s bed. Pulling her blue iPod nano out of the pocket of her jeans, Tina placed it into the cradle on the iHome before hitting play. Some alternative rock song that Cammie didn’t recognize started up, with a few seconds of just the bass and drums before the guitar and singer came in.
“Oh I love this song. Who is it by?” Jaime asked. Tina mentioned some band that Cammie had never heard of before and the two spoke about the band’s other good songs briefly before Jaime turned to Cammie. “So, what music do you listen to?”
Cammie shrugged. “Oh just whatever I find, I guess. Mainly alternative. Some of it’s a little mainstream, but I really don’t care. I like what I like, right?” She decided to be vague, in case she accidentally mentioned a band that technically didn’t exist yet. She had done that before, although she was lucky that the boy she was talking to just thought it was some local indie band and actually thought she was cooler because of it. But this wasn’t just a random boy on the bus, this was the group that she was going to be spending a lot of time with. Tina and Jaime sounded quite music savvy, and if Cammie mentioned a band they didn’t recognize, she was sure that one of them would question her or, worse, look it up only to find no results.
“Hey Cammie, you might like this song. It’s called Autumn Acoustic.” Tina said, now flipping through the songs on one of the playlists on her iPod. The song started with just a guitar, and then other guitars joined in before it was accompanied by a voice and what sounded like keyboards. There were no drums, giving the song a relaxing feel. “I love acoustic songs.” Tina commented, a smile on her face as she leaned back against the wall, eyes closed, mouthing the lyrics to herself. A voice spoke a few lines, then the singing returned.
“Tina never sings.” Kirsten told Cammie. “She loves music and memorizes the lyrics to like, every song she’s ever heard… but she doesn’t sing. Not in front of people, anyway.” Kirsten held up her hand, using it as a shield between the next few words she whispered and where Tina sat. “We figure she must sing in the shower or something.”
Cammie giggled and Tina opened her eyes. “What?” Cammie immediately stopped giggling.
“Oh nothing…” she replied, looking away
“Oh come on, don’t make me force it out of you…” Tina said, jumping at Cammie as if pretending to attack her. Cammie made a surprised squealing noise and scooted back quickly and the two started giggling. Tina returned to her seat on the bed and flopped over backwards.
With the music playing and the girls giggling, nobody realized how much noise they were making until they heard a knock at the door. “Come in.” Kirsten called, and the door swung open, revealing a girl who looked suspiciously familiar…. She was petite and thin and had stick straight strawberry blonde hair, although it was tied back into a ponytail. Her round face, body structure, and hair were all oddly similar to Cammie’s, and yet due to differences in style, it all went completely unnoticed to everyone but Cammie. While Cammie wore a fitted top, capris and knee socks, this girl wore a brown peasant skirt with a loose white blouse. Less noticeable differences included the girl’s facial features, including her vivid green eyes.
“Hey Amanda, are we disturbing your homework again?” Kirsten said, wincing at the less than pleased look on her older sister’s face.
“Kirsten, as I mentioned before, I have my SATs in January. Do you have any clue how important it is for me to get at least a 2100 on this so I can get into a good school?” Amanda sighed. Kirsten winced, but then Amanda just rolled her eyes. “Look, just turn down the music a bit, alright? I can practically hear every lyric and bass note from my room down the hall.”
Kirsten raised her eyebrows. “Shoot, sorry sis. Alright, will do.” As if on cue, Tina sat up, turned the volume down, and flopped backwards onto the bed once more.
“Alright, thanks. You three have fu-” Amanda stopped mid-sentence when her eyes rested on Cammie. “Who’s this, new friend?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot. Cammie, this is my big sister Amanda. Amanda, this is my new friend Cammie.” Cammie lifted a hand as a silent wave.
“Hey Cammie.” Amanda said with a smile. She then turned back to Kirsten. “Anyway, like I was saying, you girls have fun. I have SAT prep to finish.” And then, Amanda turned around and disappeared, closing the door behind her.
Cammie held back a small smile. Amanda. She knew Amanda well. Amanda didn’t know it yet, but the two were quite close. Now, she was Amanda Larson, but Cammie knew her as Amanda Isaacs, or simply as Mother. Who would have thought that, in Cammie’s first two days on high school, she would already be introduced to her parents?
***
The next day at school, Cammie was looking around for somewhere to sit at lunch. Eyes searching the tables, she found nobody familiar but Greg. As she made eye contact with him and headed over towards his table, she noticed him push out the chair across from him with his foot, as a silent invitation to sit down. And she probably would have had she not heard a voice behind her call out to her.
“Cammie! Cammie, we’re over here!” Cammie turned around and saw Kirsten, Tina, and Jaime sitting at a square table for four close to the other side of the cafeteria and waving. Cammie turned to look at Greg and winced, looking apologetic before walking off to sit with her friends. Poor Greg had to sit all alone today.
“Was that Greg, then?” Jaime asked as Cammie sat down. “They guy you were about to sit with, I mean. He looks… interesting.”
“And by that Jaime means boring.” Tina translated. “Although I’d have to agree with her… he seems to have no style or sense of color. Even his food is all so bland.” She said and she craned her neck to get a better look at him. Luckily he wasn’t looking their way.
“Yeah, that’s him.” Cammie said with a nod. “He’s… well I don’t know really. He seems like one of those guys who doesn’t speak much, but when he does, it means something. Good or bad, but it means something.” She said. She shrugged and looked over at him. Today he wore a simple black shirt and jeans. Cammie wondered if he owned any pants that weren’t jeans. Probably not. That would explain why, in her time, she rarely if ever saw her father in jeans; he must have grown tired of them as a teenager.
“He can be a little annoying at times, but we sort of have this unspoken tolerance for each other.” Cammie told the girls.
“Well hey, unspoken tolerance is better than pure hate, right?” Kirsten offered.
“Yeah, right.” Cammie said. Especially, she thought, if it was for your father. Or, well, future father. Father-to-be. And especially when she needed to gain the trust of this father-to-be so she could figure out how to prevent him from becoming evil.
Cammie suddenly heard a high-pitched giggle from a nearby table. Looking over, she saw the guy who had taken the chair across from her on the first day of school, once again surrounded by girls. This time, she recognized one of them as Amanda. Then she felt a tug on the sleeve of her navy blue sweater. Turning, she saw Kirsten pointing. Then, in a low whisper so Cammie could barely hear, she whispered “There he is… standing… walking… stopping…”
Cammie turned to see where she pointed and noticed a tall boy with brown hair. It was Aidan Blair, the boy from her middle school that Kirsten had mentioned the previous day. He walked over to the table Cammie had been watching earlier and pulled out a seat, sitting across from the other boy. “Aidan knows your sister?” she asked, turning to look at Kirsten. Kirsten just nodded. “Seems like your sister’s pretty popular.” Cammie commented. Kirsten just sighed.
“They expect me to be like her. I’m not. I’m shyer. She’s outgoing, friendly, smart, has so many friends… sometimes, just sometimes, I think it’s not fair.” Kirsten paused and bit her lip, before continuing, this time being a little more defensive. “But I’m content with what I have. Besides, I’m smarter than she is and more open minded. She won’t admit to it, but she only dates athletes. Every single guy she’s dated has been one and none of the guys she’s turned down have been into sports at all.”
Cammie frowned. Amanda only dated athletes? Well that sucked. The Greg she knew (the one who was now a junior) was not into sports at all. So how did they end up together? Maybe Amanda grew up, or maybe Greg got into sports later, only to drop them. She tried to think back to whether either of her parents had ever mentioned her father playing or even watching sports. Unfortunately, due to spending two years without her parents, her memory of them was fading fast. If it had been brought up, she didn’t remember it.
Looking back over at the table Amanda was at, she noticed her talking to Aidan. Then she had an idea. “Hey Kirsten, Amanda knows Aidan, right? Couldn’t she introduce you?” But Kirsten sadly shook her head.
“I don’t want him to see me as ‘Amanda’s sister’ though. I haven’t told him yet that I’m her sister and I don’t think he’s figured it out. Not many people do, since we don’t exactly look alike.” Kirsten paused. “Actually I think people are more likely to ask if you’re related to her than me.” Cammie held back a giggle. “But anyway, even if I did ask and even if she did introduce him to me, it wouldn’t make a difference. He will always see right through me.” Kirsten sighed, staring at her salad as she prodded it with a fork.
Something inside Cammie smiled. “Just because he’s popular doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance with him.” She assured Kirsten. “The first step is to talk to him. Something about music. He loves music. He plays the guitar and the piano, you know.” Kirsten raised an eyebrow. “Really, he sang and played Mad World by Gary Jules on the piano for a talent show when he was in eighth grade. Anyway, like I said, talk to him. What have you got to lose?”
Kirsten smiled. “I love that song… I love music…” she chuckled to herself. “Alright, I will, thanks.” Cammie wanted to tell Kirsten that she’d be friends with Aidan for two years before he would realize his feelings for her. She wanted to tell Kirsten that during those two years, Kirsten would not admit her feelings for Aidan and would, in fact, date another boy simply because she couldn’t say no, and that it was Kirsten’s relationship with that other boy that made Aidan realize his feelings. She also wanted to tell Kirsten that they’d lose touch in college, but not to worry, because they’d meet at a coffee shop later and start dating again, then marry and have a beautiful daughter named Adalia. She wanted to tell Kirsten all this, but didn’t.
You see, when Cammie lived with her mother, her Auntie Kirsten came to visit often. When Cammie was nine and asked her mother and Auntie Kirsten about boys and kissing for the first time, her Auntie Kirsten gave her the advice to always be herself. Auntie Kirsten told lots of stories about her high school years to Cammie as she grew up. One of those stories was about how Auntie Kirsten met Uncle Aidan. Those stories always brought tears to Auntie Kirsten’s eyes because Uncle Aidan died a few years after Cousin Adalia was born.
“Hey Cammie?” Tina’s words snapped Cammie out of it. “Cammie, are you gonna eat that?” Cammie looked down to where Tina pointed to the lone brownie on her plate, a little dark square amongst the leftovers of yellow spaghetti, red sauce, and green salad.
Cammie shook her head. “No, go ahead. You can have it.” Tina grinned, reached over and grabbed it. Taking a bite, she smiled as if she had been deprived of chocolate for years. Cammie just chuckled and smiled to herself. Even though she only knew Tina for a few days, she already knew well enough how addicted to chocolate the girl was. “Is this your daily dose Tina?” she joked. Tina nodded and smiled, closing her eyes as she contentedly chewed her mouthful of brownie.
It was moments later that the four were all finished eating. “Hey guys, wanna go out to the field? I saw a bunch of guys playing soccer there earlier. I’m friends with a couple of them.” Tina said. The girls agreed, and so they all stood up, grabbing their trays, and walking off to dispose of them before heading outside to the field.
I plan on trying to catch up this weekend and on Thanksgiving break, though.
I'll leave this post just for NaNoWriMo stuff and post something else later relating to my life and its goings-on.
This is the writing from days 7 and 8.
After having finished their coffee and snacks, the girls headed over to Kirsten’s house. It was, luckily, not too far from Starbucks. They passed rows and rows of typical suburban houses, most of which were only one story (unlike Cammie’s two story house, but that was because five people had lived there until Todd moved out). Eventually, they got to a blue-grey house with a quaint white fence around a patch of grass. “We’re here!” Kirsten announced as she threw the door open and brought the girls in.
Inside was a house kept very clean and organized by a busy housewife. There was nice wooden furniture, scrubbed tile and hardwood floors, and doilies with vases of flowers on top near the entrance and on the dining room table. Cammie was surprised. Even when they had guests over, there was no way they could get the house to look this neat. Granted, Cammie had a 10 year old and a 6 year old in her house, while Kirsten only had one older sister and, judging by the litter box in the kitchen, a cat.
“Home sweet home.” Kirsten said, dropping her backpack at the door and putting her shoes on the shoe rack. Cammie and the other girls followed in suit. “Come to the kitchen, I want Cammie to meet my mom.” The girls followed Kirsten into the kitchen. As they got closer, the sound of Pachelbel’s Canon got louder and louder. When they finally entered the kitchen, they saw a woman with stick straight red hair stirring something in a bowl as she hummed along to the music. She appeared to be very wrapped up in what she was doing. “Hey mom, we’re home.”
Kirsten’s mother looked up and smiled, putting her bowl down on the table. “Girls! Oh I haven’t seen you all summer. I would hug you, but well…” she held up her hands, which had flour on them. “Tina, will you be trying out for soccer this fall, like in middle school?” Tina nodded. “Good girl. Never give up something you enjoy doing. And Jaime, I heard the debate team could use some new members.”
“I’m definitely planning on checking it out, Mrs. Larson. Thanks.” Jaime said.
“Wonderful.” Mrs. Larson’s eyes then rested on Cammie. “I don’t believe we’ve met… I am, of course, Kirsten’s mother. Are you a new friend of hers?”
Cammie nodded. “Yeah, I’m Tina’s lab partner. She invited me to hang out. My name is Cammie.” She extended it to shake, but then quickly withdrew it when she remembered that Mrs. Larson’s hands were coated in flour from cooking.
“Well make yourself at home, Cammie.” Mrs. Larson said with a warm smile. “I’m trying out a recipe I found for banana bread. I hope you girls like it.”
“It tastes the best with Nutella.” Kirsten said with a smile. She turned to her mother. “We’ll be in my room.” Then she planted a peck on her mother’s cheek before showing everyone down the hall to her room.
Like the rest of the house, Kirsten’s room was neat and organized. The walls were a soft shade of orange with white Venetian blinds and white wooden furniture. Whoever had designed this room (probably Kirsten herself) had done a very good job coordinating colors and furniture styles. Kirsten sat down at the black swiveling chair by her desk and Tina and Jaime sat on the bed, leaving Cammie with a red bean bag chair near the door. “So Kirsten,” Jaime said, now that they were in a private space, “who is this Aidan boy you mentioned during lunch?”
Kirsten turned slightly pink. “Well, he’s just this boy in my Art class… Aidan Blair… he’s a sophomore.” She gave a small smile. “He’s rather nice actually. And I heard him talking about trying out for Water Polo, so he’s athletic….” Her voice faded.
“Oooh…” Tina said, obviously interested now that Kirsten had mentioned that he was an athlete. “What does he look like?”
Kirsten bit her lip. “Wavy brown hair. Green eyes. He has the build of a swimmer, so he had lean muscle and wide shoulders…” she shrugged. “Nothing too special, but I love his smile.”
“Awww…” Tina gushed. “Little Kirsten’s in love!” This only made Kirsten turn pinker. Jamie laughed.
“Leave her alone, you guys.” Cammie said with a laugh. “She barely even knows the poor guy.” She then turned to Kirsten. “He went to my middle school. And yeah, he’s a great guy. I’m sure he’ll like you, just talk to him. And be yourself, Aidan hates phonies.”
Kirsten gave a small smile. “Thanks…” she said. “Can we talk about something else now?” she asked.
“Well… I have something…” Tina said. “Trevor wants to ‘get back together’ with me.” She said, putting finger quotes around the words ‘get back together’.
“What?!” Jaime exclaimed, obviously shocked. “Is he crazy?”
“I don’t know, probably.” Tina said. She then turned to Cammie. “Trevor was this guy from like seventh grade… he went to the first school dance with me and after that declared us boyfriend and girlfriend just because we slow danced once.” She shuddered. “As soon as I found out, I ‘dumped’ him. Now he wants a second chance.” She rolled her eyes. “Some guys… they just don’t get it, do they?”
Cammie shrugged. “I wouldn’t know… I’ve never been asked out.” She admitted. “The only experience I’ve had with guys is as friends.”
“Seriously?” Jaime asked. “Well is there anyone you’re interested in? We could help you in that area… that’s what girl friends are for, after all.”
Cammie shook her head. “Thanks for the offer, girls, but I’m fine, really.” She said. “If I find someone, yeah I’ll tell you. If not, whatever. I have better things to worry about.”
Jaime nodded. “Good choice.” She said. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty picky when it comes to guys, so I don’t dwell too much on it. Right now, just making it through high school and getting into a good college is more important.”
Suddenly, Tina jumped up. “Ooh! I have this awesome new song on my iPod. Kirsten, can I plug it into your iHome so I can show you?” Kirsten nodded and smiled, so Tina scooted over closer to the iHome, which was on the night stand by Kirsten’s bed. Pulling her blue iPod nano out of the pocket of her jeans, Tina placed it into the cradle on the iHome before hitting play. Some alternative rock song that Cammie didn’t recognize started up, with a few seconds of just the bass and drums before the guitar and singer came in.
“Oh I love this song. Who is it by?” Jaime asked. Tina mentioned some band that Cammie had never heard of before and the two spoke about the band’s other good songs briefly before Jaime turned to Cammie. “So, what music do you listen to?”
Cammie shrugged. “Oh just whatever I find, I guess. Mainly alternative. Some of it’s a little mainstream, but I really don’t care. I like what I like, right?” She decided to be vague, in case she accidentally mentioned a band that technically didn’t exist yet. She had done that before, although she was lucky that the boy she was talking to just thought it was some local indie band and actually thought she was cooler because of it. But this wasn’t just a random boy on the bus, this was the group that she was going to be spending a lot of time with. Tina and Jaime sounded quite music savvy, and if Cammie mentioned a band they didn’t recognize, she was sure that one of them would question her or, worse, look it up only to find no results.
“Hey Cammie, you might like this song. It’s called Autumn Acoustic.” Tina said, now flipping through the songs on one of the playlists on her iPod. The song started with just a guitar, and then other guitars joined in before it was accompanied by a voice and what sounded like keyboards. There were no drums, giving the song a relaxing feel. “I love acoustic songs.” Tina commented, a smile on her face as she leaned back against the wall, eyes closed, mouthing the lyrics to herself. A voice spoke a few lines, then the singing returned.
“Tina never sings.” Kirsten told Cammie. “She loves music and memorizes the lyrics to like, every song she’s ever heard… but she doesn’t sing. Not in front of people, anyway.” Kirsten held up her hand, using it as a shield between the next few words she whispered and where Tina sat. “We figure she must sing in the shower or something.”
Cammie giggled and Tina opened her eyes. “What?” Cammie immediately stopped giggling.
“Oh nothing…” she replied, looking away
“Oh come on, don’t make me force it out of you…” Tina said, jumping at Cammie as if pretending to attack her. Cammie made a surprised squealing noise and scooted back quickly and the two started giggling. Tina returned to her seat on the bed and flopped over backwards.
With the music playing and the girls giggling, nobody realized how much noise they were making until they heard a knock at the door. “Come in.” Kirsten called, and the door swung open, revealing a girl who looked suspiciously familiar…. She was petite and thin and had stick straight strawberry blonde hair, although it was tied back into a ponytail. Her round face, body structure, and hair were all oddly similar to Cammie’s, and yet due to differences in style, it all went completely unnoticed to everyone but Cammie. While Cammie wore a fitted top, capris and knee socks, this girl wore a brown peasant skirt with a loose white blouse. Less noticeable differences included the girl’s facial features, including her vivid green eyes.
“Hey Amanda, are we disturbing your homework again?” Kirsten said, wincing at the less than pleased look on her older sister’s face.
“Kirsten, as I mentioned before, I have my SATs in January. Do you have any clue how important it is for me to get at least a 2100 on this so I can get into a good school?” Amanda sighed. Kirsten winced, but then Amanda just rolled her eyes. “Look, just turn down the music a bit, alright? I can practically hear every lyric and bass note from my room down the hall.”
Kirsten raised her eyebrows. “Shoot, sorry sis. Alright, will do.” As if on cue, Tina sat up, turned the volume down, and flopped backwards onto the bed once more.
“Alright, thanks. You three have fu-” Amanda stopped mid-sentence when her eyes rested on Cammie. “Who’s this, new friend?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot. Cammie, this is my big sister Amanda. Amanda, this is my new friend Cammie.” Cammie lifted a hand as a silent wave.
“Hey Cammie.” Amanda said with a smile. She then turned back to Kirsten. “Anyway, like I was saying, you girls have fun. I have SAT prep to finish.” And then, Amanda turned around and disappeared, closing the door behind her.
Cammie held back a small smile. Amanda. She knew Amanda well. Amanda didn’t know it yet, but the two were quite close. Now, she was Amanda Larson, but Cammie knew her as Amanda Isaacs, or simply as Mother. Who would have thought that, in Cammie’s first two days on high school, she would already be introduced to her parents?
***
The next day at school, Cammie was looking around for somewhere to sit at lunch. Eyes searching the tables, she found nobody familiar but Greg. As she made eye contact with him and headed over towards his table, she noticed him push out the chair across from him with his foot, as a silent invitation to sit down. And she probably would have had she not heard a voice behind her call out to her.
“Cammie! Cammie, we’re over here!” Cammie turned around and saw Kirsten, Tina, and Jaime sitting at a square table for four close to the other side of the cafeteria and waving. Cammie turned to look at Greg and winced, looking apologetic before walking off to sit with her friends. Poor Greg had to sit all alone today.
“Was that Greg, then?” Jaime asked as Cammie sat down. “They guy you were about to sit with, I mean. He looks… interesting.”
“And by that Jaime means boring.” Tina translated. “Although I’d have to agree with her… he seems to have no style or sense of color. Even his food is all so bland.” She said and she craned her neck to get a better look at him. Luckily he wasn’t looking their way.
“Yeah, that’s him.” Cammie said with a nod. “He’s… well I don’t know really. He seems like one of those guys who doesn’t speak much, but when he does, it means something. Good or bad, but it means something.” She said. She shrugged and looked over at him. Today he wore a simple black shirt and jeans. Cammie wondered if he owned any pants that weren’t jeans. Probably not. That would explain why, in her time, she rarely if ever saw her father in jeans; he must have grown tired of them as a teenager.
“He can be a little annoying at times, but we sort of have this unspoken tolerance for each other.” Cammie told the girls.
“Well hey, unspoken tolerance is better than pure hate, right?” Kirsten offered.
“Yeah, right.” Cammie said. Especially, she thought, if it was for your father. Or, well, future father. Father-to-be. And especially when she needed to gain the trust of this father-to-be so she could figure out how to prevent him from becoming evil.
Cammie suddenly heard a high-pitched giggle from a nearby table. Looking over, she saw the guy who had taken the chair across from her on the first day of school, once again surrounded by girls. This time, she recognized one of them as Amanda. Then she felt a tug on the sleeve of her navy blue sweater. Turning, she saw Kirsten pointing. Then, in a low whisper so Cammie could barely hear, she whispered “There he is… standing… walking… stopping…”
Cammie turned to see where she pointed and noticed a tall boy with brown hair. It was Aidan Blair, the boy from her middle school that Kirsten had mentioned the previous day. He walked over to the table Cammie had been watching earlier and pulled out a seat, sitting across from the other boy. “Aidan knows your sister?” she asked, turning to look at Kirsten. Kirsten just nodded. “Seems like your sister’s pretty popular.” Cammie commented. Kirsten just sighed.
“They expect me to be like her. I’m not. I’m shyer. She’s outgoing, friendly, smart, has so many friends… sometimes, just sometimes, I think it’s not fair.” Kirsten paused and bit her lip, before continuing, this time being a little more defensive. “But I’m content with what I have. Besides, I’m smarter than she is and more open minded. She won’t admit to it, but she only dates athletes. Every single guy she’s dated has been one and none of the guys she’s turned down have been into sports at all.”
Cammie frowned. Amanda only dated athletes? Well that sucked. The Greg she knew (the one who was now a junior) was not into sports at all. So how did they end up together? Maybe Amanda grew up, or maybe Greg got into sports later, only to drop them. She tried to think back to whether either of her parents had ever mentioned her father playing or even watching sports. Unfortunately, due to spending two years without her parents, her memory of them was fading fast. If it had been brought up, she didn’t remember it.
Looking back over at the table Amanda was at, she noticed her talking to Aidan. Then she had an idea. “Hey Kirsten, Amanda knows Aidan, right? Couldn’t she introduce you?” But Kirsten sadly shook her head.
“I don’t want him to see me as ‘Amanda’s sister’ though. I haven’t told him yet that I’m her sister and I don’t think he’s figured it out. Not many people do, since we don’t exactly look alike.” Kirsten paused. “Actually I think people are more likely to ask if you’re related to her than me.” Cammie held back a giggle. “But anyway, even if I did ask and even if she did introduce him to me, it wouldn’t make a difference. He will always see right through me.” Kirsten sighed, staring at her salad as she prodded it with a fork.
Something inside Cammie smiled. “Just because he’s popular doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance with him.” She assured Kirsten. “The first step is to talk to him. Something about music. He loves music. He plays the guitar and the piano, you know.” Kirsten raised an eyebrow. “Really, he sang and played Mad World by Gary Jules on the piano for a talent show when he was in eighth grade. Anyway, like I said, talk to him. What have you got to lose?”
Kirsten smiled. “I love that song… I love music…” she chuckled to herself. “Alright, I will, thanks.” Cammie wanted to tell Kirsten that she’d be friends with Aidan for two years before he would realize his feelings for her. She wanted to tell Kirsten that during those two years, Kirsten would not admit her feelings for Aidan and would, in fact, date another boy simply because she couldn’t say no, and that it was Kirsten’s relationship with that other boy that made Aidan realize his feelings. She also wanted to tell Kirsten that they’d lose touch in college, but not to worry, because they’d meet at a coffee shop later and start dating again, then marry and have a beautiful daughter named Adalia. She wanted to tell Kirsten all this, but didn’t.
You see, when Cammie lived with her mother, her Auntie Kirsten came to visit often. When Cammie was nine and asked her mother and Auntie Kirsten about boys and kissing for the first time, her Auntie Kirsten gave her the advice to always be herself. Auntie Kirsten told lots of stories about her high school years to Cammie as she grew up. One of those stories was about how Auntie Kirsten met Uncle Aidan. Those stories always brought tears to Auntie Kirsten’s eyes because Uncle Aidan died a few years after Cousin Adalia was born.
“Hey Cammie?” Tina’s words snapped Cammie out of it. “Cammie, are you gonna eat that?” Cammie looked down to where Tina pointed to the lone brownie on her plate, a little dark square amongst the leftovers of yellow spaghetti, red sauce, and green salad.
Cammie shook her head. “No, go ahead. You can have it.” Tina grinned, reached over and grabbed it. Taking a bite, she smiled as if she had been deprived of chocolate for years. Cammie just chuckled and smiled to herself. Even though she only knew Tina for a few days, she already knew well enough how addicted to chocolate the girl was. “Is this your daily dose Tina?” she joked. Tina nodded and smiled, closing her eyes as she contentedly chewed her mouthful of brownie.
It was moments later that the four were all finished eating. “Hey guys, wanna go out to the field? I saw a bunch of guys playing soccer there earlier. I’m friends with a couple of them.” Tina said. The girls agreed, and so they all stood up, grabbing their trays, and walking off to dispose of them before heading outside to the field.