The Small Things

-17- prepubescent romance

Copyright © 2015. All Rights Reserved.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: EIGHTH GRADE

D A T E : February - May 2010

✖ prepubescent romance ✖

There were more things going on besides the awkwardly arranged relationship between Kole and I. Sure, dating was a pretty big deal in eighth grade (Like, nobody dated. What was up with that?), but eighth grade was more than just prepubescent romance. It was the eighth step into the adult world, and every grade was a level up from the next.

Most of the time, there was some big BANG that would just hit a person upside the head, sort of like an initiation to make sure they're ready for high school. Joni's initiation was most likely when her parents signed her up for extra classes so she'd be able to skip ahead in math and science, because while her English was swell, everything else kind of suffered due to her massive reading list that took up an entire page in her notebook. The classes were awful, and I can't believe she even made it through them alive. She had to skip out on a bunch of our usual hangouts because of them.

Clara was a special case because we never really talked to her much during eighth grade. It wasn't until near the end of the year that she started hanging with us again, and while we were all pretty stoked about that, it was weird having her back in the group. It was clear she wasn't the same carefree person that she was before, but the track season seemed to lighten up her mood a bit, and since it involved practice with all of us nerds, she was sort of forced to converse with us again.

Whatever was going on with Clara before wasn't all that relevant in conversation, but I picked up that there was still something off with her just like there was with Landon. He started acting different around the middle of the year, like how he stopped talking out in class, and he spent a lot of time over at Joni's house. I mean, it was normal to have slumber parties (even with Landon being a guy—he was trustworthy), but we'd limited it to the weekends. Joni briefly mentioned that he'd slept over three nights out of the week, and it was so abrupt her parents grew suspicious.

"Gawd, they're so nosey. It's embarrassing. I can't believe they're threatening to call his parents," Joni complained over the phone on a late Tuesday night. Tuesdays she had lessons with a tutor, and afterwards her parents gave her phone privileges after eight o' clock.

"C'mon, you're exaggerating," I said. They probably just inquired about Landon's home life, and Joni was blowing it all out of proportions like she was living some grand book plot that involved dramatic twists and turns.

"Am not! Listen, and I'm not joking, either. Sunday night when he stayed over, my mom musta checked in on us, like, three times."

"That's what parenting is! Being threatened by boys staying over in their daughter's room," I told her as I strolled over to my bed where Puck laid, passed out on the pillows. I hopped on next to him and plucked at the burs in his shaggy fur.

"We weren't even sleeping in my room, okay. I'm not a total idiot."

"Well, why's he been staying over so much then?" I ask, and she let out an exasperated sigh through the phone line.

"Ugh, I dunno. His parents are pissing him off is all I know, so I don't want my mom nosing around in their business. It's between them, isn't it? I mean, if that is the case."

I supposed she was defending Landon mainly because he was our friend, and he wanted privacy, but parents didn't understand those types of boundaries. To them, we were just kids, unsure about what exactly it was we were doing, and what type of message we were giving off if we decided to stay over at a friend's house for more than just a handful of nights.