Political Science 101

Chapter Twenty

ASHLYNN BRADLEY'S bedroom was far from being the quintessential living quarters of a high school freshman girl. Given the permission of her father, she painted the room in a lime-green and pink design and covered the walls with posters of her favorite musicians. However, it was the content of the posters which gave the room its particular flare.

But it was those posters which gave the room its own unique flavor, setting it apart from the domicile decor of her friends. Instead of posters featuring the newest, latest, and greatest pop stars - the "cool" musicians - Ashlynn donned her walls with the images of her favorite 1990s hip-hop musicians: Run DMC, Dr. Dre, MC Hammer, the Beastie Boys, and Vanilla Ice. This cacophony of musicians surrounding her room was merely a sample of her seemingly-encyclopedic knowledge of 1990s music.

Her other (but less prominent) decor displayed her other unique passion: 1980s movies, specifically the movies of John Cusack. The largest poster in her room depicted the classic scene from Say Anything when Lloyd Dobbler (John Cusack) holds the large boom box above his head and plays Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" to the girl he loved.

Ashlynn Bradley was, indeed, a unique young woman with very eclectic pop culture preferences. However, she was also a young woman of principles. She was a faithful church-goer, dragging her father along or going with her friends; she was very pretty but did not date - an agreement she'd reached with her father, agreeing that she would not date until she was sixteen. In addition, her fashion sense was all-her-own, being a mix of contemporary styles with the occasional dash of the 80s and the consistent touch of the 90s.

And like her father, she was exceptionally intelligent. After earning a 4.0 grade point average during the first semester of her freshman year of high school, she looked to maintain those grades while becoming a rare three-sport varsity athlete in cross country, basketball, and track & field.

Regardless of all this, Ashlynn was — at her core — a "daddy's girl." She understood growing up that she and her father were on somewhat of a life journey together. She was aware of some of the details of her mother's death, but knew very few specifics. This was the one tense point between her and her father and as she grew older, she began to inquire a little more often.

As far as Ashlynn knew her mother had been sick for a long time (though she didn't know the "sickness" was depression, and Mitch always seemed to side-step the question), and all she knew about the circumstances was that she died the day she was taken to the hospital, and died at the hospital. As a young girl, this limited information seemed to suffice. But as this young naive girl became a young inquisitive woman, the questions and curiosity began to abound. She had no memory of being in the car on the day of Marie Bradley's death.

"So," Kelli asked as she drove Ashlynn home from track practice, "what's up tonight?"

"Nothing really," Ashlynn replied, gazing out the window, watching the buildings pass her by.

"But it's Friday!" Kelly exclaimed excitedly. This was a routine (and almost predictable) Friday afternoon conversation.

"I know it's Friday," Ashlynn replied, shrugging with a polite smile, "but I have a track meet tomorrow morning." She continued to stare out of the passenger-side window.

"So?" Kelli replied quickly in a neo-valley girl inflection. "I have a soccer game tomorrow, but that doesn't stop me from going out."

Ashlynn didn't reply, but simply smiled without looking over. As the school year had worn along, Ashlynn had grown slowly more weary of Kelli because, compared to the kind of person she was at the beginning of the school year, she'd changed. She was a year older than Ashlynn, she only made the junior varsity teams of her three sports (volleyball, basketball, and soccer); but because their practices always ended at roughly the same time, and since Kelli lived only a few minutes from Ashlynn, Kelli was Ashlynn's ride home from practice every day.

Kelli was the type of high school girl to whom appearance and status were paramount. She was always certain to be dressed in the latest styles, wearing attire provocative enough to the attention of the hormone-driven high school boys, but modest enough to remain within the bounds of the school's dress code. Her physical stature was not that of an athlete, as her newly-discovered party life had packed on at least twelve pounds (though Ashlynn estimated it to be more), most of it around her midsection. Her meticulously-done dark brownish-auburn hair was carefully pulled back and her pricy sunglasses rested intentionally on her larger-than-average (though not unattractive) nose. She had a cigarette in her left hand and drove with her right hand, exhibiting a very deliberate "cool and casual" look.

Ashlynn began to wonder to herself how long she had to wait to roll down the window (using a button, of course) without it being obvious that her action was prompted by the lighting (and stench) of Kelli's cigarette.

"You really should come party with us," Kelli said, as though it was somehow within Ashlynn's best interest.

"Nah," she replied casually. "I'm not much of a partier." Ashlynn grinned a little; she was a bit surprised that people still used the word party as a verb.

"Better yet," Kelli said as though Ashlynn hadn't responded, "you should have a party!" She gave Ashlynn a look as though this was significant career advice.

"Ha," Ashlynn chuckled, "my dad wouldn't really be okay with that."

"Um, duh!" Kelli giggled condescendingly. "That's why you do it when he's out of town!"

"I'm just not really much of a partier," she reiterated, cringing at the thought that she too was using party as a verb. She looked away, hoping Kelli would drop the subject. She faked a sneeze; Kelli made no reply.

"Well," Kelli said, "you need to loosen up. We need to get you drunk sometime."

"Hmm," Ashlynn replied without enthusiasm. She knew who the ubiquitous we entailed, and she had no interest at all. She simply gazed out the window and watched the scenery pass her by.