The Journeys of John and Julia: Genesis (Book 1) ~Complete~

Line 8

LINE 8

In the outer world, Julia lay face down on the daybed in Kellie's room crying hysterically. Kellie, a robust girl with reddish hair and a sprinkle of freckles on nose and cheeks that reminded Julia of cinnamon-dusted rolls, sat helplessly near by.

"Please Julia, losing it won't make it any better," she said in a weak attempt to comfort her desolate friend.

Julia didn't react.

"Let's go downstairs and have a cup of hot chocolate. That always does it for me when I'm upset," Kellie purred in what she thought was her most seductive voice.

Nothing. Julia just kept sobbing. Kellie strengthened herself with a deep breath and made use of her major weapon. "Julia I hate to say this but all you're gonna accomplish with your crying are ugly red puffy eyes and once the swelling goes down - if it ever will - you're left with crow's-feet like Ms Vabersky's and then you look uglier than a troll in the morning. So if that's what you want go ahead, knock yourself out."

That did it. As always, appealing to Julia's vanity produced the desired result. Julia stopped her tears without further ado and jumped up from the bed to embrace her friend. "Oh Kellie, thanks for being my voice of sanity! For keeping things in perspective! What would I do without you? Can I use your bathroom to wash my face?"

"Of course you can. Me casa su casa," Kellie sighed. She really loved Julia a lot, but sometimes her friend could be extremely trying. Kellie dreaded remembering the time right after Julia's father had moved out. Julia had vented her frustration in fierce eruptions of gale-force anger, and more than once she dumped on Kellie for no apparent reason. That was over now, thanks to the efforts of good old Doctor Kline, Julia's shrink. But with Julia's volatile temper, it was generally safer to avoid being too relaxed around her. Once she started spewing her sarcastic acid, it became inevitable that an arbitrary drop or two would hit the most innocent bystander.

"You ready to download it for me or you want to wait for the suspense to kill me?" Kellie asked as soon as Julia re-entered the room.

Julia collapsed onto the beanbag chair next to Kellie. "You won't believe it but that horrible woman who calls herself my mother pranced into my room this morning and announced that I can't go to cheerleader camp. I'm supposed to visit my grandmother instead and spend another boring summer at the lake."

"No way," Kellie exclaimed eyes wide, mouth open, braces showing. "You worked so hard all year to make it on the All Star team. Has she no idea of what an honor that is?"

"Forget about that. You know how old people are. They only care about their careers." Julia raised her eyebrows and puckered her mouth, aiming to convey an image of importance. "I must have real bad karma to have an old mother like that. I bet your mom would buckle over with pride if you'd be on the team."

There it was, just as Kellie had feared. A drop of acid had hit the innocent bystander. Of course she knew that Julia had not intended a strike against her - in fact, Julia probably thought she was paying her a compliment for having a mother fifteen years younger than her own who had been a cheerleader herself. Still, all this rationalizing did nothing to soften the blow to Kellie's self-esteem. She was not the athletic type, and her coordination skills sucked. And even if she could get this together, she felt she was just not pretty enough to be on the team. No use in pointing this out to Julia though. She would not understand. In one of life's paradoxes, she would make the situation worse by trying to make it better and, showing what a good friend she was, she'd probably recite all of Kellie's so-called terrific qualities like being good at math and Home Ec. and such.

Julia interpreted Kellie's sigh of resignation as agreement.

"So what are you going to do about it?" Kellie asked, forcing her voice not to betray her hurt feelings.