The day flew by before she knew it Friday was here. She was kind of disappointed that she hadn’t seen Eric since Wednesday. She learned from Chad that he had a construction job, and they had been pretty busy lately. Sighing she watched the hands of the clock mounted on the wall in front of her. Only three minutes to go but it seemed like hours.
Then finally the bell rang. It’s ironic how the same sound that you dread in the morning you yearn for in the afternoon.
She hurried to her locker and thankfully laid down her load. Having no homework over the weekend, she hurried over to meet Kate at Jane’s locker. Sally was there also with an unexpected guest. Joanie covering her surprise quickly went to the group. Kate winked at her for support.
“Hi April are you coming too?” Joanie asked as nice as she could.
April smiled, but it looked more like a smirk. The gleam in her eye belittling her words. “Yes Jane’s mom invited me she works with my mom.”
Joanie looked to Jane who just shrugged helplessly as the group headed out. It was a short walk to Jane's house. She lived surprisingly close to school. Too close Joanie thought. You could see the school grounds from her upstairs window. The girls stowed their bags in Jane's room and headed into the kitchen for a snack. April kind of kept to herself as the friends chatted and made quite a mess out of the peanut butter and jelly. After the sandwiches, they headed into the living room and moved the coffee table against the wall to give them more room to sleep. Sprawling around the furniture the girls chatter was guarded. They were careful about what they talked about in front of April. ‘You guys want some hot chocolate?” Jane asked. There was a chorus of yeses.
“I’ll help you.” Joanie offered getting up and following Jane out of the room.
“I’m sorry about April. I couldn’t tell my mom no after she invited her already.”
“That’s okay. I just wonder why she came.” Joanie said as she poured the hot chocolate mix into the cups that Jane handed her. Soon the kettle was hissing madly, and Jane poured the hot brew into the cups as Joanie stirred. They returned minutes later with the steaming cups.
“This is boring.” April said after a while. “Is this what you call fun?”
Joanie bristled. “What do you consider ‘fun’?”
“Slam books.”
“A slam book? What’s that?” Jane asked trying to keep peace in her house.
April smiled glad to have the attention turned to her. “It’s a book where you write your deepest thoughts, but it’s totally anonymous. You go by a number instead of your name.”
Sally hesitated. “I don’t know. What kind of things. How does it work?” Kate spoke up. “I’ve heard of them! You take like twenty sheets of paper and at the top of each sheet is a question. Underneath the question. It’s numbered to twenty. Everybody picks one number and puts their answer on the same line of each page. You cover the page so only your line shows. Then when everybody is done you read everybody's answers.”
Joanie was unsure about this, but since everyone else seemed interested she went along. What harm could come from it. Jane ran and grabbed a notebook. She and April poured over the pages whispering and giggling to each other. Finally, they were done. They filled out their answers first and passed the book along to the others one by one.
Then Joanie had the book. She slowly opened to the first page. Who’s your favorite teacher? She picked line #3 and quickly entered her answer. She tried to change her hand writing so no one would recognize it. The first couple were trivial, and Joanie quickly answered each of them, then they started getting more personal. If you could go out with any boy you wanted, who would it be? Joanie hesitated before scrawling Eric Phillips. Done. She turned the page. Who’s the cutest guy in school? She wanted to say Eric again, but he didn’t go to her school. Sighing she wrote Chris. He was beautiful on the outside. Too bad his head was so much bigger than his brain. Next page. What base have you gotten to? Joanie looked around at before writing first. It wasn’t a complete lie. She would have gotten to first base if it wasn’t for Brad. Maybe more. Blushing she handed the completed book back to Jane.
