My Share of Sand (A Calabasas Fable)...Slightly Revised Edition

Part IV: Kicked in My Face...17-Sail Away, Sweet Sister...revised

Wednesday, September 20

The Templynn Treat Fan Club had a special guest at their cafeteria table today.

Templynn Treat.

This shocking turn of events was the aftermath of a whirlwind morning. The first hint of trouble was when Templynn entered the first period classroom alone. Holden walked in a few minutes later and sat down at his desk without a word. Colinda and Darius had given each other concerned looks. Something was most certainly up.

The next obvious bit of confirmation came between second and third period, when Colinda went to the restroom. As soon as she opened the doors, she could the sound of a girl crying. Wailing, in fact. Tracing the sound to the stall at the end of the row, she glanced down at the floor and could see some feet clothed in black-and-white checkered Vans. Could it be? She studied things further and saw some pink denim wrapped around the mystery girl's ankles. Yes, it was Templynn. While she no longer kept a written record of Templynn's outfits, Colinda certainly noticed and remembered them. She felt she understood Templynn enough to know why she chose the restroom for her crying: maintain the image. Don't let the cracks show. Don't let anyone see your weakness. So she hid behind a gate, in a way, sitting atop a fountain of sorts. She was a Calabasas girl, after all.

That's why Templynn simply took her usual chair in the cafeteria, as if nothing was different.

"So, we're all in agreement that Colinda does the invitation?" Darius asked the other club members.

"She'd better hurry," Genefer pointed out. "As soon as everyone sees Holden walk in, Templynn's reputation gets a permanent scar!"

"And we have to prevent Jaxon from worming in," Darius added. "I'm sure he already knows about the breakup."

"He probably has a cam hidden in her bedroom." Genefer snarked.

So Colinda tiptoed over to Templynn's table. She didn't even need to look: she knew that everyone was watching, wondering who the hell she thought she was. Those final ten steps felt like they took about a half-hour to complete. She was confident Templynn would accept the invitation, but what would everyone else think?

It was then she realized that the situation wasn't awful at all. Everyone else would be impressed that she could coax the queen of the school away from her throne. And Templynn might even mention her name and her selfless gesture to impress everyone in her sphere of influence.

Like her mother.

"Templynn, are you all right?"

"Worst day of my life," she moaned.

"If you don't want to sit alone, you can sit over with me and Darius."

You could practically hear everyone's neck crack like a round of firecrackers exploding as they turned their heads to watch Templynn leave her table and cross over into the downscale side of the cafeteria.

Templynn's arm briefly rubbed against his as she sat in the empty chair next to Darius. Up until last Saturday this would've thrilled him and sent him into orbits of ecstasy, but the events in the parking lot with Lily had changed him, perhaps even permanently.

The kiss itself didn't really feel that special. Just a small piece of damp flesh touching someone else's damp flesh. It was the reflection in the days after that made him realize things were now different. The list of things he'd done that defined him as a person now had a new entry: he was the kind of guy who would kiss Lily Cabinetmaker. Perhaps the kiss wasn't completely voluntary on his part, but from now on, any time Lily just happened to randomly float into his brain, she would automatically be connected to the memory that "I kissed her." The clothes she wears, how she brushes her hair, the way she walks—everything Lily does from now would be how someone else would define "the type of girl that Darius Purveyor kisses."