Cool Girl

14: The Hills

The first weekend of the school year arrives and mom and dad are having a dinner at home for some friends so the house is full of domestic help as things are readied for the night. Mom is home overlooking the arrangements.

Sebastian already left the house after breakfast and headed to a friend's house to steer clear of everyone's way until it's time for dinner. I decide to take a page out of his book and call Ben.

"Hey! What are you up to?" I ask when he picks up.

"Trying to keep myself from developing a headache." He groans and in the background I can hear Charles throwing a tantrum.

"In that case I have good news. There's a dinner at my house tonight so I'm heading out for a few hours. Want to join me?" I ask.

"Please!" The desperation in his voice makes me laugh, "I'll pick you up in twenty minutes."

Twenty minutes on the dot a helper knocks on my door to let me know that Ben has arrived. I find mom in the kitchen going over the food preparations. I let her know that I'm leaving and then head outside. I get into Ben's waiting car.

"Hey!" I say, buckling in my seatbelt.

"Where to?" Ben asks as he pulls out of the driveway.

"I was thinking we could go to out to the suburbs for a walk." I reply and then add, "But can we stop at target first? I want to get some flavored yogurt."

"Sure." Ben says and on our way out of Pasadena we stop at a Target.

"I'm glad you called, I was actually going to come over to your house to talk to you about something." Ben says as we're walking through the store to the yogurt chillers.

"Talk about what?" I ask, slowing down and looking back at Ben.

"I'll tell you once we get to the hills." He says. 'The hills' are what Ben and I call the outskirts of Pasadena. There's a specific part where the wilderness is thick and away from the city bustle. Ben and I go there from time to time when we want to escape the city life.

Ben gets chocolate flavored yogurt and I get blueberry. We drive to the hills and Ben parks the car at the side of the road, then we get out of the car and step off the paved road.

"Now, what did you want to talk about?" I ask, peeling back the yogurt's cover and sticking my disposable spoon into it.

Ben sighs and sits down on a huge boulder in the middle of the trees where I join him.

"Adam and Sebastian both made it onto the soccer team." Ben tells me.

"Really?!" I exclaim, "That's wonderful!"

"Yeah..." He trails off, eating his yogurt.

"What now?" I ask, swallowing the yogurt I had in my mouth.

"I get to choose a vice captain out of the team members and on the signup sheet every person was to specify whether they would like to be considered for the position if they made it to the team." Ben says.

"So?" I ask, confused.

"Adam and Sebastian are the only people on the team who checked that box." Ben looks at me.

"Oh." Is all I say as I understand his dilemma, "But why are you telling me this?"

"Because they both mean something to you and I wanted to ask if there was a certain outcome you wanted." Ben asks me.

I think it over for a second and shake my head, "You're the captain. You choose. Its sports and this should be a fair decision. Whatever you decide, I'll make sure they both deal with it."