"To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain for the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive." - Jane Austin
Last night was the most interesting shifts I've ever worked. After Mr. B- I mean Caleb, left me in the ladies room I stayed there for another five or so minutes. When I got up finally, I cleaned myself up the best I could and made my way back to the dining room. I was surprised to see what I did.
My dad was now in the room, with a frying pan in one hand and a big spoon in the other. He was yelling out of the door into the now dark parking lot. I rush to his side then, worried and wondering what could be happening.
"Don't you ever show your faces here again!" He was yelling and I was amazed to see that out the door were all the popular kids, gettig in their cars and driving away. Oh, God, no. This is just going to make things worse!
"Dad, what are you doing?" I say to my dad over his insistant yelling and banging of his cooking untensils- or more like weapons!
"They were making so much damn noise, I'm banning them! They always come in here making trouble, I've had enough!" he says to me as the last of them drive away.
In the final car was Jason and Annabelle, both of them laughing their asses off in the front of the car. Annabelle waves at us teasingly as they speed off. Some more of that hopelessness starts creeping back in from before, as I imagine what I'll face tomorrow at school. Thanks, Dad.
"Alright," was all I said to him and walked back inside to finish my work.
Later on I headed home and crashed. Now it's morning and Carl will be here in a few minutes to take me to school. Joy. I can only imagine the tortures my peers have concocted over night with the new development of them being banned from my diner. Well my dad's diner, but they don't care about details like that.
Carl pulls up in front of my house right on time and I dash for his car. I'm so happy to see him it's not even healthy! As I get in the car thumps with his loud bubblegum punk music, as I like to call it.
"Wazzup, babe," he says to me trying and failing to sound like a pimp. Then we rip off for school, or more like hell.
"You would not believe what happened last night at the diner!" I say then suddenly, ready to tell him all about it.
"Oh, I already heard all about it!" he say then, turning to me in his seat and like the nutjob he is, he lets go of the wheel for a split second, making us swerve. Then grabbing it fast we regain ourselves.
"Hands on the damn wheel!" I squeal out in surprise.
"Sorry, sorry! It's just that the whole thing was all over Facebook last night! It was crazy!"
It was all over Facebook?
We pull into the school parking lot sooner than I was hoping. Once we park he makes the first move to get out while I just sit there thinking. Wonder if I could skip today? I could go down to the park and hide out till after school, then head home. Easy peasy right? Other kids to it all the time.
"I think I'm gonna skip today," I say to him as he's getting out of the car. Freezing mid stance, he turns back to look at with a shocked expression on his face.
"You! You wanna skip school!" he yells WAY too loud.
"Shut up!" I say, hushing him. He snaps his mouth shut a second with wide eyes, looks around quickly then back to me,
"You wanna skip school!?" he whisper yells to me.
Rolling my eyes I say to him, "duh." Sheesh this boy is a trip, let me tell you.
"Well,,, you,,, you can't! Not without mem" he reasons, but ends up sounding like a whining kid by the end. He starts with the damn puppy dog eyes and I lose my hard shell just like that (this is where I'd snap my fingers).
"Fine, then let's go!" I say sounding impatient and unintentionally irritated. Crap I need to take it easy, I'm turning into a crab.
"Wait no! Can't we wait till after third period?" he says then.
"Why?" is my instant question. Isn't the whole point of skipping not going at all?
"Well cause I have a test in chemistry third period I don't wanna miss," he says bashfully and looking away. As freaky and insane Carl is, the boy still cares about his grades. I sigh and massage my own temples. Then nod and smile to him.
"Okay, meet me by the auditorium by third period and we'll sneak out the back doors," I say leaning in to him, which he mirrors. Nodding to each other we fist pump meaning it's a deal. He closes his door and heads off for the entrance since we're now running a little late from our plan making.
Rushing to grab my stuff, I scramble out of the car and run for my punishment. A good reprisentation of what I'm doing right now would be a prisoner running to the electric chair. A total conundrum.
Once I'm inside the confines of my high-school I feel the dread set in. With my head down, I practically power walk to my locker. Of course it can't be that easy, I soon realize, as I walk smack into a wall of body. Before I can fall back on my butt though, which would be more humiliation than I was expecting this early in the morning, I'm caught by some very strongarms. The hands catch my upper arms and I let out an "Oomph!" as my fall is cut short.
Standing up I take a step away from the kind stranger and look up to thank him, well I'm guessing it's a guy since a girl would've squealed in that whole process.
"Um... thanks..." I say quietly, then trail off as who it is comes into my vision.
Oh. My. Gosh.
"Don't mention it, beautiful," says Caleb to me, a smirk on his face and witha wink he walks away, which I watch him do. Once his retreating figure rounds the corner, I finally snap out of my daze and chase after him.
Once I round the corner though, sure enough he's gone. What the hell? He goes to my school!
And even more so. He called me beautiful... again! That total hunk of a guy, called me the ugly loser, beautiful. Not knowing what to think of it, I make my way to my locker in a hazy dream state. I don't even notice when Jason and Annabelle walk by hand in hand, with their free hands in L shapes on their foreheads.
Once I'm at my locker I shove all my junk inside still thinking about Caleb. I can't believe I got to see him again! That was more than I expected. Carl comes up to my locker soon enough, and he immediately sees my change in aura.
"What's with you?" he asks in a rude way only best friends can get away with.
Ignoring him I finish getting my stuff for class and slam the locker closed. We start to walk and he questions me again. Sadly though I don't have a good enough answer to the question. What is with me? Well I saw Mr. Beautiful again. The only guy in my life besides my dad who's ever complimented my appearence. Not that it means anything to him.
From the way he was walking down the hallway I could tell instantly he was a cool kid. He had a confidence to his step, an air of superiority on his face. But when he looked at me, that unreadable expression was back in his eyes. All barriers were broken down and it was as if he was just another loser like me.
"Whoo, hoo? Earth to Elena! The aliens, they're attacking! Grab your guns it's time to fight! Elena.... Elena!"
"What!" I snap at Carl who I catch waving his hand in front of my face and pestering me for his attention. "Boy, can't you see I'm in the middle of a day-dream?"
"Well I just thought you might wanna get to homeroom!" He says pointing at the door behind us. Oh, oops.
"Right..." I say and we make our way back to classroom door. Gee, I owe this boy so damn much sometimes.
✂✂✂
The two periods I have pass by in a blur as my mind is clouded with the foggy hope that I'll run into Caleb in one of my classes or in the hallway again. He must be a new student or something, so maybe I got placed with him. Oh now I kinda wish I wasn't skipping this period cause I might miss him. I don't really know what I think of him right now, but I definitely want to find out. He may not be a crush or anything, I mean I've still got useless hopes for Jason, but he could totally be a good friend.
Right now I'm stowing my books in my locker. It's fourth period and I'm supposed to meet Carl by the auditorium. Eh, no going back now.
As I make my way to the lobby by the auditorium, I can't help but keep my eyes out for Caleb. I catch sight of Carl by the door to the building and make my way over to him with haste. He waves with a big, boyish grin on his face. I roll my eyes, way to be obvious Carl.
"Hey, Elena!" he greets me and I shush him while pushing him quickly out the door. Taking one final look inside to see the coast is clear. Which it isn't of course! Right down at the end of the hallway is Mr. Simmons, the choir director. He looks at me curiously with just my head in the door.
"Hey! What are you doing down there?" he calls to me.
Before he has the chance to even start running at me I'm out the door and pulling Carl to the parking lot in a rush, adrenaline making my run faster.
"Run!" I scream as Carl drags behind me. I release his hand and we make like scrambled eggs to his car. We quickly hop in and buckle up.
The tires kind of sqeek as we race out of the parking lot, pasing Mr.Simmons on the sidewalk. Feeling slightly more confident than normal, I wave to him as we share a round of laughter. That was too fun!
"So where to?" asks Carl in a chip tone. Both of us are still feeling the after buzz of adrenaline pumping through our veins, I can tell cause we're both grinning like friggin cheshire cats on a major high.
"I don't care! Just drive," I tell him with a undefined happiness in my voice. It feels so good to be free of that prison, I'd go anywhere right now.
"Aye, aye, Captain," he says nodding his head and we rip onto the highway and speed away as fast as the tires will take us.
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Oooh (: Look who's being bad? xD Okay for the record I'd like to state that I do not recommend nor approve of skipping school, so don't go skipping school just cause Carl and Elena did, okay? No worries they'll get their just deserts. <3 More coming, please vote and comments m'loves! <3
love, Lily