It was really awesome seeing my teachers again. Some of them didn't look as amused as others, but that's life. I loved seeing my old theater teacher who refused to cast me in their last musical. Her face was in shock the entire time I sang And I Am Telling You, so I bet she's having some regrets.
Afterwards there was of course a brunch at Pippin which is across the street from the coliseum. Some of the kids a grade younger than me were serving the food, I remember them being such annoying little shits, but they all seemed so grown up now.One of them who actually was kind of an asshole to me smiled and said, "Hey Jessy," when I was going through the line to get my food.
I smile back, "Hey!"
"You don't remember my name, right?"
I shake my head, "Sorry. It's been a while."
"It's okay, it's Colton."
I laugh and say, "Well nice seeing you again."
I go to sit but he stops me by saying, "I just wanted to apologize."
I give him a weird look, "For what?"
"I was an asshole to you when you went here and I know it wasn't right."
I smile at him largely, "It really is no problem. We all make mistakes, nobody is perfect."
He nods and I get my plate and walk to sit down. Suddenly I had no idea where to sit, and I get sort of dizzy again and my vision begins to blur. I feel someone grab my arm excitedly, making me look around trying to see. I eventually see that it is Angela.Angela was my old Facebook wife, when it was a thing. She has high energy all the time. After my vision re-adjusts I see that she is looking as beautiful as ever and give her a hug.
"Hey, how you doing?" I ask her.
She nods, "Good. How are you doing, popstar?"
I smile, "Good. Are you serving?"
She nods, "But we're just about done. Sosa and Mama invited some people that you might wanna see. Wait here and I'll take you to that table."
I nod, oh god who could it be? Sondra, Caleb, and who else? I laugh mentally, this should be good. I converse awkwardly with one of my old teachers, Mr. Roland for the time being. I always thought he was a huge douchebag.
"Who would've known after you performing Skyscraper freshmen year at Java Jam, that you would be here."
I nod, and smile, "Yep, who would've known."
"How long are you staying?"
I shrug, "Probably only for the next couple of days. It's just a quick visit."
"Oh, are you gonna go to the beach at least? I remember you saying how much you liked that."
I nod, "Yup, went yesterday."
Suddenly I see Angela coming over to me and I quickly excuse myself, how unfortunate. She brings me to a table on the other side of the cafeteria and I see a bunch of people I know other than Caleb and Sondra. I also see Clarissa sitting with Micky, Gabby, Quinn, and Highty. Those were the 'plastics' of Pippin Charter High School for the Arts, that's to say the least. All of them minus Quinn that is. I'm kind of shocked, I knew that Quinn had problems with Sondra and Caleb, but why would she be sitting with the popular group?
She was never like them. She never worried about what she looked like and she was never in the 'what's in' phase. I guess she does though because unlike her usual wardrobe of pants and sweater you would do yard work in, she is wearing a dress, something I had never seen her in before. I go to sit down at the table, I walk over to the table with Sondra and Caleb, and Sondra gets up immediately and gives me a hug.
Why are people so happy to see me? When the hell was I last home? One of the many things I wish I could remember. I hug her back and even Caleb got up to greet me. I don't think I have ever hugged this man in my life, not that I haven't tried either. He just isn't a big emotional or touchy guy. We catch up and I found out that the plastics had taken Quinn under their rein and Quinn has become the new head bitch around here... That's just great. After a half hour forty-five minutes of eating and chilling Mama makes a toast.
"I would like to thank our speakers: Jessy and Clarissa. You both continue to make my jaw drop and we are all so proud of you both. I would like to thank our Culinary Student Artists for skipping the event to prepare this lovely food, and lastly I would like to thank this guy next to me: Dr. Skeleton for planning all of this. Because of today, an amazing donation of the Coliseum to let us use the space for free we have made 40,000 dollars."The room goes wild with applause, "Because of this, we are able to include music as an additional art. Also we are able to start construction in the basement and fifth floor for additional classroom and be able to make the cafeteria down there, giving the theater room an actual performance space in this very room."
Six floors of classrooms, damn.
She shows everybody the plans for the building. Instead of there being classes above where we are now they are knocking it out and moving the culinary room downstairs, giving the theater room an actual classroom. Good things are happening, hopefully for the better. After she was done with her toast, things were wrapping up. I started my goodbye rounds first, seeing I probably had a lot. I invited Sondra and Caleb to karaoke tonight, and they happily accepted. They are actually driving me back to Sondra's, so I said bye to Collins.
She says as I do, "Are you sure you don't want me to come with?"
I nod, "Yeah We don't need a babysitter. Go to the beach, go to Roger Williams Zoo; it's beautiful. I will text you when we are about to leave and then you can get there when I do."
She nods wearily. I smile and give her a hand shake since I don't think she's much of a hugger. After that I go around to all my teachers. One by one I give them hugs, and tell them how great life is, and ask about theirs. My Algebra teacher, is pregnant. My old technology and business teacher Ms. Pagnelli's daughter is now six months old. My Geometry and Health teachers both just got engaged. Life really has moved on. After saying bye to everyone, I get into Sondra's car and we start driving home. As we get back into the town I grew up in, I couldn't resist the temptation.
"Can we go by the house?"
Caleb and Sondra kind of just look at each other through the mirror. Caleb says, "Are you sure that's a good idea, Jess?"
I nod, "I think it'll be good for me."
They both shrug and start heading in my house's director. I'm never going to call it the old house, because it is always going to be mine.
"No one else lives in it, right?"
They shake their heads, "Nope. The house was left in your brother's name and you gave him the money to buy it officially since the mortgage wasn't paid off yet."
I nod, that was the right thing to do. It'll probably be dusty, but that's okay. As we drive deeper and deeper into the forest, I can't help but smile. Seriously, the forest is the best. So many memories of just observing the nature. I was supposed to go by my old camp at this weekend for their annual fundraiser. Not as a performer but a volunteer and I'm seriously regretting not participating in it.
We turn on my road, and good bumps go flying. I'm half nervous right now, and half settled. We pass Jessie's house and I see her mom's car in the driveway. I remember Jessie telling me her parents were going to come tonight; other than that I would've stopped by. We stop at the top of my driveway, Sondra being too nervous to drive down so Caleb went into the driver's seat. The front of my house looks the same as ever; white with plum vinals. I look around and see the rocks that my brother and I would climb up and down tirelessly for hours.
When we finally get out, I know exactly where the key is; inside the gutter. It used to be inside a mailbox that was in the fenced in the back yard until my mom's boss made fun of us for it being in back of our old trailer. I miss going 'glamping'. As we unlock the door, it doesn't feel the same without hearing the dog bark but it's whatever. I know my cat is at my other aunt's house.
As we walk in, I get that smell of smoke, and Febreeze. I swear the living room was always my favorite room. It was a shade of green that made it really chillax. We have a chair that was really comfy without being overly fluffy too. I take a few moments underneath the skylights, embracing the warmth. I look at where a Christmas tree is placed. We must come here at Christmas. I look at all the different ornaments placed, some being ones my brother and I made as children.
I walk into the kitchen and feel the light that the room brings. I look outside at the back yard and deck through the sliding glass door, and I can see that the grass needs to be cut; it is still green and beautiful. I walk out there and look at the grill tarped, remembering the taste of my father's BBQ. No matter how many times Eddie had tried to get me to like the Texan meat; my dad's was always the best.
I finally go back inside and look at the hole that my brother once made when getting pissed off at father. He had slammed a door open one day while getting heated only to slam it again. Justin was never into loud music. I look into the room that I used to live in before I moved into the basement; still purple. I also see the exercise machine that I relentlessly would make fun of my beefy dad for trying to get fit with.
He somehow thought using the stair climber would make him magically skinny after doing it once a week and not eating ice cream. It did make him a little bit better though. I looked into my parent's bedroom and see the bed I used to snuggle up with on Sunday's with my mom while my dad would be somewhere watching a Patriots game. I make my way downstairs and sit on my grandmother's couch that was probably bought 50 years ago. And I see the rocking chair that was her mothers.
I really think we should move this over to California. I go into the room next that my father painted effortlessly for two weeks straight to be an obnoxious hot pink. I laugh thinking about the amount of hard work my mother gave into tying CDs together, knowing she was NOT a DIY type of person. I walk into my brother's room after that and laugh seeing the Bruins theme. I so wish it was hockey season so I could see a game. I go into the bathroom after realizing I was crying. I think today was definitely helpful. I needed it. It's a good reminder to myself.
A/N: