Chapter 8: Kelsey's Point of View

Kelsey and Emmy go to the concert. Kelsey drops a bomb. We see some glimpses of people who will become main characters later.

Chapter 8: Kelsey’s Point of View

 

                Even though gym class had been torture for me, my day seemed to just lighten up after that. David had asked me to go to their concert, and English wasn’t bad either.

                “Hey, Emmy.” I whispered as our teacher went over how most of our interviews need some work. “Are you busy tonight?”

                Emmy shook her head. “No. Why?”

                I looked up at our teacher, whose back was still turned. “Well, my friend from gym class is having a concert tonight with some of his friends, and he invited me. I was wondering if maybe you’d wanna go, so I wouldn’t be sitting all by myself.”

                “Ooh, I’d love to.” She looked at the teacher, then back at me. “Is your friend cute?”

                This caught me off guard. “I, uh-“

                “Excuse me!” Our teacher said, startling me enough to shut my mouth. I looked up and noticed she was glaring at Greg and Gabriella, who had also been talking. “I’m sorry if I’m boring you. Would you rather go hang out in the principals office?”

                Greg grinned and acted like he was about to get up, but Gabriella stopped him and said, “Sorry, Mrs. Jones. We’ll be quiet.”

                This seemed to satisfy her, and she went back to lecturing. I watched as Gabriella smiled and shrugged at Greg, and just felt lucky it hadn’t been Emmy and I. I ended up daydreaming throughout the class as Mrs. Jones continued scolding, and the class went by surprisingly fast. In what felt like 20 minutes, the class was done.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

                Before I knew it, it was 6:30, time to go. I got in the car with my mom, and we drove off to Emmy’s house, thus beginning the long night.

                “So, tell me again.” My mom said. “What are you doing tonight?”

                “My friend David is having a concert with him and his friends.” I reminded her again.

                “Oh, I remember now.” There was a moment of silence as she turned into Emmy’s neighborhood. “Do you like him?”

                “Mom!”

                She laughed. “I’m just curious. I am your mom; I have a right to know.”

                “We’re just friends, Mom.”

                “Speaking of friends, what’s this Emmy girl like?”

                I shrugged. “She’s nice. I met her in my English class, even though she’s supposed to be in the normal English. She’s been showing me around the school.”

                “Oh! You mean that girl we met at the orientation?”

                I shook my head. “No, that was Jane. She’s a sophomore.”

                My mom began humming as we pulled up into Emmy’s driveway. “What time should I pick you up?”

                “Emmy’s mom is gonna pick us up.” I replied, laughing. “Remember?”

                “Oh, that’s right!”

                Sometimes my mom could be a bit of an airhead. She was a good mom though, and I loved her. I watched as Emmy made her way out to our car.

                “Hi, Mrs. Shipley!” she said as she climbed in our car. “Thanks for driving me.”

                “No problem, Emmy.” My mom replied as she pulled out of the driveway. For some reason, this made me smile. They were talking as if they had known each other all their lives, but I guess it just seemed like that because I was shy.

                Emmy turned to me. “I’m excited. Should I have brought anything?”

                I shook my head. “David said they’ll take care of everything.”

                “David.” She repeated to herself. “Is that your gym friend?”

                “Yeah. But then there’s Rick too, and he’s in our gym class.”

                “So they’re friends?”

                I nodded.

                My mom turned on the radio as we drove, and I quickly noticed it was old music from her time. I groaned. “Mom! Please no more Elton John…I have a friend in the car!”

                My mom laughed and turned to us. “Emmy, has Kelsey ever told you that she used to love music from the 60’s?”

                Emmy was laughing now too. “No, she never told me.”

                “I used to like it when I was little because I didn’t know any better.” I responded, feeling stupid.

                “When she was little, she used to know ‘Crocodile Rock’ by heart. She had the cutest little voice when she would sing…”

                “Mom!”

                She knew I wasn’t actually mad, so she continued teasing me until we reached Elliot’s street. She slowed down as we reached his neighborhood, and our entire car quieted while we searched for his address.

                “11811…11813…11815…” She stopped. “There it is. 11817.”

                It was funny how his house stood out. His entire block was one storied houses, but his house had a second story which looked like it had been built in later. It wasn’t huge, but it was definitely well decorated.

                My mom noticed too. “Oooh, maybe I’ll come in too. This is a beautiful house.”

                Smiling, I shook my head as Emmy got out of the car. “I’ll tell you all about it when I get home.”

                The two of us got out of the car and walked toward his house. From outside, you could hear people talking, and I wondered if this party had really turned out “low key” like David had said. We got to the porch and knocked on his door. There was a pause, and then the door was opened by a kid with straightened black hair, who I guessed was Elliot.

                He smiled politely. “Hey, I’m Elliot. And you’re a friend of…?”

                “David.” I responded. “He invited us.”

                “Great. Okay, well come on in. Help yourselves to some food or drinks; it’s in the basement.”

                Emmy and I walked into the house, and immediately she asked, “Okay, where’s everyone?”

                I looked around and shrugged. “Probably in the basement.”

                So we found our way to the stairs, and went down to find everyone talking downstairs. Only a few kids I recognized from some of my classes, but I mostly felt out of place. Still, there wasn’t a huge crowd of people, only about 10 or so.

                “So…where’s this David?” Emmy asked.

                As she said this, I saw him talking across the room. He looked up just as I noticed him, and a smile spread across his face. He said something to the person he was talking to and made his way over to us.

                He came up to us with a grin on his face. “Hey Kelsey. Glad you could make it.”

                Blushing, I smiled. “Hi David. This is Emmy.”

                He looked over to Emmy and smiled. “Hi Emmy. Nice to meet you.”

                Emmy was beaming. “Hi David. I’ve heard so much about you.”

                “Oh really?” He looked at me, then her again. “Well, I hope it was all good stuff.”

                Emmy and I laughed, and he continued. “Well, we’re gonna be starting in a few minutes. You might wanna find some seats. There’s not enough for everyone…we didn’t know how many people would show up.”

                I laughed. “Okay. Thanks, David.”

                He left to go get set up, and Emmy turned to me. “Man, he’s cute.”

                I looked at her in surprise, but didn’t say anything.

                We got ourselves a drink from his refrigerator, and found two open seats just as the boys finished getting set up. It was a nice little set up; they didn’t have a stage or anything, but had speakers to make up for it.

                Sean stepped forward, and cleared his throat. “Okay guys. Go ahead and take a seat, we’re just about to start.”

                Everyone quieted and found a place to sit. There was one guy who was annoyed because he didn’t have a chair, and decided to make a fuss of it.

                Rick hushed him by saying, “Quiet, Darryl. It’s only gonna be for like 10 minutes anyway.”               

                Now everyone had settled down, so Sean began to talk again. “Hey everybody. We’re glad you could make it. Most of you probably know who we are and everything, but for those who don’t…I’m Sean Howard. Our drummer is Elliot Robinson, our bassist is Rick Manns, and our pianist is David Fields. Our band is called the Swarming Midgets.”

                Everyone laughed.

                “Yeah…David’s idea.”

                David waved.

                “We actually just started a couple days ago,” Sean continued, “but we decided that we’d like to host this little concert tonight to let people hear us and maybe…spread the word to their friends.” He looked around at the other 3, who looked ready to start, and turned back to us. “Okay, well…enjoy the show!”

                The lights dimmed, and Sean got into his spot. Then after a quiet, “1, 2, 3”, they began. I had to say, they sounded pretty good for only having played for a couple days. Their songs were all instrumental, but they were still catchy.

                Emmy noticed too. “Wow, they’re good!” She was shouting over the music. She leaned over and nudged me. “David’s really good at playing piano.”

                I decided to respond to the first comment. “Yeah, they are!”

                They finished playing after about 15 minutes, and Sean stepped forward again. “Hey, thanks for listening guys. You can hang out and eat for a while…just be out of here by 9, okay?”

                Everyone went back to talking, and Emmy and I made our way over to the steps, where we stood for a couple minutes. We just stood there talking, until David came over with a smile on his face.

                “So?” he asked us, “What did you think?”

                I smiled at him. “You guys did really good, David.”

                Emmy stepped forward. “David, you guys were amazing! Have you ever thought about finding an agent or something?”

                He laughed. “Not yet. I mean, we haven’t even been playing for a whole week yet. I guess we should wait and see if we’ll want to do this type of thing for longer than a week or two.”

                I nodded. “That’s smart. So…were you nervous?”

                He shrugged. “Yeah, kinda. I mean…I haven’t played piano in front of people in a couple of years.”

                Emmy was nodding vigorously. “You guys did so good.”

                “Oh, thanks.” David replied, smiling. “Uh, what was your name again?”

                “Emmy.”

                “Okay, sorry…I was a little flustered earlier.” He looked around, rubbing his hands together. “So, uh…do you guys want anything? I can get you a drink or something.”

                I shook my head. “I’m fine. Thanks-”

                Emmy nodded, and interrupted me. “I’ll have a diet Pepsi.”

                “Oh. Okay, I’ll be right back.” He smiled politely and left.

                As soon as he was out of earshot, I turned back to Emmy. “You already have a drink!”

                She smiled. “I know. But if he gets me a drink, he’ll probably stay over longer. Plus, I got a diet drink, which he might think is cool because it means I’m trying to be healthy.”

                “I don’t think he’ll put that much thought into it, Emmy.” I told her, but she didn’t respond, as David was coming back.

                “Okay, they didn’t have diet Pepsi, but I got you a normal…is that okay?”

                Grinning, I glanced at her to see what she’d say.

                She shrugged as if it was no big deal. “That’s fine. Just trying to watch what I eat, you know?”

                He looked at me, then said, “Oh. Yeah.”

                “Well, we should probably get going now.” I told him. “Emmy’s mom is coming to pick us up.”

                “Okay. Well, I’ll see you on Monday, Kelsey.”

                “Alright. Bye, David.” I said, pulling Emmy up the steps with me.

                “Bye David!” Emmy called down the stairs.

                Once we got outside, she pulled out of my grasp and skipped around. “Man, he is cute! Why didn’t you tell me?”

                I shrugged. “Do you like him? You were being pretty flirty down there.”

                She smiled. “Well, yeah…I mean, he’s super cute, he’s musically talented, he’s nice and polite…and I know all of that after only meeting him once! I can’t imagine what he’d be like after knowing him for longer.”

                This made me feel annoyed. “Well…you know, you’ve only met him once.”

                She was still gushing about him. “I guess this is truly love at first sight then!” She twirled around, throwing her arms out into the air. “I think I might ask him out.”

                “You…probably shouldn’t do that.”

                She stopped spinning and looked at me. “Why not? I mean, if it’s too early, I can wait. You could just help me get to know him more, you know?”

                I sighed  “It’s not that.” Then, before I could stop myself, I continued. “I…kind of…like him too.”

                Her mouth dropped. “What? You do?”

                I had surprised even myself. Somehow, it almost felt like the girl who had said that wasn’t really me, just some voice far off in the distance.

                She looked me dead in the eye. “Kelsey. You like David too?”

                Biting my lip, I nodded. “A little bit, yeah.”

                She exhaled slowly, looking thoughtfully at the starry sky. “Well. That could be a problem.”

                I sat down on the curb. “I know, I guess I should’ve said something earlier tonight. I just kind of noticed today though…and…” I shrugged. “Never mind.”

                She came and sat next to me. “So. What do we do?”

                I sighed. “We can just be the same about this before I told you. You can talk with him, I can talk to him…it’ll all go on like it did before. And if he likes one of us, the other girl can’t hate the person he chooses.”

                She nodded. “Okay.” We both looked up to see a set of lights growing in the distance. “Oh, that’s my mom.” She started to get, up, but I grabbed her.

                “Emmy, wait.”

                She looked at me seriously.

                “You can’t tell anyone that I like David.” I told her quietly. “Promise?”

                She looked down, and seemed to be considering this.

                “Emmy.” I said seriously. “I told you that, counting on you not to go and tell people. If I’m gonna trust you, you have to come half way.”

                She nodded. “Okay. Yeah, I promise.”

                Her mom pulled up just then, and we both stood. I almost felt exposed as if I was standing naked in front of the whole world, but I realized it was because of what I had just told Emmy. There was a silence as the two of us climbed in the car, but luckily, her mom broke that silence.

                “Hi Kelsey!” A very cheery voice greeted my arrival.

                I buckled my seatbelt. “Hi, Mrs. Ross.”

                “I’m so glad Emmy has a nice girl that she can be friends with now.” Emmy’s mom continued.

                “Mom…” Emmy moaned.

                “She hasn’t come home with a friend since 4^th grade or so.” She said anyway. “I was starting to worry that she didn’t even go to school.”

                “Mom, save Kelsey a lecture, okay?” Emmy snapped.

                Her mom was quiet for a second. “Okay. Sorry, Emmy.”

                Emmy didn’t respond to her, but leaned over to me. “Sorry about my mom.” She whispered. “She’s what you would call nosy.”

                I shrugged, still feeling awkward. “It’s okay.”

                Once I got home, I went straight up to bed, feeling thankful that tomorrow was Saturday. It would give me some time to think about my feelings for David.