Chapter 8- Sara

talking. Sara was feeling pretty good. She was glad she had spoken her mind about the candidates in the assembly that afternoon. The whole country was in love with phonies, she felt. The bimboes on sitcoms, the rock dopers on MTV, the rich liars in D.C. It made her sick just going into the supermarket and having to look at all those fakes on the covers of People magazine. One day she’d like to start a magazine of her own where she could interview people like herself, people who knew it was all a big joke.

Sara had a bad thirst. But when she put her quarters in the soda machine and pressed the 7-Up button, nothing happened. She tried the other buttons, then the coin return, and still nothing happened. Her good mood went right out the window. Those were the only two quarters she had! What did this stupid machine expect her to do, drink water? She pounded it with her fists, kicked it with her feet.  Her quarters must be stuck.

The administration’s probably behind this. Trying to weasel extra money out of us kids to buy themselves magazines for their goddamn lounge.

She remembered a move a guy had done on one of the soda machines at lunch. He grabbed a hold it with both hands and tilted it slightly on edge, coughing up not only his money but a couple of free cans as well. Setting down her books, she stretched out her arms, trying to get a grip on it. She was not  a big girl, or was she particularly strong. Nevertheless when she tilted the machine to the right, she was surprised to see it rock right out of her hands. It hit the asphalt with an incredible bang, causing her to jump. Taking a quick look around o make sure no one had seen her, she collected her books and hurried off campus. At Mesa High she’d never once had a soda machine fall on her. This was a stupid school.

Sara was supposed to meet Polly and Jessica in a parking lot directly across from campus. They had been forced to put their cars there; Tabb’s kot was filled. Sara was temporarily without wheels. Her dad had taken her keys away when she had received her third ticket in a month for running  a red light. It was a real drag- and so unfair. She had only gone through the lights after stopping and looking both ways. Why, she thought should she have to sit and wait on a mechanism that didn’t care if she crossed the road or not?

Her dad didn’t know she had picked up Jessica and her folks at three in the morning. She’d run half a dozen red lights driving to the airport.

A row of bushes separated the school from the pavement that ran along its west side. They were tall, thick shrubs, and putting one foot on the pavement Sara couldn’t see more than a few yards in either direction. She didn’t even hear Russ Desmond coming.

When he hit her, she hardly felt a thing. One second she was walking, the next, flying. She must have closed her eyes. When she opened them, she was sitting in the bushes with a branch running up her pant leg and a flower stuck in her ear.

“Oh, wow” she breathed. A guy with the greatest set of legs she had ever seen was standing over her breathing hard.

“You all right?” he asked.

“What happened?”

“You got in my way.”

“Really?” Did this guy throw every chick that got in his way into the bushes? She sat up with effort, a muscle in her lower back protesting. The guy grabbed her arm and pulled her on to the pavement as if she were light as a feather. The second he let go of her, she reeled backwards. The pavement wobbled under her feet.

“Thanks a whole bunch,” she muttered blinking. “Who the hell are you?”

“Russ Desmond.” He wiped his sweaty face on his arm, still panting like a dog. “You’ve got leaves in your hair.”

“I didn’t grow them, believe me.” She tried to brush them away and poked herself in the ear. Her hands were trembling. Maybe she had a concussion or something. The guy looked pretty far out, like a biker in a track uniform. “I’m Sara Cantrell. You must have seen me at lunch.”

“Huh?”

Just then a multi-coloured herd of various-shaped teenage boys came storming down the pavement. They had appeared from around a corner, and there was only a second to get out of their way. Russ Desmond watched them pass without a great deal of interest.

“Do the guys migrate at Tabb or what?” she asked, getting back downn from the steps where she had run for safety.

“We’re just having a little race that’s all. What did you mean I must have seen you at lunch? What happened at lunch?”

It hit Sara then what was going on. “Wait a sec, you’re in the middle of a race?”

“That’s what I just said.”

“No, I mean you’re in the race?”

“Yeah.”

“But you were winning!” She looked down the pavement in the direction of the rapidly vanishing group of cross-country runners. “Get going. Go after them. Hurry!”

“I will,” he said sounding vaguely annoyed. “In a minute. I just want to make sure you’re all right.”

“I’m all right. Get out of here.”

“First tell me what happened at lunch?”

“I gave a speech. Didn’t you hear my speech? It doesn’t matter. I’m sure someone taped it. You can listen to it after you race. Now get out here. Go. Scoot. Goodbye.”

He nodded, gave a quick smile. “You’ve wrecked my time, Sara.”

Watching him run off, pulling leaves from her hair she muttered, “Well you wrecked my make- up, Russ.”

Russ Desmond.

Poll and Jessica showed up a few minutes later. They were talking about Alice’s party or rather, arguing about ti. Sara loved arguments. She hated to simply discuss things.

“Food doesn’t have to be a big deal,” Jessica was saying. “We don’t have to feed everybody dinner for God’s sake. All we need are a few sweets and salty dishes, and plenty to drink. Isn’t that right Sara?”

“That is true.”

“But people are going to show up with beer,” Polly said. “You remember what happened at Alice’s last party? Claudia Philips got drunk and threw up all over Kirk Holden.”

“So we won’t invite Claudia,” Jessica said.

“Or Kirk,” Sara added.

“And we can put on the invitations that no alcohol will be allowed,” Jessica said.

Polly grimaced. “We have to print up invitations?”

“Of course,” Sara said. “We have to show these barbarians we have class.”

“Who’s going to have to pay for all this?” Polly asked. “Me?”

“No, of course not,” Sara said. “Alice will.”

“Alice has the same account as I do,” Polly complained. Then she paused staring at Sara. “What happened to you? You have leaves in your hair, Sara.”

“Well, you have a fat a*s Polly. And if this evening I’ll wash my hair and look just wonderful and you’ll still have a fat a*s.”

“You wouldn’t look wonderful if a car full of plastic surgeons ran over you on the freeway,” Polly retorted.

Sara wrinkled her nose. “Huh?”

“Stop it, you two?” Jessica said. They had reached Jessica and Polly’s cars. Jessica had a Toyota; Polly a Mercedes. Both cars were brand new. Sara had a nice car once before she had run into a stupid telephone pole. Jessica continued, “We have to decide whether we want to make it a swimming party or not. What do you think, Sara?”

“Definitely. We can go skinny-dipping.”

“We’re not going skinny-dipping,” Polly said. “It’s against the law.”

“Only when you’ve got a fat-“ Sara stopped looking around. “Where’s Alice?”

Jessica and Polly glanced at each other. “She went home early,” Jessica said.

“What’s the matter?” Sara asked. “Does she have cramps?”

Polly hesitated. “Yeah.”

“That’s a shame,” Sara said. She liked having Alice around. That girl could take an insult better then anybody she always just laughed.

Jessica yawned. “Let’s talk about this later, at the game. I’ve got to take a nap now or I’m going to turn into a pumpkin.” She opened her car door. “You want Polly or me to take you home, Sara?”

“I’ll go with you.”

“I can drive us to the game,” Polly said eagerly.

“Whatever,” Jessica nodded, still yawning. “Get in Sara.”

When they were cruising down the road the conditioner on full and Polly following on their tailed Sara asked, “Why are you going to the game? You should stay home and rest?”

Jessica rubbed her tired eyes beneath her glasses/ She had only put on the glasses at Sara’s insistence. Jessica’s eyesight had got so bad that Sara hated to get in the car when she was driving. That morning in political science, before she fell asleep, Sara had noticed Jessica straining to see the screen. The girl had a history of allergies; her eyes were too sensitive for contacts even for soft lenses. Yet she resisted wearing her glasses even where there was no one else around; simple vanity there was no question about it.

“I would, but I told my journalism teacher I would take some pictures for the paper,” Jessica said.

“You volunteered?”

“Not exactly. The teacher had seen the pictures I’d taken last year for Mesa’s annual. She liked my work. I think she’s been waiting for me and my camera to show up. I don’t mind. I’ve got to do something now that I’m not a cheerleader any more. And I promised Alice I’d come. She has this guy she wants me to meet.”

“What’s his name?”

“I don’t know.”

“Bill Skater?”

Jessica smiled. “I wish. It’ll be fun watching him play tonight.”

“It might be funny. I wasn’t kidding in the assembly when I said I’d heard he was awful.”

Jessica shrugged. “I could care less what he can do with a football.”

Sara sneered. “What makes you think you’re ever going to find out what he can do with you?”

Jessica grinned. “It’s only September. I’ve got till June. I’m going to invite him to the party.”

“I know.”

Jessica lost her grin. “You don’t think we’re pressuring Poll into something she doesn’t want to do, do you?”

“Polly’s just being Polly. If we didn’t give her a shove every now and then, she’d be mummified in her bedroom closet. Besides the party was Alice’s idea.” Sara rubbed her aching arm. A purple bruise was beginning to appear below her elbow. “I have someone I’m going to invite too.”

“Who?”

“This guy I ran into.”

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Raynedog]

This has an authentic feel that I find very appropriate for the perspective of the writing. I was felt I was in the shoes of the narrator and fell directly into the story.
I'm a fan of the inclusion of the amount of dialogue and the inter workings of the characters that all seem to have purpose in the story.

[KittyKatgirl]

Thank you :)