operation green bean casserole

Chapter 1 Operation Green Bean Casserole

F**k, I screamed as I was thrown to the ground. There was a loud smack as my head hit the floor. Then I slipped into unconsciousness dimly aware that the girl I loved was about to eat me alive.

…

My name is Dennis, Dennis Dymond I am eighteen, live in Utica Ohio and until recently was just another senior in high school, that all changed one weekend in March. Monday morning I woke up at 6:10, I have always despised wakening up early, and I usually found it difficult to do so. However today it was easy today was the day I had been waiting for since seventh grade. Today was the day I was going to ask the girl of my dreams out.

I got out of bed, got dressed in my usual jeans and t-shirt and, went to have breakfast. I have always preferred to eat breakfast in the dark, in the morning I hate the light… Well I suppose I should say I hate everything. For about a minute then I sat in the dark and ate my frosted flakes. Then I walked out of the house to my car, I drove a small black Chevy that my father had bought used for me, when I turned sixteen. It wasn’t the best car but it got me where I needed to go. The antenna was broke off so the radio only picked up one station which only played country music. Now I know what you’re thinking “this kids from Utica Ohio he must love country”…Wrong!! I had always been more of a classic Rock guy. So luckily for me the car had a CD player this morning I decided to go with a little Jefferson Airplane, so I put the CD in and headed to school.

Utica High School was about twenty minutes from my house. I lived outside of the town in the middle of nowhere, but I sort of liked that. When I got to school I parked in my usual parking space at the back of the parking lot. I liked parking in the back because less people parked back there. Which brings up another point about myself I don’t like other people much. I mean I have a few friends but most people tend to just get on my nerves. So after I parked my car I went in the school and went to my locker. Where my best friends Mitchell Busch and Mathew Stewart were waiting for me; Mitchell is a little shorter than me, but then again most people were. He had dark skin and dark hair, which caused people to make fun of him for looking like a Mexican. Mathew was a bit taller than Mitchell; he has blondish brown hair that almost looks grey. He wore glasses and had the forehead of a Neanderthal. “Today’s the day” I said as I approached them.

“What day” asked Mitchell?

“D-day” I replied.

“It’s not D-day dumb a*s that’s in June.” said Matthew.

“No not that D-day” I said as I opened my locker. “D-day for operation green bean casserole.” At this point I should probably mention that that my friends and I have all sorts of stupid inside jokes. Whenever one of us was trying to get a date, we would jokingly plan out the asking part like it was a military operation and, even give it a code name. Mitchell had for some reason or another dubbed my quest to ask out Mary Tobruk operation green bean casserole.

Operation green bean casserole had been in the planning stages for about five years, so you can imagine how Mitchell and Mathew reacted. “Oh yeah like we haven’t heard that one before” chortled Mathew. “You’ve been saying that once a week for five years Dennis, you’ll never do it.”

“He does seem ready this time though” added Mitchell. “Will you really go through with it?” he asked.

“You know damn well he won’t” said Mathew before I could answer. I guess this is a good time to explain some things about my friends. All three of us like to give each other a hard time. However, Mathew and I enjoy it more than Mitchell, who is usually more sympathetic when it comes to matters like operation green bean casserole.

“You what Mathew?” I said as closed my locker. “You can shut the Hell up, when you finally get around to asking Sara Green then you can make fun of me.” Mathew had no reply to this, mentioning Sara Green was the one sure way to shut him up. Mathew has had a thing for Sara for as long as I’ve known him. Which Mitchell and I found strange because she wasn’t the least bit attractive. Of course she was the smartest person in our grade so perhaps Mathew’s interest in her was purely academic.

Mitchell and I left Mathew and headed too our first class mythology with Miss Ford, We both took our seats at the back of the class and waited. Within about a minute then the principle Mr. Mcfeely came on over the loudspeaker to do the announcements. Mr. Mcfeely as you might guess was made fun of pretty often because of his name. It also didn’t help that he had an obvious thing going on with the school secretary, as we like Mcfeely was Mcfeeling her up. I didn’t pay attention to the announcements that day, and I didn’t pay attention to class either. As Miss Ford lectured I tried to imagine how Mary. When class ended Mitchell and I walked to our next class British literature with Mrs. Austen. I didn’t pay attention in that class either, and I was very happy when it ended. When I left that class I went to my locker where I met up with Mathew. Who, had the same class as me third period. We said bye to Michael, who had a different class. Walked to the shop for industrial tech.

Tech class was also the only class I had with Mary which meant it was my one chance to ask her. Mathew and I entered the class room that was attached to the shop and sat at our desks while we waited for Mr. Richards to take attendance. As we waited I watched the door waiting for Mary to come in, I was terrified that she might be absent. It had taken so much to get ready to ask her that if she wasn’t here then it might be another five years before I worked up the courage to ask again. After a few minutes she walked through the door. I breathed a sigh of relief; I was going to get to ask her today. While Mr. Richards took attendance I ran through what I was going to say in my mind I only had one chance at this and I was determined to get it right. When Mr. Richards finished with attendance he dismissed us to go work in the shop. I got up put on my safety glasses and followed Mathew into the shop and over to the store room to get my project. I was working on a coffee table which I was building out of black walnut the most expensive wood we could get in the shop. While everyone was grabbing there projects out of the store room I stood and looked at what I had finished of my table so far.

I had no intentions of doing much work on my project today so I eventually decided that I would grab one of the legs to sand so Mr. Richards couldn’t yell at me for not working. I walked out of the store room to a table. Where I sat down and waited to see Mary walk out of the store room. As I waited I started to feel nervous again, I wasn’t completely sure this was a good Idea. I really didn’t know Mary that well we had only ever talked a few times. In fact I usually tried to avoid talking around her, I was afraid I might say something stupid. Maybe it would be better to try to get to know her first I thought to myself.

Then I saw her walking out of the store room with her long blonde hair flowing out behind her she looked like a model. I have to do this I told myself I want to be with her more than anything. She walked over to the far table that was at the back of the shop carrying the pieces of the shelf she was building. “Alright”, I said to myself “let’s do this”. I got up and slowly walked over to her table. My heart was pounding like I had just run a mile, and I was starting to shake. When I got to the table I stopped and said in a slightly shaky voice “Mind if I work here”.

“No” She said looking up from her project. For just a moment her brilliant green eyes met mine then I nervously looked way. “How are you Dennis?” she asked still looking at me.

“I’m good how you are?” I replied.

“Good” she said looking back down at her project. By this point I was feeling a little more confident but I was sure that I needed to keep the conversation between us going, but I couldn’t think of anything to say.

“I like your shirt.” I suddenly blurted out not entirely aware of what I was saying.

“Thank you” she replied looking up for a second before returning to her work. I realized that I wasn’t going to keep the conversation going like this so I decided to just go for it.

“Uh Mary there’s something I want to ask you.” She looked up at me staring at me with her beautiful green eyes. For a brief moment I was lost for words, I was silent for what seemed like hours, a million thoughts racing through my head and at last I opened my mouth to speak. “I um wanted to ask you if you might like to uh go out with me sometime.” For a moment she was silent I was no longer looking at her instead I was staring at some dry glue on the table too afraid to see the look on her face.

“Uh wow Dennis.” she said sounding extremely surprised. “I well I mean you seem like a really cool guy but I really don’t know you and I just got out of a relationship so uh maybe some other time.”

“Ok some other time.” I managed to say in a dazed voice. I could not believe that I had finally asked her and that she had said no. We both sat there for the rest of the class in an awkward silence. I kept going over the conversation in my head trying to find things that I could have done wrong. “I shouldn’t have asked her here” I thought to myself. A dusty old shop full of loud machinery was hardly a romantic place after all and I should have tried to get to know her before asking.

A few minutes before the end of class I put my project away and walked out of the shop to get my stuff. I wanted to be out of the class as soon as the bell rang so that I could avoid Mary. I was just picking up my stuff when she suddenly walked up to me.

“I hope I didn’t upset you Dennis.” she said looking at me.

“No I’m fine.” I said unable to look her in the eye.

“Ok well see you later then. She said and walked away.

***

I sat through my next few classes without paying attention at all. At lunch time Mitchell and Mathew were both waiting at our table to see what happened. “Did you ask her?” Mitchell demanded almost as soon as I sat down.

“Yeah” I answered trying to signal that I didn’t want to talk about it with that one word, Mitchell seemed to understand and went back to his sandwich but Mathew didn’t get it or didn’t care.

“So what did she say?” Mathew asked.

“She said you have an enormous forehead.” I replied. Mathew threw his sandwich at me it hit me in the face and fell to the table with a thud.

“Mathew Stewart get over here this instant!” screamed Mr. Mcfeely from across the room.

“Damn it!” exclaimed Mathew he slammed his fist down on the table as he got up and walked over to the principal.

“Mathew’s such a dumbass.” Mitchell said laughing.

“Yeah.” I replied I normally found it extremely funny when Mathew got in trouble. After what had happened today though, I felt as though I would never laugh again. Mr. Mcfeely took Mathew to his office, probably to give him a detention so we didn’t see him for the rest of lunch. Mitchell and I didn’t talk, I was in no mood for conversation and he was busy eating his lunch as well as the one Mathew had left behind. The rest of the day past so slowly it was painful. When the final bell of the day rang I didn’t go to my locker instead I went straight to my car and left. I didn’t want to run into Mitchell or Mathew at the locker, I didn’t want to talk. I just wanted get home where I could be alone and wallow in self pity.

On the way home I drove faster than normal it felt good to go fast. I normally am a very careful driver. However, today I wasn’t concerned about wrecking. The only thing on my mind was how I had failed. When I finally got home I went straight to bed but I didn’t fall asleep I spent most of the night lying awake the conversation with Mary running over and over in my mind like a broken record.