Chapter Two

This is the second chapter. It's not edited or revised.

 

“They ask me how I do it, and I simply reply, this is why I’m hot, this is why I’m hot, this is why this is why this is why I’m hot, this is why I’m hot, this is why I’m hot, who, this is why this is why I’m hot, I’m hot ‘cause I’m fly, you ain’t ‘cause you not, this is why this is why I’m hot”

            “What the hell is that?” Noelle asked as she lightly slapped my face a few times, waking me up. The music then stopped.

            I opened my eyes and looked around the room. I had faintly heard Mims singing This is Why I’m Hot in my sleep, but I thought it was part of my dream. Honestly, I had no idea where that music was coming from. It wasn’t my cell phone alarm, as my alarm was set to beep, nor was it the radio or an iPod, because our iPods were in the other room, and there wasn’t a radio in the room.

            I turned to Noelle and shrugged my shoulders, and then the two of us turned to look at Demi’s bed. It was empty and the blankets were thrown around the bed and partly onto the floor, in a big mess. Her pillows were aimlessly tossed around the room, though most remained on her bed.

            “Where is she?” Noelle asked me.

            “I have no idea, I was sleeping. I didn’t hear any doors open or shut though,” I replied.

            “That’s really weird that she just disappears like that and music starts playing out of nowhere.”

            “Yeah, what time is it anyway?” I asked. From where I was in the room, I couldn’t see the clock.

            “5:30,” she replied. “Maybe we should go check in the other room. You never know, maybe she’s mastered the technique of opening and closing doors without making noise.”

            “That’s probably a good idea,” I replied.

            The two of us got up and walked into the living room. Demi was sitting on the couch, staring at the television, which was indeed playing music videos with a blank expression. She looked dazed out of her mind, and slightly confused. I looked at Noelle, who was looking back at me with the most confused expression, and again shrugged.

            Noelle and I both walked toward her and sat on the couch on both sides of her. It seemed as if she didn’t even realize that we were there, or if she did, she didn’t acknowledge our presence, so obviously something was wrong.

            “Demi, are you okay?” I asked.

            No reply.

            “Demi, seriously, you’re scaring me. Both of us, actually,” Noelle added.

            When Noelle said this, Demi snapped out of it and looked aware again. She looked at Noelle and then to me, back to Noelle, and then straight forward.

            “What’s wrong, Demi?” I asked.

            “I…I…I can’t do this,” she began. “I’m completely homesick already, and we haven’t even been in New York City for twenty-four hours. How pathetic is that? Nor have we even left the country— l’m an hour away from home. If I feel this way now, imagine how I’m going to feel in China or something when we’ve been gone for months. I woke up twenty minutes ago and realized this, so I tried to get you two up, but I couldn’t, so I came out here to watch TV to see if it would clear my head a little bit. I forgot we left its volume on really loud last night, and it took me a bit to find the clicker to turn it down, which is probably what woke you guys up, I’m assuming. Honestly, I don’t even know.”

            “Demi, we’re all homesick, it happens, but remember how much fun we had last night? We haven’t even done anything either and we had a blast! I know it’s going to be hard in the beginning, but things will get better soon,” Noelle said, trying to comfort her. “We’re all feeling like you are. It’s natural.”

            “Yeah, I guess, it’s just hard because I thought I’d have no problem being away from home, but I really do, so it’s just weird, because normally I’m right about things like that, and I don’t even know, you know?” Demi replied.

            Noelle looked at me with a confused expression, for about the millionth time this morning. To be honest, a good portion of Demi’s last statement did thoroughly confuse me as well.

            “Well, you realized you were wrong. People don’t always get things right, so it’s okay. Things will get better as time moves on. Besides, imagine if you left today, you would spend the rest of your high school career wondering what we were doing and whether or not you should have gone home. Just try it for a year, and if you hate it, you can always leave. Besides, remember how badly you wanted to come?” I tried.

            “Okay,” she agreed. “I guess you’re right about regretting leaving. I’ll give it a year.”

            “Thanks Demi.” Noelle said. “I bet you’ll end up loving it here.”

            “Maybe,” she replied.

            I looked at the clock on the silver cable box underneath the television. A half hour had elapsed since Noelle and I were first woken up. At this point, I doubted I could fall back to sleep for the forty-five minutes we had left before our alarm went off.

            “So, what do we do now?” I asked.

            “I’m not going to be able to sleep, now. Why don’t we just start getting ready?” Demi suggested.

            “Sounds good,” I agreed. Noelle shook her head in agreement also.

            I got up from the couch, and went into our bedroom to get things to shower. Last night we arranged that I would shower first. After I showered, I threw on a brown and cream patterned short sleeved shirt from Anchor Blue, denim Bermuda shorts from Guess, bronze Steve Madden sandals, and my gold Tiffany cuff (again).

I left the bathroom so Demi could shower and went back into our bedroom, where Noelle was trying to get things organized for the day. I blow-dried my hair in front of the full length mirror, put on a little bit of makeup, and got my rose-colored solid leather Coach handbag ready for the day with all of the things I was going to need (the things that were on a list given to us—a camera, money in the form of bills and coins, a credit card, a cell phone, two forms of id, a spare notebook and a pen; and the things I was possibly going to want—lip gloss, gum, mints, iPod, a mirror and a hair brush).

At 7:45 that morning the seventeen of us were in the lobby, as instructed. I was standing against a wall with Noelle, Demi, Ari, Shauna and Kendra talking about how much fun last night was, and how we needed to have another homework session in our suite tonight. Angela, Dan, Martine and Zach walked into the lobby and we all took off outside the doors of the hotel and onto the streets of New York City for our literally thirty second walk to a restaurant called Melanie’s.        

Once again, we had seating assignments. This time I was with Nathan, Shauna, Pete, Peyton and Martine. I was kind of hoping that we wouldn’t have to listen to any more speeches on the procedures of this school so I could eat my pumpkin waffles in semi-peace, but I was unfortunate. We had to listen to Martine tell the five of us how New York was a big and dangerous city therefore we couldn’t leave the group to go anywhere without another person, which made sense. I had kind of assumed that in the first place, though. When she was done, she handed us our weather forecasts for Patagonia and went over the whole packing procedure…yet again.

As soon as breakfast was over, the entire group exited the restaurant, and got into the four minivan taxi’s, which had been waiting outside the restaurant for us so we could get to the Metropolitan Museum of Art quicker than we would have if we walked or took the subway.

Upon arrival, we briskly walked upstairs to the second floor to visit the European Paintings area. I was a little overwhelmed with the pace in which we were progressing, I felt like I was almost running, but the four leaders were on a mission to cover what we needed to in the two museums that we had to visit that morning.

When we got upstairs, Zach pulled us all over to look at a painting, The Last Communion of Saint Jerome by Botticelli, and began to talk about it. I studied the work of art for a minute, and then I looked around at my classmates. Some looked intrigued at what we were seeing and hearing, and others looked like they could care less.

To be completely honest, I’ve never been a big fan of art. I guess it could be interesting sometimes, but other times I found it so bland, dull and lifeless that I could care less. Before coming to New York, I made a promise to myself though, that I would try to be a little more appreciative of art and museums, and so far, I wasn’t fulfilling my promise. Quickly I snapped out my spacey mood and tried to become entertained in what Zach had to say, but before I knew it, we were walking to another painting.

At the next painting, I did better. I listened to everything Zach was saying, and intently stared at piece. My attitude (and attention span) I had at the second painting lasted throughout the entire European Paintings tour. On our way out of the building, Nathan walked over to me.

“You’re not an art person are you?” he asked me.

“No not particularly, but I’m trying to at least learn something about it…and possibly enjoy it,” I replied. “Why did you say that?”

“You’re not very good at pretending,” he told me.

“Nor are you very good at paying attention, apparently” I retorted, jokingly.

“No, I’m not. That’s why there’s such a thing as the internet. I can write my art essay using that,” he said. “You know, most museums have websites with descriptions of the pieces of art.”

 “You’re not getting anything out of it though. Why come here and not take anything in?” I questioned.

“Easily, I came to get away. I’d rather be on vacation than at school,” he told me.

“You better not be serious,” I began. “If you only came here to ‘get away’, that’s not fair! Someone who actually wanted to be here could have come.”

“Chill out Har, I’m joking! I was dying to come here. I always have been. Art’s just not my thing either,” he replied.

“Okay, because that wouldn’t have been fair,” I told him.

“I know, I would have hated if I didn’t get to come because of someone like that,” he started. “I can’t even believe that you would think that I would actually be like that.”

“Well, I don’t really know you, so I didn’t really know what to think.”

 “Hmmm…there’s this thing, and it’s called benefit of the doubt.”

“Yeah, but Nathan, I’ve never been one of those people. I like to know for sure.”

“Yeah, but Harlow,” he mocked. “You didn’t know for sure.” When he finished saying that, he smiled his big, gorgeous smile, laughed and walked away.

 I was amazed by that conversation; it was weird. One minute he was serious, the next minute he was making a joke, telling me to ‘chill out’ or making a bad attempt at sounding mysterious, but failing for the most part. Nathan was surely going to be an interesting person to deal with throughout the next four years.

 We arrived at the Guggenheim Museum, and yet again, practically raced through the building to the Shapes in Spaces exhibit. Instead of Zach talking this time, Angela took over as the guide, explaining all about the intricate pieces of art that the exhibit contained. I can’t lie; my attention was only there for about half of the time. Art really just isn’t my thing; it’s not that I don’t appreciate it, because I do, but who knows, maybe by the end of this trip, I’ll have a new interest in the subject.  

Upon exit from the museum, Nathan walked over to me again, this time with Jake in tow. I smiled at the two, in kind of a questioning way, wondering what brought Nathan back for more.

“You just couldn’t keep away could you, Nathan?” I asked, somewhat joking.

“Well, what makes you think you’re Little Miss Irresistible?” Nathan asked. I smiled again.

“Easily, I am,” I said, completely not meaning it. “But that’s beside the point. What did you want?”

“Nothing in particular,” he began. “Jake just said that he hadn’t met you yet so I thought I’d introduce the two of you.”

 I looked at Jake. Like Noelle said the night before, he was good looking. He was tall and muscular (but not to the point where he looked ridiculous), and his short blonde hair perfectly complimented his big brown eyes, and his skin tone. Not that he would care about complimenting hair colors and what not.

“Hi, Jake, I’m Harlow, but I’m assuming that you already knew that,” I said.

“Oh, and what makes you think you’re so known around here?” Nathan questioned me.

“Yet again, easily. I doubt you would be like ‘Jake, come meet this nameless girl’.” Jake laughed and Nathan smiled.

“No, I knew who you were Harlow. Nathan’s just kind of obnoxious, but I’m sure you’ve already figured that out.” Jake began. And oh how I knew that Nathan was slightly obnoxious. “Trust me, I’ve only lived with him for one night, but I know things.”

I laughed. Nathan pretended to look insulted.

“No, I know what you’re saying,” I replied.

“Okay, so actually the reason Jake came over with me is because he wanted to know about Noelle,” Nathan told me. Jake looked kind of embarrassed. I felt kind of bad for Jake; Nathan was treating this like it was sixth grade.

“Nathan, Jake can speak for himself you know,” I told him.

“I know, but he wasn’t saying anything so I figured I’d help him out a little bit.”

I turned to Jake, blocking Nathan out of the conversation.

“So Jake, what about Noelle do you want to know?” I asked him.

“I don’t know, anything,” he replied.

“Okay. Her family owns an inn and a resort in Alabama, but she’s originally from Georgia. She’s a dancer, and she’s on her schools dance team, but she’s also a beauty pageant girl and has won twenty-seven times. Noelle’s really funny, and makes dumb comments sometimes, although she’s really smart. Umm…she cares a lot about other people, and their feelings, but not in a creepy way. And that’s kind of it for the basic stuff,” I told him.

 “Oh, okay,” he replied. I smiled. I couldn’t believe that the one guy that Noelle had her eye on was asking about her, seeing as it’s only the first full day. She’d be thrilled.

“Now that we’re on the topic of girls,” Nathan said. “What do you know about Kendra?”

 I rolled my eyes. What was I, an information booth?

“Kendra’s from Savannah, Georgia. Her parent’s own five restaurants in and around that city, and she helps them out a lot as a waitress. She was a gymnast and was debating about coming here or going to a gymnastics boarding school, but she chose to come here because she thought she’d get more out of it. Kendra’s smart, but she has issues with math. She’s really nice, but she seems like one of those people who you don’t want to get angry.”

“Good. If she’s not good at math, recommend her to come see me. I’m the bomb at math,” Nathan gloated.

“I’ll let her know.”

The rest of the walk to the hotel was filled with conversation with Jake, Nathan and I. Nathan was definitely cocky and cheesy, but I really did like him. Jake was really sweet and funny, I liked him a lot as well.

            When we arrived at Vista, a really cute restaurant on Fifth Avenue, we were seated immediately. In a way, I lucked out; because I was seated with people I haven’t said a word to yet—Breanne, Peyton, Talon and Tyler. None of the teachers were sitting with us this time. I think they figured out that it was kind of awkward for us, as they were all sitting together.

            Lunch was interesting. Breanne and Peyton were obviously really close already, and I felt awkward trying to break them up, so I kind of talked more with Talon and Tyler. Talon was a bit more outgoing than Tyler, but Tyler seemed sweeter.

            After eating my frittata primavera, my first ever frittata, recommended by Talon, the whole group of us ended up in taxis going to Carnegie Hall for a tour. Upon arrival at the hall, I re-met up with Noelle and Demi, whom I really hadn’t seen or talked to since breakfast. Our tour guide soon arrived, and we followed him into the building.

            We heard about the main lobby, and how it had been renovated and expanded twenty-one years ago, then walked into the first tier gallery. After the first tier gallery, our guide, Matt, took us into the hall.

 The hall was absolutely breathtaking. With its dark red carpeting, the white wood behind the stage and the tiered seating, I couldn’t blink. It had always been my dream to sing here. Not that anyone ever knew that. Singing was one of my secret talents that no one, not even my parents, knew about.

“We’ll have a change to go onto the stage later in the tour,” Matt began. “For those of you who sing and dance, we’ll give you an opportunity to perform on the stage briefly, just to say you have.”

Oh my god, I couldn’t believe it. I was potentially going to get the chance to live one of my dreams. The only thing standing in my way was my fear of singing in front of people…and letting everyone know that I have a secret talent.

Matt led us up to the side balcony and the regular balcony. The view from both was spectacular, and all I could do was imagine a crowd of people here to see me sing. Finally, we were led backstage, and instantly, I knew that the beginning to my unofficial singing career was coming closer. He took us into the wings, and finally out onto the stage.

After looking around a few minutes, Matt told us to write our names down if we wanted to perform on the stage. About everyone wanted to do something, mostly singing but a lot of dancing, assisted by iPods. Most of the people who had chosen to sing were singing a capella, although Breanne and two others had instrumental versions of their songs. I had to go last. There was only one person who didn’t want to do something, Peyton, and I had my heart set on going sixteenth, ten numbers below my lucky number (twenty-six).  It would have been nice to get a little bit of notice about the performances, but apparently none of our teachers knew. Warning would have helped with my nerves a little bit I think though.

Breanne led off singing Only Hope, from A Walk to Remember. Then a bunch of people danced, more singing came, and then more dancing, and finally it was my turn. As I rose from my seat in the auditorium, I could practically see myself shaking. I walked up to center stage and looked out over everyone who was watching. These were the people I was going to spend the next four years with. If I messed up or did poorly, they would remember. I needed to nail this, for my own happiness, and for the sake of my ego. 

I took a deep breath and began to sing the song Listen, from Dreamgirls:

“Listen…to the song here in my heart—a melody that start…but can’t complete--Listen…to the sound from deep within, it’s only beginning to find release—Oh, the time has come, for my dreams to be heard, they will not be pushed out and turned into your own, all ‘cause you won’t listen…”

As I finished the first part of the song, and so far, I think I had nailed it. I continued, beginning the chorus:

“Listen…I am alone at the crossroads, I’m not alone in my own home, and I’ve tried and tried to say what’s on my mind—you should have known”

Thank god, I finished the first chorus too. I swear to god I must have gotten the biggest grin on my face after that. I continued the rest of the song, I hoped well. I stopped after I finished the last word and kind of curtseyed. As I did that, everyone, including Matt-the-tour-guide, burst into applause. THANK GOD!!

 I sat back into my seat, Demi and Noelle, who were on either side of me, turned to look in my direction, both with looks of amazement on their faces.

“Holy s**t,” they both said at the same time.

I must have gotten a scared expression on my face, as the two of them looked a little confused.

“Harlow, that was really, really good!” Demi praised.

Okay, good, I didn’t mess up. I could finally breathe, and relax again. The start to my

unofficial singing career went smoothly, thank god. I had to admit though, I was a little more excited that I got to live one of my dreams than the fact that I sung well, although that was obviously a plus.

            We were led back to the lobby of the hall, and Angela, Dan, Martine and Zach led us toward the Empire State Building. After walking for literally a minute, the group went down to the 57^th Street subway station, got on a train and rode until we reached the Herald Square stop, where we got off and walked a brief time until we arrived at the Empire State Building.

            At the building, we rode the elevator up to the 86^th floor observation area. All seventeen of us, plus the four teachers walked over to the edge of the building, and looked down. I had never been afraid of heights, but suddenly I was thrilled that there was something blocking me from falling off the edge.

            Despite the fact that I used to live in the city, and have been here multiple times since, I had never been up to the top of the building. The cars looked smaller than matchbox cars, the people looked to be as big as ants, and the buildings looked as if they were individual building blocks. I looked over the skyline and saw the water of the Hudson River, which as far as I remember, wasn’t close to the building at all.

            Eventually we all rode the elevator back down to the main floor of the building, and then began walking to Rockefeller Center, where we would have an hour and a half to shop before going back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

            Shauna, Ari, Kendra, Demi, Noelle and I went off shopping around the area. In the time that we had, I spent $1,874.00 at Coach and $68.00 at Crane and Co., with a grande mint mocha chip light frappachino at Starbucks on the side.

            My spending at Coach was completely not planned. When I went to pay for everything (a striped tote, a dark pink clutch, a white wallet, a black checkbook wallet, a white checkbook wallet, a watch, a striped day planner and striped rain boots) I almost passed out when the woman rang up my total cost. No, I didn’t look at price tags as I picked things out, figuring I needed everything I bought so I didn’t want to put price into my decision making; I guess I just assumed that everything wouldn’t cost as much as it did.

My parents were going to have an attack when they saw my credit card bill this month. My dad didn’t even want to get me a credit card that was attached to my parent’s bank account. He was trying to convince my mom to get me prepaid credit cards that would be sent to me every place I visited, but my mom said that it would be a waste of plastic, and money to ship, so she won over in the end, and I got my platinum Amex. Although, my total today at Coach, I’m wondering how long I’ll get to keep it.

  

 

After returning to the hotel, Noelle, Demi and I returned to our room, changed for dinner, and did our stupid online activity for our more-than-pointless, typing course. At least we got it over with though.

At quarter-to-six, exactly like last night, the seventeen of us, and the teachers, as always, were in the lobby, heading out of the hotel so we could walk down the sidewalk during the busy Manhattan rush-hour and to the restaurant for our six o’clock dinner reservation.

As we were walking down the street, Grant headed in my direction, and began walking directly next to me. He didn’t say anything to me for at least a minute, but he kept looking at me, meeting my eye, and smiling.

“You look nice,” Grant commented.

I looked down at my outfit—a flowy, teal top from Forever 21, gray pinstripe Bermudas which were also from Forever 21, white patent leather, sling back wedges from Charlotte Russe and a white gold Tiffany heart ring with diamonds in the heart. On my shoulder was a black quilted leather Miu Miu bag. It was a simple outfit, which I had thrown together quickly an hour or so before. It felt nice to know that someone thought I looked good.

“Thanks,” I replied. “You look nice, too.”

He did look nice. He was good looking, as well as dressed nicely in a blue and white striped oxford and khaki cargo shorts. 

“Anytime!” said Grant. “So, how’s New York for you?”

“New York’s good. Just as I remember it, for the most part,” I began. “What about you?”

“Seeing as I’ve never been here before, I really don’t have anything to compare it to. Not that I really could compare being here with a bunch of gorgeous girls, and pretty cool guys to being here without them.”

I laughed. His comment about ‘being here with a bunch of gorgeous girls’ was such a typical guy comment. 

“Well, what can I say,” I replied.

As I said that, we arrived in front of the restaurant, Perrier’s, and went inside. For the first time this trip, we were allowed to pick who we sat with; I ended up at a table with Noelle, Demi, Nathan and Jake. I knew this meal was going to get interesting with Jake and Noelle sitting next to each other.

And it did. Jake definitely was after Noelle, complimenting her twenty-four-seven, making her laugh every second, and all of that stuff. Nathan, Demi and I kept looking at each other and rolling our eyes.

At the end of dinner, after devouring my ravioli dish and cappuccino gelato, we left the restaurant, heading back to the hotel for the night. On the way home, my roommates and I made plans with Kendra, Ari and Shauna for another homework night.

The minute Demi, Noelle and I got back to our suite; Demi turned to me and smirked.

“What’s that look for?” I asked her.

“You do realize that Grant was staring at you all dinner, right?” she said.

“He wasn’t at our table though,” I replied.

“But that doesn’t mean he can’t look at you,” she responded.

I rolled my eyes.

“No, I guess not,” I began, and then went on to tell her of our conversation before arrival at the restaurant.

Unlike last night, I hadn’t noticed him looking in my direction, probably because I was a little more focused on Nathan. I admit it; I could definitely see myself falling for him. He wasn’t the kind of person that I would normally go for, which may be why I was so intrigued by him. I guess I realized this when he was asking me about Kendra. I didn’t want him to be curious about Kendra; I wanted him to ask one of my friends about me. Well, I was just going to have to wait and see what happens.

 

After Ari, Kendra and Shauna left that night, around 10:15, I went onto the balcony to call my parents, whom were still in Chicago until the beginning of October. I dialed their number, and the ringing came.

“Hello?” my mother said.

“Hey mom, it’s me,”

“Harlow is everything okay?” she began. “Why are you calling us so soon?”

“Mom—I saw Ben.”

Author's Note

It's not finished yet. I'll add the rest in pieces as I finish the sections. Like the introduction and the first chapter, it's unedited and I haven't revised or re-read it at all.

Reviews

[lauren emily]

Sorry it took me forever to get back to you on this.
Oh gosh..what to say?! This was absolutely amazing!! Your writing is phenomenal! Are you going to get this published? I really hope you do! It's so good!
Keep up the awesome work,
~Lauren

[Forist.johnston]

Keep writing! =]