chapter two

 

The next couple days went by so slow, it felt like I had just fallen asleep and then all of a sudden I was being woken up by my alarm. My homework lies in disarray on my desk; I cannot remember what I need and what I do not need, so I am forced to bring everything with me. My back hurts from the pain of my overstuffed backpack and the five binders plus the notes that the teachers gave me to prepare me for their tests. Grandma and grandpa want us over every Friday night for dinner and since they know the Headmaster, I’m sure they will be updated on every event that goes on at the school. I became overwhelmed with my school work; staying up half the night, drinking at least five cups of coffee at night, and indulging on sweets and ramen noodles. Now I know I wasn’t the most sociable person in the world but at my public school we never had trouble with cliques, either I was blind and naïve or the private school was so exclusive that the people inside thought of themselves as royalty. And what is really annoying is the guy, Brendan who keeps calling me Mary, even when I correct him. And of course the first day of my new school I meet this guy, well not meet more like we ran into each other. I still can’t believe I have not noticed him before at school it happened so quickly that I wasn’t even able to speak or process what had happened.

    On Friday night my mother and I got ready, swapping dresses and comments about what are weeks were like. “Can I borrow your boots?” I asked calmly. “Honey, when have I not let you borrow anything of mine? Of course, but only if I can borrow that dainty silver necklace of yours,” she said smiling. As we drove to Highland Park I sat there in the passenger seat of our ’03 Toyota Corolla I couldn’t shake the feeling of the coming events. Would they accept me and how I am? I haven’t seen them since I was eight years old and what a night that was. They took my mom and I to the Opera in Dallas and what was to be a great night turned into my mom and grandmother fighting about something completely pointless, my mother says what is on her mind and tends to make jokes that only a fair number of people understood. Now that I am older and I can understand the importance of relationships and the meaning of being independent, I want to better my relationship with my grandparents. I feel that I owe them at much. “Hey do you see that building on your right?” she asked. “Yeah,” I answered. She gave me a wink and said, “That’s our new office building, I’m so excited. We move in next month!” My mom works for Brown Books, a publishing group; she helps edit manuscripts and sends them to and from the authors and printing presses. “We’re here baby girl,” she said quietly. We pulled into the driveway of an exquisitely polished home with a modern meets old fashion design. There was a white stone balcony overlooking the front yard with large plants hanging over the top of the rail. I waited with my mom on the front porch steps and rang the doorbell. “Well hello there,” my grandmother’s honeyed voice spoke quaintly. She took our coats and led us down the beautifully decorated hallway towards their formal sitting room. “How was your drive over here, Jen?” she asked. “Good, not a lot of traffic.” My mother was being surprisingly cordial with grandma until I saw her give me a funny look. Oh great here we go. I thought. My grandfather was sitting comfortably on a chair reading the newspaper, his glasses on the tip of his nose, a crystal tumbler in his hand with a caramel liquid sloshing around as he turned the page. Grandma cleared her throat and at once grandpa put down the paper and his glass, “Good evening Jennifer and Ivory, it’s good to see you both.” He said smiling. He engulfed me and my mother in a big hug, I missed my grandpa. “What would you like to drink?” Grandpa asked to the two of us. “White wine,” my mom replied. “A coke please.” I said. As he made our drinks he commented on the weather and economy and politics. He is an insurance salesman for a prestigious firm here in Dallas, but he is never stuck in an office. Grandma and he travel so much, they have been all over Europe. It’s pretty exciting to see photographs of Big Ben and the Berlin Wall and even the Great Wall of China, I would love to travel all over the world one day but for now I am stuck in a boring town with a small fund towards my travels.

   Dinner went well, surprisingly, I was sure there would be bloodshed but my mother remained civil throughout the night, although they commented on my ever absentee father, her unacceptable job and her lack of perseverance to acquire a degree that is suitable for the work my grandfather wanted her to do, a lawyer. Well tonight’s dinner talk came as no surprise to my mother; she sat there looking bored, catching my eye to convey some sort of message, perhaps an apology or desperation. We walked back to the car and drove home in silence; we inevitably ended up at Waffle House for their sincerity and great coffee. My started working here when she moved out, so we know all of the people plus the new people that have come in and out. That is how I met my other best friend, Thomas Waggoner, he started working here last spring and while we came from different tracks of life, his parents are wealthy while my mom and I have had to scrape what little money we had to make ends meet, we found a common denominator, music and a love for coffee. Darla walked over jubilant as ever in her apron and non slip black Reebok shoes, “Let me guess: two coffees, a large order of chili fries and two waffles?” “Darla you are too good for our own good.” My mom replied. Finally there was a smile and sarcasm. “I try my best. Thomas is on break right now, I’ll let him know you guys are here.” “Thanks Darla.” And off she went up to the behind the bar to place the order.

 “So I’m sorry you had to hear all of that tonight, you know they love you dearly. We have just been so indifferent towards each other, even before I became pregnant. It scared them at how independent I was and still am. We are going to have to start going to dinner there every Friday night, so maybe this will be the last time they act this way.” Mom said quietly.

“I don’t understand why though, all of a sudden we have to be a part of their lives like this. I’m just so used to Christmas dinners and Easter Sunday and that’s it.” I replied coolly. “Maybe one day you will but tonight is not the night.” She smirked. “Fine,” I said. Darla snuck two deep set mugs in front of us, the crisp smell of French Roast wafted towards my nose and I didn’t bother with creamer or sugar. I gulped down nearly half of the cup within five seconds, yum. “Ahh, that’s gross! Did you just drink that coffee black?” Thomas screeched across the room. “Yes sir!” I exclaimed proudly. He laughed a bellowing laugh and strolled over to our table with a pot of coffee in his hand. “How’ve you been,” he asked. “Dinner with the grandparents go alright?” “Sure if you feel like you’ve been transported into Mommie Dearest and suddenly it’s like you are Christina Crawford and your mother transformed into Joan Crawford.” My mom retorted with a little too much sarcasm. Thomas laughed it off and poured some more coffee. “I’ll check on ya’lls food, enjoy the coffee.” “Thanks.” I called. The rest of the evening went on without another outburst from my mom, although she never really returned to her old self all night.

   The next morning was spent at my desk, books and binders scattered as I crammed as much information I could into my head. I started with Latin and Spanish from 7am to 10am, another three hours on English II and Art History then Statistics and Biology. My last two subjects interested me the most, European Studies and Journalism; so I saved them for last. A lot of reading and writing, that’s all I did. It was exciting to think that not only did this prepare me for Harvard; it was something I felt completely normal doing. At my old school I sometimes felt under challenged and out of touch with the student body, I was never a people person or the coolest person to look up to, I have fun with Sage and Thomas but sports was never my cup of tea and sitting on the cold bleachers screaming for my team to get a touchdown was never something I jumped at the opportunity. And my friends felt the same way, so we were perfect. “Ivy, will you go to the store for me?” My mother yelled. “What is it, I’m studying.” I asked. “I need some cookie dough and ice cream,” she replied. “You can take my car!” Wow, she sounded like she was pleading. “Sure mom, I’ll go.” I gathered my coat and slipped some shoes on. “I’ll be back soon.” I cried.

    I pulled into a parking space of Brookshire’s and walked into the semi-large store. A wave of ‘Hellos’ shouted at my direction from the employees, I nodded and grabbed a red plastic basket. As I scanned the variety of cookie dough flavors I caught the eye of a dark haired boy filling the milk, “Can I help you with something?” he asked politely in a deep Southern voice. “Umm, no thank you just getting some cookie dough for my mom.” “What kind are you getting?” Wow he was friendly. “Well she really likes Snickerdoodle but it looks like ya’ll don’t have it.” I said. “Well we have rocky road cookie dough, your standard chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, or sugar cookie.” He said helpful. “Oh you have rocky road? She’ll love that.” I said happily.

    Simultaneously, we reached up to the shelf to grab the roll of cookie dough, our arms bumped into each other and he immediately dropped his arm. I grabbed several packages of rocky road and my personal favorite, oatmeal raisin. “Wow you eat a lot of that don’t you,” he chuckled. “You are very small to eat so much.” I blushed. “I’m sorry that was rude wasn’t it.” He said. “No it’s not that, very honest though. My mother and I don’t necessarily have a great diet; we eat way too much junk and just get a lot of grief about it. It’s not a big deal.” I said laughing. I noticed his piercing green eyes and his olive toned skin. He stood at about 6’4 and had the hair style of a model, dark brown with natural highlights. “Ma’am,” he pleaded. “Oh, I’m sorry yes.” I asked awkwardly. Hopefully he had not noticed that I was entranced by his angelic face. “I asked if I could possibly know your name. I’m new here, moved here from Georgia and I don’t know a lot of people at my school.” “Um sure, my name is Ivory,” I said quietly, “Yours?” “My name is Lucas, Lucas Cunningham. You have a beautiful name by the way.” Lucas said breaking out into an enormous grin that made me blink several times to regain my composure. What was wrong with me that I get weak at the knees over a boy? I could understand if it was the latest article by my favorite journalist sure or the newest encyclopedia but a boy, never. “Well perhaps we’ll bump into each other in the halls at school. I’ve got to get back to the milk.” He said politely. “Yes of course, see you around.” I picked up the nearest gallon of ice cream and was heading to the car when I realized he must think I go to the public school here. Crap. I’m an idiot!

   “What took you so long babe?” my mom asked as I walked into the house. “Oh sorry, I was having a hard time deciding on the kind of cookie dough you would most enjoy and I got distracted when one of the employees wanted to inform me of my bad eating habits and such.” I said.

“Oh it’s not a big deal Honey, I was just checking.”

“I’ve got to get the rest of my homework done. I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

“Of course, I’ll start making some of the cookies since you bought so much, nice choice by the way, I can’t believe they have rocky road!”

“Yeah how bizarre is that.” And I got back to my five page paper on medieval times in Europe, they were already way ahead of my class at my old school, good thing I still had a bunch of notes from that class.

   I was finishing the last paragraph on my article for the journalism class when my mom ran in my room with the most delicious smelling rocky road cookies. It melted in my mouth like M&M’s on a hot day; hardly any effort on my part. “Dang mom, you did a nice job on the baking!” I said with my mouth full. “Hey! What did I teach you about talking with your mouth full?” she said sternly. “Uh, nothing.” I retorted. “Good, trick question!” she said grinning. “What is the plan for tonight?” I asked.

“Well Sage came by but I told her that you had a ton of homework but that you should be done to do something later tonight, we could rent a movie and eat junk food.” She replied.

“Sounds good, we should see if Thomas is working tonight.”

“He is; I went there earlier to get some coffee but he gets off at 8pm.”

I looked at my clock it was 6:30pm, almost a whole day of homework. “Why when we have perfectly good coffee here?”

“I told Aislinn I would meet her there after she got off work.”

“Oh okay, how is she,” I asked, “She should come over too.”

“Yeah I’ll call her in a second. Let’s go to Brookshire’s to get the essentials.”

“That sounds good to me.” I felt my stomach do a couple flips, oh goodness.

   I made my mother walk around every inch of Brookshire’s but no sign of Lucas, oh well. We got pizzas, chips, dips, popcorn, way too much candy and soda galore, not to mention the extra can of Folgers my mom had to get. It truly is surprising by the amount of food we eat how we never gain weight.

    Aislinn was at our house waiting on the front porch steps when we arrived, she was holding a bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers and another French film. She loved French films and good wine. “Hey you guys! How has school been Ivy,” she proclaimed. “Have you met any cute boys yet?”  

 “Well I just started and the classes are rigorous, it’s hard to really notice any guys,” I replied.”Oh I think you will meet someone.” We got into the house and started making the pizzas, getting bowls of chips together and Aislinn is walking around the kitchen finding various pots and pans to cook her world famous fudge that we dip everything in, from pretzels and strawberries to our fingers and spoons. “Knock, knock,” comes an all too familiar voice. “THOMAS!” I screech and run into foyer. It’s only been a day but it feels like eternity since I’ve seen him. I wrap him into a big ol’ hug; his hair smells like crisp linen, it’s nice to hug someone who is warm and familiar. I release his neck when I hear an unfamiliar cough; standing in my foyer is Lucas Cunningham looking more perfect than ever. I feel my face get red and immediately look down at my feet. Thanks Thomas, you could have said something to me earlier. Although meeting him today was a complete secret to everyone including my mom. “Hi, Ivory,” Lucas said cutting into my thoughts. Thomas looked surprised. “You two have met before?” he asked curiously. I smiled shamelessly. “Yes, I was working today and she came in the store looking for Snickerdoodle flavored cookie dough,” he said politely. “Well that saves my breath on introductions. I thought I would invite him over so he could get the feel of a real Rockwall, Texas evening. Pizza, chips and movies oh my.” Thomas said laughing. “Yeah of course, he is more than welcome, the more the merrier. Sage is on her way; my mom spoke with her today.” I said cheerfully. “It’s good to see you again Ivory,” Lucas said. I do not know how I am going to make it through tonight, one more crooked grin like the last and I might turn into putty.

Reviews

[Dutch Jr.]

Good chapter. Take heed the same suggestions I made in chapter one, and also you have a couple of run-on sentences that makes the work hard to read. But don't worry about that right now, we can fix that later. Keep writing and don't forget that description is imprtant when aiming to hook your reader and place him/her in the middle of the action.

Good write, you have an excellent writing style, and I'll be looking for more.