Good Day

After lunch I went through the rest of my day normally, somehow without incident. When the last bell rang for the day many of the students rushed out as fast as they could. Others, like myself, waited for a few minutes as the stampede quieted. There were few people that were still lingering around inside some of the classrooms waiting for club activities to start. The athletes headed to their practices outside, stopping to talk to friends that lingered in the halls along the way.

I grabbed my things and started to head toward the back of the building. I was looking around for Karla as I passed by the biology labs when I suddenly bumped into someone dropping my books. Not wanting to deal with anymore confrontations I concentrated on picking up my books as I apologized, "My apologizes, I wasn't paying attention. I'll be more careful."

There was silence even as the other person bent down and started to help me. I reached for my English book when I noticed it was being held out for me to grab. I looked up to see the boy that had helped me fend off Raymond during lunch. "Thank you" when I took the book and stood up he turned and started to walk away with no indication that he had heard what I had said.

"Wait!" I raised my voice a bit to make sure he could hear me. When he stopped and looked back at me I continued with the one question I had, "Please, will you at least tell me what your name is?"

He considered my request for a few seconds before he answered, "My name is Jack." He spoke clearly and only loud enough for me to hear then quickly turned and walked away.

I pulled my books closer and turned around to see Karla coming down the hall waving at me excitedly, I was never quite sure how she could always be so happy but I got the feeling the smile was just a permanent fixture for her.

When I had finally caught up to her I could see she was already trying to convince me to do something I wouldn't normally do. "Let's get going I'm getting hungry and we still have some cookies your mother gave us."

We picked up our pace and headed out to the parking lot for Karla's car. It was a clean silver Honda that was given to her when her mom got a new Lexus. It was well kept and still looked really good for being 5 years old. I, on the other hand, had an old Ford that my father had found at a junk yard and fixed up himself. I loved it, but when I drove to school I usually ended up getting laughed and yelled at. Since I don't like attention I usually just voted to walk or carpool with friends, Karla specifically.

We both got into the Honda and buckled in for the short drive home. As well made our way out of the parking lot Karla started her persuading.

"Ok, so don't say no and think about this for a bit. I was invited to this party tonight and I want you to come with me, 30 minutes tops and you can leave. I need you with me for strength cuz I want to ask Bryan Baker from the basketball team out."

I let a short silence engulf the interior of the car before I began my counter argument, "You're plenty strong by yourself, if anything, you give me strength."

"But I'm not the same without you around. Your stronger than you know, you also have this amazing aura that just encourages me to to my best, and know that's enough." She looked at me with her cutest, pouting puppy dog face as she put the car in park in my driveway.

I already knew before she had asked that I would say yes to whatever she had asked, as long as it didn't involve me doing anything stupid like jumping off a bridge. I started to get out of the car and head into the house with Karla following close behind waiting for my answer. "Yes, I'll go with you tonight." I paused to hear her happy squeal before I gave my conditions, this part always brought a smile to my face. "I will go, but, I am leaving just as soon as he says yes, which he will. Deal?"

There was a pause as she considered this and she jumped on me as we got in the door almost knocking me over in the process. We continued our trek through the house to the kitchen, as was our routine. At any moment My dad would show up from spending all day working in his office to see how we were doing.

As we finished heating up some pizza and started to open our sodas my father made his grand entrance. "Ah, I thought I heard a familiar voice." He went and gave Karla one of his bear hugs, which she returned to him in kind. "So what did I do to deserve the company of two beautiful young women in my kitchen on this fine Friday."

Karla sat back down and bit into her pizza leaving me to tell my father about my plans. I didn't like to lie to him so in this case I figured most of the truth would be fine. "Karla and I are going to go to a get together with some friends from school."

"Hmm, if I'm not wrong that's a party." He glanced at me and then Karla, still eating her pizza as if nothing was going on. "I have terms and conditions, you will be home by 11 any later and I will never agree to this again. I give no guarantees that I won't call the police if you don't come back, or if you don't answer any message I may or may not decide to send you." A smile crept over his face as he took a drink from my soda.

He was more perceptive than I gave him credit for, most of the time. But I really appreciated that he was so concerned for my safety, "I don't mind, I accept your terms and conditions. I'm honestly only going as emotional support so Karla can ask someone out." Since he remembered being a teenager the truth was the best way to go.

"Well then, have fun but not too much fun." He kissed me on the forehead and gave Karla another hug before going back to finish up his work.

Now that that was out of the way we would just need to get ready before 9 pm rolled around. Knowing Karla the way I did she was going to have me dress up, at least a little bit. I didn't usually mind as long as she didn't go overboard with it, which did a lot of the time. I preferred to keep things as simple as possible so I could pass unseen in the crowd that she hung out with. They were good people, just not the type that I normally hung out with.

"Ok, you ready for the makeover?" Karla polished off her pizza and started up the stairs to my room with me following slowly with my soda and pizza, not exactly looking forward to what came next.