Imagine (5 page)

We have so much fun at lunch, our chatting and laughing is interrupted only once, by Porsche walking past our table with her
posse. I think I’m the only one who even noticed her evil stare though; it was directed at me and only me after all.

             
Incidentally, as soon as I arrived back at my room that day of the zombie lesson I looked it up online and the Solanium Virus could be real. I found a bunch of articles on The Potato Virus, as it’s commonly known. I also read that in many parts of Africa and Haiti, zombies are an important part of witchcraft beliefs. Many cases have been reported of people actually returning from the dead. So maybe I was wrong to dismiss the idea so easily …

V

imagine
pearls

The rest of the school week goes much the same way as Monday. My new friends and I work on our Witches versus Warlock project, which we’re having a blast with. The seven of us meet up every day for lunch, joke around and enjoy each other’s company. The girls constantly teasing me about Keagan and I.

I know that they only do it because
they know it makes me blush, they enjoy seeing me a little uncomfortable. May reminds me daily that all she has to do is say his name, and I turn a shade of bright pink.

Thursday night however, is a little different. May has planned a sleepover in her room. She received special permi
ssion from school as it is her birthday; I have never been to a girl’s birthday party let alone a sleepover before so I’m excited. 

Earlier on today, after classes were done for the day, Che
lsey and I changed out of our uniforms and drove into Nevada City to do some shopping.

We found May the perfect birthday gift. She
has short, perfectly straight, brown hair cut in a bob. The hairstyle perfectly outlines her face. She is tiny, about five feet two inches tall and under 100 pounds if I can guess. People never believe her when she tells them that she is actually seventeen and she can get away with wearing child sized shoes. Lucky duck! She has big brown eyes and very delicate features.

She likes to dress very elegantly whenever we do not have to be in our ugly school uniforms, always in a skirt and blouse or something dressy. Chelsey and I found a matching pearl earring and nec
klace set and bought it straight away. It just screamed May at us as soon as we saw it displayed in the window of the jewelers. The friendly lady who owned the store placed them into a satin box and into a black gift bag for us. We paid half each towards them, as they were pretty expensive, but worth it.

We both bounce with excitement as we walked
around the rest of the stores, knowing that May will love her gift. Nevada City is a small town, everyone here is so friendly. This is the only town like this though; I haven’t had too many good experiences with the people elsewhere in California. It seems like everyone is always in a hurry and no one has time to be friendly, say hello or ask how you are. It’s nowhere near as bad as New York though, that’s one crazy city.

As we drive back to school
, sipping on milkshakes from Dave’s, I am reminded of how beautiful California is; I can see why some people move here and never leave. There is so much to do, a little bit of everything. You have the incredible, sunny weather for starters, the ocean and its beautiful coastal roads, the mountains to go skiing or snowboarding and lots of cool cities. Literally cool cities, if the weather is too warm then people flock to San Francisco, where it is much milder because it is surrounded by the bay.

All of the roads here are always busy too, when Mom and I used to go on our road trips, even when we would drive through the night, we would be just one of many cars. I miss her. Since the text message I haven’t heard from her at all, I guess the ball is now
firmly in my court with that one.

We head straight to May’s room when we get back
. All of our dorm rooms look alike but hers is covered in balloons and streamers today. It is her eighteenth birthday after all. The other three girls are already hanging out in Mays room so I hand May her present and she thanks both of us with a big hug.

Before we sit down the girls declare that we are playing Truth or Dare first. Seeing as though it’s May’s birt
hday, we all agree that she gets to pick on someone first and then that person chooses the next victim. She seems to think about her choice before pointing straight at Kristina "Kristina! Truth or Dare?"

"I like living on the edge, so let’s go with Dare." Is h
er reply, without any kind of a pause. Everyone squeals with excitement.

"Hmm, strip down to your underwear, run down the hal
lway and hug the first person that you run into" May dares her. Kristina gets up and peels off her clothes without even thinking twice. Beneath her jeans and tee-shirt are boy shorts and a sports bra, she must’ve been expecting to do something like this or was already wearing her clothes for bed.

Kristina is not
 bashful in the least, and why should she be? She’s an Amazon woman; about five foot eight tall, with the build of a soccer player and long dirty blonde hair. She has a pretty face too, high cheekbones and gorgeous hazelnut colored eyes. She throws open the door and proudly, with head held high, walks out into the corridor. The rest of us pile up in the doorway to watch her. There are several people in the hallway and Kristina gets a few cat-calls from some of the guys hanging out but instead of choosing one of the good looking popular guys who are drooling over her, she walks over to a tall, somewhat nerdy looking boy with thick glasses and gives him a big squeeze. He is surprised but a grin soon stretches across his face. Seeing the happy look on the boy’s face makes me like her even more. She just made his night!

She
struts back into the room proudly and glances at Chelsey. Chelsey wiggles her eyebrows at her in challenge. "Truth or Truth?" Kristina challenges her.

We look at Chelsey knowing that she only has one choice
.

Chelsey replies "Truth!" as she shuts the door behind us and we al
l climb onto May’s bed. Kristina neatly folds her clothes and places them next to her backpack, not bothering to put them back on.

"Tell us something that is really weird about you, som
ething that you would never usually share with anyone." Kristina says as she joins us sitting on the bed, crossing her legs and hugging a pillow.

Chelsey thinks for a minute and t
hen rolls her eyes. "Wellllll, when I was younger I had a pet turtle, his name was Petey. While other little girls, like you three sleep with their favorite teddy bears, I would cuddle with my Petey. My Mom was completely disgusted by it as Petey would usually poop and pee all over me at night. Every day my Mom would have to wash my sheets." We all are laughing so hard at her confession.

“That’s one way to get fresh sheets every night I guess
!” adds Lexi.

As we calm down Chelsey points my way and exclaims "A
lright Trish, it’s your turn!" Before she can say another word I tell her "Truth! Definitely truth!"

"Have you and Keagan locked lips yet? If so how was it? You have been very elusive with juicy details on the matter, but now you HAVE to spill!"

All the girls are now looking my way, the room silent in anticipation. I shake my head at them and laugh, stalling as long as possible to build the drama.

"So far he has kissed me on the cheek every day since our date, we are going on another date tomorrow night to the carnival though, and I hope he’ll kiss me then." I wink and then try to copy Chelsey’s eyebrow wiggle. We all laugh some more, Lexi points out that I messed up the eyebrow thing completely so everyone tries it. It’s not easy and has us pulling some funny faces and laughing some more. I don't think that I have ever had so much fun as I am having right now. These girls are great!

"You’re so lucky Trish!” says Kristina once the laughing has stopped.

“Yeah, he seems to really like you. He’s been running with you every day now. We can all tell that you guys have chemistry. Keagan is super-hot with those dark curls, smoldering eyes and perfect body." May says dreamily.

"Trish, we are all so happy for you! But come on, Keagan’s hot! Don’t be mad at us for drooling a little." Kri
stina adds.

"I know right, I
 don't know how I got lucky!” I reply

“Let’s do presents now” says Chelsey. “I am so excited for you
to see what Trish and I got for you.” 

There is a huge pile of presents sitting by her desk. Che
lsey hands them to her, one at a time. May unwraps them all, starting with the gift from her parents, some really nice clothes that are just her style. Her older Sister, June, sent her a black and white Swatch wrist watch. Her Aunt sent a cute pair of diamond encrusted hoop earnings. Then she’s on to our gifts. She unwraps Lexi’s present first, an exclusive spa set and Kristina’s, a beautiful silk blouse. Then she opens ours, pulling the gray pearls out of the satin box. She immediately puts both the necklace and earrings on and they look awesome. 

"Thank you guys
, so much, for all of my presents, I love all of them.” She exclaims with a smile as she gives each of us a huge hug.

We then get ready for bed, climbing into our sleeping bags to watch May’s favorite chick flick, The Notebook. Each one of us cries at the end as the two main characters, Noah and Allie, pass away in each other’s arms.

It’s getting late when the credits start rolling down the screen so we turn out the lights and intend to fall asleep. I have really enjoyed tonight, I hope we can do something similar next month for my eighteenth birthday.

We lay c
hatting to each other as we nod off. Apparently Porsche will talk to just about anyone at school about me; she is trying to spread some nasty rumors. But the last thought that enters my mind as I fall asleep is of Keagan and our date at the carnival tomorrow, screw Porsche!

VI

imagine
a slow day

Friday morning starts off great. Keagan and I go for our morning run, as usual. We flirt the entire time. Running with him has made mornings one of my favorite parts of the day, whereas before running was just something that I did out of habit, it’s now something I look forward to as I fall asleep. Instead of cursing at the alarm clock in the morning I now jump out of bed, eager to meet up with Keagan. He pushes me too; we now run 4 miles each morning.

In first period Kristina, Lexi
, May and I give our Witches versus Warlocks presentation and we do great. We used popular movie references to make it fun for our audience. We had the entire class cracking up when we put up the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. against Professor Snape from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. I enjoyed the class, Kristina and I won the debate and the four of us each got an A. But I am so eager for tonight that I am counting down the minutes and my next few classes seem to take forever. Lunch time is a great break from clockwatching though.

We sit at our usual table, Keagan right next to me with his arm slung over my shoulder. He put it there as soon as he sat down and
 proceeded to bury his face in my neck, lightly kissing just below my ear. It gives me shivers.

He and I begin to talk about the carnival and our next double date. I tell Keagan that I can’t wait to go, the last time that I was at one I remember eating way too much co
tton candy with my Mom and making faces in the hall of mirrors together.

"How about you girls? Are you all going to the Carnival t
onight?" Keagan asks May, Lexi and Kristina.

"No not tonight, we’re going to go check out The Great Gatsby in 3D at the movies." May replies.

I have oven baked chicken, vegetables and mashed potato for lunch before heading back to class, just two more to go.

In Art His
tory we discussed Starry Night by the famous Dutch painter, Vincent van Gough. We talked about his Post- Impressionism style of painting, his art is known for its rough beauty, but most people, including myself, think the guy was a few sandwiches short of a picnic. He had bouts of hallucinations, during which he would not be able to work and at other times he wouldn’t be able to stop. He infamously cut off his own ear, but not many people are aware that he supposedly died by shooting himself in the chest. Crazy or what? But his paintings are undoubtedly beautiful.

The part that
really gets me about van Gough though is that during his life no one really knew off him, not many people enjoyed his work. It is only since his death that people have begun to appreciate his paintings and now he is one of the most influential and well-known artists in the entire world. It’s sad to think that he lived his life never knowing what an influence his artwork would have.  

I still think about Art History as I walk into American Hi
story with Mr. Monous. As I enter his room he is sitting at his desk, getting things ready for our class. I take a seat and wait for the bell to ring; I have been trying to fly under the radar with Mr. Monous since last week’s class, so far so good.

The bell rings.

"Alright everybody, I think that the perfect way to celebrate the weekend is a pop quiz on everyone's favorite topic. So here we go a 25 question short answer quiz on the Civil War"

With that he hands a pile of papers to each person in the
front row, each person takes a test booklet for themselves and passes the rest behind them.

"You have until the bell rings, if you are done before then please make sure you hand me your quiz and you can be e
xcused." Mr. Monous tells us while sitting back down at his desk grabbing a newspaper. 

I open
my quiz booklet and read the first question. 

Q. Name an influential figure during the civil war (Hint: Patrick Swayze is not an acceptable answer)

I let out a snort. I glance around the room and can tell that my classmates find it equally as funny. I finish up as quickly as I can, it wasn’t too difficult. I look over at Chelsey, who is writing feverishly. She senses me looking at her though and looks up, shaking her wrist, she must have written a lot.

I mouth
“My room” to her; she gives a nod of acknowledgment and carries on scribbling away. The geek. I gladly hand my paper to Mr. Monous and head for the door, grateful for the early finish to my long school day.   

Once Chelsey
joins me in my room we try to decide what look we want to go with clothes-wise for tonight’s date. "I think I am just going to go casual, I mean it’s a carnival. So why would I dress up?" I say to avoid the see-through, lacey blouse that Chelsey is trying to make me wear. She thinks that I need to look seductive tonight.
Not happening!

"What do you think Trish? Should I go cute and flir
ty?" she says holding up a short, light blue, slinky dress.

"Or should I go dressy
?" This time she holds up a short black skirt, black strappy heels and a satin blouse.

We only have about forty minutes to meet up with the guys.
 We decide to both take showers and dress casually, which took a lot of convincing on my part.

Once we are done we head out the door to meat Eddie and Keagan at Eddie’s car.
I am really happy that he offered to drive us, since I really like his car. Once again I find myself sitting next to Keagan in the back seat, our hands intertwined.