Infinite (Strange and Beautiful, Book 1) (16 page)

Even
though both Annabelle and Mr. Hensley had been extremely pleased with my
article and Tegan reassured me countless times, I was incredibly nervous as
soon as we began selling the papers. I wasn’t sure what other people would
think of my article, assuming they bothered to read it at all. After discussing
things with Annabelle and Mr. Hensley at length, I wound up doing a comparative
review of C.S. Lewis’ novel
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
and the
2005 film
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
.

In
the end, though, most of the feedback was positive. However, I did overhear
Mark Moses reading my review out loud in the hallways after lunch.

“Though
the movie is based upon C.S. Lewis’ 1950 novel
The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe
and is relatively faithful to the book, there are some obvious
differences between book and film,” he sneered, his tone mocking.

I’d
anticipated something of the like and managed to steer clear of him and tried
not to let it bother me too much. It was a slight comfort that no one else really
paid him much mind either. Honestly, I was mostly just surprised to discover he
actually could read.

I
was excited to show Mom my article when I got home. I’d mentioned it to her
back when Annabelle first asked me to do the review, and she’d helped me piece
some of it together.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
was one of the
first books I could clearly remember Mom reading to me, so she knew the
material pretty well though she wasn’t quite as familiar with the film.

Also,
oddly enough, Mom had mentioned once while helping with the article that her
teaching major had been English. I found this incredibly ironic since my
grammar was usually atrocious enough to make Mom faint. Without Tierney’s
continual help with my essays and the luxury of spell check, Miss Barkley would
still be making my papers bleed.

But
Mom’s car wasn’t in the driveway. I assumed she was still at work and hoped
that her first day had gone well. I considered asking Skylar if she’d read my
article, but she was busy getting ready for work. 

She
worked at a shop in the strip mall a few miles away called Sound of Music. They
mostly sold or rented instruments to kids in band, and they also had other
music equipment. It wasn’t originally Skylar’s ideal job. She wanted someplace
where they sold CDs and band t-shirts, like Hot Topic, Sam Goody or FYE, but
none of those places were hiring. She started working there at sixteen. She was
called in for an interview at Sound of Music within a day of turning in her
application and was hired on the spot.

 Aside
from being made to wear a uniform, and being asked to tone down her make-up and
piercings, she never really complained about it much, which for Skylar probably
meant she liked it at least a little.

After
Skylar left, the house was unusually quiet. Luke hadn’t come home after school.
He probably either had to work or was out with friends. Dad wouldn’t be home
for at least another hour, and I had no idea when to expect Mom.

I’d
been home alone before, of course, but without Mom there to greet me when I
came home from school, I realized how much I’d come to rely on her always being
there. Even though I supported her job, I realized for the first time that Dad
and my siblings weren’t the only ones who would need time to adjust to the
changes.

I
didn’t think Mom would be at work too late, but I was also sure she’d probably
have things she’d have to do around the classroom. She’d have lessons to
prepare and probably staff meetings too. I didn’t know for sure, but I figured
that it could probably be kind of time consuming.

I
tried to amuse myself with mindless television, but it felt too weird trying to
find something to watch when this was usually when Mom would watch
Dr. Phil
.
Turning off the television, I decided to go up to my room and get online.

My
computer was a hand me down. It used to belong to my parents, but they got a
new one together last Christmas instead of buying gifts for one another. Luke
got a laptop for his sixteenth birthday from our parents, who bought it on
sale. It was much nicer than my rickety, old desktop, and it reminded me that
Mom still hadn’t taken me shopping for my birthday presents. Unfortunately, I
didn’t think I could convince her to get my laptop as well.

Before
school started, I overheard my parents talking about getting Skylar a laptop as
a graduation gift before she went away for college because she didn’t have a
computer of her own. She usually used mine—without permission—and sometimes she
could coerce Luke into letting her use his laptop, which was a major feat because
sometimes I thought Luke liked Skylar even less than he liked me.

Once
my computer was booted up, I clicked on the Mozilla Firefox icon. Tegan had
convinced me to try it, and I hadn’t been able to stand looking at Internet
Explorer ever since.

I
hadn’t checked my e-mail in a couple of days, so I did that first. I had Gmail
courtesy of an invite from Tegan, and there was some spam that had managed to
evade the filter. I marked them as spam, and that left me with a friend request
for MySpace and a message from Facebook, which I had just joined a couple of
weeks earlier after it opened to the public.

I
scanned the one from Facebook, but it didn’t seem to be anything important. I
deleted it and looked at the MySpace friend request. As usual, it was just a
band or artist requesting to be added to my friend list. I clicked on the link
to check it out and waited for the music to start to play.

When
it started, I listened for only a moment before I scrunched up my nose at the
sound. Singing hardly seemed like the appropriate description. Screeching
seemed to fit better. Quickly, I clicked on the back button and denied the
friend request.  No, thank you, Joanna Newsom. Keep your song “Three Little
Babes” and the rest of your music to yourself. Please.

Normally,
I wasn’t so quick to judge. I was willing to listen, like the character Owen
Armstrong in Sarah Dessen’s novel
Just Listen
said, but I thought this
was a case all of its own, and I wasn’t interested in being enlightened by this
particular artist.

Since
I was bored, I decided to take a look around MySpace. Again, it was something
Tegan insisted I partake in. She was way into all of the latest Internet
trends. I was still trying to figure out why I needed Facebook when I already
had MySpace and, as far as I could see, they essentially served the same
purpose.

Regardless,
I joined at Tegan’s insistence, “It’s going to be the next big thing. Just
wait.”

As
for MySpace, I let her set up that account and make me a pretty layout. I
glanced over the informational stuff I’d filled out, and it looked pretty
boring and basic. I considered adding to it, but I couldn’t think of anything
new or clever to add.

I
didn’t have many friends either. Most of them were music related, but I did
have Tegan and Tierney along with a few people from school. I’d found Luke and
Skylar’s profiles and added them. Sometimes I snooped, but neither of them ever
had anything very interesting to say. Then again, neither did I.

Curiosity,
due to boredom, got the better of me, and I decided to see if I could find
Jackson on MySpace. I figured I’d have to be sly and troll Skylar or Luke’s
friend list to find his profile, but, first, I typed “Jackson Hart” in the
search field. That produced forty-eight results, but, surprisingly, the Jackson
Hart I was looking for showed up at the top of the list. I recognized the big
grin, raven hair and hazel eyes in the profile photo right away. 

I
clicked on his name and scanned his profile, looking at his different
interests. I was surprised to find he’d listed a lot of the same bands and
books as me. After a look through his photos, which there weren’t many of, I
went back to his profile page and clicked on the “Add to Friends” link.

 I
figured he probably wouldn’t see the request until later, so I closed out the
MySpace tab and went back to my e-mail to delete the friend request and empty
my spam folder.

I hated
spam, both the e-mail and the food. They were both gross and annoying, or at
least spam—the food—smelled annoying. The     e-mail was gross because most of
it was trying to solicit me into some dirty act.

I
wasn’t sure about most other fifteen-year-old girls, but, while I was curious
about sex, porn wasn’t exactly my thing. I probably could have forwarded the
spam to Luke because I was sure it would have been right up his alley, but that
would have been way too awkward.

It
was bad enough that the one time I had to use his laptop, before I inherited
the desktop, I kept getting porn pop-ups. Needless to say, I finished what I
was doing and got away from his laptop as quickly as possible. Then I wanted to
bleach my eyeballs to rid myself of all of the images of naked women I saw. It
was very scarring and traumatic to my virgin eyes.

While
I was deleting the spam, I got a new e-mail. The subject said, “New message from Jackson on
MySpace.”

I
stared at it for a minute, and I swore my heart stopped beating. I hadn’t
expected Jackson to be online, and even if I had, the last thing I would have
anticipated was a message from him. Curious, nervous and a whole lot giddy, I
opened the e-mail and followed the link.

At
MySpace, I opened the message, and it read:

Hey
Silly,

I
saw your friend request and thought I’d say hi. So, hi! What’s up? I haven’t
seen you around lately.

Jackson

Even
though it was a really casual message, I couldn’t resist biting my lip to fight
away the goofy smile that was trying to pull at the corners of my mouth. I
clicked on the reply button, and then sat back and twirled my hair around my
finger as I tried to figure out what to say.

After
only a minute, I sat up and began typing.

Hey
Jackson,

Things
have been kind of weird around here. Nothing major. My mom just started a new
job. I guess that sort of caused an upset with the rest of the family. Other
than that, not much is new.

My review
was in the newspaper today.  Did you see? If not, you probably didn’t miss much
but I did steal your idea and wrote about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Anyway,
how have you been? How is your shoe? I’m really sorry about that! Apparently,
I’m a lightweight. Who knew?

Silly

I
hit send and sat back to wait. According to the little icon on MySpace, Jackson
was still on the site. I wasn’t sure if he’d reply or not, but after only a few
minutes, another new message showed up from Jackson.

You’re
a lightweight? You’re kidding, right? ;)

Don’t
worry about the shoe.  It survived Puke Fest ‘06. Those old chucks have been
through plenty of drunken incidents. How about you? Did you get in trouble when
you got home? You were pretty drunk when you left the party. I still haven’t
heard who spiked the punch. Have you?

I
did see your review. It was so awesome that it’s okay you stole my idea. Need
any ideas for the next one?

As
for me, I’m good. This is my first night off from work in a week. Freedom! So
I’m just surfin’ the web and relaxing.  Did you know there’s absolutely nothing
on TV on Monday night?

Jackson

I
grinned, thrilled that he’d written back and that it was more than just a
couple of sentences. He’d even asked questions, which I could only assume he
expected to be answered. I had no problem obliging. I hit the reply button and
started typing.

I
know! I couldn’t find anything to watch either. Except for Medium, but that’s
not on until late. Wednesday’s my favorite night to watch TV. Do you watch
Lost? I love it. It’s so addicting.

I
haven’t heard who spiked the punch either, but I’d like to give them a nice
kick in the shins. I didn’t get in trouble because my mom was asleep and my dad
wasn’t paying attention, but Luke had to carry me upstairs. I had my first and,
most likely, last hangover. It was horrible.

I
don’t know if I’ll be writing another review, or if they’re going to switch up
the format for next month’s newspaper, but I’m happy to hear your
recommendations. By the way, I finished An Abundance of Katherines. It was
awesome. I think I have another favorite author thanks to you.

So
where do you work?

I hit
send and anxiously awaited a reply. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was
going on four. My mom still wasn’t home. I wondered how her first day of work
went. I hoped it had gone well, but I thought it was probably hard on her.
After all, she’d spent the last eighteen years at home taking care of kids and
running a household, but if she could handle doing that, then she could probably
handle just about anything.

My
wonderings about Mom left my mind when I got another message from Jackson. I
clicked on the link and read.

I
haven’t watched Lost, but my brothers are obsessed. I almost always work on
Wednesday, so I usually miss it. I thought it looked like a cool show back when
they were showing previews.

Let
me think about it, and I’ll give you some more book recommendations. I’m glad
you liked Katherines. Of the two, Alaska is probably my favorite. It’s good to
have someone to talk to about books. Most of my friends think reading is a
waste of time when video games could be played. Not that video games aren’t
awesome, of course.

I
work at the theater in the mall. I usually work the concession stand. Sometimes
I sell tickets. It’s not a bad job. I started there last year. Then I was gone
during part of the summer, but they let me have my job back when school started
again.