Loren gets up to the sound of her alarm clock. She looks around her room, at all the awards she has won and the pictures of friends and family she loves so much. She gets out of bed and goes into her bathroom. Loren goes through her daily routine.
Brush Teeth
Wash Face and Moisturize
Shower
Put on her a make-up
Do her hair- A high ponytail with a thin navy blue headband
Get dressed
This morning, Loren decides on her navy blue pleated skirt and a crisp white button-down shirt that she tucks into it. Loren puts on her white knee socks and light brown oxfords. Loren grabs her bag, her books and goes to have breakfast. Her little sister, Kylie, who is two, squeals Loren's name. Loren smiles and sits next to her at the table. Loren says good morning to Nora as she puts a veggie omelet in front of her, along with a slice of wheat toast. Kylie is eating an Eggo waffle and has syrup all over her face.
Loren's father comes out of his room wearing his suit. He lays his suit jacket on the couch before he comes over to kiss his wife and two beautiful daughters.
"You're a mess!" Trent says as he kisses Kylie on the forehead.
"Is good Daddy." Kylie says as she reaches out with her sticky hands.
"And how is my brilliant daughter?" Trent asks as he kisses Loren's cheek.
"I'm good Dad."
"How are your college applications coming along?" He asks as he walks over to Nora, giving her a quick kiss before pouring himself a cup of coffee.
"Really good. I'm almost finished with Princeton and I sent in my apps for UVA and Brown last night. I still have to write my personal statements for Berkeley. I just have to get my thoughts together."
"That's great. I know it'll be hard to choose when you get into all of them." Trent says taking a sip of his coffee.
Loren laughs. "If I get into any of the schools."
"Sweetie, you're student body president, captain of the tennis team, head of the debate team, and you're number one in your class. They would have to be crazy not to take you. Not to mention, you have a perfect SAT score."
Loren blushes. She knows that her dad is proud of her and that he wants what's best for her, but he definitely has more confidence in her than she does.
Loren takes the last bite of her omelet and puts her plate in the dishwasher. She kisses everyone good bye and goes out to her car.
Eddie's House
Eddie gets up and drags himself to the bathroom. He lets the cold water sluice down his back. The water heater has been broken for a while and his Uncle can't afford to get it fixed. Eddie puts on the first thing he sees in his drawer, a pair of faded jeans and a black t-shirt.
Eddie walks downstairs where his uncle Ben has already started drinking if he even stopped the previous night. Since his parents died four years ago, Eddie has been stuck with his alcoholic Uncle, his only next-of-kin.
"Where are going?" His uncle Ben slurs.
"To school. It's Monday, but I guess you wouldn't know that since you're always drunk.
"Go to hell." His uncle says.
"I'll meet you there." Eddie says as he walks out the door and walks out to the bus stop. The bus comes and Eddie takes his normal seat in the back. He puts his earbuds in and shuts his eyes as he takes the long ride from his house to Midland Valley High School.
Midland Valley
Loren pulls into the student parking lot and she gets out of her car. She sees Melissa, Adrianna, and Chloe talking by Melissa's car.
She walks over to them. "Hey Lo!" Melissa says.
"Cute skirt." Adrianna says. "You have to let me borrow it sometime."
"Definitely." Loren says.
They walk into the school together, talking and giggling. Loren stops at her locker and puts one of her books away. Loren is walking backward and talking to her friends as they move down the hallway. She bumps into someone and hears a grunt. Loren quickly turns around and sees Eddie.
"I'm sorry." Loren says.
"You should be. Why don't you watch where you're going?" Eddie says.
"She said she was sorry." Chloe yells over her shoulder as Eddie keeps walking.
"He's such a jerk." Melissa says.
"And he's weird. He never says anything in class and he always looks so mean." Adrianna says.
Loren doesn't say anything. She just listens to her friends as they talk about Eddie Duran.
The bell rings so Loren goes to the Media Center because she has a few announcements to make about upcoming school events.
Once she makes her announcements, Loren walks to her first period and sits down. Most people hate starting the day with AP Calculus but somehow it relaxes Loren. After calculus, Loren goes to English and then Sociology. After Sociology, she goes to lunch to meet her friends. Loren sits down at their usual table and they start chatting. While they are talking, Cameron walks up to them. Cameron takes the open seat next to Loren and asks her about her weekend.
"It was good. I finished some of my applications." Loren says.
"That's cool. I haven't even started yet. I'm not sure what to do. Maybe you could help me Lo." Cameron says with a charming smile on his face.
"But your mom is an admissions counselor for UCLA." Loren says.
"Well yea but she doesn't know how teenagers think, you know. She would try to write my essays if I let her. I just think that it would do me a lot of good if you and I got together to work on them. What do you say?" Cameron asks.
"Sure. I could find time to help you." Loren says.
"Great. Let me know when you're free and we can set something up." Cameron says.
"Okay." Loren says.
Cameron stands up, smiling from ear to ear. As soon as he is out of earshot of the table, Melissa says "He's so into you."
"He's like totally in love with you." Adrianna says as she looks at her phone.
"You guys are ridiculous. We're friends. That's it." Loren says.
"You may be his friend but he definitely wants more." Melissa says.
"Okay. Change of subject." Loren says. "Tennis practice is going to suck today. It's supposed to be like ninety degrees by three o'clock."
"I know right. We're going to be so gross." Melissa says.
"But it will be so worth it when we crush Cramer High on Thursday." Loren says.
"And we get to wear super short shorts to practice. The cross country team always runs by the court during practice and the guys are always checking us out." Adrianna says.
"You're so boy-crazy." Loren laughs.
"I totally am." Adrianna agrees
They bell rings and they walk to American History together. They're all in the same class. Once everyone is seated, the teacher, Mr. Johnson, tells them about the project that they will have to do. "You will be assigned a significant event that we have talked about earlier this year. This will be like a midterm review, but it definitely doesn't mean that you shouldn't study any of the other notes that we've taken. You will have a month to complete this project you will be able to work with a partner.
Everyone starts chattering and looking around the room trying to make eye contact with their friends. Loren looks to her left and Cameron winks at her. Loren smiles and turns to face Mr. Johnson again.
"I will be choosing these partners." The teacher says.
The sound of lip smacking and "ah mans" fills the room as everyone stops being excited.
"I will read them out right now." Mr. Johnson says.
Adrianna is with Melissa, Chloe is with Tyler, and Cameron is with a girl named Jamie.
Mr. Johnson keeps reading down the list of partners until he finally gets down to Loren's name.
"Loren Tate and Eddie Duran."
All of Loren's friends look at Eddie and then look back at her. Cameron is glaring at Eddie, jealous because he got partnered with Loren.
"I want one person from each group to come up so that I can give you your topic and the rubric for your project." Loren looks over at Eddie and he is looking down and sitting at his desk.
Loren stands up and walks to Mr. Johnson's desk. She gets what she needs and makes her way over to Eddie's desk. She now sees that Eddie is reading.
"Hi." She says quietly.
Eddie looks up from his book. He glares at her and looks back down.
"We're doing our project on the Seneca Falls Convention and how it led to the empowerment of women in the United States." Loren says.
Eddie just keeps reading. "Well here's your copy of the rubric. We're supposed to be planning right now. Most of it has to be done outside of class but we have a few other class periods to work on it too." Loren sits down in the desk in front of Eddie. "We can plan together."
Eddie doesn't say anything.
"Well I already have a few ideas so maybe we could talk about them. If you have ideas, then we could talk about those too. We can just see where this goes and what the best course of action will be, that way we can…"
"Could you please just shut up?" Eddie says. "I'm not going to let your precious little grade suffer. I know people like you. You think that you're the only one who knows how to do anything right and that you should just do everything yourself. Well, you can do that but you don't have to worry. I'll do my part. Okay."
Loren can feel the tears begin to well in her eyes. She quietly turns around and picks up a textbook. She takes notes from the reading for the rest of the class and they don't say another word to each other. The bell finally rings at 3:15 so everyone rushes out of the class. Loren's friends notice that she's upset so they comfort her as they walk to the parking lot together. Loren tells them what Eddie said to her and they bad mouth him again. This time though, the word jerk doesn't seem to suffice.
When the girls get to the parking lot, they put their book bags in the car and grab their duffels for practice. Loren has calmed down and she seems to be getting over Eddie's comment. In fact, she starts to feel a little angry.
The anger fuels her game and dominates during practice. No one is able to beat her today. When practice is over, Loren feels completely at rest. She and the girls are walking back to the locker room when Cameron walks up with the guys on the track team.
"Damn Loren. You were pretty hot out there today." Cam says.
"Thanks." Loren says.
Melissa fills Cameron in on the Eddie situation and Cameron responds with "You want me to kick his ass?"
Loren laughs slightly. "That's really not necessary." Loren says.
"Are you sure because I could totally do that." Cam says.
"I have no doubt but I'm over it." Loren says. "Really."
Cameron doesn't say anything else. He just falls back with some of his track buddies and they talk as they walk back up to the school. They walk into the school and go in the locker room. Loren showers and gets dressed. She says good-bye to all of her teammates and walks out to her car.
As she drives home, Loren sees Eddie walking down the street. He walks quickly, looking as if he's in a hurry.
Loren keeps driving. When she gets home, Loren is first welcomed by Kylie, who is sitting on the floor playing. "Lowen." She says smiling. She stretches out her arms to say that she wants to be picked up. Loren puts her things down on the table beside the door and picks up her little sister. Kylie lays her head on Loren's shoulder.
"Mom!" Loren says.
"In the kitchen." Nora says.
Nora is taking the chicken out of the oven. "Hi sweetie." Nora says. "How was school?"
Loren thinks about both of the encounters she had with Eddie and feels a little uneasy. "It was fine." Loren finally says.
"Go outside." Kylie says.
"No sweetie. We're about to have dinner." Nora says.
"Outside Mommy."
"After dinner Kylie. I'll push you on the swings, ok." Loren says.
"Ok." Kylie smiles.
"She always listens to you." Nora says.
"I guess it's that sisterly bond." Loren laughs.
"I guess so. Could you get her cleaned up for me?" Nora asks.
"Yea." Loren says. Loren takes her little sister into the bathroom and cleans her hands. She takes off her play clothes and puts a pair of jeans and a pink shirt on her.
"You ready to eat?" Loren says.
"Yea."
Loren hears the front door open. "Daddy's home Kylie."
Kylie runs from her room and makes her way down the stairs.
"Daddy!" Kylie yells.
Trent turns around and picks up his daughter. "Princess! How are you?"
"Good. I go outside after eat."
"You are. Can I come?"
"Wif me and Lowen." Kylie says.
"I can't wait." Trent says. He kisses her on the cheek and puts her down.
Loren walks into the living room. "Hey Dad."
"Hey Lo. How was school?"
"It was okay." Loren says somberly.
"Are you sure? You seem upset." Trent says, clearly concerned.
"Yea Dad. I'm totally fine." Loren says smiling.
Trent puts his arm around Loren and kisses her forehead. "Let me know if you want to talk."
Loren wraps her arms around Trent's waist. "I will daddy. I promise."
Eddie's House
Eddie just got home from his shift at Olive Garden. He's a waiter and usually makes good tips because of the kindness he shows to his customers. All of the money Eddie has earned during the past year and a half. With paychecks and tips, Eddie has earned a little over $10,000. He wants to save enough to leave his Uncle after graduation.
Eddie showers and does as much of his homework as he can before he falls asleep.
New story idea. Should I keep going? Comment please and tell me what you guys think.