" Hey, did you hear bout the new girl?" was not how Emily Arnesen had planned to kick off her senior year of high school. The gossip mill of this small town was almost quicker then shine to the system. In a matter of a day, it seemed every church going, football loving, blue blooded American member of Odessa, Texas had knocked on her family's front door with big smiles and bigger egos. No matter how much coaxing her parents put into getting Emily to say hello to anyone. Let them deal with their own misery…
"Emmy, please get the door!" Elisabeth Arnesen called from up the stairs just as the doorbell rang. The unfortunate thing about having these specific parental units as parental units, was that they were sly.
" Dad!" Emmy hollered from her perch by the living room window," Get the door!"
" Kinda busy, dear!" a voice came up from under her, apparently from the basement. Why was he in the basement? Weren't there boxes to unpack somewhere else in this house? With a huff, Emmy slid out of her window seat and stalked towards the door. Life was horrid; horrid and cruel and unsympathetic. She had gone from a private school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to a governmentally funded public school that seemed to be surrounded by a football obsessed community. Oh the joy. While she hadn't been Ms. Popular back at St. Peter's, at least it was familiar. Large city based upper class kids with ambition on the professional and social levels. Another world entirely as far as she was concerned, and as it went, she wasn't about ready to accept it any time soon. She had left behind friends, a great education, her childhood home, and a great boyfriend for this place, and just because her father had been transferred to a brewing company down south. Abraham Arnesen had always been up for a challenge, so there was no point trying to sway him away from going, but it was an even greater challenge trying to convince him that maybe having Emmy stay with family up north for her senior year up till college would be a wise idea. Obviously her presence in Odessa, Texas is the result of a futile attempt.
Emmy rounded the corner to the entry hall for the front door, praying it was just some kid delivering cookies for his family, the younger the better, because they didn't like to stick around for long. There was no way of telling though through a thick wooden door though.
" Yes?" snapped Emmy as she cracked the door open. Her eyes examined the damage. A middle aged man, wife, and son, or so it seemed. The younger male was fair haired like his mother and stood somewhat awkwardly behind them staring down the road. Emmy took little notice of him, figuring like she he had been dragged into something he didn't want. Averting her eyes to the woman, Emmy couldn't help but give a forced smile back. She seemed polite enough, but the fact still remained they were on Arnesen turf, therefore they were walking on her cement steps. What caught the seventeen year old girl by surprise was when the same look of observation was returned. The man held her gaze, measuring up her daringness. What he didn't seemed to forget was that she didn't know nor care who he was, and what he obviously hadn't figured out yet was Emmy was pretty bold.
"I'm Charles Billingsley," the man said at last after the few moments of silence," This is my wife Beth, and my son Donnie. We heard there were some new folks in town and decided to come say hi," Emmy nodded her head once in a fake understanding. They had to be the thirteenth group of people to pull that line out today. It's hard to feign respectful mannerism when all she wanted was to be back home…her real home.
" Um, well my parents are a little busy at the moment getting everything unpacked, but thanks for the welcome," her tone was almost sarcastic as she began to shut the door.
" I hear you're a Senior," the woman spoke up before she could achieve her clear message of dismissal.
" Yeah…" this made Emmy uneasy. How much did the town know about them already? "Just finishing up high school here I guess,"
" Don's a senior to-" Beth began, her face lighting up a tad bit with motherly pride only to be stomped on by her husband's interjection.
" On the football team too," Just the way Mr. Billingsley rose his chin a little irked Emmy in every way. 'And I care why?' she wanted to ask, but refrained.
~*~*~
It was then that Don looked at the newcomer. He had heard that she was the same age as him from his mother, and his mother had found out from Mrs. Browning who was a secretary at school who had found out from the principle because he had gotten the transfer script. Apparently little Ms. Priss came from some boarding school up north or something where future lawyers and shit come from. He hadn't expected her to be pretty though. Maybe like snobbishly good looking or something, but not his type. Yet, there she stood with dish water blonde hair running loose down her back with cut off jeans and a tank top. Under any other circumstances, he would have made a move or two, but not now. Not with his father standing there ready to humiliate him one way or another and not with her clearly annoyed with them. She might be easy to look at, but so far she flashed a big blinking light above her head that read 'bitch'. Ah, well one of the other guys on the team would snag her up sooner or later. When the rare few new kids went to school, they either did one of two things. They either only lasted a few weeks at most before begging their parents to move or they adapted to the culture. He could see her adapting pretty well to Odessa.
" That's," she paused for a second," Interesting," she wasn't interested though, and Don didn't need to have a four point oh to figure that our," Well, have a good day," it was the second time she was going to shut the door on them, but Don didn't really mind.
" See ya at school then," he tipped his hat to her before she could successfully close the door on his parents and self.
" Rude girl," the eldest Billingsley male bluntly states, tucking his hands into his blue jean pockets and stepping off of the porch. Beth followed suit, grabbing onto his elbow as they walked.
" She's new Charles…it must be tough moving all the way from Wisconsin," his mother always gave people more credit then they deserved.
" Wherever she's from, I don't care. She's in MOJO land," Charles turned to his son and stared him down," You git to practice now,"
***
Practice was the usual. Get beat around, yelled at, and pissed off. His father had showed up later on, drunk out of his mind which meant the usual moan and groan fest from the stands about how he couldn't hang onto the ball. The guys were wiped out from Coach Gaines. Donnie always felt the pressure like no other. "Git up, Billingsley. Git up, boy," he would hear the head coach say, all the while his father was up n the stands screaming and stomping around like a mad man.
" Yo, hear there's some new chica in town. My ma wanted the family to go say hi today…" Chavez said, wrapping a towel around his waist.
" Well if it counts for anything, I don't expect her to last long here," Don laughed, pulling on his t-shirt. By then the whole locker room within hearing distance was turned to hear the news. Locker room gossip, sometimes they were almost worse then the girls on the cheerleading squad.
" Hey, Don. No one really gives a shit wat ya think. Point is if she's hot or not," Donnie's nostrils flared a little at this. Leave it to Boobie Miles to ruin whatever it was he was trying to say.
"Why, Don? She some sheltered Christian girl? Cause you know we got those around here too," the locker room broke out into laughter. All Donnie could do was shake his head at them. They'd find out soon enough.
" School's tomorrow, guess you'll see then huh?" was all that Donnie said before pulling his practice bag over a shoulder, nodding his good-bye, and exiting out the back to the parking lot. Some of the footballers called out wanting to know what he had meant. Others simply shrugged it off.
" You played like ya had a broom up yer ass, boy," the words came before the man did, but Donnie didn't need to see him to know what was coming. His dad had to lay into him one way or another. Senior year meant a championship ring on his finger, and if there wasn't…well what a shame right? " Well did ya?" it was the sort of instigation that Donnie had learned to ignore; shrug off everything that the drunken bastard voiced.
" I'll meet ya at home later, dad. Go home," for the first time he turned to look into those eyes, the ones that were always full of disappointment and scorn. Luckily Beth was right behind her husband, pulling at his arm. At times Donnie almost pitied his mother. How she could sit there in the stands hiding her embarrassment while the man she was married to was parading up and down the sidelines yelling at the top of his lungs. How she could just sit there and allow Charles to humiliate their family. But all that was replaced by the fact that Beth never did a damned thing about how his father treated him. It was what she was known for. The poor helpless mother and wife who could only stand by while world war three brewed up in her living room.
" You better work on those catches, boy. Ya hear?" to make a point Charles held up a finger, pointing it in Donnie's face before allowing his wife to drag him off towards the truck. If there wasn't one thing that Donnie was going to do tonight, he was going to get drunk off his ass.