Thanks to everyone who R&Red. I dropped this story a long time ago, but decided to pick it up again for some reason. I am going to try to update fairly often (like maybe once a week or every few days)...I even have a few chapters waiting in the wings! Sorry it took almost a year and half to update!
Chapter Four
The next day I tried to start my walk to SHS early, but by the time I found my missing boot and ironed the wrinkle out of my skirt, it was already 7:30. Last night, I forgot to set my alarm clock and woke up a half an hour late. Not to mention that I didn't lay out my clothes the night before either, and despite my already being late I couldn't decide on an outfit I liked. SHS isn't that far from Burnt Hill Road, but even if I walked at a brisk pace, making it to homeroom by 7:50 was up in the air.
I cut through the McGill's side yard. Stacey's miata was missing from her driveway. I had thought about maybe asking her for a ride, but I couldn't help but feel sort of relieved that asking Stacey McGill a favor was not an option. I hurried my stride and cross Elm Street to Bradford Court.
Immediately I saw Claudia walking at a leisurely pace ahead of me. It would have been hard to miss her. She was wearing a short black ruffled mini skirt covered in silver tulle, a black sweater with puffy three quarter length sleeves, teal lame leggings and black knee high boots with three inch heels. She turned around as she saw me walking towards, and I noticed that she was wearing a tie with a screen-print of a painting I didn't recognize, possibly because it was a Claudia Kishi original. She was lighting up a cigarette and took a long puff as I approached her.
"Hey, Mary Anne" she said, stopping long enough for me to catch up. "I don't see you walking too often."
"Oh, well, at least it's still warm out" I replied. I didn't want to explain my fight with Kristy. "How are you?"
"Oh, you know, same as ever," sighed Claudia. "Failing math again, but hanging in there as always." She tapped some of the ash off the bottom of her cigarette. Claudia had failed tenth grade math last year, and only managed to somehow squeak by in English and History. She had opted not to take Chemistry this year. I thought it was a wise choice on her part.
"Well, how's the play going?" I asked. In high school, Claudia had become quite the thespian, developing acting skills out of nowhere, most recently in the fall production of The Real Thing. She also usually designed a lot of the sets and costumes. I wasn't surprised that she was failing math, seeing as she spent so much time involved in the arts.
"It's okay," she said. "Stoppard's a genius, although some of the parents were complaining at the board meeting that the material is too heavy for a high school play. Also, Mr. Cheney told me that if I want to be a serious actress, I have to quit smoking. Whatever. All those celebrities smoke." She rubbed out the cigarette on the sidewalk as we approached the high school. The empty courtyard was a discerning sight. Only a few staggering students who didn't look like they were in any rush to get inside were in sight.
"Oh, no," I cried, breaking into a quick pace. "I think we're late." As if on cue, the bell rang signaling the beginning of homeroom. I nearly broke into a sprint. "I have never been late before. I haven't missed a day of school since I caught the flu in ninth grade."
I looked back and Claudia was standing there giving me a weird look and I realized how much of a dweeb I sounded. But I still wanted to get to class.
"Aren't you coming?" I asked, pausing for a minute. Claudia didn't say anything at first and looked thoughtful for a moment, like she was considering her options, and then plopped down on the grass. I couldn't believe it.
"Nah," she said. "I haven't skipped in almost a month. Well, not a whole day at least. That's like a record for me. Plus I didn't do my homework, so there's no point, right?" She started to light up another cigarette. I was glad she had chosen to smoke behind a large pine tree where no one from the high school could see.
"Claudia, you're not going to pass math this way," I scolded, although I tried not to sound like I was trying to give her a lecture. "Won't the people at the main office call your parents when they've caught you skipping again?"
"Hah, I've never been caught," replied Claudia. "Watch this." She whipped out her cell phone and began dialing a number and held the phone up to her ear. "Hello, this is Claudia Kishi's mother. Yes, I'm fine, how are you?"
I was shocked. Claudia sounded exactly her mother. Her acting seemed to benefit her off the stage too.
"Yes, I'm glad to hear that" she continued, after making some small talk. "Well, I wanted to tell you that Claudia isn't feeling very well today. I think she might have a touch of the flu. I'll have one of her friends come by and pick up her assignments. Thank you so much. Have a good day." She hung up the phone and laughed.
"Claudia, don't they call your house and leave a message to make sure that the student isn't doing exactly what you are doing?" I asked, even though I knew Claudia probably had an answer for that too.
"Yeah, but they only did that twice and I always get home in time to erase the message," she said. "They don't care at that office. They have more important things to do than track down Claudia Kishi, who in the big scheme of things isn't doing anything that bad."
She had a point. I still didn't think she should be skipping when her grades were suffering. Claudia didn't seem worried though. She stretched down on the grass, and began scrolling through her cell phone.
"So what are we going to do today," she asked, casually. "Do you want to go get some breakfast or do something else?"
"We?" I cried. "I'm going to try to make it to homeroom before they lock the door." I hadn't realized that I had been standing on the lawn for so long.
"Well, you're a little late for homeroom," she said, not looking up from her phone. "It's already eight minutes into first period." She showed me her cell phone and sure enough the time read 8:08.
There was no way we had been outside for so long. Claudia's clock had to be wrong. Still, my stomach sunk at the realization that it was late enough where I would have to not only get a tardy slip, but walk into first period late where Kristy Thomas would be sure to give me a smug look that would surely say "Look, you can't even get to school on time without me". I certainly didn't want to deal with that.
"But I can't skip," I protested to Claudia. "That's not what I do!" I sounded whiny and shrill and I knew it.
"Fine, do you what you want," shrugged Claudia, getting up from the grass. "But like you said you haven't missed school in two years and I doubt your grades are suffering, so I'm sure it won't matter. And I haven't seen you move towards that school yet, so I don't think you want to go inside either. But it's up to you." She started to walk away.
She was right. I didn't want to have to sit by myself at lunch because Kristy had already told her side of the story to Abby and the rest of the group. It wasn't as if I had any tests or anything important due today. I glanced quickly at the school, which now looked completely deserted and then back at the Claudia, who was looking at me for answer.
"Do you think you could impersonate Sharon?" I ask, walking towards her.
Claudia smiled.
"I'll have the lumberjack breakfast, with extra home fries and sausage and a strawberry milkshake, please," said Claudia to the waitress at Argos. The waitress looked at her strangely.
"A milkshake at eight thirty in the morning?" she asked, fluffing her long brown hair. "And shouldn't you be in school?" My heart skipped a beat. I was sure she was going to tell on us, although I wasn't sure why. She had a bored expression on her face, as if she couldn't care less about who we were, even though she looked familiar.
"Oh, come on Angelica, you know I always leave a nice tip," said Claudia, handing her the menu. "I'm one of the good kids." She smiled and leaned back in the booth. About five minutes after she had called and pretended to be her mother, she called the main office from my cell phone and did a pretty good imitation of Sharon. Claudia, as she always seems to be, then decided she was hungry and we headed over to Argos.
Angelica smirked back and turned to me. Her face darkened as soon as she saw my face, for no apparent reason.
"You're not Charlie Thomas' bitch sister, are you?" she asked, her voice taking a nasty tone. I suddenly realized that she was Charlie's old on and off again girlfriend, who Kristy had hated with an absolute passion.
"No!" I yelled, sounding very taken back. "Not at all!" Kristy and I don't look that much alike, not to the point where anyone would confuse us for the other. Maybe Angelica was as stupid as Kristy had made her out to be.
"Oh, sorry," she said, not sounding it at all. "I didn't mean to insult you like that. What do you want?"
"I'll have the French toast special with an orange juice instead of coffee" I replied a little more calmly. Angelica took our menus and walked towards the counter.
"Whoa, you got a little defensive when Angelica thought you were Kristy," quipped Claudia. "You never got that mad when we used to say you two looked alike back in the old days. Anything wrong?"
"No, I guess I was just sort of startled by the way she asked it. She looked like she was going to beat me with the menu." I was half lying, and I think Claudia sensed that. But luckily she dropped the subject.
"Yeah, a lot of the waitresses here don't like high school kids because they're rude and don't tip, if they even pay at all," she said quietly, taking out a nail file. "Sometimes they call the school on kids they know are skipping." I must have looked worried, because she quickly added "But they won't on us, the staff here knows that we're not going to cause any trouble."
I certainly hoped so.
The diner wasn't crowded at all, so we got our food relatively fast. As Claudia began dousing her food with maple syrup, I slowly cut up my French toast. I felt a little guilty, but only a little. I was actually a little excited. I had to admit, this was better than AP US History.
"So I was thinking of maybe taking the 10:00 train down to the city today" said Claudia, through bites of pancakes. "What do you think?"
I nearly spit out my orange juice. Skipping school to go to Argos was one thing, the city was something else entirely. Still, we were a lot less likely to be seen by someone we knew in New York City than if we stuck around Stoneybrook. Sharon usually doesn't get home until after six, so as long as I was on the train by four thirty, I could make it back in time to erase any messages there may be from the school on the answering machine.
"Sure," I said, swallowing my juice. "I haven't been to New York in forever."
"Awesome," replied Claudia, her mouth full of food. "Eat fast, because it's a long walk to the train station from here."
She wasn't kidding. The train station was on the opposite side of town. We ate our food in record speed and even if we had sprinted downtown, I don't think we would have made it to the station by ten, or even noon. Luckily, some friend of Claudia's who I didn't recognize and looked like he was about twenty five picked us up by Ted's Tools and gave us a ride most of the way. I was a little amazed. It seemed like everything always worked out for Claudia, despite the fact that she never really seemed to work for anything. I wished I was so happy go lucky.
We reached the city at about eleven. I always love pulling into Grand Central station and stepping out into the madness that is New York City. I grabbed by bag as the train shuddered to a stop.
"Now, you have to promise me that you are going to keep the trivia to a minimum" joked Claudia, as we moved down the aisle. "I don't need to know how many bricks were used to build Grand Central Station."
"290,000" I replied, without missing a beat. Claudia looked back in astonishment. "Just kidding." I really didn't have a clue. We both laughed as we step out onto 42nd Street.
"It feels sort of surreal being in New York City when I should be staring at the clock waiting for my physics lab to be over," I said, adjusting my book bag. I really wish I had time to drop it off at the house before leaving. It was heavy with textbooks and I felt little bit like a clueless tourist. "What do you want to do today?"
"Actually, I didn't want to tell you this before, but I actually am here on business." Claudia and I ducked under the scaffold and out of the way of the heavy traffic of people walking beside Grand Central terminal. "I'm looking for a place to live."
"A place to live?" I repeated, not sure I understood what she was saying. "Are you thinking of going to school down here?" I had actually thought of applying to someplace in the New York for college, but I don't think that's what Claudia meant.
"Well, something like that," answered Claudia. "My grades aren't really good enough to get into Julliard or NYU or anything like that, and my parents won't let me apply to a performing arts high school down here that would be sure to help get into those kinds of schools. So I think I want to move down here, maybe get a job, and dive right into the field." She turned with a dramatic flair, and looked at me straight in the eye. "I want to be a star. Or an artist. Or something where I don't have to worry about books or math or whether I graduate from high school. And I'm not going to get anywhere in Stoneybrook."
Oh no, I thought to myself. Claudia was a good actress and artist, but stardom wasn't something that happened overnight or to a lot of people. And there weren't too many options open to people who don't even have high school diplomas.
"Um, Claudia, don't you think you should think about this a little bit?" I ask, tentatively. As far as I know this was as spontaneous a decision as her decision to skip class or come to the city. She doesn't answer as we make our way through the crowd.
"Wanna go to Chinatown?" she asks, ignoring my question. "We could go shopping on Canal Street and check out cheap apartments on the lower east side."
"Claudia…" I began, but she was already jaywalking across the street. I ran after her and nearly got hit by a taxi in the process.
We did end up taking a subway to Canal Street, and shopped for about an hour. I bought a rather convincing Patricia Field knock off bag for only 15 dollars, while Claudia just sort of browsed around and bought nothing. That wasn't much like Claudia at all.
"Hey, are you alright?" I asked, after she unenthusiastically browsed through a rack of silk scarves with a sort of glazed look in her eyes. "Is there anywhere else you want to go?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered, apparently shaken out of her fog. "But let's get out of here. They have the same shit as the last time I was here." She breezed past the sketchy stand owner who had been watching us with an eagle eye, nearly knocking over a table of bangle bracelets on her way out.
"Where do you want to go?" I followed her as she made her way onto the street. I felt like I had been chasing after a silver and teal lame kite all afternoon. If I hadn't kept running after her, I had a feeling she might have left me behind.
Claudia shrugged and lit up another cigarette. She had practically gone through a whole pack the afternoon. She wasn't doing very well at keeping her promise to Mr. Cheney.
"I kind of want to go sketch something," she said, taking a long puff. "Want to go to the Cloisters?"
"Okay, but that's a little bit of hike," I answered. The Cloisters were on the other side of Manhattan, and it was already getting a little bit late. "We'd have to take a bus or a subway, but…"
"Nah, that's alright," said Claudia. "Let's just wander around a little."
We made our way up to SoHo and the Lower East Side and sort of hung around there a little. I had never really been to this part of the city, and it was sort of scary. I could understand why it was one of the cheapest places to live in Manhattan. Claudia didn't end up looking at any apartments like she had planned. I was sort of glad. I really didn't want to go in any of the apartments we saw. We didn't end up talking much, and Claudia eventually stopped to sketch people in Tompkins Square Park.
"I love New York," sighed Claudia, as she sketched a couple sitting on a bench.
"Me too," I said. "I thought about going to school here, but I don't know if I could live here."
"I'd move here in a heartbeat," mumbled Claudia. "Right now, if I could. But I'll wait until the play is over."
"It's really expensive," I said, sort of gently. I wasn't sure Claudia realized how expensive. Apartments, even a hole in the wall on the lower east side, cost something. "I don't know how you would afford it."
"Did you know Mimi left me and Janine $7000 each in her will when she died?" Claudia said suddenly. "I guess she had been saving money for each of us since before we were even born. It's supposed to be for college, but I could use to get settled down here."
"Yeah, but Claudia, that's maybe three months rent down here, and your options are pretty much only open to apartments that probably have more cockroaches than people." I didn't think Claudia how little $7000 would stretch when there was rent and other bills to pay.
"You sound like my parents," muttered Claudia, putting down her pencil. "You know I need to leave home. My relationship with my family is probably about as good as yours."
I didn't say anything. I understood without needing to pry, even though I knew Claudia leaving home would be about the dumbest thing she could do. Hopefully next week she would change her mind.
"Hey, it's four, we should probably go," said Claudia suddenly, picking up her things. She got up and ran out of the park, with me close behind.
We made it to the 4:30 train, somehow, seeing as we barely rushed and Claudia even stopped and got a hot dog along the way. She never seemed to worry about anything. I envied that in her. As we sat on the train, Claudia gabbed mostly about clothes, boys, and the play. The fact that she was contemplating running away didn't seem to bother her at all.
We reached Stoneybrook at about 5:30, which Claudia must have purposely planned, because we happened to bump into another, much older friend of Claudia that happened to getting off the train at the same time. He gave us a ride to SHS. Claudia had rehearsal at six, and didn't seem to mind taking the risk of getting caught by going back to school on the same day she had been skipping.
"I had fun today," I said, as Claudia's friend drove away. "I have to admit that was more fun than going to school."
"Haha, you'll loosen up yet, Mary Anne, there's hope for you," Claudia laughed, adjusting her messenger bag. "Hey, do you want to walk to school tomorrow?"
"Sure," I answered. "But only if we really go to school tomorrow. I don't think I should skip two days in a row."
"Sounds good," said Claudia. "I'll see you later. I better have my last cigarette before Mr. Cheney comes out here looking for me and catches me in the act."
I almost told her she that if she didn't smoke at all she wouldn't get caught, but decided against it. I had to get home anyway before Sharon did. I had promised that I would start dinner, and I had about fifteen minutes before she usually came home. I lightly jogged to Bradford Court, feeling a lot happier than I had that morning. Claudia was a little wild, but right now she was more of a friend, if at least a livelier one, than Kristy was. I also couldn't believe, that I, Miss Goody-Two shoes of the year, had skipped school. I felt kind of bad…but I sort of liked it.
As I got closer to my house, my happiness sort of dissipated when I noticed Sharon's Hybrid parked outside the house. Oh well. I would tell her that I had to work on a project with a friend and wasn't able to start dinner. We would just have to eat a little later tonight.
I never got a chance to use my excuse. Before I even got to the front door, Sharon flew out onto the front porch, looking irate to say the least.
"You are in big trouble, young lady," she shouted, hands on her hips.
I gulped. I guess I didn't have any of Claudia Kishi's luck.
