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After a mildly entertaining conversation on the bus there she was again, drama club, was there anywhere I could go where she wasn't?
I plonked myself down showing how lame this all was. When we were given a script and asked to read the lines. I had to be some guy called Starbuck and guess who was playing Lizzie, the other person in the script? You guessed it, Spencer!
"I hope your dreams come true." I said in character
Spencer as Lizzie "They won't."
"Believe in yourself and they will. Let me ask you, Lizzie. Look in the mirror? Are you pretty?" I asked not changing the tones in m voice at all when Ms Garber interrupted.
"Ashley, are you trying to be bad at this?"
"No, it just comes naturally." The class snigger.
Spencer smiles. Garber taps her script "continue."
"It's got to be inside you. Then one day the mirror will be the eyes of the man who loves you. You'll look in that mirror and you'll be more than pretty. You'll be beautiful."
Ms. Garber eyes me, motioning to keep going. "Look at me. Tell me what you see!'
As Lizzie, Spencer looked straight into my eyes. "Is it really me?"
"Yes. You're-you're b-b- beautiful."
Hoots and laughter. Spencer looked away, humiliated.
"Quiet!" Ms Garber yelled. "Ashley, will play the role of Bill Starbuck."
Groans and hoots among the boys. Spencer looked horrified. Hell, so was I!
"No way. No thanks. I can't do it"
"You can and you will, Miss Davies" I heard principle Kelly say from back stage. Kelly had been standing in the wings. "With all the sincerity and dignity you can muster." Everyone was looking at me.
______________________________________
I head outside for a cigarette; I step outside to find it chucking it down when Spencer appears out of nowhere.
"You're like this fly, buzzing everywhere"
"This play means a lot to me."
I snorted "This play?"
"I know you don't suck at acting."
I laughed. Refusing to take her seriously. Behind me I see the lights go out as the school closes for the night.
"But you have to make it a big deal because only dorks and weenies like doing theatre"
"What are you going on about?"
Pause.
"I can judge too."
I breathed out slowly, eyeing her, daring her.
"You don't care about classes or graduating. But you like school because you're popular and you know you'll never be on top again."
"That's deep"
"Your act only works with an audience."
"My act?!"
She walks off toward her father's old Pontiac. The last car in the parking lot. I look about. No one, no ride. I see the Pontiac backing out of a parking spot.
I bang on the side of her car as she drives past.
"A ride?! Please! We can talk about your helping me with my lines?"
I jump in Spencer at the wheel. "I know you don't want help."
"Then we both know. I'll point. You drive. Faster."
She jerks the car across the centre lane. Driving on the wrong side of the road. I grabbed the dash.
"What the?!"
"So you agree you need help?" Was she insane?
I saw headlights looming, a car coming. Closer and closer.
"Yes!"
She swings the Pontiac back to the right lane. Smiling. A car zips by in the other direction, horn blaring.
"Really?"
I decide to drop the attitude" Yeah. Kelly will make me leave if I screw up the play."
"28 and 42." She said to herself
"What's with the frigging numbers?"
"28 is do something illegal. 42 is to befriend an enemy."
"I'm an enemy?"
"Kinda. Yeah."
"You got some kind of list?"
"Are you asking to mock me or do you really want to know?" truth was I did want to know.
"Maybe a little of both."
We both smiled.
"I'll take a chance. It's like a to-do list, but for my life."
I smirked. How stupid.
"If you can't imagine the future, you won't have one."
I lit a cigarette. She reaches for it.
"Having a cigarette. 100." I joked.
She grins and takes a drag. We shared the cigarette.
"So what else is on this list?"
"It's private."
"You want to tell me…" I could be persuasive. I felt her eye me "Get very wasted. Lose your virginity" Guessing
"No spend a year in the Peace Corps… Make a medical discovery… Be two places at once... learn to hit a baseball or turn a cartwheel... eat breakfast with chopsticks…"
I liked the frivolity of these.
"What's…? Number one?" I was intrigued now
She looks away, embarrassed.
"If you want help with your lines, I have two conditions. You have to promise not to fall in love with me.
I'm certain she's joking. I mean was she gay too? Even is she was like I'd fall in love with her….
"No problem"
"And you have to meet my father."
I looked at her like she's crazy to "Fathers love me."
