Just a question, but do you guys get my replies to your comments? Just wondering.
Anyways, enjoy!
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Boop deep be doo!
Finally, finally, her first day at Dillon High ended with that annoying bell system which seemed to come straight out of the 1970s. The one thing she made sure to remember about this ridiculous high school was the location of the exit. She'd ditched Saracen, who'd shyly asked if she would attend the game tonight. She responded with an "I'll check my planner," gaining her a slight frown from the already pitiful QB1. Which only made her feel worse but she needed to get out of this town. If she could just fly back to LA every weekend she might just keep her sanity. The warm, dry Texas air hit her as she stepped out of the air conditioned school, the one decent thing about Dillon High. The sun shined brightly in the blue sky, only wisps of white clouds peeking between shimmering green leaves on the trees surrounding the lot. She'd parked her car in the lot in an end space and she fished out her keys to her deep emerald green BMW hard-top convertible that Daddy had bought for her as an eighteenth birthday present. He'd bought it partially because he wanted her forgiveness for the time he slept with one of her teachers and partially for his own satisfaction of getting rid of her white 1997 Jeep SUV which she'd bought with her money she'd earned from selling some of her paintings to a few restaurants around Seattle. He'd let her keep it for "snow conditions only" and chained it into the garage in the house in Colorado, essentially taking away the only thing she'd ever worked hard for. Still she knew that she was lucky to have a car at all and despite the implications of the gift she loved her car. Her car spelled freedom to some degree, which she valued more than anything.
As she walked down the row of cars she noticed a group of boys standing around her car ogling it. They circled the car as if they'd never seen one up close before, oohing and ahhing over it. Gwen bit the inside of her lip, bracing herself to deal with the boys who would probably ask her a million questions about it. She started to fish her keys out of her purse, rummaging around for them. Finally locating them beneath her blackberry and her glasses case, Gwen pulled them out and looked up just in time to see the boys reaching out to her door handle. A cringe formed on her face as she opened her mouth to yell but her reaction failed to be fast enough to stop the boy from pulling on her door handle a few times. While her Jeep would have no reaction, of course her BMW's sophisticated alarm system started shrieking. Gwen broke into a sprint towards her screaming car and the four boys with guilty looks on their faces.
"What do you think you're doing?!" she snapped at them, yelling very loudly over the alarm. She rushed towards her car, keys out and pushed aside the boy who'd pulled the handle. He stumbled before one of his buddies caught him by the arm. She slid the key in and unlocked, locked, and unlocked the car again. The alarm stopped its cycle of really loud noise. But they had caused the damage already. The whole school stared at her and her car, surrounded by idiot members of whatever sport the football rejects around here played because the football players actually seemed like smart guys- aside from maybe Riggins. Gwen turned to the guy who'd set her alarm off, ready to give him a piece of her mind. She pushed his shoulder, getting into his face ready to tear him apart when she saw Matt Saracen and the blond haired Julie rushing up to her. Matt pulled her off of the kid and Julie put her hand on his shoulder, moving him away from her. The guy had his hands up in the air, and tried to explain away his actions.
"Hey look you guys know I wasn't trying to do any harm- how was I supposed to know the car had an advanced alarm system? Julie, you know I ain't lyin' right? Hey look, I'm real sorry... Gwen, that's your name isn't it? Like I said, I'm real sorry, but no harm done, right?" She tried to glare at him over the shoulder of Matt Saracen, but his hands on her shoulders kept her in place, feet firmly planted on the ground. Despite his appearance, Matt commanded an intense amount of strength to her surprise. Gwen, resigned to the fact that she wouldn't win this battle, relaxed her muscles and looked resignedly at Matt, then at Julie, and finally at the guy who'd set her car off. She just needed to get out of there, quickly. All the energy had drained from her and she couldn't stand being anywhere near Dillon High any more that day.
"Look, fine, it was an accident, I get it. No harsh feelings alright? Now will you please let go of me Matt so I can get the hell out of here, please?" She wanted to kick herself for sounding so pathetic at the word "please", her voice wobbling as she struggled to maintain her self-control. Her last bit of dignity remained the sole survivor of her hellish first day here and she needed to hang onto it. Matt Saracen bit his lip and then let go of her, stepping away with a concerned, saddened look in his eyes. Julie looked like she wanted to say something to Gwen, but her open mouth couldn't find the words to say for once in her life. Gwen needed to get out of there, needed to find something that would make her feel normal.
Finally out of that ridiculous school, Gwen's thumb pushed the button for the roof and the mechanical whirring detached and unfolded the hard top of the convertible. The wind rippled through her hair as the breeze flew past her. She put the ball of her foot to the gas pedal and then shifted gears, flying along the streets of Dillon. Tears whipped from her eyes into the wind behind her, tracing a line from the corner of her eye back through the strands of her long hair. She threw in a mix CD, one burned for her by her boys in Seattle that they'd sent through the mail for her birthday- entitled "How Come We're So Alone?" after the Motion City Soundtrack song. Though the familiar caress of her leather seats relieved some of the tension in her neck, her mind had not settled down quite yet. The hard rock music began blasting, sound waves reverberating within her ribcage. Finally, finally she could settle down a bit, though she drove to a place she didn't think of as home. At least her father wouldn't be waiting when she got there. He always worked long after six. Sometimes he didn't come home and that suited her just fine.
After her drive sufficiently calmed her, Gwen drove up the long driveway towards their ridiculously stylized new home. She had no intention of leaving it for the entire weekend unless by some miracle she managed to get herself back to LA for good. Though she could easily take the family's private jet, she wouldn't jeopardize her chances of getting into a really good art school by skipping classes-- even if she did despise Dillon High. To her dismay, her father's silver Rolls sat in front of the garage. Her father's car never, ever in a million years rested in the driveway between 5am and 6pm except on holidays, few of which he observed. Today certainly was not a holiday, so why would he be home? Maybe something mechanical happened to it and he took one of his numerous other cars to work. Yes, that must've happened. Clearly he just didn't drive his Rolls today. Gwen knew she was just trying to deny the obvious.
After parking her convertible, she pulled up on the parking break which clicked into place and then took a deep breath. Her father, though careless and self-centered, knew when his daughter had a bad day. Somehow amidst the scurrying around to make phone calls and filling out paperwork he'd found the time to study her facial expressions even if he only half-listened to what she had to say. Gwen unlocked the front door with her key, turning hard in the padlock as she pushed inward on the heavy door. Dropping her bag by the hall end table to annoy the new housekeeper, Gwen glanced up at the sweeping staircase leading to the faux stucco floors and sighed. Why did her father want to be in a place with such a lack of sophistication? Gwen already decided that she would make her own home a little of every city she'd lived in. Not including Dillon. She would also make sure that the contractors completed the house before they moved in. Her father's people still had an entire wing to finish, closed off with makeshift construction doors. Indeed, her father clearly lacked tact and sophistication when it came to his private life.
Walking into the kitchen she found her father slicing tomatoes on the wooden block that sat upon the marble-topped island. Never in her life had she seen her father perform any domestic chore, let alone prepare his own food. Gwen cringed to think what he possibly could concoct in a mixing bowl and she agreed that she probably could not imagine what horrors her father could create. Gwen almost turned and left the room but her father saw her before she could even think to react and hide. Plus she hadn't found all the good hiding places here yet. Deciding to continue into the room as though she had not just thought of bolting for her "Twilight Chambers" as some dumb architect called them, Gwen walked past her father for the fridge. She swung open the door and started to look for an unopened bottle of Diet Coke that she could take back to her room with her when she heard the sound of the knife on the chopping board stop.
"What are you up to tonight sweetie?" he asked her as she shut the refrigerator door. He cleaned off the knife he used with a dishtowel and smiled at her. He didn't ask her how her day was, or what she thought of her classes, or how she liked Dillon High. No, he started off with asking her what she was up to that night, which clearly meant he had some sort of plan up his sleeve. Gwen needed to think fast. She could tell him she wanted to go to the football game and then drive off somewhere else. Anything but going on whatever father-daughter adventure he'd planned for them. He caused the horrible day she had by moving them here to bumpkin country instead of at least having the mercy to choose a suburb of a coastal city like usual. Needless to say, she didn't want to see him at all and she certainly didn't have the patience to 'hang out' with him that evening.
"Uh, I was thinking of going to the football game tonight seeing as it's the only thing anyone seems to do around here," she replied, twisting the plastic cap off of her bottle of soda releasing the excess carbon dioxide with a hiss. Gwen glanced at the clock as if she had someplace important to go and quickly. Besides, her father put on this horrible pouting face whenever she nixed any father-daughter plans he made and she hated feeling guilty about disappointing her dad for something like spending time with him. But she knew if she sucked it up and went out with him that night it'd just end in the two of them in a major argument. Wouldn't that be a perfect end to an absolutely perfect day? About to leave the room, her father managed to get in his reply.
"Great! I wanted to ask you if you'd present our check to the school. The school board called and wanted to tell the town at the football game about the money I'm donating to build a new high school. I thought it would be better if you presented the endowment." Her father crossed over to the exit of the kitchen, where she stood looking at him with a shocked expression. He leaned down to kiss her on the cheek. "Thanks honey, I knew I could count on you." Still with her jaw dropped, Gwen's father walked past her whistling and carrying the sandwich he'd finished putting together with him. She gaped at the kitchen sink, shocked by the exchange that just happened. If that wasn't a classic case of a plan backfiring, she didn't know what was. Still, it left her with no choice. Tonight, not only did she have to attend the football game, make her father happy, and present a large sum of money to an entire town, but she had to pretend to be one of them. Still wide-eyed, Gwen screwed the cap onto her soda and dropped to the kitchen floor in a sitting position. Go Panthers?