Chapter 13

Mommy's 60's Paraphernalia

When I woke up this morning, I had no idea what to wear. So, I opened up the luggage in the back of my closet (that had finally been unpacked into with all of my clothes) and searched through what was left of my mom's things. Most of the letters, no matter how interesting they were, I had to leave untouched because I would be running extremely late if I pulled up a blanket and stated sifting through memories. I moved straight into the clothes.

And that is where I found it. An entire pile of clothes my mom must have worn when she was my age back in the 60's. I guess when I was packing up her stuff the day I moved to Newport, I was too hurt to separate and sort the stuff and actually see what I was putting in there. I knew that there were old clothes in there. And this knowledge merited a good snoop around in the past fashion of my mother.

I heard a knock on my door and quickly scrambled up from the floor to answer the door.

"Hey, Chels-" Ryan started saying after I let him into my room, but quickly changed his neutral tone of voice to shock when he noticed what I was sifting through on the floor.

"Are those mom's clothes?" he asked and I nodded.

"Yeah, I brought them with me. I didn't leave anything at the house that could fit into my luggage."

"Yes, I guess that's the reasoning behind bringing the egg beaters."

"Hey! You looked through my stuff? You jerk, Ryan!"

"I didn't look through your stuff Chelsea. I swear to you. I just saw the egg beaters in the closet," he pointed to my open closet and I realised that they were clearly visible amongst the throng of other strange objects I had acquired from our house in Chino.

"Fine!" I said defeated and moved onto to looking at that dress I really liked. It was a tight, lime green mini-dress that stopped about a 1/2 of the way down my thighs and had short sleeves.

I slipped it on straight away because Ryan had left the room already. I looked at myself in the mirror.

"Hmm," I thought to myself as I picked at the cloth on the dress, fixing it all up.

"Wow, Mom was the same size as me when she was younger." I said to myself. I fastened a white belt I found amongst the clothes around my hips and slipped on some white wedge heels.

I then took it all off and had a shower.

After I showered and blow-dried my hair, I concealed and applied foundation to my face and put a clear gloss onto my lips. I lined my eyes with green too, put on two coats of mascara and applied a light green eye shadow to my lids. I quickly ran a brush through my hair and packed my bag with my schoolbooks and such.

I tried to walk into the busy Cohen kitchen barely noticed until Kirsten announced my arrival that morning.

"Morning Chelsea! Would you like a bagel honey?" she asked sweetly and she already took out a bagel for me and cut it in half.

"Good morning. Yeah, a bagel would be nice thanks."

"What would you like in it?" Kirsten asked

"Umm, cream cheese, if you have any of course."

"Sure thing." She said, and flashed me another smile. I smiled back in gratitude and faced back to Sandy, Seth and Ryan.

"Morning Chelsea." Said Sandy. "Any plans for the day?"

"Umm, not that I know of really. Am I meant to have plans?" I asked slightly confused.

He chuckled and continued "No, but you know, if you want to go out with friends you can. You just have to tell us where you are and when you'll be back and you'll most probably be allowed to go. Don't think that you have to stay home all the time."

"I'll remember that," I said and within the a few seconds a cream cheese covered bagel on a shiny white plate was sat in front of me as well as a tall, frosty glass of Hershey's chocolate milk.

"Wow, you remembered that I liked chocolate milk. Thankyou Kirsten, not for just this, but for paying for me to live here and have a good education" I said sincerely and turned back to look at Sandy. "And thankyou too Sandy, for letting me stay here with you and thankyou Seth for accepting me, and thankyou Ryan for answering my phone call."

I smiled and focused all my energies into eating my food. I think there were words of gratitude but I was too happy to concentrate on anything but what I was thinking. I am so, so lucky!

I walked, still in my trance to brush my teeth and then re-applied some lip-gloss.

Off to school! Time passed too quickly as we were all being shipped off to school in Marissa's car. Everyone chatted while I soaked in the atmosphere and dreamt of my one true love Clayton Hoffman.

One day, we'd be together. I knew it. We were meant to be. But how to get him to like me? He probably hasn't even considered me as potential girlfriend material.

I have never crushed on someone so bad before. It's so weird. It's more than a crush. I love Clayton, but I can't understand it right now. I know that I'm happy where I am, and I know I'd be extra happy if we got together, but what is the chance of that happening? This is why I need to get him to notice me somehow.

But no way would I change myself for a guy. I wouldn't go that far.

I stepped out of the now stationary car, picked up my bag and slung it around my shoulder. We congregated around a large tree and the people around me were talking about various things, but all I could concentrate on was seeing Clayton again.

I saw him. A bitter taste found itself on my tongue as I swallowed. Of course. How could I be so stupid?

There he was laughing around with Anna. Of course he would like her. She was quirky, funny and very pretty.

Anger rose inside of me. Not really anger directed at Clayton, more anger directed at me. How could I ever even think for a millisecond that he liked me!

I saw Seth talking to Ryan about Superman or something and immediately felt sorry for him. Not that Seth wasn't a good catch or anything, Seth was wonderful, but now, he had competition. I decided to alert him out of sisterly love to this new development of mine.

"Seth," I said.

"Yeah, Chels" (AN: BTW, whenever somebody calls Chelsea 'Chels'….pronounce it in your mind as Chelse…like Chelsea without the 'ea' bit…not like 'shells':-)

I motioned for him to come closer and I took him a little further away from the group.

"What's wrong?" he asked obviously confused.

"Nothing, just…Ok, Anna and Clayton are up in the car park." I don't know what I expected but it certainly wasn't for Seth to laugh at my face.

"What?" I demanded.

He continued laughing

"Look, I'm just looking out for you, you know. What if Clayton tried to charm Anna into liking him over you?"

"Oh, is that what you were worried about? Wow. Ok. No, Chelsea." He laughed again and continued.

"Thanks for the thought, that's really sweet of you to look out for me, but I know for a fact that Clayton doesn't like Anna. Well at least not in that way. He likes you, stupid. He's crazy for y…Oh God! I didn't just say what I said did I?"

A look of shock crossed both of our faces. I broke out into a smile as he started a repetitive rant about not telling him that he told me.

If I had been happy before, I lied. This is what true happiness felt like. I think I must have giggled like a little schoolgirl because Seth finally stopped his rant and started mocking and laughing at me.

"You like him don't you?"

I burst into laughter, and I think Marissa, Ryan and Summer thought we were seriously crazy if they saw us from their congregation at the tree.

As we walked back slowly to the rest of the group I became serious.

"Seth, please don't tell him!" I begged of Seth most sincerely.

"What is it with you guys and not telling each other? How can I just stand back? I think this needs some kind of intervention you know?" he looked back at me with his sly Seth grin.

"No way!" I changed my tone. " Alright, Seth, just… If you can…"

"Yes…" he said eagerly anticipating my answer of giving him some form of matchmaking duties.

"Maybe you, could just tell him that I like him too. But without being blatant, you know. Like, give him a hint maybe? Just don't tell him that I put you up to this."

"Sure thing, Chelsea. I will gladly be of service. Ahh, here is the fellow we've all been looking for!"

I turned around too fast and collided into someone's chest.

"Ahh…" I whimpered out of habit. I looked up and saw that I was once again in the chest of the guy I am in love with.

I think I turned bright red right then. Luckily for me, all the makeup I put on lessened the effects of my redness to the naked eye.

"We've got to stop doing that" I laughed nervously and quickly stepped away.

"Are you ok?" He asked sincerely, with a worried, look on his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine" I laughed a little to cover my nervousness. "How embarrassing" I thought to myself. "I'm sure he doesn't appreciate you throwing yourself at him every chance you get"

But somehow, after that, if it is even possible, but he was acting rather nicer to me. Not that he is usually mean, but he was very attentive and kind.

But what I really cared about the most, was that now, for sure, I knew that there was a chance. There a was a huge chance. All I had to do was find some way to make that chance happen.