Okay, sorry about the wait. I really apologize. I've had so much going on with school, track, band, my "daughter"'s upcoming bat mitzvah, one of my BFFs (Betsy's) older sister being hospitalized on suicide watch, and when all this was over, my grandfather passed away. So I've beenin a rough spot.
Beware: this chapter is my longest ever (14 pages on Microsoft Word). Also, the end was sort of rushed since I had limited time to write, but won't have much time in teh next week, as I'm about to put on my fourth musical, and have nine hours of dress rehersals in the next two days, and then after that is my birthday. So chapter seven may be a while in the making.
-Giz
Chpt. 6: The Things We Do for the Football Team
"Where there is great love, there are always wishes." -Willa Cather
Each school year, at the beginning of October, comes an event marked by school spirit, peer togetherness, and hoards of multicolored streamers and Silly String. To some it is a great celebration, and to others a great annoyance, but all agree on the importance of the high school landmark drawing the week to the close.
"So Rob, when are you asking Kori to the Homecoming Dance?" Vick looked up with eager eyes as he cleaned his plate of scrambled eggs with his fork. The question took Rob by surprise, and he promptly swallowed part of his ham biscuit the wrong way. He began coughing and sputtering immediately, and it took approximately two and a half minutes for him to regain full control.
"I already did," was the result of all that coughing. Rob doused his swallowed ham biscuit in 2 milk.
"Did we miss something?" Vick and Rob looked up from the table to see Raven, Terra, and Gar sitting down in their usual places. Raven's eyebrows were raised as she looked over at Rob's red face as he nodded in response to her question.
"Where's Kori?" asked Gar.
"Bathroom," answered Vick. "She stepped in a mud puddle on the way to breakfast." The weather had taken a turn for the worse over the weekend, and Monday had brought muddy grounds and dripping trees for all. Kori had been walking with Rob and, in an alleged moment of absent-mindedness, plunged her New Balances into yet another mud-hole.
"It's Homecoming Week, isn't it?" said Terra. Her eyes were half-closed, and she looked and sounded groggy, as thought she'd only woken up a moment before from some deep sleep. Vick nodded excitedly.
"And I bet I know who you want to go wi- OW!" Vick winced and his hand flew to his face as the remainder of the projectile ham biscuit slid to the ground.
"That was my breakfast!" protested Rob as Terra, successful, took her seat. Not only had she caused pain to Vick, but she had also broken two lunch table rules ("No throwing things" and "If you must throw, it must be from your own tray.").
"Bad Terra," scolded Gar as Terra proceeded to steal remaining ham from Rob's plate.
"What did she do?" The five looked up as Kori sat down. Her wet tennis shoes squeaked on the tile floors. Rob forgot about the ham.
"She threw ham at Vick," said Raven in a matter-of-fact voice, taking a bite of her frosted Wheeties. They crunched smartly. For some reason the mention of the Homecoming Dance had made her face turn a shade of pink resembling that of Kori's hair.
"So Vick, what were you saying about Terra?" Rob said this in a careful voice, but a smile spread on his face. Kori looked confused, and Terra looked ready to pounce.
"I think I know who our little blonde friend wants to go to the Homecoming Dance with…" Vick said slowly and overly loud. Terra's hand caressed the fork on the table on front of her as she contemplated throwing it at Vick.
"Don't you dare," she hissed almost inaudibly.
"R…" Vick began. "Roy…" Terra's hand closed around the cutlery.
"Roy Suttle!" Vick shouted, and the fork came flying towards him, barely missing his forehead and landing with a clatter somewhere behind him.
"You mean that red headed sophomore on the soccer team?" asked Gar.
"Orange, not red," Terra quickly corrected.
"He's in my pottery class!" replied Rob. "He can make a mean miniature flower vase."
"What's he in that class for?" asked Gar.
"He broke into the teachers' lounge multiple times last year to steal coffee and the like," answered Rob.
"That was him?" Kori wanted to know. "I thought that was you." Rob looked offended.
"Why I-" he began to say, but was interrupted by Vick.
"Shut up!" he nearly shouted, startling everyone except for Raven, who was never startled by anything. "We're focusing on the wrong thing here!"
"Heck yes, we are," muttered Terra, taking a bite of her cereal bar (as good as the real thing) and trying to ignore everyone.
"What we need to be doing," said Vick. "Is trying to get our blonde companion's wishful desire to come true!"
"No!" shouted Terra, throwing her cereal bar at Vick. It missed and hit Kori, who wiped the crumbs off her shirt and continued looking beautiful. Terra envied her for a moment. If someone threw something at her, she would somehow end up halfway across the lunchroom, upside down, with her bra strap wrapped around, say, Roy Suttle's chair leg.
Terra looked up at her table-mates just as the bell rang. Vick flashed her an evil look, and Terra stuck her tongue out at him. This was war.
It wasn't until later, after a shower and a talking to, that Terra realized that she did want Roy to go to the dance with her and it didn't really matter how she got that. Oh well. Anger came first, in this case.
Vick planned to make his first move in Chemistry, his first period class, which he also happened to share with Roy. It was quiz day, so after handing in his paper (On which he had most likely scored a low to mid C), when Roy asked to go to the bathroom, Vick raised his hand as well and was graciously excused.
The first floor hallway was usually empty, since all that was on it was the science department, the offices, and a set of bathrooms. The main covered walkway leading to the cafeteria was also off of the hallway, but that was only populated at mealtime. Now, however, as Roy sauntered into the restroom in front of Vick, footsteps could be heard behind him. Vick stopped at the water fountain to get a sip of water and let the footsteps pass. He never heard when they stopped behind him, which is exactly why, when he stood back up, he ran right in to the owner of the aforementioned footsteps.
"Watch it, Sparky," barked the girl. Vick immediately recognized her voice and her strikingly blue eyeliner that perfectly matched her eyes of a similar color. Today, however, Bee wasn't dressed in athletic clothes. Instead, she wore her school uniform with a pair of black flip flops and some gold bangles. It looked good, as Vick noted to himself on the spot, not leaving time to consider what this notion was telling him. It looked… beautiful. She looked beautiful.
"Hey, Bee," he said conversationally. "Did you uhhh… make the cheerleading team?" This was a stupid question. He knew she had, as he had gone and looked secretly the day of the posting. He hadn't known until now that it was Bee's name he had been searching for.
"Yeah," she answered, confused. "I made it. You congratulated me, remember? Last Friday, when I was wearing my uniform?"
Vick felt himself perform a cartoon-like sweat-drop as he nodded slowly. Bee was eying him, a rather dumbfounded look in her eyes. No, maybe that was annoyance. Was it possible that Vick couldn't tell the difference? Maybe this was a sign that he wasn't ready to ask her out yet. However, this thought didn't stop him from blurting out the next thing he said as Bee looked around and opened her mouth to dismiss herself from Vick's presence.
"Bee?" he felt himself saying dumbly. His voice was hoarse. Was that even him talking? "Will you, are you, uhhh…" He had no experience with this kind of stuff. How the heck did he begin?
"Will you go to the Homecoming Dance with me?" Vick said it all in one breath, possibly even without pauses between words. He was sweating now, like crazy. Was it the heater? His head was pounding. In fact, it was pounding so hard that he completely missed Bee's answer.
"You okay?" she was asking Vick now. Vick nodded. The girl's sympathetic look told him all he needed to know. She had declined. He knew it. He knew it all along. He felt like a bumbling idiot.
"Yeah. I'm fine," Vick repeated verbally. "I'm just a little, you know, shocked, I guess. I was hopeful…" Bee's eyes narrowed.
"You mean you hoped I'd say no?" she asked. Her voice was loud, almost spiteful. "Are you shocked I said yes, or something? Did you want me to say no that bad?"
"Wait," answered Vick. "So you said yes?" His spirit lifted a bit.
"Of course I did, Sparky," Bee laughed. "Why wouldn't I?"
With that, she walked away, leaving Vick laughing manically in the hallway. He was still laughing when Roy left the restroom to head back to Chemistry, so quietly that Vick never noticed him and, thanks to this, missed his chance completely.
The only annoying aspect of Homecoming Week was the pointless "Get Fired Up" pep rallies held each and every stinking day of the week, all building up to the Homecoming night pep rally on Friday morning. These events brought together the whole school in the gym to listen to the marching band play and to cheer on and ultimately worship the football team by the name of the Gotham Prep Vikings. Occasionally they would get to hear speeches by football players of varsity cheerleaders, but besides that it was all screaming and cheering.
"This is Viking battle cry: V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!" the cheerleaders shouted dumbly from their position on the basketball court. A few people in the audience cheered, mostly little sixth graders or pumped up seniors or class clowns looking to attract attention. Our three favorite sophomores fell under none of these categories.
"So did you talk to Suttle?" Rob wanted to know. He, Vick, and Kori were lounging on the rolled up wrestling mats in the area at the top of the basketball stands. Raven, Gar and Terra were down in the stands utilized by the marching band, since the drumline performed during pep rallies (The only enjoyable part of the time). They couldn't see the court from here, but there was no need to, as they could hear the band.
"Nah," said Vick. "I didn't think about it. Terra'll have to rough it. "
"Why do you look like you have a secret?" asked Kori, turning to face her African-American friend. He was, in fact, smiling rather evilly, as though he was hiding something.
"Not a secret," he said. "Just a date." Rob whistled, and Kori beamed.
"Who?" the two said in unison.
"Bee Cox," Vick answered over the shouts of "This is sophomore battle cry". A few of their classmates were even shouting along. Vick imagined Bee down on the court leading the cheer, in her little black and red cheer skirt…
"You mean that girl you saw in the parking lot and wouldn't stop talking about?" asked Rob.
"Ooh," interrupted Kori before Vick could say anything. "She's the one you were looking for on the list the day they posted cheerleading tryout results!"
Vick ignored this last bit and turned to Rob.
"Yeah," he answered. "It was hard, though. I didn't even hear her answer. I just assumed she said no, actually, until she noticed I looked weird and assured me that she had said yes."
"Harsh," chimed Kori, wincing, her eyes sparkling under the gym lights as she did so. Rob pretended he didn't notice. However, Kori was aware of him scooting a tiny bit closer to her. She only smiled. Boys could be so weird, sometimes.
"I guess I sort of do want him to ask me," Raven was saying. She and Kori were walking back from the pep rally, since their third period classes were on the same hallway. Raven twisted her violet hair around her finger, and a smile came to her mouth.
"If all else fails," commented Kori. "You could just ask him, instead of the other way around."
"I guess," Raven said softly as the two rounded the staircase going up to the second floor. "But how do I know what to say?" This was a question that often came up when she and Kori talked about Gar.
"You'll know," said Kori. For the moment, Raven believed her. Actually, she often did until she was forced again into Gar's presence. Right now, Raven was lucky, as Gar was assisting Terra in carrying the various drumline impedimenta back to the drum closet without breaking anything, a feat unheard of with the two of them involved. On a good day, an average of three pieces of vital equipment were lost/broken/harmed beyond repair.
"Bye," said Kori suddenly, and Raven watched her swing around the doorway into her third period, Mrs. Garner's study hall, where Rob and Vick were already waiting patiently. Raven was just turning to walk across the hallway to World History when a voice caused her to nearly jump out of her skin.
"Hey, Rae," said Gar so suddenly that Raven's heart began moving faster than the drumsticks of her snare drum. "What's up?"
It took Raven approximately 67 seconds to regain her full breath before she could speak, and when she did, the result of all her struggling was a hoarse, "Nothing. You?" She felt like a scrawny fifth grader of something. It was the lamest excuse for an answer.
Gar nodded and smiled, reaching out to take Raven's backpack from her. She accepted (For maybe more than one reason.) and they entered World History. The two took their seats usual calmly at the back of the large room, near the oversized map of Spanish Exploration in the 16th Century, or something like that. Raven had never noticed, since she'd always been to preoccupied with a certain brunette male who frequented the desk in front of her. In fact, her desk provided one of many scenic views of the back of Gar's christened adorable head, offering a direct panorama of his sandy brown hair complete with natural blonde-ish highlights, the slight peach-fuzz on the nape of his neck, the way that his ears stuck out a little more at the top than at the bottom…
Raven was snapped back into the harsh reality of World History when she heard Mr. Lewis beginning to dictate the day's notes off of the overhead projector. She quickly pulled out her notebook and neat black pen, trying to make as little of a scene as possible (This was rather easy, since Terra had just wandered late into the room and promptly tripped over the trash can placed to catch water from the leaky ceiling, causing the said water to cascade onto the shoes of one of Maya's henchies). It was at this choice moment when Raven noticed a piece of paper lying on her desk, folded in a far-from neat manner. "From: Gar", is said on the outside in the tiny handwriting belonging to none other than the owner of the written name. Raven felt her heart skip a beat. Could this be the moment?
Mr. Lewis was recapping their notes from Friday, something about the city of Constantinople and its three protective walls. Raven glanced back and forth from the teacher to the note. She winced as Terra, in an attempt to take her seat with no further interruptions, fell off of her quarter-inch-heeled flip flops and banged her ankle hard on the bar of her desk. In the commotion that followed, Raven took the note into her lap and unfolded it as quickly as possible. Her eyes scanned the print.
Rae, it read. Do you know where the extra bass drum mallets are? Jordan bit one of them in rage over that whole incident with the staple gun and now Terra's afraid to touch it, since you know she has that theory that Jordan has rabies. -Gar
"Are you sure that they were in here?" Raven lifted a snare drum and looked underneath it. Not finding the missing mallets, she moaned. As much as she tried to pretend she was in her air conditioned dorm room, she couldn't help but face the fact that the drum closet was hot. It was like a sauna. Raven's hair had been pulled back into a ponytail, but was still nearly soaked through with sticky sweat.
"Yeah, we've looked everywhere else," Gar said. He sounded unsure, however, that his Mallet Location Calculations were correct this time. He too was drenched in sweat from searching the closet for as long as he and Raven had been.
It was about 12:07 on Monday. The marching band had had an extra practice during lunch hour for their big halftime show on Friday night, but that had gone slowly since Terra and Jordan had to share the bass drum mallets.
"Why did Jordan have to get so dang mad about the whole staple gun thing?" Gar asked wearily. Raven ignored him and looked under a different pile of junk. The spare mallets hadn't been spotted since the beginning of the year, but something apparently had let Gar to believe they were somewhere in this forsaken closet.
"I'm getting some fresh air," Raven started to say as she turned to face the entranceway. It was then that her and Gar's ears turned, and their hearts stopped beating at the sound that came next. Time ceased to tick. The world ceased to turn. Horror consumed all.
Well, maybe not that last one.
Slam-click. That was the sound. It echoed for a moment, and the closet went pitch-black. Voices were heard outside of the door, a slight shuffle as of people moving quickly. There was a crash as someone hit something heading out of the band room door, followed by someone saying, "Ahava, stop giggling!". Then, nothing.
"So…" Raven turned to face Gar, but couldn't see anything but an outline of his body. The only light in here was from a glow-in-the-dark Star Wars Pez dispenser someone had lost and never bothered to find.
"This is awkward," muttered Gar, turning to face the door. He took the words right out of his dark-haired companion's mouth.
"Totally," said the aforementioned dark-haired companion, twisting the aforementioned hair nervously around her fingers. She could make out Gar's ears and hair, sticking in every direction, and for a moment, she was sure he was smiling.
"It could be worse," he said slyly, causing Raven's eyebrows to go up like an elevator. She felt her heart racing, and almost said "Stuck with you? What's worse than that?", but it dawned on her that that would be a blatant lie.
"I mean," Gar continued. "You could be stuck in close proximity with, like, Maya or someone."
"She'd kill me first," said Raven with a chuckle, rolling her eyes in the pitch blackness.
"Do you really think Maya would kill you?" Gar asked in a much more serious voice. Raven could almost see him wrinkling his brow in concentration.
"Uh, yeah," she responded without thought. "I do. I mean, she hates me. What more incentive does she need?"
"Well, you hate her to don't you?" Gar countered. "And it's not like you're about to pull a gun on her, right? Hopefully?" Raven had to laugh.
"No, I'm not about to shoot her," she assured Gar. "Unfortunately. But I'm used to being hated by people like her. Maya, on the other hand, is one of those, 'But everybody loves meeeeeeee!' people. Get what I'm saying?"
"I guess…" Gar answered softly. In part, he really did just somewhat agree with Raven. On the other hand, he just didn't like thinking about Raven being brutally murdered by Maya. It sort of depressed him.
"Okay, French is officially not my language," announced Vick, looking down at the test paper in front of him. "68, Quel Dommage!", it read in large, loopy red writing.
Kori looked eagerly up at Mme. Grissom, waiting to get her test back.
"Mme. Grissom, you didn't grade the back page of mine," wailed a student behind Kori.
"You didn't grade mine at all," pointed out another. Gloria Grissom shook her head.
"Mon Dieu," she replied. "The only reason I didn't commit suicide right then and there was that I had just graded Kori's test." She laid a paper bearing a large "99" on in front of the redhead.
"Dang it," muttered Kori as the teacher walked away. "I forgot the accent mark above the 'e's in réfrigérateur."
Vick scanned his test. "What does avoir tort mean, Kori?"
"'To be wrong', why? What did you put?"
Vick took a small breath. "Uhhh… I put 'to have pie'." He watched as Mme. Grissom awarded her prime A-makers with age-old Tootsie rolls. Kori slipped her's onto Vick's desk, and he promptly popped it in his mouth.
Vick eyed Bee, who sat (by assigned seat) on the other side of the room, in the front of the classroom.
"I never should have asked her out," he found himself muttering. Kori raised her eyebrow quizzically.
"Why not?" She twirled her hair around her fingers and looked at Bee. The girls had never really had much to do with each other, but Kori always respected Bee. Anyone with that fashion sense should be respected, Kori had decided.
"I… I just don't have that much experience," said Vick. "I mean, I know I'm 16, but I've never had a real girlfriend. And Bee's a scary girl, If you see what I mean."
Kori looked at him with narrow eyes. "Vick, you're acting weak," she said in a warning voice. "Don't be weak." The redhead slapped Vick on the shoulder.
"I just hope I can make it through the week with that girl," Vick responded, putting his head down on his desk.
The good news was, they found the mallets. Gar had found them when he attempted to sit down on an old, broken piano bench (one of many) and had found that there was something lying across the bench cushion. He actually almost broke the one he sat on. The other fell safely to the floor, and it took an additional three and a half minutes to locate beneath all the junk where it had rolled. This took some crawling on the floor and an intense period of search and rescue by light of Gar's cell phone, which kept playing O, Canada for some reason.
"Maybe we should, you know, check the door," suggested Raven, wiping sweat from her forehead. Gar made a small humming noise and turned the knob again. It turned, the door opened, and light from the band room leaked into the closet.
"Oh," said Gar softly. Raven didn't speak, though Gar was sure he saw a vein pulsing in her head.
"Let's go to lunch," she said sharply. Gar grabbed his hunter green bookbag from the floor, not daring to argue.
Raven bit her lower lip as she tossed her empty iced tea cup into the cafeteria trash can. It was Tuesday night at dinner, more than twenty four hours after the Closet Incident™ (as it had come to be called between the marching band and numerous others), and the girl had yet to attempt to talk to Gar about the Homecoming Dance. She had always been a bit of a procrastinator. It was plain and simple: Raven always waited until the last minute to do things, even things as important as confessing to the love of your life. However, she had always preferred to call it "rationalizing character flaws".
"Gosh, how can they call that lettuce? It's, like, yellow!" Raven turned around to see Gar standing behind her, salad in hand. Thanks to his choice vegetarianism, there was seldom a good choice of food for the poor boy. And the lettuce today was indeed yellow.
In the moment that followed, Raven panicked a small bit. Gar tossed his salad into the plastic trash can (Raven's panic turned to anger for a brief nano-second as the ranch dressing from the aforementioned salad splashed up onto her shirt).
"Something eating you, Rae?" Gar asked, his usual grin on his face.
"Uhhh…" Raven began. She almost said Yes, I want to go to the dance with you, you idiot!, but restrained herself.
"No, I just am… tired, yeah," she said instead. It wasn't even proper grammar. Not even a sentence.
"Okay, I guess I'll see you in the morning at drumline," Gar added as a goodbye before heading off to who-knows-where.
"Idiot," Raven muttered as she threw her salad bowl into the trash, not even sure who she had been talking to. She waited until she was safely in her dorm room to punch anything, and even then the bed had to suffice.
"Can you say, Homecoming Dance tomorrow?" Vick sat down at the lunch table, obviously excited by the prospects of the dance actually being little more than twenty four hours in the future. It was Thursday, around 12:00, and, due to some spasm by the lunch room staff, Brunch Day. Well, maybe it was intentional. Perhaps the seemingly innocent lunch staff were really plotting to destroy the world when the students all thought they were just defrosting last week's chicken sandwich patties for this week's "Chicken Cordon Blue".
Terra was being extremely silent for her usual self. Sometimes she had calm periods, but that was no excuse. She hadn't even touched her "French Toast Stix", which she so devotedly loved.
"Hey Terra," called Gar from across the table. "Pass the napkins, please." The boy had succeeded in spilling his Silk Soymilk on Rob's shirt. When the blonde failed to respond, Gar poked Raven, who poked Kori, who shoved Terra, who finally looked up.
"Hey, Terra," said Gar. "Stop hogging the napkins!" Kori took the black woven napkin basket and slid it across the table with perfect precision.
"What's wrong?" Kori asked softly, looking down at her friend.
"Roy has a girlfriend," Terra muttered. "I saw him with her at breakfast this morning."
"Who is she?" asked Kori as Terra took a sip of her Diet Dr. Pepper.
"Some girl named Melissa who has totally fake blonde hair," Terra nearly spat. As if on cue, Roy and Melissa walked by, hand in hand. Terra was right. Erin had sort of poofy, bleached blonde hair that probably didn't move with the wind. Her eyelashes looked faintly like plastic prongs, they were so heavily covered in mascara, and her eyelids were an awfully sparkly navy blue. It was repulsive.
"She's butt ugly," said Raven, joining in. "What's she got that you don't?"
"First of all," said Terra. "Her name is number 30 on the list of most popular girl's names. Mine is 999. That's, like, a 700 difference-"
"969, not 700," interrupted Raven. Terra ignored her.
"And guys love fake blonde hair and girls who wear too much makeup. It makes them look like hookers, and boys love hookers. And look at her boobs! Can she even see her feet?" Terra laid her head on her arms in disgust and watched as the couple sat down at the table to the left.
"You'll find someone special," said Kori.
"Yeah right," muttered Terra as the redhead went back to talking to Rob.
32 hours and counting, mused Raven, looking over at Gar.
I'm so happy for you, I could cryyyyy, I am so elated, cross my heart and hope to die, I don't think about you every night before I close my eyes… Raven pulled off her headphones and looked up to see Terra dashing across the football field towards where her violet-haired friend sat. Despite her valuable spot on the track team, Raven knew for a fact that after an incident with a chain-link fence, Terra never dashed in sandals unless she had a good reason.
Raven held down the Pause button on her iPod until the sounds of Saving Jane cut off.
"Guess what!" squealed Terra as Raven put the iPod into her bookbag. It was about 7:50 on Friday morning, and they had been called outside for another early drumline practice.
"I have a date!" Terra nearly yelled without waiting for Raven to guess. It was for the better; Raven hated guessing games.
"Who?" she asked bluntly, not bothering to hide her quickly raised eyebrows.
"Gar!" answered Terra. Raven felt a pang in her heart. Perhaps Terra had said "bar", or "car", referring to who-knows-what. Maybe she hadn't said "date" after all. Maybe she said… "gate". Maybe she meant she now owned a "gate" to a "bar" or a "car". Only cars have doors, not gates. Or maybe she had said "date", and she was going on a date to either a "bar" or a "car". Only there wasn't much fun to do in a car. Well, nothing Raven could visualize her blonde best friend doing.
"Wh… what… who?" Raven felt like she was shrinking .
Suddenly, Terra's expression turned to regret.
"Oh, Rae, I forgot… I didn't realize…" Terra stuttered. "I didn't realize you still liked him…"
Raven wasn't sure if she believed Terra or not. She just sat there.
I don't think about you every night, before I close my eyes. I'm so happy for you baby, I could… cry.
"Fresh White Musk, or Freesia?" Kori held up two bottles of something strongly scented to Raven. They smelled the same to Raven, as did all the crap Kori had sprayed on Raven/conditioned Raven's hair with/rubbed on Raven's collarbone. With all the freesia and wild rose and mint and jasmine and honeysuckle and gardenia scented beauty products, this was the closest Raven would ever get to gardening.
"Dunno," she said, looking back down at her notebook. Despite the fact that it was Homecoming Night, they still had weekend homework in World History.
It was 7:51 on Friday night, and the football game (scheduled early) was over. The Gotham Prep Vikings had won by two points to a the Pine Lake "Big Fish" (their school colors were sky blue and yellow).
"How are you coming, Terra?" called Kori after spraying the purple bottle all around Raven and herself. Terra stumbled out of the bathroom. She had her hair half-straightened (Kori had given her extensive lessons) and was wearing a pair of brown gauchos and a white bra.
"Uhhh... So-so," she replied. A bright blue baby doll top was draped over her arm, and she was already wearing some dangle blue and brown beads around her neck, borrowed from Kori.
Raven rolled over onto the bed. She had on a lavender, drapey top and a black, knee-length skirt. Her hair had been curled and pulled into an updo. By lying on Kori's comforter, she was most likely ruining her eye makeup, but she didn't care. It wasn't as though she had a date (or "gate") to show off to.
Terra emerged from the bathroom several moments later, after some destructive sounding crashes and a few cuss words, looking as beautiful as she ever had. Raven was jealous for once of her.
Kori pretty much beat the crap out of both of them in beauty, though. Tonight, she wore a long, gauzy, off-white bubble skirt and a sexy, army green tank top. Her hair was down and curled at the bottoms, and she seemed to shimmer in the dim dorm room lights. Even her wooden bangles looked like they were sparkling.
"Homecoming, here we come," she said for effect.
Raven scuffed her black slides against the pavement outside of the cafeteria. She could hear some rap song she didn't recognize, and the air smelled like the freesia spray she that had been forced upon her by Kori multiple times. It was almost 11:00, and the dance would be over soon , in 15 minutes.
Rubbing her bare shoulders through the openings in her shirt, Raven looked down the hill in front of her at the lake and sighed. Why couldn't they all have their own keys to the dorm room. On the way down here, Kori had taken responsibility over it so that Raven would have to stay. Raven had to hate Kori for that.
"You okay out here?" It was Rob. Raven turned around to face him and nodded.
"Yeah," she replied. "You okay in there?" Ron had to smile.
"Who knew Kori could dance?" he answered. Raven hated him too now, for being so nice when she was grouchy.
"Mind telling me why you're out here to begin with?"
Raven nodded.
"Yes you'll tell me, or yes you mind?" Rob asked, his dark eyebrows raising.
"Yes I mind," droned Raven.
"Does it have something to do with Gar?" Rob wanted to know.
No answer.
"Don't worry, I won't tell him. I promise," said Rob with a wink before walking off. Raven felt as though she might cry. In fact, she actually felt one or two tears form and then go away. Was she so much of a reject?
Raven sauntered towards the door and let herself in. "Shout" was playing now, so everyone was jumping up and down spastically. She spotted her group over near she snack table. Terra waved in mid-jump.
"What were you doing out there, smoking or something?" joked Vick as Raven joined the group.
"She looks sort of drugged to me," laughed Terra.
Raven looked at Gar. He was wearing khakis and a white dress shirt, and a tie that had Gumby on it. He wore it to every school function and a joke. Now, Gar just stared at the floor. He glanced at Raven once, but as soon as she looked up, he went back to his drink.
Terra and Vick started jumping again, but Gar turned and poured himself a cup of Coke. Kori looked rather dizzy from all the jumping. Rob turned to Raven and held up his hand. Two of his fingers were crossed.
"What?" mouthed Raven. Her voice came out as a whisper. What was Rob doing? Was it some sort of gang sign, or a bizarre signal? Were Raven's pants unzipped? No, she wasn't wearing pants. Wait, that didn't sound right. Why did she look at Gar when she thought that? Okay, she was wearing a skirt. A skirt.
"Rae?"
It took Raven a moment to realize that Gar was talking to her, even though he'd said her name.
"Can we talk? Outside?" he asked politely. Raven nodded and followed him to the door, which he graciously opened for her. What did he want? Suddenly, Rob's hand signal made all too much sense. Crossed fingers. The universal sign for "I was just kidding when I made that promise". Boy, did Raven hate Rob right now.
"I uhhh, talked to Rob," began Gar, and Raven gulped. She so wasn't ready for this.
"Yeah?" she answered.
"He told me why you were out here instead of inside," Gar continued. He sniffed the air, and Raven was suddenly conscious of how floral she smelled.
"Uhuh," she said as one word, wanting nothing more than to crawl under a rock like Maya Parrish had always suggested. It was sure hot out here for October.
"And I really wish you'd told me," Gar said. Raven felt her heart stop. He couldn't mean it.
"I didn't tell you 'cause I didn't want you to know," responded Raven, trying to sound cool and self-possessed. It came out rather like the laugh of a baboon Raven had once watched at a zoo.
"What did you think I would say?" Gar laughed. Raven looked away. This wasn't right. He never laughed at her in her fantasies. Her fantasies were much more NC-17, in fact. And they weren't on the patio outside of the cafeteria.
"I… don't know," said Raven slowly.
Gar smiled. "Well do you want to know what I say?" he asked. Raven shrugged childishly.
"Well you know what I say?" asked Gar. "I say this."
Then, he kissed her.
After a guiltily pleasuring three and a half minutes, the two finally broke apart.
"I love you," choked Raven, tears in her eyes.
"I love you, too."
It was about 3:00 (3:01) AM, and Raven was still awake, lying in bed. She fingered her American Eagle tank top and sighed with happiness.
She and Gar had spent the remaining ten or so minutes of the dance and the next twenty or so minutes making out, first on the patio, next down by the lake. It was bliss. Apparently, Terra was okay with it (would Raven care if she wasn't okay with it?).
Now, hours later, Raven was in her own little heaven. 24 hours ago, she had been miserable. Now, she had a boyfriend. Could things get better?
I wish you were here, Raven thought, imagining Gar could hear here. She imagined him in her bed, and fell asleep on that thought. It's funny how heaven can have such different meanings for different people.
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-Giz