Chapter Six: A Big Conglomerated Mess of Melodrama
~Leia Bai~
"Mia will freak if I don't wait for her." Danny protested as the rest of his football buddies watched us. They were always watching.
"Dancing is my thing. I love it, okay and you love dancing with me … and I promise no grinding."
"What?? That's the best part." Danny joked as I shoved him in the chest playfully. This guy was a total jackass.
"Now I love grinding more than any guy, I swear I do, but I'm trying to keep you out of the dog house. We'll both be good tonight." I offered as the two of us hopped into the center, thus entering the unofficial dance-off. God, I loved being the center of attention.
Everyone started cheering louder and louder as Danny dipped me and as I did a kick, nearly knocking his head with my foot.
Just as I felt the adrenaline rushing, a tap on my shoulder changed everything. Mia.
"Go ahead. Take my place … I'm tired anyway." I lied, watching as the crowd thinned as I left. Ha.
"Do you always have to be the center of attention?" A male voice asked as I turned to see Sean. He looked so sexy in his wife beater and plain-colored jeans.
"You showed up." I commented with a smile, stopping myself from skipping over to him like a giddy little school girl, but that's exactly how I was feeling. At that moment I was very happy about my choice to wear my purple halter top and white jeans. I looked fabulous.
"I need my phone." Sean got right to the point.
"Of course but … you're not even going to enjoy the carnival? We're trying to raise money for a new computer lab at Degrassi with Mac computers and everything."
"Good for you."
"Spirit squad is leading it, but everyone knows that the dance team is the real brains behind this operation. We've gotten pretty much everyone to contribute."
"Leia … what's this about?"
"Nothing." I stood directly in front of him, taking Sean's hands in mine. "I just want you to have fun with me … learn that I don't bite unless you want me to." I joked. I couldn't help myself. The things that went through my mind when Sean was around were nothing compared to what actually come from my mouth.
"When you say stuff like that it makes me wonder…" Sean said in disgust.
"I'm sorry, okay? Most guys I know respond to that." I sighed, giving up and reaching into my purse for his phone. "Here you go. Take it." Sean took the phone as I realized that something was in his back pocket. "Hope to see you tomorrow." I added, getting closer to him and reaching my hand into his pocket for my phone. His butt was firm, really firm.
I tried not to look back up at him and instead practiced on my walk away from him, but instead I just felt like this huge failure so I couldn't help but study the ground. Now what was I going to do?
"Hey Leia … wait…" Sean walked briskly after me. He was so cool about everything because he was the one that had the control, not me.
"Coming back to beat me back into the ground again?"
"No … I wanted to know if you want to meet up sometime--"
"What, like a date?"
"Not exactly."
"Yeah, just tell me when." I shrugged, feeling renewed that me having Sean wasn't a hopeless dream.
"Saturday for lunch? I'll call you and tell you where."
"Maybe." I answered back with a smile small. It was a victory, a small victory, but I would take it. "I feel like I should walk you to your car or something." I joked as Sean shrugged his shoulders, waiting for me to catch up.
~Alli Bhandari~
"I should totally go and give her a piece of my mind, right?" I asked K.C. who was still looking for Claire. These two were so pathetically into each other. "Would you listen to me for half a minute?"
"You've been talking the entire game."
"Look, it's only been thirty minutes. No big deal. And you should be mad at Claire. She's the one who bailed on us for the carnival."
"That's because you wanted to skip class." He pointed out.
"It's a school event. How is that skipping?" I justified as Mohammed came into my view. I shuddered and try to ignore him as he sat a few seats away.
"This day just gets better and better." I muttered as K.C. didn't bother to ask what was wrong with me.
"I'm going to go see if she's here yet."
"Wait. You can't." I commanded as K.C. just brushed if off.
"Sorry, I can't be as cold to her as you're being. I'll call you when I find her."
"Even I felt that all the way over here." I heard Mohammed say loud and obnoxiously. It was like he had two different sides, one where he seemed so smart, mature, and intelligent and then this side where he sat around and made fun of everyone and everything. That side of him made it all the more easy for me to just suck it up and forget that I ever had a crush on him.
"If I had huge elephant ears like yours I would've heard that too." I shot back crossing my arms over my chest.
"Uh-oh. I'm still sensing a little animosity on your part. You're still not over that ICE thing?" Mohammed wondered, this time sitting beside me rather than yelling jokes over the tops of people's heads.
"No. I've put my efforts into more meaningful groups on campus, you know productive organizations. Must be hard being president now that ICE has fallen so low this year. Tell me, how's that going by the way?"
"You're good." He chuckled back, facing towards me and looking at me with this huge intensity that made my heart want to skip a beat. "In all honesty, I think that was the stupidest decision we made this year, I made. After all, I agreed to go along with it."
"Does dark skin disgust you that much?" I wondered, not able to help myself. I bit my lip in anticipation hoping that the mere sight of me didn't make him want to poke out his eyeballs out.
"You know how it is in the Indian word. Lighter is better. Always."
"I know that, but … do you believe it? Do you think--"
"Hey Mo, get over here loser!" One of the "lighter" girls from ICE yelled, throwing a foam football at his head.
"We're done here." I dismissed him, assuming that that girl, Sumni, was probably his new girlfriend or at least a prospect and his avoidance of my question told me exactly how he felt about a girl like me.
Suddenly, I didn't want to be at this stupid football game. I didn't care about Claire or K.C., my brother, Mohammed … anyone. The only thing I wanted to do was rush home and pile as much of that cream onto my face and let it sit there for a couple hours until it felt like it was working.
~Armando Felix Gutierrez Martinez-Hassan~
The one person that I did not want to see at this point, besides Hana was her step-son Mohammed. I wondered if he knew what happened between us. We were out in the open. Someone had to have seen something.
So instead of burning off steam like I would normally do in a situation like this, I went to this Degrassi carnival thing. It was sort of required for the varsity team or at least that's what Danny made everyone think. So far I had creamed four people in the face with pies, won three stuffed animals and gotten the high score for basketball.
And if Mohammed was here, I would have run into him already since I'd scanned the place at least three times. The only thing that I had not yet done here was get something to eat and eating at a carnival was my worst nightmare. Buttery popcorn, sugary cotton candy, fatty funnel cakes, medieval Turkey legs … everything that had gotten me to the 310 mark.
But my stomach was talking to me, really loudly and had it not been for the loud music and sounds in the background, I would have had to sequester myself in a corner so that no one else knew. I could wait until I got home to eat anyway … getting down to 250 pounds in less than four months didn't happen by itself. It required sacrifice and that sacrifice sometimes consisted of eating chicken breast and broccoli everyday …
Against my obvious need to consume something, I walked in the opposite direction of the food. As the smells faded, I felt myself returning back to normal. I popped in a stick of gum to curb the hunger while still permitting me to burn calories. As I looked down to stuff the wrapper into my pocket, I felt myself collide with someone.
"Not you again." I muttered as I came face to face with Angela.
"You should learn to watch where you're going."
"And you should learn to dress like a normal person." I hawked back, noticing her all black ensemble consisting of tights, a skirt, boots, a shirt … "Funeral much?"
"Very funny … idiot. I'm actually going to that tent over there." She pointed to a spot behind me.
"A fortune teller tent? No wonder why you're going in all black. Bracing yourself for some bad news?"
"No worse news than repeatedly running into you everywhere I go." Angela rolled her eyes. "Fortune telling can be really insightful … especially for someone as sad and misguided as you Fefe."
"Hey dude, where've you been?" Danny van Zant ran into me with a couple of other players from the team. "All of us are entering a hot dog eating contest. Winner gets the single room when we go to next weekend's away game."
I looked at Angela who took this as a chance to take another stab at me. "I see that once again actually having a brain is no prerequisite for being on the team. Oh wait did I use a big word. Prerequisite means--"
"I know what it means." I snapped, as she smirked to herself.
"Look man are you finished here? It's about to start." Danny urged.
"Yeah, are you like done here or like what?" She put on her best valley girl voice.
"No thanks."
"What?" Danny and Angela said concurrently.
"Yeah umm … I promised Angela here that I would go to the fortune teller thing with her…"
"Oh yeah." Danny nodded. "Dark tent, girl. I got you dude. Later." He gave me a quick pat on the back and run off with a bombastic stampede following him.
"Nice cover." Angela rolled her eyes, walking off and leaving me behind.
"Thanks for not saying anything." I admitted as my grumbling stomach started again. We were nearing the food.
"Is that the reason you've lost your status as a Bigger Loser contestant? I'm not idiot." She continued. "Starving yourself isn't the answer."
"I'm not starving." I replied, holding my breath when we neared the candied apples, so as not the inhale their scent, and following Angela into the tent.
~Leia Bai~
"Let's cut to the chase." I began as Sean's car came into view. "I'm only here for one reason."
"Which is?" Sean wondered, unlocking his car.
"To do this." I walked closer to Sean, my hands meeting his body and then my lips meeting his. Before they could fully touch, I could feel Sean pull away, slightly. "No one's around." I promised as his body loosened up and I got what I wanted … and a little more than what I was expecting.
~Armando Felix Gutierrez Martinez-Hassan~
I sat down next to Angela, half-wishing that I had just sucked up the eating contest, ate the hot dogs, and then barfed them up later. I had done it before so it wasn't anything new I just … I don't know.
"Do you not understand English now?" Angela invaded my thoughts, taking my hand and placing it onto the table right besides her. "We're ready to surrender ourselves to the dark side." She said as I nearly freaked out.
"What?"
"Shh. You'll ruin it." She responded with her eyes closed. I looked at the woman sitting across from us the with typical fortune teller costume on but even without it she actually did look like a gypsy. And I vaguely remember seeing her from somewhere … maybe around the club in Toronto?
"Tell me what you wish to see." The woman demanded, keeping her eyes on the crystal ball.
"Will we win the football championship and will I finally get play time in the game?" I wondered, keeping this process as impersonal as possible. Like I would ever talk about Hana or my parents …
"Only the most important things in life?" Angela mocked me once again.
"Football … hmm. You will play in the game, and you will win. Next question … Angela."
"Will I--" Her question was interrupted by the sound of a loud alarm going off.
"That means that my time is up."
"You're kidding." Angela spoke up.
"No. I'm not. Messengers between the supernatural and the normal world need to rest too."
"What about the money we paid?"
"It was free, remember?" I whispered to Angela, which shut her up for a while.
"You can just hang out here until I come back. It might be an hour … or more."
"That sucks." I smirked as soon as the girl left. Now it was safe for me to make my escape out of here.
"Don't get up." Angela walked over to the other side of the table. "Look familiar?" She threw a folder at me that had my name and picture attached plus the exact words that she had just said recorded on a strip of paper. "There's one of me too." Angela continued to rummage through the stack.
"Did you really think it would be real?"
"Not when you're dealing with a phony." She responded. "Now it's my turn." Angela began, beckoning for my hand and then reading my palm, but I wasn't convinced.
"Innovative."
"You don't believe me?" She searched around the table until she found what she had been looking for. "The cards never lie."
"Are you kidding me?" I shook my head in disbelief. "This is some Carmen shit." I responded to the movie that starred my sister's idol, Beyonce.
"You don't trust me?"
"No." I answered, but let her continue anyway. The more time spent in here, the less chance I would run into Mohammed.
~Leia Bai~
Who could I call on to celebrate with me and indulge in this milestone moment? Sean and I had kissed our first non-drunken kiss where he had actually asked to see me again. Me. Life was working my way.
I searched for Danny, but seeing as he was in a hot dog eating contest, which he was losing, I set off for a more feminine companion.
When I saw Angela walk into the tent with that stalker kid, I picked out my phone and dialed Alli's number.
"Hey girl, it's me."
"Who's me?"
"Leia." My response was followed by a click. I shrugged it off and tried again, and again, and again until finally someone picked up again.
"Don't you get the hint? I don't want to talk to you."
"Why? Did I do something?"
"You left me with an insane cult witch girl where I almost got sacrificed while you were cavorting with a cuter, buffer, older guy inside." She complained.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Angela. That girl's a psycho … and then you don't even call me to see what's up."
"I lost my phone. I just got it back and I'm so sorry about whatever happened. When I saw you at school, I thought everything went fine. I tried e-mailing you." I offered.
"Yeah … two days ago. Thanks."
"Alli, seriously can we just hang out and talk about this? I'm sorry okay but I have really great news and I need to share it with someone who gets me and cares about me."
"Good luck finding that person. See you at school."
"Bitch." I muttered after she hung up on me. Whatever happened to her, it couldn't have been that bad and it wasn't my fault.
~Alli Bhandari~
The Friday night game was boring. Saturday was here and I was stuck doing chores and Sunday night meant that I'd have to catch up on homework, so technically today was the only day I had to myself.
Washing the remnants of my exfoliating scrub off my face, I proceeded to place a fifth of the bleaching cream on my face. I was guessing that exfoliating and then using this stuff wasn't the best idea, but I had never had sensitive skin and I wanted my body to get the picture. I wanted it to absorb this stuff and make me lighter permanently.
After caking the substance on my face, I lay down on my bed closing my eyes and trying to think happy thoughts as my skin began to itch. I ignored the sensation and took it as a sign of the product working, finally. I would walk into Degrassi on Monday morning, ignore Leia completely and command Mohammed's attention with my new face only I wouldn't notice him.
But then I will have moved on to other people and maybe I would be meeting up with dark nights by then…
~Armando Felix Gutierrez Martinez-Hassan~
I hadn't been to the gym in two days, a record since starting this new life of mine, but tonight after seeing Mohammed at the carnival and knowing that the game was tomorrow … actually today, I knew I needed to hit the gym. I had to. It was driving me crazy to not be there at this moment and I was pretty sure that Hana wouldn't be there at 1am.
It would be pure luck if my key still opened the place because after what happened that night, I really had no right to be here. But when I saw Hana standing in front of me, looking so beautifully tragic and hurt I had to give into the feelings that I had denied even existed.
Now, I wished that I hadn't. I slid my key into the lock, standing confidently but bracing myself to have to turn back around and take the 20 minute drive back home. Instead, with a double click, the door flew open and I flipped on the dimmer lights.
I rushed to my second favorite machine, the treadmill saving the best for last. I knew I'd be working my ass off in here tonight because I didn't know when I'd get to come back or if I would.
"I've been waiting for you." Hana admitted, looking tired and unsure of herself. With her normally bubbly countenance gone I knew that she had some disturbing news for me like … someone discovered our secret encounter.
"What happened after I left?" I wondered, continuing to prep the machine without hesitation. "Did anyone see?" I remained cool as I started the warm up.
"You're just so nonchalant about it like it doesn't matter either way so I'm wondering if I should even tell you that … no one saw a thing."
"How's that possible? We were out in the open."
"We were lucky, unless someone really did witness the entire ordeal and is just waiting to blackmail me." Hana offered, keeping her distance from me, which was something she never did. I had always thought that to her, personal space didn't exist, but know I knew it did. And I had been the one to draw the line.
"What are you going to do about it?"
"Count my blessings."
"Does that include your new food and clothing store?" I asked, paying more attention to her then what my body was doing.
"No. Unfortunately. Said told me that in order to get any more of his money I'd have to pay him back what this cost in full, plus interest. And he knows that interest is haram. Forbidden. " Hana sighed, sitting down at one of the benches, looking tragically beautiful again. I just wanted to run over to her and—
"Did you get any others interested?" I wondered, blocking out the thought successfully.
"My husband's a very proud man. If I went behind his back and did something like that, actually went through with it, it might tear us apart."
"Can I ask you something?"
"You don't need my permission. Say what you want." Hana responded, a little of her normal personality returning.
"Would that be something that you'd want … to be separated from your husband?"
"Fernando are you suggesting that—"
"No, I'm not at least … not yet I don't think." I slowed down the machine, ready to jump off it at any moment.
"Since we're on the subject I want to tell you that it can never happen again." Hana repeated to me almost robotically which hinted to me that she had been rehearsing it and it wasn't what she truly felt, but I played along anyway.
"I'm really sorry for any … distress that my actions caused. I should have never butt in and gotten so close. I really didn't belong there … that's as close as I can get to apologizing for something that I don't think is wrong."
"Felix, you are a child. You can't vote yet, you can't go to certain places so how do you know what's right and wrong?"
"I know that my lips pressed against yours was the most passionate feeling or high that I've ever had and I want more of it." I hopped off the machine and headed over to the bench.
"Don't do this." She begged as I found myself touching her hands and playing with them. Hands were safe to caress. Her face wasn't otherwise I'd lose control. "I love Said."
"Then why were you waiting around for me?"
(A/N: Review please. --NL)