Disclaimer: I don't own the BSC.
Changing Lanes
Chapter 8: Thanksgiving
A month passed since Cary and I had gone out on our first date. Halloween went and gone, Austin Bentley held our last Halloween party as a class together. And before I knew it, it was time for thanksgiving. Dawn was due to arrive today, and Claudia had sweet talked Alan into driving Mary Anne, Claud and I to the airport to pick her up. Alan was a pretty safe and responsible driver, which surprised me considering outside the car, Alan was sometimes not a safe and responsible person. It was raining pretty bad, which seemed to match Mary Anne's mood. I knew it had something to do with Dawn coming home for five days. I knew she was happy, but with everything that has been happening with Sharon, Mary Anne's stepmom and Dawn's mom, I knew it wasn't going to fun.
"What gate is she getting in at?" Alan asked as we rushed inside to escape the rain.
"Eight." Mary Anne shaking her hair free of rain. "Let's just double check in-case they changed it." We walked until we found the little TV's that showed departure and arrivals.
"There. American Airlines Flight 4452, schedule to arrive at 12:20 at gate eight." Claudia said, pointing up at the highest screen. She looked at her watch. "That's in ten minutes." We found our way to gate eight and sat down in the chairs that faced the window.
"It hasn't arrived yet, which is good." Mary Anne said.
I looked down at her hands. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing?" She asked, her eyes wide and her hands kept moving.
"Alright..." I said turning back to the window.
"I think her plane landed." Alan said, pointing at the plane that was slowly making it's way down the runway. "I haven't seen Dawn Schafer in years." He said.
Neither had we, I wanted to say. I wonder if he thought that we saw her every summer and holiday break or if Claudia had told him that she hadn't seen her. We stood up and moved towards the gate entrance. People began to exit the two doors and I craned my neck looking for a blonde head.
"Dawn!" Claudia screeched into my ear, waving her arms. That's when I saw her. She was taller, blonder and tanner. She rushed towards us, her hair flying behind her.
Dawn hugged Mary Anne first, then Claudia, then me and turned to Alan. "You two are still together?" She asked, eyebrow raised.
"Yes, we are!" Claudia said. "Look at your hair!"
Dawn shrugged. "Yeah, it's grown a bit since I last got it cut." She said. "Look at you guys! You all look so different." I looked at Claudia and Mary Anne. I didn't think we had changed at all. None of us had grown, we still had the same hair colour and dressed almost identical to what we used to.
"I guess..." Mary Anne said. "How's everything been in California?" She asked as we made our way towards baggage claim.
Dawn sighed. "All the crazy has finally died down. Jeff's a freshman now, Gracie goes to daycare, Vista's pretty much the same, Carol is still Carol, Dad is still Dad..." She said as she searched for her suitcase. "How's everything here?"
"Still the same." I said.
"Kristy is going out with Cary Retlin." Claudia blabbed. I felt my stomach turn. The last that Dawn knew was that Cary and I were always at each other's throats.
Dawn turned around. "Are you kidding?"
I shook my head. "No..."
Dawn laughed. "That's crazy. You hated him so much in grade eight." She leaned across some little girl and grabbed her suitcase. "Okay, I found it, we can go."
I looked at Mary Anne. She was a bit quite. "Are you okay?" I whispered in her ear.
She nodded. "Yeah I am." I didn't believe her.
/
Alan dropped me off at my house. Dawn had chatted the whole way home about California. Her friends, her school, her family. We all stayed silent and listened. Dawn had applied for Sarah Lawrence, the same school as Mary Anne and apparently so had Dawn's friend Sunny. I wondered if Mary Anne had been happy about that. Sam's car wasn't in the driveway, so that meant he wasn't home and either was Mom's or Watson's. The house was pretty quiet. I walked up the stairs and towards my room. Karen's door flew open. "Cary called." She said, her arms crossed over her chest and her eyebrow raised.
I shrugged. "Okay... Thanks." I stared at her. "What are you wearing?"
Karen looked down. She wore a singlet top that was low cut and the short denim skirt. "What's wrong with it?" She asked.
I rolled my eyes. "Don't come complaining to me when someone calls you a hooker." I said, smiling. I turned and walked down to my room and closed the door. I picked up my phone and dialed Cary's number.
"Hello?"
"Hi, is Cary there?" I asked as a I flopped onto my bed.
"Yeah. Cary! A girl is on the phone!" The voice screeched in my ear. I mouthed ow.
"Hi?"
"It's me."
"Hello 'me'."
I smiled. "Why you ring?" I asked.
"Um, to see what you were doing."
"I went with Claud and Mary Anne to pick up Dawn from the airport and now I'm home, bored."
"Want to do something?"
"Yeah... Come over."
"Okay, I'll be there soon."
"Okay, bye."
"Bye." Click. I sat up as I put the phone down next to me. I stared around my room. Cary is coming around and my room is disgusting. I quickly picked all my clothes up and shoved them into my closet. I closed my door and looked around. It looked a bit better. I think. Dawn's laugh and then "That's Crazy. You hated him so much in the eighth grade." kept replaying in my head. It was true that we didn't exactly get along. I laughed as I imagined someone telling my eighth grade self that I was worried that Cary would think my room is disgusting. She'd probably ask if you had been hit on the head. The doorbell rang and I sprinted out and down the stairs before Karen could even open her door and be all nosey about who was at the door. I opened it.
"Hi!" I said. I frowned as I realised that I sounded a little too excited, which for me, was a bit odd.
"Hey." He said as he walked in. "Whose home?" He asked.
"Just the younger ones and Nannie." I said as we walked up the stairs, tip-toeing past Karen's room.
"Ah, okay. It's a little quite than normal."
"Yeah, it's a bit creepy but nice." As we entered into my room I scanned for anything that was A, gross or B, embarrassing. I sat down on my bed and watch Cary as he looked at my photos, yet again. "What do you wanna do?" I asked.
Cary shrugged his shoulders. "Doesn't bother me."
I laughed. "It doesn't bother m-" I was cut off by Cary kissing me. As he pulled away, I smiled. "Or we could do that."
/
I woke up early on Thanksgiving Day because I had promised Nannie that I would help her set up. There was a knock at my door and Mom popped her head in, holding out the phone. "It's Mary Anne." She whispered.
I looked at her puzzled. I had no idea why Mary Anne was calling me, I thought she'd be spending time with her family and Dawn, considering it had been a while since she last saw her. Mom shrugged and I took the phone off her. "Hello?"
Sniff. "Kristy?"
"Yeah, it's me. What's wrong?" Mary Anne was upset.
Another sniff. "I can't be here right now." She said.
I looked up at my Mom who was organising my desk, pretending to not eavesdrop. "What? What's going on? Tell me what's wrong."
"Can I come there?"
I snapped my fingers and covered the mouth piece. "Can she come for dinner?" I whispered. Mom nodded and left the room. "Yeah, Mom says it's okay. Just bring something nice to wear."
"Thank you so much Kristy. I'll be there soon." Click. I put the phone down and rubbed my eyes. I wonder what happened that made Mary Anne not want to spend Thanksgiving with her family. I had a quick shower and got dressed. I was doing some homework when someone knocked on the door. "Kristy?" Mary Anne opened the door.
I put my pen down and swivelled around on my chair. "Hey." Mary Anne did not look good. Her face was red and blotchy. "What's wrong?" I asked as I stood up.
Mary Anne's face crumpled and she flopped onto the bed, hiding her face in my comforter. "I thought maybe everything would go okay but no." She said.
I lied down next to her. "I'm lost."
"Dawn."
"Oh..."
Mary Anne sat up and wiped her eyes. "You know how Sharon always goes on about Dawn and Jeff and how fabulous they are and that I should work harder at school..." I nodded. "Last night at dinner, all Sharon could do was complain about how Jeff didn't want to come for Thanksgiving and that he didn't know whether or not he wanted to come for Christmas now either and then Dawn said it was because he has a girlfriend and that he's got friends and he wants to be with his dad and he doesn't want to miss anything over there and Sharon got angry and took it out on me. She embarrassed me, telling Dawn all these things I had told her in private, that I hadn't told Dawn and then she said I was too dumb to apply for college and that I would be lucky enough to get into community college."
"Wow, she's a bitch." I said. "I can't believe she said you were dumb. You're really smart, and you will go to college, I know that. For a fact. I mean, why else would your English teacher pressure you to apply for Dartmouth and Northwestern and places like that? She's just a cranky bitch whose just trying to make herself feel better by putting you down."
Mary Anne's eyes welled up with more tears. Oh god, I've said something that has made her more upset. She leaned across and hugged me. "Your such a good friend, Kristy. I'm so glad your mom let me come over."
I hugged her back. "It's okay. Did Dawn stick up for you, by any chance?" I asked.
Mary Anne shook her head. "Dawn seemed to avoid talking about it. All she talked about was California and her school, her friends, her awesome life she's leading over there and that she's glad she chose to live over there back then. She said she doesn't know what she'd be like if she hadn't."
"Do you wanna have a shower?" I asked. "They always make me feel better after I've been crying."
Mary Anne smiled. "Sure."
/
I spent Black Friday with Claudia and Mary Anne at Washington Mall being dragged around for hours while Claudia shopped. No wonder why Alan only dropped us off and picked us up. I did shop for myself a little bit but I quickly grew bored of it. Shopping has never really been my thing. I wondered why Dawn didn't come with us but I invited her to have a sleepover on Saturday along with Claud and Mary Anne. Mary Anne was a little quieter than normal, which earned a concerned glance from Claud to me. I wasn't one to tell things that someone else didn't probably want as public knowledge, so I'd leave it up to Mary Anne to tell Claud what happened. I was aimless walking through the house on Saturday when the doorbell rang. "I've got it!" I shouted in case Karen, the busybody, came out of her room just look at who it was. Dawn stood on my front stoop. "Hi." I said, surprised.
Dawn smiled. "Hi. I thought I'd come over and say hey cause I don't have much time left here, and I don't know whether or not you had any plans."
I shook my head. "Nope, I'm free. Do you want to come in?"
Dawn nodded. "It's far to chilly out there for me." She said as she pulled her boots off. I led her up the stairs towards my room. "Your house hasn't changed much since I last saw it."
I shrugged. "Not really." I opened my bedroom door and sat down at my desk chair. "So, what's up?"
Dawn looked around before sitting on the edge of my bed. "Not much."
"So, you're planning on going to Sarah Lawrence too?" I asked. I didn't know much about Dawn anymore. If you asked four years ago, I could probably tell you everything. She felt like a stranger now.
"Yeah, it's my only east coast choice. I hope I get in. I hope Mary Anne and Sunny do too. It would be cool if we could live off-campus all together." She said. "I know things are tense between my mom and Mary Anne. I just don't know what to say, which I know is a bad thing. I mean, my mom is my mom and Mary Anne is my sister and one of my best friends, even though we never really talk anymore."
"It's a difficult situation. Someone will get hurt in the end." I said.
"I know. I can't defend one person without the other person getting angry and upset. It's why I asked Mary Anne if she'd come to California for spring break. I'm already coming back for Christmas and the only holidays after that is spring break and I know it would be good for her to get away from my mom."
"It's a good idea." I said. "Jessi said she's coming back for Christmas."
"Almost a mini BSC reunion of a sort." Dawn said, giggling.
"We should all meet up and like, go out for dinner." I said. "Except the only people I don't see going is Mallory and Stacey."
"Mary Anne told me about Mallory..." She said before trailing off into laughter. "I can't believe that she's probably changed the most."
I sighed and looked up at the photo of us all four years ago. "I know."