Ramona and Howie

by Fahiru

It was not his fault if she exaggerated. It was not his fault if she was not having fun. If the stilts broke, if Willa Jean threw a fit, if a guest was insulted, if Beezus cried for a week; it was not his fault. Because there was always Ramona, and Ramona did everything.

7. Busy

Howie did not have very much time to talk to Ramona.

It was his last year of high school and, like most of the time, he was busy. He had to study before he left for school, take notes during school, fill out college and job applications during lunch, and work after school. If he had free time after that, he would either go to the bank to deposit checks or go to the library to study some more.

Ramona, of course, found this terribly boring, and she made it her purpose in life to remind him of this each and every time they met. He would give her a nod, even a smile(because most of the time he wasn't listening), and hurry on his way. Sometimes he would notice her turning beet-red as he strode away, but then his mind would be occupied by other matters. Like school.

Howie, despite his responsible nature, did not know what he was going to do after high school. When he was younger he had wanted to be a sort of jack-of-all-trades, but he knew that he had to start off with something, and he meant to find that something in college. Of course, he didn't actually know which college he wanted either. Should he have been looking at school size? Proximity? Programs? Fields of study? When he had asked Ramona, she had said to look at the mascots. He didn't talk to her about college anymore.

As his time continued to move on, Howie began to experience something that he had never known in his seventeen years of life.

Panic.

His sleep schedule was thrown off because he would sometimes get up in the middle of the night to study, or fill out more applications, or sometimes do push-ups in order to focus better. He couldn't eat very much without feeling nauseous, and he couldn't always concentrate during class. But he didn't let it show. Throughout the day he would be sure to sit up straight and make eye contact with his teachers. This was preparation, after all, for the real world.

And Howie may have been just a little scared.

He had been working on math in his seat by the window when he happened to look down on the front lawn. He spied a sheet spread out over the grass that had some words scrawled on it in blue tempera pain.

WORK HARD, HOWIE!

In the corner he saw a lopsided "Q" that had ears and some whiskers added to it.