2. Bad Reputations and Good Afternoon Chats
1469 Words
“Sylvia! Over here!”
I turn around with my tray of food in hand and see Amy waving me over at a table a few rows down. I make my way over balancing the apple that’s toddling in the corner square of the tray.
“Oh my gosh Amy! I have so much to tell you!” I say when I can finally put my tray down and settle in.
“Me too!!” Amy says excitedly.
“Okay! You first.” I say, hoping to save the best news for last.
“Remember Jared?” she asks.
“Gilmore Girls?”
“No Jared West!” she rolls her eyes laughing. “Do you ever think of boys that actually exist?”
I shrug. I can’t help that I have my favorite celebrity crushes.
“They exist in my dreams!” I wink at her, half serious. “But yes, what about Jared?”
Jared West is every small town’s promise of a young, prominent man. He is the JROTC captain and heads several clubs for Bible study and leadership. He is admittedly a tall and handsome boy with blond hair and green eyes. His plans of joining the military after school were well-known since September 11th happened. I can’t help but think of The Glass Menagerie we read last semester, except he is the one who has lady-callers.
“Well I needed a new lab partner and Ms. Annel assigned us together!” she says with the biggest smile.
“Oh! Wait, do you like Jared?” I ask.
“Who doesn’t?? He is freakin' gorgeous!” she says like I should have known.
“I mean, yeah he’s cute, but I guess he’s just not my type.”
She makes a face.
“Do you even have a type?... who isn’t on a TV show?” she added.
“Ha.ha.” I say mockingly, “I don’t have a type per say… but that’s what I wanted to tell you.”
“Ooh! That’s right! What were you going to say?”
“Well… do you remember Andy Bishop?” I inquire.
“Andy? Didn’t he get suspended last year?”
“What!? No, I don’t think so… did he?” I honestly didn’t know.
“I think I heard something about him getting into a fight and he was suspended, but he never came back. I think he was home-schooled.”
I mean… that would explain why I didn’t really see him last year.
“I haven’t heard about that but I guess he’s not home-schooled anymore.” I say, hoping that wouldn’t change what she would think of him.
“Why? Have you seen him? WAIT! Didn’t you have a crush on him?” her eyes are huge.
Amy and I have been friends since the first day of middle school, there wasn’t a single crush, celebrity or not, that we didn’t talk about.
“Well yes. And he’s in my new biology class.” I say with a slight smile. Do I tell her about all the flirting?
“Sylvia! I mean… I guess that’s cool… but do you still like him? What about Patrick?”
Patrick Conley. My boyfriend of seven months to date. We are in the same youth group together at church and during the church retreat over summer, he asked me out. He’s a year older than me and it was a bit of a fuss, really. The other girls in the group obviously had their eyes on him but they smiled and congratulated me on the “snag.” I like them for the most part, but sometimes their smiles were ridiculously fake. I tolerated them anyways, it was the “Christian” thing to do.
“What about Patrick? I’m not crushing on Andy anymore, I just thought it was interesting that he’s in my class now. He’s the only one I actually know.” I say with a shrug.
I’m definitely not telling her about the flirting.
She looks at me with scrutiny, like she knows.
“If you say so… just be careful,” she says. “He’s got a bad reputation.”
I love Amy but she is very set in her ways. Once she makes up her mind about someone, that was it.
“I haven’t heard anything Amy… that’s what they call rumors.” I pointed out.
“Rumors start somewhere. And if you don’t want people talking, you should probably stay clear of him,” she states.
Ready to change the subject, I talk about plans with Patrick for the weekend and she gushes the entire time. In the back of my mind though, I can’t stop thinking about Andy’s smile.
If I don’t stay clear of him, maybe I will be in trouble.
* * *
“How was your first day back?” my older sister asks as I get in.
Mallory could really be my doppelganger but with a few mature features and longer brown hair and slightly more tanned skin. She’s a senior and she goes to a fine arts school on the other side of town so I don’t really get to see her except for the afternoons and weekends. We’re really close despite our age gap.
“It was okay,” I say as I scour the fridge for an afternoon-snack.
I settle on some leftover pizza and heat it up in the microwave.
“You’re going to ruin your dinner with your pre-dinner,” says a stern voice.
I turn around and mom comes into the kitchen from the laundry room.
“Oh I’ll still be hungry for dinner,” I assure her.
She laughs.
“Enjoy it now, darling, but when you get to my age, you won’t be able to eat that without gaining some weight,” she says as she places the laundry basket on the table in the kitchen nook.
My mom isn’t a large woman but she says she’s gained a considerable amount of weight after having me and my sister. I think she’s beautiful. Mallory and I get our dark brown hair from her, but my pale skin comes from her. I can’t tan no matter how long I stay in the sun.
“I could probably use it, all the girls in gym class say I’m too skinny,” I say with a pout.
I hate changing in front of all the girls. I think I have a nice slender body but I notice the judgmental looks I get. I don’t have big boobs but I’m not flat either.
“I wouldn’t worry about that Syl,” my sister says. “They’re all going to look different by senior year, trust me.”
I laugh knowing how true that is. When Mallory was my age she wasn’t as curvy as she is now. She even wore glasses that made her look pretty geeky but that changed when she got contacts her sophomore year. That was the year she started at Jackson’s Fine Arts School and started dressing up and wearing more makeup. All the clothes she wore after a few times, eventually found its way to me.
I smile looking around my kitchen. These are the afternoons I love. Me sitting at the kitchen counter eating leftovers, Mallory sitting at the kitchen table already starting on school work, and mom doing laundry as we chat about our days.
I hear the familiar ringtone of Michelle Branch’s “You Get Me.”
“Oh that’s Patrick!” I say as I toss my plate in the sink and run over to my bag.
“Sylvia don’t be on the phone too long, You’ve got school work and a very limited day minute plan.” Mom yells as I answer my phone on the way to my room.
“I won’t be long!” I promise. “Hello?”
“Hi beautiful!”
“Hi Patrick!” I say as I settle down on my bed, “How was school?”
“Boring without you,” he says.
I blush.
“How was yours Syl?”
“It was fine,” nothing exciting… at all. “I only have lunch and gym with Amy so I’m a bit bummed.”
“You don’t have any classes with Marie?”
Marie Blake. She is a girl my age that goes to youth group with us, and one of the girls who congratulated me.
“I have gym with her, why?” Why was he asking about her?
“I was just wondering. You’re both sophomores at the same school, the odds are kind of small.”
Oh, duh.
“Wait! How was basketball tryouts?”
There’s a weird silence and then a sigh.
“Not great,” he says.
“Oh. I’m sorry.” I don’t know what else to say.
“It’s fine. I just don’t want to be on JV this year. I know I’m cut out for Varsity.”
Patrick was pretty good, but Lannister High’s basketball program is one of the best in the county and probably the state.
“Maybe you’ll get picked up next year?” I suggest.
“College scouts start looking at you in your junior year, I can’t wait until then,” he says, a little frustrated.
“I’m sorry, I don’t really know how all that works,” I say.
“I know you don’t.”
Ouch.
A little more awkward silence.
“It’s okay though. I just can’t wait to see you this weekend,” he says.
He has a whole day of events planned for our date. We haven’t really seen each other over break since he stayed with his grandparents up north in Colorado for the holidays.
“I can’t wait,” I say as I start to pull my books from my bag. “Talk to you tomorrow?”
“Yeah, and after that, just another day til I see your pretty face.”
Aww. He’s so sweet.
* * *
- Writer
