Life, Love, & Lemons

by Vernon, Magan

  “Ugh, he wishes.” I pushed Jake off of me and adjusted the scarf around my neck.

  “Dang, Bee, I missed your wit. How’s about you just move into your old house? I’m sure no one is going to buy it for a while and I’ve got plenty of air mattresses,” Brett added.

  “Now that’s something I really do wish for.” I looked down, unsure of what to say next.

  “So I hear your going to be going to East this year?” Gabby’s voice was scratchy, like an old, southern rock star. I’d never really paid too much attention to her before, but it couldn’t hurt to know someone at my new school.

  “Yep, not exactly looking forward to it, but who knows.” I shrugged. “It could be interesting.”

  Chapter 5

  Thug Life

  Let’s face it, the first day of senior year is supposed to be amazing. Normally I would be putting on my St. Christopher’s uniform, some new shoes and knee highs, and have a new hairstyle. This year: nothing.

  It was weird for me to be going to school and not wearing a uniform. I had been going to private school since kindergarten and it was weird putting on street clothes for school. I couldn’t even go out and buy a new wardrobe, so last year’s weekend wear would have to do, and with going to private school most of my life, there really wasn’t much else in my closet.

  I settled, after much deliberation, for a pair of jean capris and a red cowl neck shirt, complete with a red polka dot headband to match. I wasn’t even sure what kind of people I would be meeting, so I had no idea how to dress for the occasion. My hair was also a disaster since I had been trimming my own hair in the bathroom, and I was pretty sure that my layers were uneven. So much for trying to hang out with the popular crowd at East High.

  I was used to a smaller school with a class of only about one hundred. I even had my own parking spot as Student Body President, but East High was a whole new ball game. I pulled into the parking lot and was really hoping that the guys in red bandanas hanging around a Cadillac weren’t going to steal my tires as soon as I left.

  The school even smelled different than St. Christopher’s. My old school had a perpetual scent of frankincense and myrrh; East High smelled like urine and vomit. I almost gagged as I walked through the front doors where I was welcomed by lines of kids going through metal detectors. I thought those were only at airports and prisons, but I guess I was wrong. When it was my turn in line, I set my purse down and headed through the giant metal archway. Just my luck, I beeped.

  “You need to take off those shoes, honey,” an overly tired looking black woman called at me from behind a glass wall.

  “But they’re flip flops!” I protested and shoved my arms out to the sides.

  She rolled her eyes and pointed down to my feet. Begrudgingly I slid off my shoes and set them down next to my purse, along with my necklace and earrings for good measure. Finally I went through without a buzz. I turned back to get my things and realized they were gone.

  No, they couldn’t be gone. I had just set them right there; everyone watched me. I tapped the girl in front of me on the shoulder.

  “Um, excuse me?”

  She was very ethnic looking, probably Eastern European, and her eye shadow made her look like she was in a perpetual bad mood. “

  “Can I help you with something?” She stared me up and down like I was a piece of meat.

  “Yeah, I set my purse and jewelry down on that belt and like, now it’s not there.”

  She cackled—not a laugh—but a genuine witch cackle.

  “Oh, honey, you must be new. No one ever leaves stuff around here. That’s how you get it stolen.”

  “What?” I blinked almost too hard. “Why would someone do that when there are cops standing right there? I mean how could they?”

  She put her hand on the side of my face, her way too long red fingernails almost clawed my cheek. “You’re sweet, too bad you won’t stay that way for long.” She smirked and then left without another word. My first day of senior year was totally not turning out as planned.

  ***

  After my first three classes I realized that this school was probably a year behind everything I had already learned at St. Christopher’s. It was a good thing because I was pretty sure I could get all A’s without even being challenged but also bad, because I had no idea how well I would be prepared for college.

  I thought that I should check out the board outside the guidance counselor’s office to see if there were any AP classes available. Maybe those would help me at least get in some sort of a path for a scholarship.

  “Hey you.”

  I could recognize that scratchy voice anywhere. I turned around to see Gabby standing there in her orange and black poms uniform. I wasn’t used to seeing Gabby outside of our usual social circles, so it was really weird to see her at school.

  “Hey, Gabby.” I did a stupid little wave and knew I must have looked like an idiot.

  “Wow, bold choice of color. I’m sure the other gang members must have thought you were one of them,” she giggled.

  “This isn’t gang colors it’s American Eagle,” I pouted.

  Gabby rolled her eyes. “All right now I know you must be the new girl that everyone is talking about.”

  “What? People are talking about me?”

  “Well, I don’t know anyone else that brings a Coach purse to school and then gets it stolen within the first five minutes.” She laughed again, but this time it really wasn’t funny, and she quickly saw that it wasn’t. “Sorry, Bentley.”

  “Bee, my friends usually call me Bee,” I said, smiling. Taylor did hate Gabby, but I couldn’t lose my shot at potentially the only friend that I would have at East.

  “Whoa, looks like the gangs got a new recruit!”

  And there was another voice that I was only wishing I could forget; Kai’s.

  He sauntered over toward Gabby and I with his tight jeans and bright yellow t-shirt, looking like he just walked out of an eighties dance video.

  “Hey, Wham called they want their clothes back.” I smirked in his direction.

  “Wait…” Gabby’s deep brown eyes looked from Kai to me. “You two know each other?”

  “Oh yeah.” He rested his elbow on my shoulder like we were old friends. “Thug life here and I go way back.”

  “Ew…” I pushed his elbow off. “No, Kai and I just work together and kind of live next door to each other.”

  The bell rang and Kai ran back to his little eighties punk rock friends.

  “I think Jake may have some competition,” Gabby joked, nudging me with her elbow.

  “First off, Jake and I are way over, and second off, I would never ever go for a guy like Kai.”

  Chapter 6

  I Will Never Wear Red Again

  At St. Christopher’s, we had open campus for lunch, so usually Taylor and I would head out to the mall or grab sushi. But at East there was no open campus. Only a gym that doubled as a cafeteria and not one friendly looking person or hair-netted lunch lady.

  I wrinkled my nose, walking by the mystery meat in the lunch line and decided that going hungry was better than possibly dying by cafeteria food.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket. I looked down and unlocked the screen to see a text from Taylor.

  How is your first day going?

  I wanted to tell her how horrible everything was. How I missed doors on the bathroom stalls and kids that didn’t scream obscenities in class but instead I just sucked it up.

  Fine, yours?

  I found an empty table and sat down, not really caring who was around me, but just happy to be able to text.

  “Hey, ese, you’re sittin’ on our side,” A guy yelled to my left. I glanced over to see if he was talking to me. He was probably one of the biggest guys I had ever seen. And for being that big, he really should have picked a better color than red.

  “This ain’t your side, boy.” I looked to my right and a very tall, scrawny, dark-skinned guy with an over sized blue shirt on stan
ding there glaring at the red-shirt guy.

  “Who you callin’ boy?” The red shirt guy took a step closer. “This is red territory, even Barbie here knows that.”

  Eep, the large man was talking about me.

  “Yeah, well you and Barbie can take all your red crap and shove it up your ass!” the guy in blue yelled, and I jumped out of the way before he threw his fist into the other guy’s face.

  After that I never wore red to school again.

  ***

  Somehow I made it through the rest of the day. I had no idea how but at least Gabby was able to introduce me to some other girls on the pom squad, and my teachers didn’t seem all that bad. The school had some major cuts, so a lot of the older and experienced teachers were forced into early retirement, and most of the new teachers were fresh out of college.

  One teacher in particular I felt bad for was our English teacher, Miss Winter. She seemed like she was so excited to start her first day of teaching but it only ended with a lot of kids yelling racist remarks and completely ignoring her for most of the ‘getting to know you’ lecture.

  Luckily, English was my last class of the day, and I could finally get the hell out of there. I had to work, but I knew as soon as I had a break, I would go down to the police department and report my purse stolen. Ugh, now I was going to have to go through the trouble of getting a new license and digging for my spare key under the car.

  I tried to keep my head down and not make eye contact with anyone as I walked out to the parking lot but was stopped dead in my tracks when I saw Kai lying on the hood of my car with my purse dangling from his fingertips.

  “You jerk!” I ran up to my car and snatched the purse from his hand. “Why would you steal my purse? That’s like a felony, and I have no problem pressing charges!” I quickly searched through it to make sure that everything was there.

  “Whoa..whoa..” He slid off the car and put his palms out, facing me. “I didn’t take your purse.”

  I met his eyes for the first time. He actually looked sincere, well as sincere as you can look when you’re trying to convince a freaked out girl that you didn’t steal her purse.

  “Some girls were going through it in my chemistry class and when I found out it was yours, I kind of convinced them to hand it over to me.”

  “And how exactly did you do this great convincing act?” I asked.

  “Let’s just say, I’m pretty good at what I do.” He put his hands behind his head and stretched out, like he was trying to impress me with his body. Which, on closer inspection, wasn’t as bad as I originally thought. I even saw a hint of abs when he raised his arms and his shirt slightly rode up. No, no. I couldn’t be checking him out.

  “Well, thanks, you really didn’t have to do that.” I almost felt bad being so mean to him, but I was pretty sure that he would come up with some smart-ass comment to make me forget about that.

  “You would do the same for me.” He smiled a big toothy smile before he hopped off my car and walked away, leaving me wondering what was up with the guy in the girl jeans and why I couldn’t get him off of my mind.

  Chapter 7

  Why Would I Buy Used Clothes?

  Wednesday night was always Taylor’s and my sushi night. Of course that was post getting our driver’s licenses and pre-Dad’s lay-off. Now sushi night was getting harder and harder to pull off.

  Bee come on you’re my BFF & I haven’t seen you in 4ever and a day!

  Those were the kind of texts that I had been getting all week from Taylor before I finally gave in. I had to switch my work schedule so that I worked Saturday and Sunday just so someone would pick up my Wednesday night shift. Now the only problem was finding the money to go. I didn’t get paid until the following week and since Dad was looking more pitiful than ever, I couldn’t bear to ask him for money. I couldn’t have him give me that big, long dopey sigh, again.

  The only place I could think of to get some quick cash was to go to one of those clothing re-sale shops. I had never been in one, but I always saw them advertised on TV and knew that I had to get some money somehow. The stupid people that stole my purse also took my last twenty dollars and with my car almost being on empty, I really needed a full tank of gas and sushi money.

  “Welcome to Pandora’s!” a way too cheery brunette said from behind the counter.

  I smiled and plopped my big box of everything I was willing to part with on the counter. There was at least a couple hundred dollars worth of clothes in there, so I hoped to have enough money left to get myself something extra.

  “Are you looking to sell some clothes then?” She kept that same stupid smile pasted on her way too glossy lips.

  “Um, yeah.” I thought the big box would have given it away but maybe her bad dye job had gotten to her brain.

  “All right, well, just like, fill out this form, and it should take me about ten minutes to go through this.”

  She was way too giddy to be working this job, but then of course I was the one with the burger job, so I shouldn’t really be judging. I filled out the form that basically just wanted my name, phone number, and address then I browsed the racks.

  I had never been in a resale shop and wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Some of the clothes looked really worn and some of them I couldn’t believe were so cheap! There was a shirt that I paid fifty dollars for a few months back at Abercrombie, and they were selling for ten bucks! Crazy, I know.

  “Miss Evans, your stuff is ready!” the girl called.

  I slowly walked back over to the counter to see two piles of clothes sitting there. The girl pushed the larger one in my direction.

  “These ones we weren’t able to take.”

  I looked down at the pile and thought she couldn’t be serious. These were some of my more expensive items! My Michael Kohrs blouse that I wore for Homecoming court two years ago, a pair of stovepipe jeans, and my favorite black Steve Maddens from freshman year.

  “What do you mean you weren’t able to take them?” I wrinkled my nose.

  “They were either out of season or too worn. You know, those types of things.”

  This was a used clothing store. How could things not be worn? Ugh, I’d better at least get a decent amount for the things in the other pile. I knew that was at least a couple hundred spent on the two jeans on top alone.

  “But these we are willing to buy, and we’re offering you $38.50 in cash or store credit.” She beamed like she had just offered me a million dollars.

  My mouth literally gaped open. “You can’t be serious. $38.50?” I picked up one of the shirts from the pile. “This shirt alone was sixty bucks and it’s from Banana Republic in downtown Chicago!”

  What the heck? Money or a trade in used clothes? Why would I buy used clothes?

  The girl cowered behind the counter. It would take almost forty bucks just to fill up my gas tank and then I wouldn’t have any money for sushi. I wanted to cry and scream in anger all at the same time.

  “I’m sorry but with the normal wear and tear and with it being last season…” She bit down on her lower lip nervously and wouldn’t even meet my eyes.

  This is what I had come to. I was broke and was about to settle for $38.50 on over three hundred dollars worth of clothes.

  “Fine.” I let out a very large sigh. “I’ll take it.” I put ten dollars in my gas tank and prayed that would last me another week and a half.

  Then I knew that I would really have to budget on the sushi and maybe only get a small California roll or something. I pulled up to Hoshi and parked right next to Taylor’s Eclipse. Great, she was waiting for me. I hoped I wouldn’t be getting a tongue lashing. She may have been my best friend, but sometimes she was a bit of a drama queen.

  “Oh em gee, I feel like I was waiting forever!” Taylor sprang up from the stone bench she was sitting on just outside the restaurant and near a small koi pond.

  She had changed out of her uniform and into a black cocktail dress and done her hair into an extravagant curly
up do. Sushi happy hour was always our own mini dress up night. Of course standing next to her in her brand new dress, I looked like a downgraded version with my pale yellow sundress and my hair still flat and stringy from the horrible water pressure in our shower.

  “And looks like you did your hair a new way.” She ran a perfectly manicured nail through my hair. I think she even actually wrinkled her nose.

  “Yeah, next paycheck I am definitely getting into my hairdresser.” I tried to force a fake smile.

  “You can say that again; I think you have more roots than a Hooter’s waitress!” She giggled and tossed my blonde locks aside.

  “All right enough jokes at the poor girl’s expense.” I sighed and headed through the large glass doors with Taylor by my side.

  “I’m so glad you came. For a minute I thought you were going to ditch me or bring your new Bee eff eff, Gabby, along.” She heaved out a big sarcastic sigh before taking a sip of her Japanese soda.

  I ordered water. I glimpsed at the menu and was glad the water was free because the cheapest sushi meal was twelve bucks, which would only leave me with about ten bucks for the next week and a half after tax and a tip.

  “Gabby’s not replacing you, Tay. She’s just someone to hang out with at school.” I took another sip of my water as I scanned the menu for something that might be cheaper.

  “I don’t even know what Brett sees in her. Just because she’s a dancer or whatever, doesn’t make her something special.” She rolled her eyes over exuberantly.

  “Do you maybe want to split a sushi dish?” I piped up, really trying to change the subject off of Gabby. Truth be told, I really enjoyed her company at school. She had introduced me to all of her friends and made sure that none of my stuff was stolen again. It was also really quite refreshing to be able to talk with someone else who was on a budget. I don’t think Taylor even knew what that word meant.

  “Ew, I don’t share my food with anyone but my dog.” Taylor wrinkled her nose and looked down at me.