by Linda Nelson
Karla pondered over the awkwardness of the conversation about volleyball tryouts. She was surprised that lunch went so well, but all that whispering certainly did bother her.
Karla was lost in thought while she walked down the hall toward her Digital Imaging class. A couple of upper class men who happened to be in a hurry to get to their next class bumped into her causing her a near run in with Gerry while she was not paying attention to the people around her.
She jumped when she almost bumped into him.
The cute guy had stopped at his locker. She had to sidestep quickly to avoid him. Blushing again, she quickly hurried on her way.
I hope no one saw that, especially him, she thought to herself when she looked over her shoulder to see if she was being watched. He looked in her direction and smiled at her. Her face went beet red. Oh, God. I know he must have seen that. She tucked her head down and hurried to her class.
All morning Carol had been gibbering about some new girl who had started today to both Darcy and Maggie.
This was going to be another girl they harassed until she either convinced her parents into moving back to where they came from or sent her to some private school.
The idea was to get her to try out for the volleyball team, and once she was on it they would rough her up some during the practices. A little bit of bullying usually went a long way when it came to intimidating the new kid.
But Carol had not bothered to mention how Gerry had taken a liking to the new girl, Karla.
Maggie saw the way he looked at her during lunch.
This was after Darcy pointed it out to her.
There was no way she was going to stand for this. He was supposed to be her man, no one else’s, especially the new girl’s. If she couldn’t have him, no one could have him.
It was obvious to Maggie and Darcy that Gerry liked Karla by the way he looked at her.
She was pretty, but that made no difference to Maggie, she was going to see to it that the two of them never happened. If that meant that Maggie had to get rid of Karla herself then that was what she was going to do it.
Gerry was her man, and he was going to stay her man.
Chapter ~ 6
The last bell of the day rang. Karla finished writing down the homework assignment that was on the board at the back of the class. The textbook and notebook she stuffed into her bag and slung it over her shoulder, leaving the room.
Karla found the hallway busy with students heading to their lockers. Some students had stopped in groups to chat with friends while others stopped at their lockers to stash unneeded books. She wove in and out of the crowd toward the main doors.
Stepping out the doors, Karla saw Carol standing at the entrance. She appeared to be waving at her while her friends were walking away. Karla thought maybe she was waiting for her or maybe someone else.
She nodded to Carol when she passed where she stood.
“Karla. What are you doing after school today,” Carol called out, stopping Karla from walking by. She had once again reached out and grabbed Karla by the elbow.
Karla thought it was strange of Carol to stop her, instead of going with her friends. No one waits for the new kid. Not even at Karla’s old school, no one ever did that.
“Um… I guess unpacking, other than that, nothing. Why,” Karla responded.
“I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with me today.”
Carol dug her lip-gloss out of her purse and began applying it.
“I don't know…I still have a lot of unpacking to do.”
Karla felt leery of the invitation. All the whispering at lunchtime was still fresh in her mind. She was not sure she should trust Carol. She was having a gut feeling.
“How about this weekend,” Carol smiled, her long blonde hair blowing in the breeze.
“I really don't know. Do you have a phone? I can call you if I can take off for a while,” Karla replied. She was trying to come up with excuses.
“Yeah,” Carol wrote her number down on an envelope she took from her purse. “Here, call me.”
Karla could not help noticing the clutter filling the purse when she opened it.
“Here's my cell phone number.”
Karla had taken a page from her notebook so she could exchange phone numbers with her. She then slung her backpack back up on her shoulder and began to walk away from Carol.
Carol began to follow her down the street. She really did not mind the company. Karla never had to walk to and from school before.
“Oh, cool, you got a cell phone,” Carol sounded impressed. She walked in stride with Karla.
“Yeah, my folks just got it for me. I’m still learning how to text with it,” Karla giggled, thinking of how she loved her new phone. It just had so many functions to learn. The games on it were cool, and it could take pictures.
“I had one, but it died today,” Carol replied glumly, “I accidentally dropped it and now it won’t work. I got to get me a new one.”
They passed the corner store. Carol disappeared for a moment. Karla thought she had gone a different way. She reappeared just as fast as she had disappeared. Karla shrugged it off. They walked for about two blocks and turned down a side street.
“This is my house. Maybe I'll see you later. I’ll call if I have time to hang out with you,” Karla announced as she stopped in front of her driveway.
“Sounds good,” responded Carol. She turned around to go back in the direction they had come in.
Thinking about how weird the walk home was, Karla looked back to see Carol was already up to the end of the street. She turned the corner and disappeared from sight.
Before Karla came out of the school Carol, Darcy and Maggie agreed that they needed to do what they always did to the new kids coming into their school, especially the girls.
Most of the time, just by harassing them they usually wound up moving away or going to a different school because they felt intimidated.
Carol thought Maggie was right. They did not need to be losing their men to some chick from some other school, even though Carol was sure that Karla was not Heath’s type, but just the same, Maggie did have a point.
So Carol agreed they should find out first where Karla lived and then they would go from there to see how they were going to go about intimidating her into leaving their school system.
She waited patiently for Karla to come out the school.
It seemed odd to her that Karla was just going to pass her by like she wasn’t anyone of importance. She was just going to have to make sure this new girl knew she should be respected.
Getting her to stop to talk to her took some effort on Carol’s part. This normally did not happen this way with the new kids. Most of them would be jumping at the chance to be friends with Carol and her clique.
This new girl might be difficult. Maybe she too was a bully at her other school. Carol would just have to find out for herself. She decided to ask her to hang out with her. This was the best way to find out what a person was like, just by getting to know them.
When she asked her, Karla sounded like she was trying to blow her off.
This new girl was making her curious. No one ever blew her off, not Darcy or Maggie, no one dared, except Karladared. Maybe this new girl was different in some way. Maybe the two of them had more in common than she thought.
As agreed, Carol followed Karla home to find out where she lived. If need be they could resort to vandalism to intimidate the new girl’s family.
When they stopped in front of Karla’s house, Carol was surprised to see where she was living. It was the house with the in-ground pool.
That was where Janus had lived. Her family moved down south last year after Janus entered her first year in college. She never had heard which college she had gone to just that she had gotten a four-year scholarship for volleyball.
Janus had brought the Brantwood Volleyball team into its first ever-state championship.
When Carol laid eyes on where Karla was living
, she began to think of alternative ideas. Mostly about parties, pool parties to be exact. Everyone loves pool parties, including Darcy and Maggie.
Maybe this new girl wasn’t going to be so bad after all. They were just going to have to test her and see what she does. They would have to watch her around Gerry for Maggie’s and her sake, even if Gerry was not one bit interested in Maggie to begin with.
Everyone knew Maggie was somewhat crazy. She was a stalker and a nut job with crazy delusional ideas. Even Gerry knew, that’s why he refused to go out with her.
Maggie had been pissed off by this ever since.
Chapter ~ 7
“Hi, Karla how was your day,” her mom greeted her as she walked through the door.
“All right,” Karla set her backpack down on the floor in the kitchen. She had been in a good mood up until now. Opening the fridge, she helped herself to a can of soda. Her mom still seemed to be acting weird. First, this morning with the badgering of breakfast items and now she was hovering over her in the kitchen. Was she sober at this time of the day?
“Was that a new friend,” asked her mom.
Karla braced herself for the ten million-question quiz. She could sense it was coming. She took a couple more gulps of her orange soda before responding.
“Just a girl I met in school today,” she said nonchalantly.
Karla wished her mom worked like most moms, and then she would not be here when she got home from school with her ten million questions.
“Does she live down the street,” her mom went on asking.
Karla drank more of her soda, making it half empty before she reached for the cookie jar to take one. After taking a bite, she responded, “Yeah, Mom.”
“What is her name?”
Her mom was really starting to irritate her with all these questions. She looked at the clock her dad had hung on the wall above the kitchen sink. Wishing she had found a longer way to walk home from school. Maybe Monday she would try taking a different route, just to kill some time.
“Carol. Her name is Carol. Stop, Mom,” Karla couldn't take anymore of her mother's questions, “Stop asking so many questions.”
She picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. With the soda in her right hand and the cookies clutched in the other hand, she decided to escape to her bedroom.
“I just wanted to know how your day went,” her mom called after her.
“Well, it went fine…I'm going to go finish unpacking,” she replied as she opened her bedroom door, having tucked the cookies in the crook of her arm. She reached through the door toward the top of her bureau and set the can down. After pushing her door open the rest of the way, she took her backpack off her shoulder and set it down on the floor next to her bed.
“Got any homework,” her mom asked as she poked her head into Karla's room.
“Mom… Eh. Stop. Yes, I got homework, and I'm gonna do it tonight. Now leave me alone.”
With that, she shut her bedroom door. Karla turned on her radio so she could not hear her mom anymore. She flopped down on her bed to listen to the music and to daydream about the cute guy in history.
Mrs. Centon stood staring at her daughter’s bedroom door. Shut out once again. Didn’t the girl know how hard she was trying to get better?
It was so hard not to take that drink she so much wanted to take.
She kept telling herself she had to do this for Karla and her husband. Still sometimes after incidences like this when her daughter shut her out it made staying sober even harder.
There was no one for her to talk to and her family did not seem to notice that she was trying to make things right.
Depressed once again, Mrs. Centon went to sit alone in the living room, wishing the glass of water she was drinking happened to be something else.
Chapter ~ 8
Karla hid in her room for as long as she could. She fiddled with her cell phone passing the time away. She knew that as soon as she left the comfort of her room the questions would come again from her mom.
She kept her focus on learning the features of her phone. This made the time go by too quickly. Before she knew it, it was dinnertime.
"Karla, can you come set the table for dinner,” her dad called from the kitchen.
Karla had never heard him come home. She wondered how long he had been there.
"Yeah, Dad, coming,” Karla poked the button on her radio, shutting it off.
She left her phone sitting on her bureau, hooked up to its charger. She brought her empty soda can to the kitchen with her. She did not have a trash bucket set up in her room yet. It was probably somewhere down in the basement with other miscellaneous items, which had not yet found a home.
Her dad was in the kitchen helping her mom with supper. A pot of spaghetti sauce simmered on the stove while her dad drained the spaghetti in the sink. Her mom was busy slicing a loaf of Italian bread.
It took her a couple of minutes to discover where her mom had hid the plates. She found them in the cabinet above the breakfast nook. The search for the silverware was easier. Karla found them in the first drawer she opened.
She was not used to her dad being home for dinner. Usually it was just her and her mom, and Karla would try to take her plate straight to her room. She was sure there would be none of that tonight, not with her dad there.
Karla set the table for dinner. She placed an empty glass beside each plate. Thoughts of Carol began entering her head. Thinking it would be an opportune time to ask if she could go hang out with Carol since her dad was there tonight. He most likely would say yes.
She felt nervous about asking her mom. Fearing her mom would say no, just for the sake of saying no. That was the way she was.
Karla waited for dinner to be almost over before she decided to bring Carol up in conversation. She just hoped her dad would say she could hang out with her new friend.
The mall was so close by, and she wanted so badly to walk around it with no parental supervision. Maybe this was something her and Carol could do together while they hung out. Maybe walk around the mall or just around town. Karla would love to see what this place was all about.
Her mom broke the silence.
“Karla made a new friend in school today,” beating Karla to the news of the day.
Karla twirled her spaghetti on the end of her fork. One strand seemed to elude her. She tipped her fork this way and that until finally it cooperated.
“Oh, sweetie, that's just great,” her dad said as he shook more Parmesan on to his plate of spaghetti. His suit jacket hung on the chair behind him.
Karla twirled another fork full of spaghetti. The desire to ask her parents about hanging with Carol began to build up inside her until she couldn’t stand it any longer.
She wondered if she should ask.
“Does she live near here,” her dad asked after he washed a mouthful down with his drink. He scooped up another mouthful as he waited for her response.
“Just around the corner,” Karla answered softly.
Her mom spoke up, “She said her name is Carol.”
Obviously, her mom was excited about Karla's new friend. Karla was beginning to realize this. She did not dare ask about hanging out with Carol while her mom was present, so she held the question back long enough for her mom to leave the room.
“Dad…I was wondering, can I go hang out with Carol this weekend?”
“I don't know. How much more unpacking do you have,” her dad replied as he picked up his empty plate to carry into the kitchen.
She was afraid her mom would step in at any time and say no. Then it would be the final decision at that stage. If she only could get her dad to say yes, right from the start.
Karla quickly finished her plate of food and followed him to the kitchen with her plate.
“I'm almost done unpacking. I should have it all done by tomorrow morning.”
She rinsed her plate off in the sink and placed it in the dishwasher. She noticed her mom was still not in the kitc
hen; must be in the bathroom, she thought.
“Do you have any homework?” Her dad asked. He handed her more dishes to put in the dishwasher.
“Yeah, but I'm gonna do it tonight,” Karla answered. She placed the glasses and coffee mugs on the top rack. The detergent, she poured into the holder and closed its lid.
“Please, Dad. Can I, please? You wanted me to make new friends, and I did. Can I please go hang out with Carol tomorrow,” she pleaded.
Her mom jumped into the conversation, now that she was back in the kitchen.
“I don't know, Karla. You don't honestly know this girl that well yet. She could be one of those types of kids that are in trouble all the time.”
“How can I get to know what she is like if I don't hang around with her,” Karla pleaded. “I know how to stay out of trouble. If she does something we should not do, I will come home immediately.”
Karla shut the dishwasher and turned it on.
“Where are you and Carol going to be? I'm sure you are not going to stay around her house all day,” her mom stated.
“I think she said something about going to the mall,” Karla lied. She braced herself for her mom's big no. She was sure that would be her mom's final answer.
Karla wanted to go to the mall badly, even if she had to go there by herself, without Carol.
“The mall… That's where all kids get in trouble. They shoplift and get arrested. I don't think so. If you want to go to the mall, I will take you there tomorrow night.”
Her mom had the look in her eye. It was where her eyes looked a bit glazed over or slightly hazy. Karla tried to think back to how they looked when she had gotten home from school. It was as if someone had actually been home inside her head earlier. This was so much different than they looked now.
Karla was beginning to feel sorry she had even asked. She didn’t feel like fighting tonight. She knew her mom would say no. Giving her dad one last pleading look, she braced herself for the final answer.
