by Kitty Parker
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An hour later, we found ourselves by Serpentine Lake, which split Hyde Park in half. We had been wandering around, chasing squirrels and such when we came to it.
Eden took her shoes off, sat on the bank, and stuck her toes in the water. "Oh, it's chilly," she said, retracting them.
"It's not that bad," said Brigid, testing it with a finger.
"It's probably full of shit anyway," muttered Elliot, eyeing a duck paddling on the surface.
"No one's asking you to swim in it, Elliot," Brigid retorted, rolling her eyes. For all her naivety, Brigid was pretty gutsy for a freshman. Most wouldn't dare to talk back to a junior. I mentally gave her props for her courageous awesomeness.
I got out my camera and decided to take a few shots: one of the view down the lake, one of the duck swimming by, one of Eden sitting on the bank when she wasn't looking…
"Lotte, you're not taking pictures of me, are you?" she asked suspiciously.
I hid the camera behind my back. "Nooo," I said innocently.
Kurt snorted. I shot him a nasty look.
Eden rolled her eyes. "Fine, then I get to take one of you," she said.
"Alright," I conceded, handing her my camera.
She stood up and positioned herself. "Stand in front of the bank, there," she said, motioning for me to scoot to the left. "Good. Ok, now on the count of three: one…two…three!"
Just as Eden clicked the shutter, I felt something shove violently into my middle, and I went flying backwards into the lake. As I hit the cold water, a wave of shock passed through me, and I was still. A moment later, I surfaced, sputtering and wiping algae from my face.
My friends were in complete hysterics. I was pissed at all of them for laughing at my plight, but the bulk of my rage zeroed in on one individual.
Kurt, laughing harder than all the rest, lay on the ground clutching his stomach. He pushed me in, I just knew it. I began to see red. Growling, I emerged slowly from the lake and stalked over to him. He stopped laughing as soon as he caught a glimpse of my face.
"You…are…dead!" I shouted, lunging for him.
I must have looked like an enraged rhinoceros or something, because Kurt leapt to his feet and sprinted away as fast as he possibly could.
"Get back here, you dick!" I screamed, chasing after him as a rather scandalized old couple watched in shock. I really didn't care whether or not I was making a scene, though. The only thought on my mind was "Kill Kurt!"
I chased Kurt all the way through the park, ignoring the stitch that I was beginning to get in my side, but the bastard's long legs kept him out of my reach. I thought I had caught him when we reached Hyde Park Corner. The traffic was so busy that he couldn't possibly run across without getting hit. He stood at the curb, looking back at me apprehensively. I approached him slowly, a triumphant look upon my face, basking in my moment of glory and justice. Now he was going to pay!
As I got closer and closer, Kurt suddenly veered to the left. I lunged after him, but he wiggled back to the right and ran past me, back into the park. The bastard had faked me out!
Letting out a cry of rage and frustration, I sprinted after him again. Oh boy was he going to get it when I caught up with him! Blinded by my fury, I didn't see the tree root sticking out of the path in front of me. Within seconds, I was flying forward, hitting the ground with a loud thud.
Kurt skidded to a halt some fifty feet ahead of where I lay and turned around. He didn't laugh, like I had expected him to, but rather walked back toward me with a concerned look on his face. Now he was concerned for my well-being? And he wasn't ten minutes ago when he shoved me into a freezing cold pond from which I could easily have contracted hypothermia? Hypocritical dick.
"Um, are you all right?" he asked unsurely.
I lifted my head from the ground and gave him the evil eye. He didn't deserve a verbal response. He deserved a case of dengue fever.
"I'll take that as a yes?"
I emitted a low growl, still lying on the ground.
"Here," he said, offering his hand. "Let me help you."
I glared at the hand suspiciously before accepting it, making sure that my nails dug into his palm as he pulled me up. He winced, but didn't say anything.
Now that I was no longer sprinting as fast as I was able, the cold of my soaking wet clothes began to affect me. I shivered.
"Are you cold?" asked Kurt.
"What do you think?" I snapped. "You pushed me in the fucking lake will all of my clothes on! Of course I'm cold!"
Sighing, Kurt pulled off his shirt. I almost averted my eyes before I realized that he was wearing a wife-beater underneath. Still, I could make out the contour of his chiseled abs and chest through the thin fabric, and if I wasn't so angry, I might have stared.
"Here," he said, handing me the black polo. "Put this on. You'll get sick or something if you hang around in a wet shirt. Besides, it's white and you're wearing a red bra. Not that I'm complaining…"
I blushed furiously as I looked down and noticed that he was right: my shirt had become completely see-through, and my bright red bra was visible to anyone who happened to look at me. Still, I was fairly confused. Kurt was actually doing something nice for me? Well, that was new. I suppose he just felt guilty about my lips beginning to turn blue.
I accepted the shirt with a sigh. "Thanks," I grumbled. I walked behind some nearby bushes and took off my own wet shirt, pulling his dry one over my head. It was a bit too big on me, but not so huge that I looked like I was wearing a circus tent.
Emerging from the bushes, I walked back over to Kurt and stood in front of him with my arms crossed.
"Well," he said, after an uncomfortable moment of silence. "I guess we should find the others."
He started walking down the path, and I walked with him, my arms still crossed, glaring at the ground.
"You smell like duck shit, by the way," he noted. Apparently, considerate Kurt only hung around when someone was catching hypothermia. He'd left now and jackass Kurt had returned.
Sneering, I shoved him, very pleased with myself when he crashed into a juniper bush.
"What goes around, comes around," I said triumphantly. Karma could be pretty awesome sometimes.
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The following Wednesday was the Fourth of July. I honestly didn't care that I wasn't in the U.S. for it, since I really considered myself to be more German than American (even though I had almost completely assimilated into American culture). Eden was actually happy to be abroad, since her family usually had all of her relatives over, causing her house to become incredibly crowded and her privacy to be all but nonexistent. Besides, she wasn't big on having her cheeks pinched, the inevitable result of too many great-aunts. Brigid was kind of bummed that she had to miss the fireworks. I don't think Jane could have cared less.
"We really should do something, you know," said Brigid, gazing up at the ceiling as she lay upon one of the two double beds in the hotel room.
"Like what?" asked Eden. "Set off fireworks? Not really the best idea."
"Scotland Yard would be all over our asses if we did that," said Jane, snorting.
Luckily, we were spared the mental strain of coming up with a way to celebrate as someone knocked on the door. I stood up to answer it. April Nelson, one of the altos and a well-known chatterbox, was leaning against the doorframe.
"Hey April," I greeted her.
"Hey!" she said happily. "Guess what, guys?"
"What?" asked Jane from behind me.
"There's going to be a party tonight!" April was completely ecstatic, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. "You know how it's the Fourth of July and all? Well, Jen, Bryn, Colette, and I are throwing a party in our room! Well, it'll probably spill out into the hallway, but our room's where the stereo is going to be! Sounds awesome, eh?"
"Definitely!" said Brigid, pleased that something was going on for the Fourth of July.
"Yeah, we'll be there," Jane
agreed.
"Awesome!" said April. "I've got to go set things up. Come at nine, ok? Oh, and leave your door open." And with that, she was gone.
"Sounds pretty cool," I said, shutting the door behind her.
"We're lucky that the entire floor is kids from our group and that Mr. Faulkner is upstairs," said Eden. "There's no way that all of us are going to fit in one room."
"It's definitely going to wind up being a floor party," I agreed.
"Oh! We need to pick out things to wear!" Brigid exclaimed, starting to get excited. She rushed over to her suitcase and began pulling out options.
"We should keep an eye on her," Eden whispered to me, nodding at Brigid. "She's our pet freshman, after all. Wouldn't want John to get at her or anything."
I nodded. "I'll keep tabs on her."
"Good."
I looked at the clock on the bedside table, which read 7:00. "Hey guys, I'm going to take a shower," I announced.
"Cool stuff," said Jane. "Go ahead."
I walked into the adjoining bathroom and closed the door behind me. The bathroom in this hotel was nicer than in most others, at least in my opinion. I think it was because it had a window, even if it was clouded glass so that no one could look in and see you naked. It still let in natural light, a quality that I found important in any room, even bathrooms. Why did I care about the lighting? I honestly didn't know.
Dropping my clothes on the floor, I turned on the water and allowed it to heat up. Once it had reached a satisfactory temperature, I stepped in, allowing the warm water to wash over my body. I absolutely loved showers. I also had a tendency to sing in them. As I lathered the shampoo into my hair, I struck up a rendition of "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. I know, I'm weird. Shut up.
Feeling squeaky clean and having sung "Beauty and the Beast," "The Zephyr Song" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and an aria from a Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta, I emerged from the bathroom, only to find all three of my roommates, Matt, Elliot, Adam, and (to my horror) Kurt collapsed in laughter.
"Dude," said Jane, taking a breath. "You really need to sing quieter."
I stood there, wrapped in nothing but a towel, completely dumbfounded. Everyone else continued to laugh at me. "What the HELL are you doing here?" I shouted at Kurt.
He stopped laughing long enough to answer me. "I came to ask if I could have the shirt I gave you a couple of days ago back," he said. "When I found out that you were giving a free concert, I naturally invited my roommates." He burst into laughter again.
I stomped angrily over to the chair on which I had lain Kurt's shirt. I snatched it up, then turned around.
"Here!" I snapped, throwing it at his head. To my great annoyance, he caught it. Stupid boys with their stupid reflexes.
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At 9:15, we were clad in our cutest outfits and ready to go. While we knew we were supposed to be there at nine, we decided to be fashionably late. "Fashionably late but worth the wait," as Jane had put it.
The four of us made our way down the hallway to April's room, making sure to prop the door to our own room open. Everyone else had done the same, making for an adequately large space to have a party. The music was already booming as we reached our destination.
"Hey guys!" Colette, one of April's roommates, greeted us. "Come on in!"
We walked into the darkened room, and I took a minute to look around. All of the furniture, including the beds, had been shoved to the sides of the room or somehow taken out of it, leaving a large space in the middle for dancing. We were staying in a fairly posh hotel, so the rooms were quite large to begin with. Jen had brought her iPod speakers, which stood on a table in the corner, blaring out dance music. The makeshift dance floor was filled with the kids in our group, bouncing, grinding, and doing God knows what else.
"The drinks are in the next room over, in case you want any," said Colette, motioning to the right, then disappearing into the crowd.
"You guys want to dance?" asked Jane.
"Sure," I said, smiling. I'd always enjoyed dancing.
The four of us found a spot (thankfully not near the couple that was beginning to grope each other) and began to move to the beat of the music. Looking around, I noticed Matt off to the side, talking with Elliot, and apparently searching for someone.
"Eden," I said, getting her attention. I nodded my head toward Matt and raised my eyebrows expectantly.
Eden blushed and kept on dancing. However, I noticed that there was a bit more sway in her hips. I chuckled to myself.
"May I have this dance?" asked someone behind me, pretending to be aristocratic.
I turned around to smile at Bryce. "Why I would be honored, Mr. Yates."
In complete contrast to the posh air that we put on, Bryce and I began to grind. Now don't get me wrong, there was absolutely nothing romantic going on between the two of us. We were just good friends, and that was how we danced.
At the end of the song, we broke apart and continued to dance in a large group. The next one of us to find a partner was Jane. Luke Warren, one of the guys who had been in Hyde Park with us and who was generally very pleasant and genial, asked her to dance about half an hour into the party. They continued to dance for six songs straight and looked as though they were having a pretty good time.
I personally was really hoping for Eden and Matt to dance. I knew that Eden was too shy to ask him, though, so it really all rested on Matt. He hadn't really been dancing that much, but rather standing off to the side and chatting with friends. I noticed that his eyes often wandered to where Eden was dancing. I could also tell that she knew that he was watching her, and was therefore dancing in a more erotic way than she normally would. Knowing her, this was all she would do to try to get his attention. She wasn't one for the active pursuit of boys.
About an hour into the party, Brigid announced that she was going into the next room to get a drink. This seemed perfectly fine to the rest of us. When she still hadn't returned after twenty minutes, though, I began to worry. Excusing myself from the group, I decided to go check on her.
As I walked into the room with the drinks, my heart sank at the scene before me. Will Buckley, Seth Vernon, and Carey Harris, all of whom I considered to be assholes, surrounded Brigid and were attempting to coax her into drinking a beer. By the looks of her, she had already had far too many, and perhaps some hard liquor to go with it. She was leaning against the table for support and looked as though she would collapse if it hadn't been there. She shook her head slowly as Seth held the can of beer up to her face.
Furious, I stomped over to the three boys. "Hey! What do you think you're doing? Get away from her!" I yanked Seth away from Brigid's face. I could be quite vicious when protecting my friends.
"Hey, chill out," Carey protested. "We were just having some fun. She never drank before, and we wanted to see how much she could hold." He made it sound as though Brigid was some kind of science experiment.
"It's none of your fucking business how much she can hold!" I shouted. "And how is a person nearly passing out from too much alcohol funny? You guys are such jackasses!"
"Fucking kraut," Will hissed.
Now that hurt. It wasn't as though it was the first time I had been on the receiving end of a racial slur, but it always stung when someone called me a "kraut." Furious and hurt, I shoved Will as hard as I could. Bad idea. Will, Seth, and Carey were all on the football team and were all at least twice my size. Judging from the way that they bristled and began to move in on me, I also doubted that they had any qualms about hitting girls. I was toast.
"Guys, it's not worth it. Leave her alone," said a voice from the doorway. My assailants turned around to look at the speaker.
Kurt stood there with his arms crossed over his chest. "If you beat her up, Mr. Faulkner will notice, and you'll just end up getting shipped back to the states. It's not worth it just because she pushed you."
Will looked back at me, then grunted. "Come on, guys, let's go," he said, and
he and his companions exited the room.
Kurt continued to stand in the doorway with his arms crossed, just looking at me. I returned his gaze, incredibly confused and mixed up about the whole situation. I honestly didn't know what to think. On the one hand, I was incredibly grateful that he had just saved my ass from a beating by three gargantuan football players. On the other hand, I was pissed that he had seemed more concerned about them getting in trouble than me getting beaten to a pulp.
Until there was a loud thump, I had completely forgotten why I had come into the room in the first place. Turning around, I saw Brigid collapsed on the floor.
"Oh my God…" I started, rushing to her side with Kurt right behind me. "Brigid! Brigid! Can you hear me?"
My shouting was fruitless. Brigid did not stir.
"Let me see her," said Kurt, pushing past me and kneeling beside Brigid on the floor. He put his face close to hers to feel if she was breathing. He then lifted her delicate wrist in between his forefingers.
"Alright, she's breathing and she has a pulse," he declared. "Help me roll her onto her side."
I took a hold of her legs and Kurt got a grasp on her back and head. We rolled her gently over.
"Go get a blanket," said Kurt.
"Why?" I asked.
"Please, just do it."
Deciding that it wasn't the appropriate time to argue about bossiness, I got up and jogged down the hallway to my room, where I grabbed the blanket off of my bed.
"Here," I said, bringing it back to Kurt.
"Thanks," he replied, spreading it over Brigid. "We have to keep her warm," he explained.
"How do you know all this?" I asked, sitting down beside him.
"I volunteer at a day-care after school," he said matter-of-factly. "We all had to take a first aid course in case something ever happened."
This was probably the most serious I had ever seen Kurt in my life. He furrowed his brow in concern as Brigid moved a bit and mumbled something incoherent.
