I Rize (8 page)

Madison came up to me and pushed me backward. I fell on poor Gracie by accident. That girl never says much, but she seems like a very sweet person.

Madison snapped her fingers and told her cheerleading minions, ‘Let’s go bitches. The weirdos are making me mad.’

Madison loves the ‘B’ word. The word doesn’t fit my mouth in all the right places. I hate saying it because I probably sound awkward.

I know what you are about to say. Don’t say it.

“I’m about to say it.”

Okay, I’ll say it. I was wrong. I know I
would
sound awkward.

“Glad you said it before me. We both know the word would be extremely weird coming from you.”

I struggled to get up, and I felt a hand touch mine. The touch was gentle. The feeling that came over me was something I’d never felt before. I could feel my heart flutter ever so lightly looking up at Jace.

We both laughed about how Madison has delusions about how every guy belongs to her. When he accidentally touched my shoulder, I felt my cheeks blush a little. In that moment, I wanted his touch to last forever.

I noticed a smile had crept upon his perfect face. I touched his hair when he helped me up. His hair is so soft, and his skin has a peachy undertone. And those eyes—a bluish, greenish color—so amazing!

No amount of words will ever describe feelings felt during that amazing interaction. Not only did the popular boy talk to me, but he knew my name. I wonder how he knew my name.

Junior stopped the video and placed his head on the desk. “Please stop talking about him; I can’t take it.”

From time to time, Junior would mention Adny to the other cross-country team members. Ever since, Jace always asked about her and wanted to know more.
I will remember his exact words as a beautiful love song. ‘I know we barely know each other, but I see you around school from time to time. I don’t want to freak you out, but your beauty is indescribable. Earlier when we were doing the huddle with the cheerleaders, you stood out from the crowd.’

Junior began making gagging noises.

I tried preventing him from leaving, because I wanted to stay in his presence. I wish I were speechless because the words spilled from my mouth as pure jibber jabber. My lame self yelled, ‘Good luck at practice!’ I wanted to kick myself because Jace doesn’t need luck. He’s naturally amazing at everything.

Whew! I was so glad I made it out of that one without my hormones exploding.

From this day forward I will never forget Seat 49. It is my keepsake. It is my treasure. It is the exact place where Jace called my ‘beauty indescribable.’

I told you this day was pure magic.

He turned the computer off and looked through the envelope of letters Jace sent to Adny. As much as he didn’t care for Jace, he kept the letters so Adny could hopefully read them one day.

J
ACE SAT on their host family’s floor pondering his thoughts as his mom and dad conversed with the locals outside. Twice a year the church asked volunteers to go to different areas in South Africa for the annual mission trip for two weeks. This year they were placed in Cape Town. Back in North Carolina, it was one, while it it was six in Cape Town.

With no phone or internet, it was nearly impossible to be aware of what was happening back in North Carolina. Each night, he sat and wrote a letter to Adny. He had no idea that she could not read them. He had no idea that she was struggling to survive.

Jace and his parents were talking to the local people about Christianity. As his dad repeated scriptures from the Bible, he had a moment of relapse. A frown formed when he began to think about the night they won their cross-country meet. The memory formed a veil of anger and frustration around him. He distanced himself from his parents’ conversation.

His dad pulled him to the side because he noticed Junior’s face becoming paler. “Son, you haven’t been acting like your usual happy self since we’ve been here.”

Jace began rubbing his temple. “You remember the girl named Adny I have been telling you about?”

His dad chuckled briefly. “Yes, I do. Every single day your mother and I hear something new about this girl. When will we meet the special girl?”

Jace looked down at the ground and said, “You probably will never meet her now because I think I messed up.”

His father stood a few inches taller than him. He lowered his eyes to meet Jace’s. Talking about Adny further would worsen Jace’s already dampened mood, so he responded with, “God forgives us. The hardest part is forgiving ourselves.”

Jace looked back down at the ground with a defeated look. When he didn’t respond, his father reached into his pant pocket and handed him some pain medication. Jace went to the cramped room where he slept and saw the oldest son of the host family, Mosi, looking through his letters. He tapped on Mosi’s broad shoulders to get his attention. Mosi immediately jumped back, dropping a handful of letters on the cold floor. “It’s okay, buddy. I don’t mind if you read them.”

Mosi reached down to pick up the letters and asked, “It’s for a girl?”

Jace plopped two pills into his mouth and titled his head back on the cotton pillows. “A girl I have been falling in love with since the day I met her at my school. I was a sophomore when we met for the first time.” He moved his body back and forth against the wooden frame searching for a comfortable spot.

“She love you back?”

“I doubt it, because I was mean to her friend.”

“My teacher told us, do bad things, say sorry. You say sorry?”

“No, I haven’t, but you’re right. I just feel so guilty about the situation.”

Mosi picked up one of the letters from the desk. “I read letter. Nice words. She will love.”

A smile spread across Jace’s face as Adny crossed his mind. He envisioned her soft touch playing in his hair, her heavenly smell that always made him want more, and her long black hair flowing in front of him. His moment in fantasyland ended when Mosi nudged him to answer a question.

“Why you close eyes when talk about her?”

Jace closed his eyes again before responding, “I want to savor each precious minute she crosses my mind.”

Mosi opened his mouth as his eyes widened and Jace chuckled at the confused look.

“You see her again?”

“I haven’t seen or heard from her in a long time.” Jace picked up a letter, losing his train of thought. He began envisioning the first moment their hands touched on the bleachers and how he wished he'd asked for her number.

When Mosi kept jumping on the edge of the bed, Jace knew he was getting restless with all the love talk. Jace followed him outside where he spent a few hours playing with many of the local children, watching the sun set—enjoying the simplicity of his surroundings.

T
HE CAFETERIA lines were full of eager, hungry students during the afternoon. The usual wait time was between ten to twenty minutes. The menu was switched every other week, but after a semester of eating at Valley High, students memorized what would come next. Mickey looked down at the menu while waiting in line, and everyone around him groaned at the sight of it:

• Tasty soft tacos

• Sweet kernel corn

• Broccoli

• Orange wedges

• Hamburger

Every student would interpret the lunch menu completely differently than the lunchroom staff.

• Tasteless look-alike-tacos

• Animal food

• Bird crumbs

• Hard rocks

• Mystery meat

Junior sat by Gracie and noticed how Mickey sat at the opposite end of the table. It was the same table he, Mickey, and Adny used to sit at. Her seat remained empty. Junior sat down next to him. Mickey didn’t say a word, promptly leaving to go sit at the other end of the cafeteria.

Junior couldn’t finish digesting the remainder of the bird crumbs. He watched as Madison approached Gracie at the end of the table. She sat down directly beside Gracie and said, “Hey, Chubbs.”

She stared vigorously at her plate of food as Madison reached into her purse and pulled out a small stuffed animal pig. “Your long lost brother missed you.” She left the table laughing at her usual antics.

Gracie pushed the stuffed animal off the table, and placed her head in her folded hands to quiet her sobbing. Junior was about to get up to comfort her like he always did, but stopped himself when Miss Nora motioned to him that she would handle it. She pulled Gracie’s hand from the folded position to hug her. “I will ensure Madison gets in trouble with the principal.”

She released her grip from Miss Nora to place her head back onto the table, talking through muffled tears. “Her dad lets her get away with anything. Nothing helps.”

Miss Nora leaned in beside her. “Would you believe me if I told you I knew how it felt to be an outsider at one point in my life?”

Miss Nora grew up in the small town of Farmville, NC. The population of Farmville was 4,700. There was only one high school built in the center of town. Most of the town was covered in farmland and trees.

“Everyone practiced Christianity and went to the Pentecostal Church of God in my hometown. This was the final resting place of my boyfriend, an atheist, constantly tormented before finally committing suicide a month before graduation.”

Miss Nora stopped speaking for a moment and closed her eyes briefly while rubbing the cross necklace. “I watched someone close to me die.” She brought her hands closer up to her face while her eyes still closed. “He literally died in my hands. Ever since then I promised myself I would never allow a student to suffer while I’m around.”

Miss Nora opened her eyes and took a deep breath. “What are you passionate about?”

Gracie lifted her head and grabbed a tissue to wipe the remainder of the tears. “I love dancing and singing. My dream is to go to Juilliard in New York.”

“One day Madison will be begging on her knees for your autograph.” She watched Gracie’s smile light up her round face. “Madison harbors so much anger. I have been around students long enough to know she is hiding something.”

“Miss Nora, what do you think she is hiding?”

“Something cynical is brewing in her fragile heart because that is too much anger for a young person to handle until…”

Miss Nora stopped in mid sentence. Her eyes lowered into a catatonic stare with the table. She began slightly rocking while rubbing her cross necklace again. Gracie lightly touched her shoulder and said, “Until what?”

She gave no response as she clutched her breasts and took a few heavy breaths in and out. She stood and pulled out a bottle of prescribed pain medication from her purse. One pill slid down her throat effortlessly. After her eyes followed Junior passing by, she responded, “Until they lose themselves to this harsh world we call home. When they reach that point, help is useless.”

Junior walked across the cafeteria to where Mickey was sitting. When Mickey moved one seat over, he placed the laptop in view and said, “I need you to watch something.”

I never told you this, but sometimes I envy you. It has been such a short amount of time, but you have found the one thing I yearn for—true love. You and Mickey are too adorable together, and it makes me want to throw up every time.

Mickey held the mouse clicker over the stop button, unable to look at Adny in the video. “Junior, is this some sick, twisted joke?”

Junior ignored his complaints and pushed his hand out of the way. “Shut up and watch.”

I will never forget the first day you and Mickey met. We were sitting on the edge of the water watching kids play with their parents. Darla and Piper were playing a game near quick man’s sand.

Do you remember when we were little kids playing on the beach and that old, creepy looking man with the one eye missing came up to us? He warned us to stay away because he said he lost an eye playing in the area. I remember I was too scared to go back to the beach for two weeks. We were so stupid and naïve to believe anything. Piper’s foot got stuck and the pressure from the water was pulling it deeper in. The sand kept seeping down, creating a hole, which sucked her foot in deeper.

When I came up, Mickey was already pulling her out. He held her in his hands and had the biggest smile on his face when he saw you. The next five minutes seemed more like five hours of someone torturing me by gluing my eyes open and forcing me to watch the longest chick flick ever. Everyone knows I hate chick flicks with a passion.

You looked at him. He looked at you. You looked back at him. He looked back at you.

From there, the rest is history. I wanted to throw up then and even more now because you guys are two peas in a freaking pod.

Junior glanced over at Mickey.

So far, from what I’ve seen, Mickey is crazy in a good way. Don’t get it confused with Madison’s crazy, because she is just plain scary crazy. Mickey’s type of crazy is humorous and random.

Mickey glanced back over at Junior.

As you know, Mickey is in my art class. The teacher is so mean, and I, along with the rest of the class didn’t even care to learn her name. Everyone just calls her ‘the teacher.’ All she knows how to do is to yell and spit everywhere. She can’t even draw! We were required to draw a cup, and her example was all lopsided and looked like a dead walrus.

Don’t ask me how or why.

Mickey smiled while Adny spoke about art class. “I remember hating her class so much, but you made it better.”

Mickey sat at my table, and he also knew how I hated saying the ‘B’ word. As we painted that darn cup, he kept singing a rap song, which was blasting through his cheap headphones. There was so much cussing in it.

Not my cup of tea.

I gently tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to turn it down. And this is where the conversation went from normal to Mickey’s normal.

‘Adny, say bitch.’

I told him no.

‘Why?’

I explained to him that it didn’t sound normal coming out of my mouth.