One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies (7 page)

I love books.
But blank books scare me.
It's like all those empty white pages
are just lying there
waiting to pounce
on my deepest innermost feelings
and expose them to the entire world.

Besides.
There's no way I'd ever put
a mega-steamy dream
like the one I had last night,
about Ray and me in the rain and all that,
down on
paper
.
But as far as homework assignments go—

this one's gonna be a dream.

Then Again

Maybe it's not.
Because the most awful thing has happened:
ever since Feather said
that we had to record our dreams,
I haven't been able to remember a single one.

Every morning we sit in a circle,
and all the other kids open up their journals
and read their dreams aloud
so that Feather can help them
to interpret them.

When it's my turn, I just blush and mumble,
“Sorry. I still couldn't remember any.”
At which point, Feather smiles sweetly
and says something very sixties,
like “go with the flow” or “let it be.”

But it's been almost two weeks now,
and that smile of hers is starting to look
a little tight around the edges.
I'm afraid she's beginning to suspect
that I'm a shirker …

Heck.
Is it my fault my unconscious
is so unconscious?

And Things Haven't Gone So Well with Colette Either

In the beginning,
I thought we were really gonna hit it off,
like we did when she gave me
her guided tour of the campus.

For the first few days of school,
she kept calling me Sis
whenever she saw me in dream class.

And when Feather made us sit
in that dumb circle and close our eyes,
Colette and I secretly kept ours open
and crossed them at each other.

(
Hers
, by the way,
are a different color every day.
She says tinted contacts are her trademark.)

Once, she even offered
to loan me one of her dreams,
so Feather wouldn't think
I was such a slacker.

There were even some days after school
when Colette would jingle over to me
and invite me to go to Poquito Mas for tacos,
with her and Crystal and Bette and Madison,
like I was a certified member of the in crowd.

But I always had to say that I couldn't.
Because Whip was picking me up.
And after I turned her down a few times,
she stopped asking.

Lately,
when she sees me in class or around school,
she acts like she can't quite place me.
As though she knows she's met me before,

only she just can't remember where.

A Typical Morning in the Life of Me

6:45  turn off alarm clock

6:46  try to remember dreams

6:48  fail to remember dreams

6:49  curse loudly and beat pillow with fists

7:00  drag self out of bed

7:01  brush teeth, take shower, get dressed

7:25  try to make hair look presentable

7:29  give up on making hair look presentable

7:30  curse loudly and beat hair with brush

7:35  eat breakfast with Whip, while fending off his annoyingly perky chatter

7:50  try to convince Whip to let me walk to school

8:00  fail to convince Whip to let me walk to school

8:01  curse inwardly and contain urge to beat Whip over head with hundred-pound backpack

8:02  stomp out of kitchen

8:03  toss self into car and slam door

8:04  say something snotty to Whip about not being allowed to walk to school

8:05  get even more pissed because he doesn't react

8:10  arrive at Lakewood

8:11  get out of car, slam door, don't look back

Lakewood Daze

Some days,
when Madison sees me in the hall,
she smiles at me and says, “What's up?”
And Crystal flashes me the peace sign
and her BriteSmile grin.

Some days,
during herstory class,
Bette keeps passing me these
little slips of paper
with yo mama jokes written on them.

And I can't help laughing,
even though those kind of jokes
aren't quite as funny somehow
when yo
own
mama
is dead.

Some days,
kids I don't even know say hello to me.
And the guy who everyone says
is Harrison Ford's love child,
actually remembers my name.

Some days,
instead of completely ignoring me,
Colette bats her yellow
(or aqua or orange or whatever) eyes at me,
and even says, “Hey.”

Those are the days
it almost starts seeming
like maybe there's a pretty good chance
that I might even be able to fit
in
here.
Eventually.

But most days,
I wander around Lakewood feeling invisible.
Like Fm just a speck of dust
floating in the air
that can only be seen

when a shaft of light hits it.

A Typical Rest of the Day in the Life of Me

3:30  toss self into car with Whip

3:32  say something snotty about not being allowed to walk home from school

3:38  arrive home, leap from car, slam door, don't look back

3:45  wade though hordes of hanger-onners to give friendly greeting to Max, especially friendly if Whip is present to witness

3:46  decline Whip's offer for afternoon snack

3:48  retire to bedroom and start blasting Eminem CDs

3:50  log on to get update on Amber from Liz and write flirty e-mail to Ray, or if lucky, get phone call or IM from one or both of above

4:50  put on bikini, grab book, head down to pool

5:00  immerse self in book, or hang with Max, if he's around

5:30  immerse self in pool - laps, if alone, Marco Polo, if with Max

6:00  beg Max to have supper with us so I won't have to be alone with You Know Who

6:02  pummel Max when he says he'd love to, but he thinks it would be best if Whip and I had some time alone together because he's actually a pretty great guy once you get to know him

6:15  eat dinner with Whip while fending off his annoyingly perky chatter

6:30  say something snotty about size of Whip's ego

6:31  note hurt expression on Whip's face

6:35   start thinking about apologizing to Whip

6:36  stop thinking about apologizing to Whip

6:50  excuse self from table and go to room

6:51  start thinking about how much I miss Mom

6:55   log on and write e-mail to her

7:05  curse loudly and beat self-pitying thoughts about being motherless child out of head

7:10  begin homework

10:15  finish homework

10:30  decline offer for midnight snack with Whip

10:45  beg unconscious mind for a dream …

6:45  … turn off alarm clock

6:46  try to remember dreams

6:48  fail to remember dreams

6:49  curse loudly and beat pillow with fists

Hey Rubinowski,

Still e-mailing your dead mom? You are so in denial. But go for it, girl. You gotta work your way through those five stages of grief. Da soona da betta.

And speaking of grief, Ray and I sat together at lunch today and spent the whole entire time talking about how much we missed you. Amber positioned herself at the table right across from ours and kept her legs spread so far apart that you could see her thong. But Ray didn't even glance her way. Trust me. Not even when she knocked her lunch tray onto the floor and made this big squealy commotion to try to get his attention. He just kept on telling me about how he can hardly wait to visit you at Thanksgiving. And
I
can hardly wait to hear about it when he
does
. It's gonna be so
hot
.

Just hang on. It'll be turkey time before you know it.

Love,

Lizziola

Dear Lizzorama,

I'll try. But I miss him like crazy. And I miss you, too. Things really stink here. Every morning for like the past month I've begged Whip to let me walk to school. But he refuses. He apparently thinks I'm only saying I want to walk because I don't want to be a nuisance to him. He keeps telling me that he
wants
to drive me to school. That it's no trouble at all. That he looks
forward
to picking me up at the end of the day.

I've tried explaining that I
like
to walk. That I need the exercise. That he's ruining any chance I have at a decent social life. I've even tried threatening to get carsick all over his 1954 Buick Wildcat's original red leather upholstery. But it just goes right in one of his fabulously famous ears, and out the other.

I hate him. And I hate my life. Help!!!

Love,

Ruby

P.S. Hey. I said hello to Cameron for
you
. But you didn't kill Amber for
me
. How come she's still alive? Couldn't you at least maim her? I thought you were my friend …

Two Against One

I tell Max
it's causing me unendurable agony
how Whip keeps insisting on
driving me to and from school every day.

A few minutes later,
I overhear Max telling Whip
that he ought to let me walk
and stop treating me like a child.

Whip tells Max
I
am
a child
and that the world is crawling with perverts
and he'll be worried sick if he lets me walk.

Max tells Whip
he'll just have to live with that
because I'm fifteen years old and
he's behaving like an overprotective idiot.

Then Whip tells Max
he's fired.
But it's pretty obvious
that he doesn't mean it.

Because a few minutes later,
Whip slips into my room and tells me
that from now on
I can walk.

But only if I promise
not to talk to any strangers.
I say, “Okay. But is it all right
if I take candy from them?”

Whip laughs
and draws an imaginary number one in the air,
as though my stunningly witty remark
just scored me a point or something.

I find this deeply irritating
because I was
trying
to be snotty.
Not clever.
And he didn't even notice.

Thanking Max

I tell Max I'm going to give him
my first-born child.
He grins and says
that won't be necessary.

I tell him he's the best friend
a girl could ever hope to have.
He says,
“Yeah. I know.”

I tell him he reminds me
of my aunt Duffy.
He says,
“Is it the beard?”

“No,” I say.
“It's the big heart.”
Which I know sounds totally corny,
but I can't help it, it just pops out.

And suddenly I find myself
telling him all about how much I miss Duff,
and about how I can't even call her
or write to her or anything

because she's off on that endless dig
with that idiotic archaeologist of hers,
and about how severely pissed off I am at her
for disappearing right when I need her most.

“That woman sounds like
such
a bitch!”
he says, in this real swishy voice.
“How dare you compare me
to that nasty, self-centered slut?!”

Which cracks us both up.
And after this,
whenever we're alone,
I call him Aunt Max.

Walking to School for the First Time

Someone's written
“Lotus loves River”
into the cement on the sidewalk.

A Barbie-doll-sprung-to-life
is jogging toward me
screaming hideous things into a cell phone.

And here comes Ken on Rollerblades,
the gold ring in his navel
sparking with sunlight.

Cameron just zipped by on a shiny yellow bike,
gave me a friendly wave,
and shouted out, “Hey, Ruby!”

And I could swear
I just saw Johnny Depp
behind the wheel of that silver Porsche.

If I had a dog named Toto,
I think you can guess
what I'd be saying to him right about now.

Ignorance of the Law

I'm crossing Sunset Boulevard,
dodging all the Mercedes and Jaguars,
when I hear the thin scream of a siren.

I turn to look.
A police car's coming up fast,
flashing its liquid lights.

I glance around to see who they're after
and suddenly realize who they're after
is
me
.

The cop leaps out looking like a model—
dark glasses, deep tan,
dangerously white teeth.

“You weren't in the crosswalk,” he says,
seductively raising one eyebrow.
Then he presses something into my hand.

Oh.

My.

God.

I just got a ticket for crossing the street.

Which, of Course, Made Me Late to School

So I'm sprinting across the Lakewood lawn,
trying to get to my dream class
before the first period gong rings,

when I notice
at least a dozen other kids
racing to
their
classes, too.

But all of
them
are using the sidewalk
that borders the grass.

There aren't any signs posted
warning us to keep off of it.
So what's up with all these airheads?

Didn't anyone ever tell them
that the shortest distance between two points
is a straight line?

Then suddenly
I'm surrounded by an army of sprinklers,
hissing up from the ground all around me.

And,
in one split second—
my T-shirt reveals all.

I Slosh the Rest of the Way to Class

And drip into the back of the room
with my arms folded tightly across my chest,
willing myself to be invisible.

But it must not be working.
Because Colette spots me.
Instantly.

And instead of
looking right through me,
like she usually does,

instead of
doing something way juvenile
like bursting out laughing,

instead of pointing at me and shouting out,
“Looks like Wild Child's the winner
of our wet T-shirt contest,”

she just slinks over to me
with her sequined black leather jacket
and helps me slip into it,