Pick-me-up (4 page)

Still, no movement from her mom. “How old is
he?”

“Mom,” Katelyn whined. She was now treading
on dangerous ground. Both of her older sisters had hooked up with
older boys when they were her age. They were both knocked up by
sophomore year. So, Katelyn had to suffer new rules. Katelyn was
not to date anyone over 16. Tim was a few months shy of 18. “He’s
16.”

The lie was out of her mouth too easily, like
all the lies she’d been telling her parents lately. They’d believed
all of them: staying over at a friend’s house, a sleep-in at the
Recreation Center, and, most recently, her professed innocence at
the missing $20 bill out of her mom’s wallet Saturday before she
left for Jenny’s.

“Where did you meet him?” Her mom
persisted.

Katelyn walked around the table and grabbed
the phone out of her mother’s hand. Her mother didn’t resist.

“Geez, mom. Not everything is your business.
Can’t I live my own life?” She knew she was being dramatic as she
tossed her blonde hair and turned down the hall, but she was
uncomfortable about the lie. She turned back as another concern
took precedence. “Oh, you’ll have to call school. Gorman said I’ll
get in-school suspension if I’m late again.”

Her mom threw her voice after her, “Maybe
that’d be a good thing.”

Chapter 5: Act
II

In
English class, Katelyn slouched low in her desk chair with her feet
propped up on the back of the seat in front of her. She was having
a hard time keeping her eyes open, let alone trying to focus on the
script of Romeo & Juliet open on the desk next to hers. She’d
lost her textbook months ago. She thought it might be in the back
of Jodi’s car. Jodi was Katelyn’s oldest sister. Great, Katelyn
thought, I’ll never see that again. Jodi was banned from the house
since her boyfriend, Brandon, stole her mom’s ATM card and withdrew
over $600 before her mom caught on. Jodi was the one who had given
him the pin number.

Katelyn stifled a yawn. She had stayed up
late sending messages back and forth with Tim. After meeting him
Friday at Jenny’s apartment, Katelyn hadn’t gone more than a few
hours without contact from him. Today was quiet, though. Tim went
to the alternative school in Ames nine miles down the highway.
Katelyn wondered why she hadn’t heard from him. She heard the
alternative school had a freer schedule and let kids use phones and
email during classes.

“How many of you believe in love at first
sight?” Katelyn wasn’t the only student stirring from a near
drooling state at the change in voice. The teacher stood at the
front of the room, a short, dark-haired, overweight woman who
failed to energize the classroom full of students. Her hand was
still poised over the pause button on the CD player. The previous
day she had made the students fill character roles and read the
lines, but most of the words came out butchered. The teacher had
corrected so many lines, so she might as well have read them all
herself. Instead she impatiently kept looking at the clock. There
were less than three weeks until school was out for the summer.
What a shame if we don’t finish this retarded play, Katelyn
thought. What is the point in reading it. Everyone knows how it
ends. They die. Who cares? Now, the class was supposed to follow
along in the book while a cast of British actors blasted from the
CD player’s crappy speakers.

“Okay, get out a piece of paper,” Teacher
Woman announced as a punishment. In response, several students
groaned. “If you don’t want to talk about it, we can journal about
it,” she said, but a couple of students came to the rescue and
raised their hand.

“What are we supposed to write about? Love?”
said Tommy Turner, a state wrestling champ, who probably couldn’t
write his own name let alone a journal entry. Somehow, he was
passing this class, whereas this made the third class of the
semester that Katelyn was failing.

“Romeo and Juliet just met. He was in love
with another girl just hours before, and now, all of a sudden, he’s
in love with Juliet?” Teacher Woman stared out at the students with
disbelief. “He just saw her and fell in love?” she added with a
touch of condemnation.

Gee, thought Katelyn sarcastically, I wonder
what she wants us to say. Why did she bother asking?

Quickly, the brainiacs of the class came to
the rescue.

“Romeo just likes her for her beauty. He said
he’s never seen true beauty until now,” chirped one valedictorian
candidate.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t say what he finds
beautiful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; maybe he
recognizes her soul and that’s what is brighter than everyone
else.” This response came from the girl who wore lots of hemp
material clothing and long skirts. More than a few moans came from
around the room.

“He just wants in her pants,” Tommy threw out
and achieved the laughter he was shooting for. He was always
performing, whether on the wrestling mat or not.

“That’s enough,” Teacher Woman intervened,
but held her own smile, obviously satisfied with the brief
discussion as proof of her students’ attention. “Now let’s skip to
the balcony scene. Notice the concerns Juliet voices in her
monologue.” With her discussion duty completed, she pushed play on
the CD player and the heavily-accented lines resumed. Teacher woman
went back to her desk, looked the class over for problem students,
and then became absorbed again in her computer screen.

Katelyn tried briefly to glance at the
textbook, but she noticed her neighbor wasn’t even on the correct
page. In fact, behind his shaggy hair, his eyelids were already
closed again. Katelyn glanced at the clock. Thirty minutes to go
and she was done for the day.

Her hoodie’s pocket vibrated with a text
alert. She looked to the teacher, who was visibly amused by
whatever she was reading or watching on her monitor. She’d chance
it.

“Lites on or off today?” It was from Tim.
Katelyn contained her smile.

She didn’t know about Romeo’s love at first
sight, but she was feeling something she never had before. Only two
days after meeting him, she felt like he was supposed to be in her
life. They had so many things in common. They liked the same music.
He introduced her to songs from bands she’d never heard of. She
made a point to download them. He was funny. He was interesting.
And, he liked her.

He had told her how he couldn’t do regular
high school anymore because of all of the idiots—other kids and
teachers. After his third fight, he was expelled from his high
school, so now he went to the alternative school in Ames. Even
though Katelyn still sometimes fumbled her words when she talked to
him, he must not think her a total idiot. He agreed with her about
her opinion of grades in school, about cheerleaders suddenly
lacking individual thought once they made the squad, and about how
wrong it was that the local police seemed to target the poorer
neighborhoods for their patrols.

He paid attention to her. Even Katelyn’s
friends only seemed to give her part of their attention when she
talked to them. He would look at her without turning away, and, if
possible, link into her thoughts through his olive green eyes. And,
there was the way Tim made her feel when he kissed her.

Katelyn had kissed other boys, a friend of
Emily’s last boyfriend at the Rollins Dam and then, regrettably,
some guy at Jenny’s last month after drinking too much. That guy
was gross. He would have put his tongue down Katelyn’s throat if he
could have. Plus, he instantly started to run his hands all over
her and groped her breasts before Katelyn was able to push him
off.

Tim’s kiss, though, was more like what she
imagined kissing should be. Katelyn touched her neck, remembering
his lips softly leaving a trail along its side.

She tried to come up with a clever reply to
his message. The Shakespeare CD recording grabbed her attention
briefly with some famous lines. She smiled at the timing and her
idea for a response.

“Soft, thru yonder window lite breaks.” She
hoped she didn’t sound like a tool. Katelyn added “and I wish I
could break out”.

Within a minute his reply came: “Do it! I’ll
meet u outside.”

She responded, shifting in her seat to lean
over her phone. She looked around the room and saw at least two
other people texting. “lol, but that would seal my coffin at
NHS.”

Another two minutes and she looked up in
amazement after reading his reply. “Tim is (choose one): A. friend
material B. creepy, I wish he’d leave me alone C. all I want in a
man D. a geek.”

Katelyn screamed inside. No Fair! She was
sure she was blushing. She wondered about what she meant to him,
but she didn’t have the guts to ask him. Now, he was putting her on
the spot. He was obviously wondering about how she felt, too. She
wished she knew what he thought of her. They’d only known each
other a few days.

When in doubt, Katelyn turned to humor. She
crouched over the phone again, beginning a joke about her history
of failing multiple choice questions, but she snapped the cover
shut quickly as Teacher Woman appeared right in front of her
desk.

Damn, thought Katelyn, no one gets caught by
her. Now the preps in class would have something else to laugh
about.

“Give me the phone,” Teacher Woman said
firmly, holding out her hand.

Might as well try the standard replies,
Katelyn thought. “I was checking the time; I can’t see the clock
from here.”

“Do you think I’m stupid?”

Why do teachers open themselves up to
ridicule like that? Katelyn couldn’t help herself; she cocked her
head and shrugged her shoulders.

Teacher Woman’s eyes widened for a second
before narrowing. “Give me the phone right now.”

“I’m expecting a message from my mom,” she
said in a pleading voice. “My aunt is having surgery and she’s
supposed to let me know how it went.” Katelyn tried to make her
voice crack, but she hadn’t mastered the art, yet.

Teacher Woman didn’t even flinch. She just
stayed set in front of her and gave her that look that teachers and
parents have mastered, one that says BS and I Have More Power Than
You all in one.

Katelyn knew her game was up. She brought the
phone out from under the desk, flipped it over, opened the back and
removed the battery. She put the powerless phone into the teacher’s
hand and gave her a smug look.

“Go to the office.”

“What!?” Katelyn yelled in disbelief, “What
for?”

The whole class had turned in their seats to
watch the altercation. Some had obedient fear in their eyes. Most
were amused, reveling in her punishment. Tommy pointed at her and
mocked a noose being hung around his neck.

Teacher Woman tilted her chin in the air and
said, “You’re being insubordinate; you haven’t done a thing today
in class.”

Katelyn steamed. She hated this place. She
defiantly turned back to the teacher, looked down at her desk and
pushed herself up. Almost eye level with the teacher, she said,
“Well, that makes two of us.” She heard the snickers of students
and the gasp of the teacher as she grabbed her notebook and walked
out the door, her head held high.

Chapter 6: In School
Suspension

Katelyn
sat outside Mr. Gorman’s office waiting for Teacher Woman to finish
her case against her in the next room. Katelyn sat in one of the
two plastic seats bolted to a metal frame. Slouching wasn’t an
option as it blocked the narrow path from the opposite side of his
secretary’s desk to his door. She couldn’t get comfortable, so she
took to chewing her nails. Katelyn swung her knees back and forth
just to relieve some of her anger. The secretary looked up at her,
barely disguising her annoyance. Katelyn returned her gaze, but
didn’t stop swinging her knees. The secretary gave her a practiced
smile, and looked back down at her work.

Katelyn dreaded seeing Gorman. He personally
came to her lunch table today, embarrassing her in front of her
friends. Katelyn was already being ignored by Emily anyway. Emily
and Maci had been bragging about being at some senior boy’s house
after they left the bonfire at Rollins Dam Saturday night. Maci was
making sure to be loud enough so Katelyn would hear every juicy
detail.

Gorman had stepped up to the table and gave a
grin, surveying the whole table twice until he said, “Miss Wells,
come with me.” The rest of the students at the table relaxed at
being off the hook. A few of them glared at Katelyn for being the
cause of Principal Gorman’s presence at their table.

Gorman escorted her to “Study Café,” the
school’s dumb name for a half hour tutoring session during lunch.
Only those who made the “F” list received the honor of mandatory
attendance. Sometimes Katelyn got away with skipping, but Gorman
must have had extra time on his hands today to play cowboy and
round up students.

A different teacher manned the classroom each
week. Mr. Brooks, her math teacher, happened to be on duty today.
So, it wasn’t a punishment, really. Brooks was young, just out of
college, and not bad looking. But, he truly helped her. She’d
always given up in math, but the way he explained things seemed to
match how her brain worked. Katelyn was actually getting an B+ in
his class; who cares that it was “Fundies”, Fundamentals of
Algebra, the dumbed-down class.

Principal Gorman had a long standing
reservation in the Wells household’s shitlist. Not only was he
principal when Katelyn’s mom graduated, he also held the role of
head asshole for both of her older sisters. He was a big-bellied
man with gray hair slightly combed over, which more often than not,
resulted in an involuntary spike waving over his head as he bounded
down the halls of the school. His bulky shoulders were probably
caused from holding up his belly. With his thick, hairy arms, he
was as close to an image of a sloth that Katelyn could imagine. He
would also grin a wide denture smile, which sometimes looked like a
grimace. A monkey grin. A sloth monkey man.