The Cat That Went to Homecoming (11 page)

“I’ll be right back,” I said, and I went to
my desk to get a trading card for her.

“Oh, my gosh, this is the cutest thing I’ve
ever seen!” she said. “Hershey, you have your own card!” Hershey
looked at her with his head cocked to the side, and then he stood
up to stretch out his legs and rubbed his cheeks against her knees.
She gave his head a stroke then stood up when we heard a car horn
blow outside.

“Brandon’s here,” she said, “are you ready to
go?”

“Yes, I am,” I said.

“But, where’s your purse?” she asked.

I didn’t have a purse; I’d never needed one
before.

“I don’t have one Cindy, but I have money in
my pocket.” She looked surprised, yet not surprised, at the same
time.

“Okay, then let’s hit the mall!” she
said.

The ride to the mall was fun but very loud.
Brandon loved to crank his stereo to the max! My ears were still
ringing when we walked through the entrance, and then I was hit
with what was to me the signature scent of the mall, cinnamon
rolls! Immediately my mouth started to water. Whenever Mom and I
came here shopping, I would smell the cinnamon rolls and wish I
could have one, but we never went to the food court. I was hoping
that today, my friends and I would sit in the food court and I
would get myself one of those sinful rolls.

We did a lot of window shopping, stopping to
look at outfits on mannequins and commenting on whether we’d be
caught dead in them or not. Brandon had a shoe fetish. We had to go
into every shoe store and look at all the gym shoes. He tried on a
pair that cost $120, and I could not get over the price. What would
make someone pay that much money for a pair of shoes?

“I’m going to buy these with my first
paycheck.” he declared.

“That’s great, Brandon, but first you need a
job,” Cindy joked.

“Ha, ha,” he joked back.

We walked past a drug store and I stopped in
front of it. Brandon and Cindy kept walking, but turned to look
back at me when I didn’t respond to something they said.

“What’s up, Ellen?” Cindy asked.

“Cindy, do you think you could help me pick
out some makeup?”

I had decided it was about time I tried
wearing makeup. Perhaps I should invest in a purse as well!

“Sure!” Cindy seemed excited at the idea, but
Brandon groaned.

“That’s my cue! I’ll meet you guys later. I’m
going to look at the shoes at Foot Locker,” he said as he walked
off.

Cindy ushered me straight to the makeup
aisles. She studied my face for a moment, and started to pull items
off the rack.

“Purple hues would look great with your dark
hair and brown eyes,” she said. “And your skin is so flawless that
you don’t need any cover up. I would suggest an eye liner, mascara,
and some eye shadow.” I tallied up the prices in my head, darn near
$20 for makeup! Are you kidding me?

She suggested I buy a tweezers and said she
would show me how to pluck my eyebrows to enhance my eyes. She also
grabbed a bottle of pale pink nail polish. “I think nails painted a
subtle color look best,” she said.

I went with her suggestions and we headed for
the checkout line. We giggled like little girls at the outrageous
rag magazine headlines. I was so content and having such a great
time that I didn’t pay attention to who was around, but as the line
got shorter and we got closer to the clerk, I realized what a
mistake I had made. Darcel was the checkout clerk.

“Um, Cindy, let’s put this stuff back and
I’ll go somewhere else at another time to get it,” I said, trying
to escape the inevitable.

“What? No! Why?” she asked before she saw
Darcel. When she saw her, a look of awareness crossed her face.

“Oh, I see,” she said, and she leaned close
to me. “Didn’t you just stand up to her last week? If I’m not
mistaken, you told her she had just started world war three.” She
was right; I did do all of that. But that was during a moment of
inner strength that I did not have anymore.

“Ellen, she is at work, and she would lose
her job if she did anything to offend a customer.” She winked at
me. “You could really mess with her right now.”

Despite how cowardly I felt, I remained in
line until we were next.

“Did you find everything okay?” Darcel asked
without even looking up. She didn’t seem to really want to be at
work, she looked bored and uninterested.

“Yes we did,” Cindy blurted in reply, and the
sound of her voice made Darcel look up. The shock on her face was
priceless. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. She looked
from Cindy to me, and then began scanning my items while an angry
red blush came over her cheeks. After she totaled my items, she had
the nerve to snidely ask me, “Would you like a candy bar
today?”

Maybe it was her job to push products on
customers, maybe it was a remark aimed at me specifically. I wasn’t
sure which it was. All I was sure of was that I had declared war
and I had to follow through with my threat.

“No, thank you. Chocolate gives you pimples,
but I’m sure you already know that,” I said.

Darcel blushed even deeper and heatedly
announced my total. Knowing I had won this round, I grinned and
handed over the money. Once she gave me my change, I told her,
“Have a nice day.” She ignored me.

Cindy was laughing like a banshee as we
exited the store. “That was awesome, Ellen!” she said, but inside I
felt guilty. I wasn’t proud of what I had done. I kind of wanted to
go back in and apologize, but I couldn’t. Cindy thought it was
hysterical. When we met up with Brandon, she told him what had
happened and he high-fived me.

Chapter
Fifteen

The last month of summer was a busy month for
me. Hershey and I visited Janet weekly and she and I had many long
talks. She shared some of her life story with me, and her life had
been difficult. She reminded me of my mom, a single mother raising
her child and doing the best she could with the little she had. She
was not able to go to college after high school, so she worked in
factories most of her life.

“Ellen,” she said, “make sure you get a
college education. It is so important to have a job you like and a
college degree is the only way to achieve it. Driving a bus or
working at McDonalds will not pay the bills.”

I told her that I had not even thought about
what I wanted to do with my life yet. All I really knew was that I
loved animals.

“You’re going to be a junior next year,
right?”

I nodded.

“Junior year is an important year. You will
need to look into scholarships and colleges. Sit down with your
guidance counselor and get some advice from him or her.”

Janet’s nurses told me that her mood had
improved dramatically since Hershey and I started visiting her. She
seemed to have a renewed desire to recover quickly, which made me
feel like I was doing the right thing.

Brandon, Cindy, Sarah, Margaret, and I had
spent a lot of time together as well. Brandon got a job, of all
places, at a shoe store! When he and I weren’t working, we would go
to movies, to the lakefront, or to the mall. I eventually bought
myself a purse and Brandon got his $120 shoes!

There were a few times when Cindy and the
others weren’t available, leaving me alone with Brandon. Those were
my favorite times. I was still attracted to Brandon, but our
friendship was so special that I was content pushing my romantic
feelings aside. It was better to have him in my life as a friend
than to admire him from afar and never get to know the wonderful
person inside of him.

One afternoon in late August, we were
floating on air mattresses in Cindy’s pool and sunning ourselves.
Looking up at the clouds was so peaceful. It cleared my mind and
made me think about the future.

“Do you guys have any ideas about what you’re
going to do after high school?” I asked.

“No, not really,” Brandon said, “but I do
like the idea of becoming a police officer or a fire fighter.”

“I think you’d look hot in a uniform
Brandon,” Cindy joked.

Brandon tilted his head to the side,
pretending to consider the idea, “Hmmm,” he said, “maybe that is
the route I should take.”

“I’m thinking about teaching,” Cindy said.
“Definitely not high school-aged kids, but I do think teaching is
my calling in life.”

“Kids are annoying!” Brandon said.

“You’re annoying!” Cindy replied as she
splashed water at him.

“If you find a big kid like me annoying, how
will you deal with little kids?” he asked.

“Oh, just shut up!” she said. “What about you
Ellen?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about that for a
while now. Someone I’m very fond of told me that now’s the time for
me to start planning for a future career.” I said.

“And just what is it you want to do?” Brandon
asked.

“The more I think about it, the more I
realize that I enjoy animals more than people, no offense to you
guys. I’ve never had any good experiences with people, aside from
the two of you. Animals are not judgmental and they give their love
unconditionally. I know I don’t have the means to go to veterinary
school, but I might look into other avenues in the field. The woman
I work with is actually a veterinary technologist, and I would like
to talk to her about it.”

“Well, I think that’s a great job for you,
Ellen,” Cindy said. “You are so good with Hershey.”

“Yes, Ellen, you have a passion for animals,”
Brandon said. “I would definitely trust any of my pets in your
care.”

We got off of the serious subject of our
distant futures and started discussing the more immediate future.
Brandon and Cindy really wanted to go skating that night. I tried
in vain to persuade them into another direction. I did not want to
go roller skating because the roller rink was the biggest hangout
for kids our age and I did not fit in, nor had I ever worn roller
skates before. I kept envisioning myself falling flat on my already
beaten face and I could hear the peals of laughter. The mere
thought of it put me in panic mode.

Brandon got off his air mattress and
announced that he was going home to take a shower and change
clothes. Cindy agreed and hopped off her mattress. I froze in
place, trying to come up with an excuse.

“Why don’t you guys just go without me? I
have to do some training with Hershey tonight.” Lame! I knew it was
a bad excuse, but it was all I could come up in the millisecond I
had to think.

“Oh, come on, Ellen! You can train Hershey
tomorrow. We want you to come along,” Cindy scolded me.

“I’m going to be at your house in an hour and
a half whether you’re ready or not, so it’s in your best interest
to get ready!” Brandon said. “Come on, I’ll take you home.”

“I can walk, Brandon, I only live a few
blocks away!” I said in annoyance.

“I’m going in your direction, anyway, so let
me drive you the few blocks to your house.” he said in a stern
tone.

“Whatever,” I said, rolling my eyes and
climbing out of the pool.

Brandon drove me to my house and pulled in my
driveway, but before I could hop out of the car he said, “Ellen, I
haven’t been to the skating rink in years. The last time I was
there I was verbally attacked by a group of guys calling me ‘the
queer boy.’ I went berserk and broke one guy’s nose. My parents got
sued over that.” He looked remorseful. “I don’t know what your fear
is, but my friendship with you and Cindy has given me the
self-esteem and strength to stand up to my bullies, hopefully
without resorting to physical violence. I would like to think our
friendship has done that for you as well.”

“So tonight is a test?” I asked him.

“No, tonight is just a night of friends going
out and spending time doing something fun together,” he
replied.

I put my hand on his knee and said, “Okay,
pick me up in an hour or so. I’ll be ready.”

His eyes were trained on my hand on his knee,
and when he looked up at me, he smiled with his eyes twinkling. He
put his hand on top of mine. “Thank you, Ellen. I promise you this
will be fun.”

Fun for who?
I thought as I opened the
car door.

When I walked through the door, Mom was
standing in the kitchen holding Hershey in her arms. He jumped out
of her hold and raced to me when he saw me. He rubbed my legs and
meowed at me.

“Hi, Mom, how was your day?” I asked, picking
Hershey up and snuggling my face into his fur.

“Oh, pretty good,” she replied, “but I need
to talk to you.” She said, and her serious tone made me
nervous.

She sat me down at the table and told me that
my dad had called her. He wanted to see me. He said he had been
trying to call my phone, but never got an answer. It was true, I
was getting calls from an unknown number, but I never would answer
them. I figured if I didn’t know the caller, it was probably
someone I did not want to hear from. What if Darcel had gotten a
hold of my number? I sure as heck wouldn’t want to take that
call!

“Mom, this is not the time! I’m going skating
tonight with Cindy and Brandon and I need to get ready,” I said
curtly.

“Ellen, you are old enough to make your own
decisions, I respect that, but remember he
is
your father.
You don’t have to call him right now, but I expect you to return
his call sometime this week.”

“Fine, I’ll call him soon, but not tonight.
Give me a little time,” I replied.

“Good, thank you. Now, do tell, what is going
on with you and Brandon?” she asked with a sly grin.

I rolled my eyes, “There’s nothing going on
other than friendship.” I said as I headed down the hallway to my
bedroom to get ready, hoping my mom wouldn’t keep bugging me about
it.

I had a bit of a problem; all of my pants
were too big! Okay, maybe that was more of a good thing than a
problem, but I desperately needed to find something that fit. I dug
through to the bottom of my pants drawer where all the pants that I
had outgrown were stored. There were a few pairs of jeans that I
hadn’t fit in for a couple of years. I tried a pair on. They were
big in the waist, but fit pretty good in the butt and legs. I could
wear a belt. I took the pants off, found a t-shirt and belt, and
laid them out on the bed. I hopped in the shower to wash off the
chlorine and stood at the vanity in the bathroom wrapped in a towel
trying to figure out what to do with my hair. I never did much with
it. It was dark brown, shoulder length, wavy, and pretty
uncontrollable so I usually threw it in a ponytail. Come to think
of it, I didn’t think Brandon had ever seen me with my hair
down.