Randy’s Journal
Sunday, August 6, 2005
It’s been a tough week here in Chicago. Brooke had Stephanie Friday morning at 5:03 and she weighed five pounds, three ounces. There were some complications with the pregnancy, but luckily my new niece and Brooke are both okay. I really can’t wait to get back home to Tennessee and begin my senior year. Unfortunately, school starts tomorrow and I’ll be stuck here in Chicago while everyone else is starting the first day of school. But I will be home tomorrow afternoon THANK GOODNESS. Don’t get me wrong, I love my sister and her husband and their new daughter, but I’m starting to feel homesick. I’ve been gone a week and I miss chilling with my friends. Plus, Chicago is just too big of a city. Anyway, tomorrow night Shelly’s supposed to bring me my school work that I’m going to miss tomorrow. Maybe it won’t be too much considering it’ll only be the first day back to school.
Who knows? I guess I’ll find out soon enough!
Chapter 1:
“Come on! We’re going to be late if you don’t hurry up!” I blew the horn three more times before I finally saw Carrie walking out her front door. This was our first day of our senior year and I was determined not to be late.
“Sorry Michelle,” she said apologetically, sliding into the passenger seat of my car. “Lily almost burned down the house this morning trying to fix breakfast. She left the biscuits in the stove too long.”
“It’s okay.” I said this knowing it was a lie. It wasn’t okay! I planned on getting to school early this morning to go over my schedule and get everything organized. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen now, considering it’s already 7:45 and the first period bell rings at 8:00. And that’s all thanks to Carrie’s wonderful new step-mother, Lily. Why does Lily seem to always mess things up, I thought.
“So where’s Randy today,” Carrie asked once she was seated in the car.
“He’s not coming to school today remember? He starts school tomorrow. He’s been sick the past week with the flu but he’ll at school tomorrow whether he feels like it or not,” I answered this knowing the truth. Man I wish he was here right now.
Randy was out of town visiting his sister who is in the hospital in another state. She just had a baby and there had been a few minor complications so Randy’s dad let him skip the first day of school to go and visit his sister Brooke, who is happily married to twenty-three year old Mike Robertson, and visit his new niece, Stephanie. They had to keep this a secret because the school board would drop him flat if they knew he was missing the first day of school just because of a baby. So he told them he was sick and would hopefully be in school tomorrow.
Randy Nichols and I have been best friends since before we were born. That’s how I know all of this and no one else does except his family. Our parents grew up together so they thought it was only destiny that we be best friends too since we were only born 2 days apart; him, being the older one. Believe me; he still won’t let me live it down. He’s always been like that; a tease I mean. With his shaggy brown hair and his clear green eyes, his personality matches his looks in every way.
“Well good morning to you to Carrie.” Taylor said sarcastically from the back seat of my car. Carrie had yet to recognize she was there causing herself to jump.
“Oh my stars, I’m sorry Tay! I didn’t know you were back there! I thought Michelle was going to pick you up after me.”
“Sure,” she said rolling her eyes. Taylor actually looked pretty nice today with her long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was wearing blue jean shorts, a glittery blue t-shirt, flip flops, and big hoop earrings. This was the typical Taylor fashion. She is always wearing something both comfortable and stylish.
Carrie’s outfits are a totally different story though. She never dresses in anything that looks slightly comfortable. Her short blonde hair is always curled and she’s always wearing high heels, along with a skirt (sometimes it’s a mini skirt, other times it comes to the knee or longer) and a dress shirt. Okay, so she’s usually in style to. But besides that, her and Taylor’s clothing styles aren’t even the slightest bit the same.
As for me, I don’t really have a style. Like today, I was wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes, a t-shirt that has “Peace, Love, and Crabs” printed on the back of it, diamond earrings, and my shoulder-length brunette hair is down. But tomorrow, I could be wearing sweatpants, or a skirt. I could also be wearing a tank-top or a dress shirt. So as you can see, I have no style; I’m just me.
As I pulled out of the driveway, Carrie sighed and turned around in her seat. “So,” she said rolling down the window, “we’re starting our senior year. I totally can’t believe it! It seems like we’ve waited for this day for forever and now it’s finally come. I’m so excited!”
“Yea,” Taylor started to say and then paused for a second, “we can tell.”
“Why are you so ill this morning?” Carrie asked in return to the smart remark our friend had just made.
“I’m not ill, just tired. I didn’t sleep last night. I was up all night talking to Josh about everything we’re going to do this year. You know, like parties and stuff.”
If you didn’t just figure it out, Josh is Taylor’s boyfriend. They’ve been together for a year and a half. If she’s not spending time with him, she’s talking about him. I try to act supportive of their relationship, but that’s kind of hard to do seeing as though I don’t believe in love. Well, at least I don’t believe I’ll ever be in love. For those who find love, that’s just fine and dandy, but I have my reasons to believe love’s not real. I’m happy with just having Randy around. He’s like a brother to me and that’s all I want. I have no dating life and hope to never have one. Randy’s been out with a girl or two in the past, but he never did start a relationship with either of them. Carrie is a different story though. She’s not going steady with anyone, she’s not against love like I am, and she hasn’t been out on just one or two dates. Carrie, being the girl she is, has a date almost every Friday night with a different guy.
“Well could you please stop being all snappy at me. I want to have a good day and your being a pain in my butt isn’t helping any.”
“Sorry,” said Taylor turning her head away from Carrie and looking straight at me. “So Shelly, are you excited about today being our first day as seniors?”
“Honestly,” I replied, “it feels like just any ordinary school day. I mean yea, it’s a little exciting to know that I’m officially in my last year of high school, but it really doesn’t feel any different. It’s a little scary maybe.”
“Oh. Well have you applied to any colleges yet?”
“One or two, but I still haven’t gotten any letters back yet about whether I got in or not. There are still a few colleges I think I might want to go to. I don’t really know though. What about you?”
“Well, Josh and I have been talking lately and we both filled out applications for Yale. Where ever we go, we want to stay together. So I guess we can’t really rely on scholarships and things like that.”
“Have fun finding a university that will accept you both and one that you’ll both want to go to.” I caught myself saying this not thinking before the words actually came out of my mouth.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked with an irritated voice.
“Oh, good grief Tay she didn’t mean anything by it.” Carrie stepped in. “She was just saying that it’s going to be hard to find a college you’ll both want to go to. If you ask me, you and Josh probably should’ve started filling out applications about a year ago, because there are only a limited number of schools that are going to accept both of you.”
“Whatever,” Taylor said as I pulled into the school parking lot. We got out of the car, said goodbye, and went our separate ways. We would see each other again at lunch.
As I walked towards the school, I looked down at my watch which said 7:53am. Okay, I thought, I have a few minutes before first period begins. When I was walking down the hall after picking up my schedule, I noticed a guy standing in front of the locker beside mine putting his books in it. I didn’t recognize him so I figured he was new. He looked fairly muscular, had shaggy blonde hair, blue eyes, and looked to be about six foot even.
I kept walking and finally ended up standing beside him, putting my books in my locker as he was. I need to say something to him, I was thinking at the time, and I really wanted to but nothing came out of my mouth. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the shy type, but dang he’s gorgeous. Why would a guy that good looking ever want to talk to me? Of course, Randy’s good looking and he talks to me. Ha! But he’s like a brother to me so it doesn’t really count. Wait a second, I thought, why am I comparing this guy to Randy? Is it because he looks a good bit like him? Who knows? As I was getting ready to shut my locker door, he closed his first. I looked at him and he looked at me. He smiled and as you would think, so did I. Then, he walked away. I really should’ve said something. I continued to think this thought until I was sitting in my first period class.
My first period class is Band IV. I’m not in the marching band or anything, but I play the piano and so it’s kind of like a free class to me because I really enjoy it. I’ve been playing for five years now and it’s basically my life. As I sat down on the piano bench, the 8:00 morning bell rang, meaning everyone was supposed to be in class. But as it was ringing, I realized that the guy that used the locker next to mine was walking in. He was in class right on time. When I saw him at first, I was kind of shocked because I didn’t really expect to see him in this class. It’s not a very popular class. It probably has about fifty kids in it, which is small for a school with an attendance record of about one thousand and fifty.
He started walking towards me and I was thinking is he really going to say something to me? I was trying to make it look like I didn’t see him by picking at some of the keys on the piano. But it was too late, for he was standing right in front of me (well, in front of the piano anyway).
“Hey,” he said.
“Hi.”
“I’m Nick,” he said reaching out his hand for me to shake it. “I meant to say something to you this morning, but to tell the truth I was a little shy since I’m new and everything.”
“I’m Michelle,” I said shaking his hand. “My friends call me Shelly.”
“Well it’s nice to meet you, and like I said, sorry for not saying anything this morning.”
“It’s fine. I probably should’ve been the one to say something. I guess I was just in a hurry. I got here pretty late this morning.” I smiled as I said this. He’s actually pretty nice.
There was a short pause and then he asked, “So, you play the piano huh?”
“Yep, I have for five years.”
“Wow that’s a long time.”
“Yeah well, what do you play? I mean, you have to play something because you’re in this class.”
“I play the guitar.”
“That’s cool. How long have you been playing?” Now I’m just making small talk.
“I’ve been playing since I was ten.” He answered. “So I guess that’s about eight years.”
“You’re eight-teen?”
“Yes I am. How old are you?”
“Well, I’m seven-teen. I turned seven-teen about four months ago.”
Now there’s another pause of silence, but this time it’s even longer. “Is it a problem I just turned seven-teen?”
“No, I was just thinking about something. Hey! Would you mind playing a song or two on the piano? You said you’ve been playing for about five years so I figure you’ve got to be good.”
I thought about this for a second. Of course I wouldn’t mind playing for him, but I can’t help but wonder what he’ll think of the songs I play.
“Um sure, but then you have to play something for me on the guitar.”
“It’s a deal,” he said and I started playing.
The songs I played for him were two that I wrote myself “Seeking Heaven” and “Here With Me”. I didn’t really want to play him a song he’d heard before, because if I did then he would know where I messed up if I did mess up. Once I was done playing my pieces, I looked up at him to find a smile on his face. It was a smile that came across as a little mischievous.
“Well?” I asked him.
“Those songs were great! I haven’t heard them before though; at least I don’t think I have. Did you write them or something?”
“Actually, I did write those songs. Writing is what I do in my free time. It’s not really anything I want to ever do professionally, but it’s something I enjoy.”
“Well let me just say that those songs were amazing. You could be a professional.”
“Thanks, but now it’s your turn. Grab that guitar right over there.” I pointed to the one leaning against the wall behind me. That was a pretty great compliment he gave me, I thought.
“Right,” he said and grabbed the guitar. When he started playing I just sat back and listened. I hadn’t heard the songs he played before either, but he played really well himself.
Once he was done I said, “You’re really good. I tried guitar once and it didn’t work out too well for me. Let’s just say I can see you as a professional also. I know it’s hard to play one of those things.”
He smiled and said, “Thanks.”
“No problem,” I said back.
Just then the bell rang and first period was over. I looked at my watch and I couldn’t believe a whole fifty minutes had already gone by. I grabbed my backpack and my purse and said, “Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow. Same time, same place?”
“Right,” he said as I started walking past him and out the door.
By lunch, I didn’t realize I was starving until I took a bite out of my turkey and cheese sandwich. Carrie and Taylor sat down at the table with me and we shared our morning stories with each other. Carrie had made friends with a new girl (I think she said her name was Holly) and got to know her better. Taylor spent all the free time she had this morning with Josh which was to be expected.
When I told them about my morning, they looked around the lunch room in search of Nick and when they saw him, they were squealing at the top of their lungs.
“Why is this something to squeal and scream over?” I asked them once they turned back to face me.
“He’s gorgeous!” they said simultaneously with wide eyes.
“That’s nice,” I replied.
“Maybe you could hook up with him,” Carrie said.
“Carrie, you know how I feel about boy-girl relationships. I don’t feel comfortable about that stuff, remember? How many times do I have to explain myself?”
“You know,” said Taylor, “you need to get the theory that there’s no such thing as love out of your head.”
“Like I’ve explained before, it’s not that I don’t believe in it, it’s just that I don’t ever think I’ll be in love.”
“You don’t believe in it,” Carrie said.
“Whatever. I don’t even know if I want to be friends with this guy. He’s nice and good looking and everything, but I just don’t know.”
As they both turned to look at him again, I realized he was walking over to our table. “You better think of something to say and quick,” said Taylor, “because he’s walking right towards us.”
Just then Nick came up and was standing beside my chair. “Hey Shelly,” he said looking into my eyes.
“Hey Nick! How were your morning classes?”
“They were okay. Chemistry is going to be a tough class but other than that they’ve been good so far.”
“That’s really great. Hey Nick? These are my two best friends,” I said pointing to the two girls sitting across from me at the table, “Carrie and Taylor. Carrie and Tay, this is Nick.”
“It’s nice to meet you both,” Nick said politely.
“You to,” they both commented at the same time.
“Well,” Nick replied, “I’ve got to run to the library before my next class starts. I just thought I’d stop by and say hey. I’ll see you later Shelly.”
“Bye Nick,” I said and he walked away.
“So…,” Carrie said slowly like she was trying to get me to fess up to something.
“So what,” I replied wondering what she was about to say.
“He’s a really nice guy,” Taylor said. “He’d be good for you Shell.”
“Taylor, don’t start that stuff with me now. I don’t have any interest in him other than possibly as a friend. And the only reason I’m considering being his friend is because he’s new and might need some help with things regarding school.”
“Oh come on! You know he’s totally good looking,” Carrie said standing up followed by Taylor and me.
“Yeah he’s good looking, but I don’t really care,” I stated as I looked at the time on my watch. “I’ve got to go. I’ll see you guys in the parking lot this afternoon.”
The bell rang as I said that. As Carrie and Taylor were walking away, they both sighed and said in unison, “Whatever.”
This didn’t surprise me any. They are always trying to get me to believe in love. They go into these long lectures about how stupid it is of me not to believe in it, and they’re always trying to get me to go out on dates with guys I’ve never met before. Every time I tell them that the whole dating scene isn’t for me and try to explain the way I feel about it. In the end, they always end up giving me that one word, “whatever.”
By the time the bell rang to let us out of our seventh period classes, my head was pounding. I had signed up for study hall as my seventh period class so I could get my homework done at school and wouldn’t have any to take home. Little did I know that my teachers would pile on as much homework as they did and as fast as they did. I spent all period working on the stuff the teachers assigned. Little good it did me. I did all my chemistry, calculus, and French only to know when I get home I still have to do History and Literature.
I had to make a stop by the school office on my way out to pick up the school work and forms Randy had missed doing and filling out today. I promised him before he left that I would pick the stuff up for him and bring it to his house later tonight. As I looked into the folder I was thinking, He has more work to do than I did today. Poor Randy, he’s going to be up all night working on making this up. Maybe once I get to his house I should offer some help. He’s probably had a really tiresome day as it is. I closed the folder then and headed straight to my car.
As I sat on the trunk of my car awaiting the arrival of Carrie and Taylor, I thought about the day. The sun was shining bright and the leaves were blowing in the wind. It was a beautiful August afternoon. I noticed that the leaves are already starting to change color. I could hear the birds singing and the kids playing outside in their yards across the street. Something about being outside always calms me down. It’s like I feel peace, safety, happiness. Those feelings don’t come to me very often so when they do, I take them for granted, even when I do have killer headaches like the one I had then.
I waited about five minutes before I finally saw someone walking towards me. Good, I thought, now I can go home and relax before I finish my homework and take Randy his stuff. I wonder how baby Stephanie is doing. I really need to get some medicine for this migraine before I go to Randy’s. But when I looked back at the person again, I realized that it wasn’t Carrie or Taylor walking my way; it was Nick. Please not now, I thought, I don’t feel like talking to anyone unless they’re willing to give me some aspirin and a bottle of water. But of course, there is no such luck. It was only wishful thinking. 1
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