Beauty and the Beast
His fingers lace the small of my back gently, pulling me
against his warm body. We sway awkwardly to the slow pace music as i hope for
soon separation. My eyes lock with my best friends from across the room just as
she tips over the punch bowl as a distraction. All eyes turn to the mess
as Jared and I finish our painful
dance. When the song is over, I pull away and try to escape from him before
people see us but his hand catches my arm to stop me short. His glassy green
eyes locked on mine. I’ve always thought they were eery.
“I’m sorry”
My face flashes with confusion-
“Why?”
He gestures to his greasy figure, “you think I don't know
what people say about me?...Thanks for the dance, it was generous of you” with
that he turns and leaves to the bathroom. I spin around to Emma, who was still
trying to make a scene to get eyes off Jared and me. She gave me the thumbs up
and I forced a smile as I ponder the meaning of generous.
“Was it terrible? Was my
distraction good!?” Emma overwhelms me with questions after the awkward school
dance. We walked briskly to escape the cold night, wrapped tight in our
sweaters.
“No”
“The punch bowl wasn't enough! Damn
I should'a slapped a teacher. That would'a caused a HUGE scene.”
“No”
“Well I’d like to see you
think of something”
I shake my head and laugh.
“C'mon get in”
I crank the heat, and drive us home.
“How was the dance girls?” my
mother is dressed in a bath robe on the couch.
“Alright” I huff and collapse in my
favorite arm chair.
“She danced with Jared Harris” Emma
blurts with an amused expression as my mom's eyes light up.
“Yeah? He's a nice boy...with
money...I approve”
“MOM! Sooo not cool!”
She laughs then sighs.
“Alright girls, tell me what’s wrong
with him”
“He has greasy hair, a tiny nose,
big bug eyes and a stutter.” Emma fills my mom in as I roll my eyes.
“He's not all bad-”
“WHAT!?” I look up to see Emma’s
jaw on the floor.
“That’s my girl, I always taught
you to look beyond the surface”
“Nah, he is shallow, but he knows
it...” I think about what he said after our dance.
“Please tell me you’re not falling
for him. Please don't be falling for him!”
“I’m not. He's not my type”
“Oh...thank god!”
“Em, don't be like that” my mother
pipes in to my rescue
“The guys a creep! I blame Shelly
for not teaching you to say (no). Seriously, that's what got you in this
mess Ali.”
“Hey! I taught Alice great values! She just doesn't have
great confidence.”
“Thanks mom.”
“Well you don't! You girls are
beautiful with smoking little figures! It’s about time you read that book I got
from the library about teen development-”
“Night mom!” I interrupt and rush
to my room, pulling Emma along with me.
My room is simple with British fashion posters taking up the
majority of my wall space. Emma lands on my bed as I shut my door closed and
kick off my pumps.
“Your mom...is such a mom!”
We laugh in agreement.
“Help me out of my dress, I gadda
tell you what Jared said.” Emma’s fingers rip my delicate zipper down my back
quickly so I will get to the details faster.
“Okay. Tell me everything”
Kicking my satin dress to my laundry bin I throw on mark's
old football jersey and curl up on my bed next to Emma. Telling her everything
from the awkward stance to the statement he made towards my generosity.
“Well it makes sense.” Emma says when
I finished my story.
“What does?”
“Think about it-” she runs her
fingers through her hair. “It’s Jared. He's lucky to have danced with you, he
doesn't get girls the way Danny does.” The image of Danny Anderson fills my
head with his spiky hair and dreamy smile.
“I guess so...but most guys
wouldn't come out and thank me..”
“Jared isn't most guys. He's
a parasite.”
“He seemed nice enough”
“They all do. Ah innocent little Alice, you need to see
guys as what they are!”
“Rude..?”
“Pigs!”
The following morning started with Emma being called to the
office to explain for her rational behavior last night at the winter ball. I
try to focus on Ms. Dakin and her lesson about metaphors and the delightful
hidden meanings of Shakespeare.
We all
listen intently to the announcements as the principle explains that the annual
camping trip at Camp
WoopOp is Next Friday and
all grade 10's are expected to be there. When Emma returns from the principles
office, she announces that she is suspended from the camping trip. I go silent
and stare at her in disbelief.
On Thursday
after school, Emma comes to my house to help me pack even though its torture
for her. We have dreamed about this trip since grade 2. Each year the grade
10's get to go, and finally it’s our year; and I have to go without my best
friend.
“I don't
want to go without you.”
“Danny
Anderson is going. This is your chance to be grouped up with him. If I can't
have him, I want you to get a chance.”
“That's
stupid.”
“You'll be
stupid if you don't go.”
We argued about this until my bags were completely packed
and Emma was pushing me out the door Friday. I could see in her eyes that she
wanted to go more than anything, and it killed me that she couldn’t.
“I don't
get it, all you did was push over a drink bowl.” I say out the open window to
her from the sidewalk.
“Yeah but
the punch bowl was an antique and it broke”
“Oh”
With that the bus pulled away and I waved. A whole summer
without Emma, how am I going to manage? I can't even last on a math test without
her answers. My eyes wander around the bus, I notice Jared is sitting alone as
well. I move my sweater to the open seat beside me so he doesn't have the need
to fill Emma's seat.
“May I sit
here?” My eyes meet with Danny Andersen’s. I look around confused, to the other
empty seats around me as I move my sweater.
“Sure..?”
“Thanks”
I don't like Danny as much as Emma does, yet anyone can see
themselves dating him; he's just that type of guy. We small talk easily for the
hour drive, though all I can think about is Emma sitting in the seat a few up
from mine giving me the thumbs up. When we arrive everyone presses their noses
against the glass to get a good look at the camp. There are several brown run
down cabins scattered around the lake with random paddle boats in the sand and
a volleyball net set up on the beach. Its just as I pictured it. When everyone
has retrieved their bags from under the bus, we stand waiting for an instructor
to give us our cabin number. When they finally arrive, I hold in a snicker. The
lady is wearing florescent swim shorts and has a fountain ponytail with knobby
knees and braces. If Emma were here, we would have been rolling of the ground
laughing.
“Hi guys”
she has a lisp and cokes her hip, exposing her granny panties from under her
short shorts. “ When you get your cabin number, get settled and meet back
here.”
“Sarah,
Grace, Sam and Erin. Your all in cabin #1” They pick up their over sized bags
and head to the closest cabin.
“Alice,
Phoebe, Judy and Emma. Your in cabin #2” My head feels heavy and my eyes are
teary. Emma would have been in my cabin. Phoebe kicks open our door and holds
it open for us.
“Thanks.” I
mumble. The cabin is big enough for two bunk beds and a small dresser.
“I call
top!” Phoebe Jumps up the closest bunk bed and unrolls her sleeping bag.
“I'm a
restless sleeper so I better snag the bottom” Judy gives a weak smile and
places her ratty old teddy on her Pinocchio pillow.
“I'm sorry,
how old are you?” Phoebe leans her head over to mock Judy's pillow.
“I like
Disney”
“Of course
you do.”
“I'll take
bottom too” I walk over to the other bunk bed, knowing that Emma always prefers
the top bunk when ever we have that option.
“Since you had a long drive, you will have an hour of free
time. At six, I will ring that bell” The lady points to a large church bell
hanging beside the lifeguard stand. “you will all meet at the dinning hall.”
“Whats your
name?!” Some guy yells from the back of the group, it was probably a dare.
“Oh how
silly of me” She gives a squeaky giggle. “I am professor fun.” Everybody
laughs.
Half the guys jump in the lake, while most of the girls put
on their bathing suits and lay in the sand. I walk to the end of the dock and
watch the birds across the lake.
The next day, Professor fun turned out to be the
activity director. My group for the summer was Phoebe, Judy, Danny, Jared and
Mike. Mike turned out to be Judy's best friend so they were joined at the hip
almost instantly; Phoebe is obsessed with Danny so they are always together.
That leaves me to talk to Jared. Every group had to compete in quests and come
the end of the summer, these quests were supposed to teach us stuff about one
another and the winner gets a jar full of jelly beans. Mike and Judy explain
how much they want those jelly beans. We laugh at how seriously they are taking
each quest. First we had a scavenger hunt. We came in second next to the geeky
group full of Jared's nerdy friends. The next, we had to build ourselves a
shelter in the forest in case we ever got lost. We came in first for that one
because Danny is really into wilderness and had the brilliant idea of putting
mud over the sticks. Apparently that blocks off wind and keeps the heat in.
Every night we have a bomb fire and free time for an hour. The guys generally
swim, while the girls sun bathe. I'll usually be found at the end of the dock
writing a letter to Emma.
Dear Emma. Camp stinks without you, I have no idea why
you made me come without you. You'll laugh when you hear that Jared's in my
group. Though so is Danny so I guess that's alright. How's your summer going?
If its anything better than (“professor fun” and her activities that she has
given us) then I am officially jealous. Go see my mom, she misses having me
around and she knows you best. If I come back and your dating my brother, I’m
probably going to have a seizure. Just saying. Please come up on parent
visiting day with my mom, I miss you more than anything.
I couldn't think of anything else to write to her, so I
sealed the letter in an envelope and sent it. I never was good at getting my
feelings down on paper anyway. As the days passed, I noticed everyone started
looking better. The hair products have washed out of the girls hair, the guys
were more tanned and I am not going to lie, Jared started looking really
muscular and different. His hair was less greasy, eyes wild and he was always
laughing. Emma would kill me if she knew I was thinking that, but I couldn't
help it.
That night at the bomb fire, I sat next to him. He smelled
sweat and his hair was turning curly.
“Hey Jared”
I smile up at him, was he always this tall?
“Hi Alice” His voice turns
dull.
“How are
you liking camp?”
“S'all
right I guess”
“You guess?
You seem to be having a blast.”
“What do
you want Alice?”
My face goes straight.
“What do
you mean?” I say after a small silence.
“Why are
you talking to me?”
I chuckle.
“Because I
want to.”
“Look, you
already danced with me, I don't need any more favors. Just leave a geek alone,
I’m not a joke and I don't need girls finishing a dare by talking to me.”
“This isn't
a dare.”
“It was the
first time, when we danced. I know it was”
“That's
different,”
“How?”
“Look
Jared, I just wanted to be friends, but if you don't want to be close with me,
then that's your loss” I stand up, and he spits.
“My loss?
You think your so great Alice.
But honestly, nobody wants you.” I look around with tears realizing that all
eyes are on me. With that I storm off to the end of the dock to cry.
“he's
right.” I mumble to myself. If any guy wanted me, he could have me. I'm not
hard to get, I'm desperate really.
“Alice” A
voice sounds from behind me. I turn suddenly to see Jared. He looks worried.
“What do
you want?” I stare ahead again as he sits next to me.
“To apologize,
I didn't mean to embarrass you in front of everybody.” We sit there for a
while.
“You make
me sound like the beast.” I break the silence.
“What?”
“You know,
Beauty and the Beast, I always thought I would be considered beauty.”
“Alice” He
stands up, “you may have good looks, but you think way to highly of yourself.
On the inside, you are the beast.” With that he leaves. More tears flow down my
face.
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