Straight From The Onion Vine Book 1 Between. Jody Scottsmith
usual two knocks.
“I was in the bathtub when you called,” she explained, glancing at the clock. Ten was even early for Annie.
“I can’t wait to be eighteen, so I can move out,” Annie threatened.
Kara decided tea and toast were enough, and turned her attention to Annie. “You had another fight?” She cautiously asked, taking their mugs off the counter.
“Yeah; this time it’s my step-dad.”
Kara knew there was more to it. She was at Annie’s plenty of times when her mother took his side. “You can always come live with us.”
“Thanks, but that would be too embarrassing. My mother has to paint this rosy picture of how life is so great with him.”
That was the most honest thing she’s ever heard Annie say. Kara put the mugs in the microwave. “I could use some company.” The next words were harder, but she had to say them. “I’m pretty sure Scott won’t be coming over. Make that real sure.”
Annie perked up at the change of subject. “Why? What happened?”
“We didn’t say much on the way home,” Kara shrugged.
“Let me guess…he didn’t like you dancing with Neil,” Annie predicted.
The microwave went off and she took out the tea. They both sat down at the kitchen table.
“Can I ask you something, Annie?”
Yeah; sure,” she agreed adding sugar to her tea.
“Do you ever see your real father? Spend time with him, I mean.”
“Not really. He used to call, but my mother made it too hard. She always said we had plans or something. I think he finally gave up. What does this have to do with last night?”
“Do you miss him?” Kara persisted.
“I’d be great to see him. Weird, but great. I’ve never heard much about your Dad.”
“I don’t know. I mean, he hasn’t been around since I was a baby,” Kara answered. She left out how she felt after the dance.
The blinking light from the answering machine caught Annie’s eye. “Hey, that’s not me; I didn’t call this morning. Maybe it’s Scott.”
Annie was always the social organizer, and Kara knew why. She didn’t like to talk about things that happen at home. Maybe because she always had to go back.
DISTANCE
The message was from Neil. He asked Kara to a movie this afternoon. She called him and said Annie wanted to go. They both needed this, and even had fun getting ready. Kara picked up the jeans she wore last night and stuffed them under her bed.
“I don’t want any reminders … not for a while anyway,” she insisted, feeling a little better.
They met Neil at Lakeside Mall about one o’clock. He was always on top of what was playing where and when. He sat in the middle and passed the popcorn back and forth.
There were times Kara’s mind wandered during the movie. About last night; maybe Annie was right. She never thought Scott would be jealous of Neil. Kara wasn’t watching him every minute, either. What if he danced with someone else? When her frustration returned, Kara focused on the movie. She promised she would speak up, if there was a next time.
She held onto the hope Scott might meet her at the bus on Monday. They also saw each other before lunch. When those didn’t happen, Kara knew that was ‘it’.
The day never seemed to end. She asked Neil to save her a seat on the afternoon bus. They could always talk about the movie. He could re-enact every scene, sometimes better than how it was.
Neil took his backpack off the seat next to him. Kara sat down, glad today was over.
“Can I ask you something?” Neil began, waiting for her to nod. “What happened with you and Scott?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see him, today. Maybe he’s sick or something.”
“I passed him on the way to Chem. Lab,” Neil pressed.
Kara took out her water bottle.This was her chance to start the right rumor. “We went to the dance Saturday and it didn’t work out. It’s me…maybe I’m just not ready to date.”
Those words were hard to say without her voice shaking. She took a long sip before putting her water bottle away. Neil was quiet, like he was thinking. The bus screeched to a halt.
“When WILL you be ready?” Neil managed.
“What did you say?” she asked, not hearing a word over the noise.
“Maybe we can do that, again … the movies, I mean,” he answered, losing his nerve.
“Sure. We had a good time. See you tomorrow, ok?”
Kara moved to the front of the bus, anxious to get home. She leaned against the back door after closing it, struck with two thoughts. It was over between her and Scott. The other one was … Neil repeated something different on the bus, just now. What he said the first time had nothing to do with the movies.
pb: ‘The worst part is…everyone wants to know what happened. IT’S OVER BETWEEN SCOTT AND ME! Why isn’t that enough? Why did I let Annie talk me into The Onion in the first place? All I wanted to do this year is pass Algebra. Ok so I miss him something terrible.’
RE-UNION
Kara looked forward to most weekends, but not this one. She agreed to go to The Onion on Saturday for one reason only. To get Mom off her case. It was so annoying the way she kept asking, “What’s the matter? Are you hiding from someone?” Of course Mom wasn’t totally wrong. With the exception of afternoon runs, she WAS spending more time in her room.
Kara led the way to a table with Annie and Neil close behind. She was even more nervous than her first time here. She didn’t look around; that was Annie’s job. She sat down and joined in a discussion about an English paper due next week. It got so quiet she could hear herself talking.
“Hey.”
She turned to see Scott behind her. “Hi, Scott,” she managed, trying not to sound surprised.
“Mind if I …?”
Kara shrugged an ‘ok’. Someone moved so he could sit next to her.
Scott looked around the table, saying a group ‘hi’. They struck up a conversation about a recent locker search. He waited for everyone to start talking among themselves and whispered to Kara, “Can we talk?”
She followed him to a booth, aware everyone was watching. As soon as they sat down, words poured out to break the tension.
“Can you believe I got a ‘C plus’ on the first algebra quiz? Just one more point for a ‘B minus’.”
“About the dance,” he interrupted. “I didn’t have to stay with the team, not for so long anyway. I spend enough time with them as it is.”
Kara felt her anger return. “I kept thinking…you don’t need me to talk to them. So why am I even here? I DID ask you to dance first, remember?”
“Ok,” Scott conceded. “But you didn’t have to dance…for so long.”
Kara had a bigger issue. “You called me ‘stupid’.”
“Yeah…I’m sorry,” he said, looking at her. He wanted to make this better.
“Look, Neil and I have been friends since grade school. You didn’t want to dance; he did. It’s that simple. Why is everyone making such a big deal out of this?”
Scott nodded in agreement. “Sunday’s coming up.”
She