The Cat That Went to Homecoming (12 page)

“Mom, do you have any idea what I can do with
my hair?” I asked. She always used hair products and was very
meticulous with her hair. She peeked in and looked very
excited.

“Oh, this will be fun!” she said, “Go get
dressed and meet me in the bathroom. How much time do we have?” she
asked.

“Not long, about forty-five minutes,” I said.
She groaned.

“All right, then, let’s get moving!” she
said.

Mom simply used mousse and the blow dryer to
make my hair look amazing. It fell down to my shoulders in loose
ringlets, and the best part was that I thought I could do this
myself in the future. It only took a few minutes, some ‘scrunching’
as she called it, and abracadabra! I had hair like a movie
star!

She helped me apply some subtle makeup. My
mom was like me in that we didn’t like too much makeup, just some
simple eye shadow, eye liner, and mascara and that was it.

I was finished and ready to go with fifteen
minutes to spare. Mom didn’t like the shirt I was wearing. “You
look too good to be wearing a plain old t-shirt!” she said.

She brought out a few of her shirts for me to
try on. My favorite shirt of hers was a pink tunic knotted between
the breasts which made her look voluptuous when she wore it. I
wanted to look like that! I tried it on, and I loved the way it
looked. It was fitted at the waist and designed to make me look
like I had an hourglass figure. Just an illusion, I knew, but I
liked it. No one had ever seen THIS Ellen!

“You and Brandon won’t be ‘just friends’ once
he sees you tonight!” Mom declared, making me blush. Suddenly I
wanted to rip the sexy shirt off and throw on my t-shirt.

“Stop it, Mom!” I said as the doorbell
rang.

Oh, my God! I wasn’t ready for this. I
started to sweat and feel nauseous. “Mom, can you please tell him
that I’m sick?”

“No,” she said.

“Mom, please,” I pleaded. It was ineffective;
she opened the door and let Brandon in.

“Hi, Brandon, it’s nice to see you again,” I
heard her say.

“Hi, Mrs. Jones, it’s nice to see you, too.”
Brandon’s reply was nervous yet polite.

I sighed and walked through the kitchen to
meet Brandon at the door. I saw his eyes widen, and I was
immediately insecure.
I must look like a tramp,
I
thought.

I said goodnight to my mom, assured her I had
enough money with me as she tried to offer me more, and walked to
the car with Brandon. I was nervous and didn’t know why. I mean, it
wasn’t like this was a date or anything like that! I was being
stupid, I realized, but I couldn’t help it.

“Wow,” Brandon said when we got to the car,
“You look great!”

“Thanks, so do you.” Boy, did that sound
dumb! I couldn’t look at him, so I just stared straight ahead as we
drove to Cindy’s. She came out of her front door and I was thankful
she wore a dressier shirt, too. I didn’t feel so overdressed
anymore, not that jeans and a tunic were dressy, by any means. It
was just that I was used to wearing t-shirts and sweatshirts, and
not displaying my figure so much.

The skating rink was packed almost to
capacity. While waiting in line to get in, I tried to talk Cindy
and Brandon out of staying, but they were determined. I shifted
about and looked around me. I saw a lot of familiar faces, some
younger than me, some older. Quite a few of them were huddled
together whispering to one another while they looked at me. Call me
paranoid if you want, but I could feel them watching me. I should
not have worn such a revealing shirt!

Brandon seemed uneasy, as well, which was
surprising to me. He joked around in his usual manner, but seemed
to have his eyes on the people around us. I had never seen the
insecure side of him. Brandon was always so spontaneous and funny,
never guarded like he was there in line. Cindy was the only one of
the three of us that seemed comfortable.

It was impossible to get a booth all to
ourselves, the crowd was too large. Cindy was the one who
approached a group of younger teens and asked if we could share
their table. We sat and laced up our skates, Brandon and I staying
on alert and Cindy completely oblivious to our anxieties.

“Hurry up, I love this song!” Cindy said
impatiently, pacing back and forth in front of us. She waved at a
group of girls and said, “I’ll be back,” and took off almost
running in her skates. Before long, she was out circling the floor
with the girls she knew from school; girls I knew by face, but had
never spoken to.

Brandon and I had finished lacing up our
skates, but neither one of us made any attempt to get up and skate.
We were both surveying the scene. I saw lots of people I knew from
school, but most of them were freshmen or sophomores. The junior
and senior kids usually found more daring activities to do on the
wooded lot behind the roller rink. It was known as the “party spot”
where alcohol and drugs where usually shared.

Brandon made the first move. He stood up in
front of me and offered his hands to help me up. I took them and
stood, a bit shaky, and fumbled to get used to having wheels on my
feet.

“You’ve never skated before,” Brandon
said.

“Does it show?” I jokingly asked.

“I’ve noticed that there are a lot of things
you haven’t done yet, but we’re going to change that. Come on, I’ll
coach you.” He led me to the roller rink, holding hands with
me.

I thought the carpeted floor was bad enough,
but once I stood on the waxed wooden floor of the skating rink, I
realized it was going to be even harder than I expected. I felt
like a newborn giraffe trying out its legs for the first time! I
nearly fell on my butt. Thankfully, Brandon was there to hold me
up. He was laughing, but not in a way that embarrassed me. He spun
around in front of me and held my hands while he skated
backwards.

“Show-off!” I scolded.

“Hey, I’m trying to help you!” he replied. He
took me around the rink slowly. If I wasn’t so concerned about
falling, I might have felt stupid, but my fear of falling
outweighed my fear of looking silly. He showed me how to use the
brake on the toe to push off for speed, but speed was not necessary
to me! I wanted one of those walkers Janet used in the rehab
facility. Brandon was a very patient teacher. We spent a good hour
just rolling around the rink until I felt confident enough to let
go of his hand. Cindy had passed us up numerous times, always
grinning at us and patting me on the back.

When I’d had enough, I told Brandon I wanted
to take a break. “Why don’t you go off with Cindy for a while so
you can have fun? I know you want to race around the rink and I’m
just holding you back,” I told him.

“You’re not holding me back because I’m doing
exactly what I want to do,” he said.

“Well, I want to get something to drink and
sit down for a minute,” I said firmly.

“Okay. I’ll find you if you take too long,”
he said and winked at me. I felt my pulse quicken a little.

I made my way to the snack bar and stood in
line, looking the menu over and trying to decide what I wanted.

“Ellen?” I heard a familiar voice speak my
name and felt a hand on my shoulder. My heart sank to my feet and I
broke out in a cold sweat. It was John Peck! Oh, God, how could I
escape?

I turned and faced him. He was directly
behind me in line and alone. His skin was deeply tanned and he was
wearing a white muscle shirt which showed off his arms. His blonde
hair and ocean blue eyes stood out against his dark skin. He looked
like a Greek god. It was not hard to see why every girl in the
county had it bad for him!

“Hi, John,” I said, proud of the aloofness in
my tone.

“I thought I recognized you earlier. Wow, you
look great!” he said trying to engage me in conversation. I told
myself to remain uninterested, so I didn’t reply.

“Is that guy you’re with your boyfriend?” he
curiously asked.

“Brandon? No, we’re just friends,” I said,
then turned to face the cashier in the concession stand. I
pretended to ignore John and asked her for a soda, but he moved in
front of me and said, “Make that two please.” He turned to look at
me, “My treat.”

This was probably the most awkward moment of
my life! When we were handed our sodas, I thanked him, but didn’t
know for the life of me what to do next! I decided to go to our
table and sit, but was I supposed to invite him to sit with me?
Lord knew I didn’t want to. I wanted him to just skate away and
leave me alone. The voice inside of me told me to act indifferent
and leave him standing there, so I did.

I went over to our booth. Two of the girls
that we were sharing the table with were sitting there eating
nachos and they looked up at me as I approached. They stopped
talking and stared, which made me a bit uncomfortable. After I sat
down, I realized what they were staring at. John had followed me to
the booth.

“Can I join you?” he asked.

“Um, I suppose,” I stuttered. Why was he
doing this? Why couldn’t he just leave? I was not stupid, I was
sure Darcel had some sort of plan. Make the fat girl think the hot
guy is interested in her, and then do something big to embarrass
her in front of the entire crowd! I looked around, searching for
Darcel, surely she was there somewhere.

“So, what have you been up to all summer?”
John asked, sipping his soda and watching my face.

“Not much,” I replied shortly. “John, don’t
you have someone to hang out with?” I finally worked up the courage
to ask.

“You want me to leave?” he asked
incredulously, as if no girl had ever dismissed him before. The two
girls sitting at the table snickered.

“Look, John, I appreciate the soda you bought
for me, but don’t feel obligated to sit and talk with me,” I
said.

“I don’t feel OBLIGATED.” He enunciated the
word. “I am talking to you because I think you’re cute, and I’ve
never had an opportunity to get to know you.”

I believed that the only reason he was
interested in me was because the darn shirt I had on was too
revealing and it created the illusion of a great figure. I’d bet if
I had my hair in its standard ponytail and had my t-shirt on, this
wouldn’t be happening!

Now I was mad. This was the boy I’d had a
crush on all of my life and he said I was cute, but I was the same
person I was three months ago at the chalkboard when he asked me if
all fat people were as dumb as me. He acted like I was a balloon
and poked me with pencils to pop me! He purposefully whipped balls
at me in gym class. His exterior appearance was pleasing to the
eye, but inside, he was as ugly as an ogre!

“Hey, are you hitting on my girl?” I heard
Brandon say.

“Hitting on your girl?” John asked in
surprise, “I hate to break it to you buddy, but your girl told me
you guys were just friends.”

At that moment, the DJ announced it was
“guy’s choice”, which apparently meant the guys had to ask a girl
to skate to a slow song with them. Brandon took my hand, helped me
stand, and told John, “That’s because she doesn’t know yet that
she’s my girl, but thanks for helping me get it out there. Ellen,
will you skate with me?”

I was too stunned to speak, so I just nodded
and skated off to the rink with Brandon. He wrapped an arm around
my waist and led me across the floor. The lights were low and the
disco ball in the center of the ceiling was sending sparkling
lights across the walls. We didn’t speak to each other throughout
the entire song. I just took in the moment, watching the lights
dance across the floor and the walls, feeling Brandon’s warmth
around my waist. When he spun me around to face him, I wrapped my
arms around his neck as he skated backwards. He was looking into my
eyes, but didn’t say a word. Then he put his arms around my waist
again and pulled me a little closer to him. That was a mistake! It
threw me off balance and before I knew it, we were laying in a heap
on the floor!

Couples tripped over us. Some remained
standing, but some fell and the whole group of us ended up
laughing.

“Brandon, did I hurt you?” I asked between
laughs, after all, I had fallen on top of him and I didn’t want to
squash him.

“No, you didn’t hurt me at all.” He managed
to say, he had been laughing, too. “In fact, if you want to keep
laying on me, I’m okay with that.” That comment made me push off of
him.

“What? You can’t blame a guy for trying!” he
said as he stood and helped me up. “Can we go somewhere to talk?”
He suddenly got serious.

I nodded and let him take me to our booth.
Thankfully, John was gone, as were the two nacho girls. I scooted
in one side of the booth and expected Brandon to sit across from
me, but instead he sat right next to me. We were silent for a few
minutes, both of us looking at our hands or at the skating rink to
avoid eye contact. I saw Cindy and the girls she had been hanging
around with round the corner and she waved at us. I waved back and
decided to break the silence.

“I wonder why she isn’t hanging out with us,”
I said to Brandon. “Is it because I’m not very good at
skating?”

“No,” he said, “it’s because she’s giving us
some time alone.”

I looked at him and he was looking straight
into my eyes again, which was unnerving. I felt all sweaty and
confused.

He put an arm around my shoulder and leaned
in towards my ear. “I want to kiss you,” he whispered. My eyes
popped open wide. I was sixteen years old and I had never kissed a
boy before! What if I did it wrong? Was there something special I
was supposed to do?

When I first visited Janet in the rehab
facility, something took over control of me, which Jane called
compassion. What took over me now was passion, plain and simple. My
brain shut out all my questions and doubts and took control of my
actions.

Brandon’s face was so close to my ear that it
only took a slight shift of my head to face him. I touched my lips
to his and that was it. My mouth knew what to do, even though I
didn’t! He had one hand in my hair on the back of my head and one
on my waist. My arms had found their way around his neck and my
body had shifted until I was sitting on his lap facing him. I
didn’t realize the two of us could fit in the booth like that!