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Authors: Allie Gail
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Always having been a daddy’s girl myself, I can’t imagine having a father like that. “Do you have any kind of relationship with him?”
“Nope. I haven’t seen the man since she threw him out. I couldn’t tell you if he’s alive or dead.”
“What? You mean he never tried to contact you? His own son?”
“Not once. I’m telling you, if it wasn’t printed on the side of a liquor bottle, he wasn’t interested.”
“Unbelievable,” I breathe, my mind racing as I piece together fragments of memories. With this insight I’m starting to rescind the foregone conclusions I’d held about him when we were kids. The outdated clothes…the ratty sneakers…the hair that constantly needed cutting. He wasn’t merely a slob who didn’t care about his appearance. His family was poor and it wasn’t his fault.
Of course, before I start to feel too sorry for him I have to stop and remind myself that none of that had any bearing on the way he acted in the years after his parents got divorced.
10th grade
You wouldn’t think world history would be this boring.
Mr. Callahan is droning on and on about the Industrial Revolution in his slow, dull monotone and it’s all I can do to keep from falling asleep. My chin is propped in the palm of my hand and I’m balanced on one elbow struggling to keep my eyes open. Is it some kind of rule that teachers aren’t permitted to exhibit any kind of personality? I swear he sounds just like a turtle. That is, if turtles could talk. He even sort of looks like one.
I tune him out and let my eyes wander around the room, mentally evaluating some of the other students who look just as apathetic as me.
Elijah Hunt. Kinda cute, but a little on the weird side. Yesterday he asked me if he could borrow one of my shoes for five minutes. What’s up with that?
Amber Owens. Heard she and Jake Hoffman are dating. Wonder if that’s true?
Colton Wells. Big muscles, really buff and athletic. Totally conceited though. All he ever talks about is his weight training routine. News flash – nobody cares!
Tim Franklin. Ugh. Clearasil, anyone? His face has enough oil on it to be considered a fire hazard.
Brianna Lawson. I like that top she has on. I’ll have to ask her where she got it.
Zach Norris. He used to eat his boogers in elementary school and I don’t care if he turns out to be People magazine’s sexiest man of the year, I will never be able to look at him without remembering that. Sick!
Shane Becker.
Hm.
I’m not sure what happened exactly, but over the summer something must have drastically changed for him. He’s like a different person, the most obvious and conspicuous difference being that he now wears glasses. You’d think a guy like him would look dorky in glasses. But he doesn’t, he looks good actually. He’s also wearing nicer clothes now, new stuff that doesn’t look like castoffs from a flea market. His chestnut hair is trimmed and no longer an unruly mess, and surprisingly he seems to be doing a lot better in school. Could it be this whole time his eyesight was the problem?
I’m not the only one who’s noticed. Lately he’s got girls flocking around him like flies to honey. Stephanie has even confided to me that she thinks he’s hot. Well, maybe he is, but I’d never stoop so low as to admit it.
I also refuse to admit that he was right about Mark. That whole business last year was an eye-opener for me. I thought, as anyone would, that my neighbor from down the street was just being nice when he would see me walking to school and offer me a ride. That’s what neighbors do, right? And yes, I admit that maybe I was crushing on him just a bit. He was good-looking and took classes at the local community college and it was exhilarating to be seen driving around in a Mustang with a college guy. So sue me, I was naïve.
But asking me if I’d send him naked pictures of myself? Gross! I mean, it was just so unexpected. Out of the blue, he asks me that.
“Nope. I haven’t seen the man since she threw him out. I couldn’t tell you if he’s alive or dead.”
“What? You mean he never tried to contact you? His own son?”
“Not once. I’m telling you, if it wasn’t printed on the side of a liquor bottle, he wasn’t interested.”
“Unbelievable,” I breathe, my mind racing as I piece together fragments of memories. With this insight I’m starting to rescind the foregone conclusions I’d held about him when we were kids. The outdated clothes…the ratty sneakers…the hair that constantly needed cutting. He wasn’t merely a slob who didn’t care about his appearance. His family was poor and it wasn’t his fault.
Of course, before I start to feel too sorry for him I have to stop and remind myself that none of that had any bearing on the way he acted in the years after his parents got divorced.
10th grade
You wouldn’t think world history would be this boring.
Mr. Callahan is droning on and on about the Industrial Revolution in his slow, dull monotone and it’s all I can do to keep from falling asleep. My chin is propped in the palm of my hand and I’m balanced on one elbow struggling to keep my eyes open. Is it some kind of rule that teachers aren’t permitted to exhibit any kind of personality? I swear he sounds just like a turtle. That is, if turtles could talk. He even sort of looks like one.
I tune him out and let my eyes wander around the room, mentally evaluating some of the other students who look just as apathetic as me.
Elijah Hunt. Kinda cute, but a little on the weird side. Yesterday he asked me if he could borrow one of my shoes for five minutes. What’s up with that?
Amber Owens. Heard she and Jake Hoffman are dating. Wonder if that’s true?
Colton Wells. Big muscles, really buff and athletic. Totally conceited though. All he ever talks about is his weight training routine. News flash – nobody cares!
Tim Franklin. Ugh. Clearasil, anyone? His face has enough oil on it to be considered a fire hazard.
Brianna Lawson. I like that top she has on. I’ll have to ask her where she got it.
Zach Norris. He used to eat his boogers in elementary school and I don’t care if he turns out to be People magazine’s sexiest man of the year, I will never be able to look at him without remembering that. Sick!
Shane Becker.
Hm.
I’m not sure what happened exactly, but over the summer something must have drastically changed for him. He’s like a different person, the most obvious and conspicuous difference being that he now wears glasses. You’d think a guy like him would look dorky in glasses. But he doesn’t, he looks good actually. He’s also wearing nicer clothes now, new stuff that doesn’t look like castoffs from a flea market. His chestnut hair is trimmed and no longer an unruly mess, and surprisingly he seems to be doing a lot better in school. Could it be this whole time his eyesight was the problem?
I’m not the only one who’s noticed. Lately he’s got girls flocking around him like flies to honey. Stephanie has even confided to me that she thinks he’s hot. Well, maybe he is, but I’d never stoop so low as to admit it.
I also refuse to admit that he was right about Mark. That whole business last year was an eye-opener for me. I thought, as anyone would, that my neighbor from down the street was just being nice when he would see me walking to school and offer me a ride. That’s what neighbors do, right? And yes, I admit that maybe I was crushing on him just a bit. He was good-looking and took classes at the local community college and it was exhilarating to be seen driving around in a Mustang with a college guy. So sue me, I was naïve.
But asking me if I’d send him naked pictures of myself? Gross! I mean, it was just so unexpected. Out of the blue, he asks me that.
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