WINNING SARAH’S HEART
(Serial Novel Series)
‘Episode One’
“Back to School”
by
H.T. NIGHT
Acclaim for H.T. Night:
“What a fun ride! Night displays an uncanny ability to capture the thoughts and language of youth. Winning Sarah’s Heart is heroic, funny, and most of all, real.”
—Summer Lee, author of Kindred Spirits and Shenanigans
“Winning Sarah’s Heart is pitch-perfect. More than anything, the author is a natural born storyteller. Think Nicholas Sparks meets Judy Blume. The story itself is inspiring and hilarious and will stay with you for some time to come. Night captures the thoughts and feelings of six-graders everywhere in a wonderfully touching and moving tale.”
—J.R. Rain, author of Moon Dance and The Body Departed
“This is why I love reading! Hilarious, thought-provoking and poignant!”
—Elaine Babich, author Relatively Normal and You Never Called Me Princess
OTHER BOOKS BY H.T. NIGHT
Winning Sarah’s Heart Serial Novel Series
Episode One: Back to School
Episode Two: Boys Being Boys
Episode Three: Looking Good, Cody Greer
Episode Four: Saying Goodbye
Episode Five: Something Special about Silence
Episode Six: Junior High
Episode Seven: Finding Cody
Episode Eight: Lovesick Quarterback
Winning Sarah’s Heart by H.T. Night
Published by H.T. Night at E-books
Copyright © 2011 by H.T. Night
E-book Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to your favorite eBook seller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Dedication
To my niece Tiffany, my friend Sara Wales, and my brother Jon for finding this book when I thought it was lost forever.
‘Back to School’
It was the last day of summer, and I was going into the sixth grade. I woke up feeling anxious, as I always did on the first day the school posted the classroom lists. Each year, the day before Wenchester Elementary School began, the school posted a list for each classroom so that the students could see which class they would be in during the year.
For some reason, this had always been a monumental event in my life. I anticipated it the way young children anticipate Christmas morning.
This year would be different. I had finally made it. I was at the top. I was a sixth grader!
At Wenchester, there were two sixth-grade classrooms. The teachers were Mr. O’Neil and Mrs. Phyllis. Mr. O’Neil was tall, slender, and non-threatening in his appearance. He had a reputation of being real strict. Mrs. Phyllis, on the other hand, was younger than most teacher and extremely beautiful. She had blonde hair and blue eyes that hid behind red glasses that made her look like a secretary. So, given the two choices for having a teacher, I thought it was reasonable to say I would rather be in Mrs. Phyllis’s class.
“Wake up!” screeched a female voice. The voice came from outside my room.
“You seriously thought I might be asleep?” I yelled back.
“Mom wants us to walk to the store and get lunch.” With that, she threw open the door. It was my sister, Carrie. Everyone said we looked alike. We would both swear to our deathbeds that we didn’t. She was a year younger than I was. The sad part about it was we were in the same grade. I was held back a year by my mother. She said it was for emotional reasons. If you ask me. I think my mother wished she had given birth to twins. She figured that even though we didn’t come out at the same time, she would make us go to school at the same time.
I used to live in Arizona with my mother and father. My parents divorced when I was three years old. My dad moved to Texas with his girlfriend a year later. I would only speak with him about four times a year. I saw him once at Christmas time when I was seven years old. We didn’t have much of a father-son relationship. I was supposed to love him because he was my dad. It was hard to love someone you never saw, especially when that someone chose not to see you.
My mother, sister and I live in Southern California. The three of us moved here after my mom and dad divorced. I figure I’ll probably leave California someday. For now, it’s an okay place to live, I guess.
“Blayne called,” Carrie said. “He said he’ll meet you at the basketball courts at two o’clock.” My sister has a crush on Blayne since we were little kids.
“Did he mention if Timmy would be there?” I asked.
“What am I, your personal answering service?”
“You are when Blayne calls.”
“I don’t like Blayne,” she protested. “You always say I like Blayne. I might have thought he was cute when I was little, but I don’t like him anymore.”
“Whatever,” I said, pushing her out of my room.
It was hard not to be overly excited knowing that the classroom lists were going to be posted. I wanted to have five people in my classroom. I wanted Blayne Ward and Timmy Lawson because they were my two best friends. I also hoped to have Tanya Taylor and Ali Moore because they were the two prettiest girls in the sixth grade.
Then, there was the new girl. She moved here at the end of the year. She wasn’t in my class.
Her name was Sarah Davis. She was a girl who seemed very mysterious. She didn’t say much. She would just keep to herself at recess. I always paid attention to her though. We walked home in the same direction from school.
On the last day of school, I decided to do something that was unlike anything I had ever done. That day I decided to pass my house and go to the market and get a candy bar. I was curious to see where Sarah lived. I walked behind her for about a mile. She happened to walk into Pete’s market. It was the only place to go, aside from the Laundromat.
I walked in after her and grabbed a bag of chips and a soda. I noticed Tommy Madkins was in there with a couple of his friends playing video games. Tommy was by far the biggest bully ever to go to Wenchester Elementary School. He started to get a reputation when he was in fourth grade. It was fair to say we had a lot of jerks in the sixth grade.
I walked up to the counter, and Sarah was in front of me. All she had in her hand was a loaf of bread. She was much shorter than me and had sandy brown hair. Her eyes stood out the most. She had these enormous green eyes.
I stood behind her, admiring her, when I heard, “Greer!” I hated when someone called me by my last name. I turned around to see Tommy and his clan of jerks laughing. “Is that your girlfriend?” Tommy asked, laughing even harder. This made Sarah turn around and look at us.
“No,” I said, “I don’t even know her.” I felt stupid. It was the truth though. I had never even spoken a word to her.
She looked at me and gave me the most innocent smile.
I smiled back. However, whenever someone caught me off guard with a smile. I’d try to smile back, but it generally looked odd, as if I was posing for a toothpaste commercial or something. She paid and went out the door.
Then I heard, “Let’s go!” It came from Tommy’s direction. He and his buddies ran out the door. They ran behind the market and picked up a plastic bag full of water balloons.
I knew this wasn’t going to be good. And what happened next was something I could have never imagined.
I ran outside. Tommy and his friends were chasing Sarah. It was crazy. They had the water balloons and were hurling them at her.
Sarah started to run down the street with Tommy’s clan close behind. I dropped my bag of chips and soda, and ran as hard as I ever had in my life. I was always a fast runner. I caught up to them pretty quick. I grabbed the bag of water balloons out of Tommy’s friend’s hand and threw it in the street. A semi truck driving by, hit the bag, and all the water balloons exploded.
Tommy was still ahead of me with the last water balloon. He was gaining on Sarah. I was amazed how fast she could run.
I caught up to Tommy. At first I didn’t know what to do. This was the toughest guy in the school, but I didn’t care. I jumped on top of him and tackled him hard to the ground. We were both wearing shorts. I knew the cement hurt him as much as it hurt me. Before I knew it, I had found myself in the middle of a fight. We were both throwing punches. It lasted for about a minute. Then all of sudden, a man grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me off Tommy. That man was Tommy’s father. He yelled at Tommy and told me to go home.
I had never been in a fight before. From the looks of it, I didn’t think Tommy had either. We both got in some good hits, but neither one of us were bleeding.
I looked over, and Sarah was still standing there. She saw the whole fight. She smiled and took a couple steps towards me. My heart dropped. She looked right into my eyes. It was as if she said, ‘thank you’; without saying a word. She then turned around and ran down the street. I just stared at her until I couldn’t see her anymore. At that moment, I didn’t even realize the importance of what had happened. All I knew was I had done something I had never done before. Also, I was in love with a girl I never said a single word to.
I didn’t tell anyone what happened. There would have been too much explaining to do. Nonetheless, it was quite an experience.
I heard that Tommy moved over the summer, but I never heard anything about Sarah. I couldn’t help wondering about her.
“Are you ready to go?” Carrie yelled from the living room.
“I’m coming,” I answered.
Carrie and I walked to the store. My mom left us two dollars each. It was enough to get a soda, candy bar, and a bag of chips.
We then headed off toward Wenchester Elementary School. Carrie never got as excited as I did when it came to the classroom lists. It was partly that she didn’t like school as much as I did.
From a distance, I could see Blayne and Timmy at the basketball courts.
“I’m going to go wait over by the bulletin boards,” Carrie said. Then she took off running.
I looked at my watch. It was ten minutes to two. I jogged up to the courts where Timmy and Blayne were standing.
“What’s going on guys?” I asked.
“Just standing around waiting,” Timmy answered.
“You know what guys? I think it’s about that time,” Blayne said.
I had hoped to get Blayne and Timmy in my class. Every year since kindergarten I had one or the other in my class. I never had them both at the same time.
With all this wishing, I had been doing, one thing I knew for sure was that I wouldn’t want my sister in my class. We had never been in the same class. I guess the school didn’t want brothers and sisters to be in the same room together. They were probably afraid we would cheat on our homework or something.
“You guys ready to go?” Blayne asked as he made the ball into the basket.
“Let’s do it,” I said. As we walked toward the office, we were all silent. Although we were silent, we all knew what each was thinking.
We reached the buildings and made a right at the cafeteria, which put us right in front of the office. There were a group of kids including my sister all huddled around the bulletin boards.
“They’re up,” I said.
“Yep,” Timmy replied.
Tanya and Ali were riding up on their bikes. They parked their bikes and walked over to the bulletin boards. They were two of the prettiest girls in school, and they knew it. They were best friends and were inseparable.
The three of us approached the bulletin boards and were silent.
Timmy uncharacteristically said, “I sure hope we’re all in the same class.” Blayne and I smiled.
The three of us had this unwritten agreement that one would look and not say anything until all three had seen it.
Timmy was first. He looked at the board for about thirty seconds, and then grinned and backed away, so Blayne could look. He also looked for about thirty seconds and had a real surprised look on his face.
I could tell it wasn’t good. I knew Blayne’s expressions. That expression wasn’t a good one. He backed away, so I could see. I walked up to the bulletin board and just closed my eyes.
Before I could open them, I heard my sister yell. “We can’t be in the same class!”
I quickly opened my eyes. When I did, I saw Mrs. Phyllis’ class first. I went to the boy side of the list and spotted my name, but there was no Blayne or Timmy. I quickly looked at the girl side. I saw Sarah Davis, but then I thought I saw something that had to be a misprint. I saw the name Carrie Greer, my sister. There was no Ali or Tanya. I looked over at Mr. O’Neil’s class and sure enough all four of them were in the same class.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was alone. I was alone with my sister. The person I saw every day. This was horrible. But wait, Sarah Davis was in my class. I couldn’t talk about it though because my friends didn’t know I liked her. Or did I like her? All I knew was that she was the only reason that I had to smile.
“Sorry,” Timmy said.
“I really wanted us to be together,” Blayne followed.
“You know, Blayne and I have never been in the same class,” Timmy continued.
“I’m happy for the both of you,” I gave them both an obvious fake smile. “Hey, let’s get out of here. Let’s go to the ice cream shop and get a shake and kick back in the tree.” The tree was our secret hangout. It was in the back of the school. We discovered it when we were in third grade. It was always an excellent place to go and think or get away and talk.
So there it was. The big event in my life was over. All that was left now was the first day of school. As we walked to the ice cream shop, I felt empty inside. I felt isolated and alone. I felt almost as if I would be the outcast of the group. These were my best friends. I had known them since we were young. They would treat me the same no matter what, for sure.
“Hey, Cody?” Blayne said.
“Yeah?” I replied.
“There is always recess.”
* * *
I woke up feeling pretty decent considering the class situation. It was the first day of school. Why shouldn’t I be excited?
I went to the closet and put on a brand new shirt and a pair of shorts. I had showered the night before. That was good enough for me.
My sister, on the other hand, took hours to get ready for school. I always woke up about twenty minutes before I wanted to leave. Not my sister, she woke up with the sun.
She was also never ready when I was ready to leave either.
My sister had long blonde hair. Her hair was much blonder than mine was. My hair was blonde, but Carrie’s was white. She said the reason why it took her so long to get ready was because her hair was so long and tangled easily. I thought girls just enjoyed getting ready more than boys did. With guys, it was just a headache.
I walked into the bathroom. My sister was now putting on her lip-gloss. My mom allowed her to wear lip-gloss. I couldn’t believe it, but she was almost ready.
“What time did you get up, two a.m.?” I said, yawning.
“No, about an hour ago,” she answered.
“Yeah, right.” The bathroom looked as if a tornado had hit it. So I figured it was at least a three-hour job. I wasn’t in the mood to prove my point, so I left it alone.
“When did mom leave?” I asked.
“She left at her usual time.”
Her usual time was seven o’clock. My mom worked as a dental assistant at a dentist office. She made okay money. From what I heard she got a lot of money from my dad’s child support each month. So we were not poor or anything. We were not rich either. We where, as one would say, middle class.
“Did she leave us any breakfast?” I asked.
“The usual,” my sister said, giggling on the way to her room.
The routine was donuts and milk. My sister knew I didn’t like donuts, because one time on a camping trip all of my food spoiled and I was forced to eat nothing, but powdered donuts for three days. Ever since then, I had a strong dislike for powdered donuts. Donuts of any type, shape, or form made me nauseous. I decided to just drink some milk and head off for school.
When I got to school, the excitement of the first day was in the air. Everyone was wearing new clothes. Kids were playing tetherball, jump rope and, of course, school would not be complete unless Blayne was shooting baskets at the basketball courts, and sure enough he was.
I walked over to him. Blayne wasn’t as tall as me, but he was pretty close. We were the two tallest in the sixth grade. Blayne was a lot skinnier though.
I’d known Blayne since I was about four years old. Girls seemed to like my best friend more than me. Blayne had a face full of freckles which, in reality, didn’t stand out. They almost made his face look tan. I, on the other hand, was as pale as a ghost. My summer tan was wearing off, and I was in the pink state. Having blonde hair and blue eyes was certainly a plus for me.
Blayne, Timmy and I had all been best friends since the first grade. But Blayne had a secret only I knew. You see Blayne liked Tanya. But Timmy and Tanya were boyfriend and girlfriend last year. However, on the last day of school Tanya broke up with Timmy for no reason at all. Timmy wasn’t the type, of guy, who would just sit down and talk about how he felt. Blayne and I both knew it must have bothered him, but he just shrugged it off.
I thought the problem with Blayne and I was that we were too picky or maybe we were just shy. Every once in awhile we would hear about a girl liking us or thinking we were cute, but we never did anything about it. It was always the wrong girls who seemed to like us. I wanted to tell Blayne and Timmy about Sarah over the summer, but I never could get enough nerve to do it. It was easier to talk about the girls everyone knew were pretty. Sarah was special to me, unique in her own way. They probably wouldn’t understand.
“Toss me the ball,” I said, motioning to Blayne. Blayne tossed me the basketball.
“Can you believe it’s finally here? We are in the sixth grade. We’re finally on top,” Blayne said with a little too much excitement for my taste. “Hey, by any chance did you notice whose class Eric was in?”
“No, I wasn’t looking for him,” I said. Eric Mullins was this humongous jerk that I couldn’t stand. Yet for some reason, girls always seemed to like the pig. So did Blayne. I never knew why, but he and Blayne got along fine. I always thought he was a creep with a bad attitude.
One positive thing you could say about him was that he was quite an athlete. He was real talented at football and baseball. I think he enjoyed football more, but he was an incredible pitcher. He and I had our share of games in which we pitched against each other. He was arrogant, because he knew he was good. It gave him some strange pleasure to irritate people. Due to the fact, that I loved baseball, I could never got along with him.
“So do you think your class is pretty lame?” Blayne asked, knowing perfectly well that I was totally disappointed. Sometimes Blayne just said things just to say them.
“It isn’t as good as yours,” I said. “Let’s just leave it at that.”
Timmy walked up. He was dressed real slick. He always wore nice clothes, which was odd, because his family was pretty poor. Timmy was about a head shorter than Blayne and I. Timmy had dark hair and brown eyes. The girls were always saying how cute he looked. It was kind of nauseating, but I could handle it. Ever, since I had known him, I had heard that. What was cool about Timmy, was he didn’t have an ego about it.
“Are you guys ready for the best school year of your life?” Timmy asked with enthusiasm. “Hey, toss me the ball.” He was way too excited for my taste.
“Are you sure you want to play?” I asked. “I wouldn’t want you to get your clothes dirty.” I tossed the ball to him anyway.
“Who cares,” Timmy said and laughed. Yet we all knew Timmy would have a fit if his clothes got dirty.
Then the bell rang.
I immediately began to feel sick to my stomach as I thought of Sarah. Was she going to be there? Did she move over the summer? Had she had a terrible accident and was in a wheelchair? I needed to know.
“I guess we’ll see you at lunch, Cody,” Timmy said. “Let’s go, Blayne.” They both ran off to their room, and I walked toward mine. My room number was 26. It was in the last building at the end of the school. I decided I had better hurry also.
As I approached my classroom, I saw that everyone was in line. My sister and the usual crowd were there, but no one outstanding. All the same kids. Year after year. Then someone yelled my name. It was a familiar voice. A voice I did not seem to care for. I turned around to see Eric Mullins. There, he was, tossing a football. Apparently, he was in Mrs. Phyllis’ class also.
“What’s up, Eric?” I asked, trying to be as polite as I was able.
“Hey, Mr. O’Neil is having after school flag football this year,” he said in his usual cocky voice.
“Cool,” I said. I liked football. I was not obsessed with it like Eric, but I liked it.
“He already told me that I’m going to be captain of one of the teams.”
“That’s great.”
“You should talk to him about it. He’ll probably make you a captain, too.”
“Do you think?” I said, surprised.
“You know because you’re so freakishly tall.”
Eric lined up in front of me. His little statement bothered me. I was a terrific football player. I could run circles around him, and he knew it. He might have had a outstanding throwing arm, but I could outrun him any day.
What was I doing letting Eric interfere with my destiny? I turned back away from him and looked for Sarah. She was nowhere in sight. I looked up and down the girl’s line about ten times. There was no sign of her. Had she moved after all?
Then Mrs. Phyllis walked up, and we filed into our lines quickly. We knew the procedure by now, boys on one side and girls on the other. After all, we were sixth graders.
Mrs. Phyllis stood by the door. She was prettier and shorter than I remembered. From the back, someone might mistake her as one of the girls in the class. From the front, she was all “woman”.
“All right, everyone, straighten up those lines and please come in quietly.” She said pleasantly. “As you walk into the classroom, you’ll notice that all your names are on their specified desks. Please find the desk with your name and sit down.”
This was going to be fun. As I looked for my name, I began to see a trend in how the names were set out. They were in alphabetical order by last name. That could only mean one thing. I would be sitting next to my sister.
I found my desk and sat down.
I looked to see if there would be a desk with Sarah Davis’ name on it. When everyone settled, I noticed there were two desks that no one was sitting in. One of the desks had “Sarah Davis” on it. Well, at least the teacher thought Sarah was in the class. I was relieved.
Mrs. Phyllis walked to the front of the class. She smiled and asked. “How are you today?” She paused waiting for a response. To begin with my name is Mrs. Phyllis.” She then wrote her name on the chalkboard.
I looked over at my sister. She wrote the teacher’s name down on a piece of paper. I thought that was a bit much, as if she would not have the whole year to memorize it. My sister always tried terribly hard to get decent grades. I, on the other hand, had never tried much at all. The crazy thing was that I always got straight A’s. Sometimes, I might get an A- in something lame like penmanship or music. My sister always seemed to get B’s and C’s. We were not that competitive about grades. She was younger than I was and I gave her a break.
Mrs. Phyllis talked for what seemed like an eternity. I looked over at Eric and noticed he was already falling asleep. It was no secret that Eric was not a outstanding student. He often left class to get help in the resource room. I had never teased him about it. That was not my style.
I continued listening to Mrs. Phyllis explain the rules and codes. When I heard the phrase “extra-curricular activities”, my ears perked up. At that point, I listened more intently.
* * *
I straightened up in my seat. I certainly was interested in any activities that were outside the walls of the school.
“We’re going to have a camp over Thanksgiving weekend for our students who we feel will represent our school to the highest potential. They are going to compete with other schools in Math, Science, and History. We’re going to select the top students of each subject in both sixth grade classes.”
Suddenly, every single hand in the class went up. I didn’t raise my hand. I figured either I would be selected, or I wouldn’t be. I didn’t like scholastic competition. The only competition I enjoyed was sports.
This real snobby girl, named Lucy Johnson, kept waving her hand. Mrs. Phyllis finally asked her to speak.
“When will we know who is selected?” Lucy asked, gleaming as if her smile would help her be a candidate. Lucy was real smart. The problem with Lucy was she knew she was smart and constantly reminded everyone.
“The six will be chosen in the beginning of November,” Mrs. Phyllis answered. “We’re also going to have other events, such as after school sports for boys and girls.”
Eric’s eyes gleamed.
“That’s not all. The sixth grade will be doing a production of The Wizard of Oz,” she said proudly. “I personally will be directing it.”
“The Wizard of Oz,” I thought, how interesting. I never thought too much about acting but if Mrs. Phyllis was directing it. I might just try it.
Again, everyone raised their hands and asked questions. When the teacher called on Eric, I listened closely. He had the only question I was interested in. “What other sports besides football will the boys be playing?” he asked.
“Boys will be playing football, basketball, and baseball. The girls, I think, will be playing kickball, volleyball, and softball.”
There was something about Mrs. Phyllis. When she spoke, it was as if she sang the words out of her mouth. Her voice was extremely soothing. I think it was almost too soothing, because my eyes were getting heavy. I decided to close them for a second, but I must have closed them longer than I thought. All of a sudden, I heard a real, deep voice come from the back of the room, it startled me. I straightened up and turned around quickly, almost as if someone had pinched me.
Everyone in the class suddenly got real quiet.
It was Mr. Jones, the principal. He was a tall, muscular man in his forties who was, to say the least, extremely intimidating. He had a real thick mustache that did not look real, like something you would buy at Halloween.
“Yes, Mr. Jones, for what do we have this honor?” Mrs. Phyllis asked, very professional-like.
“I need to speak to Cody Greer,” he said sternly.
Cody Greer? That was me! What could I have possibly done? It was the first day of school. It was the first hour of school. Maybe he found out about my fight with Tommy Madkins. Maybe he was transferring me to Mr. O’Neil’s class. I didn’t know. This was extremely weird. I got up slow and stood by my desk. My sister was grinning the way sisters do when they know you are in trouble. But, I couldn’t be in trouble. I didn’t do anything wrong at school. I walked over to him and followed him outside. He shut the door behind us.
“Son,” he said, “do you know how long I’ve been teaching?”
“No,” I said, almost petrified.
“Twenty one years. I have been a principal for ten of them. In all my years of teaching...”
Uh oh, here it comes, I thought. He knew about the fight. I was dead. He was going to suspend me.
“...From Kindergarten to now, you have never missed a day of school. You are on your way to a perfect attendance here at Wenchester Elementary School. Are you aware of that son?”
“Yes sir, I am.” Was that all he wanted? He just wanted to congratulate me?
He continued, “Every year we choose a sixth grader to do the attendance for the entire school. This year we have chosen you. Every morning you need to first report to your teacher, and then go to all the classes and get their attendance sheets for the day. When you are finished, just bring all the attendance sheets to the office. The way I figure it, if you never miss a day of school then you’re the one for the job.”
I couldn’t believe it. That was all he wanted to say to me. I never thought it was much of a big deal to attend school every day. However, never missing a day got me a lot of attention from teachers. I had never dreamed that the principal would pay me a personal visit though. I felt special.
Mr. Jones was looking pretty scary before he talked to me. Apparently principals tried to do that. It was probably a power thing. If I could scare kids all day long, I would too. To be perfectly honest, I was relieved and disappointed at the same time. I was hoping that maybe he was transferring me to Mr. O’Neil’s class. Sometimes the school administration did that sort of thing on the first day of school.
“So what do you think? Would you like to do this for us?” Mr. Jones asked boldly.
“Sure. It could be fun,” I said and thanked him.
“I’d like for you to start right now, if that’s okay with you. You need to go to every classroom and pick up their attendance sheet. It’s that simple. I’ll go back in your classroom and tell Mrs. Phyllis what I have you doing.”
I went to every class and picked up their attendance sheets. I thought it was pretty cool walking around outside. The sun was shining and breezy.
It was weird going to Mr. O’Neil’s classroom though. The kids all had their noses in books and were real quiet. No one turned around. Blayne and Timmy didn’t even know I was in the room. Mr. O’Neil seemed as if he might be extremely strict. He was just the opposite of Mrs. Phyllis.
It took me about half an hour to do the job. When I finished getting all the sheets, I headed to the attendance office. As I walked up to the building, I felt that the building looked smaller. Honestly! I realized that everything looked smaller now than when I was younger. Back then everything seemed to be huge. Getting older was strange.
When I walked up to the attendance office and opened the door, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. There she was just sitting there. Sarah Davis was sitting at a table with her father. Our eyes met. She seemed to recognize me. I totally forgot where I was, or why I was even in the office as I gazed into her eyes.
Why wasn’t she in class? Why was she so late? That wasn’t important. All that mattered was that she was sitting in the attendance office.
“Did you go to every single class, dear?” the secretary asked.
“Huh?” I said, coming back to reality.
“Did you go to every classroom?” she repeated.
“Oh yes. I sure did, ma’am.”
“Great, if you can hand me all the sheets, you can show Sarah where her class is. She is also in Mrs. Phyllis’s classroom.”
She didn’t have to tell me that. I knew that better than anyone in the entire school.
“Sure,” I said, trying not to sound too excited. But I was thrilled. I couldn’t believe it. Here, I was standing right in front of the girl that I had thought about all summer long.
I studied her features while her dad finished signing some papers. To me, she was perfect. She had a perfectly shaped head. She looked at me and smiled. Her eyes were greener than what I remembered. I smiled back. This was crazy. I didn’t even know this girl. Why did I like her so much?
She stood and kissed her dad on the cheek, then walked over toward me.
“Are you ready to go?” I said.
“Yes, I am,” she said softly.
Wow, we did it. We spoke to each other. Her voice was incredible. Very sweet, it sounded just like Mrs. Phyllis’ voice.
“Why was your dad filling out papers?” I asked. I did not know what to say, but this seemed like a good place to start.
“We moved. So he needed to change our address on papers and stuff,” she said, giving me a smile that about made me faint on the spot.
“Where did you move to?” I asked, trying to push the conversation forward.
“Closer to the school,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Where exactly do you live?” I hope I didn’t sound too pushy.
“In the housing track right in front of the school.” She said, laughing.
I laughed, too. I had no idea what we were laughing about, but it seemed to make things easier. Before I knew it, we had been right in front of the classroom. I didn’t want to go in. I wanted to stay out in the hall and talk to her forever.
“This is it,” I said as I opened the door for her. She walked in, and I followed. I went to my seat, and she went to talk to Mrs. Phyllis.
“Where did you go?” my sister asked quietly.
“I’ll tell you later,” I whispered.
My mind was still on Sarah. She said she had lived in the housing track, in front of the school. I lived in the same housing track. Things could not get better. I wondered how close she lived to me. I watched her walk toward her marked desk and sit down. I was at a perfect position to view her profile. With that view, the rest of the day seemed to go by pretty fast.
As school let out. I kept an eye out for Sarah. I wanted to see what direction she went home in. Unfortunately, her dad came and picked her up. Oh well, it was just the first day of school.
Timmy and Blayne came over to my house that evening, and we played video games. They kept on complaining about already having homework.
All I could do was laugh at them. One day ago, I was down in the dumps, and these two were on top of the world. How quickly things changed.
Maybe this school year wasn’t going to be bad after all. I decided that having Mrs. Phyllis as a teacher and having Sarah in my class was going to make it a fantastic year.
* * *
The first couple weeks of school went by pretty quick. Carrie was working real hard to stay on top of her grades. I was proud of her. I was excelling in Math, which didn’t surprise me. Math had always been my best subject. I was doing so well, that Mrs. Phyllis decided to let me go at my own pace and work ahead of the class. If I had a problem I would ask her, but for the most part, I would just teach myself. It was not the first time I was allowed to move ahead of the class at my own pace. Math had always been easy for me.
I wished girls were that easy for me.
On the other hand, Carrie and Sarah were becoming friends. They were spending a lot of time together.
I liked being a sixth grader. There was a sense of satisfaction knowing that my friends and I were in the top grade of the school. Younger kids looked up to us. I was having a lot of fun at recess with my friends.
I woke up on Saturday morning to loud chatter in the living room. I jumped out of bed and put on a shirt. I already had shorts on. I always slept in the kind of shorts you wear to the beach. I ran down the hall to see what was going on.
Blayne and Timmy were in my living room talking to my mom. Blayne and Timmy would often come over on Saturday mornings. My mother would either make breakfast or lunch for us, depending on how late I slept.
“Good morning, sunshine,” my mother said. “The boys and I were talking about having a picnic at the park today. What do you think?” My mom was sitting on the couch watching TV with Blayne and Timmy. My mom had sandy blonde hair and looked like an older version of Carrie. She kept in terrific shape for her age.
“Sounds good to me,” I said. My mom was always doing something enjoyable for my friends and I. I guess she figured it must be hard for me. You know, not living with my dad. So she did a lot of creative things to make up the difference. My friends benefit from it, and I loved it. Sometimes she took us to the movies, or she’d let me have a sleepover. I used to think my mom considered Blayne and Timmy as her own kids. When I was younger, I used to get jealous. Nowadays, I think it’s great, considering they are the closest I’ll have to brothers.
There were times when I would not be home, and they would come over and hang out with my mom. Everyone I knew talked about what a cool mom I had. I passed my mom in height last year, and now I was a good six inches taller than her.
“Where’s Carrie?” I asked, walking from the living room into the kitchen.
“She went over to her new friend’s house,” my mom answered.
“What friend?” I asked while pouring a glass of OJ, “Did she tell you the friend’s name?”
“I think her name is Sarah. Carrie says all three of you are in the same class.” I nearly spit out my orange juice.
“Oh, her,” I said. I tried not to sound too interested. “Yeah, I think I know her.”
“Isn’t she new?” Timmy interrupted.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess so.”
“You’ve seen her. She’s the one that’s always playing with your sister at recess,” Blayne continued.
They were not going to make this easy on me. I had to play it calm.
This was odd. Carrie was over at Sarah’s house. I had not been able to find out where she lived yet. Her dad had been picking her up from school every day. So I hadn’t been able to follow her and check it out. I was in such deep thought. I guess I started drifting off.
“Honey?” my mom said, in a worried tone.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Are you okay?”
“Sure,” I said. “Let me change, then I’ll be ready to go.”
“Hey, Cody,” Blayne said. “I brought my basketball, so we can shoot hoops at the park.” For some reason, that did not surprise me.
I got dressed, and the four of us headed off to the store. We bought stuff to make sandwiches. We also bought some chips, grapes and cookies. All I had for breakfast was orange juice, so I was real hungry.
When we got to the park, I noticed Ali and Tanya were riding their bikes near the basketball courts. I nudged Blayne and pointed my finger toward them. I made sure Timmy didn’t see me do it.
Blayne smiled and nodded.
I felt guilty. Was I betraying Timmy? He was my best friend too. Blayne and I had a kinship when it came to girls because neither one of us had ever had a girlfriend. Timmy, on the other hand, had a girlfriend every year since the third grade.
Mom asked us to find a shady spot, so we could lay our stuff down. We found a perfect spot underneath a massive towering oak tree. We spread out a gigantic yellow blanket for us to sit on.
The park wasn’t that crowded today. There was a family playing Frisbee with their dog. Also, some older boys were playing basketball at the basketball courts. There were a group of kids flying a kite. For the most part, it was pretty dead for a Saturday afternoon.
My mom started making us sandwiches. Blayne popped open a bag of chips and tore through it like a badger. I laid down flat on my back and looked up at the sky. The sun felt nice coming down on my face. The sky was cloudy, yet somehow the sun was finding its way through. One thing about Southern California, one could never tell what the weather was going to be like. It could be fully sunny one day and rain the next. For the most part, it was mostly clear.
I sat up and got a handful of chips. Quietly, I drifted off into my own little world. I wondered what my sister and Sarah were doing. What would they be talking about? I still couldn’t get over the fact that my sister was at Sarah’s house. I hoped she didn’t mention anything embarrassing about me.
My mother handed us each a sandwich, and we thanked her.
As I was eating and looking around the park, I noticed Tanya and Ali were making their way toward us, walking their bicycles on the grass.
They were both real pretty. Tanya was tall and tan. She was more of the glamorous type. She always colored coordinating her clothes with shoes and socks. Ali, on the other hand, was about as tall as my sister. She had dark hair, fair skin and beautiful brown eyes. I’d known her since kindergarten. She and Eric used to be boyfriend and girlfriend. I didn’t know why.
The two girls walked right up to where we were eating.
“May I speak to you, Timmy?” Tanya asked.
Timmy tossed a grape in his mouth and looked up at her as if he couldn’t care less. Timmy was so smooth like that.
“Yeah,” he said, showing very little expression.
“Can I talk to you privately?” Tanya asked.
“I guess,” Timmy said, reluctantly walking with them toward the basketball courts. I looked over at Blayne. He was watching them like a hawk.
Tanya was carrying a backpack. She took it off and pulled a bunch of envelopes out of one of the side pockets and handed a couple of them to Timmy. They exchanged a couple words and then she and Ali took off on their bikes. Tanya looked back and waved. Blayne nearly fell over himself trying to wave back.
Timmy came back shaking his head, holding the envelopes in his hand. “All she wanted to do was give us some invitations to her birthday party,” Timmy said. He handed one envelope to Blayne and one to me. My envelope had “CODY and CARRIE” on the front. So I guessed my sister was invited, too.
Blayne tore open the envelope and said, “The party is next Saturday.”
“What kind of party is it?” my mom asked.
“It’s just a party,” I said, reading my invitation.
“Is it formal or informal?” she continued.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means, do you dress up real nice or just go casual, silly.”
“It had better not be formal. I don’t even own a tie,” I said with my mouth full of chips.
“If it’s formal,” Blayne said, “I’m not going.” I knew Blayne was bluffing. He wouldn’t miss this for the world.
I’d never been to a girl’s party except for my sister’s. I wondered what they would do. I wondered if there would be dancing. I sure hope not, because I was a horrible dancer. I smiled to myself. So Tanya was having a party. This was going to be interesting.
We finished eating. Then we walked to the basketball courts to shoot some hoop. My mom played with us. She was great. I tossed the ball to her, and she made a basket. She knows her boundaries, but she still makes every effort to get involved. Not to mention she was a pretty decent shooter. She played basketball back in high school and as far as I can tell, she was pretty good.
After we played basketball, we packed up our things and went home. On the way back, we dropped off Timmy and Blayne at their homes. I knew they would probably come back that evening.
When we got home, Carrie was there. I walked into her bedroom, and she was doing her homework.
“Why are you doing your homework?” I asked. “It’s Saturday.”
“I’m reading ahead,” she said.
“Why?”
“To stay on top of things, so I don’t fall behind.”
“That’s cool,” I said. It didn’t make much sense to me. I always did the work as I went along and did well in school. “So what did you do today?” I asked casually, looking interested in what she was doing.
“I went over to Sarah’s house.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s my friend,” she said, sounding insulted.
“What I meant is what did you two do?” I asked.
“Why do you care, Cody?”
“Never mind then,” I said, trying to sound like I didn’t care. I did care though. Maybe I was pushing it. I was getting too nosey, and it was obvious.
“Cody,” Carrie said.
“Yeah,” I said.
Carrie just smiled at me. “Oh, nothing,” she said.
“Yes, there is something. What is it?” I could tell when Carrie knew something about me that she wasn’t telling. I hated it when she did this to me.
“I just know a secret, that’s all. I promised I wouldn’t say anything.” One thing I know about Carrie, she couldn’t keep a secret if her life depended on it.
“What is it, Carrie?” I asked.
“I can’t tell you and I won’t tell you.”
This was going to kill me, but I knew my sister would fold sooner or later. I was just going to have to wait. What type of secret would Carrie know? She spent the whole day with Sarah, so it must be something to do with her.
“Whatever! You and I both know you are going to tell me. The sooner you do it, the easier it’s going to be on both of us.”
“Not this time,” she said.
“We’ll see.” I headed off to my room.
That night I lay awake and thought about Carrie’s secret. What possibly could it be? Could it be the obvious? Had Sarah told Carrie about the Tommy Madkins fight? I hoped not.
All I knew was that I needed to be cool about it. As long as Carrie and Sarah stayed close friends, I was going to have a link to Sarah. That was a marvellous thing. At this point, I’ll take it.
Life was a funny thing. One day I was angry because I had my little sister in my class. Now, I realized that this just might have been the best thing that could have happened.
* * *
The next week of school seemed to take forever. I enjoyed seeing Sarah every day, but I was just too excited about Tanya’s party.
I found out Tanya invited about twenty kids to her party and that Sarah wasn’t one of them. I knew she wouldn’t have been. No one talked to her besides my sister. I noticed they were becoming quite a pair. I still had no idea what Carrie’s secret was. In a way, I was somewhat scared to know, especially if it would be about me. What if it was something dreadful?
On Friday, Mr. O’Neil picked the captains for the after school football teams. I was happy to find out I was chosen along with Blayne. Eric was also picked to be a captain just like he said he would be. We were going to pick the teams on Monday. Mr. O’Neil had us take numbers out of a hat to see who had the first pick, and so on. I pulled out the number one, which meant I had the first pick. There were a couple of guys who weren’t chosen as captains that were pretty decent football players. I knew in the end that I would have probably picked the person I liked the most.
Of course, with Timmy not being chosen as a captain, it would be him. I knew Timmy wouldn’t forgive Blayne or I if we had passed him up. Timmy wasn’t too bad of a football player. He had a good throwing arm, but he was a little bit uncoordinated when it came to catching.
Football wasn’t the only thing on our minds when school let out. Tanya’s party was something we were all looking forward too. Timmy seemed a little nonchalant about it. But Blayne and I both knew he was looking forward to it as much as we were.
We found out the party was going to be casual and we could wear whatever we wanted. Although, none of the guys had heard if there would be dancing.
That night before I went to bed I decided to go and talk to Carrie in her room. “Carrie,” I said.
“What do you want? I’m reading,” she answered sarcastically.
“What are you reading?” I tried to show an interest.
“I’m reading my Science book.”
“Why? It’s Friday night.” I looked at the book. She was already halfway done reading it. Every once in a while Carrie does weird things like that. This was undoubtedly one of those times.
“Why do you care, Cody? Everybody knows you’re this big genius who never does his homework, but somehow manages to get straight A’s.”
She seemed genuinely upset. This was unlike her.
“That’s not fair, you know I do homework,” I protested
“You always do it the night before the test.”
“I do it though.” This wasn’t like Carrie. Why all of a sudden did she care so much about my grades? After all, I was a year older than she was.
This wasn’t what I wanted to talk about anyhow. I needed to think of a way to change the subject. The whole reason why I even came into her room was to try to learn what the secret was. I knew by this point there was only one way to find out. I had to just come out and state my reason. “I didn’t come in here to argue with you.”
“Why did you come in here?”
This was going to be harder than I thought. Carrie was clearly in a bad mood. “Well, I came in here because...” I was stumbling over my words.
“Because why?”
“I don’t know. I just came in here I guess.” I couldn’t believe that I chickened out talking to my little sister. “Good night, Carrie,” I said leaving her room in total personal disgust.
“Good night, Cody.”
I couldn’t sleep that night. My thoughts were racing. I thought about everything imaginable. I thought about the party. I thought about Sarah. I thought about how much I wanted to beat Eric Mullin in football. I finally managed to fall asleep.
In the morning, my sister came into my room and woke me up. “Get dressed. Mom is going to take us to the mall, so, we can buy Tanya a birthday present.”
“What should we get her?” I asked.
“I’m going to get her some earrings. You can get her whatever you want,” Carrie answered.
“I don’t know what to get her. Help me out,” I said.
“Get her some perfume.”
“Will a girl like that?”
“I don’t see why she wouldn’t.”
“Okay.”
I kicked Carrie out of my room and got dressed to go to the mall. My mom insisted on us getting something new to wear to the party also, because my dad’s check had come in. Whenever my dad sent us his child support payment, my mom always rushed out and spent it on us. It was as if she wanted the money she earned to go toward important things and my dad’s money was there for all of us to have fun with. I thought it must make her feel good to know we could live off her income if we had to.
When we got to the mall, I decided to take Carrie’s advice and find Tanya some perfume. We went inside a women’s shop that reeked of perfume. I asked my mom and Carrie to pick out the kind they thought smelled best, because I couldn’t tell one smell from another. As far as I was concerned, they all smelled the same. My sister, Carrie, picked out this kind that smelled like bubble gum. She guaranteed me that Tanya would like it.
Next, we went clothes shopping. It always seemed to take Carrie forever. It took me about five minutes to choose a navy blue T-shirt and a pair of white jeans. After two hours of looking at five different stores, Carrie ended up getting a red dress with a bunch of flowers on it. It looked like a bit much, but that was Carrie for you. Her closet was filled with dresses like this one. She had dresses that she wore once and then never wore again.
We always did the same thing when we were done shopping, which was my favorite part. We would go and eat lunch at the mall’s food court.
Once again, we wandered around checking out the different vendors. Carrie and my mom both ate salads. Not I, my appetite was enormous. I ate three corn dogs and a massive basket of fries. My mom says I can get away with eating like that now because I’m growing.
To me, growing was a funny thing. It was as if you know you’re growing, because you outgrow everything you wear about every six months. It was like you never felt the growth part though. It seemed as if one day you looked in the mirror you’re a foot taller than you were two years ago, and you wonder when it took place. I had always thought, when and how does this happen?
On the way back home, we stopped at about four different places. One thing about my mom, when she went out shopping, she made the most of it. We finally got home a couple of hours before the party.
I wasn’t home two minutes when the phone rang. “Cody.”
It was Blayne. “I’m nervous about tonight.”
“Why?” I asked.
“What if there’s dancing?”
“So?” I said.
“I don’t want to feel stupid.”
“Then don’t dance.”
“Well. I’ve been sort of...”
“You have been sort of what?” I asked.
“I’ve been listening to music and kind of...you know, been practicing.”
“Dancing?” I asked, surprised.
“Yeah,” he said. He sounded embarrassed.
“You’re kidding.” I started laughing. I could just picture Blayne trying to teach himself to dance.
“Don’t laugh. I don’t want to feel stupid. Is that all right?”
“Blayne, if you don’t want to feel stupid, don’t dance.”
“So you’re not going to dance?” Blayne asked.
“I wasn’t planning on it.”
“What are you going to do if everyone starts dancing?”
“Make my way toward the punch bowl. You go ahead and dance if you want.” Blayne sounded pretty determined about this. Maybe he might have taught himself a move or two practicing.
“Hey, what did you get Tanya for her birthday?” I asked.