I woke up, like I do every morning. But something was different. What was it?
Oh. There wasn't any pipe banging. Why wasn't there? That was odd.
I looked at my clock. 4:40. Apparently it just hadn't started yet. Had I really just woken up of my own accord at such a ghastly hour of the morning? Apparently I had. Apparently. So I tried to go back to sleep. That actually was proving successful when suddenly, a soft whooshing noise started from the floor above. This was shortly followed by, you guessed it, an abysmally loud metallic banging noise. I groaned and swung my feet off the bed.
It was so early. Getting up early felt so weird now without swim practice. That train of thought reminded me of Arjun's master plan from yesterday, and I made to go across the room to my dresser and grab my phone. I tripped over my sheets very ungracefully, narrowly avoided a faceplant, and got halfway through telling the sheets off before I realized Dad might hear me, even over the banging. I was yelling at them pretty loudly. It was early, okay?
Without further ado (seeing as there'd already been quite a bit of ado), I picked up my phone and turned it on. I had no text messages. Lovely. Now what was I supposed to do? I flopped over backwards on the bed and pretended I was listening to an avant-garde movie soundtrack instead of the fruits of Ms. Lannes' Room 704 shower.
But I don't like avant-garde music.
I noticed there was a notebook under my dresser, so I sat up without tripping over the sheets, walked over, and picked it up. I spent the next half-hour or so making a little stop-motion stick figure guy jump around in the corners of the pages.
Baaaack and forth and back and forth. I was so bored. I sat there flipping the corners of the pages of my notebook for God knows how long. It wasn't even that I'm easily entertained. I was just completely lacking in things to do.
I opened the door and walked out into the living room, where I flopped down on the couch. I landed on the remote, which decided to put on one of those stupid cartoon shows. I lay there and tolerated the animated shit for about ten minutes, until the episode ended, and then I felt around under my butt and got the remote to change the channel. As always, there was nothing on.
Dad got up and left without even seeming to notice my existence. Something was definitely going on with him, but I could hardly ask, since he'd already left. Whatever. He'd tell me eventually if it was important.
After what seemed to me to be an eternity, I got ready to go to school. Arjun hadn't texted me or anything, but I still felt compelled to do something. Just for fun, I went through my closet. There was nothing of interest. In fact, it was even devoid of dust, as surprising as that seems. I was not to be deterred, though; I went into Dad's room and scouted through his stuff as well. Can you say that? Scouting through someone's stuff? I don't even know. But whatever. The point is, I did find something of interest in Dad's closet: an old pair of roller skates.
Perfect.
I put them on and tried to skate around, but seeing as much of our apartment is carpeted, that wasn't very effective. I took them off until I'd gone all the way down the stairs (that would've been a nice way to die, but I wasn't particularly interested in that this morning) and then put them back on and proceeded to skate to school.
I'm not sure whose skates they were; maybe they were Dad's, but I suppose I should mention that they certainly weren't mine. I had never skated before in my life. How do you stop on roller skates? I came up with a solution, and although it was effective, it was kind of painful: I just aimed for the nearest phone pole and collided with it every time I was in need of brakes. Needless to say, both my knees were beautifully mangled by the time I got to school.
The bell rang before I got there, but everyone was still making their way into the building at the time, so I managed to catch Arjun with a quick glance. He pointed at his knee and looked concerned at me, but he was swept up in the crowd of pushing and shoving students before I could try to mime back.
I skated into the school, much to the amusement of a few younger students. By the time I got all my stuff and got to class, the tardy bell was two minutes past ringing. On the bright side, I wasn't that bad at skating. I glided into math class and used my desk to brake and sit down in one beautifully fluid movement.
The teacher opened her mouth, and then shut it again. "Xiu Li Zheng. Are you wearing roller skates?"
"Yes'm," I said, and the class giggled collectively.
"Would you care to explain why you're wearing roller skates, or would you rather tell the front office?"
"I couldn't find my shoes," I said cleverly. Most everyone laughed. Hana didn't, I noticed.
"Do you not have another pair of shoes?"
"Nope." Damn, suddenly I was the class clown. I was enjoying this.
"I think it's better that you go barefoot, then," said Ms. Harrison.
With the entire class watching me silently, I took off the skates and set them next to my desk.
The rest of math class was fairly uneventful. I carefully avoided Hana's gaze to reduce suspicion, but not too much as to look suspicious. From the few glances I did get, I noticed that she looked unusually frazzled, although that might have just been because I was hoping she would be.
The rat was nowhere to be seen. I worried a bit for its health. Was Hana one of those odd people who is terrified enough of things to mutally brurder them? Crap. Brutally murder?
When the bell rang after math, I stood up a little too fast and split the newly forming scabs on my kneecaps. I yelped and sat back down. Then Hana laughed.
She'd definitely found the rat, I decided. But I stood up slowly and meandered painfully down the hall to chemistry. Arjun was waiting at the door. "Babs!"
"You know you're the only one who calls me that."
He ignored my comment, as usual. "So, we gotta coordinate this prank. I've made a poster for the ski area, and I bought a bunch of fake snow."
I hadn't even thought that far ahead. I hung my head in shame.
"I roller skated into math today?" I offered.
He grinned at me. "Not bad. But anyway, we're gonna skip the last five minutes of chemistry to prank the teachers' lounge. That's when the fewest teachers hang around."
I wanted to ask him how he knew that, but class was starting.
While we worked on the worksheet of the day, we consolidated our paper stash for the autographing prank. I was actually much more excited for that than I was for the ski area prank, but I didn't tell Arjun that.
We kept a careful eye on the time, and 10 minutes before the end of chemistry, Arjun asked to go to the bathroom. Thankfully, Frank (well, her name is Miss Frank, but we all call her Frank) let him go without any trouble, so I felt pretty assured that things would work out. Three minutes later, I went up to her and asked if I could go to the bathroom.
"You can go when Arjun comes back," she said. I hadn't thought of that. What to do, what to do...
"Um, but, it's really urgent."
She eyed me skeptically. "Urgent? Then why didn't you ask before?"
There are two things that I really hate to do. Well, there are more than that. Let me rephrase. Things I hate to do include (but are not limited to) exploiting my femininity and lying. But--
"Miss Frank, um. I think I might have just, you know. Um. I think it's my time of the month?"
At least the mere embarrassment of lying and telling a teacher about a fictional period was enough to get me blushing. Thank God it worked.
"Oh! Well, go ahead." She lowered her voice. "Do you need a Midol or anything? You can go to the nurse after if you want."
That kind of made me feel terrible, since I was sort of exploiting the fact that she was a really cool teacher.
"Maybe," I said. "Thanks!"
I left the room, trying to walk slightly awkwardly.
As soon as I'd rounded the corner of the hallway, I sprinted as fast as I could to the teacher's lounge. Arjun was already there with his banner. It was actually very well done; the words "SKI AREA" were crafted expertly and emblazoned over a rough sketch of a mountain range.
"I didn't know you had an artistic side, Arjun."
He winked. "I didn't know you were a liar."
"What? How did you know? You weren't even..."
"My locker is right outside of the classroom. I saw you talking to her on the way back from getting the fake snow." Arjun grinned. "You sure you don't need a Midol?"
"Shut up," I told him. "Where's the fake snow? We only have five minutes to do this thing."
He gestured at a surprisingly large bag of white fluff.
"If you start distributing that, I can deal with the banner."
I looked around. I couldn't even begin to formulate an escape plan for if a teacher showed up. We were just gonna have to risk it.
So I threw fake snow all over the entrance to the teachers' lounge, and Arjun hung up the banner.
"How much time do we have now?" he asked, slapping down the final piece of tape. I looked at the clock down the hall and squinted.
"Four seconds," I said.
We both ran.
By the time the bell finished ringing and kids started coming out of class, I was far enough away from the scene that it didn't look too suspicious. At least, that's what I told myself. I walked into Lit no later and no earlier than I usually did, and my day was significantly improved by hearing Hana say, "and it was so furry and ratty and I bet it had rabies." The entire group shuddered collectively. "Ew," said Shannon G.
"How did it even get there?" said Carrie.
"I wish I knew. I guess some bitch put it in there."
"Maybe it's a guy who likes you," said Ruby.
"Oh, my god, Ruby. That's so stupid," Carrie told her. "Why would a guy put a rat in a girl's locker just to hit on her?"
"Guys are mysterious?" said Ruby to no one in particular.
"What if it was Xiu Li?" said Shannon T.
I busied myself with the warm-up and stopped looking at them. "Maybe," said Hana. "but I don't know. She has been acting weird."
"I heard she wore ice skates to math class," said Ruby.
Did they know I was in the room?
Thankfully, class started shortly thereafter. I was proud to hear about my rat prank being a success, though.
When I got to lunch, Arjun had already hung up a poster on our usual table. I could tell he'd tried to make it look different from the Ski Area poster. It was just blue all-caps lettering that read, "Autograph Signing, Today Only."
I sat down next to him, and we divided our paper stash in half. Then we waited.
The first fifteen minutes went by without anything happening at all. I was kinda getting nervous, too. The point of this prank was to be funny and give out autographs, not to prove to the entire world just how unpopular Arjun and I were.
Just as I was starting to freak out, this freshman kid came up to our table. "Why are you signing autographs?"
I didn't have an answer, but thankfully, Arjun did.
"If you have to ask," he said, "maybe you shouldn't get one."
The girl looked a little confused. "Well," she said. "Can I have your autograph?"
There was a silence.
Oh! She was looking at me!
My autograph!
I signed a piece of paper for her, flourishing my X really obnoxiously.
She smiled faintly at us and walked away.
"Well, we got one," said Arjun glumly.
But we needn't have worried. Two seniors came over, laughing. "Two autographs, please," said the taller of the two guys. We obliged, and it was amazing how fast things happened after that. People always make fun of seniors for overstating their importance a bit, but it's really not that much of an exaggeration. Suddenly all of the underclassmen thought autographs were hilarious.
Our table was completely mobbed for the rest of lunch. I barely had time to snarf down my food. Oh, that's fun! Say "snarf" out loud. Now why are people looking at you? HA! But I'm getting sidetracked. I perfected my signature. Our hands cramped up and there were still more students vying for the ink droppings of our holy pens. I'm pretty sure we gave autographs to every person in the cafeteria with the exception of a few bitter sophomores. The teachers looked at us strangely, but I think they concluded we were just part of some sort of club.
When my wrist had just started to go numb, the bell for the end of lunch rang. We signed a couple more autographs and then cleaned up the table, laughing and joking about just how amazingly successful our pranks had been so far. Honestly, I'd almost forgotten about the ski area prank until we were most of the way down the hallway from the cafeteria.
As we turned the corner, though, it would've been hard not to remember, since the vicinity of the teachers' lounge was completely swamped in chaos.
First of all, some moron had apparently had the idea to go get huge coolers of ice and dump them everywhere to enhance the effect. Everyone was throwing fake snow at each other. Two kids were fighting in the teachers' lounge itself, but none of the administrators could actually get through due to the sheer number of kids going nuts in the way of the doorway. Someone had spray-painted a black diamond on the wall next to the door, and I swear to God one kid actually had a pair of skis.
Arjun and I didn't even look at each other. We just kept walking.
I was completely freaked out by this, naturally. What would've normally been a harmless prank had somehow become a riotlike mob of craziness. I thought it best not to say anything, so Arjun and I split off for fourth period without saying a single word.
Boy, was I jumpy in class. Every time the door opened, I half-expected someone to jump out and yell "IT WAS HER! SHE DID IT!", but it would only be another late student or some kid checking out for a dentist appointment. I was really fidgety, and I couldn't focus. I was so concentrated on trying to hide my guiltiness that I was accentuating it. But I needn't have worried so much, because about thirty minutes into class, this administrator lady came in with a little slip of paper. She apologized to the class for interrupting, and then looked up at the teacher. "I'm here for Julie Zheng?"
Shit, shit, DAMN. HELL DAMN DAMN.
The teacher pointed to me.
"Actually," said I, so eloquently, "it's Xiu Li. With a "sh." Not a "j." Xiu Li."
As if I'd had any doubts as to why I was being pulled out of class, the administrator shot me the monarch of all stank faces.
"Yes, ma'am," I said. I got up and walked out of the classroom.
In elementary school, when this happens, everyone goes "oooooooooooooh." But in high school, nobody said a word. It made it worse, almost. Like I was going to the gallows instead of the principal's office. Let's have a moment of silence for Xiu Li Zheng.
She didn't waste any time in getting to the point. As soon as we were out of the classroom, Administrator Woman asked, "Are you responsible for that?" She gestured down the hallway in the direction of the ski prank. "You mean the ski area thing?" I asked.
A million possible lies went through my head. I didn't do it. I was in class. False. Nah, I heard it was Hana. Evil and implausible. No, I saw it, but I have no idea how it got there. Stupid. I lost it, though, and when it all came down to it, I answered honestly. "Yes."
I thought it best not to mention Arjun, but I should've known. I walked into the office and was offered a chair right next to him.
The administrator woman left, and I was left alone in the room with Arjun whilst we awaited our punishment.
"Hi," I said glumly.
"Hey there," said Arjun sarcastically.
Neither one of us knew what to say. I sighed. Arjun echoed my sigh. "Oops," he said.
"Yeah," I replied. "Oops."
I guess we were both in shock about it. I had no idea what to say, even, but a thought occurred to me.
"Are we still gonna be pranksters?"
"Sure, why not," said Arjun. "I mean, as long as we make sure they can't get... out of hand, I think it's okay to play a couple of pranks now and then. On the other hand, Babs, you're making the assumption that neither one of us is about to be expelled."
We chatted idly about unimportant things for a little while, and eventually the woman came back and sat down at her desk. I braced myself for a talking to, but she didn't really say anything.
I was pretty surprised when Dad came in a few minutes later, though. Boy, did he look pissed.
"Hello," he said. It was scary as hell, too. I was wondering a little bit if his anger was entirely my fault, and I wished that I'd had the good sense to ask him about what had been wrong that morning. But now it was too late. Dad didn't usually get that angry at me, though. He's pretty easygoing.
"Hi, Dad," I said. He glared at me and then spoke to the administrator woman. "So what's going on here?"
She looked up. "Your daughter," she said, "turned the teachers' lounge into a ski area."
Wow, that did sound pretty bad. Arjun apparently thought so, too, because he retorted, "It wasn't entirely her!" When everyone stared at him, he feebly finished, "I helped."
I shot him a telepathic thank you.
Dad directed his stony gaze back at me. "Really, Xiu Li?" That stung a bit. "As if I didn't have enough to deal with." Okay, now I was really wishing that I'd asked him what was wrong earlier. He wasn't finished with the guilt, though.
"I know you're all cool and delinquent and now, but this is a little too far."
Ouch. I looked at my feet, feeling awful, and I heard him ask, "So what will the consequences be?"
The next four words came like bombshells. "Three days of suspension." The woman sounded almost smug. I wanted to hit her with a ski pole.
"As for the outside consequences, you'll have to talk with her about that." Really? Did I need more punishment? I hadn't meant the ski prank to go this far in the first place...
"For starters, you're grounded," Dad told me.
Wow, what a great day.
Dad motioned for me to get up, and I did. Arjun looked at me and mouthed good luck. I wondered where his parent/s was/were. But now we were leaving. "Bye, Arjun!" I yelled backwards.
As we walked away from the school, I finally managed to ask Dad, "So. Um, if I'm grounded, what am I gonna do?"
I had been trying to imagine what I would do with three days of free time. I supposed I could try to go find Annalisa, although so far that search had been fruitless.
"You're coming to work for me." It wasn't a question. I was taken aback.
"What?" This was crazy. "What am I gonna do?"
"Drive a mail route." He wasn't looking at me.
I'm not sure if Dad remembered at that moment that I don't know how to drive. I've only been in a car a few times in my entire life, actually. I've spent my entire life in the city. And now he was expecting me to... drive a mail route? Wasn't that illegal? Was he just completely trolling? I couldn't tell.
"What? Why?"
"One of our guys is otherwise occupied," he said. What the hell did he mean by that? Was I allowed to ask?
"What do you mean?"
"He's on a spy mission." Oh. Of course. "DuBolaire runs the post office in the next town over and he may be blackmailing me."
Was this actually happening? I would've thought he was kidding if he hadn't looked so damn pissed.
"Oh. But... Dad, I don't even have a permit." I decided it was safest to let that one slide and backtrack to that particularly pressing issue.
He didn't answer me. I was sure he'd gone insane.
Eventually we got to the post office. The guy at the desk made a remark about troublemakers when we walked in. I wasn't sure if he meant Dad or me. Probably me. Dad walked right through the front room, though, so I followed him. He went out back to where all the mail trucks were.
"I want you to take Curt's mail route," he said.
I'd had enough. "Dad! I told you, I don't even have a permit yet, let alone a license!" Maybe he meant for me to push it in a shopping cart. I chuckled to myself at that.
"It doesn't matter. Right now, that's what I need you to do." I was astonished. Was he actually doing this? I guessed he was, but I didn't really want to believe it. I hadn't thought much about learning to drive, but I'd hardly assumed it would happen like this.
"Dad, that's--" He cut me off. "Xiu Li. It'll be okay." He sounded more sure than he looked. I certainly wasn't sure, though. "You'll be going really slowly." Oh. That made everything better.
He held out the keys. I glared at him and took them.
I walked over to the nearest truck, shaking my head. I didn't even know where I was going. I found a huge batch of letters in the back of the truck. I looked at the addresses on most of them and made a mental note of approximately where I was going. The nice part about walking all over the city was that I had a wonderful picture of where everything was. Wonderful. I had a route now. I just had to figure out how to operate this two-ton piece of industrial machinery.
I climbed into the seat with the wheel in front of it. It was weird. Wasn't it usually on the other side? I felt really ashamed for how little I knew about cars.
I put the keys in the ignition and turned them. The truck roared to life. Good!
I slammed the left pedal with my foot. Nothing happened. The other pedal made a lot of noise, though, so I figured that one was the gas. So the left was the brake, and the right was the gas. It wouldn't let me move, though.
It took me a few minutes of unsuccessful lurching before I found and disengaged the emergency brake and managed to put the truck into gear. I tried the gas again, and zoomed forward. I almost hit the side of the post office, but I slammed the brake. My nose dipped and I stopped on a dime. I felt sick. I was a swimmer. Why did I feel so nauseous on land? Ugh. But it had been twenty minutes and I hadn't even left the parking lot. I tried being more gentle with the gas, and executed a lap around the parking lot. In hindsight, I wish I'd stayed in the parking lot a little longer, but by that point I was feeling rushed to get out and do the route (rhyming!).
I pulled out into the street, trying to remember where my mental map was taking me. Just as I remembered, I realized I was going the wrong way. Brilliant. But I shan't bore you too much with the antics of my 19-point turn. Instead, I'll go for a more montagey type thing for my mail route, like I did awhile back with my work at Shoes & Etc. Wow... that was a really long time ago. But again, I digress.
My First Mail Route by Xiu Li Zheng
1. On the very first block of deliveries, one of the delivery boxes was glued shut. I pulled on it a few times, but it wouldn't budge. I wondered what kind of glue they'd used, and then (more logically) wondered why it was glued shut. A prank, perhaps? A frustrated backlash response to too much junk mail? But oh, no. There was actually a sign on the mailbox itself. It read "THEY'RE WATCHING US!" and had lots of conspiracy theories glued all over it. Probably with the same glue. Someone thought that the CIA was controlling the USPS and that they were somehow using the mail delivery service to intrude on their privacy. It is America, I guess, so people that stupid do have a right to put that kind of stupid sign on their mailboxes. I carefully set their two envelopes on top of their mailbox (thank God it wasn't windy) and proceeded.
2. I was getting less lurchy with my acceleration, and my heart rate had almost decreased to double my normal rate. I pulled to a stop in front of this one building, and when I went to fish out the letters for it, I noticed something really odd. They had fifteen letters. Actually, fifteen identical letters. Then I read the addresses and laughed out loud. They were all from the same return address, written in the same handwriting. The only difference between the letters was the spelling of the addressee's name. Rachel, Rachael, Raechal, Rachelle, Rochele, Rachele, Rachaele, Raquel, Rachal, Raychel, Lehcar, R@Ch3L, Rchl, Rachyl, and, just for the hell of it, Radmilla. I couldn't even begin to imagine the purpose of this. I had many ideas, though, including (but not limited to): the sender thought you had to spell the person's name right for it to get there, they were trying to track down a one-night stand, or (this was my favorite) they were all different people with one really twisted mother.
3. While I was still pondering all of that, I had to get out for a while and go deliver to a bunch of shops I couldn't get to by driving. Actually, that was probably for the better. The letter delivery itself was extremely uneventful. However, when I came back, there was a hobo sleeping in my truck. Personally, I wouldn't have found a mail truck any more comfortable than any other outdoor location for napping. After shaking him gently awake, I politely suggested that he try the park, to which he griped something about all the first-class benches being taken. Nonetheless, he got out of the driver's seat, and I went on my way.
4. When I was about what I guessed was 2/3 of the way through my mail route, I realized that the needle was almost completely at 'E.' Dammit! I didn't have any money on me. So I pulled over into the parking lot. I tried calling Dad a couple times, but I didn't have any service. Oh. Or my phone. I think I'd left that at the post office. Yeah. That was an issue. Anyway, I scrounged around the truck and managed to find twenty dollars, which was really lucky. That was enough to get me the rest of the way through the mail route.
5. When I stopped at the last stop light on the way back to the post office, having delivered my entire supply of mail and feeling very proud of myself, I was greeted at the window by a weird-looking guy who was saying something. I did what you definitely shouldn't (being stupid and stuck in traffic) and rolled down the window. Thankfully, he wasn't trying to steal my mail truck.
"Do you want to buy my hat?"
Buy his hat? It was just a simple hat. A top hat, actually. Not even in good condition.
"No. Not really."
"But you'd look ravishing in it!" I was a bit scared. Again, thankfully (luck was on my side for once), the light turned green. I drove off, trying not to hit the Mad Hatter.
Did you see what I did there? It was pretty funny, wasn't it?
I pulled into the post office parking lot like a pro, and then discovered reverse was a little trickier. I may have slightly bumped one of the other trucks, but I don't want to talk about. If I had, hypothetically, then there would only be a tiny scratch anyway, which only looked like bird poop.
I waltzed into the post office, punch drunk on a new accomplishment, a feeling of maturity and badassitude, and the remainder of a few-hour adrenaline rush. No one noticed my swagger, though, because everyone was panicking.
I stopped in the doorway and observed everyone. There was one guy I didn't recognized. I was guessing that he was the spy guy from earlier. I wanted to walk up and be like, "Hey! Dude! I just drove your mail route!" But he was a little too close to my age, and that would've been awkward. I think. I don't talk to that many guys. Actually, I don't talk to any guys except Arjun.
That guy saw me, though, and while everyone else continued arguing and "discussing" heatedly, he filled me in on what was going on. Sure enough, that was Curt, whose mail route I had just completed.
He was actually pretty awkward himself. He thanked me for taking his route, and when I asked what all the debate was about, he stared at his feet for a few seconds before replying. "Your dad," he started. "Um. Your dad just got a call from the USPS. Yeah. And he has two days to come up with all the money necessary to pay off his debt, or the post office gets... shut down." A cloud of anger came over his face. "And DuBolaire wins."
I was in shock. That was not at all what I'd been expected. What a reality jolt. One minute I'd been so proud of learning to drive, and now my dad was about to lose his job? No, I shouldn't think like that. It would be okay. Wouldn't it? "Wait. I'm new to this. Wasn't there something about a spy mission?"
Curt smirked a little.
"Yeah. I went to go and spy on DuBolaire. He caught me."
I looked expectant.
"Enough said," he said.
I thought that was probably my cue to shut up, so I dropped the subject.
I joined the conversation, having now been initiated as an informed post office worker. The group was brainstorming, but I didn't really have any good ideas.
"What we should do," I said, "is rob a bank."
Nobody laughed. Nobody even acknowledged that I'd said anything. I shrunk a little back into my shell. But you know how it is with witty remarks. Sometimes you say one and it doesn't go well, so you just feel the urge to try again until it works.
"What if we all sold all our clothes and came in naked?"
I was invisible.
After a couple more stupid comments, my dad thought it was time for me to go home. I was pretty sure he was right.
So I grabbed my phone and left. "Bye, guys!"
Now what was I supposed to do? What I wanted to do was run to the Bahamas or something. Just get away. Take a vacation or some shit like that. But what did I do? I decided to stop by the clinic and see if Nova was there. I walked in and didn't see her, so I asked some random lady. Thankfully, she knew who I was talking about.
"Murphy! There's a girl here to see you!"
"I'm busy!"
"Not a patient!"
"Oh."
She came out of the room.
"Oh, hi, Xiu Li," she said, looking confused. "Is everything okay?"
"Do you have a minute to talk?"
She smiled. "I guess so. Am I now your counselor or something?"
"No. You're my I'm-grounded-and-my-dad-might-lose-his-job-and-life-sucks talking-to person."
"That was discreet," she told me.
"Eh." Suddenly I didn't feel like talking much. "So how are things here?"
"Well, my job is busy, but I like it," said Nova.
On a whim, I gave her a hug.
"I gotta go," I said, and left her with an even more baffled expression than the one she'd had on when I first showed up.
As I climbed the stairs in the apartment building, I felt myself wishing I did have a mom. Mostly because I'd gotten a taste, if ever so brief, of what I never had. Seen what I was missing. I didn't know if all moms would be as snarky or fun as Nova. But I wished I had a mom. A mom like her.
I finished off my day by watching some stupid show. It wasn't very interesting, so naturally, I watched the whole thing. I really have been watching a lot of TV lately. I didn't even notice when Dad came home.
When it finished, I refrained from continuing with the rest of the marathon that was apparently going on, and went to go to bed.
As I adjusted my pillow under my oily hair, I realized I hadn't thought about Annalisa much at all. Shamefully, the thought made me start crying into my pillow. I didn't want to forget someone so important to me. Not her.
An even more negative thought lingered as I dropped off to sleep. Had she forgotten me already, too?
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