Nadine and Adele

Gum and Flowers

Nadine and Adele are standing in front of Nadine's locker, while Eddie and some of his fellow band classmates are about to pass by. His friends have been egging him on to say something to Nadine; and suddenly, a reluctant Eddie succumbs to the peer pressure and decides to speak to her. He timidly approaches her.

"Hi, Nadine." And with just those two little words, his courage falters for a brief moment; and he finds a temporary stall with Adele. "Hey, Adele...great job today in Mrs. Newman's class."

"Thank you."

Eddie becomes quiet, and looks back for some support from his comrades; who are now failing miserably at 'inconspicuously' gesturing him to continue. As this goes on, an amused Nadine and Adele exchange smiles. Finally, Eddie regains some nerve and awkwardly continues...

"So, Nadine; your hair looks really nice today. Did you do something different with it?"

A flattered Nadine automatically strokes her hair while coyly replying, "Thankyou. No."

Adele takes it upon herself to remind him, "Her hair always looks nice, Eddie."

Now somewhat embarrassed, Eddie squirms as he agrees, "Yeah...you're right. I...I..."

A flabbergasted Eddie scurries off; with his friends close in tow.

"Ooo...I think Eddie likes you."

"What...no. He was just being nice."

Adele declares," He is nice."

Nadine smiles as she momentarily reflects. "Yeah...he is."

"I like him. Don't you?"

Again, she smiles and reflects to herself before admitting, "Yes, Adele...I like him."

Upon noticing Nadine's facial expression as she inadvertently confesses her subconscious fondness of Eddie, Adele smiles at Nadine. Nadine starts to blush; then gives Adele a playful, friendly nudge in the shoulder while telling her...

"Knock it off."

Adele remains standing there smiling.

Meanwhile, having been in near proximity and privy to the prior conversations, Christy and her cohorts begin to skulk behind Nadine and Adele; and then Christy removes the gum from her mouth and abruptly smashes it into Nadine's hair. She spitefully grins as she sneers to Nadine...

"There...now you can tell Eddie that you have done something different with your hair."

Leah snidely addresses Adele. "Oh well; so much for her hair always looking nice. Now it looks almost as bad as yours, Freak."

The group snickers as they leave and haughtily sashay down the hallway.

With a look of total humiliation evident on her face, Nadine starts to cry; and then rushes to the nearest girl's bathroom. Adele hesitates, appearing as if she doesn't know what she should do, before running after Nadine. And when she enters the bathroom, she sees a highly upset Nadine feebly fumbling with a comb while attempting to remove the gum from her hair.

"Let me help you, Nadine."

Adele gently pries the comb from Nadine's trembling hand, and then tries to remove the gooey mess. Not making any progress, Adele begins to vigorously pull at the sticky, mangled tuft. Soon, the wad of gum...along with a large clump of Nadine's hair...is removed.

Adele gawks at the comb, then becomes frantic. "Oh no, Nadine! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"

Nadine looks down upon the 'carnage' left entwined in the comb's teeth, then up to a pallid-faced, quivering Adele. She quickly takes Adele into a comforting embrace and tries to soothe her by gently rocking her side to side.

"No...you didn't do it, Adele."

"But I was trying to get the gum out, and...and..." Adele starts to cry.

Nadine comfortingly assures her, "It wasn't your fault."

Adele slowly begins to stop herself from crying, as she sniffles, "It wasn't?"

"No."

"But..."

"Adele...listen to me. This wasn't your fault."

"But your hair...I pulled it out."

"No...it just happens sometimes."

"What happens?"

"My hair...it comes out when..." Nadine becomes silent.

Adele looks confused. "It comes out when what?"

Nadine hesitantly mutters, "Adele...I have to tell you something."

She releases Adele and gloomily looks down to the floor. Adele begins scrutinizing Nadine's melancholic transformation, as her inner intuition of reading people is once again instinctively engaged.

She suddenly recalls the day when she brought the food her grandmother made for the Martin's over to their home, and how they all appeared to be distracted. She remembers the look of deep concern Corrine gave Nadine as they hugged on the street outside their house when she first arrived back in town. Then later that afternoon, when she finished her ice cream in the Martin's kitchen and took her dirty bowl to the sink; she remembers looking out the window and seeing Nadine and Corrine holding hands and staring sadly into each others eyes while at the swing set. And finally, she recalls nine years earlier.

"Nadine...are you sick again?"

A stunned Nadine jolts her head up and views Adele tenderly looking at her. "How did you...wait..." a small smile emerges on her face, "we've been going to school together since Kindergarten...right?"

Adele nods.

"So; you remember when I got sick before?"

"Uh-huh. We were in second grade, and you had to leave school to stay in the hospital until you got better."

The two remain silent, looking at each other. Then Nadine's suddenly hit with a profound past recollection of that time spent in the hospital.

"Adele? When I was in the hospital...none of my friends ever came to visit me. Not that I suppose they could have...after all, we were only seven. I realize that now...but back then, it kind of hurt. But mostly, I was sad and lonely...really lonely."

She stops for a moment before continuing...

"But every few days, someone would drop off freshly picked wildflowers at the Nurse's Station for me. I remember they were so beautiful. I loved them so much. It always used to cheer me up whenever they came. They sort of made it feel like I wasn't so alone after all. That someone else besides my family was there for me."

Again, she briefly stops; and wonderingly stares at Adele.

"But I never found out who was bringing them. All the nurses could tell me was that it was some little girl...and they didn't know who she was."

Nadine becomes quiet and reverently gazes upon Adele.

"Adele...was that you? Did you bring me those flowers?"

Adele looks down, then back up at Nadine and nods as she faintly replies, "Yes."

Tears start to trickle down Nadine's cheeks. She slowly embraces Adele and endearingly hugs her as she softly whispers in her ear...

"Thank you."