Half-glass full and cynical Calista Dames can sketch out her life in a series of plans, predictions and preparations. She's the girl who knows what she's doing and where she's going, the girl with all the questions answered, the girl with a foundati...
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CHAPTER TWO
Minimized Casualties
By some unexplainable circumstances, we ended up eating at Davey's Corner anyways- like the attractive grey-eyed guy recommended. The most contributing factor was not because I thought he was hot and therefore desired to have dinner at that particular place because I wanted to see he and his band play. It was mostly because we couldn't decide what to eat. Santa Monica Pier offered way too much variety for the Dames' family to just pick one category.
Mom was craving something spicy, like Indian or Thai, but Cathryn said curry made her face red and bloated so she opted for something healthier like Japanese or salad. I was promptly struck by an alien, foreign temptation inside of me to suddenly stuffed my face with tacos, Connie just kept wailing for food because she was hungry, Dad was fine with anything and everything.
This was a normal day for the Dames family.
Fighting. There was always fighting in the Dames' household. It was the only thing we had in common- and it was arguing, complaining, yelling, scolding. It wasn't great nor was it something particularly proud to share publicly but it kept us together since our forefathers invaded North America and oppressed the Native Americans in a prolonged state of subjugation- maybe even before that.
We might disagree over the fact that you scolded me for receiving bad grades, or because I was whining about having to do the laundry when my sister got a free pass but at least we were still cohesive. We hated each other's opinions and choices but we didn't necessarily hate each other (though Cathryn and I were entirely debatable). We were still whole.
It was funny, or I guess you can call it, hypocritically hilarious because the only thing I couldn't tolerate other than my family was somebody insulting my family. My mother was a substitute teacher in my high school, so you can imagine that ill-destined holy hell of a terror, and it was in ninth grade during the incident, when Heath Burnwood had manufactured a mean remark about my mom's strictness.
I remember an upsurge of defensiveness and pure unadulterated anger swelling in my chest and popping like a needle just pricked balloon. I distinctly remember after the class had ended I marched over to Heath, Jem, and Caleb, who were slapping each other in the back like all dumb boys do, and seething with an unexplainable rage. Words were heatedly exchanged and before I could even register what was happening or let common sense seized the reins, my knees thrust itself upon his balls and I hissed, "One more word about my mother and I'll make sure you'll never reproduce ever again." The fear in his eyes granted me a sense of satisfaction that he wouldn't insult any of my family ever again but I was barred and suspended for a week from school for bruising the balls of a guy who probably deserved it.
My mind's ventures towards the unknown were unfortunately cut short when my dad brought all reason to the squabbling Cathryn and Mom were making, attracting some weird looks from passing strangers as if to say who are those losers. I ducked my face from view, which was extremely difficult when you possess the height of a fucking giraffe. I abruptly distanced myself from them.
