TROUBLE MAGNET - Completed

Chapter 13 - Keeping My Girlie Bits Covered

Chapter 13 - Keeping My Girlie Bits Covered.

Kate pulls up a chair at our usual lunch table and plunks herself down beside me. "Hey Kiss!" she greets me, using one of her more common nicknames for me. She has many. She carefully pulls her sparkly, purple lunch bag out of her matching designer knapsack. Kate is a senior and yet her mom still makes her lunches everyday. Her mom always packs her pretty purple lunch bag with the best food too; homemade turkey and cheese sandwiches on the freshest breads, freshly baked muffins and cookies and there's always a thermos full of her favorite homemade, freshly squeezed lemonade. On the days Kate buys food from the cafe, the rest of us fight over who gets to eat her lunch. Being her best friend and all, I usually get first dibs.

"Hey Kat," I reply using my one and only nickname for her. I'm not nearly as creative as she is. I twirl my straw in my drink as I ask her where she has been. I have been trying to call her cell phone ever since Landon stormed out of my house the previous day, but she never once picked up.

"Yeah, I'm sorry if you were trying to call or text me_,"

"Only about a gazillion times," I cut in.

"Oh, uh... well I dropped my phone in the bathtub and now it's not working." When she sees the shocked look on my face, she holds up her hand to silence me. "Which by the way, totally sucks! In case you didn't know." I knew alright. I could tell by the way she was slamming her lunch containers onto the table that she wasn't happy.

Still, I couldn't hold back my admonishment, "Again Kat? Isn't that... I don't know... like your third one this year? I take a bite of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and settle in for what I'm sure will be an interesting story.

"Her third one.. what?" Sarah asks as she and Angeli sit down across from us.

"The third phone Kat has destroyed with water," I mumble through a mouthful of food.

"No way!" Angeli laughs. "How do you drown three phones?" She gives Kate's shoulder a playful shove while she waits for her to answer.

"Well, let's see," Kate says holding up her index finger. "One was in the pocket of my board shorts when Kiss and I went tubing this summer - totally not my fault!" She holds up a second finger. "The second one was in my pocket when Kiss and I decided to have a play date in the rain - remember that?" she asks turning to me, with a crazy grin lighting up her face, all traces of anger now gone. This is how easy it is to get Kate back into a great mood. 

"Yeah, I remember," I say rolling my eyes. "It was last fall when there was a total downpour and Kat got this crazy idea we should go jump in mud puddles."

"Oh no, no, no," Kate disagrees shaking her head emphatically. "No way! It was your idea." Her finger jabs my chest. "As a matter of fact, if you recall, I was the one," she points her thumb to herself, "who suggested we take an umbrella, but noooo... you nixed that in the butt, saying it would be more fun to get wet. Remember?" 

I do remember. We acted like five year old's, but we had a blast. That's what I love best about Kate, she goes along with all of my wacky ideas, no matter what. "You have to admit, it was fun though," I say smiling.

Kate laughs and nods in agreement. "I didn't even realize I had my phone with me, until later when we took off all of our wet clothes. Crap! And now I've gone and done it again," she groans wiggling three fingers in the air, "I accidentally dropped my new phone in the bathtub on Saturday night. I'm hoping it'll be dried out enough by the time I get home after school."

She stops talking long enough to take a quick bite from her sandwich. This time she has brought roast beef and Swiss on a home baked French loaf. Mmmmm. When she finishes chewing, she tells us she has her phone sitting in a bowl of dried rice at home.  "Hopefully the rice will absorb all the water," she says as she dabs at the corner of her mouth with a small linen napkin, also compliments of her mom. "If it doesn't work, I'll have to pay for a new phone with my own money this time." Her mouth falls into a serious pout as she shakes her head back and forth, "And I don't have any money. None. Notta."