TEENS

Chapter 8

We all gasped when we entered Paulina's room. Her walls were decorated with quotes and excerpts from speeches, all written in script across her wall. A Dr. Suess quote was written above the headrest of her bed, reading, "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer youself in any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go..."

She smiled when she saw our faces and looked around the room herself. "It's too bland, right?"

"This," Laurel said, dropping her bag and running her hand across a Shakespeare quote. "Is amazing. We definitely know who will be the scribe and essay-writer for this project,"

I nodded. "Your room rocks,"

"Oh, as if," Paulina said.

"I have to admit," Jemma said, looking around the room. "It's pretty sweet,"

The colors of the room also popped, which were red like Kari's hair and white like her pale skin. She smiled and leaned back against a wall, her red hair falling on the red part of the wall and her body falling on the white part. We all laughed.

"You have great parents," Laurel said, smiling at Paulina. 

"Why do you assume they did all of this?"

"Well, didn't they?"

"No," Paulina said, her voice suddenly harsh. "I did,"

"Whoa," I said, attempting to ease the tension and to show my appreciation. "You're really good,"

Paulina's chest slowly lowered and she gave me a small smile. "Thanks,"

"Okay, let's get to work, people," Jemma sat on the edge of Paulina's bed, her pink iPhone in her hands as she addressed us all. Needless to say, she didn't look at us when she spoke to us. "I have an appointment at seven."

"With who?" Paulina asked.

Jemma gave her a who-the-heck-are-you look and Laurel placed a hand on her shoulder, saying, "Okay, we'll start. What should we call the project?"

"First and last dates," I said.

"Something simple, like...dating," Laurel added.

"Miracles and Mishaps," Paulina said, using parallelism.

Jemma looked at Kari, her eyebrows raised high on her forehead. "You, ginger, we need a suggestion,"

"Her name is Kari," I said.

Jemma glared at me and then looked back over to Kari. "We need a suggestion, Kari,"

Kari did everything but look at Jemma's face. I kind of felt bad for her, as she looked frightened for her life. Her eyes were wide in fear and she kept playing with her fingers. I looked over at Jemma to catch her mouthing "weirdo" to Laurel, who gave her a look and walked over to Kari.

"It's okay if you can't think of one now," she said. "We have time,"

Kari nodded, but moved away from Laurel as well. Laurel looked hurt, but she let it alone and walked back over to the center of the room. She continued, "Okay, we don't have a name, but we need more of a concept. Let's put on our thinking caps,"

"Who says that anymore?" Paulina asked.

"I do,"

She laughed. "Okay,"

We stood in the room for minutes, silence all around us. I was truly thinking of something, twirling the skull on my jacket around my finger. Paulina lay across her bed on her back, staring up at the ceiling. Laurel had her face in her hands as she sat cross-legged on the ground. Kari had on a serious thinking face, but I was sure she wouldn't tell us anything, even if she did have an idea. And Jemma, she just sat on Paulina's bed, clicking away on her phone.

"Anyone?" Laurel asked, her voice muffled from her hands.

"Nope," Paulina said.

"Nada," I added.

Kari shook her head and Jemma gave us a thumbs down. Laurel stood up and grabbed Jemma's phone from her hands, shoving it into her pocket. "Okay, if we're going to work as a team, we need to think as a team. Everyone needs participate,"

"I was participating," Jemma said. "I was being quiet, so you could all think."

"Well, think again, you," Laurel said, which was a pretty lame comeback. She sighed and looked around at all of us. "Guys, think about past dates. What did you love, what did you hate?"

"The spaghetti," Paulina said.

"The fries," I said. "And the way he didn't look me in the eyes,"

"I love when he pulls out the chair and when the setting is nice," Jemma said.

"Good, good," Laurel said. "What else?"

"I like when he asks me face-to-face," Paulina says. "Not over a text or Facebook. It makes it more meaningful, more real,"

"That's how Brian asked me out," I said. "He walked me home and halfway there, he stopped, turned me toward him, and asked if I would grant him one wish."

"To leave him alone forever?" Jemma said, and then guffawed at her own horrible joke.

"What happened after that?" Paulina asked, sitting up on the bed, her face eager.

"You know, the usual,"

"I want verbatim," Laurel said. "Spill,"

I laughed, running a hand through my black hair. "I said yes and he said would I grant him three more wishes."

"La-ame," Jemma said.

"Shh, this is good," Paulina said, waving her off. "Go on,"

"So, of course, I said yes. The first wish was for me to allow him to take me on the date. The second was for me to allow him to take me on a second date. The last was for one more wish,"

"Ugh," Jemma said. "It never ends,"

I ignored her and continued, "Want to know?"

"Um, yes," Laurel said, smiling.

"We had been talking for a while then, so he kind of knew a bit about me and for the last wish, he asked me to let him take care of me," I suddenly felt like I was getting to personal and felt myself begin to blush. "I-I guess I'm kind of hardcore and defensive, and I don't really let people in. I try to be indepedent and stuff? I don't know, but he saw that and he wanted to break it down."

"And?" Laurel pressed.

"And what?"

"And did he?" Paulina asked. "Did he break it down?"

I shrugged. "I mean, I guess."

"Oh, that's the cutest!" Laurel said, smiling widely at me. "We have to use that story,"

"Um, no thanks," I said, turning around and facing Paulina's bedroom door to hide the blush on my face. 

"Why not?" Paulina said. "It's like the sweetest thing,"

"It's also really personal," Jemma said. We turned to look at her and she looked over at me. "Right?"

"RIght,"

Just then, the door to Paulina's room opened and a little boy, probably about five or six, walked in with a large smile on his face. Paulina picked up a pillow and threw it at him. He giggled and turned around to shake his butt at us. 

"Dude, get out of my room," Paulina said, but she was smiling as she walked over and picked him up into her arms. "This is a girl's party,"

As he wrestled in her arms, I immediately thought of Thomas. I grabbed all of my stuff, even as I felt all eyes on me. My heart was suddenly racing and I knew I couldn't explain my rushing.

"I have to go," I said, although I'm sure everyone already realized that.

"So soon?" Paulina asked. "I was going to order pizza,"

"Yeah, I can't stay," I said. "I'll see you guys tomorrow,"

It would've been a normal exit, and perfectly fine exit, if I hadn't utter those last few words. These girls and I were definitely not even close to friends, and yet, I had promised to see them tomorrow. 

Little did I know that stranger things would happen.