Straighter than Parallel Parking

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{ Chapter Six: Less Than Five Calories in a Diet Can Suffice }

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JANICE HAS BEEN GOING TO AN ALL-GIRLS SCHOOL FOR PRACTICALLY her whole life. Her father had never been picky about her hanging out with males or anything of those sorts, always trusting his daughter to be more level-headed and intelligent than most girls her age. This helped in making her grow up a little more than half the children her age.

Even though she was the youngest, she's the peace mediator in friendships with her brothers, making sure that only one black eye resulted before she broke it off (but never on her brother's face; she was the only one who could break their noses).

Unfortunately, as many have probably concluded from the arrival of Aunt Maria, Janice's father faced a lot of pressure from his extensive family -- what to do, what not to do, what he can and can't do.

Janice understands the amount of sacrifice her dad must've done to get her into the family in the first place, and she never questions the things that her father does, so if it means that she'll be the guinea pig to her grandmother twice removed and so forth, fine. Didn't mean she had to like it.

She saw more, she observed more, she learned more because of this. She never doubted her instincts, and these subtle things made her less blind than the people around her. Meaning she knew better than to mess with the drama of gossip and teasing that happened around her.

She made sure she never had an opinion, unless it was for the benefit of others, because yes, screw her over, but not the girl who can barely carry her books to the next room. Cut off her hair with safety scissors, but don't you dare touch the dreadlocks of the African-American girl down the hall.

Because of that attitude, Janice got into a lot of crap. Sometimes literally. Her brother's call her Plain Jane, but they didn't doubt that their sister could whip them all the way to Russia if she wanted to. She's a force to be reckoned with, you could say, but all Janice would tell you would be that she is a good judge of character. If you looked like someone who wanted help, she'd help. If you looked like you needed to be thrown out the window, she'll hold it open.

Luckily for James, he still had three hours for her to decide whether he was going out the mall in a car or an ambulance.

Really, there wasn't any pressure at all.

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IF THERE WAS ANYTHING TO LIGHTEN A MOOD, the fresh aroma of delicious food delicacies was always a pretty amazing option to consider. Janice strolled in with her sights set on the Baskin Robin's at the far corner, already making her way through the pleasantly half busy cafeteria, but James reached out and tapped her on the shoulder.

She turned, a little confused on why he'd hesitated. "Is something the matter?"

He shook his head. "No, but I actually wanted to get something to eat, too. I have a bad feeling ice cream isn't going to cut it for me."

She scrunched up her nose. "Are you against ice cream? Because if so, I think we really need to start heading our different ways." She gave a dramatic sigh, "I knew this was too good to be true."

James rolled his eyes at her theatrical opinion. "I know it's hard to get wrapped around the fact that I'm a God-- okay, stop giving me that look, you know it's true. But I'm going to get a salad and come back."

"A salad?" out of all the things that went through her head, she's conjured a three-layered pizza, hamburger, two bottles of pepsi and a healthy sub on the side combo. And now this guy's telling her he's going for leafs and vegetables?