Fixing Up Valerie

The Pity Party - 6

He talked about me? Probably nothing good just that I'm awkward and weird. Most likely mentioning that he'd rather do anything but hang with me. But he offered- so it's not my fault.
Caleb's mom let me come in and she went to find Caleb-- I'm assuming. I just stayed in the living room looking at the photographs. He had 2 younger siblings from what I've seen, so I'm guessing he's the oldest. A sister around 12 years old and a brother around 5. I felt footsteps coming closer- heavier than the moms. "Hey, I'm so sorry you had to wait here. I thought you weren't coming anymore so I went outside to shoot hoops," Caleb comes closer all sweaty and shirtless. Okay, just try and ignore that.

"Oh its fine, I don't mind the waiting and I apologize I lost track of time and rushed here" I tried to look at the pictures again but I kept glancing at Caleb. I wandered around the room waiting for him to take me to his room. Not that I have a problem with that. Okay stop with the dirty mind. He's not interested: I'm a freak, ugly, and an orphan. Basically just a person everyone pities on.
"So you wanna work on the assignment now?" Caleb starts smiling big, ugh.
No I wanna hug you because of your smile it makes my life less depressing.
"Uh, yeah. That's kinda the reason I came over," I shrugged and walked over to where Caleb was standing "lead the way."

We were in Caleb's room looking though our textbooks for the assignment information. I was sitting on a rolley chair; a black chair with wheels on the bottom. And Caleb was in his bed-- still, might I add, shirtless. The only thing you could hear was pages and pages: no talking, no sounds, just silent between the both of us. This might be more awkward than myself. I looked through the table of contents to look for it and look, ah ha page 537. Do I tell him I found it or wait till he figures it out? If I wait he'll take forever. He's just skimming thorough each page. I'll tell him.
"Uh hey. I- uh found it. it's page 537."

2 HOURS LATER
stupid little girl. Life isn't happy, it's full of disappointment, no ones ever happy. It only lasts for a short while and then slips through your fingertips. We had finished the assignment and decided to do our next one that the teacher didn't even discuss about it with us. It was Cinderella that we were reading, childish I know, and we had to pick if we were against or with Cinderellas stepmother. Caleb picked against and I was with the step mother. The questioned asked if it was fair of her to treat Cinderella like a slave and to also out some real life examples. But I had to agree-- it was fair. We only had two write two paragraphs to support our opinions. I had finished writing and waited for Caleb.

After a couple minutes he had noticed I wasn't making any noise so he looked up at me. He would stare at me an then my paper, he started chuckling and shook his head. "How'd you finish the essay already, Valerie?"
I shrugged and simply answered, "I could relate to what the stepmother was doing so yeah, there's a bunch more I could've written but it strictly said only two paragraphs."
He chuckles again and put down his pencil and books. He was going to say something but a knock interrupted him. "Hey do you guys want to have a break and come down to eat? I attempted to make some quesadillas but I'm not sure if they're good, I need you guys to test them," she laughs and tries to speak again "my food lab rats." We agreed we needed one badly and put away all our homework.

When I got to the kitchen I noticed it wasn't just quesadillas she had made, no. She went extreme and had pasta, sandwiches, and much more. She must've noticed that I stood there in awe and laughed, "I apologize Valerie, I tend to go overboard on cooking. Anyways don't just stand there, come and sit."
I grabbed a plate and placed some potato salad, quesadillas, and salad and sat down. Oh geez don't eat like a pig in front of them. Grab a fork and eat polite. I repeated those last two words in my head.

It was just us three eating, Caleb's sister has softball practice and his brother was still at the babysitters-- or his aunt's. I figured his dad wasn't in the picture since I haven't seen a single trace of one around. It was all going fine until Olivia {Caleb's mom} decide to interrogate me, not quite interrogating me but she was asking me a little too many questions. I was okay with them till she pushed it, "so, what do your parents work into Valerie?" Ask me Anything but my parents, please. They might as well know now. Here it goes . .
"O-oh- I, I uh they uh. They uh, well mom used to work in a floral shop an-and dad used to build houses." I was trying to explain all this with my hands wiggling all around and my fingers intertwining with other fingers.

"Oh florist sounds fun, although I can't keep a single flower alive. so what do they work in now?" She smiled, oh if only you knew what happened you wouldn't be smiling. Don't cry. Don't cry in front of these people val, you're gonna break.
"Well-- the th-I-ng is that they're a uh well a couple months ago a small, wait no not small, a big not really big. Okay basically an accident happened with my parents and I uh well they didn't pass through the surgery but I did," I stopped talking and noticed both Caleb and Olivia facial expressions change. Oh god they feel bad for me now. The pity party will now begin, I need to leave. "Oh val-" I cut her off I got up from the seat and pushed it back "actually sorry, it's time for me to leave. I need to go now. Bye." I grabbed my backpack and jacket and ran out of the house.