Hold My Heart Like A Hand Grenade:

Oh Love

"Hello?" I heard a scruffy voice say from the other line. My muscles behan to relax ad I realized it was Uncle Casey. Thank god. "Hello, Mr.Casey I presume." Mr.Powell said trying to hold authority but not be too hard as to give me a chance at not being too grounded. "Yeah." Said Casey. "Who'd this?" You could tell by the way he asked that he already knew the answer. "Well Mr.Casey my name is Mr.Powell and I am the principal here at Berkley High. Your niece Samantha is in a bit of trouble today." He souded almost sympathetic. I know I should be greatful for that but I hated it. It sickened me. There was a pause where my Uncle Casey was talking and the principal replied "She's fine.....Not too much trouble......Well it is her first day, that can be hard......Friends don't seem to be and issue......That's not necessary Mr.Casey.....Yes you can. Here she is." He handed me the phone and I took it in trembling hands. "Hey Uncle Casey." I said in a sheepish voice. "Sammi. Answer me one question. Did you throw the first punch or antagonize this?" He sounded so serious but I knew my Uncle all too well and even if I had done one of those things it wouldn't have a changed anything to him. "No sir." I answered honestly. "Well....Your Aunt is working a new case and probably won't be home until late so me and you are going to have to talk first thing when you get home." He said this in a stricter tone than normal but then again I thought, he was technically raising me now. I guess that was different. "Yessir." I said in an immediate tone so he would feel a little sypmathy. The phone call ended on those last words and I was released back to class.

When I limped out the doors Joey immediately stood up and asked how things went. "Ok I think." I told him a little of what happened before he was called in and I had to go. The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. After science I only had two more classes and nothing particularly interesting happened in those two classes. Although, I did have one with Cole, one of the boys I met at lunch with Joey. Cole was cool. Me and him seemed to instantly click in a way I've never down with anyone else. It wasn't like we were crushing on eachother it was just a feeling of belonging and comfort. I could tell that me and Cole would become very close through the time we had. He was very supportive of me and I was drawn to him as a brotherly figure. I felt safe. I liked it. One boy tried picking on me because of the fight and Cole immediately stood up to defend me. The boy shrunk down and I just looked up at Cole and smiled. I new we would become closer than anyone.

As the last bell of the day rang I couldn't wait to get home. Then, I remembered Uncle Casey would be waiting. 'On second though...Maybe I could walk home.' I though to myself. I went to my locker to get my things and as I was walking I ran into Joey and Sara. "Hey Sammi!" Sara called, she was always so damn excited. "Joey told me about your fight with Jazz. She's your basic bitch. Sorry I didn't warn you I didn't think anything would happen so soon." "It's cool." I said to Sara and smiled a little at Joey. We started down the stairs and toward the exit where the busses waited. When we got there I realized something horrible. "Oh no." I said, stopping dead in my tracks. "What is it?" Joey said with a concerned tone. "I just realized why Jazz seemed familiar." I said. "She was the bitch at the bus stop! I can't get on this bus! Not only will I be home sooner but I'll have to put up with her and to be honest, I don't think I can at the moment." Joey looked around a bit before saying "Yknow, if you want to you can walk with me. I could use the company today since Max and Cole got picked up and Travis is taking the bus to get off closer to his job." He made it seem like I would be doung him a huge favor if I walked with him even though really, he'd be the one doing that for me. "My Uncle Casey might not be happy but it is better than getting into another fight....I guess walking works." I said to Joey in my indecisive manner. So, Sara said goodbye after taking my number and said she would totally call me and see us tomorrow. After that me and Joey headed off. I told him my address because he knew the town better than me and we began our walk home.

The sun was hot and our books were heavy. It's not that the walk is long or even that we were bored, the weather just dragged us down. We made simple conversation and got to know eachother a bit better when finally, I asked the question that had been on my mind all day. "Hey Joey," I said. "What a coincidence that your last name is Armstrong like my idol Billie's AND you live in California, where he grew up. Plus you're musically inclined and in a punk band! It's kinda funny, huh?" I amused myself a bit more with each word when suddenly, Joey stopped. "Joey?" I said, concerned I'd messed something up. "Joey I'm sorry I didn't mean to-" Joey cut me off by saying "No, it's fine. It's just that...Oh nevermind." Under normal circumstances I would have probed further and further to get it out of him but it seemed like I hit a sensitive spot so I let it drop. We finally got to the street where I would go left and Joey would go right so I said "Thanks for walking me Joey. I can't wait for drum lessons!" I said excitedly to him. "Oh yeah." He said remembering himself. "Well....Maybe I can call you tomorrow?" He asked. "I'll let you know if I can." I said as we departed and as soon as I turned around I had the biggest smile ever. After walking about two blocks down and turning onto my street the song 'Oh Love' came on and I got a spring in my step. Then, I reached the door and remembered what awaited me inside. Thank Jesus of Suburbia that men don't have a 'time of the month' or things could have gone so much worse than they did. And believe me, it wasn't good.