Rem

The Cafe

The Cafe

School went by like it normally does for me. Learning and doing a whole a lot of singing, dancing, drawing and painting. But don’t get me wrong, we’re not a bunch of dumbbells. We all have to take and complete are main core subjects, in fact we are all advanced.

Basically, if we don’t get famous right away we can still attend a university. But I don’t like to think about school all the time. I just try to go with the flow, and after school today my friends invited me to hang out at the Hard Rock Cafe in central Manchester. It was the place teenagers’ hangout after school, and more grown folks at night time.  But they mainly go in the bar section, typical.

 “Hey guys, did you want to go to the stupid field trip?” the voice of Jake snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Oh right, the…museum or something. Dang! do we have too?!” Ella started to whine. Every year each grade go on separate field trips. I knew the second year students were going to go soon, but I just didn’t know where we were going.

 “That’s wonky! Those tossers shouldn’t make us do that.” A boy named Niall started to complain as well, I wasn’t surprised. He was your typical punk styled guys, who couldn’t survive without making trouble. He had long dark hair which he had dyed bright blue in the front, and pale skin. He also had two piercings, one on his bottom lip, and the other on his right ear.

 But then Liza spoke too. “They’re not threatening us to go by making it an ‘assignment grade’ are they? Because last year we had to run around London all day just to stare at pointless sculptures. No teenager wants to do that!” That’s where Liza was wrong; to me it was quite exciting. Though I love music, visual arts are very cool. Plus I can draw a thing or two (or more).

 “Oh yeah Liza! I remember now! Mr. Rudolf was going to fail you for his ‘fine arts’ class because you didn’t turn it in. Ha!” Niall laughed while he took another bite of his scone.

 “Hey that’s not funny at all!” Liza yelled. “Do you know what my parents what do if I got a ‘U’ in a class?’ now looking really nervous “ I’m lucky they even let me come!”

I couldn’t help but giggle at Liza’s frighten face, and soon everybody else started to muffle their laughs too. “Okay, so it’s that funny huh? Well, you guys act like you’re so smart. I mean, what was that dumb head horse we saw in London? I don’t know about you guys but it freaked me out…”

“In 1986 artist Nic Fiddian-Green held his first exhibition, which included the ‘Horse’s Head in the Wind’ sculpture in London.” I said thinking back to the words Mr. Rudolf said above all the whining and noise the students were making. It wasn’t much but at least I remembered. I think I was the only one.

“Blimey Ray! I didn’t know you knew your onions that well.” Ella exclaimed but I just shrugged my shoulders and took a sip of my hot coco.

“Nothin’ much.” I replied.

But Liza shot up “No Ray, you’re amazing. Almost as amazing as your voice.” She stated knowingly, but then looked sideways at Ella and Jake sitting next to her.

 “As a matter of fact, why don’t you sing us a little song?” she said slyly. But I knew what she was trying to do, so I put down my drink and looked her in the eyes.

“Not a chance, Liza.” I told her hoping she would notice my patience level dropping by the second. But Liza being Liza, wouldn’t back down. “Oh darling, we all know it’s the one thing that you love doing the most, so why not share it with us at least once? It’s your most precious gift.”

Yes, it is my precious gift, and I don’t like flaunting it around. When you have something special, not everyone has to know. But lately Liza has been bugging me to show off myself more, and she thinks I’d be happier. Yeah right. Sorry to disappoint you Liza but that’s just not happening.

 “Liza, don’t push me okay?” I told her with my voice as calm as possible. We both had I bit of a stare off, and from the outside it looked as if we were just fooling around. But honestly I hoped she chose not to put me out there. Remember that she is a sneaky and tends to get her way often. However, by some miracle Liza actually did let the topic go, but I could tell she was not quite satisfied.

                                               

A week has past now and I have to admit that I had thought about a few things Liza said. And the one thing I’ve notice is that I haven’t really been happy with my life. I loved it, I loved everything about it. But I still wasn’t as happy as the next girl.

            That brings me to this… was love the reason I was so sad? So angry? Or was it mom? I try to act like I got over mom’s death. I tried to act like the shock of that day…when…she disappeared. 

The shock and pain I felt when I woke up and went to mom’s room and she just lay there. Usually she would be up and out. She would be the one to walk up to my room, “Wakey, wakey sleepy head. My little Raven.” But that day, that day seven years ago., her happy greeting that annoyed me so much…it didn’t come. When I walked into her room, dad away on one of his crazy business trips again, She just lay there. Not moving. “Mom? Mom are you okay?” I asked, scared. “Mom you better not be trying to trick me again…mommy?” I shook her shoulder, her cold lifeless shoulder. ‘Please mom, please wake up.” I was crying now. Begging, pleading her to wake up. “Mom, I need you. Please don’t be gone. I’m about to start the first grade mommy. What would I do there? And daddy..he needs you. He can’t even find his socks without you. Please come back mom. Please… She never did come back.

 But even though I was only six I knew what to do. I called 911 and then called dad with my mom’s cell phone. I try to seem fine on the outside, and put others first. But that day would never leave my mind…my soul. It is a part of me.