Painkilling Pariah » Yeah-Yeah

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Charla was on edge all morning. Her mother's local morning show was filming in their seemingly untouched living room. Mrs. O'Donnelly had done everything in her power to make sure the room was spotless.

For some ungodly reason, Hellen had reached a level of popularity in the town that she was somewhat of a celebrity. Today a local newswoman was interviewing Charla's mother. Although Mrs. O'Donnelly always flashed her pearly whites on camera, she was rarely caught cheesing in her private life. Unfortunately Darrel had planned on leaving Charla at home with their mother so he could ride his bike to the community center so he could play basketball with his friends.

Just as the thin, dark haired boy was about to race out the door, Charla caught the collar of his shirt. "Hey, Dare," the older sister sing songed too innocently.

He groaned as he turned around to face Charla. "Yes?" he asked brusquely, widening his dark brown eyes to make a stark contrast to his pale skin.

"If you see a boy with a bike that has mis-matching parts, he's a leader of a group, tell him to stop being a dip stick," she requested.

"Conrad Myers? Man, I hate that kid! I'll let him know," he smirked deviously as he scampered off.

Charla smiled contently and pulled a white tee shirt over her red bathing suit and hung her satchel across he shoulder. She leaned into the living room and said, "I'll be home later, Momma. Betty and I's job at the pool starts today."

"Alright, take care."

Charla walked a few blocks down to a little blue house. She knocked on the door and a few seconds later Betty appeared. She had blue eye shadow strewn across her eyelids, accentuating her cat-like eyes and the brown freckles scattered across the bridge of her upturned nose. "Hey, Charls," Betty grinned, showing her bright white teeth.

Charla heightened an eyebrow. "Hey Betty, what's with the eyeshadow?"

The two girls walked to the local pool and Betty had explained that Squints, her cousin, had told her that he and his friends were finally unbanned. She said the sandlot boys were beyond excited to "scam pool honeys," as they called it. Finally they entered through the check in area in the front as talked to the elderly woman, Josephine, whom worked the front desk.

Charla and Betty stored their belongings in the women's locker room and headed out to the pool area. Wendy Peffercorn was the main lifeguard, so she got to sit in the lifeguard chair while the two girls had to stand within seeing range from the water. Slowly but surely the pool began to flood with bodies of many shapes, sizes, and colors. Around noon Charla noticed that Betty was becoming quite alert of who was entering.

"What's wrong with you?" Charla questioned, her friend's distractedness finally irritating her. With no response, she rolled her eyes and was about to make another snarky remark when she heard Betty inhale sharply.

Betty pulled on Charla's elbow vigorously as she looked at a large group of boy. But not just any boys; the sandlot boys. "Look, look, look! They're here!" she whispered.

"Why do you care about them so much? You know people like us aren't supposed to like people like them," Charla said, finding the black haired girl's infatuation quite foolish.

Betty bit her pink lip as she smiled and ignored Charls' negativity. "Why are you such a pessimist? But look, Alan's looking over here!" she squealed, squeezing her friend's bare forearm.

They watched discretely as the boys jumped into the cold water. Benny and Scott swam around and laughed at each other's dumb jokes. Bertram and Kenny rough housed and hoped the lifeguards wouldn't notice. Timmy and Tommy bickered over who splashed who first. Ham was trying to smooth talk Ana Mae Phillips. And last but not least, Squints gushed over Wendy to Yeah-Yeah as Yeah-Yeah stole small glances at Charla.