Stuck In The 60s

Chapter Three

      I walked into the Spanish class. "Hola, Senor Sendon," I said warily, after just getting out of a tiring band rehearsal. 

    "Hola, Catherine," he said, looking up from his papers. 

     Mr. Sendon's nice, I suppose, but he doesn't teach us much.  He rushes from lesson to lesson, so we don't even get a chance to learn. His class can be fun, though, becuase I get to goof off with the peole surrounding me. Yes, I can be outgoing sometimes.

     I sit down in my chair, and say hello to the girl sitting next to me, Janel. Janel and I talk a lot, but I wouldn't really consider her a friend. 

    "Catherine," she said to me, "Look at the pretty drawing I drew." She picked up her notebook, and showed me a cool-looking doodle near the edge of the paper. 

     "That's really pretty! It looks phsycadelic." I fluttered my fingers around to represent the phsycadelic feel the drawing had. Of course, being a fan of the 60s era, physcadelic things interest me. 

     Then, three other classmates walked through the door. Ben, Julian, and Tariq. Julian and Tariq sat down near me and Janel, and Ben went over to sit behind Lexi. 

     "Hi, Catherine," Tariq said. He placed his books onto the heater.

     "Hey, Tariq," I responded. Tariq's always a fun person to talk with. 

     "Tariq," I said, "Sing your song. The Rick Astley parody." In Spanish class, I would always sing Rick Astley's big hit, 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. Tariq, who can literally turn anything into something rather inappropritate, managed to make up a parody.

     He sat down. "I'm gonna fuck you in the ass, and you will like it, you will scream and shout, like you are Brad Pitt," he sang. I laughed. Only Tariq would think of something like that.

    "Julian," Tariq called, "I know you liked that song."

    "Oh, yeah," Julian licked his lips, like he always does, "That song was fantastic."

    I laughed again. Sitting near these boys was a blast.

   Then, Janel poked me on the shoulder. She had a little ball of paper in her hand. She reached over near Julian's head, and dropped the paper in his hair. We both laughed really hard, although I don't know why. He turned his head. 

    "What?" he asked curiously, and the paper fell out of his hair. Janel and I toppled over laughing. Julian looked quite confused, which made it much funnier. Tariq laughed, too.

     "You're so stupid, Julian," he said.

     "Oh my god, Tariq, you're such a bully!" Julian responded, jokingly. 

      "Calm down, Julian," Janel said with a smile. 

      While everyone sitting around me was laughing and joking, I turned my head to the right, where Lexi was sitting. I heard someone talking to her.

     "Lexi, are we best friends?" It was Ben's voice. What he had said to my friend was a joke, but it wasn't really teasing.

     Lexi blushed. I smiled, because I knew inside, Lexi was screaming and hopping up and down with happiness. It almost seemed like Ben liked her, too. I smiled again. 

    I thought had popped into my head. "It would be cool, if I had them get together." I imagined Lexi screaming with joy after Ben asking her on a date. I laughed to myself. "Catherine, the matchmaker, they'd call me."

   Of course, that would have to mean talking to Ben, who I don't talk to much. Talking to him would be quite awkward.  Anything for a true friend, though. And, hey, it might even teach me to be more outgoing. 

    I pictured myself, outgoing. Having lots of friends, plenty of people to hang out with. I could talk to people without feeling so damn awkward. I could even dance with people at those school dances. I liked that thought.

    I kept dreaming about my possible future outgoing-self, until the bell rang, and I snapped back to reality. And even then, I kept imagining.

   "Don't knock it 'til you've tried it," I thought, saying the famous quote in my head, "You never really know."