Finding Arizona

Chapter 1

"Fours?"

"No."

"Dammit."

"Go Fish already."

"Don't rush me!"

"Ari for heaven's sake you were born a human not a snail-sloth hybrid."

"Rushing me is not going to make the bus come any faster, Shelly."

"It'll make the game go faster." Shelly scoffed.

"Oh go take your scoffing somewhere else! I hear bingo is on at the Wilting Willow." I retorted pulling a card from the deck we had placed between us on the bus stop bench.

"It's called Whispering Pines." She corrected me as usual.

"Sagging Sycamore. Drooping Dogwood. Whatever Sheldon."

"Shelly. It's Shelly."

"Shut up Sheldon. Besides. Those old people homes really need to stop with the "creative" names. They are just asking for people like us to make fun of them. Sevens?"

"People like you, you mean? And no! It's my turn. Sevens?"

"Dammit." I sighed throwing my two sevens in her general direction. "And whatever. I'm not the only one who makes fun of those names! So does Adam." I argued in attempts to make my point as valid as possible.

"Yes your older but-even-less-mature brother makes fun of retirement community names. I would totally expect better than him. Aces?"

"At least he has a sense of humor Ms. I-just-can't-take-a-joke Jones." I laughed. "And no. Go Fish!" 

"Hey I'm perfectly fine being who I am. Besides my best friend here Ms. I-am-the-only-one-who-can-take-a-joke-in-this-town Chandler has enough character to cover miles of this place." She laughed returning with the same form of name calling and pulling from the pile. "Ha! Got what I wanted. My turn again."

"I am not the only one who can take a joke. There are a few in school. And Mr. Williams is pretty funny." I defended the helpless, boring people in my little town.

"Yeah when he isn't telling old war stories then falling asleep." Shelly rolled her eyes throwing her black curly hair over her shoulder. "And I know, I know. Don't even waste your breath. You like the stories. But that's you. And you know me. I want to get out of this dry, sleepy place. Go to my dream school, make it big, then travel the world! Can't you see it now? Shelly Jones; Oscar nominee wins by a mile!"

"I've told you many times before, and I'll say it again, Shelly. You will be the star of the movie industry!" We both laughed like crazy, throwing my playing cards at one another. We marked another tally mark on the old worn down bus bench right next to our countless others. That was our way of keeping track of our mornings together. Every morning, we walk to the city bus stop together. We sit down and wait for almost an hour until the bus arrives to ship us off to school. Not that we need to come to the stop that early. But the mornings before school are some of the only friend time we have anymore.

And we may make fun of our town for being small and lifeless. But that's because the town is small and lifeless. Small in terms of most everybody knows each other. Not exactly directly, but indirectly. Maybe the lady across the street knows your cousin, who knows your teacher, who knows your grandma, who knows the banker, who is friends with your dad. But the town itself is a decent size. Big enough to have city buses, a downtown, and a suburban area that is. But a lot of bigger things have to be accessed through neighboring towns like the airports and whatnot. 

"Yeah. I'll be a star once I figure out what to do with all this hair!" Shelly laughed again tugging at her long beautiful curls.

"What are you talking about? Your hair is gorgeous! But I can see you going short in a few years." I admitted pulling one of her curls myself and watching it bounce back in place.