PRIDE & PRINCESSES: A Pride and Prejudice (type) of teen story (Sunrise High #1)

A Proposal (chapter nineteen)

Chapter 19

A proposal

    The next day, I woke up, plugged in my headphones and started on the one physical activity I tried to do a few times a week, alone, jogging. To clear my head, I ran the track along the path that led from my house to the Sunrise lakes.

    The main lake divided our neighborhood from the hidden homes of Jet and Mark and the Princesses who lived high on the hill overlooking the town of Sunrise itself. It was a Saturday and I was up early, preparing for my babysitting duties that afternoon. I still had half of Act Two to memorize and a paper to write for English on the traditional text of Romeo and Juliet, a prospect I wasn’t joyfully anticipating. 

   I’d woken up feeling extremely angry, although I realized anger was a wasted emotion and I knew I should share my feelings with Mouche but my anger seemed to go beyond all articulation. I was going faster and faster (breaking a sweat known only to me during dance classes) when I rounded a corner. As the music blared loudly in my ears I ran face first into Mark Knightly, almost knocking myself out. He seemed to scoop me up very swiftly in his arms.

     “Mark must have been very strong from all the swimming and riding and hunting...” Mouche said avidly as I relayed the story to her much later.  “I hear back in England they kill animals for sport!”

     “Not just in England,” I said as I read Mouche’s brochures for her charity of the week, the local Animal Protection Society. She was considering talking her mom into taking home a rescue dog which I thought was a very good idea.

     But I continued, “Mark sat me down under one of the many oak trees that lined the path of the gardens that led down to the lakes....”

    When I came to, he was leaning over me intently and my soon to be enraged eyes stared straight into his remarkably blue, surprisingly honest-looking ones. He was wearing a turtleneck sweater and jeans, even though I thought the day had been hotter than usual for this time of year. Too hot in fact. I edged apart from him very quickly, dazed and irate.

    “Eww. Get off me,” I said, when I collected my wits, even though he was only patting my shoulder as I was sitting hunched, against a tree.”

    “I’m sorry...we collided.”

     Always saying sorry went against everything I knew about males.

    “I didn’t  expect anyone to be...”

    “Here?”

    “Blocking my path,” I replied.

    “Actually I came out here to look for you. I got your number from your cousin, Ella. Then I rang your home and asked your mother where you might be. I...wanted to speak to you...alone.” My mind was in overdrive while I watched his perfect lips move. Mrs Robinson states, “...never be desperate to fling a man your number, let him do the work. If he wants you, he’ll find you. After all, men do traditionally like to hunt and gather...”