The Babysitter

Gym Bag

Sammy

On the parking structure across from Puyallup High is the concrete jungle, the refugee center for rebellion, the senior level parking, or what everyone calls, the Top. It's the tallest structure in downtown Puyallup besides the courthouse, but it had a giant flag atop it, so it doesn't count. The Top has a 360 view of the world and we would stand up their smoking our cigarettes and blue dream, drinking our lattes and red bulls as kings and queens of the world.

The county was printing metal signs to officially inaugurate it but they were backlogged and hadn't' gotten to it. A few of us had discussed going down to the county building and demand first priority. They were only printing stops signs and street names and those things could wait. We even thought about going to the Governor and state our demands. If all else failed, we would take it to the news outlets and word would spread like wildfire, then they would be forced to print out signs. Official or not, it didn't matter, everyone knew it belonged to us. The Top was ours. Seniors only. If you weren't a senior, you had no business on the Top and you had better not be caught up there or suffer the consequences. Once, a few years before me, there was a boy named Kelvin, or Kelen, or something, he wasn't a senior then, but he had a car and he thought it would be a funny prank to park on the Top.

One day, right before the 8:30 bell he drove to the top level. He was even arrogant enough to drive circles so everyone would see him as he parked at the staircase. He climbed out of his car and smiled. People shouted and cursed at him, a few guys even tried to stop him but he laughed in their faces and left. He thought it was funny shit. It was. It was funny how someone could be so stupid. They got him back too and I bet he wasn't laughing when word started to spread. By lunch, the entire school was privy to the hushed whispers. Someone said it had been lit on fire and others say they stole it and drove it into the river. Whatever they did, it was gone and when he came back after school he couldn't find it. That was the last time anyone parked on the Top that wasn't supposed to be there.

I am here early, it's not even 6:30 yet but I couldn't sleep so I just got up and got dressed and put on my face. It's cold so I keep walking circles to keep myself warm. I check my watch, 6:25. Charlie should be here soon. I look over the edge and see her car pull in. It's about time. After few minutes she pulls up and parks next to me and I climb inside.

"What took you so long?" I say.

"Samantha, it's early," she says, "what do you want from me?" She rubs the sleep out of her eyes. I get her up to speed and tell her everything that happened. She stares at me.

"So he just hugged you," Charlie says.

"Charlie, it wasn't just a hug," I say, "He was sending me his signal. What am I supposed to do? Ignore it?"

"I think you're a little presumptive. After all, it is your birthday, he was probably just being nice," she says. We argue more about it before I just let it go. She wasn't going to understand and I couldn't expect her too, she didn't see how he looked at me. She didn't see his eyes, full of desire and expectation. I needed to see him again and Wednesday was a long ways away.

It was 7:30 now and cars started arriving. In another 30 minutes, the entire Top would be filled. An STi pulled up and it's turbo whistled as it downshifted and parked. Mitch got out and he was immediately encircled by a group of guys. Charlie had a thing for him but a lot of girls did. It wasn't too hard after all, he made it easy. He was one of those guys that everyone seemed to love. He was a year-round athlete, popular, great looking, the usual list of cliche attributes, but he wasn't arrogant. I'll give him that. And to top it off, he wasn't dating anyone and he never had. He was a college-bound, success-driven valedictorian athlete and I may be the only girl in Puyallup High that doesn't have a massive crush on him. He was even a self-proclaimed virgin. Who does that? I don't know if he was religious but I have to imagine he was because no self-respecting guy would proclaim virginity as a virtue without religious conviction.