Staccato Bursts

Part Three: My Willy Wonka

Last night was crazy. Nothing bland ever happens as long as Candy’s around. Well, sure, not a lot of the things she does are considered as appropriate but she has made me do things I’d never think of. Last night, we harassed Brian Zane. I have to admit, I kinda felt sorry for him. I still have no idea on what Candy plans on doing with his risqué photo.

Today is a Friday, usually every teenager’s favorite day because 1. it’s followed by the weekends and 2. on Fridays, it’s porkchop day in the cafeteria.

I went to Shop Class a little late today. I recently set my alarm tone to my favorite song by The Cure and it made me feel more sleepy than determined to wake up this morning. Dave was already sitting there, this time he wasn’t wearing his blue hoodie. He was in a plaid button-down shirt, and some rugged jeans. He seemed to be already looking at me when I entered the room, with his fist on his chin and eyebrows arched, trying to look jokingly condescending. I made my way to our desk, which was at the very back of the room.

        "Look who’s late today.", he said, pointing at my shirt which I have missed to completely button.

        “Crap.”, I said. I buttoned my blouse trying to hide it from the all-male classroom.

        “Remind me to change my alarm tone, would ya?”, I added.

        “That’s fine. Mr. Chopart isn’t even in yet. You shouldn't worry”, he said.

I didn’t know what to think. Should I be thankful that he pointed out my blouse or be appalled that he was looking at my chest in the first place? Aside from that, Dave is adorable. I wanna punch his face. He also smells like a marshmallow. He wasn’t the super tall, super model type of attractive, but his face in whatever angle lights up the room.

Mr. Chopart arrived a couple of minutes after I did. He gave us a lecture before we officially start our hands-on shop work. He said stuff about how physics is involved in simple machinery, which is what we’ll be working on until our finals. He also said a bunch of stuff about types of wood, metal, rubber, and all that crap.

I was staring blankly outside the window when Dave nudged me and slid over a ripped page from a notebook. The words “I’m bored. xx” were written on it. I looked at him and he gave me a puppy-dog look. I didn’t even know that boys had the right to make the puppy-dog face. I giggled a little and hid the paper as I tried to doodle something to make him laugh.

Mr. Chopart was a bald guy with huge glasses and a mustache that barely looks like a mustache. I doodled his face on the paper with his head larger than his body. I laughed a little before folding the piece of paper and handing it to Dave below our desk. He opened the paper and laughed out loud. I was worried that Mr. Chopart would catch us making caricatures of his sorry face but he gave us an early dismissal.

Since we had more than a half-hour before our next class, Dave and I decided to kill time.

        “I have an idea.”, Dave said, with a mischievous look on his face.

        “Follow me.”, he said.

He took me to the school’s auditorium which was empty and dark. He felt around the wall to turn on a light switch and dim lights began to turn on around the walls, just enough for us to see where we were walking. I didn’t ask any questions, I just followed him.

        “Let’s go backstage.”, he said.

The backstage was a little far from the entrance of the auditorium so we had to walk the “runway” in between the columns of chairs. I would usually have rapist and murderer thoughts when a guy I barely know would take me backstage of an empty auditorium at a time when most of the students are in class, but I didn’t. Sure, he looked at my chest this morning, but I trust the guy.