Rivals

White Shirts

OKAY HERE Y'ALL GO

It was the day before the start of my senior year. Because of this, it was my last day at my summer job. I think most people would want to say goodbye, but as soon as the clock struck 3 I might as well have run out of the building. I would've normally biked home at this point, but my step dad was giving me a ride and I needed to buy two white t shirts. 

The white shirt party was a new grad tradition, where the entire graduating class has a party the night before the first day, and everyone shows up wearing white shirts and everyone signs each other with sharpie. 

The plan was to buy two white t shirts from the thrift store - one for myself and one for Ivy - to wear that night, but as I turned to walk into the store I was hit with the realization that it was a national holiday and the thrift store wasn't open. Making a quick decision, I walked an extra minute to a clothing store and found the sale rack. Funnily enough - and no I'm not making this up - they had plain white t shirts on sale for $3.33. I grabbed one medium and one large shirt and got in line to pay. Once the man in front of me got to the cash register, he asked the clerk if he could exchange a few bills.

"Sorry, I can't open the register without someone making a cash purchase," the clerk said.

"I can pay with cash," I volunteered, stepping up to the counter with my t shirts in hand. I handed them to the cashier and grabbed a $20 from my wallet, telling the man that it was no problem for me. 

After getting my change and my shirts, I was heading for the door when I heard a familiar voice call my name. I turned to see Hannah waving at me from down an aisle, her mom beside her and a white shirt in her hand. We met between two clothing racks and talked for a minute.

"Buying yourself a white shirt, I see?"

She looked down at the shirt in her hand and laughed, "Yeah."

"Me too, I just bought two. One for me, one for Ivy."

"Ah, I see. Well I'm gonna go, my step dad is meeting me at the thrift store at quarter after," I said as I turned around. "I'll see you tonight!"

"Yeah, bye!" she said as I left the store.

I walked back to the thrift store and sat on the cement while I waited for my step dad, Mark, to pick me up.

"Have you been waiting long?" he called out the window of his dirty red truck at me. I must've looked really bored; my chin was snug in the palm of my hand, supported by the elbow I placed above my knee, and I hunched over with my headphones in to keep my terrible posture in check.

"Not long," I said while pulling the headphones out of my ears, the music quickly being replaced by wind and car tires.

"Oh, okay," he said as I opened the door of the running truck and hopped in. 

"Marcus," I greeted as I sat myself in the seat and released my bag to the floor in front of me.

"Elizabeth." As soon as the door was closed we sped off. 

"So.. what was this- this white shirt party again?"

"It's a grad tradition. All of the seniors show up the night before the first day wearing white t shirts, and they go around signing each others shirts."

"Will there be boys there?"

He'd been with my mom for two years now, but he lived in Hawaii. He visits often.

"It's the entire grad class," I said, implying the answer.

"So does that mean there will be boys?"

"Yes, there will be boys," I told him.

"You're not wearing that skirt, are you?" he said with a nod to my work uniform.

I looked down at my skirt and made a face. "No, I would never wear this skirt to a party."

"Okay good, because I know what boys think when they see girls in skirts like those, and I don't like it," he explained to me, and not for the first time.

"Good thing you're not wearing it then," I teased him with the same response I always gave when he criticized what I wore, which wasn't often and was never mean.

"Okay, okay," he laughed. "Just be careful."

"Yea, I know."

We drove to A&W so I could get myself breakfast at 3:30pm, because I hadn't packed myself a lunch for work and all I'd eaten was a snickers I bought from the front desk. He then dropped me off at Ivy's house.

She wasn't home yet, so while I waited I ate my A&W and talked with her parents. I'd been really close with Ivy's parents for a while, since I lived there for a month when things were a little hectic at my own house earlier that year.

When she got home, we put on our white shirts together. Ivy's mom Kendra was driving us to and from the party, and we weren't allowed to drink or do drugs because it was a school night (not that we would've been allowed to do drugs otherwise, but Kendra allows drinking in reasonably amounts). This just meant that we had to become good actors.