happy go lucky

angelina

Noah

I pulled my hair out my face, my hair was getting long. I definitely needed some sort of haircut. My curls were starting to take over. I heard the beeps of the microwave from downstairs. Pop-Tarts. I quickly threw my books into my backpack and pushed it down the stairs. The backpack made a huge bang when it crashed to the floor. "NOAH!" my mom yelled from the kitchen, startled. She hated it when I did that.

I ran down the stairs after my backpack and kicked it towards the front door. "Why are you always abusing that backpack? One day it's going to explode." Mom complained.

"That's the goal," I snickered opening the microwave and devouring the Pop-Tart. "Where are my keys?" I asked looking around. After a minute of laughing at me looking, Mom handed them to me. "Thanks," I said, a little embarrassed.

"Are you sure you wanna be driving that car in the winter? I know you love it, but it's old. What if it breaks down?" Mom asked.

"It'll be fine. Plus, Dad said that he is going to fix it up after school today." I told her. I glanced at the clock. "I got to go, I'll see you later?" I called running out the door.

"Good luck, today!"

Stevie

"Oh, come on!" Jenna said.

"No, Jenna. There's no way!" I laughed.

"Please!" Jenna pouted.

"There's no way in hell!" I said. Jenna looked around and pulled Noah from a group of guys. He entered our conversation, seeming very confused. "Let him get back to his friends," I said.

"No, he can help!"

"How can I help?" Noah asked, still confused.

"I wanna go to the snowboarding trip, but Stevie won't come! Tell her she's being a wuss." Jenna whined.

"Snowboarding?" Noah said.

"I'm not snowboarding! And I'm not letting her snowboard either. Everyone either gets hurt or gets drunk on those trips." I said.

"Why are you such a mom?" Jenna complained.

"Oh, believe me. I already signed all of us up." Noah pulled out his phone and scrolling through his photos. He landed on a picture and showed it to Jenna and me. The bucket list. "Number three. Do something that scares the crap out of you."

"You signed us up?" I yelled. Kids turned around and looked at me like I was crazy. I calmed myself down. Inhale. Exhale. "You signed us up?" I whispered.

"Sure did! We leave Friday night." Noah smiled. Shit. I couldn't be mad at him. How could I ever be mad at him? Dang, it. I looked at Jenna. She was smiling real big.

"Told you he'd be a big help!" Jenna laughed. I rolled my eyes with a grin.

Noah

"Bus leaves after school on Friday. It takes about four hours to get there. The next day we have instructional classes and then we head to the slopes! We leave Sunday night after dinner. Please take home this permission slip and have your parents sign it as soon as possible. You also need to bring in fifty dollars to my classroom mailbox by Friday. All equipment, housing, and meals will be provided for you." Mrs. Perry explained. She was a little too excited. I looked across the room to Stevie. She gave me a death stare. I stuck my tongue out at her. She rolled her brown eyes.

"Are you going to hit that this weekend?" Jared whispered making a kissy face.

"You're disgusting. Shut up, Jared." I replied smacking him in the back of the head.

"Come up to the front and pick up the forms. Email me with any questions!" Mrs. Perry said. Students rushed to the front desk and scrambled out of the room. As I was leaving, I heard someone call my name.

"Yo, Noah?" Jenna said.

"What's up?" I asked turning around. Jenna looked, making sure the classroom was empty.

"Are you sure you're allowed to go on this trip? You know with your disease?" Jenna asked.

"I'm losing my hearing, I'm not handicapped!" I laughed. Why did she care what I do?

"Have you told Stevie yet?" Jenna asked. She was definitely on to me.

"Of course I have!" I lied. I acted as if I had taken offense to it. Jenna started at me. She definitely didn't believe me. Yet, she walked away and let me off the hook. I exhaled. That was close.

-----

"How's the car doing?" I asked walking into Dad's garage.

"Her name's Angelina. And how did you get here?" Dad laughed.

"I walked," I shrugged.

"I could've picked you up,"

"I know but that ruins the element of surprise," I said touching everything I could in the garage. I pet what looked like a stuffed giraffe. It looked like it had been run over by a car or something. "What's this?" I asked.

"Gabe the giraffe," he answered shortly. "I dropped him out of a helicopter in Uganda." Everything in that garage always had some sort of crazy story. It was all so cool. "Angelina's doing well. I decided to switch out a few of her parts, give her a newer paint job, and I fixed the windshield wipers," he reported.

"How much do you want for it? I've got fifty dollars on me... I can drop off the rest tomorrow." I said counting the change I had in my pocket.

"Noah, I'm your dad. No charge... You still hang out with that kid?" Dad asked.

"Cody?" I questioned admiring the pictures on the wall. Dad always took pictures of landscapes. He never took any portraits. And despite the hundreds of pictures on his wall, I have never seen his camera pointed at me.

"Yeah, I always thought that it was funny that a black kid had a name like that," Dad laughed. "He has to be the only black boy with the name Cody,"

"Yeah, we start baseball preseason soon," I said trying to change the subject.

"Has he gotten you into any trouble yet?" Dad laughed.

"More like the other way around," I grinned awkwardly.

"Yeah, I have an early flight to catch in the morning," he said opening the garage door. I started up the car.

"Bye, Dad!" I shouted with no response. He was already in the house.

Stevie

"I heard you're going on that snowboarding trip," Annie told me. We had been on the phone for at least two hours doing a science project. "You know what goes on at those trips, right?" she asked.

"Snowboarding?" I asked.

"That's where couples hook up," Annie gossiped. "No offense, but do you even snowboard?"

"No, a friend invited me." I shrugged.

"Who's the guy?" Annie asked.

"Why do you think it's a guy?"

"If it were a girl, you would've mentioned who," she said. "Is it that guy, Noah?"

"Yeah,"

"I'd be careful, he's probably trying to hookup or something," Annie said.

"I don't think so," I laughed. "Noah's not like that,"

"All guys are like that," Annie sighed.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Q: Who's your least favorite character?