Jovial Memories

Chapter 14

            As Sunday evening rolled around, Mandy sat quietly in her father's car, watching as the gleam of snow reflected off his headlights. The only other lights that could be seen were those of cars from farther away.
            Mandy sighed and pressed her head against her hand, dreading returning to school the following day. Perhaps she dreaded even more seeing Roy and Iris again, after her somewhat positive feelings about the whole affair the other day. Could she actually be desiring some friendship? She hadn't thought she was that lonely.
            "You okay?" her father asked. "You haven't spoken a word the whole way home."
            'Tired," Mandy admitted.
            "Oh," he replied, nodding to himself.
            He pulled up to Mandy's mother's house moments later. Mandy crawled out of the car, shivering as cold winter wind brushed against her. She grabbed her belongings from her father's car and walked with him up the front porch, waiting patiently as she rang the doorbell.
            Her mother opened the door moments later and invited them inside, which Mandy thought odd. Usually Mandy's mother didn't dare let her father come past the front porch.
            "Bye, Dad. Thanks," Mandy called, heading upstairs to drop her belongings off. As she placed her things in her room, she could hear her mother and father talking quietly below.
            Even more peculiar, Mandy thought, seeing as they could barely speak to each other without fighting.
            She heard the door shut and her father's car pull away moments later. Shrugging it off, she threw on her pajamas and quickly unpacked her belongings, listening as her mother's footsteps came up the stairs.
            "Mandy," her mother called, knocking her door.
            "What?" Mandy wondered, having just crawled into bed.
            Her mother opened the door, a look of pleasure on her face. "Your father told me you went to some friend's house this weekend."
            "Oh, that," Mandy mumbled, glancing down. "Just schoolwork."
            "Was it the same boy that called earlier?" she asked.
            "Yes," Mandy replied. Upon seeing her mother's eyes widen in joy, Mandy snapped, "Stop it! It was just schoolwork, Mom! We were doing a group project. Odds are they'll never speak to me again."
            Her mother did not at all seem affected by these words. "Oh, well, okay. They can always come over here too," she said, shutting the door.
            Mandy groaned and slammed her head down against the pillow. For a few moments she laid like this, glancing up at her blank ceiling. She then glanced over at her Time Precedent, a desire growing in her.
            She supposed it wouldn't hurt to use it. It'd been awhile since she had.
            Crawling out of bed, she retrieved it from her drawer and shut the lights to her room, hoping her mother wouldn't say any last minute "good-nights." She then crawled into bed and entered the familiar year, watching as all last visions of her room faded.

Mandy sat curled up against Dustin and Jessie on Abby's couch. The lights were dim, and the only sound that could be heard was the crunching of popcorn and noise from the movie they were watching. They were having a movie night, just the three of them, and Mandy couldn't be happier, all her thoughts drifting away from Roy and Iris.
            Dustin's arm was wrapped around her, keeping her warm. Jessie sat beside her, a warm blanket curled around her knees. Mandy smiled and closed her eyes, taking in the moment. How she loved being with her true friends.
            If only all of this were real, Mandy thought, resting her head against Dustin's shoulder.
            "Oh, here's the best part!" Abby shouted.
            Mandy wasn't paying attention though. She was too caught up in the past, thinking of how she'd love if this had continued. But Jessie was dead, Dustin gone, Abby a traitor. That was the reality of it.
            Stop, Mandy told herself. You're ruining the moment.
            She let her negative thoughts come to a cease and instead tried to focus on the movie. It was some high school teenage movie that she couldn't care less about, though it wasn't like it mattered. Just being here with her friends was enough to satisfy her.
            Reaching for Jessie's hand, she grabbed it and squeezed it. Jessie smiled and did the same, letting go.
            "Anyone need more popcorn?" Abby offered.
            "I think we're good," Dustin answered for everyone. Mandy nodded.
            Abby nodded and rested back against the couch, her eyes focused on the movie with everyone else.
            As the movie came to an end, Mandy's eyes had grown saggy, and she found her eyelids growing heavy. Yawning, she stretched out her arms and stood up just as the ending credits began to roll down the screen.
            "Time to go?" Dustin asked.
            Mandy nodded. "I'm exhausted. Plus, I've got school tomorrow."
            Dustin nodded and stood up, kissing her softly. Mandy was glad it was dark in the room so he wouldn't see her blushing. She turned to Jessie, giving her a warm hug. She was grateful for the hugs they could share here.
            "See you soon," Jessie whispered, as if it wasn't even a possibility Mandy might not return.
            She then turned to Abby, giving her a quick hug too.
            "Thanks for coming," Abby called.
            Mandy nodded, grabbing her Time Precedent from her pocket. She pressed the familiar button and woke up, finding herself staring at her darkened ceiling. Grinning to herself, she placed the Time Precedent on her nightstand and shut her eyes, slowly falling asleep with jovial memories in her head of the recent event.
           

Mandy's alarm clock blared at her in the morning, causing Mandy to groan. She shut it off and hid the Time Precedent in its normal spot. She then proceeded to get ready for the morning, combing her long hair and braiding it down her back.
            When all that was done, she went down the steps and fixed herself a normal bowl of cereal for breakfast. It seemed her mother was still fast asleep, not wanting to rise on a Monday morning either.
            As Mandy finished her breakfast, she made her way to the front door.
            "Bye, Mom!" she called, hearing a half-grunting reply from up the stairs.
            She then stepped out into the winter snow, relieved to find that it had not snowed the night before. She hated walking through fresh powdered snow on Monday mornings.
            The walk to the bus was pleasant, and she arrived right on time. Even the ride to school wasn't horrific. It seemed Abby was sick for the day, allowing Mandy to enjoy a peaceful ride to school.
            Besides the fact the bus ride had gone well, Mandy still dreaded going to her classes. She fetched her things and was off, groaning as she realized English would be the first class of the day.
            Upon reaching her English classroom, she found Iris and Roy already at the front of the classroom, waiting to present.
            "I hope you don't mind," Iris said as Mandy put her things down, "But I volunteered for us to go first."
            "Not at all," Mandy muttered, refusing to make eye contact with her.
            "All right, settle down!" Mrs. Riggs called as the rest of the class came in. "To start us off on our presentations today, we have Iris Huang, Roy Dalton, and Amanda Wells presenting their project."
            Mandy awkwardly joined Roy and Iris up at the front as the class clapped unenthusiastically. Fortunately, it seemed Roy and Iris had already decided what they were going to say, leaving Mandy to stand awkwardly beside them as they went through each slide, thoroughly explaining facts and information.
            Upon reaching the end, Mrs. Riggs clapped with the rest of the class. "Great work, you three! Next we have..."
            Mandy only half-listened to what she said and took her seat.
            "Hey, that went well," Roy whispered.
            "Yeah," Mandy replied, turning away.
            "Good job," Iris spoke, patting Mandy on the back.
            Mandy rolled her eyes, sitting through the rest of the class bored out of her mind as her classmates went through their presentations.
            As English ended, Mandy headed to her other classes, soon finding it lunch. She made her way to her locker to exchange her books and take a seat, when Iris caught her arm.
            "Hey, I know you already declined, but are you sure you don't want to sit with us today?" Iris asked.
            Mandy opened her mouth to decline, then closed it. She sighed, semi-desiring to want to sit at an actual table.
            Not sure what enabled her to do it, she nodded slightly, watching Iris' face light up.
            "Great! This way!" Iris called, leading her out of the hallway and into the noisy cafeteria. Roy was seated at the back at a small table where two empty seats sat, specially reserved for them.
            "Hey, Mandy, you came!" Roy called, pulling out the plastic chair from the table for her.
            Mandy awkwardly took a seat and unpacked her lunch, remaining for the most part quiet as the lunch period passed by. Roy and Iris mostly just chatted among themselves, though they tried their hardest to bring Mandy into their conversation. Unfortunately, Mandy tried to keep conversation to a minimum.
            Before she knew it, lunch had ended. As Mandy packed up the rest of her things, Roy smiled and approached her.
            "Hey, you're welcome to sit with us tomorrow too," he told her.
            "Th-Thanks," Mandy stammered, glancing back at the two one last time before heading to her afternoon classes.
            Focusing in the rest of her classes posed an issue though, as she couldn't shake the feeling of acceptance and happiness she felt sitting with them. Perhaps she would sit with them tomorrow. Her attempts to end friendship didn't seem to be successful at all. Maybe it was best to just accept reality.
            As the day neared an end and Mandy came through her front door, her mother sat at the table, typing on her laptop.
            "Hey, how was school?" she asked, glancing up.
            Mandy paused. "Good," she decided and spoke in all honesty, heading up the steps.
            Maybe friendship wasn't such a bad idea.