Summer Fun - Danielle Armstrong

Chapter One: The Life of a Tomboy (Part 1)

Finally, another school year is over and at last it's summer. I have been looking forward to sleeping in and hanging out with my best friends all year long. During the school year, I don't get to see my best friends outside of school and the weekends due to my busy schedule. My life consists of school all day and dance classes every weeknight, meaning that I have very little spare time. I love dance and I have dance friends, but I look forward to getting a bit of a break from it all during the summer. Plus, my best friends are boys that don't dance, although seeing them in a ballet class would be hilarious and I'd probably die from laughter. On top off all that I have homework that I actually do, unlike most of my friends. If I have time on the weekends, I help my brother, Davey, and my best friend, Tommy 'Eats or Eatsy' Eaton, with their homework. My brother is pretty good about doing his own homework, however he sometimes falls behind. Whereas Tommy always slacks off, even though I'm there pushing him. He slacks off during the week when I'm not there to help him and then we have to play catch up on the weekends. As if I don't have anything better to do on my weekends. Our friend Curtis Farraday attempts to help when I can't, except Tommy is very good at distracting Farraday from the task at hand and Farraday isn't as stringent as I am. I have caught Tommy convincing Farraday to just do the work for him. I've scolded both of them and told them they'd get caught. Tommy had really sloppy and hard to read handwriting, while Farraday and I have really neat writing. You can definitely tell the differences between our writing, thus why I know they'll get caught.

If I get into college, Tommy's gotta come with me because I don't think I could do it without him. It's not that he's dumb or doesn't understand the material, he's just unmotivated and a bit lazy. That or he's trying to be too cool to impress a girl . Tommy is the flirtatious bad boy of our group. In public Tommy is a flirtatious, pervy, asshole of a hoodlum, but when it's just us he's still all that, except we know he's joking and there's more behind his 'bad' exterior. When it's just him and I though, he let's me see the nice, thoughtful, caring, and kind side of him that no one else gets to see. He has black hair, wears mostly all black, and often wears his leather jacket. He hides his true self from everyone else, except for the four of us because he feels like he can't trust anyone. His parents fight often, when I mean fight I mean physically with each other and their sons. Tommy has been beaten more times than I care to count and I've looked after him every single time. I want to help him get away from his awful parents, only I don't know how to. If I tell my parents what's going on, Tommy will think I betrayed him and what if someone comes to take him away. I wouldn't be able to live without him, he's my best friend and I've been secretly in love with him for awhile.

Yeah, yeah, I know it's very cliche that the female best friend like the bad boy, only I can't help it. Everything about him makes me tingle and I've tried to like other boys, nevertheless, I just can't stop feeling this way about him. I haven't told anyone about my crush on Tommy, even my brother because I don't think anyone would understand or approve and I don't want to ruin our friendships. Also, I know that Tommy doesn't like me back in the same way by the amount of times he talks about other girls. I just hate hearing him talk about or seeing him hit on other girls. Every time he does, it's like a little part of my hear chips away.

My poor brother won't be sleeping in this summer, thanks to his paper route. If I wake up early enough then I'd go with him on our bikes, but my bike broke last month and my dad hasn't had time to fix it. We live in a roundabout cal-de-sac and thankfully my three best friends live nearby. Tommy lives across the street, Farraday is a few houses down from his, and Woody is a house over from mine. Farraday is a ginger that wears glasses, and is extremely smart. Honestly, I think he might be smarter than me, although I'd never tell him that. Everyday we try to outdo each other by coming up with long ass words. Tommy always calls us nerds and tells us that we need to get lives. Farraday is also uncharacteristically confident for the nerd of our group. He's also a bit of a perv, yet I know he's had no experience to back up his mouth. Then last but never least is Dale 'Woody' Woodworth, who is the biggest teddy bear. Davey and him are best friends. He's the chubby one of the group and he's pervy too, but he's way too shy to go talk to a girl. I feel bad for him too, his mom is struggling with coping with the death of Woody's father and I know she drinks a lot of alcohol. Which is why I feel bad for Woody because he has to take care of her all the time and it's a lot of pressure for him. On the really bad days, I'll go over and help him with the house chores.

Over the last year, I've noticed that all the boys have developed a weird obsession with sex and their pretty vocal about it too, must be a male teenager thing. I've honestly thought about it, but I don't think I'm ready for it. We are only fifteen, so I think we have lots of time and I don't necessarily want to talk to them about it. It was really awkward because my twin brother's there and I think he's uncomfortable with it too. Anyways, by now I'm used to it and I've gotten pretty good at blocking most of it out. Except when Tommy says something, which is completely because of my crush on him and my ears perk up when he talks. Like yeah, I've masturbated a few times, I just don;t need to talk about that stuff. Then lastly there's me, the tomboy and only girl of the group. I do wear a tiny amount of makeup, which includes mascara, eyeliner, and maybe blush, however I think anything more would be excessive. I would take shorts and pants over a skirt or dress any day. Comfortability is very important to me and I don't think I'd be comfortable with a guy staring at me like a piece of meat in a dress.