"Danielle? Time to wake up," my father yelled down the hallway. It was the way he woke me up; it wasn't very effective.
My mom used to be the one who woke me up in the mornings, but now that my parents were divorced, my dad had to do it. I guess the obvious thing to do would be to set an alarm, but that wouldn't work because I would just get annoyed with it and shut it off...indefinitely. So waking me up was my dad's job now.
"Danielle!" he called again.
Oh, just get up, lazy ass,
I told myself.
Fifteen minutes later, I was walking out of the small, one-story house. My father followed behind me, locking the door once it closed. I got into his car, waiting for him to drive me to school.
Baxton High School was about five miles away. I was in the area of town that all the "nobodies" lived. Which, in turn, made me a nobody. Anyone who lived close to the school was obviously richer and more popular. I wish it could be different, but since the divorce left my father with almost nothing, there was nothing I could do about it.
When my dad got into the car and started driving, he started talking to me. Normally, I just tuned him out. But today was different.
He started off by saying, "Danny, honey, I'm getting married."
Wait, WHAT?!
"How could you possibly be getting married, Dad?" I asked. "You haven't even dated anyone in three years!"
He and my mom had split my freshmen year. Now I was a senior, and nowhere in that time frame was there any other woman in my father's life.
"I know it's a little shocking," he said while stopping at a red light. "But I have dated some people. And I really love this woman. We've been seeing each other for about a year now, and I proposed spontaneously a couple days ago."
This was shocking alright. I had no idea! "Why didn't you tell me before now?"
"There was just never the right time..." he said.
Lame excuse, Dad.
"There hasn't been the right chance? For a year?! How do you not find the time to tell your daughter, who you see every day, about a woman who you are getting married to?! Huh?" I nearly screamed. He had started driving again, and I could see his hands shaking on the steering wheel.
"I know I should have told you earlier."
You think?
"But, honestly, I didn't know how. It was so complicated in the beginning and when all the things started to work out in the relationship, I was just caught up thinking that I might jinx it. But all that matters is that you know now, right?"
We were getting closer to the school, and I knew I needed to calm down before I actually got there, or else I might do something embarrassing. I could be caught yelling at my dad (even talking to him was social suicide) or I might be so angry that I walk around practicing how I could yell at him later and people would think I was yelling at 'voices' or something. So, I decided to change the subject. "I heard there's a seventy percent chance of rain today. How about that?"
My dad knew that whenever I started to talk about weather, I was getting too worked up over something, and might have a nervous breakdown. So he went along with it.
"Yes. A little rain would be nice."
We were both quiet for the rest of the ride to the school. It was an awkward silence.
As my dad dropped me off, I heard the bell for first period ring.
Shit.
I had five minutes to get to English, and Mrs. Vence would chop one of my fingers off if I was late. I ran across campus; I made it just in time, and out of breath.
<><><>
When the bell rang for lunch, I was reluctant to leave Government class. I wasn't in the mood to eat today. Plus there was the fact that I was quite the loner, and with no one to go to lunch with and no one to eat with, there wasn't much pushing me to leave the nice, warm classroom too quickly.
But I had to leave at some point, so I did. I went straight to the vending machine and bought myself a bag of chips and a bag of cookies, a very nutritious and delicious lunch.
Looking at the lunch tables in the cafeteria, it was obvious who was someone and who lived even further away from the school than I did. At the innermost table sat the 'populars'. They were the cheerleaders, the jocks, and all the rest of the beautiful people who lived in beautiful houses. In the circle outside of that were all the second-tier students, which included the most of the upper-middle class. Then came the math geeks and science nerds (who only sat that close because they did the populars' homework and let them cheat off their tests). After that were the wanna-be's tables. And the outermost tables held all the stoners, loners, and losers.
People like me didn't really belong anywhere. So most of the times I just ate in the bathroom. Sad, I know; I practically had a reserved stall. But at least I had my lunch time to myself to think.
However, today, all I could think about was this morning. My dad was getting married.
Questions filled my head. When? Where? To who? Who's going to be there? Will I have step-siblings? How long will it last this time?
It occurred to me then that I didn't know anything about my father's life. Had he talked about meeting someone at work? Did he mention anything about finding a woman online? When had he had time for dates? I was truly blind.
<><><>
Working late. Walk home. – Dad
There were two things wrong with this text message. One, I was going to have to walk home. Two, my dad was texting me!
It was twenty minutes before the last bell, so I was in Study Hall. Which meant that I could sneak a text back to my dad. (How lame is that? I text in class: to my own father!)
OK.
Okay, speaking of lame... That was the text I 'snuck' in class? I needed to get a life.
The remaining minutes ticked by painfully slow, but finally the bell rang, and I was released. Now I got to walk five miles home.
Yay.
The shortest way to get back to my house was to go through the student parking lot and through the surrounding neighborhoods. However, that route would be full of danger (not to mention mocking of my social status). But I didn't feel in the mood for a long walk today.
As I walked out of the gates near the parking lot, then past a couple of houses, I started to realize the sky was darkening...quickly.
Then, suddenly, it was raining. And it wasn't just the light sprinkling turning into the big rain drops kind of rain, it was the amazingly hard, fast, and windy kind of rain.
Shit.
I pulled up my hood and started walking along the sidewalk all hunched up, trying to avoid the rain as much as possible.
Shit, shit, shit.
It was then that I heard a car horn. I didn't look up at first, thinking it had nothing to do with me. But after a couple more beeps, I looked to my side and found a shiny, silver, expensive-looking car slowly following me. It definitely wasn't my father's vehicle.
I stopped walking and turned, squinting, trying to see who was in the car. When the window started to roll down, I saw Kevin Dermit looking at my now soaking wet...well, everything.
"Hey, need a ride?" he asked.
Did he just ask me, Danielle Nobody, for a ride? In his car? ... It had to be a trick; he sat in the middle of the cafeteria. I would say yes, and then he would say something like, "Maybe you should find one!" and drive off, while purposely splashing me with the growing puddle on the side of the rode. I could just see it.
"No thank you," I answered, shivering.
He gave me a funny look, then asked, "Are you sure?" I would categorize his tone as sincere, although he could have had a lot of practice at this pranking business.
"Yes."
I had turned and continued walking. The car kept following me, inching along.
Then Kevin said, "Come on. Get in. You'll catch a cold."
I turned and tried to give him a look that conveyed my feelings towards this little joke. But when I looked at his expression, I thought it looked more than just fake-sincere.
I did a quick mental debate while standing in the rain. The just-get-in-the-car side won.
I opened the door handle, and then stared at the drops of water attached to me start to fall off onto the nice leather seats. I read somewhere once that water kills leather (or something along those lines), so I immediately thought Kevin (a POPULAR kid!) would tell me to get back out and never go near his very,
very
expensive car again.
Instead he said, "Hurry up, get in. I don't want it to rain too much in my car."
I half jumped into the seat, wanting to please him, and shut the door. Suddenly the noise of the rain and other cars and students leaving the school disappeared. His car was extremely quiet on the inside. It was also warm.
"So, where do I need to take you?" he asked.
Only then did I understand that he would have to know where I lived for me to get home. And if he knew where I lived, he would know how much of a nobody I was. I wasn't even sure that he'd drive me home if I told him where I lived. Well, at least I got to warm up for half a minute.
Without even answering I started to open the door again.
"Hey, wait! Why are you leaving?"
With my hand on the door handle, I looked back at him. "What do you mean?"
He laughed. It was a really nice laugh. It was deep, but not too deep. The smile that went along with it was nice too; all straight teeth and luscious lips. "I'm offering you a ride home. That means you stay in the car and I will take you home. You don't leave before it gets to your house..." Kevin ended with another laugh. I wasn't sure if I was swooning or not.
"I don't know if you want to drive me all the way home. It's kind of far away," I told him.
"I bet it's not too far." He smiled at me again, and I took my hand off the handle.
"It's about five miles down the road, off of Greenway on Cherry Lane," I said hesitantly. He looked at me for a minute, probably seeing that I was not on his level (socially, that is). I could almost feel him telling me to get out. I almost believed it was real too, until he gave me another smile.
"Okay, just tell me where to turn."
