Chapter 7
(Day 24)I didn’t want to go home and face my parents and my friends at church and tell them what I had done to Phillip, or hear their opinion about me. Facing Mandy had been hard enough. But she got over it and stood beside me, as a friend should. But church was different. These people could gossip like nothing else and still feel holy. All the younger girls would stare accusingly and I could do nothing to stop them. We also have to make the pilgrimage up to Oklahoma City to my grandparent’s house. The opposite of fun…and it was hot even in the dead of winter. I hated going there because every waking second had to be spent in the house stuck in the back room reading or listening to CDs. My two grandmothers duked it out because they both think Thanksgiving is the best holiday for family. My mean OK grandmother won. Only because my grandfather is dying and probably won’t make it to Christmas. I really don’t want to go because of that fact. I hate dying people and he’s so frail that I ache everytime I see him. It wounds me and we have to step around on pins and needles making sure he isn’t active. Wasting away in his brown corderoy recliner when he should be caring for little projects he loves out in the garage. I know I’ll regret not going one day when he’s dead, but I can’t take it. We spent part of the summer there and I was depressed everyday. So I complained to Taylor when he was talking about what they did over Thanksgiving.
”Maybe you’ll have a better Thanksgiving than you think. Maybe something special will surprise you. Besides you don’t even have a ticket yet. You’ll have to fly stand by and that may not even work.”
“Ok fine. I’ll think positivly. It’s just so hard when family time sounds like the impending doom and not the three tests I have this week. It’s usually switched. But you’re right I have to concentrate on meeting my doom before history of the modernist period, cubism v. impressionism and advanced chemistry.”
“That’s my girl. Ugh that sounded like my grandfather.” Collective laughing ensued. I’ve just got to get through this week one day at a time and one IM from my parents at a time…thank goodness for the blocking property. We started to study for tests and such.
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I stayed up all night studying. I didn’t realize it until dawn crept onto our window and strained it’s way through a crack in the blackout curtains. The liquid amber spilled it’s way on my creased pages and my alarm clock started beeping annoyingly loud. There I was still on the floor like the night before where Taylor left me at 12. The tests were tomorrow, but I would have other homework tonight. I didn’t mean to stay up all night, but after 3 coffees and a Dr. Pepper you tend to run on unearthly amounts of adrhenaline like energy. I was wiped though and I wanted to climb right back into bed. No such luck, we both had that awful freshmen induced 8 o’clock class. At least we didn’t have Algebra tests this week. That was one breath of fresh air. Taylor rolled over and peered out from under his covers at me. He squinted his eyes at the clock and then at me.
“I stayed up all night. But I didn’t mean to. I just now realized when the sun started coming through the curtains.”
“Sun actually comes through? We got those so it wouldn’t. You shouldn’t have stayed up that long though. Now you’re going to fall asleep during math class.”
“Please don’t give me a lecture, just let me wash my face and drink some more soda. I’ll be fine then I’ll crash for a couple of hours. I don’t have any other class today. Then I can study more.”
“I just hope I don’t have to wake you up and find a nice drool mark on your desk.”
“ I don’t drool. I won’t fall asleep either. I’ve lasted a whole day without sleep, granted I was cranky, but a couple hours shouldn’t kill me now.” (Day 25)I changed clothes and pulled back my hair then gulped the coffee Taylor put on and grabbed a Dr. Pepper and a banana before heading out the door. Bananas seem to have this great pepping power and it was interesting to watch Taylor’s expressions as I told him why Dr. Pepper and banana’s go so well together. The truth is that they tasted pretty nasty, but teasing him was fun because he had a weaker stomach than I did.
We trudged along in the whipping wind and driving cold. I wasn’t used to November being as cold as it was in January in Texas. I bundled from head to toe while others just wore lightweight jackets. Taylor was affected too because he wore the heaviest jacket his manly pride would afford him. Even when we were just walking and not really doing much of anything he always had this serene look upon his face. His brothers were that way too. No glimpse of emotion at all and as hard as I tried my face was always a bulliten board for my emotions. So I smiled, hopefully my tierdness wont show through…but I probably look like death warmed over. I fought the urge to yawn as we clomped up the stairs to Algebra. We slid into our seats and I began to empty out my bag for class.
“Good morning class. Today we will continue learning about absolutes and variables in conjunction…” I started to shorthand everything and hope that his hands and mouth would slow down to my speed. Of course this class would be the milestone of the day. I shook my head and kept on writing. Then I started thinking about how much our teacher’s hair resembled a toupee and lost track of time.
Taylor brought me back into reality,”Uh Melissa class is over. You can borrow my notes since you don’t seem to have taken many. I guess you can fall asleep and not actually close your eyes. Now that is talent.”
“Ahhh. I can’t believe I did that. Its so important that I understand this stuff and now…”
“Don’t worry. Besides this is our last class of Algebra until after Thanksgiving. I can help you after your tests are out of the way.”
“If I make I through the rest of this week you can congradulate me. And buy me a slice of cake.”
“Maybe you’ll get something better than that.”
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So for the rest of the day I rested and studied my butt off. Well not literaly but you know. I got the recommended hours of sleep and woke up feeling refreshed. But real refreshment wouldn’t come until I had finished all my tests. So one by one they were taken. I surprised myself and actually remembered the stuff…I’m an awful test taker, but I think I did really well.

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