 | |||||
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
||||
 |
 |
\\The Closet Chronicles: CH 02 Melissa Wouldn't Like That;The sun streamed in, annoyingly bright. It was too early, but Will Simmons’s alarm clock didn’t seem quite able to understand that concept. After a second he crawled out of bed and dug through his closet. He was just about to put on his favorite green shirt when his phone rang. He picked it up. “Hello?” “Hi!” Melissa Fox, his long-time girlfriend chirped. He could hear her smiling. “Hey. Is something wrong?” Wasn’t something always wrong? “No,” she replied. “Can’t I just call my most favorite guy in the whole world to say good morning?” “I- I guess.” Melissa pouted a little. “You know, you’re almost hurting my feelings. Don’t you miss me?” Will thought for a moment. No, he realized. He really didn’t. She had stayed at his house until about midnight the previous evening and then she called him as soon as she got home to say good night. They had stayed on the phone for almost an hour and a half before he finally got her to shut up. He had barely had any time to sleep it had seemed when the stupid alarm clock sounded. No, he told himself. I really don’t at all. But that was not what Melissa would want to hear so he shoved his own nauseous feeling aside and said, “Of course I did, sweetie.” “I missed you too!” Melissa was suddenly serious. “Will, darling, I need to ask you a huge favor.” “Yeah?” he asked absently, trying to keep the phone to his ear and pull his shirt on at the same time. “Can you please mmm mmmm mmmmm mm mm mmmm mm today?” Will started to say he hadn’t heard her, but Melissa would think he wasn’t paying attention so he just pretended. “Sure, babe. Anything for you.” “Thanks, sweetie! I’ll see you right out front of the school. I love you.” Her voice was like a sugarcoated spear diving viciously into his body repeatedly with a deadly vengeance. It was like that scene from Psycho where the guy goes crazy(ier) and the knife starts flashing in front of the camera. It was disturbing. But that wasn’t want Melissa would want him to think, so he stopped. Because she might, just MIGHT be able to tell he was having those kinds of thoughts about her. And Melissa would not like that. Oh, no, siree. “I love you, too.” Will waited for her to hang up the phone then pushed the button on his to turn it off. He grabbed a pair of jeans and put on his socks. There would be practice after school for the football team, so he also took his duffel bag full of gear and work out clothes and went down stairs. As he entered the dining room, his mother looked up and said, with a glazed twinkle in her eyes, “Good morning, William.” Nora Simmons seemed to be in a particularly good mood that morning. Of course, she was always in a good mood right after she took her sunshine pills and twiddled about in the kitchen. Her “sunshine pills”, as she called them, strangely resembled Quaaludes and acid. However much this bothered Will, he always told himself to look on the bright side. At least she was always happy. Eugene Simmons was quite another story, however. He was not happy. Eugene had always wanted to join the military, but, when he got to boot camp, he tripped over his drill sergeant while they were out in the field. He unfortunately fell into a ditch and broke his neck. Eugene never really got over the embarrassment and continued to insist that he had in fact been a Navy S.E.A.L. Mr. Simmons even led his troops to a glorious victory in the last world war. Well, he liked to say he did. And Will didn’t argue. “Good morning, Mother.” Will sat in his usual seat across the long table from the rest of his family. Corporal Simmons looked up. “A little late to the mess, aye? And did you leave the barracks disheveled, Private William?” “No, Corporal, sir,” he replied, eating his toast. “What about you, Sergeant? Are you responsible for the horrendous condition in which they were left?” “No, dear. Eat your pancakes.” Will looked at the heart-shaped pancakes with disdain. Why couldn’t he have normal parents? He stood up and got his book bag. “Bye, Mother. Bye, Corporal.” With that he darted out the door, grateful to get away from them. As least I have a normal girlfriend, he thought. He drove through the lovely upper class neighborhood, barely noticing the claws that were digging into his brain. Mom must have burnt the food again. It went away after a second and was forgotten. Maybe it’s a tumor, he thought randomly and began to chuckle. “We can only hope,” he muttered. As he pulled into the parking lot he noticed the marching band, in uniform sitting on the green front lawn. I didn’t think band started this early in the year, he mused to himself. Will climbed out of the car and immediately heard Melissa’s sweet, angelic voice, “Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiilllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” He suppressed a groan and turned in her direction as she came running towards him. “I missed you terribly, darling,” she said as she sprang up and kissed him on the cheek. Suddenly, she stepped back. “Will, you said you’d wear your blue shirt so we could match today!” she whined. “I did?” “Yes. This morning on the phone. You promised!” “Sorry?” Melissa crossed her arms over her chest and turned her back to him. “I can’t believe you lied to me.” “I’m sorry,” Will pleaded. “I- I was in a hurry. I’ll never do it again. Promise. Do you want me to wear it tomorrow?” “Now how much sense would that make?” Melissa snapped, turning around. “I’m wearing my blue dress TODAY!” “I love you,” he replied meekly. “I know. Why don’t I go home and change? I’ll be late for first bell, but oh well.” “Never mind,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You are so pathetic.” “Yes, Melissa.” “Where were we?” she asked absently. “Oh, yes.” She suddenly began to smile and hop up and down. “I missed you,” she squealed again. “We just talked on the phone,” he said dryly. Melissa began to pout. “You didn’t miss me?” “Of course I did,” he said quickly, hugging her reassuringly. “I always miss you.” Melissa smiled and bounced up to kiss him on the cheek once again. “I always miss you, too,” she squealed. Will just smiled. “We’ll be late if we don’t go in now.” Melissa nodded. “Okay-“ She started to say something else, but stopped. “Will?” “Yeah, Melissa?” “How come the Sweet Valley marching band starts so much earlier than the El Carro band did?” Will paused for a moment, searching for an answer to enlighten his sweet little birds mind, but found none. “You know, Melissa, I really don’t know.” Melissa shrugged and grabbed his waist in a death grip and dragged him up the stairs. Once inside, a puzzled Will spotted a short girl with puffy brown hair and gray eyes. She looked like she hadn’t slept in a while, but of course, didn’t they all? “Excuse me, why is the marching band out on the front lawn?” “Oh, them? They’re just here to welcome Todd.” “Oh.” “Todd who?” Melissa asked. Suddenly everything stopped, all talking ceased, and no one seemed to breathe. Will could feel dozens of eyes trained on him and Melissa. The short girl sneered. “Where are you from?” “We’re from El Carro. You know, the whole earthquake thing?” “Oh. Well, Todd’s just our school athlete.” “Doesn’t your school have more then one athlete?” Will asked, confused. “Well, I guess there must be if we have teams.” Suddenly someone ran up to the girl. “Enid! You’ll never guess what happened.” “What?” “Todd quit the soccer team!” “He did?” “And that’s not all! He also quit the swim team, and the hockey team, and the lacrosse team, and the basketball team, and the baseball team, and the tennis team, and the gymnastics team, and the golf team, and- you’ll never believe this one- the squash team!” “Oh my God, you’re joking!” She must be, Will thought. Nobody can play that many sports. “He’s still on the football team.” “Yeah,” Enid said pointedly, “But he quit the squash team.” “True.” “Todd loves squash,” Enid said passionately. “Why would he quit?” “I don’t know-“ The two girls began to walk away as they chattered. “Are you sure you don’t want me to change my shirt?” he asked. “Will, go away.” “Yes, Melissa.” He started down the hall in the opposite direction from which he had been going. She’s mean to me, isn’t she?
|
 |
||
 |
|
 |
|||
 |
|||||
