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happychemist
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Words: 2,046
Morale: 7/10
Jackie was twenty-minutes later for her lunch date with Carrie, but it had to be understood that she had been caught up with a letter she’d just discovered at the library.
Carrie didn’t seem to notice.
Come to think of it, Carrie didn’t seem to notice anything.
She had absently replied to Jackie’s questions and statements.
“Anything wrong?” Jackie asked, taking a sip of her diet Pepsi.
“No,” Carrie said in a tone that clearly indicated that there was something wrong. “Why do you ask?”
Jackie raised her eyebrow in query, but her friend remained strongly in her conviction that nothing was wrong, so Jackie changed the subject to her date with Michael Pendleton III the other night.
Determined to push herself beyond the Incident, Carrie concentrated on her friend’s commentary.
“Sounds like you had a great time...” Carrie commented.
“Yes, I did. I had a really fabulous time. Michael is absolutely wonderful, Carrie. I love being around him. He’s so smart and charming and fun. I just...I feel perfect when I’m with him.”
“That’s good...” Carrie said carefully.
Jackie looked at her friend with surprise. “That’s it? ‘That’s good?’”
Carrie shifted in her seat uncomfortably. “Well, I acknowledge that I’m not really one to talk or understand your situation, but are you sure that you’re supposed to feel perfect with your soulmate?”
“Yes,” Jackie said without a doubt.
Carrie shifted in her seat quietly.
“You obviously don’t agree.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Carrie shrugged. “I don’t agree but can’t offer anything better. As we both know, I don’t really do the love thing.”
Jackie laughed. “The love thing? You make it sound like a disease...”
It is... Carrie shuddered. Not that she’d ever fallen in love. But why would anybody want to put one’s dreams and hopes at the mercy of another when one was so perfectly capable of achieving other, even more noble goals?
And Noble goals did not include finding away to make out with Josh Brenner again.
“I’m just not interested. Never have been,” Carrie said with certainty.
“And yet you’re planning to get married,” Jackie pointed out.
“Yes, I am. So?”
Jackie whistled through her teeth. “Ok. We’re obviously not going to agree on this one.”
“We never have...” Carrie replied with a wry smile.
“Touche,” Jackie toasted Carrie with her soda before taking another sip.
They dined in silence for three minutes before Carrie gave in. “Come on, tell me what else is so perfect about this guy.”
Michael Pendleton III was a pain in the ass, and Greg could not understand why the hell Jackie Davenport, an intelligent, perceptive (albeit misguided) woman would fall for his crock of bull.
He pushed the lawnmower through the Indian summer heat.
He paid no heed to the heat, the humidity, the lack of wind, or his growing thirst.
He was in a bad mood. He’d been in one for quite some time now.
Even more so because Jackie Davenport was still in his head, and he had been unable to push her out for the last forty-eight hours.
Not for lack of trying.
Why was she still in his head? He’d always been able to completely ignore her before.
But this summer, she’d just stormed back home and into his thoughts.
And would not leave this time.
He told himself it was because he was fascinated by the fact that she was still so delusional about her heavenly City life. That she hadn’t woken up.
But it was more than that.
His reflections had been tinged with disappointment.
But none of her utterances or actions were half as disappointing as her taking up with Michael Pendleton III.
It wasn’t any of his business, of course.
As if his thoughts conjured them up, the evil pair drove up in Pendleton’s silver BMW next door. He only briefly looked up and would have not paid any attention had Pendleton not summoned him over.
Summoned.
He was hot and sweaty. He realized now that his muscles ached with working too hard on his craft and on his yard. All he wanted was to go into his house and take a shower.
Not one to disappoint, he crossed the lawn.
“Afternoon,” he said tersely.
“Greg, just wanted to thank you again for introducing us...” Michael smiled.
Greg wasn’t sure, but he thought he could see a bit of smugness in the preppy snot’s smile. His hands itched to do something.
But instead, he simply shrugged and carelessly replied. “No problem.”
Was there a test? Greg sensed that he was being tested. Jackie was oblivious to it, but it was on a frequency that only men could feel. The tension, the competitive edge.
Pendleton loved to have what other men couldn’t have, and had to asses the desirability of his commodity often.
Greg settled his eyes on Jackie’s cheerful pink sundress, took in the creamy consistency of her skin that looked dying to be touched, her sexy mouth.
He wasn’t oblivious.
But Pendleton didn’t know that Jackie, while being deliciously sexy, was not at all attractive to him.
Not anymore, at any rate.
“Anyhow, I have to get going, darling,” Michael turned to his trophy.
Jackie pouted prettily. “When will I see you again?”
“I’ll be back next weekend. Maybe the weekend after we can go to Chicago?”
Greg couldn’t explain why he gritted his teeth when she sparkled over the name of the city.
“I’d love to!”
“Great. I’ll see you next weekend, then,” he said, with a kiss that had Greg turning away, walking towards his lawnmower.
He heard the car back out the driveway and zip down the street.
Upon turning around, he was surprised to see Jackie standing on the driveway still. Still more surprising, she walked towards him.
Jackie’s eyes wandered over the sweat-drenched T-shirt. “As I recall, you used to mow the lawn shirtless.”
He smiled slowly back. “You noticed?”
“Every woman noticed...” Jackie smiled.
The sexy smile flipped his stomach.
Oh, he wasn’t oblivious at all.
Why didn’t she just go away?
“Did you get chubby over the years? Any devastating scars to the perfect physique?” she joked.
How was he to answer that? “No,” he replied. “I’d like to talk, but I have to do your lawn too and I want to finish before sundown.”
Jackie tilted her head in curiosity, looked him straight in the eye.
And time froze.
At this moment, any number of things could have happened, and Greg knew it. Did he want them to happen?
Yes. Yes he did.
But as soon as he decided, she smiled a careless goodbye: “Sure. Catch you later.”
It was too late, though, he realized with frustration as he pushed his lawnmower on. He was already caught.
Chapter 12
Carrie figured she could avoid Josh for the rest of her time in Athens. It’d be a difficult undertaking, but not completely impossible.
She did have to go to the school at which he worked once a week, but surely he was busy. He was the principal, after all.
High school principals were important people.
They had to...principate things?
What did they do?
No, she was not going down that route. No thinking about Josh and what he was doing. That’s what he wanted her to do.
She was better and stronger than that.
Smarter than that.
So she concentrated on the task before her; writing tryout exam for the Science Olympiad team.
It couldn’t be too easy, but she didn’t want to scare off anybody.
But they needed winners. Smart people. Interested people.
She needed a test that would show which kids knew what was going on, which kids had the potential to learn, which kids memorized. She needed the test to show her each student’s weakness.
Catherine and a not-quite-so-admiring-anymore David had already discarded a number of the questions Carrie had so painstakingly written, and the test-writing process was getting quite frustrating.
Flipping through her old Science Olympiad notes, she realized just how much of her scientific knowledge she’d actually picked up in college.
How did she ever get so far in high school?
The knock on the door had Carrie startled out of her thoughts and nervous.
“Come in,” Catherine called out.
The woman who entered exuded energy and enthusiasm. “Hey, Catherine.”
“Tess!” Catherine got up to hug the woman tightly in warm hello.
Tess looked familiar. Something about her...
“Carrie, this is Tess Brighton. She teaches English.”
“So you’re going to hate me.”
Catherine’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“My kid’s got the chicken pox and Stephen’s going out of town. I have to stay at home and take care of her.”
Catherine already appeared to know where this was going because she had her “No, absolutely not” face.
“Can you stand in for me?” Tess asked.
“Stand in for what?” Carrie asked.
And that was the worst mistake she could possibly make, because she saw her sister’s eyes glimmer in that evil look.
“The first dance of the school year is tonight. Tess was engaged to chaperone...” Catherine started to explain with a significant glance at her sister.
Tess sighed. “I really feel bad for doing this, Cathy, but I really can’t leave Lauren alone. My mother’s already taking care of Pat and Kit at her place and I’ve tried to get a sitter but they’re all booked or doing other things.”
Tess’s sad sigh and frazzled tone immediately made Carrie feel absolutely terrible.
She cleared her throat.
What the hell was she doing? Did she have “sucker” tattooed to her forehead or something.
Tess was grateful.
And she was glad she could help.
She used to be so good at not caring. Maybe it was because she never listened. Had no time to listen.
At any rate, she was now standing in her high school, attending (sadly) the first high school dance of her life.
From what she observed, she hadn’t missed much.
The girls were clumped on one side, the guys the next.
And the chaperones were standing along the wall that spanned from one side to the other.
The music was strange and not to her taste. The dancing (what little there was) was even stranger.
She thought teenagers were weird when she was one, but now that she’d outgrown the era by a decade she found them even odder.
Some things didn’t change. Almost all the girls were looking at one guy.
And she was pretty sure he was probably The Hot Guy of ’04.
It was early, so she assumed the token couples they’d have to watch would arrive within the next two hours and the real busy work would begin.
Fitting that the first time she’d actually attend a bonafide high school dance she’d be chaperoning.
She’d been hoping she’d never have to undergo the torture.
But at least Tess was at home caring for her Lauren.
That was the most important thing.
Not keeping some selfish promise.
She wondered what it would have been like had she and Jackie ever attended one of these. She scanned the teenagers for the two most like her and her best friend from high school.
She found them in the two girls that were walking out of the Gym.
She watched them in envy.
She sighed as she considered conversing with her peers.
It was strange to stand around with teachers. Was she really one of Them now?
She had just decided on a polite remark on Janice’s sweater when she heard his voice.
“Where’s your date?”
Carrie turned to him and tried to hide the nervousness. “I came alone. You?”
“Please? The principal with a date? Not possible,” Josh replied with an easy smile.
Carrie laughed.
“I’d offer you punch but we know you’ll just take mine,” he offered her the cup.
The darkness of the gym hid her blush. “No, I’m not thirsty.”
They stood in pleasant silence. Carrie wanted to say something to show that she was completely indifferent to his charms, but was at a complete loss as to what to say.
Around them, the teenagers started to socialize. The first brave boy ventured across the room to ask a girl to dance, and his friends followed suit.
Carrie watched to make sure that the dancing did not border on indecent. Satisfied, she sank back into boredom.
Well, as bored as she could get with a hot man she’d been kissed by and had kissed a few days before standing right next to her.
A rough writing night. Tired. Really tired. I'm glad I forced my way through my goal, though. I feel accomplished because of it.
Sent off my brother tonight. I'm sad, but it's all right. I hate saying goodbyes *sighs*
anyhow, off to sleep! :)
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Date: 2004-11-10 06:15 am (UTC)