FicWad

Carly M. Jenson Elliott C. Cortez



I walked at an alarmingly fast pace. Why was I in such a hurry? It's not like if I'm a few minutes late she's going to throw a fit and never speak to me again. And we never did set a specific time. I tried to will my legs to slow down, but they seemed to have a mind of their own. For a second I was worried they would spontaneously combust. Finally I burst threw the front entrance; spotting Carly's blonde and pink hair immediately. Sitting on the front steps reading, she didn’t notice when I approached her or when I sat down. She was completely submerged in the book.
"What cha reading?" I asked glancing over her shoulder. She didn’t respond. "Hello?" I asked waving my arms about, making myself look like an idiot. Still nothing. "Carly? Hello Carly, is anything in there?" I asked tapping her head lightly. The only thing I got was her reaching up to her head and tried to brush it away; like she thought that there was a bug there or something. I leaned back resting my elbows on the hot concrete stairs. I stared at her, trying to figure out how I was going to get her attention so they could get studying. Only one thing came to mind. The only thing that could get my brother Noah's attention when he was absorbed in something. I opened my bag and pulled out my unopened package of cupcakes. Quickly I opened the package and pulled one of the delicious treats out. I prayed mentally that she and Noah shared some of the same qualities.
"Yo Carly, I have a cupcake." I said holding it out on my palm. She quickly slammed her book shut.
"Where!" She asked looking around then spotting me. "Hi!" She smiled. I laughed and handed her the cupcake. "AH! Thank you I love cupcakes!"
"Yeah they're great." I nodded in agreement taking out the other one and started eating it slowly savoring every last chocolaty bite. "What are you reading and why does it hypnotize you to only come up for cupcakes?"
"I come up for Skittles and coffee too," She laughed. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."
"Wow, even more like my brother than I thought." I mumbled to myself, recalling how excited Noah had been when the book was announced.
"huh?" She asked licking cupcake off of her fingers.
"Oh, um, nothing, it's not important." I said putting the empty cupcake container back into my bag.
"We should probably get to my house so you can help me not fail." She smiled putting her book into her bag. I nodded and stood up; I grabbed her hand and helped her stand. She smiled faintly and looked at the ground after I let go. I shrugged it off and followed her to her house.
Her room was cool; green walls, posters and other pictures every where, she had a computer on a desk that was covered in papers and pens. Her floor was carpeted white with black patches. There was another chair, besides her desk one, that was bright green. The bed was a mess; green and black blankets all twisted together. It all looked very, well, Carly. My eye caught one of the pictures on the wall; an abstract painting, the colors were brilliant. It was amazing, not that I knew art. At all. I actually couldn't draw to save my life. I stayed very far away from the art electives.
"Did you do this?" Carly looked up from her open notebook.
"Yeah, in like 8th grade." She answered going back to whatever it was she was doing.
"Really?" I said shocked. It looked so professional. But hey, what do I know? "It's amazing."
"Thanks," She said not looking up this time. Looking up I realized that her ceiling was covered entirely with magazine clippings. "I'll be done in one minute then we can get started okay?"
"Okay," I responded automatically even though it took me a little longer to realize what she said. I had never been in a room like that before and I was amazed. I've been in this house a few times before and I never thought such an awesome room existed in it. I snapped out of my ceiling induced daze and looked toward Carly. She was sitting at her desk writing quickly into a notebook. "What are you writing?"
"What?" She asked looking up at me, almost like she had forgotten I was there. "Oh, um, just some ideas for a new song I just got." She quickly wrote something down and closed the notebook.
"You write songs?" She nodded putting the notebook aside.
"We should probably get started." She picked up her backpack and placed it in her lap taking out her school books. "Where should we start?"
"Well, what's your worst subject?" I asked sitting down on the other chair.
"Probably math," She pouted taking her math book out of the stack.
"Then we'll start there and work our way to," I said glancing at her books, "Geography." She nodded smiling.
"Before we start," she said quietly looking down. "I want to say, thanks. You know for helping me. Not a lot of people would do that."
"No problem." I told her truly meaning it. I wondered if she ever got a break from the taunting at school. It even comes home with her, Marla being her sister and all. If it wasn’t for Marla in the first place Carly would still be in the closet and wouldn’t have to worry about the day to day abuse. Honestly, I felt really sorry for Carly. Why didn’t anyone give her a chance before? She was a really nice person.
"Hey fag- what the hell?!"