by Linda Nelson
Karla took the booth next to Carol’s.
She put the first outfit on. The pants seemed to be a little tight around her waist. While the top was just a bit lower cut than what she was used to. After checking it out in the mirror, she stepped out of the booth.
“What do you think?” She wanted Carol's opinion.
Carol stepped out of her booth after putting on the top she had wanted to try on.
“Oh, that does look nice on you. How 'bout mine? You like?”
She turned around in front of the mirror, trying to see what it looked like in the back.
“Yeah,” Karla approved. She held up the price tag for Carol to see. “Too bad it's so expensive.”
“Eh that never stops me,” Carol stated. She looked one more time at the mirror, admiring the top. Her fingers quickly found the price tag and snapped it off.
“What are you doing?” Karla asked, surprised by Carol's actions.
“Nothing,” Carol looked out the fitting room door and saw Heath and Gerry. She pointed Heath out to Karla. “Hey, look, there is Heath. Go let him know I will be right out.”
“’Kay,” Karla stepped back into her booth to change. She hadn’t finished trying on all her outfits. It didn’t matter anymore. All she wanted to do was get out of there fast after she saw what Carol had done with the price tag.
A feeling of nervous jitters built up in the pit of her stomach. She stepped out of her booth and checked Carol's booth. It was empty. The feeling in her stomach grew stronger.
She stopped to drop off the number tag and the outfits. Carol was nowhere to be seen. Karla saw Heath standing a few yards from the entrance of the store. Fearing she would be watched because of what Carol had just done, she walked as calmly as she could out of the store.
The door chime announced Karla's departure from the store. It made her jump just a little bit. She hoped no one saw how tense she felt.
“Heath, Carol said she will be right out.”
“Is she getting another outfit?” Heath asked.
“Um…I'm not sure…She said she will be out in a minute.”
Karla wasn't sure what Carol was really doing. She didn't see her standing in line, and she was taking what seemed like a long time.
“Here she comes,” Heath announced. He immediately turned away and started walking away from the store.
“Hey, Heath,” Carol called as she quickly became in step with Heath.
“Karla, keep walking until I say we can stop,” she said as she grabbed Karla by the sleeve and pulled her along with them.
“Huh?”
Carol's sudden appearance stunned Karla.
“Just do as she says,” Heath interjected over his shoulder.
“Oh, right.”
Karla moved up beside Carol. She almost had to jog to keep up with them.
“Hey, Carol, Heath, where are you guys headed,” Gerry asked. He suddenly appeared beside Heath.
“Gerry. Um we are on our way to the food court. You wanna join us,” Carol smiled. She looked over at Karla and winked at her.
“All right…You coming by practice today? It's at one,” Gerry asked. He glanced around Heath and Carol. He smiled when his eyes locked onto Karla's.
“Yeah, us girls need to get something to eat first.”
Carol turned to Karla, “What do you want, Karla?”
“Oh, I don't know. I think I will be all set.”
Karla's heart was fluttering at the unexpected appearance of Gerry. This was added to the butterfly flutters of what she thought had taken place back in the store.
Her thoughts began to race, now that she knew his name. She couldn't believe he was here, the cute guy from history. Maybe, just maybe, Carol would help fix her up with him. She knew the possibility was there since Carol had winked at her just a few moments ago when Gerry had appeared.
“She wants a burger,” Carol barked at the boys. “You want cheese on that? Yeah…I think she wants cheese on that. Oh, and diet sodas for both of us. Thanks, guys.”
Karla overcame her sudden shock of seeing Gerry and finally spoke up.
“Carol…I didn't want anything.”
“Well, you got to eat. Let the guys get it. Let's sit over here.”
She led Karla to a table in the middle of the food court. Taking the sleeve of her hoodie, she wiped off the table.
“Did I see you take that outfit back there?”
Karla felt miffed by what had just taken place.
“No, you must have been seeing things.” Carol giggled.
Karla watched Carol open her bag, showing the outfit inside.
“Oh my God… Carol. How could you,” Karla aspirated.
“Easy. I do it all the time. You should try it sometime. It's fun,” Carol smiled.
“Fun till you get caught. Here is your kibble, ladies.” Heath joked as he placed a tray in front of Carol.
“So what did you get this time,” Gerry added, “I hope you tried it on first.”
Karla accepted the food quietly. She watched and listened to the conversation unfolding in front of her.
Gerry took the seat across from her. She felt jittery with him being so close. Her eyes kept drifting to his face, and she felt conscious of staring at him as he ate.
“You should have seen the last outfit she took. She would have had to lose fifty pounds to fit into it,” Gerry teased Carol. “Were you smokin' crack that day?
Carol stuck out her tongue at Gerry.
“No, Gerry. I got that out fit for Cassie. She was wearing it yesterday. Didn't you see it?”
“Hell, Carol, you don't even like Cassie. You only gave it to her ‘cause it wouldn't fit you,” Heath teased her.
“Man, that would have been a bummer if you had gotten caught stealing an outfit that didn't even fit you,” Gerry snickered as he took a swallow of his soda.
“Ha. See if I get you anything,” Carol fought back.
Gerry glanced at his watch, “Heath, we got to get to practice.”
He gathered up his lunch to take with him.
“See you girls later?”
Heath gave Carol a quick kiss after piling his trash onto Carol's tray.
“Yeah...We will be there in a bit.”
Carol finished the last bite of her burger.
Gerry stopped and smiled at Karla.
“Karla, you gonna eat those fries?”
“No, you can have them.”
Karla handed the rest of the fries to Gerry.
“Thanks,” Gerry smiled, taking a fry from the bag, he bit down on it. Making some clicking sound with his mouth, he turned to leave with Heath.
Chapter ~ 11
Karla was not sure what they would be doing next. She waited for some sort of clue to come from Carol. She watched her stand, taking her tray to the trash, so Karla mimicked her actions. She wanted to fit in so badly with Carol and her other friends that she would do just about anything to keep from acting like some sort of outsider.
The departed in the opposite direction from the way the boys had gone. Karla followed Carol through the mall.
When they found the entrance, Karla pushed through the doors behind Carol. She was so glad to be out of there. She had this nagging fear ever since they had left the food court, fearing the mall security would come running after them at any given moment.
Her phone startled her, when it began to vibrate and sound in her pocket. Karla opened it up and saw the phone number on the caller ID.
“Oh, great,” Karla exclaimed.
“What's wrong,” Carol stopped and asked.
“It's my mom,” Karla explained.
She spoke into the phone, “Hey, Mom.”
“Karla, are you going to be much longer?”
“I don't know... Why?”
“I just spoke with Sarah's mom. She mentioned how much Sarah wanted to spend the rest of the weekend with you, so I invited her over.”
“Really…,” Karla asked while she glanced at Carol.
/> “She is on her way over right now.”
“What about Jody? Is she coming, too?”
“Sarah mentioned something about Jody. I told her she was invited, too.”
“Awesome. When will they be here?”
“Soon…”
“'Okay… I will be home soon, then. Thanks Mom.” Karla closed her phone and stuffed it back into her pocket. “I got to head home now.”
“You're not going to watch practice,” Carol asked, she sounded surprised.
“No, maybe next time…I got to go…”
“I will see you in school on Monday, then.”
“'…See yah then.”
She waved to Carol, and then broke into a jog, she was anxious to get home. The day's events were still running around in her head.
She couldn’t believe that she had possible witnessed Carol stealing something from the store. What would her friends say if she told them about it?
Karla thought about this some more.
They probably would tell her that Carol was trouble. But what was Karla supposed to do? She was in a new school and didn’t know a soul. No one else had tried to become friends with her yet. The way they looked at her made her feel like a foreigner or something. She hated it when people stared at her.
But as Karla got closer to home she began to feel a bit of relief. Carol seem to want to be friends with her, and her and her friends seemed pretty cool to hang with. They just made her a little bit nervous to be around them. Their behaviors seemed so strange to her. She just could not understand what had taken place with the outfit, and couldn’t get it out of her head.
She was so glad they did not get caught. Her mom would have killed her.
Chapter ~ 12
She tidied up her bed as soon as she got home. Now, she knelt on the bed while she peered out her window, waiting for her friends to arrive. Karla still did not see Sarah's car yet, she had been waiting for almost an hour. They had called to let her know that they were on their way.
She put on a Hip Hop CD, and adjusted the volume so her folks would not complain. Her and her friends loved Terry Moniat, she was the hottest on the charts right now. Many times they made wishful plans of attending one of her concerts.
Karla kept checking out the window and moving about her room, tidying it up more and more. She moved her school books. The piece of paper with Carol's number on it fell out of her math book when she stuffed the books underneath the bed. She did not want to lose the number in case she wanted to call Carol again.
She pondered for a moment, letting her eyes scan the room for the perfect place to stash the number. Her eyes settled on her purse hanging from her desk chair. She stuffed the paper into one of its side pockets.
A car pulled up in the driveway, beeping its horn. Karla looked out the window again. She saw Sarah and Jody climb out of the car, slinging their bags over their shoulders. Excited, Karla ran to the front door.
Sarah wore another one of her bright colored t-shirts. This one was a bright red with a big old frog pictured on the front of it. Her hair was braided and pinned up against the back of her head. Flip flops accompanied her skinny jeans.
Jody, being slightly overweight would never be found dead or alive wearing skinny jeans. She preferred light weight active wear pants and oversized shirts. Hoping the shirts would hide some of her misshapen form. She also wore flip flops but Karla could see the sneakers tied to the loop of her backpack.
Karla remembered how Jody tried to diet and knew she could not hold fault against her weight problem. Diets just never worked out well for her.
Even Sarah and Karla tried to do the diet thing with Jody to help support her. Of course the diet worked well for Sarah. She was thin to begin with so it would not take much for her to lose even more weight.
Karla lost about four pounds on the diet but gained it all back within a matter of months.
But Jody, though, she gained an additional ten pounds by the end of their dieting episode. What a bummer it had been for her. She never tried to diet ever again.
Mrs. Centon was already at the door, letting Sarah and Jody in before Karla got to the living room.
“Sarah, Jody, I'm so glad to see you. Karla, your friends are here.”
“Coming,” Karla answered from the kitchen. “Sarah, Jody. Awesome. You made it.” Karla hugged her friends. This was the longest she had ever been away from them. “Bring your stuff to my room.”
She saw their eyes gaze around the room.
“I will give you a tour afterwards.”
“Cool house,” Sarah complimented.
“This is awesome, Karla,” Jody agreed.
“Jody, you got your hair cut again. I like it,” Mrs. Centon pointed out.
“Oh thanks, Mrs. Centon. I had it done yesterday. The humidity was making it curl too much, and the frizzes were starting to drive me nuts. I wanted to dye it to a different color, but my mom wouldn't let me. I hate having black hair. It is so.”
Mrs. Centon said, “There is nothing wrong with your hair color. I rather like it the way it is.”
Karla grabbed Jody by the arm and dragged her and Sarah to her room. She pointed out where the bathroom was as they walked down the hallway to her room, explaining to them how her parents' room was at the end of the hallway.
“She's got a pool, too,” Sarah boasted while placing her things on the bedroom floor, “We got to go check it out. She said it's out back.”
“We don't have any water in it yet. Dad is getting it ready for winter,” Karla replied as she brought her friends outdoors to see the pool and the backyard.
Karla had discovered a large tree in the back corner of the yard the other day. That was the day she had seen the pool for the first time. They sat under it and discussed the week's events at school. Karla so missed her old school, even the kids she had never gotten along with.
A delicious odor came from the open window of the house. “Hey, let's go in now. I think my Mom is making cookies.”
In the kitchen, Karla's mom was putting washed dishes away. A bowl of cookie dough sat on the counter. The oven light was on exposing the baking sheet of cookies.
“Hey, Mom, you're making cookies?”
“Yup, thought you girls would like some,” Mrs. Centon smiled.
“Cool. Chocolate chip. Thanks, Mrs. Centon.”
Jody snatched a finger of dough from the bowl.
“I can't wait for the pool parties this summer,” Sarah said excitedly to Karla's Mom.
“This is gonna be so awesome, to come over to Karla's to swim and party. If only Debbie and her scum friends could see us now,” Jody agreed while licking the last of the dough from her fingers.
Karla took a seat at the breakfast nook with Jody and Sarah, and listened while they filled Mrs. Centon in about the people who moved into their old house. They had built a small shed in the backyard for a pony. Karla frowned while remembering how much she had wanted a pony a few years ago. Her parents had told her, “No pony.”
“Hey, let's go in my room and listen to music, watch movies, or something,” Karla suggested to her friends.
Mrs. Centon held out a plate of cookies. “Karla, here take this plate of cookies with you.” They were still warm.
“Thanks, Mom,” Karla replied as she happily accepted the plate of cookies.
“Jody, can you grab three sodas from the fridge?”
Mrs. Centon took the sodas from the fridge. Sarah took one and Jody took the other two. They followed Karla to her room leaving Mrs. Centon alone in the kitchen.
They piled into Karla’s bedroom and took seats on the floor while Karla closed the bedroom door behind them, giving them added privacy from her parents.
Her dad had not stripped the walls like he had promised her he would. She could just hear the comments her friends would be saying about her wallpaper. About how ugly it was.
“So what's your week been like at your new school,” Sarah asked Karla.
“Actually, it seems
to be going good. I met this girl, Carol; she lives a couple of streets over. She wants me to try out for volleyball.”
“You, play volleyball? Ha. That, I got to see,” Jody joked. She handed Karla her soda and took a cookie from the plate.
"Why volleyball, you never liked volleyball before,” Sarah asked. A jeering smile crossed her face making Karla feel defensive.
“I don't know; I guess, 'cause Carol plays volleyball, she only asked me. I don't think I'm gonna do it anyway. Like you said, I don't like volleyball,” Karla answered. She bit into the cookie, turned the TV on, and shut off the stereo. Flipping through the DVD's in a box on her floor, she found one she knew her friends would like.
“Well, it's all good that you are making new friends. Just don't forget about us.” Jody responded.
“You know I will never forget about either of you,” Karla turned on the DVD player and slipped the disk into the drive.
“Just checking,” Jody said as she cracked open her soda can.
“Hey, do you think we can go to the mall tomorrow,” Sarah asked.
“I don't know.”
“Your mom is being really nice tonight,” Sarah picked up the DVD jacket. She flipped it over to glance at the back of it.
“I guess she does have her moments,” Karla picked up her remote and began fast-forwarding past the movie previews.
A rap sounded at the door. The door knob turned and opened. Karla's mom's head poked around the door. “Girls, I hate to bother you, but can you stay up no later than 1:00. Stan has to go to work tomorrow, and we don't want to keep him up all night.”
Karla replied an agreement and quickly shooed her Mom away.
Sarah handed the movie jacket over to Jody as Karla took a seat on the floor between them. She placed the plate of cookies on the floor in front of her, and was surprised no one had said anything about the ugly wallpaper. It was just as well, she thought.
“Oh, I haven't seen that one,” Jody stated. She flipped the jacket over to read the back.
For the next few hours, Karla, Sarah, and Jody watched the movie. Every once in a while they would chat about what was going on in the gossip news at Medham High.