20. FRESH EXPERIENCES
We left the house before the sun was even up on Saturday morning. I drove my parents to the airport. Well, it was more like, my dad drove and I rode along to bring the car back. I tried not to be upset about them going to Toronto for over a week without me and abandoning me over Thanksgiving. I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t make me mad. But there wasn’t anything I could do about it. So I continued to focus on my own vacation at home sans the parental units. I’d be able to practice my singing all night if I wanted—that would be nice since the concert was about three weeks away.
I walked into the empty house, just as the sun was rising. In one sense, it wasn’t all that different than any other day, and yet it felt different. Maybe it was knowing that they wouldn’t be back tonight –which made me happy. Maybe it was the fact that I wouldn’t have to tread lightly around them, watching what I say. That I could actually relax at home—which also made me happy. Maybe because it was so freaking early in the morning.
What I didn’t like was how much bigger the house seemed when it was empty. It was almost like it was hollow. Since every distant sound made me jumpy, I always left on the television on in the family room and my bedroom. It helped mask the random sounds of the house creaking or from outside, that I know I shouldn’t worry about, but did. The sound also kept me company. It was familiar, made me feel not so alone. So, the first thing I did when I got home was go through the house and turn on the televisions.
What should I do next? I was still sleepy, but I didn’t feel like climbing back into bed. I grabbed a blanket and pillow and curled up on the couch in the family room. I fell asleep to some random morning news program.
I woke up to my cell phone ringing. It stopped ringing once I picked it up. I looked at the screen—4 missed calls. Four?! I clicked to the missed call list. None of them were from my parents. They were all from Patrick. We were supposed to meet to work on our science fair project today. Oops. Make that right now.
The door bell was ringing. I groggily got off the couch and went to the door. Patrick was standing there.
I opened the door and let him in. “Hi. Sorry. I fell asleep.”
“Hey. It’s okay. No big deal.” His smile reassured me. We went to the family room and he saw the cocoon I just sprang from. “Sorry I woke you. Looks like you were comfy.”
“Yeah. I think that’s why I was actually able to fall asleep. Give me a couple minutes and I’ll be ready to go.” I rushed to my room. I ran a brush through my hair and pulled it back into a pony tail. I grabbed my backpack and sweatshirt. I think that’s all I needed for the library to finish our background research.
There was specific information that we were looking for that wasn’t available at our local library, and definitely not our school’s library. We wanted to find out more about the current research being done, so we took Mr. D’s suggestion and went to the main library at UCSD. There was a wing of the library dedicated to science and engineering that would be useful.
The last time I had been to UCSD was in junior high for a field trip, ironically to tour the campus and see how to use the library for research. I never used the university library for research, but knew you could. I was nervous if I would remember even a fraction of how to find things in their library.
UCSD was a beautiful campus. I was in awe the second we drove onto campus and saw the ‘University of California, San Diego’ entrance sign. There were groves of trees that fascinated me. They were tall and full with clear pathways through it. We parked and walked to the main library. It may have been several years since I’d been to the library but it was a distinct building that stood out. From where we were walking, you couldn’t see anything else behind it, just clear blue skies. It was almost surreal. It was definitely amazing.
The librarians were a big help to us. We spent several hours finding journals, papers and other sources. Since we weren’t UCSD students, we couldn’t check out anything, but we could use it there and copy what we needed. We decided to walk around campus after we were done. We walked up a hill past one tree grove to explore the west side of campus and down another to the Price Center.
The Price Center was the hub of the campus. It contained the bookstore and a huge food court. It was almost like a mall’s food court, except there were computers set up in the middle of the seating area for anyone to use. There was also a theater, pool tables, a copy center and several ballrooms. We got some smoothies and wandered around the bookstore before going to check out the engineering school part of campus.
We came across a huge bear made out of rocks. It was like huge boulders balancing on each other to form a bear that stood at least three stories tall. How did that work without falling down? Even if there were some sort of beams connecting the head, arms and legs boulders to the body, it still didn’t seem like it would stay together. It was art. It was engineering. For a bunch of rocks, it seemed really cute. I never thought I’d ever say that about rocks. I took a bunch of pictures of it. We had a great time taking all kinds of poses with it. The people passing by had to know that Patrick and I didn’t go to the school.
We were sitting on the lawn surrounding the bear, hanging out when Patrick’s phone rang. He looked at the phone’s display. “It’s Jason.”
He flipped open his phone and answered it. “Hey, Jase.” There was a brief pause. “UCSD.” Another pause. “Right now? We’re just hanging out. Liz. We were working on our project for Mr. D’s.” He listened to Jason some more. “Yeah, we’re done for today.” Patrick laughed. “Oh really? Where? Hang on.”
He put his phone down. “Want to go bowling?”
I’d never gone bowling before, but I knew it involved a heavy ball. Terror crossed my face. “Bowling? I don’t know how to bowl…”
“That wasn’t a ‘no’.” He smiled and nodded. He put the phone back to his ear. “Yeah, we’ll be there. Alright, see ya.”
Patrick closed his phone and stood up. He held his hand out to me to help me up. I took it and got up. We headed to the car. “I could try but I don’t think I should bowl. I might cause permanent damage to someone.”
“I really doubt that.” He shook his head in disbelief.
“Did you forget about the basketball game at the carnival?” He couldn’t have.
“No.” He chuckled. “But there’s no way that you’ll be able to toss a bowling ball that way.”
“You’ll see…don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I teased him. But there was truth to what I was saying. The idea of swinging a heavy ball did not bring up safety in my mind.
“I’ll take my chances. But consider me warned.” He laughed.
“Sure you’re laughing now, but wait until I drop some 20 pound ball on your foot or something.”
“Eh. Don’t worry about that.” He dismissed the image. I, however, couldn’t. “There isn’t a 20 pound ball.”
Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1) Page 48