Ninth Grade Blues

by Bruce Ingram

  Then I asked Allen if he thought maybe we could double date next year, did he think that his father or Russell would mind picking us up, and he said no problem, that double dating would be awesome. That really made me happy because I can't see Dad every driving me up to a Hispanic girl's house and being happy about it, and Mom might be different, but I don't think she'd be too happy about it either...besides they're gone most weekends anyway. So now, I've got two options for us going out next year, Mia and I riding our bikes somewhere to do something and Allen's father or Russell taking us on a double date. This dating thing might work out.

  Then Allen and I channel surfed and watched bits and pieces of a couple of NBA games and went to bed. I didn't sleep much all night. I kept waking up thinking about Mia or trout and making just the right cast and then one time I remembered that I had forgotten to put fresh line on my spinning reel, but I figured that these were stocked trout, not river smallmouths, so my line wouldn't break if I got a nice one on...so finally I got some sleep.

  The next morning after breakfast and after we got to the creek, Russell said he would fish downstream and let Allen and me fish upstream, which was really nice of him because it's always best to fish for trout by wading upstream and keeping a low profile so they won't spook. The creek was pretty big and wide, so Allen and I didn't have to take turns making casts. It didn't take us long to get into a competition to see who could catch the most trout and be the first to catch our limit of six. I ended up catching my sixth one right after he caught his fifth, so I had bragging rights for the day. But Allen caught his limit right after I did, so things worked out pretty well for us both. We filleted the trout right on the bank, and Allen texted his brother that we were ready to go home, so that the trout wouldn't spoil. I cooked up three of mine for lunch that day when I got home and ate the other three for lunch on Sunday. It was a really good weekend.

  Chapter Forty-Six: Elly

  I just knew that Paul was going to ask me out again for this weekend. I had put him off last weekend because I told him my family was going to do "family things" all weekend, which really wasn't much of a lie (well, I guess it really was) because our family things consisted of us eating meals and my helping Mom with the weekend laundry and cleaning. All I did last Friday and Saturday nights was read, text, snack, and watch TV.

  So Monday before school, I asked Mom if I could have a sleepover party Friday night for my girlfriends, and she said how many, and I said seven or eight and she said okay...that she would buy some pizza and soft drinks, and we could all sleep in the basement and everybody could bring sleeping bags. So I texted Paige, Mary, Kylee, Jayla, and Hannah and met up with Mia and Camilla before school, and everybody said super and that they would ask their moms. By lunchtime Tuesday it was all set, and sure enough Paul came by and did his "let's go get some ice cream routine" but when he asked me out, I told him about the sleepover and said I had family plans for Saturday and maybe some other time. I'll go out with him again, I guess, after all who else is going to go out with me. But not so soon after that last boring date.

  Friday night, everybody came over around 6:00 and Mom helped us bring the pizza and soft drinks downstairs, and she said we were on our own. "Enjoy your girl talk." The first 30 minutes all we mostly did was eat pizza and drink diet soft drinks...I don't know how many calories we saved by the diet drinks because all of us had about four or five pieces each, and I confess that I think I had six. After that, the subject quickly turned to boys. Boys that we definitely wanted to date, boys that we might like to date, boys that we would never date, and for those of us who were allowed to date guys, what were their pros and cons.

  Then Mary, she's always trying to rile everybody up and start something, bless her, said let's make a list of the ninth grade boys we'd least like to date. Immediately, Kylee and Camila shrieked, looked at each other, and then yelled out at the same time, "Marcus!" And everybody laughed at that, and Hannah said what was his problem and Kylee said, "Marcus being Marcus is Marcus' problem; he's too full of himself and immature," and everybody laughed again; this time it was more like hooting than laughing.

  Then Hannah started in on Mia and asked where would she rate Luke on the date or no date list, and all Mia would do was smile in such a sweet, shy way, and that made Hannah just tease her all the more. The more I'm around Mia, the more I like her, the better friends we're becoming. Hannah wouldn't let up and then she said for Mia to tell us "what was up with her and Lucas and 'libraries.'" and Hannah pronounced libraries like it was 10 syllables long...she said Luke and her were going to the library three times a week at school, which I knew about, but now they were "seeing each other" on Saturdays at the public library (which I didn't know about) and where were they really going on Saturdays.

  All that time Hannah was teasing her, Mia just smiled and looked so happy; it was so obvious that she's really into Luke...that it didn't matter what Hannah or anybody else said. Finally, Hannah said she wasn't going to stop teasing her until Mia said why she liked Luke so much, and you could just see Mia thinking really deeply about that and she said something like, "He's the sweetest boy I've ever met, he cares about what I think and treats me with respect, and we talk about all kinds of things, and he asks my opinion on things, and I just love talking to him and being with him and walking along with him and holding his hand."

  There was this long pause after Mia said all that, she was really serious...not joking around like we all were, then Mary said, "You'd better hang on to him then," and this was from Mary who called Luke a ragamuffin at the beginning of the year. Then we were off to another subject. But I kept thinking about what Mia had said. I have to confess that I was envious of her and Luke...Paul has never held my hand when we were walking somewhere, and he's never asked me about what I thought about anything except stupid sports questions and games. So later in the night when we were all getting really sleepy and things were getting quiet and Camila and Paige had already fallen asleep, I walked over to Mia and the two of us went over to the fireplace and just sat and chatted for about 15 minutes.

  I told her that I had really enjoyed eating lunch with her on Mondays and Wednesdays and was glad that she and I were becoming better friends and that she was a really sweet person and I was happy that she and Luke looked like they had a relationship with potential. Mia smiled and said that she also was glad to get to know me better and thanked me for the nice comments about her and Luke. She said that Luke had stuttered a lot and was nervous and quiet when she first started talking to him, but then as they had gotten to know each other, that he had stopped stuttering and even told her that when he really liked a girl, he got "all nervous." Then she said that Luke had paid me a compliment one day right after Ms. Hawk had asked the three of us to be on the Yearbook staff next year and work together on assignments...that Luke had said that Mia and I were the two sweetest, nicest girls in the ninth grade, and he liked us both a lot and was looking forward to being on Yearbook staff with us.

  It was then that I remembered that night last fall at the football game when Luke was so nervous around me, and all those other times in eighth grade and this year, and then I realized that he may have been that way because he had a crush on me. Right then while Mia was still talking, I tried to imagine what it would be like to date Luke, and I tried to imagine what my parents would think of that. ..that they probably wouldn't be too happy about it. Finally, I just decided to put any thoughts of Luke and me out of my mind. I had enough to worry about right now. Still, after our talk, I felt a little jealous about Luke and Mia...is it wrong of me to feel that way?

  Chapter Forty-Seven: Marcus

  Caleb and I haven't had much time lately to do any talking about next year's football season, girls, or school or anything else. He's been dating Leigh since football season ended, so there's that, and, of course, I've had a lot of different girls on my arm, too, all year, so we haven't had much of a chance to connect.

  Thursday, Caleb and I started talking during lun
ch, about our needing to get together and he asked if I'd be interested in riding home with him when his dad picked him up after my game Friday night. I could spend the night at his house, and we could watch Sports Center and an NBA game if a good one was on, and we could catch up a little. That it would be too late for him and Leigh to go out and probably the same would be true with me and Tameka. I didn't want to tell him that I needed permission from my parents to come to his house, so I said no sweat, that he could count on me riding home with him and spending the night. Later, I asked my parents if it would be okay and they said sure. They live in the same neighborhood as we do—he's just six houses down, and I could walk home in the morning.

  After Caleb and I went downstairs to his family's rec room, we found a good NBA game on—the Mavs at Golden State—so we settled in to watch that. The first thing Caleb asked me was how many points did I drop Friday night, and I said 24, and he asked next how many treys I drained; it seemed like five, and I said, no, it was six, and we both laughed at that .that I was so hot that he could lose count of how many I poured in. "Man," he said, "you're even better at basketball than football," that "hoops might be your best sport after all."

  I told him that Joshua had been saying the same thing, and normally, I don't like to admit that my big brother is right about anything, but maybe he was spot on about the basketball thing, and what did Caleb really think—should I mostly concentrate on basketball?

  Caleb said, no, no, no, that he needed me as his go-to receiver next year, and he didn't see any reason in the world why I couldn't play both sports in high school and at a university, and if I was a two-sports star, then the recruiters would be fighting among themselves to offer me scholarships. Caleb next said maybe I shouldn't go to a school like Alabama because they usually didn't have much of a basketball team; maybe I should go to somewhere like Michigan State, or Florida State would be a good fit, too. I said I wouldn't mind going to Duke to play hoops, but their football team wasn't any good, and he agreed that Duke was out because of the football team not being much.

  I asked Caleb what were his workout goals, and he said he wanted to gain ten pounds of muscle in his upper body and wanted to add a little more arm strength, but he really didn't think he needed much else—except for a better offensive line for next year. We both laughed at that, and, man, we both agreed that our offensive line sucked last year, that Paul, Ian, and Richard especially needed to bulk up and start playing with more intensity, but that we didn't know if those upper classmen had it in them.

  I had to ask him about Leigh, and he said she was superhot, and those long legs of hers just drove him wild, and we both laughed at that, too. I said every one of my dates all year had been with Joshua and Jordan in the car, and I was sort of not so down with that anymore, because Jordan was super controlling and Joshua was always ready to butt in on my business, but it was still better than sitting in the backseat with some girl and one of my parents or the girl's mother or father driving and dropping us off somewhere. It was about that time that I brought up the subject of maybe me and Caleb doing some double dating; his mom has a van and maybe we could work out some sort of arrangement where Tameka's parents dropped her off at my house, and then Caleb's mom picked us up after she had picked up Leigh.

  Caleb said that would be awesome, and we maybe could go out to a swanky restaurant next Saturday night and show Leigh and Tameka what it's like to date future pro athletes. All of that just sounded great to me, and I said I was down with it and that my parents gave me money to go out anywhere I wanted, and it would be great not to have Joshua and Jordan watching my every move for a change.

  We then got serious about watching the game, and we watched Steph Curry just absolutely demolish the Mavs in the second half, and Caleb said I had a game that was very similar to Curry's, and I agreed. I'm going to keep that two-sport thing in college in mind.

  Chapter Forty-Eight: Mia

  Earlier in the week, Elly asked me to come to a sleepover at her house Friday night, and I was so excited that she would invite me and said that I would ask my mama. Mama said that would be fine, but she wanted me to understand first that Elly's neighborhood was a lot nicer than ours and that Elly's family would have a lot of things that we didn't have, but that was okay, and I was not to be envious.

  I said I understood that, but Mama wasn't quite satisfied yet. She said she wanted to emphasize that we were not lower class, that thanks to my grandparents' hard work and hers and Poppa's, we had moved up a lot, but we still would never have the things that Elly's family did but maybe one day I would. I asked Mama what class we were in, and she paused and thought a while and said, to be exact, she would classify us as lower middle class and the houses in Elly's neighborhood were all upper class ones, though some were still considerably nicer than others. Again, I said I understood all that, and Mama said she had so many dreams for me and my future and the man I would marry and the job I would have. I think all that is one of the reasons she seems so cold to the idea of Luke and me being such good friends, besides him not being Hispanic...that his neighborhood is about like ours. She doesn't know him like I do, though, and she doesn't see the potential that he has.

  I was the first one to arrive at Elly's house—Mama never wants me to be late for anything—so Elly took me upstairs to see her bedroom and gave me a tour. Her bedroom is almost bigger than our living room, and her house is like three of ours. The backyard was just huge, but there wasn't a garden or chicken run back there, though there was plenty of room for things like that. Her mama has a space for a flower garden, but it's much smaller than ours.

  While I was thinking about all that wasted space, I remembered something else that Mama had told me. That you can't always measure success by the size of a house or a person's possessions. You measure it by how you feel about yourself and what you have accomplished...that you can find joy in many things that don't have anything to do with money. Mama and I get a lot of joy from our chickens and flower garden. All I saw in Mia's backyard was mostly grass. With a backyard that big, she could have a goat or two and definitely chickens.

  After we ate dinner, all the girls wanted to do was talk about boys, and I knew that it wouldn't be long before they started teasing me about Luke. Hannah and Mary were worse than anyone, I think everybody except Elly got in a few comments about him. But I didn't mind. I would rather go with Luke to the library or go ride bikes with him (maybe we can do that some this spring) than go out to an expensive restaurant with somebody that I don't much like. Camila and Kylee are good examples of that when they went out with Marcus to all those nice places, but they didn't have a good time or even get to know Marcus better.

  The highpoint of my evening was sitting by the fireplace and talking to Elly after people had started to get tired and fall asleep. She asked a lot of questions about Luke, and we talked a lot about all kinds of things. I asked her if she needed any help with fixing breakfast for everybody in the morning, that I was used to getting up early and would be glad to help her. Elly said that she had just assumed that her mom was going to cook for everyone, but now she realized, thanks to me, that it would be not be treating her mother right to put that burden on her. So Elly said that she would set the alarm on her phone, and we would cook up something for everybody...that she would text her mom now so that she would know not to get up early the next morning. I asked her if her mama had any salsa and cilantro, and Elly said she was sure her mom did, and I said great, we would cook Mexican baked eggs.

  The next morning, I was already awake when Elly came over to get me up. We had the best time talking while we were cooking for everybody. I asked Elly if she really liked Paul, and she said not really, that going out with him was just something to do, that they had had only two dates, but she knew that he was going to ask her out again for this coming weekend and she had just about run out of excuses on why she couldn't go out with him, so she was going to say yes for this Friday or Saturday night, whichever one he wanted—it didn't matter
to her; going out would at least get her out of the house.

  We then started talking about what we wanted to do with our lives, and Elly said that she could imagine becoming a teacher, and I told her that she would be awesome at that. Then she said she would like to live in a big, nice house like her parents, but then I could tell that she thought she had hurt my feelings because my family doesn't have a nice house like hers. But she shouldn't have thought that, it didn't hurt my feelings. I tried to smooth things over by saying that I would like a nice house like that, too, but what I would really like to do was live out in the country on some land, so I could have a really big flower garden and a huge vegetable garden and chickens and maybe a goat. I didn't add that I dreamed sometime of living like that with Luke, but I think about that a lot.

  She asked what I wanted to do, and I said sometimes I wanted to become a nurse like Mama, but more and more, I thought I might want to become a doctor, that I would enjoy working with little kids and keeping them healthy. I knew doing all that would be expensive, but maybe I could get scholarships. I want to get together with Elly again soon. Maybe her parents would let her come to my house.

  Testing Stress

  Chapter Forty-Nine: Luke