Chapter 8:

I sat on my queen sized bed looking at the countdown above the door.  Only five days until my party.  Most of the people on the list, easily over one hundred, had told José they would be coming.  Now he was focusing on getting the barn completely decorated, something that I was not allowed to have any part in, music chosen, and waiters hired.  I was focusing on finding the perfect outfit, however with my amount of days dwindling I was running out of ideas.  I sighed and hopped out of bed to change.

I joined my mother to eat breakfast in the kitchen, my hair pulled back in a pony tail.

“Good morning, dear,” she said, sipping her coffee.

“Morning, where’s Dad?” I asked.  He usually could be found Sunday mornings sitting right next to my mom in the morning, drinking coffee and reading the paper.

“Oh, he had a video conference call with some people.  He’s been quite busy, don’t you think?” she said.

“Mmm,” I said.  “Where’s José?”

“Who knows?  He’s been flitting around different places to get things for Friday.  He had to go so many places that I took him yesterday to rent a car especially for him,” she said, giggling a little to herself.  “Speaking of which, do know what you’ll be wearing?”

“No.  I’ve been looking online and in magazines, but I can’t find anything,” I said, disappointed.

“Well, if you want to wear a dress, you have to get it at a store so you can try it on.  You know how that goes,” she said.

“Well, yeah.  But, Mom, there are no good stores out here,” I said, standing to clean my bowl of my hardly-touched breakfast.

“Have Travis or--what’s his name?” She thought for a second.  “Malcolm.  Have one of them take you to a neighboring town or something.”

“I can’t just ask them to that, Mom,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Why not?”

“Well--I--just because,” I said, stomping out of the kitchen.

I stopped walking, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath.  The few hairs that came out of my pony tail whipped around my face from the wind.  I smelled the summer flowers and plants mix with the dew from the morning.  I opened my eyes and looked out at the field behind our house.  The barn loomed over it creating a large shadow on the grass.  I looked over at the pasture and wondered if there had ever been horses grazing there.  Of course there had been.  They were farmers.  I walked to the barn only to realize that there was a shining chain and lock twisted around the handles.  I glared at it and silently cursed José and his crazy antics for locking me out of my newly found dwelling. 

My fears caught up to me, suddenly.  I needed to be the complete center of attention at this party, to have all eyes on me.  They all had to know that I would be the “it” girl this year.  My final year as a high school student would be completely determined on this one party, on this entrance.  If I failed to make the right one, I would fail at having a great year.  To my mother, this would have been an absolutely ludicrous idea.  But to the teens, it made complete sense.  They would be looking for it at the party.

I slowly made my way back to my room and into my closet.  I looked at my clothes that surrounded me on three sides.  They were perfectly organized by color, starting from black and ending in white.  I could always find something perfect to wear in my museum of designer clothes, but this was different.  I needed something new, something that would stand out.  I turned on my iHome and began sorting through my mountains of clothes.  I found a couple of dresses that would do if I needed them, but nothing that stood out.  I moved over to my shelves of shoes next to my dresser.  It reached almost to ceiling with cubbies perfectly sized for one pair of shoes.  Those too were organized nicely, by type of shoe and color.  None of these shoes helped me think of a good enough outfit. 

My pouting was interrupted by my phone ringing on my bed spread.  Travis was calling.

“Hey, what’s up?” I answered.

“Hi.  I, uh, was wondering if you wanted to do something in a couple of days.”

“Like what?” I said.

“I dunno.  I guess, dinner or something.  Maybe a movie?” he said.  I could tell he was nervous.  My brow furrowed in suspicion.

“Like a date?” I said, my tone accidentally became skeptical.

“Well it doesn’t necessarily have to be a date.  Just two friends going to see a movie and having dinner,” he said, fixing his question.

“Yeah, sure,” I said.  He knew about Evan and wouldn’t try anything if he knew I wasn’t ready.  “When were you thinking?”

“Maybe Wednesday?”

"That should be fine, I’ll see you then,” I said.

“Yeah.  Oh, I’ll pick you up at seven, if that’s okay?”

“That’s good,” I said.  After saying our goodbyes, I clicked the “end call” button and stared at the phone.  Was I going on a date?  No, he said himself that it wasn’t a date, I tried to convince myself.  I busied my buzzing mind with the new task of finding an outfit for my non-date with Travis.

A/N: Sorry for such a short and boring chapter!  It's just a filler one that kind of explains some thing (I guess?).  Thanks so much for reading!! :)