The Climb,
Luna,
& Other Stories
Creative Writing
Period 1
Spring 2010
Mr. Zervanos
Marina Crouse
The Climb
“Can’t we just take I-95 south to get there?” Paige asked her friend, Lauren, as they stared at an unfolded map of the east coast. Lauren shrugged and combed her hand through her hair.
“I dunno, Paige. We could but then again, this is a road trip, so we should just go with the flow. Take back roads. That sort of thing.”
“True. But, I don’t want to go into this thing blindly. Let’s make up a list of towns we want to stop in and things we want to see,” Paige suggested as she flipped open a notebook marked “road trip 2009” to a fresh page. In neat block letters she designated a space for cities and another one for attractions/activities. It had always been this way. Paige was neat and organized and Lauren was messy and carefree. That’s why they worked so well together – they could balance each other out. Their road trip was a perfect example of this, neatly carefree. That’s the way things would always be, even as they moved on to separate colleges and different lives. They would still be balancing each other out in some way or another, because Paige would make sure Lauren was going to class and doing her homework, and Lauren would most definitely call and check on Paige and her social life. Lauren always brought out the best of Paige. Together they were like yin and yang, push and pull, give and take.
“…there’s always going to be another mountain, I’m always gonna wanna make it move, always gonna be an up hill battle…” Lauren began to belt out as they decided where they wanted to go. She wanted to stop in Tennessee.
“…sometimes I’m gonna have to lose. Ain’t about how fast I get there…” Paige sang back to her, in a soft voice.
“…ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side…” Lauren joined Paige and they crescendoed as they reached the end of the chorus. “…it’s the cliiiiiiiimb.”
They ended the song in a fit of giggles and red in the face.
“Hey, Laur, remember when we came up with the idea to do this?”
“It was your idea, Paige. You had just gotten your permit and your dad was driving you nuts with all of his fake-brake stomping and shouting of ‘give it gas!’” Lauren laughed as she recalled Paige retelling her driving experiences each morning in homeroom.
Paige smiled at the memory of it all, two years ago, when she first decided she wanted out. Her dad was a hardass and a stickler for rules. Everything she did had to be perfect or she’d have to start over and try again. Driving was really tough at the beginning. She hated that her dad would yell the entire time in the car, shouting at her to use her turn signal, to speed up, to start stopping sooner, to turn right. Just because he was yelling didn’t make her hear him faster. If he wanted her to turn her signal on forty feet from the stop sign, she would, all he had to do was tell her calmly. She knew she’d eventually remember that when approaching a stop sign, she should turn on the signal forty feet prior to stopping. Yelling just made her more nervous in her dad’s big hulking mass of metal that he called a pick-up truck. One particular day, it had been raining and it was the first time she’d ever driven in the rain. It was pouring and her dad was trying to tell her to turn into an empty parking lot to wait it out, but as the rain thundered against the windows and her wipers flew back and forth, her heart rattled and pounded in its cage; she was freaked out and her dad’s stern voice was just nudging her closer to the edge. She hit the gas and turned the steering wheel and almost hit another car as she entered the exit of the parking lot. She parked, if you could call it that, roughly between two lines far away from any other car, and rested her forehead on the steering wheel, between her two hands.
Her dad yelled some more about how she should be more careful and pay better attention, while she just listened. The next day, she announced to Lauren that she never wanted to drive with her father again, and as soon as she could, she’d get her license. To celebrate, they would go on a road trip and drive however they wanted, wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted.
***
Days later, Lauren was sprawled across Paige’s bed reading a magazine while waiting for her toenail polish to dry. Paige was browsing her closet and pulling shirts off of hangers and throwing them onto the pile of clothes that accumulated next to Lauren’s legs.
“Laur, are you all packed?”
“Uh, not quite.”
“So, you haven’t started yet.”
“Bingo!” Lauren exclaimed loudly has she brought her toes closer to examine the polish.
“Lauren, you’re so predictable!” Paige huffed and bent to pull her suitcase out from under her bed. Lauren smiled sheepishly and went back to her magazine. Paige watched her flip through a few perfume ads and stop to smell one. She threw a balled-up sock at Lauren and ducked behind her suitcase. Once Lauren retaliated, a full-on clothing battle ensued and ended with half of Paige’s clothes lying on top of her fallen over suitcase and the other half strewn about the room.
“Okay. I’ll help you clean up and pack, and then you come back to my house and help me. Then we can cross packing off of your big to-do list.”
Hours later, after the two girls had finally finished packing up Paige’s stuff, they drove to Lauren’s house and began packing. Paige started to organize Lauren’s clothes into piles: clean, dirty, take, don’t take, cute, and don’t ever wear again. Lauren rummaged around her room for a big duffle bag and then searched for her memory card to go with her digital camera.
Paige shuffled papers around on Lauren’s desk trying to organize it or at least make it seem less cluttered. She threw a few empty envelopes with their tops torn off into the trash and lined up a pile of post-it-notes all in a row so that they’d be easy to read. She came across Lauren’s calendar and stuck it onto the bulletin board with a pushpin. On the calendar were Xs counting down to a circled day. The circled day, however, was not the day they were leaving for their trip. In fact, the trip wasn’t even marked on the calendar. The day encircled with bright red sharpie was July 10th. Two days after the day they were supposedly leaving. On July 10th, however, Lauren was apparently starting a new job at Fisher & Fisher Publishing.
“Lauren, what is this? Who are Fisher and Fisher?” Paige pointed to the circle on the calendar.
“Uh, Paige, let’s go eat some ice cream! Packing makes me tired and my mom just bought some Rocky Road!”
“Seriously, Laur. What is this? Why isn’t our trip marked down? Why didn’t you tell me you were getting a job? Did that not work out or something? Did they not hire you? What’s going on?”
“Paige,” Lauren sighed as she sat down. She paused for a moment, as if to gather her thoughts. “ Mr. Fisher did hire me. I am starting a new job. I – I haven’t started packing for our trip because…because I’m not going.” She picked at her comforter. “I didn’t know how to tell you this because I know you’ve been planning this—”
“I’ve been planning this? No, Lauren, we’ve been planning this. Or did you forget the last three weeks we’ve spent looking at maps and making lists.” Paige paced across the floor and turned towards her friend. “ I thought you wanted to go on this trip. Why did you lie to me this entire time?”
Lauren stood and threw her hands up. “I did want to go on this trip! I just can’t go, okay? I’m not allowed. I have to start my job!”
“Then you shouldn’t have started to plan this trip with me! I can’t believe you! This is so typical, you flaking out on me at the last second and only doing what you want. You’re so irresponsible.”
“Irresponsible?” Lauren was seething. “Irresponsible? I’m not being irresponsible. Not everyone has the luxury to gallivant across the country freeloading off of her parents all summer!”
“ I’m not freeloading off of my parents! Once we convinced our parents to let us go on this trip, I convinced mine to give me money for it as a graduation gift! It’s not my fault you didn’t do the same thing!”
“This isn’t about money. This is about how you’re still leaning on your parents. You’re the irresponsible one!”
“Shut up! I’m not irresponsible! If I were irresponsible, then I wouldn’t have gotten straight A’s or a 4.0!”
“Yeah. Because following Daddy’s rules on being perfect is really responsible.”
“God, Lauren. Why are you being such a bitch? You know how I feel about my dad and his ridiculous standards!”
“At least your dad has standards! At least he hasn’t given up on you and his dreams for you!”
“What? Laur, what are you talking about?” Paige’s rigid posture softened slightly as her friend choked on the last of her words.
“I have to pay for college. That’s why I got this job. I guess when I didn’t win any scholarships or whatever my dad finally realized I’m not a super genius and I’m not going to be a doctor or something unrealistically clichéd like that. He told me that he wasn’t going to ‘pay my way through parties and beer’ so I’d better get a job if I want to go to school. He doesn’t believe that I’ll work hard. He doesn’t believe in me.” Lauren’s shoulders slumped as she said this, as though she gave up on herself as well.
Paige regarded her friend for a moment. It was unusual to see Lauren so self-conscious and insecure. Usually she was brighter than sunshine, confident and not shy about anything. “Lauren,” Paige said softly, “it’s okay. We can work this out. We’ll show him! I know how hard you can work and I have faith in you. Show him our plans for the trip! He’ll have to be impressed with you after that. We’ve worked so hard to map out routes and budget our money and find safe places to stay. And after we get back and you start your job, he’ll –”
“Paige, stop!” Lauren interrupted loudly. “I can’t go on this trip. This job is more important. I have too much at stake. I’m sorry.”
“But, Lauren, your dad will see how hard you’ve worked. He’ll let you go!”
“Paige, this is about me proving to him – and myself – that I can do this. I have to earn his trust back and some silly little plans aren’t going to do that. I appreciate what you’re saying but this isn’t something you can help me with.”
“I can help you. Just let me try! Just tell me what to do! We can still fix this and make everything work!” Paige pleaded desperately with Lauren, her eyes frantically searching for something to prove her point.
“No, Paige. You can’t fix everything. You can’t control how everything goes! I have to do this by myself. It’s important to me, now more than ever, to stand on my own two feet. We’re both going to college next fall in separate cities in different states. It’s time for us to grow up a little bit. We can’t always rely on each other to solve our problems.”
The two girls grew silent. Somberly, Lauren wiped her face and tied her hair back into a ponytail. She stood up and looked around the room.
“I start my job tomorrow.”
Paige nodded quickly and stood up. She grabbed her purse and slung it on her shoulder.
“I should be going then. You need to get a good night’s sleep,” she said quietly and slipped out the door without saying anything else. Lauren stood and watched Paige close the door, and a minute later she watched her exit the front path and get into her car. The tires squelched against the newly wet road, and Lauren realized it had been raining.
***
Paige used her legs to rock gently back-and-forth on her ancient porch swing. The crickets were out and she listened to their melodic chirping as she sipped on sweet tea. It was just after dusk and a slight breeze waved through her hair and chilled her skin. Two weeks had gone by and Paige and Lauren had barely talked. It’s not that they were mad at each other; when they spoke they were civil but quiet. The spark in their conversation had died and there was no laughter, no amusing words or quips. The aftermath had left only distance. Each girl was hurt by what happened; Paige was hurt because for once in their history of friendship, Lauren hadn’t told her something really important –her first big job. For once in their friendship, Paige couldn’t fix it. It hurt her to hear those words, ‘You can’t fix everything. You can’t control how everything goes!’ She hadn’t realized that she turned out just like her father. An eager Mr. Fix-it who tried to control the world. She didn’t want to be like her father, constantly yelling, pushing, disagreeing. All of that confrontation and conflict made her sick to her stomach and she didn’t want to be nauseous for the rest of her life. ‘I have to do this by myself.’ Paige didn’t want to be by herself. She and Lauren had been inseparable since the sixth grade, when they stood up to Tori Spencer, the meanest girl in their homeroom. They’d done everything together because that’s how they worked best. They were strong as a team.
The dusk filtered into dark, the sky filled up with stars. The chains that held up the porch-swing creaked as she pushed back. Her glass was empty now, just left with half-melted ice cubes and bits of tea leaves.
‘It’s time for us to grow up a little bit. We can’t always rely on each other to solve our problems.’ Lauren was right. Next year Paige couldn’t count on having Lauren there when she was upset. Sure, she could call her, if Lauren weren’t busy, she’d pick up the phone, and Paige could cry and tell her what was wrong, and Lauren would listen, but things wouldn’t be the same. There would be less giggling and random phone calls and fewer late-night sleepovers where they would stay up, painting their toes while sharing their secrets, hopes and silly dreams.
It wasn’t that their friendship was over - it was just changing. Each girl had to face new fears and new demons and be able to handle it without the other. They could make new friends, and share their new friends and new stories. They’d work it out. But first, they had to stand alone.
Paige put her foot down to stop swinging and picked up her glass. She opened the screen door and walked into the kitchen. After putting her glass in the dishwasher, she made her way upstairs. She was going to look at her map again – but this time, she wasn’t going to have Lauren to help her read it or suggest places to stop. Paige was going to circle her house and her college town and leave the rest unmarked so she could discover the best path, on her own.
Ashleigh Donovan
Short Story
Tina’s Life
The rain was the only thing hiding her from the car. It had been slowly drizzling all day but the moment her mom escorted her into the alleyway behind Mr. Pizza’s Pizza Palace it started to pour. Tina Goosen could just barely see the black sedan idling ahead and she knew what was expected of her when she got into that car. The young girl of only fourteen glanced up at her mother with what she wasn’t sure was tears or rain in her eyes and saw only a cold expression. She felt like a little kid again and she couldn’t help but want her mommy to just throw her arms around her and say, “I’m sorry, baby girl. How about we just go home and I’ll fix you some ice cream,” but Tina knew that this was impossible. There was no home anymore because they had recently been evicted.
Luna Goosen used to be the type of woman that could make you smile the moment she entered the room. Luna was Tina’s sunshine and Tina was Luna’s little angel. At one point the two of them had one of the best mother daughter relationships despite the roughness of their life. Luna met Tina’s father in a local McDonalds, and for Luna it was love at first sight. It only took them a month to leave town, without so much as a goodbye to their families, and upon arrival in Las Vegas they eloped. It took only a few weeks for Luna to realize that her beloved Arthur was a devout gambler and they were almost drowning in debt. Luna spent the next three years moving from trailer park to trailer park until she discovered she would soon be a mother. By the time Tina was two Luna and Arthur both had steady jobs and they were living in an okay neighborhood right outside of Reno. Tina was eight when Arthur started abusing her. Over the years Arthur developed a love for alcohol, crystal meth, and his daughter’s flesh, and Luna felt herself slipping farther and farther away from her beloved husband. Tina was eleven when Luna first discovered what was happening, and for the love of her husband, she turned her back and slipped into a severe depression.