Because I need a push, Book Tuesday is back. I hope you don't mind. If you want to read back pieces of Casey then click on the word 'casey' at the bottom and it will get you refreshed and up to date.
Sarah is Casey’s best friend. The two could not be more different Casey frequently muses. Where Casey tends to stand in the corner Sarah is always out front. She is loud and feisty always angling to get what she wants in the way that she wants it. Casey likes to wait things out and see where life will take her unless Sarah decides to drag her along which she frequently does. Casey’s parents have been all over her lately to find new friends. They want her to branch out beyond Sarah at this new school and think that maybe then she will stop getting into trouble. Lately, when she and Sarah have hung out they ‘lose track of time’ and stay out too late, they have started mouthing off and just generally being pains in the asses as Casey’s mother so bluntly put it when she last grounded Casey from Sarah for a week.
Casey thinks about Sarah now as she waits for her mother to pick her up. Today would have been so different she thinks if only Sarah was back from vacation. She thinks back to when she and Sarah were about five years old. They thought that if they gave a convincing portrayal of babies it would impress Sarah’s mom so much, that she would take them out for pizza. They decided to dress themselves in pajamas and crawled around the Sarah’s living room floor making cooing noises in front of her Sarah’s mom. Then to really bring it home they peed right there in their pajama’s. Sarah’s mother was not pleased. She scooted them out of the living room so fast, grumbling to herself about Casey’s mom owing her a play date now and stripped the two girls down in the tub. Casey thought she was going to hose them down in the front yard she was so mad! She told them to clean up as she slammed the bathroom door leaving the two girls alone to ponder the mess they had literally gotten themselves into this time. Casey remembers that Sarah was not fazed by any of it. She was only sorry that the plan had not worked they want they had envisioned she stated as she stripped off her wet pajama bottoms leaving them in a wet wad on the bathroom tile floor. She had turned on the tap in the bathtub and climbed in waving Casey over to join her in the tub. Leaning against the cement block wall of her new school Casey smiled to herself as she remembered what happened next. The girls decided that they felt bad and after being sent to Sarah’s room, they conjured up an apology skit of sorts. When Sarah’s Mom finally let them out of Sarah’s room, they quietly brought out a music box and wound it up. The two girls danced around the room chanting in soft voices that they were “Sooo Soooorrrryyyy!” and continued to dance and sing imagining themselves as fairies. It worked too. Sarah’s Mom thought it was imaginative and broke into a smile. She took Sarah and Casey out for pizza that day anyway. That was Sarah in a nutshell Casey thought as she peered out the double glass doors of the school searching for her mother’s car. Sarah is always up to something and does not stop until she gets what she wants. Casey sighed and heaved herself off the floor as she saw her mother’s car sidle up to the schools front door. Maybe next week when Sarah came back school would be better.
Casey opened the door to the car and slid in. Her mother looked her over and asked cheerily, “How was your first day? Did you meet anyone new? What are your classes like? Did you eat lunch?” “Geez, Mom! Enough with the twenty questions!” Casey flinched and looked out the window at the passing landscape. The road leading away from school was bumpy and full of potholes. Her mother’s car while comfortably cushy was still jostling along as it sped towards home. Casey didn’t feel like talking. She just wanted to head to home, grab her dog Barkley and go to her room. Instead, she decided to make things easier and answered her mother’s questions.
“School was alright”, she said eliminating the growling purple haired kid and how she skipped lunch. “It will be a lot better once Sarah is back next week,” she continued. Her mother gripped the steering wheel and sighed. “Casey, honey, you know you have to have more friends than just Sarah. Sarah has more friend than just you at school. Now that you two are in the same school you are going to notice that she isn’t just there for you to hang out with.” “I know Mom, but it was lonely today, Casey admitted. Actually, it sucked!” “Casey!” , her mother chided, “Don’t speak like that!”, It is vulgar and we didn’t pay $10,000 a year the last eight years to have you speak like that after one day at public school.” Casey looked at her mother and laughed. “Alright Mom, sorry. But it sort of did you know. I know it won’t be easy to adjust but it was tough today and my classes are a lot bigger and just, well, different. I think we are using the math book I used last year. Just an older version I think. Sarah is my best friend since forever too and suffice it to say if Sarah did not go to this school I would not be able to survive this whole public to private school transition thing. The choice of what to wear each morning alone is now mind-boggling and I just cannot seem to get the hang of it. I can tell you one thing, I am not going to be wearing this outfit again.”, she said as she clawed at her plaid skorts and equally plaid necktie.
They arrived home and Casey exited the car and quickly walked into the house leaving her mother behind in the garage. She scooped up Barkley who was sleeping in his bed behind the chair in the den and went upstairs to her room. It was only when she closed the door to her room and sank into her upholstered chair that she let out her breath for the first time that day. Casey felt tired. Her book bag was heavy and her brain hurt from trying to remember where to go all day. She did not think about the boy who smiled at her in the hallway until later that night as she was drifting off to sleep. He was sort of cute wasn’t he, she thought as she let sleep take over.
