Sweet Sixteen, Chapter 7 ~ Fathers

Elly looked forward to seeing Sien all weekend, and come Monday she picked out her clothes for school carefully and paid extra attention to her hair and makeup.  Standing in front of the mirror she inspected herself closely, wondering just what it was that Sien had seen in her to make him approach her at last, and invite her to lunch.  She didn’t think herself ugly, but there were lots of pretty girls, what exactly did he like about her?  Assuming, that was, that she wasn’t mistaken about that.  She didn’t think she was.  Boys weren’t known for chatting up and giving motorcycle rides to girls they didn’t care for.

If she could switch perspectives with him for a little bit, and see herself through his eyes, and find out why of all the girls in school he had noticed her, then she would know better where to go from here.

Elly imagined it for a moment, closing her eyes.  Would he like it if she were shy?  Would he like it if she were bolder?  Funny?  Serious?  What colors should she wear, should she do something with her hair or let it hang loose?  Should she show a little more skin or would he not like it if she started seeming trampy?  What had caught his eye?  What would keep it on her?

I need to know more about him, she thought to her reflection.  What kind of people his parents were, how they’d raised him, that sort of thing.  She had to know how he saw the world to understand how he was seeing her.

She went to school with big plans.  They would meet on the steps and talk a little before class, then they would go to the café again for lunch and she would find out more about his family and the places he’d lived before.  She’d ask him all about what he planned to do in the future, how he wanted his life to be.  Eventually she would find out all about him.

She saw him on the steps, books in hand, before he saw her coming.  She was taken again with how handsome he was, with his healthy tan and wavy golden hair.  His relaxed posture as he leaned against the archway wasn’t slouchy or lazy but just the right kind of natural, self-possessed ease.  It occurred to her that he probably hadn’t been worrying over how to please or impress her; he didn’t have to, he could just be.

As she neared him her throat closed up, and suddenly she didn’t know what to do, so she just kept walking up the steps, over the landing toward the doors.

“Eleanor!”

She paused, turning around, and replied, “Oh, hi Sien,” as if she had just noticed him.  He pushed himself away from the bricks with an easy smile and covered the space between them in a couple steps.

“How was your weekend?” he asked.

“Okay.  Yours?”

“Very okay.  Walk you to your locker?”

“Sure.”  She half shrugged, and they turned back toward the doors.

“So, what did you do over your very okay weekend?” Elly asked after a few steps, proud of herself for regrouping enough to remember that she wanted to find out more about his life.

Sien smiled and informed her with pride; “As a matter of fact, I started a new job.”

“A job?”  Elly cocked her head to the side.  Very few students who attended Ridgewalter bothered with after school jobs; they had rich parents and hefty allowances, so why waste away time better spent shopping or at the beach?

He must have guessed what she was thinking, because his demeanor quickly changed to one of indifference as they passed through the doors, and he shrugged.  “You know, it’s a way to pass the time.  And my father is a little stingy with the allowance.  He wants me to be self-reliant.”

“That’s good.”  She nodded.  “Being self-reliant, I mean, not stingy.  So where are you working?”

“Motorcycle repair shop.  Because I like motorcycles.  I have one.”

Elly laughed.  Sien was funny.  That was good, it helped put her at ease.  “You’re funny,” she said, “I know you have a motorcycle.  It’s a good job for you.  It’s a manly job,” she added with a nod.  “All the grease and motor oil and power tools lying around.”

“Right,” he laughed.  “Right.  Very manly.”

They reached her locker and Elly twirled the combination on her lock, wondering if he’d ask if he’d see her again after class.  Instead, to her surprise, he took the pad on the locker next to hers and said, “This is a lucky coincidence, isn’t it?  They reassigned my locker, and lo and behold, I’m next to you now!”

“Huh?”  Elly stared at him for a moment before realizing her jaw was dangling, and she shook herself from her stupor.  “Why did they reassign your locker?”

“Oh.  Well my old one had . . . a problem.  Mold.”

“Mold?”  Elly laughed incredulously.  “I guess I haven’t been paying enough attention in biology; I didn’t know mold grew on metal?”

“Well not usually, but this is a special spore.  Which grows on metal.  Locker Fungus, it’s called.  I think the last guy who used it was on the soccer team.”

“Locker Fungus,” she echoed, shaking her head.

“Yeah.  I can’t believe you’ve never heard of Locker Fungus.  It’s practically an epidemic in Pennsylvania.”

Elly just laughed, and shut her door as the bell rang.  “Sure,” she said, pivoting away.  She waved and added, “I’ll see you after class, then,” before turning all the way and retreating down the hall.

How strange is that? she mused.  Could it really be a coincidence that Sien was reassigned to a locker right next to hers?  She didn’t really think so.  For one, she believed locker fungus was about as credible as the tooth fairy, and secondly, she believed coincidence was about as credible as locker fungus.  Sien must have requested the switch.  That thought filled her with conflicting thoughts — on one hand it was kind of sweet and flattering and meant he definitely liked her, but on the other hand, it was kind of weird.  And a little clingy.  Controlling, even?

“Ohmigod, who was that?” a voice said over her shoulder, and she looked to see Biljana Stevens trailing after her, casting glances back toward Sien.  She was the daughter of an American fashion designer and a European super model; everyone called her Jani for short.

Elly slowed to let Jani catch up with her.  “My new locker neighbor,” she stated the obvious, very reluctant to share more.

“Well of course.”  Jani rolled her eyes, which were an unnaturally bright shade of violet thanks to her colored contacts.  “You were getting all chatty with him, that’s all you know?”

“His name is Sien Auriel.”

“Oooh, is he Brazilian?  He looks Brazilian.”

“Don’t know.  I don’t know where he’s from originally.”  Elly shrugged.  That was true, unfortunately.

“Well good grief, girl—” Jani elbowed her “—find out!  He’s such a hottie, and right next to you.  You’ve got to put some moves on him.”  She paused, thoughtfully swishing her perfectly straight, shiny black hair over one shoulder.  “Of course if you don’t like him, you can introduce us . . . .”

“Hello, Jani.”  Elly glared at her.  “You have a boyfriend.”

Jani sighed.  “And I’m looking for an excuse to dump.”

“Find a different one.”

“Mreow, hiss,” Jani laughed playfully.  “I was saying ‘if.’  Obviously you’ve got dibs.  But you better move fast, I’m not the only other girl with eyes in this place.”

“Thank you, I know.”  They reached the classroom doorway, and Elly added cheekily, “But Sien only has eyes for me.”

“Reeeeally,” Jani said, intrigued, but there was no time for more.

During class she couldn’t help but pass Elly a tiny corner of paper with the word Senior? written on it.  Elly scribbled yes below it and surreptitiously slid the note back.  She smiled quietly to herself.  Landing a senior was a major coup.  But her smile faded, and for the first time she wished she had applied herself a little more to her studies, so she could be a senior too.  When she was younger she had been ahead in school, taking classes with kids in grades above her.  Since high school, she was smart enough but not nerd enough to keep up her good grades.  She hadn’t previously cared, because it wasn’t like she was behind — she was right on par with most other kids her age.  She just wasn’t ahead anymore, and really, she didn’t care.

But now she thought ruefully that if she was advanced enough to take classes with the seniors she’d be able to take classes with Sien.  If only she’d known that before she slacked off . . . .

Ah well.  She shrugged the regret off.  If she had really studied and lived up to her potential she’d have been able to graduate from high school already, and she would never have even met Sien.  And that would be a tragedy.

---

“Can I ask you something?”

It was Thursday.  They’d been chatting at their locker and “hanging out” over lunch for almost a week.  Elly was going through her locker, but froze and gave Sien all her attention.  She figured they were well along on the date-asking path . . . past the usual points of asking, actually, but this was the first time he’d gotten that apprehensive look that usually precedes an invitation to romantic coupling.

“Yes?” she prompted, giving him an encouraging smile.

“Do you think you could introduce me to your parents sometime?”

Elly stared at Sien in surprise, not sure she’d heard him right.  “You want to meet my parents?”

“Sure.  Why not?”

“No reason . . . I mean, sure, I guess so.  I just thought . . . well, okay.”

Elly had been thinking more along the lines of a movie, or dinner.  A stroll along the beach.  Something romantic.  Alone time.  She was still recovering from the surprise as she agreed haltingly to his request, and nearly missed the bright smile that met her words.

“I, um, well do you want to have dinner at our house?  We don’t really have dinner together as a family all that much, but it’s my mom’s birthday tomorrow and so we’re having some people over and my whole family will be there, so . . . I guess one more guest won’t be a big deal?”

She smiled apologetically, thinking that her mother’s birthday party was the uncoolest date idea in the history of humankind, forgetting momentarily that it was Sien who wanted to meet her parents for some bizarre reason.

“That sounds great,” he said, with complete sincerity.  “I could bring something.”

Elly shook her head, stupefied.  “You don’t have to get my mother a gift, Sien; you don’t even know her.”

“No, I mean . . . like something for the party.  Chips.  Fondue.”

“Oh.”

“I’d feel funny showing up like that to just, y’know, mooch food off you.”

“I . . . .”  Elly paused, shaking her head again.  Going to a party just to eat free food wasn’t a concept she was familiar with, so Sien’s reasoning slid right over her head.  “You are funny,” she told him, tempering her words with a laugh.

“You keep saying that.”  He smiled and cocked an eyebrow.  “Am I funny ‘ha ha’ or funny strange?”

“Straightjacket funny, actually,” said Elly playfully, and realized suddenly that she might be acting too coy.  Either too coy or too forthright, it was hard to tell.  She needed to step back and see herself like an observer, and pause and replay their exchange in slow motion to know if it was too much, too little, or just right.

All Sien did was laugh, and she did like the way laughter brightened his face.  He formed the slightest dimples when he smiled, and they deepened very sexily when he laughed.  His laughter was infectious: she found herself giggling along with him at her own less-than-stellar “joke,” and decided that perhaps his wanting to meet her parents wasn’t so weird anyway.

The bell rang for class, and Elly jumped.  “Okay, well, the party’s gonna start at six tomorrow, I’ll get back to you and tell you how to get to my house later.”

She rushed off to class, and wondered apprehensively if inviting Sien to her mother’s birthday party was such a good way to introduce him.  On the one hand, it was going to be a pretty informal get-together . . . partly to celebrate forty years of her mother on Earth and partly as an excuse for a bunch of family and friends to hang out.  People like her father’s bandmates would be there, and her mother didn’t even like those guys.

They usually didn’t have full-out parties for her mother’s birthday.  Mom liked to just go out to dinner and open a few presents and leave it at that, but since forty seemed like a landmark number that was as good an excuse as any for a party.  Dori, Jake’s mom, had done most of the preparation work.  Technically it was a surprise party, so even though Mom knew about it, she couldn’t be involved in any of the planning.  It just didn’t seem right for her to be managing her own birthday party, no matter how much she might have preferred to.

Does he want to see what kind of parents I have before he starts to get serious? Elly wondered.  Maybe he was one of those people who think that girls always turn into their mothers, and he wanted to see if her mom was a fat, ugly, obnoxious woman whom she would no doubt one day morph into.  Well, luckily for her, her mother had aged very well and still made men’s heads turn.  People often mistook them for sisters.  As long as Liseli didn’t lose her temper around him, Sien shouldn’t be put off by what he saw, at all.

What if he thinks Mom is prettier?  Elly shook that thought away.  It was just gross.  Her mother was old after all, even if she didn’t quite look it.  No, it wasn’t really Liseli she should be worried about Sien meeting, anyway.  It was her father who might send him running.  He would not be the first potential boyfriend to scurry away after getting fixed with Russ Markson’s evil eye.

Elly found her father’s overprotectiveness a little heartwarming but a lot more frustrating.  She really didn’t see what his problem was.  It wasn’t like she went out with bad boys or losers — going to Ridgewalter put her in with a crowd of privileged, ambitious young men who knew how to behave around adults.  Perhaps Russ thought they were too preppy, or something.  Well, Sien wasn’t preppy.  Not exactly.  He did, on first glance, look like most of the boys at Ridgewalter, but there was something different.  Something.  She could feel it.

Maybe her father would sense the difference too, and would actually like Sien for a change.

Hey.  She shrugged.  A girl can dream.