Never Easy

An exhausted feeling overtook Callie’s body as her eyes slowly lost its view on the class room in front of her. She jerked her eyes open just before her body fell into deep sleep. A yawn escaped from her mouth causing her to bring up one hand to cover her mouth in effort to stop the yawn.

Around her, Callie could see plenty of other students doing the same action as she was. A movie about the history of the atom really wasn’t that fascinating for her and it was certainly putting her and the rest of the class to sleep.

Her eyes traveled to the analog clock that was hanging on the wall. Her sprits lifted once she saw that there was only about two minutes left of her chemistry class. The hands on the clock decided at that moment to start moving slower and slower, or at least what seemed to Callie.

The next five minutes were torture as Callie checked the clock every ten seconds, hoping that the final bell would ring some time soon. To keep herself awake, Callie began to drum her fingers against the wooden desk, much to the annoyance of her classmates around her.

Callie breathed a sigh of relief the second that the last bell of the day rang throughout the school. Picking up her books, she bolted out of the classroom despite the fact that her teacher was still talking.

Tossing her blond hair behind her shoulder, Callie reached down and used her fingers to spin the dial on her locker. Passing the three numbers, she opened up her locker and stuck her books inside. Picking up her tote bag, she shoved the binders and books she would need for the weekend.

She was about to shut her locker when a pair of arms snaked around her waist. She jumped in surprise but relaxed as a kiss was placed on her neck. Adjusting her tote bag, Callie turned around and wrapped her arms around Joe’s neck. Standing on her tip toes, she placed a gentle kiss on his lips before pulling back.

“Hi,” Callie said with a sweet smile.

A chuckle left Joe’s lips as he looked down at his girlfriend. “Aren’t you in a good mood?” he asked with a smile.

“It’s finally the weekend and that means no school for a full 48 hours,” Callie replied in all seriousness. “This week has been such a killer, all I feel like doing is sleeping.”

She unwrapped her arms and the two of them began to walk together towards the entrance of the school. “I was freaking out all week since my family was supposed to drive all the way to Kentucky to visit my grandma and then my parents tell me they canceled the trip. I even made brownies last night for Grandma! I spent the entire week trying to study for all my exams next week thinking I wasn’t going to be here this weekend, but no, apparently I’m going to be home.”

“You made brownies?!” Joe asked as his voice perked up.

Callie narrowed her eyes. “I go on a spiel about how I’ve had a terrible week and all you get from that is I made brownies?”

Joe shrugged before laughing at her annoyed expression. He leaned down to give her a swift kiss on her cheek to make it up to her. Just that simple gesture made her forget her annoyance and silly giddiness radiated on her face.

“Sorry,” Joe apologized. But his smile indicated that he was far from anything sorry. “But because you had a crappy week, I’ll make it up to you by giving you an amazing weekend.”

Callie raised an eyebrow. “And how exactly are you going to do that?”

Joe’s eyes twinkled as he replied back to her curious question. “It’s a surprise.”

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Callie struggled to open her eyes but was forced to do so once her brain registered that there was a high amount of sunlight sneaking through her window curtains. She let out a yawn and turned over only to snuggle deeper into her blankets.

Once her eyes were closed again, it took a few more minutes for Callie to peek open one eye to check the time on the her digital clock. The neon green colored numbers read showed half past six thirty in the evening. She blinked making sure that she hadn’t read it wrong but sure enough, her planned one hour nap and stretched out to two and a half hours.

Callie groaned and sat up in bed and ran her fingers through her hair. She had only planned to take a nap for an hour so she could catch up on some sleep but she had been more tired than she thought she’d been. It was Saturday evening and Joe had called her last night telling her to be ready by seven thirty because he was taking her out somewhere special.

Unfortunately for her, Joe had been stubborn on the fact that he wasn’t going to tell her where exactly their date was going to be. She had pleaded and had even tried the cute and innocent girlfriend part but had failed to get any significant information out of Joe. All he had let out was to dress casual but that was it.

Callie threw her legs over the side of her bed and walked over to her closet to begin getting ready the night. Half an hour later, she was fully ready with her hair and make up done along with her outfit picked out.

As she grabbed her cell phone off her dresser, Callie checked herself in the mirror one last time. Her hair was curled and made her outfit of jeans and a black tube top seem fancier than it actually was. A simple silver necklace hung around her neck, matching the bracelet donned on her wrist.

Running down the stairs, Callie reached the front foyer just as the doorbell chime rang throughout the house. Yelling goodbye to her parents, Callie opened the door only to meet her boyfriend about to walk in. She caught herself just in time before colliding into Joe.

“Well don’t you look nice,” Callie commented as she took in Joe. He was dressed down into a casual jeans and a tight solid gray t-shirt which showed off his toned muscles from football.

Joe smiled and leaned down to give her a kiss. “Thanks. You look pretty great yourself.”

“Aren’t you sweet?” Callie asked with a smile. She moved forward and placed her hands on his chest. “So are you going to tell me where we’re going tonight?”

Joe laughed. “You’ll see, come on.” He reached out his hand and took Callie’s hand into his and walked her out to his car.

When she slid into the passenger seat of the car, Callie tried looking for any hints of wherever they were going but failed to find any. Meanwhile, Joe opened the driver’s side and sat down in the driver’s seat. Backing out the driveway, Joe looked over at Callie and smiled.

Conversation flowed smoothly between them as they drove. Callie kept looking for landmarks hoping that it would give a clue to where they were headed. In the beginning, she noticed where they were driving but after about ten minutes through they drive, she realized that they were heading out of the city and into the more country area.

She hadn’t even acknowledged that they had arrived till Joe completely turned off the key ignition. He opened his side of the door but told her to stay inside because they weren’t going out. Confused, her eyes followed his body to see where he was going and saw him open the trunk of the car.

Pulling out a small red ice cooler and another even smaller blue box, Chelsea realized where they were. And sure enough, when she looked back in front of her, the sign Paul Brown Drive In Theater was in front of her. A huge smile made its way onto Chelsea’s face as she took everything in.

Joe came back inside the car and set everything in the backseat. He turned the car on again and drove ahead to pay their tickets. Since it was Saturday night, the drive in movie theater was packed and there were cars taking up most of the lot. A huge white screen stood in front of the lot where advertisements were running before the feature presentation.

Turning off the car for the last time, Joe tossed the keys on the dashboard and slung his arm behind Callie’s seat. “Surprise?” he asked with a smile.

She couldn’t help herself but squeal and jump over the seat divider onto Joe’s lap. Straddling him, Callie wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his. Joe’s hand moved right to her lower back and pulled her closer to him. Moving her lips against his, Callie didn’t let go of Joe for at least thirty seconds before she needed to come up for air.

Breathing heavily, Joe looked at Callie and chuckled. “If that’s your reaction every time I surprise you, I need to do it more often. I’m taking it that you like this?”

Callie giggled and placed her forehead against his. “I do. You know I love these kinds of places. You’re amazing.” She kissed him one more time before untangling her legs. She was about to move back to the passenger’s seat when Joe tugged on her hand and insisted for her to stay right where she was.

They eventually had to move outside to see the movie once it had started. Joe had brought a bigger lawn chair than normal which could hold two people which he set up right outside his car. The snacks and drinks he had brought along were propped next to them as convenient use.

The movie that was playing was an animated film for little kids. But Joe knew that Callie loved those kinds of movies. For her, the innocence that was portrayed in those movies always touched her.

After the movie was finished, Callie helped Joe pack their belongings into the trunk of the car. It took awhile for them to leave the drive in but they eventually got back out onto the road after about twenty minutes or so. Callie though Joe was driving her back to her house but when they took a right instead of a left at Dragon Lane, she realized they weren’t gong home.

“Are you taking me somewhere else?” Callie asked confused.

Joe turned to her and nodded before looking back to the road. “Yep. We’re stopping by one more place before I drop you home.”

She didn’t even bother asking him where they were going, knowing that she wasn’t going to get a legit answer from him. Soft radio music played in the background of the car as Callie enjoyed watching the scenic landscape pass by.

Her attention was diverted back to the car ride when Callie felt the car drive over some bumpy gravel. Joe was pulling into a very small parking lot which was basically graveled. Callie craned her neck to see where they were, and when she did, her heart practically melted.

Joe had already gotten out of the car and had walked over to Callie’s side to open the door for her. Stepping onto the gravel, she stood up and mustered out the biggest hug she could give to Joe.

“Have I told you that you’re incredible?” Callie asked. Her arms had once again found themselves around Joe’s neck. She played with the ends of Joe’s hair as she gave him a sweet kiss.

“You may have mentioned it once or twice,” Joe replied with a laugh.

Walking through the soft grass, the two of them made their way down the small hill and towards Lake Rica. It was one of the more popular lakes around their city, and Callie had even come here when she lived back in her hometown. Many fourth of July’s had been spent here watching the huge fireworks display.

The setting of the night seemed to be just perfect to Callie. There were so many stars out that were twinkling while the full moon shined bright throughout the sky giving the lake a dim but soft glow of light. Callie could hear different night creature’s sounds around the lake as they gave off their natural sounds.

Finding a soft patch of grass, Joe and Callie sat down with their hands still intertwined with each other’s. Joe’s hand left hers but quickly came back into her grasp as he slid his arm around her waist to bring her closer to him. He leaned down and gave her a small kiss on her head.

No words were spoken between them for awhile. Just sitting there and taking in the beauty of the night seemed to be enough at the moment. Eventually, conversation would come, but for now, it seemed that everything in her life was just about perfect.

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Callie set her head down on her crossed arms that were folded on top of her desk. It was Monday morning and the last thing she wanted to do right now was pay attention in class. Class hadn’t even started yet but she was just about drained of energy already. She couldn’t understand how people around her were hyped up as if they were at a football game.

The crackling of the intercom around the school startled Callie out of her nap. Groggily, Callie sat up as the sound of her principal’s voice sounded throughout the school.

“Our Homecoming Game verses Middletown is this Friday! Show your school spirit starting this week as our Spirit Week starts today with Nerd Day.”

Callie’s ears perked up once she heard the word Homecoming. The classroom had gone silent on behalf of her teacher. All the students began to listen as the principal listed off the rest of the days for Spirit Week, but most of all the students were only waiting for one thing.

“Speaking of Homecoming, our Student Government has totaled up all your votes for our Homecoming Court! Congratulations to our sophomore court Justin Lien and Andrea Nicholas, junior court Joe Jonas and Callie Ryans, and our senior King and Queen Mark Greens and Shanna Powers!”

Callie’s heart thudded in her chest. She did it. She won the stupid bet. Callie had successfully dated Joe Jonas and won Homecoming Court. Only a few seconds of glory went through her before Callie realized winning this would only bring on more hell. Her heart sank knowing that Amanda was going to be furious that she lost and would only try to make her life more hell.

Her life was about to get a lot more complicated.