Impossible Is Possible

Daniella pushes open the door of the auditorium with a sigh. The room was nearly empty—just her classmates of her last period class sit in the first two rows, waiting for whatever is going to be said. Tiredly, she walks down the declined ramp and takes the empty seat by her best friend, Roxanne, who is falling asleep in a slouch. Daniella laughs and shoves the girl gently.

“What’s your damage?” Roxanne mumbles and tries to fall back into her semi-unconsciousness.

Laughing, Daniella places her tote bag by her feet and leans back against the seat, looking at the redhead. “What’s my ‘damage’? My damage is that if I have to sit here and listen to whatever the principle has to say, you have to be awake to.”

Roxanne mumbles under her breath and sits up.

“What are we here for anyway?” Daniella questions and looks around the room. “I just saw the note taped to Mrs. Hallman’s door saying that we have to be here.”

“I heard Mrs. Hallman got in an argument with the principle about getting a raise since she’s retiring after this year. Maybe she got let go or something—I can only hope. The bitch was evil.”

Daniella giggles and smacks her friend on the arm. “She was an old, tired woman. How would you feel if you were in her position and had to deal with students like you?”

“Like me?” Roxanne says with a shocked gasp. “Why, what ever do you mean? I am a respectable, young student.”

“Yeah… Tell that to Mr. Bryan when he got so frustrated with you, he had you write ‘I will not throw things’ on the chalkboard over two-hundred times.”

“It wasn’t my fault he smelled so bad I thought it would be a nice thing to throw some soap at him.”

Shaking her head in amusement, Daniella refocuses on the woman standing at the front of the auditorium.

“Good afternoon students,” the principle, Mrs. Frank, says with a tired smile. “As you may have figured—or heard, Mrs. Hallman has decided to terminate her position here at Desert Oasis High School. As of right now, our supervisors have not found a fit replacement for Mrs. Hallman. So, until then, you will all report here for eighth period just wait it out. We may let you watch an educational movie to pass the time—“

“Can’t we just, oh, I don’t know, leave this period?”

Daniella snorts and kicks Roxanne.

Mrs. Frank clenches her jaw and crosses her arms over her chest, staring down Roxanne. “No, Miss Burns, you may not leave school this period. That is unfair to the other students whose transportation is provided by the school buses, not their own cars.”

“Gotcha,” Roxanne says with a smack of her gum and a thumbs up at the woman. “But, let’s just say, I do leave school—“

“Then, I’ll see you in detention for every time you make the decision leave school. And believe, Miss Burns, I will be checking.”

“Bitch,” Roxanne mutters and smirks when Daniella laughs into her the palm of her hand. “Seriously, she just hates me because I speak my mind. Dude, if one of those goody-goody little nerds asked her that, she would have been like ‘Oh, sure Henry! What a thoughtful idea!’.”

Daniella says, “Just be quiet. You can’t get a detention tonight because were going to that show later on.”

After that comment, Roxanne shuts her lips and sits back. Both of them just decide to tune out the older woman and play a couple rounds of Tick-Tac- Toe under the final school bell rings.

---x---

The club was beyond packed as soon as Daniella and Roxanne pass the bouncer and through the front doors of the House of Blues. People immediately push into them as they try to shove their way through the crowd and towards the bar.

“Dude,” Roxanne yells over the loud thump of the bass guitar, her Southern California speak shining through, “I can’t believe these fake IDs actually work!”

Throwing her hands up, Daniella shushes her loudly and looks around; making sure nobody actually heard the girl. “Will you shut up? Jesus, do you want us to get caught? Because I don’t—I need a beer tonight. I’m under so much stress and I’ve earned it.”

“You may have earned a beer, but I’ve earned some shots!”

“Oh, no,” Daniella moans as Roxanne drags her over to two empty bar stools. “Please don’t let us have a repeat of last weekend when we went to that party in Lake Tahoe.”

“Can’t make any promises, my little friend—Yo! Mister Bartender, send a Jäger shot my way!”

The man sends her a confused glance, looking over her appearance, before coming satisfied when he doesn’t find a large, sharpied ‘X’ on her hand—which signals that she’s underage. He quickly pours the liquor into a small shot glass and pushes it towards the redhead.

“Can I get you anything?”

Daniella smiles and nods, “I’ll just take a Corona, thanks.”

The bartender smiles back and uncaps the clear bottle and lets in slide towards her, but keeps an amused eye on Roxanne as she downs the shot like a professional. “Let me guess,” he says with a knowing laugh, “You’re going to be the baby-sitter tonight.”

“Another shot!”

Daniella sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose at Roxanne’s request. “It seems like that is going to be the case.”

Next to her, Roxanne lets out a victorious yell and makes grab hands at the shit glass, and Daniella takes a long sip of her beer.

---x---

“You know what, Mister Bartender?” Roxanne slurs and Daniella has to catch her before she falls off the barstool. “I’m going to name my baby Sir Humphrey Skittles- Son and you can be apart of his life if you want. But, that’s going to be his name. Why? Because I have the vagina!”

“Okay!” Daniella says and pushes the countless number of shot glasses away from her friend. “I think it’s time to cut you off for the night.” She looks back towards the bartender with a look of complete mortification. “I am so sorry.”

The man, his name now known as Ayden, just laughs and holds his hands up. “It’s quite alright. I’ve dealt with worse—believe it or not. Your friend is funny though. Come back any other Friday night and I’ll give you some free drinks.”

“Oh, we won’t be back for a long time.”

And with that statement, Daniella hoists up Roxanne and places the money owed on the bar. Hanging onto Daniella, Roxanne giggles and blows a kiss towards Ayden.

“I love you. You’re my soul mate because you wouldn’t care what I name my baby.”

“Alright, Roxy,” Daniella groans out and starts off towards the club’s front door, “Time to go. I need to get you into my house without my parents knowing what we were up to.”

“Shush, I got it. I’ll be so sneaky that you wouldn’t even notice I’m here—God! This place is so nice! I want these lights for my room!”

Daniella tries to not laugh, but manages to safely get them outside into the cool city air. She takes a deep breath and reaches down to her pocket to get her cell phone, but the almost dead weight of Roxanne makes it difficult and Daniella huffs out a groan.

She looks around at the people passing by and finds a man with a group of his friends just standing around, chain smoking in front of the club. Daniella stumbles towards them and taps one of them on the shoulder.

The brunette haired man looks at her dumbfounded and glances over to Roxanne, who starts mumbling to herself in her drunken haze. “Can I help you?”

“I fucking hope so,” Daniella grunts out and motions to Roxanne. “Can you just—I don’t know – hold her for a second while I call a cab to get us home. She’s really drunk.”

“Um,” the man glances back towards his friends and shrugs his shoulders. “Alright?”

“Thank you so much,” Daniella says and hands over her friend. “I’ll make it quick. Just ignore everything she says if she tries to hit on you or anything. If she pukes, just drop her—I don’t care.”

The man’s eyes widen and he holds Roxanne away from his body.

Daniella turns slowly and punches in the number for the Yellow Cab Company. It rings for a short moment before a woman answers. “Yeah, hi. I need a cab. I’m at the House of Blues on Main Street—“

“Who are you!? Don’t kidnap me! Dani, this man is trying to kidnap me! Help!”

“Hold on a moment, please,” Daniella sighs and glares over at Roxanne. “Be quiet. I needed to call us a cab because I’m not walking us to the bus terminal with you like that. So, I asked this kind man to hold you up from falling. Now, shut the hell up.”

Roxanne ‘awes’ and pats the man on his clean, shaven face. “You are so nice. You help up the needy! You, Sir, deserve an award.”

The man laughs deep in his throat. “Thanks?”

Placing the phone back up to her ear, Daniella starts talking. “Are you there? Okay, like I said, we’re at the House of Blues on Main Street and I need a cab as soon as possible. Two minutes? Thank you so much!”

Daniella ends the call and turns back towards the group, just in time to notice Roxanne stoking the man’s hair. “Oh my God, I’m sorry. I’ll take it from here. Thank you, though. You’re such a big help.”

“It’s no problem,” he says and hands Roxanne over, gently. “Just make sure you keep an eye on how much she drinks next time, yeah?”

“We’re not going out for a very long time,” Daniella says as she glares down at Roxanne. “But, thanks again.”

The man smiles and nods, before heading into the club.