The Wonder of You

Paula’s family was worried sick about her, she didn’t come home the night before and they saw that her entire liquor cabinet was empty.

“She could be anywhere! What if she got into an accident! What if she got alcohol poisoning?”

Paula’s grandfather sighed and hugged his daughter in law and said, “Give her today, today she can cry, she can drink, she can be a wreck. Tomorrow she’ll get it together, she has too.”

“How can she get it together after that boy did THAT to her?”

“Because there’s a war going on and in times of war you have to push aside your emotions in order to be victorious.”

Her parents grew quiet at that comment; they knew he was from personal experience. When his wife was killed, he took one day to grieve, and then proceeded to fight with a force that scared everyone until the war was won.

Once the war was won he disappeared for two weeks, leaving his children with his parents. When he returned he was in a better emotional state, but his heart was forever scarred.

Night turned to day and Paula still wasn’t home. Her parent’s were sure that something wrong had happened, because even when Paula was pissed drunk she always managed to get home before 8 am the next day.

Paula’s grandfather knew where she was and decided to be the one to pick her up. He drove up to the ranch and saw the five greasers passed out on the floor.

He walked over to the boys and kicked them softly, they got up and rubbed their eyes the sun was too bright and they were too hung-over.

Paula’s grandfather kicked her five times but was having no luck waking her up so he resorted to getting a bucket full of water and throwing it at her.

Paula coughed as she woke up, water had rushed into her nose and she was completely drenched. Her eyes hurt from crying so much, but she managed to open her eyes and make out her grandfather’s figure.

She squinted wanting to get away from him and continue wallowing in her misery, but he was not going to let her do that.

“Paula.”

“what?”

“Are you ready to go back yet?”

“No. Just leave me here I never want to go back to town! There’s no point in my going back.”

“Paula Marie Lombardi. Get your fucking act together right now!”

“How can you expect me to get my shit together! Did you not see what happened yesterday?”

“I did, and I know that it’s hard. Believe me I know what it’s like to lose someone that you just can’t live without, but you have to be strong.”

“I don’t want to be strong though.”

“It doesn’t matter if you want too or not. You have to be strong. You’re the leader of the T-Birds and guess what, there’s a war going on. I know it seems cruel and inhumane but those damn scorpions are gonna attack now that they think you’re weak. You have to push all these emotions aside and focus on one thing, and that’s putting the scorpions in their place.”

“So what do I do? Just push all my problems to the side? Do I ever get time to focus on myself.”

“Yes, once you’re done fighting this war you can wallow in your misery all you want. But for now you need to wake up and get your act together especially since you have practice at noon.”

He stretched out his hand and Paula gladly took it, she stood up and cleaned herself up. She grabbed her jacket from the floor and her Ray Bans.

Her grandfather had a point she was the leader of a gang and had to keep it together, especially at this time of war.

The drive home was uneventful, and so was the practice. It was just another day of practicing how to best inflict pain on the enemy.

Paula’s grandfather had to take her away from a human partner and put her up against a punching bag because she was being extra brute.

At the end of the practice, Paula took out a joint and started smoking, no matter how bad she ever felt pot always managed to calm her down and it was doing its job very well today.

She excused herself from the group and climbed into the car to grab supplies so she could nail her window shut.

Paula walked out of the car and put the supplies in the trunk, she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the mirror warmer on her rear view mirror, she yanked it off the mirror and threw it into the trash can, she no longer had a need for it.

It was four in the afternoon when Paula finally got home. She trudged up the stairs and threw her supplies on the floor.

Paula walked back down the stairs and joined her father in watching her favorite movie, The Wild One, on the television. She longed to get on her bike and escape the whispers and eyes of the people in the town.

At six her mother called the family to dinner. Her mom made them Mexican food, and Paula ate more than usual (if that’s possible).

She helped her mom clean up the kitchen and went out back to the yard. She sat there on the top of the bench smoking joint after joint, getting stoned out of her mind.

Finally she ran out of pot, and she silently cursed she was going to have to call her dealer later tonight.

“Paula?”

“Yeah ma!”

“We’re gonna spend the night at your aunt Susie’s. You gonna be okay?”

“Yeah mom, I’m gonna do some arts and crafts.”

“Alright take care dear.”

Paula appreciated the fact that her family had left her alone that night. She needed to be alone and get all of her thoughts together.

It was ten when she finally went into the house. She locked up all the doors and windows and then went into her room. She shut the glass window and put the lock on, “He is never coming in through this window again.”

Paula spread out the wood on the floor; she opened up the pack of nails and took out the hammer. Her hair was getting in her face so she walked over to her dresser to take out a bandana.

Paula was taken out of her thoughts when she heard a soft knocking on her window. She froze, she knew exactly who it was and she didn’t want to face him.

“Emmett just get up there and tell her what happened.”

“You make it sound so easy, like she’s gonna just forgive me.”

“She will and then you two can just be friends.”

“Friends? There is no being friends with her, she could never want to be anything but a stranger to me not after what I did.”

“Emmett just go up there and do it.”

Jasper sent a surge of bravery and courage to Emmett and soon Emmett was by Paula’s window. He tried opening it but noticed that it was closed.

He tapped on the window softly and saw Paula move from one corner of her room. He saw her turn and see him, he thought she was going to leave the room but instead she walked towards the window.

This is a good sign, Emmett thought to himself.

Paula walked to the window and bent down picking up a piece of wood. She put it horizontally and started nailing it to the window sill.

She heard Emmett scream out, “Paula don’t! Please I need to talk to you.”

Paula hummed softly and continued nailing the window shut. She didn’t want to look at him, let alone hear him speak.

After an hour of trying to get her to talk, Emmett gave up she had completely boarded up the window and there was no getting in, unless he wanted to make a scene in the middle of the night.

Paula stared at herself in the mirror; she wanted to walk into school looking as if nothing had ever happened. She looked damn good today and she knew it.

She stood in front of the mirror and said, “You can do this. You don’t mean anything to him so he shouldn’t mean anything to you. You are beautiful, strong and can get any boy you want. Let’s do this babe.”

Paula grabbed her jacket and bag and drove to her friend’s house to pick them up. They got to school about an hour early to just relax, smoke and drink a little.

Soon how good Paula looked and the guys talked about whether or not they had a shot with her. Paula sat on the roof of her car smirking at their comments.

Paula tensed when she saw Alice’s car and Emmett’s prized Rolls Royce pull in. She sensed that they were going to try and park at their usual spots so Paula called over the Greasers and told them to stand on the spots and not let them park there.

Fuck you Edward Cullen. Don’t you guys fucking dare park in these spots.

Edward heard Paula’s thoughts and tensed at the steering wheel, he brought the car to a stop and said, “I don’t think we should park there today.”

“Don’t be silly!”

“Alice in her thoughts she cursed me out and told us not to park there.”

“You know that she’s just angry at Emmett, she has no reason to be angry at us now park or I’ll make you.”

Edward sighed and drove the car slowly to the T-Bird parking lot, he was about to pull into the spot but there were a bunch of Greasers standing there and joking around.

He knew what they were doing, they were keeping the spots filled so that they wouldn’t have space to park. Alice got out of the car and said, “Can you guys please move?”

“Spots full. Find somewhere else to park.”

“It’s not taken! You guys are just standing there can you please move?”

“No, we can not. Now go somewhere else this ain’t your parking spot, you ain’t welcome here.”

“What are you talking about? This is our spot! I’m Tinkerbelle!”

“We don’t know a Tinkerbelle.”

That’s when Alice caught onto what was happening, she realized that Paula was making them do this, because she was angry at not just Emmett but the entire family and wanted them as far away as possible. Alice walked towards Paula and tried to get her attention but Paula was skilled at ignoring people.

Finally Alice gave up and went back to the car, she huffed and asked Edward, “How can she be so mean to us? Look in her thoughts!”

“she’s not saying anything! She just keep saying fuck you guys fuck you guys.”

“Jasper how is she feeling?”

“If it makes you feel any better she’s sad and confused.”

Paula sat on the roof of the car talking to her boys and their girls. She didn’t want to push Tinkerbelle away, but what else could she do. Tinkerbelle had been in on the game the whole time and Paula didn’t want to be around people that are fake.

She stared at the Cullen’s as they went into the Prep side of the parking lot and stood there. When the bell rang to go into class, Emmett emerged from his car and ran over to the passengers side to help Rosalie out of the car.

Rosalie wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. The blood in Paula’s veins boiled as she saw the two of them kiss and hold hangs. She wanted to pounce, but knew it would only hurt.

Finally when she knew that they were inside their respective classrooms she jumped off the roof of her truck, and grabbed her baseball bat from the back of her car.

She took out her flask and took a swig of tequila and walked over to Emmett’s car, with her Greasers behind her.

She got in her batting stance and swung at the bumper of the car, after ruining the bumper Paula jumped on the hood and broke the front mirror.

“You stupid piece of shit! I fucking hate you!”

Paula took swing after swing at the Rolls Royce, she was furious and this car was going to take the beating that she couldn’t give its owner.

Edward ran into Emmett’s classroom and told him what was going on. Emmett ran out the door and the pair ran over to Emmett’s care where Paula was battering it.

Paula glared at Emmett and Edward as they appeared next to the car. Paula breathed heavily, her breathing irregular. Paula told the Greasers to go to class quickly, they did as they were told.

She stood there with her bat in her hands, and with all of the teenagers with their heads pressed against the window hoping to see what would happen.

“Paula why’d you do this?”

Paula looked away and jumped off the car. She was about to walk away when Emmett grabbed her hand and said, “I know why you did this. You’re angry and it’s ok to be angry but don’t take it out on the others this is between you and I. Please let’s just talk. Please.”

Paula glared at him and shook free of his grasp. Anger pulsated through her being and she spat on the floor next to Emmett’s feet and walked away.