Oh, Sweet Rhythm

Today, I take the long way home. I do this specifically so I can look at the scenery. The mid August weather is perfect with only a slight breeze. Autumn has always been my favorite season, just for the weather. I like that the leaves will change, fall, and die. The air gets cooler day by day as it prepares for the winter months ahead. High school students are the same way: we hit high school and we change. Then, we struggle to stay popular and liked, but our status falls. Without good social status, we socially die.

There's a particular tree on Madison Street that I love to see. It's on the front lawn of the house that's in the middle of the block. Every other house has a large, beautiful oak tree, but this house has a small, scraggly tree that does not support leaves, but rather purple flowers. It shouldn't, but that intrigues me. It's not ordinary and I can relate to it. I sigh and admire it a moment longer before heading home.

When I get home, only my mother is home. She sits at the kitchen table, typing as fast she can on her lap top. Either she's taking notes on a case or she's writing a really exciting part in her novel. My mother is lawyer, but she's an aspiring author. A smile tugs at her lips, so I know she's working on her novel. My mother has short brown hair that hangs neatly past her chin. Her skin is slightly tan and her eyes are green. Freckles line both of our arms.

"Hi, Mom."

"Oh!" She looks up and stops typing, ragged breathing going through her chest. "God, Christopher! You scared me!" We each laugh a bit before she starts talking again.

"How was school?" I shrug, casually.

"Good, I guess."

"What happened?" She asks, using her mom senses to pick up on something I'd somehow given away. My mom was good like that- able to detect my moods, when something was wrong, when something was right. Sometimes it was almost scary.

"I... I got asked out today, Mom." She gasps and gets up from her chair, crossing the distance of the kitchen. She wraps me in her arms, squeezes.

"Who's the lucky girl?" She pauses as she kisses my forehead. "It is a girl, right?" I sigh loudly and shake my head in disbelief. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mom! She ends the hug, placing a hand on each of my shoulders. I detect a hint of perfume -no, men's body spray- on her and I'm suddenly uncomfortable for some reason. I ignore it.

"Yes, Mom, it's a girl." I smirk. "It's Josette." Thought shows in her eyes, trying to think of any Josette she possibly has seen or knows.

"Josette...?"

"Josette Anders, you know, Josey?" Realization flashes across her face and she fixes my shirt. She doesn't say anything for a moment, soaking in the fact that her nerdy little boy was finally growing up. I love my mom to death and I don't want to grow up as much as she doesn't want me to. But, if growing up means going on a date, then I'm ready.

"She's a lucky girl. Aw," She presses her lips in a bitter sweet line. Her eyes start to water and she squeezes me into a hug again, whispering into my ear. "My son, my baby, he's growing up."

"Relax, Mom, it's one date," I coo back. She sniffles and pulls away, sitting back down in her chair. She bites her lip and keeps staring at me with her mom face. "Oh, Mom, I almost forgot."

"What is it sweetie?"

"Can the guys come over tonight?" I tap my foot as she thinks it over. Every Wednesday night Leon, Allan, Marcus, and I go down to my basement to play Dungeons and Dragons, otherwise known as D and D. We usually start around six o'clock and they usually don't leave until eleven or so. Mom caves in.

"Sure." My face lights up and I head upstairs to my room.



I shed my clothes and drink in every curve of my body in the mirror. My brown hair is a little long, hanging down to the back of my neck, the bangs somewhat in my hazy brown eyes. My skin is pale, my shoulders and eyes covered in freckles. All in all, I'm an attractive, nerdy boy. I might even be popular if it weren't for my nerdy-ness. I stalk over to the shower, turn on the water, and hop in.

When I'm down with my shower, I do homework. Once that's finished, it's six o'clock on the dot and the door bell rings. I hurry down stairs and let my friends in. I greet them and then we head down to the basement. The air turns immediately chilly, but I don't mind. The basement used to double as a bedroom for me, so it's all decked out. The basement has basically two large rooms. The first one has couches lining the back wall- all black leather. On the far wall hangs a large flat screen on the light green painted walls. The second room which is separated by a door contains the bedroom half with a large queen size bed, several dressers and night stands, and posters that line the walls.

Marcus and Allan sit down on the couches as Leon and I get the table out and pull up chairs for ourselves. Marcus takes out his set of dice out and his character sheets. Marcus's short, curly, dirty blond hair matches his sun kissed skin and his dark green eyes. Tonight, he wears a Family Guy tee shirt and normal jeans. He grins as he picks two of his characters.

"I think I'll use both my vampire and half-elf ranger tonight." He says.

"I'm gonna use my cleric and my fairy." Allan comments, setting up his own things. Allan has hair so blond it's white and light blue eyes. He's a little tanner than Marcus, but not by much. His smile is all white, but his dad's a dentist so it's almost not fair. His jeans are a bit tighter than the rest of ours and he wears a tee shirt with some starred design.

"Should I be Dungeon Master, or you?" I ask Leon. "I can't remember whose turn it is."

"It's my turn," He says and I set up my characters. I decide to use my two half-elves, though on is a fighter mage and the other is just a fighter. "Is everyone ready?"

"Yeah." We say, one after another. When Leon feels we are ready, he begins and gives us a scenario. Basically, our characters are stranded in the forest, trying to lead a crowd of civilians back to safety. We're running out of water and food, and the people are starting to get out of hand.

"Roll to notice, Marcus." Leon says as Allan turns the game into half of a conversation.

"So, Leon told us you got asked out by Josette." Leon shoots Allan a look, signaling that he wasn't supposed to say anything. Not even a day and the cat was out of the bag. I sigh, and nod.

"Marcus, you look up and see a that several dragons are heading your way. You can't tell if they mean harm." Leon tells him. Marcus thinks a second.

"I alert the others." After a few more minutes of playing, Allan brings up Josette again.

"So, did she ask you to go out with her or is it just a date?" I stare at Allan and drink in his features again. He's less nerdy than the rest of us, clearly best looking, and has lots of money. Why doesn't he have a girlfriend?

"Just a date, I suppose."

"Whatcha guys doing? Going to a movie?" Marcus asks. We'd set down our dice and papers, uninterested in the game and now interested in my love life.

"No, we're going to the carnival on Friday."

"Are you taking her to dinner before or after?" Suddenly, a blush spread across my face and I frowned. Dinner? I hadn't thought of that! In all the movies I've ever seen, they always go out to dinner. Was I supposed to do the same? God, I'm so unprepared for this.

"Dinner....wasn't in the plans."

"Oh." Leon says, as if he is the master of dating. As if he knows everything about girls. Him and Allan share a quick glance before he starts again. "Then it's technically not a date."

"It's not?" I ask quietly, cautiously. I was new to all this and I wasn't sure about all the rules. Did not having dinner really make it not a date? That didn't seem logical, but then again, I was desperate for any knowledge I could gather right about now.

"It's only a date if one of two things happen- or both; you take her to dinner or you guys kiss more than once." Marcus says. That seemed to make sense, but this shaky logic was not giving me concrete hope.

"Why more than once?" I ask, truly curious. Marcus bites down on the inside of his lip as his mouth dips downward into a frown. The feeling secreting from his eyes told me that if I didn't know this stuff, I might as well be an idiot. Even though he didn't say that, I'm somewhat offended. I bite down on my own lip.

"Because, if you kiss more than once, that means she liked it. If you only kiss once, that means she thought it was awkward and doesn't want to do it again." My head is reeling now, my thoughts of girls -for once in my life- were pushing forward, pushing past the thoughts of myths and school. Boy, did my head hurt! So many thoughts! I feel like throwing up! I have to say something, I think, but I can't make out any words.

Luckily, the phone in the bedroom next door started to ring. It rings twice before Mom picks it up. A moment later, she calls down the stars. "Chris? It's for you. It's Josette!" I'm not sure, but I think Mom squealed after that. I hold up my index finger to my friends and step into the bedroom, picking up the engine red handset. What can I say? I was twelve when I designed the room. "Hello?"

"Christopher, hi!" I hear the blond girl giggle. I can almost see her smile.

"Hi, Josette." Suddenly, something occurs to me. "How did you get my number?"

"Really? Christopher, we were best friends for like our whole childhood! Plus neither of us ever moved- therefore, I still live right across the street." I can almost feel her smile, just as she can probably feel the blush upon my face. I can't believe I'd forgotten that. I feel like a terrible....boyfriend? Friend? Boy-who's-taking-her-to-the-carnival-on-Friday?

"How could I possibly forget?" I laugh as if it'd just recently slipped my mind. After you stop talking in about the fifth grade, you tend to lose tabs on people.

"How dare you," she growls jokingly. "Anyway, do you think you could sneak out and hang out with me? In the tree house?" An uncontrollable grin appears on my face and I can't control my excitement. I want to scream, but I realize that my friends are on the other side of the door, listening.

"Just like old times?"

"Yeah, like old times. Be there about midnight?" I look down at my watch. 10:45 p.m.

"Yeah, sure. I'll bring the gummy worms." I joke and her giggle fills the air between us, her chuckle so sweet and light that I just let out a breath of contentment. She stops, but not abruptly like most people. She slowly eases out of the laughter, which makes it cute as hell.

"See you there?" I nod and smile brighter than I ever have before.

"Yeah. See you there." I hang up the phone and just stand there for a minute, letting the adrenaline or something like that course through my veins. I want to jump, to scream, to be loud. I want to do something- anything to show how amazing I feel. As soon as I settle down enough, I walk over to the red door, and open it to reveal my friends huddled, trying to listen. I beam at them.

"Boys, it's time for you guys to go home. I have to sneak out and see Josette." One by one, a smile crosses each approving face. I can tell they're disappointed that they have to leave early, and I am too, but I can tell they're proud of me. Hell, I'm proud of me too.