Chex Mix

I’m not quite sure why I answer the question: What are your goals in life? I guess it’s because I’ve known for years and years that I love dancing even if it’s ‘gay’, which I’m not if you were wondering. But, why say it to a room of strangers in the nurse’s office? There’s really no answer to that question. But I really don’t want to be alone and awkward saying I want to dance and then everyone will go back to what they were doing before thinking ‘Silly Asian Australian gay dancer’. So I look at Ananda, knowing that if I stare at her long enough she’ll cave.

And she does after making this ridiculous expression of concentration that turns her whole face a light shade of pink, driving out the former green-ness, she cries out, “Adventure! I want adventure.”

Which was definitely not expected. Ananda is a good girl with good grades. She never skips class, she always does her homework, she tutors kids at the library. Not the type who you would think would want to get off her strict path of academic excellence. Unless of course, she’s cracked. That wouldn’t surprise me as much.

And then the kid who is a bit on the feminine side and I wouldn’t really put ‘gay’ past him says, “I want my first kiss.”

That’s the kind of life goal he’s going for.

Well, to each his own.

After everyone settles down over hearing that news, the girl next to him with the upturned nose, kind of like a ski slope says, “I want friends.”

Who doesn’t have friends? That would suck. She looks nice enough, why wouldn’t she have friends? Everyone has friends. God, that would suck. Am I repeating myself?

“You don’t have friends?” Ananda asks softly.

The girl on the cot shakes her head slowly, looking at the doorway with wide eyes. “No… I-I mean I do… I just…”

The kid next to her gets this huge grin on his face and says excitedly, “We’ll be your friends!”

We?

The girl turns to him suddenly. “Oh…” She looks down, her face flushing.

“I mean… I will. I’ll be your friend.” He nods his head up and down kind of looking like the Chihuahua bobble head my Mom has on the dashboard of her car.