The Diva Inside
Saturday Full of Fun
“Hey, girl. How’s it going?” Emma shrieks, as she opens the front door.
“Get your ass over here and help me get the drinks.” It’s 10:12 and I’m at Emma’s house. Every Saturday of the school year, the five of us round up at Emma’s house in the morning and sit on her front porch talking, complaining, laughing and sipping coffee It’s always my job to bring the coffee.
I walk onto the porch and am greeted with a big hug by Jenna. I smile and start to hand out the coffees. “One iced café mocha for Natalie, one green tea frappe for Jenna, one soy latte with an extra shot for Taylor, one caramel latte for Emma and finally one vanilla chai tea for myself. Yay!”
I plop down on the swinging couch next to Taylor. Everyone sits in silence, sipping his or her coffee.
All of a sudden I hear Emma coughing and hacking. In between coughs she gasps for air and says “I…just…chocked…on…my…drink…” We all look at each and start laughing our asses off. It was early and we needed something to laugh at.
After we finish our coffee, we always could use a little exercise, so we would walk over to Taylor’s house and enjoy his extra-large trampoline. Jumping and playing games keeps us all young. We jump and jump until one of us slips, which almost always is Natalie. She has no balance.
Another great thing we do at Taylor’s house, if it is warm enough, is go swimming. I’m always the baby, who doesn’t want to jump in, so they have a great strategy for getting me in the pool. Natalie would stand at the jump off and talk to me, then she just pushes me in. I almost always forget about it, so I still scream every time. We play games like Marco polo and Peanut Butter and Jelly.
Next is lunch. I call Timothy and he drives us all to Natalie’s house. Her house is massive. But it has to be; she has three other siblings. Jeremy who is her older brother, Dennis who is her younger brother and Emily, her little sister and my favorite.
We walk in and her little sister races towards me. Every time, Natalie has to babysit she calls me up to help. Natalie takes her little brother to the park to play basketball and I stay behind and play dress up with her little sister. Natalie loves me for doing it and so does her little sister.
“Cami!!” Emily shouts and jumps up for a hug.
“Emi!! How you doin’?” I say in my ghetto voice, popping out my hip.
“No, how you doin’?” Emily tries to replicate what I’m doing. I laugh and grab her hand. We walk into the kitchen, where Natalie’s mom, Charlotte, is making us tacos.
“Hey, mom. It smells good. Is it going to be long?”
“If you count 5 minutes long.”
“That’s like FOREVER!”
“Oh, go play something. It’ll be ready in no time.” Natalie’s mom is such a classic and modern woman. She was naturally beautiful and dressed insanely well for a mother of three. I guess that’s where Natalie gets her looks.
The six of us, walk into the living room and turn on the Wii. Natalie turns on Rock Band, then hands each of us an instrument, except Taylor who insists that he skip his turn and just watches. I’m singing, Natalie’s playing drums, Jenna’s playing guitar and Emma’s playing guitar. The guitar intro to Livin’ On a Prayer begins.
As I belt out the last line of the song, Natalie’s older brother, Jeremy enters the room with a group of his friends. Jeremy is only a year older than us. As we walk past them, I almost trip over the rug and fall into one of the guys.
“Oh, my god. I’m so sorry.” I say, trying to balance myself.
“It’s ok. It’s just funny how we keep running into each other like this.” Says a voice I’ve heard before.
I look up into the beautiful blue eyes that belong to Ben. I start to compose myself.
“Yeah.” I shyly tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear. I feel my cheeks getting hot.
“Well, I guess I’ll see ya around.”
I nod and start to walk away, but before I got too far away, Ben grabs my arm and pulls me over to the side. His friends walk past us and sit on the couch.
“What do you want?” I ask him, feeling my heart pound harder than ever.
“I just wanted…to…give you my…to tell you…to just…you know never mind.” Ben walks away, rubbing the back of his neck and muttering something to his self.
I walk back to the kitchen where everyone was digging into the delicious tacos. I felt like crying.
Natalie looks at me with wondering eyes and I just shake my head. My heart is still pounding, but I just ignore and take a seat next to Jenna. She smiles, then continues to eat.
**
When lunch is over, I hug Mrs. York and thank for the amazing lunch. Then we all head over to my house for video games and movies. But the whole ride there I can’t seem to get Ben out of my head. All these questions keep rushing through my mind. What was he trying to say? What if he had said it? Why couldn’t he say it? I wanted answers, but I didn’t know how to get them.
When we arrive at my house, we dart downstairs where we play Just Dance. We dance and dance and dance until we can’t feel out legs. It always comes down to Taylor and I fighting for the winner spot. I usually came in first.
Once we were all tired of dancing, I had Edward, our chef, make each of us an individual bowl of popcorn and a tray of cookies. When our snacks arrived, Jenna suggests a movie and there is only one movie that everyone can agree on. The Rocker.
We chill in the basement, watching the movie and eating our snacks. We stay like this for hours. Just being together is all we ever need. At around 9:30, everyone has to go home.
After everyone leaves, my mother arrives home. She’s always working late like this.
“Hi, honey. How was your day?” She asks as she rifles through the mail.
“Great, mom. Just great.” I have a huge smile plastered across my face.
“Really, what did you do?” She looks up from the bills, looking straight at me. She seems actually interested.
I start to tell her about what we did today. About the coffee and Emma choking and Rock Band. I even tell her about Ben. We sit at the dining room table, talking for what seems like only 20 minutes, but I soon realize it’s almost midnight. I yawn and stand up from the table. I kiss my mom goodnight and go upstairs to brush my teeth. As I brush and look at myself in the mirror, I realize I’m so lucky to be me and I don’t want to be anyone else. I crawl into bed and draft off to dreamland.
“Get your ass over here and help me get the drinks.” It’s 10:12 and I’m at Emma’s house. Every Saturday of the school year, the five of us round up at Emma’s house in the morning and sit on her front porch talking, complaining, laughing and sipping coffee It’s always my job to bring the coffee.
I walk onto the porch and am greeted with a big hug by Jenna. I smile and start to hand out the coffees. “One iced café mocha for Natalie, one green tea frappe for Jenna, one soy latte with an extra shot for Taylor, one caramel latte for Emma and finally one vanilla chai tea for myself. Yay!”
I plop down on the swinging couch next to Taylor. Everyone sits in silence, sipping his or her coffee.
All of a sudden I hear Emma coughing and hacking. In between coughs she gasps for air and says “I…just…chocked…on…my…drink…” We all look at each and start laughing our asses off. It was early and we needed something to laugh at.
After we finish our coffee, we always could use a little exercise, so we would walk over to Taylor’s house and enjoy his extra-large trampoline. Jumping and playing games keeps us all young. We jump and jump until one of us slips, which almost always is Natalie. She has no balance.
Another great thing we do at Taylor’s house, if it is warm enough, is go swimming. I’m always the baby, who doesn’t want to jump in, so they have a great strategy for getting me in the pool. Natalie would stand at the jump off and talk to me, then she just pushes me in. I almost always forget about it, so I still scream every time. We play games like Marco polo and Peanut Butter and Jelly.
Next is lunch. I call Timothy and he drives us all to Natalie’s house. Her house is massive. But it has to be; she has three other siblings. Jeremy who is her older brother, Dennis who is her younger brother and Emily, her little sister and my favorite.
We walk in and her little sister races towards me. Every time, Natalie has to babysit she calls me up to help. Natalie takes her little brother to the park to play basketball and I stay behind and play dress up with her little sister. Natalie loves me for doing it and so does her little sister.
“Cami!!” Emily shouts and jumps up for a hug.
“Emi!! How you doin’?” I say in my ghetto voice, popping out my hip.
“No, how you doin’?” Emily tries to replicate what I’m doing. I laugh and grab her hand. We walk into the kitchen, where Natalie’s mom, Charlotte, is making us tacos.
“Hey, mom. It smells good. Is it going to be long?”
“If you count 5 minutes long.”
“That’s like FOREVER!”
“Oh, go play something. It’ll be ready in no time.” Natalie’s mom is such a classic and modern woman. She was naturally beautiful and dressed insanely well for a mother of three. I guess that’s where Natalie gets her looks.
The six of us, walk into the living room and turn on the Wii. Natalie turns on Rock Band, then hands each of us an instrument, except Taylor who insists that he skip his turn and just watches. I’m singing, Natalie’s playing drums, Jenna’s playing guitar and Emma’s playing guitar. The guitar intro to Livin’ On a Prayer begins.
As I belt out the last line of the song, Natalie’s older brother, Jeremy enters the room with a group of his friends. Jeremy is only a year older than us. As we walk past them, I almost trip over the rug and fall into one of the guys.
“Oh, my god. I’m so sorry.” I say, trying to balance myself.
“It’s ok. It’s just funny how we keep running into each other like this.” Says a voice I’ve heard before.
I look up into the beautiful blue eyes that belong to Ben. I start to compose myself.
“Yeah.” I shyly tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear. I feel my cheeks getting hot.
“Well, I guess I’ll see ya around.”
I nod and start to walk away, but before I got too far away, Ben grabs my arm and pulls me over to the side. His friends walk past us and sit on the couch.
“What do you want?” I ask him, feeling my heart pound harder than ever.
“I just wanted…to…give you my…to tell you…to just…you know never mind.” Ben walks away, rubbing the back of his neck and muttering something to his self.
I walk back to the kitchen where everyone was digging into the delicious tacos. I felt like crying.
Natalie looks at me with wondering eyes and I just shake my head. My heart is still pounding, but I just ignore and take a seat next to Jenna. She smiles, then continues to eat.
**
When lunch is over, I hug Mrs. York and thank for the amazing lunch. Then we all head over to my house for video games and movies. But the whole ride there I can’t seem to get Ben out of my head. All these questions keep rushing through my mind. What was he trying to say? What if he had said it? Why couldn’t he say it? I wanted answers, but I didn’t know how to get them.
When we arrive at my house, we dart downstairs where we play Just Dance. We dance and dance and dance until we can’t feel out legs. It always comes down to Taylor and I fighting for the winner spot. I usually came in first.
Once we were all tired of dancing, I had Edward, our chef, make each of us an individual bowl of popcorn and a tray of cookies. When our snacks arrived, Jenna suggests a movie and there is only one movie that everyone can agree on. The Rocker.
We chill in the basement, watching the movie and eating our snacks. We stay like this for hours. Just being together is all we ever need. At around 9:30, everyone has to go home.
After everyone leaves, my mother arrives home. She’s always working late like this.
“Hi, honey. How was your day?” She asks as she rifles through the mail.
“Great, mom. Just great.” I have a huge smile plastered across my face.
“Really, what did you do?” She looks up from the bills, looking straight at me. She seems actually interested.
I start to tell her about what we did today. About the coffee and Emma choking and Rock Band. I even tell her about Ben. We sit at the dining room table, talking for what seems like only 20 minutes, but I soon realize it’s almost midnight. I yawn and stand up from the table. I kiss my mom goodnight and go upstairs to brush my teeth. As I brush and look at myself in the mirror, I realize I’m so lucky to be me and I don’t want to be anyone else. I crawl into bed and draft off to dreamland.