To Be Wild and Precious

“Hey, Bethany, how was your day today?” her father asked as she got into the passenger seat later that evening.

She reached for her seatbelt behind her. “It was nice. Today was really nice.” Beth waited for the belt to make that ‘Click’ before she let go and settle back into her seat.

Mr. McAllister began to pull out of the parking lot, and inquired further, “So, what exactly do you do every day when you’re here? You’re here for pretty long. I was just wondering if you actually found it enjoyable. All that time doing nothing –“

“It’s not nothing, Dad.” Beth interjected. “I happen to read a lot when I’m there and I get ahead on some stuff. Sometimes I ever reorganize the book shelves. You know, my OCD gets the better of me.” The car fell into silence. She ran her hand up and down along the seat belt, figuring whether or not she should tell her Dad about the interview.

Before she had the chance to say anything, her father commented on the Hideous House that they were just passing by. He said, “Look at this house. It’s my first real assignment. I’ve got to sell this one and a couple others.”

“Good luck with that.” Beth muttered under her breath.

“What was that, Bethany?” her father asked.

“Oh, nothing, Dad. I think that you’ll do a great job selling them. Kick some real estate butt.” She smiled for further encouragement.

“Thanks, Beth. It’s glad to know that I’ve got your support. It’s nice that you’ve come around. I know how hard this has been for you.” He was going into his sentimental tone of voice and Bethany didn’t really want to hurt his feelings.

She looked down at her hands, not really sure if she had actually come around yet. She had indeed felt more at home now, mostly because she never actually spent much of her time at home, but she was still sad about the idea of not spending her senior year with her friends.
She decided to bend the truth a bit, at least for her father’s sake. She didn’t want to bring him down from the apparent happiness that this job was bringing him. So she responded with a slightly forced smiled, “Yeah, I’m glad, too.”

They pulled into the spot in front of their house, all blue and completely theirs, and turned to her. He had a huge grin on his face. “You don’t know how great that is to hear.” He exclaimed as he patted his daughter’s left knee. He killed the engine, then said, “Go inside. Your mother went back-to-school shopping today for your school supplies. She told me that she wanted to show you some of the things that she had bought.”

“Really, Dad? Already?” Beth asked exasperated as she undid her seat belt.

“Bethany, school starts on Monday for you. It’s right around the corner.” He explained.

Beth almost forgot that she had to go to school soon. The summer was almost over. She would no longer be able to spend all day of every day in the comforts of her books because she’d have to be confined in a prison with thousands of other students who wish that they could have more days of freedom. But the desires are for different reasons. They wanted those days so that they could be around people for longer, but Beth wanted those days so that she could stay away from people for longer. Anything that she could do to avoid entering that school, she would try it. But, then again, she knows that she can’t mess up her future just because she’s an angsty teen. A girl who just wants to go home, to her real home. But life isn’t fair sometimes.

“Yeah. Okay. I’ll go check them out.” She submitted to her parents’ demands and entered the house willingly, knowing that she was going to be met with notebooks and binders, which usually would make her very happy. Supply shopping was her favorite part of a new school year, always; but this school year was different. This year she wasn’t excited in the least bit. She was more scared and nervous and horrified than anything else. Joy was the last thing on her mind. And – excitement – she never even let that come up.

She pushed open the front door, and gazed into the terrible picture before her. The house was gorgeous, of course, with its cream colored walls and comfy brown sofas and lovely blue vases filled with unbelievable pink hydrangeas. Everything was wonderful, but that made it all the more heartbreaking to hate it. Every last bit of it. None of it even seemed remotely like home despite the fact that almost all of it was the same furniture.

Her mother was like a picturesque figure, poised in the middle of the living room, balancing a bag on her hip as she was obviously searching for something. A strand of her short, light brown hair was falling onto her face but she would not push it aside as she was so focused on finding what was in her purse.

When Beth slammed the down behind her, the image before her broke, and her mother looked up to see the source of the commotion. She smiled at the recognition of her daughter. “Oh, sweetie, how are you? I’ll be with you in a second. I just can’t seem to find –“ She dug a little further into the purse. “Ah, found it. I had been looking for my phone and I always seem to lose it in such a large bag.” She shook the bag for emphasis.

“Why didn’t you just call it?” Beth asked as she put her own bag down on the love seat and sat reclined beside it.

A look of consideration flashed across her face. “I – I hadn’t really thought of that? Well, besides it was on vibrate.” She tried to defend herself.

“It still works that way, Mom. Just for future reference.” Beth laid her head on the arm rests of one side of the small sofa and let her feet dangle off of the edge of the opposite side.

“Oh, well, thank you. Anyways, sweetie, I bought you some things for school. I hope you like them.”

Bethany’s mother disappeared into the other room and came back a few seconds later with a very large bag from Wal-mart. She started to extract things from this bag, one by one. And then she named them all: your pencil sharpener, your notebook, your other notebook, oh! look, another notebook, your pencil case, your new book bag, your outfit for the first day of school, your highlighters, your crayons, and the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, Beth’s mother had forgotten that Beth was entering the 12th grade and not the 1st. She was producing coloring pencils and crayon boxes and My Little Pony pencil cases. Bethany just nodded and kept thinking to herself that the moment she got to her room, half of those things were being left in the closet.

“Thanks, Mom. These were all great! I loved them!” she told her mother half-heartedly and began to drag the huge sack into her bedroom.

“I’m glad you liked them, honey. I just want you to have a great time this year.”

“I will, Mom. Thanks again.” She smiled and made her second attempt at hauling the bag of infinite wonders into the depths of Narnia where they will never meet the surface again.

That night, Beth tried to find a decent outfit to wear for her interview the next day. She didn’t own a suit or anything, and she wasn’t sure if she really had to dress that fancy at all. It was a book store, for goodness sake. But she didn’t want to dress below standards and embarrass herself. She assumed it’d be better to shoot over than under, so she dug through all her clothes for the nicest skirt and top that she could find, maybe even a pair of heels.

She collected the garments she selected and pieced the together on her form, trying to see if they’d work out. Beth slipped one foot into the black heels and then the other. When she stood, she wibbled and wobbled, having become so accustomed to walking in her converse all summer long. This was such a strange change and most definitely not a pleasant one.

She got on her hands and knees and opened some of the boxes that she had stuffed under her bed. She searched for some lower heels, the kind that have wedges, perhaps. But she couldn’t find any. Beth couldn’t go to her interview in converse, she thought. And she apparently couldn’t walk in her high heels. So it was time for a grave choice. Heels or converse? Heels or converse?

After hours of practicing walking the night before, Beth came out for breakfast Thursday morning wearing her shiny, black high heels along with a slick, black pencil skirt topped with a slimming, blue belted button down shirt.

She gingerly strode straight to the toaster, fearful of taking a false step in her dangerously tall shoes and falling terribly. Beth was acting all normal placing the two slices of white bread into the toaster and pushing the lever down. She tapped her foot rhythmically as she waited for the toast to pop up.

“Beth, honey, why are you dressed like that?” her father asked from the table.
Bethany twisted her head around to see her father sitting at the table with half of a bagel in his hand and a puzzled look on his face.

“Oh,” she smiled as she turned her body to face him completely. “Do you like it? Do I look professional?” She placed a hand on her hip to display the whole ensemble.
“Um…yes, you look rather lovely, Bethany. But, may I ask, why are you dressed that way? I’m still taking you to that book store, aren’t I?”

She slipped into the seat opposite her father. “Yes, Dad. I am going to Barnes and Noble. I’m just dressed like this because they asked me if I wanted to go on an interview for a position they had open.” The side of her lips curled up into the beginning of a smile at the idea of working at such a large store full of books. That would be a dream come true.

Beth’s father furrowed his eyebrows. “Bethany, I don’t think that would be a very good idea. ”

“Why not? Dad, I really want to work there! If just for a little bit, at least. Come on. Please.” She begged.

“School starts on Monday. How do you expect to juggle that and a job?”

She whipped back, “I could balance school and work just fine. I get 4.0s without barely even trying. Besides, I’m not even taking APs anymore. So there’s a lot less to stress out about.”

“Actually I talked to your school and they said that you could qualify for the AP classes that you were going to take back in Kenton.”

Beth blinked. She wasn’t expecting that as a retort. She said as calmly as she could, “You got me back into my AP classes and you didn’t tell me this earlier? I could have prepared for them. I could have done the summer reading, the homework they assigned. I’m going to be behind, Dad. How could you do this to me?”

Her father slowly put down the half-eaten bagel and folded his hands. “And you want to get a job on top of all that?” he asked.

She breathed in and out angrily, feeling slightly defeated. “Yes.” She finally answered. “Because, regardless, it looks better on my college applications if I have working experience. They like that. It makes me look more well-rounded.”

Mr. McAllister nodded. “Alright.” He said as he raised his eyebrows, clearly considering that an adequate response. “But how do you consider getting to work every day after school? I’m pretty sure there aren’t any buses around here.” He tilted his head to one side, waiting for a reply, knowing that Beth more than likely did not have one that would suffice for taking the interview.

She thought for a quick moment and then responded, “I’ll have Gavin take me some days, and, one the days that he can’t, I could try to hitch a ride with someone. It’ll give me a bigger incentive to make friends, right?”

“That’s called using people, Bethany.”

“It won’t be when I get my license in six months.” She smiled. “Come on, Dad. I just really, really want to work there. It makes me happy. Please. Please, let me go for the interview.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. He was obviously torn between doing what he believed to be right and doing what makes his daughter happy.

He sighed. “Fine.” He dropped his hand to the table. “You could go on the interview.”
“Yay! Thank you, Daddy! You’re the best.” Beth was jumping for joy as best she could in her heels. She went to smother him in a tight hug.

“But, there’s a condition.” He raised one finger into the air to make a point. “If your grades start to falter just one bit, then you’ve got to quit. Understand?”

“Completely.” She was all smiles. “Thank you, Daddy. Thank you. You will not regret this, Dad.”

“Oh, I hope I won’t.” he muttered.

As usual, Beth’s father dropped her off at the front of Barnes and Noble at 8:45 in the morning. She waited outside for a few minutes with a book that she had bought two days before, and then she strolled in as well as she could in her terribly tall heels when the doors where unlocked. She immediately settled into her big comfy sofa on the second floor by the Nonfiction section and kept an eyes out for the time.

At around 9:30 she got hungry, so she went to the Starbucks and had a snack. At around 10 o’clock, Gavin passed by and noticed her outfit, so he made fun of her a little for it. At around 10:30, she realized that it might be best to make her way to her interview, so she did. At around 11:01, the manager called her in, so she smiled and tried her best. At around 11:45, the interview was over, so she went and found Gavin to tell him the good news.