Rags to Riches

When I thought over that morning on the drive home, I realized how weird of a situation it all was for me. It was hard to wrap my head around the fact that I woke up next to Callie, kissed her to wake her up, and then went to breakfast with her at a fancy cafe. The whole thing just seemed almost too surreal to have actually happened to me. It got even harder to believe when I dropped Callie off though, because after we made plans for a date - can I even call it that? Is that allowed? - at the aquarium, she leaned up and kissed me goodbye. I just stared at her, wide eyed, as she sauntered her way into school. I was flabbergasted, and I don’t think I’ve ever used that word in my entire life.

I dropped Callie off around 7:40, stared out the window dumbfounded for a few minutes, and then ended up getting home right around eight, just like planned. My hope was that I could slip into the house while my mom was finishing getting ready, throw on a change of clothes, brush my teeth, and slink back out the door and be on my way to school without my mom even realizing anything. Or at least for me to do all that fast enough the she didn’t get a chance to ask me about it.

Of course, why would I ever be so lucky?

In reality, my mom must have heard the truck pulling into the driveway and stopped whatever she was doing, because I walked through the door and saw her standing in the middle of the kitchen, arms crossed and lips pursed.

“And where exactly have you been Kenneth Joseph? With the truck you didn’t have permission to take, I might add. Maybe your father’s right. He thinks you’re slipping back into your old habits. Staying out after school more often than not? Check. Leaving on weekends with flimsy stories for where you’re going? Check. And now we’ve got sneaking out late at night again. Coming back way too early in the morning. Did you even sleep last night Kenny? What about school? What are you thinking? Well? Aren’t you going to say anything at all?”

I seriously thought about lying again. I just went to breakfast with a friend from school, mom. Sorry, you were sleeping. But I knew she wouldn’t buy it. I haven’t had a friend close enough for that to be plausible since I was probably 11, and she knew it. She was also kind of correct. What was going on with the TechNet stuff in my life definitely mirrored by really bad delinquent phase of the three years previous to that one. For all she knew, I was out with Brandon and Shaun beating people up or stealing from them again. I looked at the disapproving and slightly disappointed look on her tired face and knew I couldn’t lie to her anymore. I’d lied plenty enough already.

I rubbed a hand over my face and took a deep breath. “Do you have time for a long story?”

“I don’t have to be in until 9:30 today. I have an extra hour that I would just love to spend listening to you explain yourself.” She sat down at the kitchen table and gestured for me to sit across from her. She had a cup of coffee sitting at the table already, and wrapped her hands around it, eyeing me expectantly over the top of the mug. “Whenever you’re ready.”

I groaned slightly to myself, hands rubbing deep into my eye sockets as if coercing the words out of me. I told her everything. I started with the night she asked for more money, the alley, and Don handing me the wad of cash and the business card. I went through the whole fake internship deal that Don worked out, letting her know that I was still saving up the extra money from what he gave me for food and how much I had saved up at that point (to which she responded at first with wide eyes, but then by muttering something about ‘goddamned rich people’). I even told her everything about Connor and the dinner party punishment, including the tuxedo shopping, and a backpedal for the first shopping trip, along with the fact that Don’s said that all the clothing was mine to keep (earning another surprised look and hushed cursing of his wealth). And then I explained to her that all throughout this, I made a really close friend in the daughter of the man I tried to rob. I told her that Callie really needed a shoulder to lean on last night and that I thought I was being a good friend by going and helping her out, and that I didn’t think that we would have fallen asleep like we did, so that’s why I was just getting back now.

When I was done telling her basically everything that happened over the previous month and a half, it was nearing 8:30 and I could tell that both of us could go for another cup of coffee. I was hesitant to move, but I was out of things to say anyways and was just waiting for her to respond, so I slowly stood up and walked over to the coffee pot. There was still half a pot of coffee left, so I grabbed it, another mug, and the milk out of the fridge and took them all back to the table. I poured myself a cup and topped hers off before sitting back down.

“You’re such a doll, Kenny,” she said quietly, pouring a bit of milk into her cup before passing the jug to me. “Probably the best son I could have ever asked for. I’m so sorry that we pushed you into that kind of behavior. That wasn’t right of us. I guess we just never thought about how you got the money we asked for. Or maybe we just ignored it because we didn’t want to think about it. Oh, Kenny. We put you at risk. You’ll be 18 in a couple of weeks. You’d be tried as an adult. What if this man would have pressed charges? You could’ve gone to jail this time. That would have been all my fault.”

“Mom, it’s alright. I’m fine and I’m never going to be in trouble with the law again. It’s all in the past, Mom. I didn’t want to tell you and dad about this because I didn’t want you guys to freak out about it. But I don’t want you guys thinking I’m falling back into that crap with Brandon and Shaun. I stopped being a part of their stupidity when they landed me in juvie for something I didn’t even do, and I don’t want to worry you guys by making you think that’s what happening.”

“Oh, baby…” she leaned across the table and grabbed one of the hands I had wrapped around my coffee mug, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “I’m so sorry we ever thought that about you. You’re too good to us, Kenny, you really are.”

“Mom,” I tried interrupting. She was having none of it.

“Shush. I know you don’t want to hear it, but it’s true. You’ve done so much for this family. And now you have this internship -”

“Fake internship,” I corrected.

“Fake or real, doesn’t matter. What matters is what a great opportunity this is for you. TechNet is a great company to be working for. Some of the people I work for have talked about it before. I think they had friends that worked there or something. But it’s a good place to be, Kenny. And this Donovan guy sounds like an amazing person. Maybe a bit frivolous with his money, but I suppose we’d all be like that if we had too much of it. I can hardly even imagine that though. Oh!” she exclaimed after glancing at her watch mid-sentence. “Kenny, aren’t you late for school already?”

“My first class is a study hall and my second is gym. I haven’t missed any school yet, so I’ll be fine being late today,” I said, shrugging. I really wasn’t missing anything important at all and I knew it wouldn’t be an issue. “Although a note sure would be helpful.”

“Oh honey, of course. It’s my fault you’re late anyways.”

I sighed. “Mom, stop saying that everything is your fault. Like you said, everything worked out really well. I’m working for a great company now and this should help us out in the long run. It’s all in the past now, so stop trying to apologize for it. I don’t blame you guys for it anymore.”

“Anymore,” she repeated slowly. I could see she was trying not to be so hard on herself, but it wasn’t working. I gave her a warning look as I took a long drink of coffee. “Alright, I get it,” she said, chuckling a bit. “We can talk about it all more later. Will you be home tonight after school?”

“No, I’ve got work for an hour or two.” I hesitated going any further, but why would I start the lies back up after I just tore them all apart? “And then Callie and I are actually going to the aquarium after that.” It was very odd talking about Callie in front of my mom, but it was weird talking about any of this with her because I’d gotten so used to hiding it.

Her raised one eyebrow and smirked at me. “Oh, so you’ve got a date?”

“Mom,” I groaned in the typical teenager my-mom-is-embarrassing-me tone. “Trust me, she’s way out of my league. We’re just friends. She’s probably the first really good friend I’ve had since we moved here that’s actually, y’know, a decent person.”

“Okay, alright, I understand honey. Go ahead and change for school. I’ll write up a note for you and then I’ll drop you off on my way to work.”

“Mom, you don’t have to. That’s out of your way.”

“Hush. I have time. Now go change. You have dirt on your jeans and crumbled leaves stuck to your jacket. What, did you sleep under a tree or something?”

I just laughed. “Actually yeah.”

She shook her head and waved me up and towards my room so I could make myself look more presentable. I ended up telling her more about Callie and the night before on the short car ride, and she made me promise to tell her even more that night if I got home early enough. Embarrassment be damned, I leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek as she pulled into the drop-off loop in front of the school. I couldn’t not; she took everything so much better than I thought she would have and actually seemed to embrace the idea of it all.

My thoughts for the rest of the day alternated between my talk with my mom that morning and the plans I had for that night with Callie. I was in a surprisingly good mood all day and it really made me regret not telling my parents sooner. Even Shaun and Brandon noticed something different about me. Of course, they proceeded to make fun of me and my “rich bitch”, which to their credit, was partially correct. They brought it up so often that it eventually stopped getting to me, so that time I just played along and didn’t really think much of it. It didn’t bother me like it used to because I think I stopped equating this story I was keeping up with Callie. I’d ended up making up almost a whole backstory for this fictional rich bitch they thought I had, so I just made more up whenever they asked me about it. This made up girl ended up sounding nothing like Callie once I had come up with a few stories to tell them, so it didn’t even phase me anymore.

What was kind of weird was going into work and having to act like the previous night didn’t happen. Callie felt the need to lie to her brother, so I’m sure she wouldn’t have wanted her father to find out about it. And I wasn’t sure how she felt about Don knowing about us going to the aquarium that night either, so I avoided that for a little bit. It’s not like Don and I really talked all that much while I was there, but sometimes he would take a break just for us to ‘catch up’ or whatever. And that’s what he did when he was the one that brought up our aquarium trip.

He hadn’t given me a very heavy workload that day and it didn’t seem like he had one either, because I kept seeing him checking his phone and texting someone repeatedly. I realized it must have been Callie when he laughed at what he was reading and said, “Why didn’t you say so when you came in?”

I looked ever at him, utterly confused. “Why didn’t I say what?”

“That you and Callie had a date!” he chuckled, almost throwing his phone back on his desk.

I sputtered and just stared at him for what seemed like forever. “It’s not...I mean, we - did she? Did she say that? The date thing? We never said it was.”

“Nervous, are we Kenny?”

“No!” My voice betrayed me by shooting up an octave. I cleared my throat, realized that I was a walking cliche at the moment, and then tried covering my ass a bit. “No, it just took me by surprise when you called it a date. We’re just going to the aquarium, as far as I know. I mean, she never called it a date when she asked me, so I didn’t think it was one. So I was just wondering if she told you it was a date. Because we never talked about going on a date. We’re just, y’know, going somewhere as friends. Or that’s what I thought, I guess. What did she say about it?”

“Son, you’re rambling over there,” Don said, laughing. He was obviously enjoying himself, which if anything, only made me want to squirm more. If this was a date, then I would have plenty of reasons to fear Don’s opinion. He and Callie were insanely close; he was sure to get protective of her if I ‘tried’ anything with her, which was most definitely how any father would see it, no matter who asked who out. “Relax Kenny. I’m only riling you up. She never said anything about a date; only that the two of you were going to the aquarium after you’re done here. Callie only wanted to let me know that she wouldn’t be home right after school. Although if you ask me, I think she wants to try to get you outa here a little sooner. And honestly, today’s the perfect day for such a thing.”

“Oh, no, you don’t have to - “

“There’s not much that I have to do, Kenny. You and I both know there’s a big load of nothing for either of us to do here today. I’ll go ahead and let her know to come on over, and you just finish up whatever you were doing, if you were doing anything in the first place, and then do whatever you may need to do to get ready for your little date.” I gave him the most disgruntled face I could muster, just to show that A) it wasn’t a date, and B) even if it was, I didn’t need to leave early for it. He just smirked when he saw it and picked his phone back up, texting Callie.

Turns out she was in the building the whole time, waiting out the time in her brother’s office, ‘so she didn’t disturb us’ (“But she can disturb Connor all she wants apparently,” Don said with a chuckle and a noncommittal hand wave). She met me in the lobby, leaning against the front desk, chatting idly with the only person at TechNet that I truly couldn’t stand.

Good old Eric still glared at me every time I walked into that lobby. Thankfully, I don’t typically interact with him at all, unless I’m sending him a sarcastic greeting or responding to his own sassy comments, but he remained very fun to mess with.

I walked straight towards Callie, trying to suppress the smirk threatening to show, and greeted her with a kiss to the cheek. A slight blush painted Callie’s cheeks, which I thought was absolutely adorable, but I also saw Eric’s ugly face scrunch up in a look of disgust out of the corner of my eye. ’Perfect.’ I offered my arm out, hoping Callie would realize what I was trying to do, and smiled a bit when she linked her arm with mine.

“You ready to go, Cal?”

She chuckled softly. “Whenever you are.”

We turned towards the front doors and started walking out, but I made sure to wave over my shoulder and call out a quick, “Have a nice night, Eric!”

Callie somehow ended up getting a parking spot right outside TechNet’s main doors, and as she pulled her keys out of her pocket and unlaced her arm from mine, she turned around and gave me a questioning look.

“What?” I asked, still smirking from being able to mess with Eric like I had.

“What was all that about?” she asked as we both climbed into her car.

“Oh yeah, sorry I pulled you into that. I really enjoy messing with Eric any time I can. He’s judged me from day one, and is the only one that still judges me like that. He hates me, for whatever reason, and I don’t appreciate his sassy little mouth, bad talking me all the time. So I take any opportunity to either change the way he thinks of me, or just mess with his mind. I figured making it look like we were, well, anything other than friends would kind of do both, since you’re so far out of my league and all.”

“You really think I’m out of your league?” Callie asked in a voice I could only describe as skeptical.

I shrugged. “I mean, yeah…” I trailed off, laughing slightly. “We went over this this morning. Girls like you are way out of reach for guys like me.”

The look I saw flash across Callie’s face then looked almost like she was accepting some sort of challenge. “Well, what do you mean by a guy like you?”

“I mean, poor for one. Juvenile delinquent. Criminal, on top of that. It’s not even like I’m overly attractive to make up for any of it. I’m just not the kind of guy that a girl like you would - or probably even should - go for.” I shrugged again, frowning slightly at my hands in my lap.

“Kenny, stop putting yourself down,” Callie said shortly, getting really close to snapping at me. “For one, I actually think that you’re very attractive. Two, all of those other things are either things you can’t change or things from your past. You’re a different person now Kenny. I’m sure of it. And three, I don’t think there is a ‘kind’ of person that a ‘girl like me’ should or shouldn’t be going for.” The emphasis was clear on those words, even if she didn’t use air-quotes with them. That was a point that she definitely wanted to drive home. “I don’t like this whole boy-like-you, girl-like-me thing. It’s, like, alienating us from each other, basically just because we come from different classes and backgrounds. It’s a classical othering technique; society’s telling us we shouldn’t be together just because we’re socially different from each other. It’s bull.”

She had a point, but she was also obviously somewhat upset over it, so I knew I needed to try diffusing the tension. I knew where she was coming from, so I knew she was mad at society, and not me. So I knew I was free to try making fun of her a little bit.

“Your fancy girls school teach you all that?” I asked, a huge smirk on my face, eyebrows raised. She looked at me out of the corner of her eyes, laughed, and slapped me lightly on the shoulder with the back of her hand.

“Shut up, you butt.” Her cheeks flushed just the slightest as she focused back on the road in front of her. “We’re almost there. Don't’ make me hurt you before we even get there.” There was a moment of silence and I could tell she was debating on her next words. “Besides, I’ve been thinking about taking a sociology elective soon , so I’ve been reading up on some things. So I guess your answer is no. Technically, my fancy school didn’t teach me that. I just used the fancy library there to read about it.” She chuckled to herself under her breath as she finished her sentence, so I responded with a playful taunt.

“Heh, what a nerd.”

She laughed, nudging my arm. “You’re the nerd, Nerd.”

“Uh-uh. The only reason I’d be a nerd is from your nerdiness rubbing off on me.”

“Fine. I’ll just embrace the nerdiness. You can call me Queen Nerd from now on.”

“All hail, her mighty nerdiness, Queen Nerd.”

We were both laughing ridiculously hard at our own stupidity, which was for some reason just too funny to us at the time. I was glad when I felt the car stop moving and looked up to see us in a parking lot. Callie seems to be a great driver and all, but it’s hard to drive when your laughing like an idiot, no matter how good you normally are.

“We’re such dorks,” Callie finally said, wiping at the corner of her eye, careful not to smudge her makeup.

“The dorkiest,” I agreed, smiling almost absent-mindedly at that point.

“Well, we’re here too,” she said, gesturing at the large building to our left. “We better head on in.”

“Man, I haven’t been to the aquarium since I was a kid. I always loved this place. I’m so glad we decided to do this.”

“Me too,” she said, nodding. A somewhat different kind of smile was slowly making it’s way onto her face, but I couldn’t place what made it different. “Well come on then. What are we waiting for?”