Put Your Hands Up And I'll Copy You

I woke up the next day a little before noon, when Paige fell through my window onto my bed.

“Jamie, what are you doing? You’re supposed to be on a date with Max!”

I rubbed my eyes and sat up slowly. “How’d you get here?” I muttered, trying to wake up.

“I just climbed a tree.” She ignored my shocked face. “You weren’t answering your phone! What was I supposed to do? I know you don’t want to miss this opportunity. I mean, you have never hung out with anyone before, aside from when I dragged you with me! I’m so happy for you!” She said, talking so quickly that it seemed like another language.

“Um, I have no idea what you just said, but I guess I’ll get ready now.” I said, putting on some skinny jeans and a baggy sweatshirt. It was chilly out. Strange.

“I’m going to drive you there! We’re all going to eat breakfast together!” She gushed. “Jon’s not coming, sadly.” She made a pouting face.

“Why not?”

“He’s really hungover.”

“Oh.”

And we walked out to the car. On the way there, Paige filled me in on what she had been doing over the week while I was studying. The we talked a little about graduation, which had been yesterday morning. It was strange, thinking about it.

I mean, I had gone to school with most of these people for four years, thinking that we would be friends eventually, and suddenly everyone would all be scattering all over the country, before that ever happened. I would most likely never see any of them again, since once I got to college, I was never coming back here. Not here, where my mother was overburdened by every breath I took. Not here, where kids at school never gave me the time of day, even though we saw each other all of the time. Not here, where I grew up on the same street my entire life, walking the same fifteen steps to get to from my door to the sidewalk every day.

After we parked and walked into the Shack, I felt comfortable immediately. It was a small wooden building right on the beach. Actually, it wasn’t really a real building. It had three walls and one entire side that opened up onto the sand. There were a lot of kids that looked about my age sitting around on couches, talking, drinking coffee or beer.

“She’s here!” Someone whispered, and suddenly everyone was looking at me. I would have probably run away if Paige hadn’t shoved me forward.

“Hey everyone! This is Jamie!” Paige smiled.

I turned to look at her. She didn’t tell me that she’d been here before! Before I knew it she was naming everyone in the room. I didn’t even try to remember their names- how could I meet so many people at one time?

I pretty much sat there for the next hour, eating waffles, and laughing hysterically. Max, who suddenly was the center of attention, made sure that everyone knew that I was a “straight-edge, but cool” person. Then he sat in a corner with me, telling me about his life. He was a storyteller- not in the way that was boring because you weren’t there. In the way that made you wish you could spend more time with him just so that you could have crazy adventures with him. So I was surprised when I realized that I actually was starting to like him a little.

“So, now that everyone knows that you’re cool, you should definitely come hang out here a lot. Like, any day you need a waffle. Or a CD, because we have tons of those in the back. Or, wait, do you surf?”

“Not really…” I said. I had never tried, which was strange for someone around here, since this was probably the best place for surfing within a day of driving. People came from all around to surf here. Which in my opinion, was a waste of time.

“I can teach you. I like helping people.”

“Okay?” I laughed. “Do these people ever really need help?”

“Not really.” He pulled me towards a large, metal structure that suddenly appeared through the fog. “You want to climb it?”

“What?” I stared at him. “What is it?”

“It’s a watch tower. They used it during some war.”

“Have you ever climbed it before? Is it safe?” I asked him, knowing I probably sounded like a wimp.

“Yeah.” He started pulling himself up the rusted ladder, kicking the “No trespassing” sign on his way up. “You coming or not?”

“Alright, this had better be good.” I sighed, and followed him. When we got to the top, I just stared. It was high enough that you could see over the fog- it was the weirdest thing I had ever seen. It was like we were sitting above the clouds. There were rooftops scattered around, but that was all that you could see. The sky above us was clear, and it was actually pretty hot.

“The fog is going to burn up pretty soon, so I thought you should see this.” He said.

“It’s amazing!” I said.

Then we just sat there, in a silence that was comfortable, and watched the rest of the world appear.