Chapter 10

:: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 ::

Thursday in English I discovered that on Tuesday, Mrs. Dotson assigned the class to divide up into groups and make a collage of things to do with freedom. Not a bad idea, except I had no partner. We didn't need one, but it would be easier with one. I missed out on the partner grabbing due to a much needed nap so I just started flipping through another CosmoGirl magazine and decided I'd take another zero in English class. It happens.

Then Heather, not church Heather, came up and asked if she could join me. I figured I might as well. Give me someone to talk to. So we chatted for a bit about her boyfriend and how she missed him. And her fiance. Oh my! I didn't realize that the boyfriend and the fiance were the same for a few minutes. Then I woke up and realized that the ring on her finger was an engagement ring. Interesting conversation. I was just blown away about the fact that she was going to be getting married at 18. I kept saying, "Wow! You must be freaked out!" Yep, I'm quite an encouragement.

So then class ended and I offered to get the poster board for the collage and we would do a mad scramble the next day to get done. So that night, around 11ish, I remembered that I needed to get poster board. So on Friday morning I decided to venture out to Albertson's to get the poster board. Minor detail was that school starts at 8:00 and I left the house at 7:45 with a 20 minute drive ahead. Oops. So I joined the morning commute. I felt so special, so grown up. I was in the morning commute into town. Yay me! So after I got over my excitment about that I got to Albertson's at around 7:55 almost 8. A little late for school. So I wandered in and went searching for that blasted poster board. Well, on my way I noticed this massive, brown teddy bear sitting on a table with some other ones. Then I remembered that Anne always, I mean everytime we were in Albertsons, petted the stuffed animals for some unknown reason. So I figured, Valentine's Day...Anne likes stuffed animals...massive stuffed animal...hmm...

So then I ventured over to the poster boards with a massive bear tucked under my arm and a Sprite in my hand. Yeah, I multitask. Well, come on, I do. It wasn't easy to decide whether or not to get the bear. I mean, I had our Valentine's date all planned out. Movie around 4 and skate from 7 to 11ish and then go swing for awhile. I should have realized then that planning the date wasn't good. Didn't work the first time. I'm not complaining. So I decided that I would get the bear and either watch a movie and skate from 7 to 9 or just skate all night, no movie. THEN I decided that it wasn't really up to me and I was late for school. So me and the bear hobbled on out to the truck and we sat there for a few minutes before I looked down and realized that I had this very large patch of brown hair on my jacket. The bear was shedding. My bad. So I picked off the hair and continued on to school. I finally made it to school at like 8:30. Good, not too late.

Yeah right. I wasn't going to go for just half and hour of class and I needed to write a paper for History, due that day, before 9. And a good song was on the radio. So I chilled in the parking lot, writing my paper, listening to the radio with a big bear in my passenger seat. Nine o'clock rolled around and I buckled in the bear and headed off to class. The rest of my day in school was pretty boring. I fell asleep in German class and woke up to a knuckle tickling my nose. I just KNEW it was Anne surprising me in class so I jerked my head up and realized it was Jenny writing Happy Valentine's on my paper. Oh joy. In 6th hour I conjured up a way to skip English class and drive out to surpise Anne, but my conscious stepped in and I decided that skipping school wasn't a good idea. Plus Anne wouldn't be too happy with me. I mean, she gets quite upset at me for not doing my work. Minor details. That will be our first fight probably. She'll be yelling, "YOU'RE NOT STUPID!!!!" What can I say?

Seventh hour was as exciting as I hoped it would be. First a minor test and then the mad scramble with Heather to get pictures for our collage. We made an A so it was quite good. After school I just headed home hoping for a good nap. Nope, no nap. Yeah, right. I had a big date coming up. One that I tried to plan (hopefully for the last time, you would think I've learned by now). So I headed over to Anne's and called her and told her to go look at the stars. (inside joke, my bad) When she came out I gave her the candy that mom bought her (family ritual, she's truly inducted now) and then we went inside to chat with Anne's mom about random things. And I got TWO bags of M&Ms taped together with a funny poem shoved inbetween. Yeah, very precious. I enjoyed it greatly. I'm like that though. So then we went out to the truck and she saw the bear. Now, mind you, I've been arguing with myself all day on whether or not she would like the bear. I'm still plagued by that question. I'm just a worrisome fella.

So then we sat in the truck and tried to figure out what to do now. We figured, forget the movie and we'll skate all night. So now we had to come up with something to do until 7. Well, why not swing?!? So we headed on out to the park to discover that someone already had the swings. Ackbar. Okay, we'll go get something to drink. On our way out of the park we passed Charity, Anne's cousin. So I turned the truck around and yelled her name our really loud but she didn't stop. So I pulled over and Anne and I bailed out and went to talk to her and her brother's. Interesting family. Charity's brother just looked at me funny for a few minutes until I turned to face him. Then he stared some more. Finally he started talking when Charity and Anne started talking about family reunions. Oh my. Now that sounds like one interesting family reunion. I mean, I've met quite a few of the family, but this just sounds like a once in a lifetime chance. Just the reenactments of the drunks falling over and the howler monkeys and all, so crazy. Longer story than I have time.

So we were about to leave for the mall to get something to drink and there was a fly on my leg. Nothing new. Just a fly. Anne wanted to be nice so she picked up a stick, I figured to just nudge it off. NOPE! She pulled back and swung quite fast at the fly and my leg. The fly flew off, Anne missed it quite horribly, and the stick slammed into my bruised leg. Quite funny. I mean, I laughed for a few minutes. Anne is still laughing. Buddy and Charity will never stop laughing.

So we left for the mall and bought some smoothies. Then I noticed Jodi walking by and I told Anne to just sit still and maybe she wouldn't notice us. Well, she noticed us. So her and her friend, Jaime, came over and chatted with us for awhile about English class and the teacher and stupid things at MHS. I just sat and laughed at all the stupid stories. They left and Anne and I got up to go wander around the mall. We ventured to Sears for bit and went to go see Jenny but instead found my friend Alicia. Nice gal. I chatted with her for awhile and then we headed back towards the food court. Then I remembered that it was "kiss your favorite banker day" at BancFirst. The bank that banker boy works at. Nevermind, inside joke thing. Well, I saw my friend Justin Calvert and talked to him for a bit. Then as we were leaving the bank Anne saw a few of her friends and I met them and we had a nice little chat. Quite entertaining friends my Annikin has. They left and I saw Keli, my German class friend. I ran up to her yelling, "KELI!!!! KELI!!!!" So Anne finally got to meet Keli and Keli go to meet the wonderful Anne.

Finally we started to leave the mall and got to the skating rink at around 6:45. Waited in line forever and then when we got up to the counter I got so confused because of the loudness and the money and such that I just threw a bunch of money at the counter guy and hoped it worked. He handed us our tag things for some rollerblades and we headed in. Now, last time we went skating I used the quad skates, four wheels on each foot in a car like shape. "I have cars under my feet!" This time I was going for the rollerblades. Putting them on was quite easy and standing was a breeze and scooting out to the floor wasn't too bad, but after that my rollerblading experience plummeted. My legs wanted to bend out and I wanted them to stay in. Yeah, it hurt. My legs were so stretched. They would stretch so far that I would just fall over and stand back up. I made it a good 50 feet and decided that rollerblades weren't my bag. Anne got a good laugh. Especially at my rubber like legs and the way they would stretch out and then bend awkwardly. She laughed, I changed skates.

So, back to the quad skates. My cup of tea. I was doing quite well, catching myself falling and such. Anne just skated by me looking quite sad and bored. I don't know why, I never will. Maybe I was boring. You just don't know. SO, I tried to spice things up a bit. Dancing was my tool. Going on a straight path was just the right time for me to bust out my dance moves. Oh I had fun then. I hope she did. She was laughing quite hard. I would go a ways, dance a little, stumble, catch my fall, and it would start all over again. In only fell twice this time. So far. Even with the dancing and such. I wanted to just pick up Miss Anne and twirl her around a lot and make her happy and smile. But I would probably have fallen and broken a few bones and nobody wants that, except Richard who needs something to laugh at. And Anne's friends. They hear all about my bruises and stupidity.

So I was dancing along and stumbled a bit so I caught myself. Anne scooted over to grab my hand and help me up when all the sudden this big WHAM came from behind me. I just remember flipping upside down, landing flat on my back, immense pain in my back, then immense pain in my left knee from a skate being plunged into it, and a little 8 year old sliding over my head. Huge pile up on the floor. Thankfully Anne made it out unscathed. Me, on the other hand, added bruises to bruises. Oh my, quite painful. This one guy that Anne and I had talked about before and how he wasn't scary came up behind me and tried to pass, but sorta failed and knocked the crap out of me. He tried to jump up at one point and that's when he dug his rollerblade into my knee. It's pretty purple now. Just a little scary looking.

This was right at 9 or so. So Anne and I stepped off the floor (more like I hobbled) and tried to figure out our plans for the rest of the evening. I mean, I would have loved to stay and skate longer, but I couldn't even walk straight. After some thought we decided to leave and go swing. We like to swing. We made it out to the park at around 9:30 because of all the thought involved in figuring out whether or not to leave. So we went and swung on the swings and chatted for about an hour and a half or so. Maybe two hours. We talked about a lot of stuff, more like I chatted about things I had had on my mind for quite some time and Anne listened. But that's why we get along so well. We both like to listen and talk. Just a good mix. I feel so bad though because I feel like I cheated her out on a fun date. I mean, it was fun for awhile. But I'm pretty sure swinging for two hours listening to me talk wasn't too exciting. Oh my, I have a lot of making up to do.

After our swinging adventures we went to Cheryl's house for awhile and wrapped our night there. Not too exciting, but what can I say? I had fun because I was with Anne. It's fun to just be with her. Maybe that's just weird of me, but I mean, she's so...Anne. I mean, she's so fun and we get along so much. We could have just sat at Cheryl's or just have gone and walked around in circles in the Mazzio's parking lot and I would have had fun because I was with Anne. I'll shutup now.

Yeah, I'm cheesy, get over it. God loves me and that's all that matters. He brought me and Anne together so who cares if I'm cheesy when I talk about her. I mean, I'm blessed quite a lot by God with my family and friends and pastors and talents and smartness and unangerness. I'm very blessed. Why so much? I don't know. I do know that Anne is a blessing to me because she is so encouraging and I hope that I do the same if not more for her. God is so good. So wonderfully good.

There's never enough talk about God, but for now I'm going to head off because I have school tomorrow and all that suchnessed of it all. God loves you.

God is good. All the time.
Peace

:: Ben 12:05 AM [+] ::
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