Point of Retreat (Slammed #2)(2)

“She doesn’t eat meat,” Kel says. “She’s a vegetarian.”

Figures. I put the meat back inside the fridge. “I don’t have any fake meat. What’s she gonna do? Eat bread?”

“Bread’s fine,” Kiersten says as she walks through the front door…without knocking. “I like bread. French fries, too. I just don’t eat things that are a result of unjustified animal homicides.”

Kiersten walks to the table and grabs the roll of paper towels and starts tearing them off, laying one beside each plate. Her self-assurance reminds me a little of Eddie.

“Who’s she?” Gavin asks, watching Kiersten make herself at home. She’s never eaten with us before, but you wouldn’t know that by how she’s taking command.

“She’s the eleven-year-old neighbor I was telling you about. The one I think is an imposter based on the things that come out of her mouth. I’m beginning to suspect she’s really a tiny adult, posing as a little red headed child.”

“Oh, the one Kel's crushing on?” Gavin smiles and I can see his wheels turning. He’s already thinking of ways to embarrass Kel at dinner. Tonight should be interesting.

Gavin and I have become pretty close this past year. It’s good, I guess…considering how close Eddie and Lake are. Kel and Caulder really like them, too. It’s nice. I like the setup we all have. I hope it stays this way.

Eddie and Lake finally walk in just as we’re all sitting down at the table. Lake has her wet hair pulled up into a knot on top of her head. She’s wearing house shoes, sweat pants and a t-shirt. I love that about her; the fact that she’s so comfortable here. She takes the seat next to mine and leans in and kisses me on the cheek.

“Thanks, Babe. Sorry it took me so long. I was trying to register online for Statistics but the class is full. Guess I’ll have to go sweet talk someone at the admin. office tomorrow.”

“Why are you taking statistics?” Gavin asks. He grabs the ketchup and squirts it on his plate.

“I took Algebra II in the Winter mini-mester. I’m trying to knock out all my math in the first year since I hate it so much.” Lake grabs the ketchup out of Gavin’s hands and squirts some on my plate, then on her own.

“What’s your hurry? You’ve already got more credits than Eddie and I put together,” he says. Eddie nods in agreement as she takes a bite of her burger.

Lake nudges her head toward Kel and Caulder. “I’ve already got more kids than you and Eddie put together, too. That’s my hurry.”

“What’s your major?” Kiersten asks Lake.

Eddie glances toward Kiersten, finally noticing the extra person seated at the table. “Who are you?”

Kiersten looks at Eddie and smiles. “I’m Kiersten. I live diagonal to Will and Caulder, parallel to Layken and Kel. We moved here from Detroit right before Christmas. Mom says we needed to get out of the city, before the city got out of us…whatever that means. I’m eleven. I’ve been eleven since eleven-eleven-eleven. It was a pretty big day, you know. Not many people can say they turned eleven on eleven-eleven-eleven. I’m a little bummed I was born at three o’clock in the afternoon, though. If I would have been born at 11:11, I’m pretty sure I could have got on the news or something. I could have recorded the segment and used it someday for my portfolio. I’m gonna be an actress when I grow up.”

Eddie, along with the rest of us, stare at Kiersten without responding. Kiersten is oblivious, turning to Lake to repeat her question. “What’s your major, Layken?”

Lake lays her burger down on her plate and clears her throat. I know how much she hates this question. She tries to answer confidently. “I haven’t decided yet.”

Kiersten looks at her pitifully. “I see. The proverbial undecided. My oldest brother has been a Sophomore in college for three years. He’s got enough credits to have five majors by now. I think he remains undecided because he’d rather sleep until noon every day, sit in class for three hours and go out every night, than actually graduate and get a real job. Mom says that’s not true…she says it’s because he’s trying to ‘discover his full potential’ by examining all of his interests. If you ask me, I think it’s bullshit.”

I cough when the drink I just swallowed tries to make its way back up with my laugh.

“You just said bullshit!” Kel says.

“Kel, don’t say bullshit!” Lake says.

“But she said bullshit first,” Caulder says, defending Kel.

“Caulder, don’t say bullshit!” I yell.

“Sorry,” Kiersten says to Lake and I. “Mom says the FCC is responsible for inventing cusswords just for media shock value. She says if everyone would just use them enough, they wouldn’t be considered cusswords anymore and no one would ever be offended by them.”

This kid is hard to keep up with!

“Your mother encourages you to cuss?” Gavin says.

Kiersten nods. “I don’t see it that way. It’s more like she’s encouraging us to undermine a system flawed through overuse of words that are made out to be harmful, when in fact they’re just letters, mixed together like every other word. That’s all they are, mixed up letters. Like, take the word ‘butterfly’ for example. What if someone decided one day that butterfly is a cussword? People would eventually start using the word butterfly as an insult, and to emphasize things in a negative way. The actual word doesn’t mean anything. It’s the negative association people give these words that make them cusswords. So, if we all just decided to keep saying butterfly all the time, eventually people would stop caring. The shock value would subside…and it would become just another word again. Same with every other so-called bad word. If we would all just start saying them all the time, they wouldn’t be bad anymore. That’s what my mom says, anyway.” She smiles and takes a french fry and dips it in ketchup.