Ella's Twisted Senior Year(53)
I glance over at Ella and she grins. “Ethan drew it but it was my idea.”
Mom shakes her head like she’s disappointed but she smiles anyway. “It was funny. But you two know you can’t do that. However, Mr. Reynolds did tell me about Kennedy’s online posts and that’s just awful of her. She really is a piece of work. Of course, who can blame her for being upset that the greatest guy in high school dumped her.”
I can feel my cheeks redden. “Mom, ew.”
Ella smiles. “Well, she’s right about that.”
Mom’s lips flatten and she points between the two of us. “You two need to be careful. That girl is pissed and she could get you in even more trouble.”
“Yes ma’am,” I say, letting my shoulders sag. “This is a hell we’ve been living with for a few weeks now.”
Mom sighs and then throws her hands up in the air. “Ugh, this is so stupid! I feel like I should ground you or something, right? But at the same time, I don’t really blame you for what you did. It was kind of hilarious.”
Mom walks back into the kitchen and I almost think the conversation is over but then she says. “My kids have never been in trouble before so I don’t know what to do.” She waves a hand at us and ducks into the refrigerator, taking out supplies needed to cook dinner. “Just tell everyone you’re grounded, okay? Now get out of here.”
Ella’s mom calls her from work and she ducks into the other room to answer it. I give her some privacy, and head into my room to begin Operation Something Better than Prom.
I plunk down into my computer chair and try to Google for ideas. Although I know I want to surprise Ella with a fun and ultra romantic date where she can wear her dress, I’ve got exactly zero ideas on how to do it. Luckily, I have four days to think of something.
*
My alarm blares at five in the morning on Saturday. I knew it would be painstakingly awful to get up this early, but now that it’s actually happening, it’s even worse. My eyes hurt, my body hurts, and all I want to do is sleep. I’d stayed up way too late last night putting the finishing touches on my surprise for Ella.
I throw off the covers as I hear Ella’s alarm go off down the hall. We have to be at the corner of Main and Walnut Street by five-thirty for our community service. The only good thing about waking up this early is knowing that Kennedy has to do it too. Ha.
The body shop called last night and said that my truck would be ready by noon today, so although we take my Mom’s car to our community service, I am thrilled that later today I’ll be back behind the wheel of my own truck.
Ella rubs her eyes and looks over at me, her head lolling against the headrest of Mom’s Accord. “Do we have time for coffee?” she mumbles.
“And donuts,” I say with a smile.
Mrs. Kim isn’t behind the counter when we get to the square donut place, but a kid that looks like her son helps us instead. It’s probably for the best because Mrs. Kim would ask too many questions about why we’re here so early and I really don’t want to ruin her impression of me by telling her I’m a delinquent with community service.
We eat quickly and when we arrive at the starting point, there’s already a dozen or so people standing around, all wearing bright yellow safety vests and looking like they’ve committed far worse crimes than making a funny T-shirt.
Kennedy is here, too, wearing a black tracksuit and her hair in a ponytail. She avoids us like the plague and we do the same to her. Ella and I are given a yellow vest by the woman in charge. Her name is Pam and she looks exactly like a Pam—like someone who’s seen some shit and someone you know you don’t want to cross.
Ella and I work in silence, moving along the side of the main highway, picking up trash. It’s all surprisingly exactly like the stuff you see on TV. A couple of police officers supervising while we all walk around, stabbing trash and shoving it into a thick plastic trash bag. I guess this is supposed to give us time to reflect on what we’ve done wrong, but the only guilt I feel is the guilt over dating Kennedy in the first place. What was I thinking?
I can remember when Kennedy first sunk her claws into me. I’d been single and bored and it felt like a fine thing to do at the time. I should have put more thought into it. Vetted her with my friends to make sure she wasn’t crazy. I’m sure she would have failed that test and I’d have been able to turn her away, avoiding all of this drama in the first place.
And if I had never been dating Kennedy, the tornado still would have happened. I’d still be in athletics class and Ella would still be in art class and we’d probably still have met each other in the hallway. Everything could have been exactly the same, only it could have missed a ton of drama and nonsense along the way.
At noon, we get fifteen minutes to eat our sack lunches at a rest stop along the side of the road.
Ella and I choose a small picnic table and sit next to each other. “Ugh this is awful,” Ella says, bumping into me with her shoulder. “I would kiss you right now but I’m pretty sure my whole face is covered in the germs of this trash.”
I lift an eyebrow. “Have you been rubbing it on your face? You know you’re just supposed to put it in the bag, right?”
She punches me in the arm. “You know what I mean. It feels like the garbage and grossness is in the air, floating all around in this godawful Texas heat.” She heaves a sigh and squirts some antibacterial gel on her hands before opening her bag of chips. “Ugh.”