A walk to remember || Tk

「Chapter 8 」

—Chapter eight—

The first thing we did was talk to Miss Garber about our plans for the orphans, and she thought it was a marvelous idea.

That was her favorite word, by the way--marvelous--after she'd greeted you with "Hellooooo."

On Monday, when she realized that I knew all my lines, she said, "Marvelous!" and for the next two hours whenever I'd finish up a scene, she'd say it again. By the end of the rehearsal, I'd heard it about four zillion times.

But Miss Garber actually went with our idea which was a good one. She told the class what we were doing, and she asked if other members of the cast would be willing to do their parts as well, so that the orphans could really enjoy the whole thing.

The way she asked meant that they really didn't have a choice, and she looked around the class, waiting for someone to nod so she could make it official. No one moved a muscle, except for Eddie. Somehow he'd inhaled a bug up his nose at that exact moment, and he sneezed violently.

The bug flew out his nose, shot across his desk, and landed on the floor right by Norma Jean's leg. She jumped out of her chair and screamed out loud, and the people on either side of her shouted, "Eww . . . gross!"

The rest of the class started looking around and craning their necks, trying to see what happened, and for the next ten seconds there was total pandemonium in the classroom. For Miss Garber, that was as good of an answer as she needed.

"Marvelous," she said, closing the discussion.

Jungkook, meanwhile, was getting really excited about performing for the orphans. During a break in rehearsals he pulled me aside and thanked me for thinking of them. "There's no way you would know," he said almost conspiratorially, "but I've been wondering what to do for the orphanage this year. I've been praying about it for months now because I want this Christmas to be the most special one of all."

"Why is this Christmas so important?" I asked him, and he smiled patiently, as if I'd asked a question that didn't really matter.

"It just is," he said simply.

The next step was to talk it over with Mr. Jenkins, the director of the orphanage. Now I'd never met Mr. Jenkins before, being that the orphanage was in Morehead City, which was across the bridge from Beaufort, and I'd never had any reason to go there.

When Jungkook surprised me with the news the following day that we'd be meeting him later that evening, I was sort of worried that I wasn't dressed nice enough. I know it was an orphanage, but a guy wants to make a good impression.

Even though I wasn't as excited about it as Jungkook was (no one was as excited as Jungkook), I didn't want to be regarded as the Grinch who ruined Christmas for the orphans, either.

Before we went to the orphanage for our meeting, we had to walk to my house to pick up my mom's car, and while there, I planned on changing into something a little nicer.

The walk took about ten minutes or so, and Jungkook didn't say much along the way, at least until we got to my neighborhood.

The homes around mine were all large and well kept, and he asked who lived where and how old the houses were.

I answered his questions without much thought, but when I opened the front door to my house, I suddenly realized how different this world was compared with his own.

He had a shocked expression on his face as he looked around the living room, taking in his surroundings. No doubt it was the fanciest home he'd ever been in.