A Revised Definition

CHAPTER 10

"Great, you're here," Rita tells Kimberly when she arrives, fifteen minutes into our first official book-movie club meeting.

"My bad, I had to feed my brothers and Jacob didn't want to get up so I had to drag him out of bed." She shakes her head. "Nonsense, I tell you." With that, she looks around the backyard where Rita, Charlie and I have set a lemonade pitcher, a bowl of strawberries and small peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (Charlie's making) on the round glass table.

Emmett is the first to gather his thoughts and discuss The Fifth Wave. He's wearing a pastel blue t-shirt with small ice cream cones printed on it and has sparkly blue nail polish on his right fingers. He's got a comb stuck in his hair which he occasionally uses during our conversation. I'm surprised and pleased when I see him pull out a folded paper with somes notes scribbled on it in different colours. "Let me tell you─" he pokes at his piece of paper, "─if I were to live through the apocalypse, I'd definitely handle the situation much differently."

"Yeah. You'd die within the first second," Kimberly jokes.

Emmett ignores her and goes on discussing Cassie, the main character for ten minutes. Since we haven't discussed the other characters or plot or writing yet, Rita suggests a five-minute limit for everyone to summarize their thoughts.

"We aren't here to discuss the book," she explains. "We're here to compare it to the book."

"But..." I let my words trail off. I don't want to disagree with Rita, especially since she is visibly the one taking this the most seriously out of all of us. I simply think that it would be better if we all discussed certain themes or characters or choices they made so we all have a grasp at what the story was trying to do. Otherwise, comparing it with the movie would be strictly subjective.

Rita chews on a pen and looks at me. "You were going to say something, Habs?" Habs is short for Habibi or its female derivative, Habibêti, which means my darling.

I shake my head. "No, it's fine." I know I should speak my mind, I know it. My prefrontal lobe, the one making the decisions, however, does not.

"What were you going to say?" she presses with a smile.

"I just... I think it'd be cool if we went into more details. It would be interesting and, I don't know, it would be an experiment."

"Yeah," Charlie says. His eyes glow in amusement and I wonder what it must be like, to never have to worry about people judging you. "I spent two hours with Lea talking about aliens and conspiracy theories and I'll be d*mned if I don't use what I learned to impress you."

She looks around the table. I know she's trying to read everyone's expressions to arrive at a consensus. "I agree."

*****

We end up discussing the movie version of The Fifth Wave around a picnic table on an ice cream shop's terrasse. Kimberly bobs her head to the rhythm of the music booming from the speaker but never fails to miss a single part of the conversation.

"Not the best movie," Rita says, biting into her raspberry sorbet.

"I thought it was fun," Charlie says.

"Fun? Sure. But not the best, obviously."

"It was better than the book," Kimberly says. "In my opinion."

I frown. Kimberly must have noticed it because she turns her attention fully on me. I swallow my bite of mint chocolate chip ice cream and say softly, "If I hadn't read the book, I don't think I would have understood the movie."

"Saaamme!" Emmett says and he high fives me. "I'm on board with you, Leana."

Charlie and I share a look. I can tell he wants to correct Emmett but he's letting me stand up for myself. I appreciate the gesture but, honestly it's no big deal. Finally, it's Rita who says, "It's Lea, actually."

Emmett gawks at me. "Really? Freak, I'm sorry. I thought Lea was a nickname."

"It's okay."

"I'm a complete jerk."

"Three for the book,'' Rita says to circle back to our previous conversation topic, which I'm grateful for. "And two for the movie, right? I'm team movie and Cee, you're team book?''

"Yup. So who should be next to pick the book? I've already done my part."

When no one speaks, Rita sighs. "Fine. I'll choose. How about, um, The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon?"

Charlie tosses his head back and groans. "Ritz, I don't know who you think I am, but I don't like fluffy books. Or fluffy anything."

"Not even fluffy blankets?" I wonder.

He considers the questions. "Fluffy blankets are the exceptions."

"How about fluffy pillows?" Emmett says. "Or fluffy hoodies. You can't possibly not love fluffy hoodies."

"Fine," Charlie says. "I like fluffy things. Just not fluffy books."

"You're going to read one," Rita insists. "And you're going to love it."

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Hello awesome humans!

Quiestion of the day: WHo's your favourite character?

A reminder that I have written the entire story (meaning that you will know what happens in the end, I won't stop posting mid-way), but am willing to switch up some stuff if you have any comments or suggestions.