Over the Wall: A Collection of Short Stories (NaNoWriMo 2014)

Day 12: Carter's Birthday

Note: I'm sure some of this sucks but bear with me okay? Also, this is dedicated to christinajanee for all her help during NaNoWriMo :)

The tension in the room was palpable. They all had gathered as it was Carter’s birthday but also because Lily and Samantha were fighting and no one wanted to miss that. It had been a long time since they had all been in the same room. Some of them had remained friends but most went their separate ways, only saying hi occasionally in the halls. It was probably better that way.

Gianna sat near the corner of the room, which wasn’t too far from the action, with her friends Danielle and Jamie. In the center of the room were Carter who was trying to calm down Lily and Samantha. No one knew why. Sure, they were fighting about him but he should know that once they start fighting they won’t stop, even if they’re not fighting about the same thing anymore.

Today they happened to be fighting about Carter, which was not unusual. They always fought about Carter. And Carter always gave them something to fight about. You see, Carter had this bad habit of not being able to decide which of his “girls” he liked better, even though the girls were friends. There was not an excess of intelligence in this room, Gianna thought.

Everyone else was scattered around the room in different little groups. Also known as the little groups they lumped into after entering middle school then high school. They all got along well enough in middle school but as high school went on and things like boyfriends and dates came up, it didn’t go as well. Gianna still got along pretty well with most of them, all of the guys and all but a few of the girls. She didn’t care about those girls though, she didn’t like them and they didn’t like her.

Some actually, she had quite a complicated relationship with. Take Isaac for an example. He was sitting in another corner of the room with a few of the baseball guys and his long-time girlfriend, Nicole, who was one of the girls that did not like Gianna and whom Gianna did not like as well. But Isaac and Gianna got along just fine.

She had met Isaac in the first grade and they had gotten along right from the start. They were never the super-close friends type or the best friends type but they got along really well whenever they came into contact. For example, the other day. Gianna had come into the library to meet Jamie and Isaac had been there sitting with her. Unlike Gianna, Nicole liked Jamie and Jamie liked Nicole well enough. So they all sat together as they studied. Then Jamie asked Gianna,

“How long have we known each other?” Gianna shrugged.

“I don’t know. I think we’ve known each other since what, the fifth grade? That makes it about seven years.”

“Wow.” Jamie said. “That’s a long time.” Gianna nodded absentmindedly and went back to her work. Jamie wasn’t done.

“How long have you guys known each other?”

“Who?” Isaac asked.

“Who do you think? You and Gianna of course.”

“Oh.” He said. He and Gianna both looked deep in thought before looking at Jamie and saying,

“Too long.” In unison before going back to their work. Jamie looked at them like they were insane.

“What?” Gianna said.

“You guys are insane.”

“Why?” Isaac said.

“You just said ‘too long’ at the exact same time.”

“And?” They said at the same time.

“That’s what I’m talking about.” Jamie said.

“You haven’t said anything yet.” Gianna said.