The Girl Across the Street

The Girl Across the Street 11

Wednesday, December 5th. 6:30 in the morning my alarm goes off. I blindly wave my hand around, making contact with the beeping clock. I roll out of bed and stagger over to the bathroom, rubbing my eyes and running my hand through my hair.

            I leave the bathroom at 6:45, showered and ready to get dressed. By 7:00 I'm jogging downstairs to say goodbye to my mother and grab breakfast.

            I take a bite out of my toast as Simon pulls into my driveway, honking his horn for good measure. I nod to Simon and call goodbye to my mother then jog out to the car.

            "Hey man." Simon greets, pulling out of my driveway as I buckle my seatbelt.

            "Hey." I say, looking out my window at Emma's house. She is in her window. I wave to her and after a moment, she waves back. We continue to watch each other until her house is out of sight.

            "Isn't that where the new girl lives?" Simon asks.

            I nod. "We should offer her a ride tomorrow," I suggest.

            Simon laughs. "You know I would man, but what about Nathan? That would totally screw with his plan. You and I, we're flexible. But Nathan?" He laughs again. "Not a chance with him."

            "Well who cares what Nathan says about it? Last I checked, this isn't Nathan's car, it's your car. If Nathan has a problem with it, then he can get a different ride to school every day."

            Simon nods, contemplating it. "You know what, you've got a point. But I don't think we should just show up with an extra person tomorrow. Let's talk to him about it, okay?" I nod.

            We pull into Nathan's driveway and he stumbles down the stairs, his nose buried in another book. "Are you sure he would even notice her? He probably doesn't even realize that he just left his house." I state, laughing.

            Simon laughs at my comment. "I'm pretty sure he would notice."

            "Who would notice what?" Nathan asks cluelessly as he climbs into the car, maneuvering his body so that his backpack drops with a thud onto the seat next to him and he sits down, all without taking the book more than six inches away from his face.

            "Well I suggested to Simon that we offer Emma a ride to school tomorrow." I say.

            "The weird new girl that lives across the street from your house?" Nathan asks and I nod then realize he can't see me because of his book.

            "Yeah, that's Emma, the new girl. It's not like it would be out of the way." Simon chimes in.

            "Oh man, no way. She's weird. I mean come on, she doesn't even look like she belongs. Why would we want to drive to school with her?" Nathan scoffs.

            "Because it would be nice and she really isn't that bad once you get to know her. Come on, have you ever even talked to her?" I defend.

            "Yeah," Simon choruses, though I don't recall him ever having a conversation with her before either.

            "You do realize that arriving at school with her would be a total taboo. No one at school wants anything to do with her and frankly, I agree."

            "Since when did we care what everybody else thinks?" Simon asks. We pull into the school parking lot.

            "Well it would certainly help if any of us want to be captains next year."