The Dream Train

Sam Does Something Dumb

That day school seemed to drag for Ana. She couldn't shake her melancholy mood and felt like she was dying to get out of her normal routine. She hoped the trip to the lake would be enough to finally lift her spirits. She wasn't particularly optimistic, though.

Thursday evening at dinner, Sam asked if his buddy Derek could come with them to the lake. Gran looked at Ana.

Ana hated the idea. She absolutely hated it. She wanted to be with just her family. She didn't want her brother to be 'Football Player Sam' who had to be cool and kind of snotty. She just wanted 'Silly Fun Sam' who wasn't afraid to be a big dork. Furthermore, she didn't really like Derek. In addition to all the ridiculous things the other football players did and said, the dumb jokes, the machismo, the superiority, Derek was kind of cruel. The other boys on the team might ignore a kid they thought wasn't cool enough to hang out with them but Derek tended to be a bully. Derek was also the most likely to say something rude or gross about the girls at school or to the girls at school. He would make rude comments about girls' bodies or make suggestive remarks to them. All in all, he was a creep.

Ana was going to say so. She was going to tell Sam to leave his creepy friend at home and maybe even tell him that he needed to rethink his taste in friends. When she looked at him, though, he had a big dumb grin on his face. She could see how excited he was to have his jerk friend come along and she knew that he had been sad too. He missed their parents as much as she did. So she didn't say no. She didn't tell Sam that his friend was a butt-head and a creep. She just looked at Gran and shrugged like it didn't matter at all. Gran smiled at her and then told Sam it was fine. Ana kept her face passive but she wanted to vomit.

As soon as dinner was over, Ana hurried back to her room. She needed to pack but mostly she just wanted to be alone. She was disappointed about the trip but she was also really angry. She was angry at Sam. How could her brother be such an idiot? He couldn't miss all the crappy stuff Derek did at school. Did he really not care that his friend was the kind of person other kids played sick in order to avoid seeing? He was too smart not to see it. Wasn't he? And now he had invited that jerk on their family trip. Ana could feel her eyes burn and fought to swallow the lump in her throat.

Ana's packing was half-hearted at best. As she packed her clothes she was careful to pack bulky clothes she hoped would keep Derek from making any gross observations about her body. The fact that she had to think about that made her mad all over again. Stupid Sam and his stupid gross friend and stupid Gran for letting Sam bring a friend and she, herself, was stupid too. Otherwise, she'd have come up with a way to tell Sam that he could go jump in a lake with his nasty, skeevy friend.

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