welcome to cattlesburg: a beautiful fall
I looked up and quickly pulled the little green seaweed demon out of my hair. "surfing troubles," I explained as I threw it to the ground. "ah, I see. I hope you and your family are okay. we're really sorry about," he looked at the two vehicles,” all of this." I touched the gash on my forehead and looked at the blood on my fingers. "yeah," I paused for a moment, "we are fine." he looked at the cut on my forehead, "you really need to get that checked out when the ambulance comes 'cause a pretty girl like you shouldn’t have a big scar on her forehead like that." I smiled at the remark as the sun glinted through his brown messily spiked hair and hit his forest green eyes that made them sparkle.

I heard loud sirens and looked over at the ambulance that was pulling over to the side of the road where we were. "there's my cue. nice meeting ya, dash. bye," I said as I wiped my hair out of my eyes. "yes, nice meeting you too...I never got your name," he said as he glanced over at the paramedics talking to his mom and mine. my brain was on an overactive spasm called 'dash' so it took me a couple of seconds to respond, "it's Kieran." he smiled a magnificent grin, "well Kieran, I hope that the cut on your head gets well and that you are okay. bye." I walked to the ambulance smiling probably the goofiest, happiest smile ever.

when most people go to the beach they get a nice tan or an annoying sunburn but not me! I go to the beach and end up coming home with a concussion and 10 stitches on my forehead. I was rushed to the hospital so they could stitch me up, away from the scene of the accident, and away from dash.

flash forward to now shall we? I never saw dash since then. my mom's black excursion was totaled from all the damage from the accident. now she drives a new shiny red mini cooper.

charley came over and we walked over to the pier. mookie was working at the concession stand. we shuffled through the crowd and finally made it to the stand. "hello, how may I help you?" mookie joked as he asked in a monotone robot voice. "'ello mate, we will have our usual please," charley ordered in an Australian accent for some reason. mookie played along, "sorry girls, no shrimp on the barbie but here are your drinks."

while we paid I looked at mookie's tacky yellow and orange striped triangular paper hat. think of the hats from the '50s at the malt shops. "nice hat, mook," I said as I received my change back. charley was taking a sip of her sprite and coke concoction, "I agree. very chic, you should wear it around more often." mookie laughed, "hmm, we'll see." I noticed the line that was starting to form behind us, "Mr. tacky hat mookie, how long till you're off?"

mookie glanced over at the hot dog shaped clock on the wall behind him, "give me about 15 more minutes." we nodded and walked over to the light blue benches. charley and I talked and finished our drinks while we waited for the mookster. finally mook came out of the backdoor, tacky hat free. "where do you guys wanna go first?" he asked as he looked at his watch. charley looked at me, I looked back at her, we both shrugged our shoulders.

the three of us just started walking down the pier. mookie and I were talking about the major sound difference between records and cd’s when we were interrupted by charley going, "oh no, there's jessica harcof." I looked over by the sand art stand and said, "crap." jessica has been hating me which seems like forever. I think even maybe since elementary school. I cant really remember what I did to her but she sure does.

quickly I glanced over at this odd looking tourist who had a stuffed animal dog the size of a chair on his shoulders. as I looked at "it" I thought maybe she wouldn’t see me. "Kieran Roberts! who do we have here? the ever miss popular Kieran Roberts with her two sidekicks, mookie Rockland and charley Stevens," she did a fake gasp and put on a valley girl voice, "like oh my gosh what a surprise!" I shook my head, "cut the crap jessica. what do you want?" she smiled a grin that spelled trouble, "oh nothing, I heard you met dash. sta--" I sighed and interrupted her, "yeah? so..." and we walked past her.

something funny about jessica harcof is that she never picks on mookie. yeah, she gives charley and I a hard time but never to mookie. perhaps she thinks his parents are witches or somethin like that. charley, mookie, and I walked through the herds of people. finally we made it to the himilaya., said hi to Corey who was running it, and got on. mookie had to sit on the outside and got squished by charley and I. it was funny, the squishers (charley and I) couldn’t stop laughing to save our lives. we rode some more rides and decided to leave.

us three amigos walked down the pier to my casa. an elephant ear in my right hand and a stuffed orange star that mookie had won for me in the left. charley had cotton candy and mookie had a pair of humongous lime green sunglasses on. we talked and laughed the whole way. in that moment life was perfect.

Sunday came and went. mookie and I headed to the beach. charley had to work at her parent's hotel, she is a clerk at the front office. after basting in the sun for a couple of hours we headed back to mookie's parents' record shop. we decided to prank call ms. charley.

mookie spoke in to the phone in a somewhat deeper voice, "hello? is this the sunshine suites?" charley responded, "yes, it is. how may I help you?" mookie took a breath, "I’d like to book a room for three." plainly charley spoke, "okay, may I have the guest's names, please?" mookie thought for a moment, "Freddie mercury," he paused. charley was in work mode and didn’t catch the name, "and who else?" mookie smiled, "and Kieran Roberts and mookie Rockland." it took charley a moment, "hey! you two jerks!" all three of us laughed till we heard her father yelling in the background. she whispered quickly, "I gotta go. meet you guys at 8."

at eight we all met at the rusty wave. the cozy, yet small, restaurant that faced the pacific was full of people. we all looked at each other, the words 'tourist season' lighting up in all our eyes like three lemons on a slot machine in Vegas. we ordered our food then took it outside. why be inside walls swarmed with elbows and sunburned arms with madness hanging in the air while the serene beautiful beach beckons to you its serene and wondrous beauty? we must have sat out there in the sand for about two hours. just talking and crazy dancing under the full moon every now and then.

the next day, Monday, my alarm went off at 6 a.m. every time I heard the piercing shrill of the alarm went off I thought of how wonderful it would be to watch the little annoyance hit the wall and break in to thousands of tiny pieces. eventually I rolled out of bed and shuffled in my blue slippers downstairs to grab some breakfast. james was still sleeping and Emily was sitting at the dining room table putting on her mascara with every other bite of her lucky charms. I ran around the house, picking up a shirt here, shoe there, and a belt under the stairs. I was brushing my teeth with one hand while I brushed my hair with the other.

when I was finally all ready to go, I said bye to my mom, grabbed my stuff and sprinted out to the mailbox where mookie was waiting. out of breath from my mad dash ,"hey mook." he laughed, "good mornin'. alarm clock troubles again?” I smiled, shaking my head, "of course." we started walking towards the bus stop as I was putting my antique chandelier earrings on. mookie nodded to a palm tree that was in front of a house, "ah palm trees, I would gladly trade some of those for a couple of oak trees. love ya California but I want a real fall." I glanced at the towering palm while squinting my eyes as the sun was starting to rise, "yeah, can you imagine raking up a bunch of beautiful auburn, burnt orange, and golden leaves then diving in as if it were a swimming pool?" mook smiled, "can't imagine it happening here but it would be awesome. I can rake up some palm fronds for you to dive in to if you want." I let out a small chuckle while I rolled my eyes and shook my head 'no', "thanks mook but I’ll pass."

we got closer to the bus stop and mookie hollered "YO CHARLEY!" mookie and charley always say yo to each other. I think yell at the top of their lungs yo to each other is more like it. never hi or hey or hello or hola or aloha or you see where I am going with this... it's even funnier when they yell it down the halls at school. charley was sitting on the faded lavender bench. mookie and I got closer to find out that she just wasn’t sitting there, she was sleeping. I gave mookie a 'what to do' look then I poked her in the arm. mookie leaned down and had his mouth by her ear as he was about to tell her a secret and then yelled "YO CHARLEY! THE BUS IS COMING!" charley jumped about 3 feet up in the air. yup, she is definitely awake now. who wouldn’t after you had your eardrum busted by mookie's gravelly voice yelling in your ear? the rickety old bus ambled up the street and charley, mookie and I slowly got on. knowing there was no turning back now, we were going to school.

the bus pulled up to the dreaded c.h.s. I grimaced as I glanced at the school and the numerous, different, notorious cliques that were standing out front by the statue of the bull for we were the cattlesburg chargers. we slowly got up and walked to the front of the bus. I am not exaggerating by slow...snails could of beaten us. "Rockland! Stevens! Roberts! hurry up! I’m going gray up here waiting for you guys!'' we walked a little faster. mookie and charley were already off the bus, I passed our crabby bus driver Mr. Arnold and muttered, "you already are gray." as I stepped off the last step, I faintly head him say, "yea...going grey..from you."

being as today was the first day back from the summer break we all got out our schedules. "hey! we all have lunch and 1st class together," yelled charley over the banter of everyone else in the crowded hallway. We all laughed as we spotted out the lost freshman as we walked to our first class. chemistry, what fun. when we got to a less crowded part of the hall mookie said to me, "Kieran, I’m a little worried about having this class with you. I know that sooner or later you are going to blow something up during a lab in this class." "since when did you become a fortune teller, mook? I will just always have to be your lab partner then." I said as we walked through the door into the class. we all sat in the second to the last table in the back. the bell rang, officially ending summer.

our teacher, ms. erlin, introduced herself. I heard the classroom door open and close. I was way too busy doodling a picture on my picture on my binder to look and see who just entered in the room. it was a drawing of me surfing and it was pretty good until charley whacked me in the shoulder, "Kieran!" I quickly looked at charley, angry that there was a big line through my face on the picture. she pointed to the left of me at the empty table and mouthed, "look" and there sat the still gorgeous dash.

I mouthed "oh my god" to charley then tapped him on the shoulder. "dash? hey its Kieran. do you remember me? from the car accident in June." he looked at me for a second with a look that said 'I’m racking my brain' then he smiled, "heeeey! glad to see the gash on your head is all better." I laughed and was in the middle of asking to see his schedule when ms. erlin cleared her throat really loudly and shot a glance at me. a "death if you speak again" glance. I rolled my eyes.

charley passed me some papers but before I passed them on to dash I quickly scribbled down on the top sheet: 'dash, 767-5333 call me tonight, Kieran." I passed them on to him then the bell rang. he looked at me, said bye, and we went in our separate ways to second class.

at the end of the day before we got on the bus, charley, mookie, and I were walking towards my dangerous locker. on the way we saw jessica harcof busy talking to some guy at their locker. the hall was pretty crammed so I couldn’t see who but I figured that it was coral and jessica didn’t see me. we were almost past her. the halls cleared up at just perfect timing for jessica to turn around and spot us. after she turned around, the guy she was conversing with turned around too. revealing the face of Mr. dash cartle.

I guess jessica saw me looking because I glanced over at her and she gave me the evil eye. I shrugged off her stare and started walking towards dash. "hey!" I yelled over to him. he quickly looked over at jessica, looked back at me, smiled, then said, "thanks for that biology paper." I was still walking towards him. in the middle of the hall, donning my dash grin, jessica stuck her leg out.

I tripped and fell to the ground. the remaining people in the hall, including jessica, laughed. I looked over to mook and charley. giving them a look that said, "whoa! did that just really happen?" their eyes responding, "yup, you should have seen it. you will be ok though." dash outstretched his hand to me. I grabbed it and got up ass I muttered, ''my that was a beautiful fall. thanks jess!" she gave me a nasty snarl before she turned and walked away. when our hands were apart, dash said, "gotta get going, later." after he left I noticed the small folded up note in the palm of my hand.

I quickly yet un-noticeably put it in the back pocket of my jeans. we then went to my locker, got my books without a shower of books landing on us from my locker, then headed to the bus. Mr. Arnold made us sit in the front seats. we got off the bus, said our goodbyes and grumbled a bit over how much homework we had already before we set off for our own houses. the second I got to our gate, I reached into my pocket. I ripped the note open faster then a starved person rips open a bag of Doritos. I looked at his note, which I could tell he tried to write really neat on even though I kind of had to tilt it to the left a little to read it. 'Kieran, practice ends at 6, Dash.'

I smiled at it then walked in to my house. dazed, I turned on a c.d. and sat on the loveseat. Chevy came over and jumped on my lap. I let out an 'oomph!' as the 40 pound dog bounced on my bladder. there were only a few lights on. no one was home but me. I sat there thinking for a bit, petting Chevy and being fully absorbed by the music that was seeping through my soul.

the silence was broken when I heard the telephone ringing in the kitchen. I gently shoved the fat lug Chevy off my lap and on to the couch and sprinted to the kitchen. it was still ringing as I placed my hand on the phone.

I was out of breath from running to it. I relaxed for a second, caught my breath, and answered the phone, "hello?" there was no sound coming from the other end of the line for a second. finally a voice came from the receiver, "hey, is this Kieran? it's your dad."

andie andie oxenfree***

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