Ichi

(Dialogue I did for Creative Writing Class)


April sat down and banged her tray on the lunch table. “I hate people…in general,” she said almost jokingly.

Jenny piped in, “Me too! Down with people!”

The group of friends stared at Jenny blankly.

Willing to change the subject quickly, Andrew turned to address April who was counting the money the group collected to buy Mrs. Nice a wedding gift. “So, did you ride that car?”

“I didn’t have a permission slip, did you?”

“I didn’t go yet.”

“Wear the goggles! It’s fun.”

Suddenly, jumping into the conversation Mel squealed, “Wee!”

“Think teachers will get suspicious of us carrying around so much money?” April stuffed the manila envelope into her backpack and continued with eating her lunch.

Peering at my journal, she realized that I was recording the conversation at our table. She hesitated, “Wait, do you keep our names?”

“You could use false names,” replied Jenny. “We could call you May.” April frowned at this ongoing joke.

I cheerfully added, “I like October.” However, no one seemed to believe that this was an existing name and I received numerous looks of confusion.

“What?” I asked defensively, “I have a third cousin named October. We call her Toby!”
Marielle looks up from her studying and announces, “I’m up to 15 or 17 times of Steven being reminded to kill me. I don’t know where number 16 is.”

The rest of the group ignores Mar’s random comment and continues on with a new topic.

“I wanna see the Matrix!” cried April.

Andrew suggested, “I think you should see it in the morning. So you don’t have to pay $8.75.”

“But the matinee prices don’t count on the weekends,” protested Mel. “They’re in it to make money.”

I frowned, looking up from my journal. “You’re not very interesting today.”

“Sorry?” answered Mel, puzzled. “It’s Friday.”

“Yea, so you are usually like, ‘Happy Friday!’”

“I don’t get perky on Fridays until about four.”

“Yesterday was pretty good,” added April. “Today’s just sucky.” I was concerned. Usually she is the chipper one.

“Why?”

“I can’t breathe, and annoying people, and its just like chhk!” she spat out and took a breath as if that random rant had solved all her problems.

Marielle, still unaware of the people she is sitting with noted, “Polio looks suspiciously like the common cold.”

“A condom pill?” blurted out Andrew, obviously confused.

Ignoring Andrew’s adolescent ponderings, April played with an empty yogurt cup that was placed on her tray when I had finished eating it. “Did I eat yogurt?” she asked, troubled by the fact that she may have eaten a cup of yogurt without even remembering buying it or eating it.

Barely looking up from my journal, I corrected her. “No, I did.”

Suddenly turning to the next object on her tray, she started playing with the Styrofoam plate. “This would make a good catapult!” she exclaimed, as if she had just discovered the secret to life. “I’m going to try it out on Jenny.”

Jenny looked up from her precious meal. “Yes?” she asked, having only heard her name.

April ignored Jenny and proceeded in figuring out how to launch a milk carton at her. The launch backfired, and nearly hit April. “Oops.”

“Wait a minute, are you trying to launch that on me?”

Mel returned from throwing out the remains of her lunch and inquired about April’s new contraption. “What is that, a milk-a-pult?”

Jenny watched April as she replaced the milk carton with my empty yogurt cup and prepared for launching. “I don’t want any dirty yogurt on me!”

As the whistle blew, the table laughed and packed up their things.

“Saved by the bell.” Jenny sighed, relieved.

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~*~Ichi~*~