Wednesday, August 2nd 9:00 am I officially had my first night in Cleveland, Ohio under my belt. I woke up to the sound of Bobby's mom vacuuming the living room carpet. I stretched to wake up, then looked in the mirror. My straight hair looked more like dreads with all of the knots in it, my shirt had a hole that I had never noticed before, and my shorts were hiked up so high that I looked like a cheap Supergirl. I pulled my shorts down and put my hair in a bun, grabbing my toothbrush and toothpaste, getting ready to start my journey of finding the bathroom. I looked down the hallway to see one door open with a light illuminating the space around it. In the light, I saw two shadows, Bobby and Dinger. I turned the corner into the bathroom, then walked in between the two of them as they did their hair. "Jesus, you spend more time on your hair than I do." I rolled my eyes and rinsed off my toothbrush. "Obviously." Bobby said, flicking my bun. I rolled my eyes and finished brushing my teeth. I rinsed off my brush, then washed my face off and rinsed my mouth out with water. I took down my bun, shaking my hair so that it fell into place. "Jesus Christ, you look like a hippie with those dreads!" Dinger said. I nudged him with my elbow and took Bobby's hairbrush to it. Soon enough, it was the same stick-straight mess that I'd seen my whole life. I braided it into two french braids and went back to my room. I put on my black crop top, my raggedy black converse, and my prized overalls. I rolled up the hems of them to make them shorter.
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I walked downstairs to see Bobby, Dinger, Bobby's Dad, and Bobby's Mom all eating breakfast. "Top of the morning!" I said, taking the empty seat next to Bobby and his mom. I grabbed a couple pieces of bacon and Bobby's Mom put a pancake on my plate. I took a bite of it, instantly falling in love. "This is delicious, Mrs. Keller." "Please, call me Mom." "Sure thing, Mom." It hurt a little to say that so soon, but go big or go home I guess. I demolished my food, grateful for every bite. I leaned back in my chair, pushing my plate away. "Bobby," Mom said, "I want you to take Willow down to the school today and show her around. You start up tomorrow, remember? I'll give you some money so that you can get her some books." Bobby nodded, eating a strip of bacon with a bored pose. Mom got up from her chair and walked to her purse that was on the counter. She handed me $50 that I put in the chest pocket of my overalls. "I gave you a little extra in case you see anything else you need." Mom said, smiling at me. I smiled back. *** A few hours after breakfast, Bobby, Dinger, and I all went to the school, Solebury High. It was a pretty big place. As far as people go, there were few there. The football team had started practicing so they were out on the field, and of course there were a few people wandering around, but other than that it was vacant. "Welcome to Hell, sweet cheeks. It only gets worse from here." Dinger said, leaning over at me, putting his weight on his cane. "I bet I've had worse." I said. "We'll see." He said, looking at the ground and raising his eyebrows, almost as if he was talking to the sidewalk. "Is this all we're gonna do? Throw rocks at the ground and look at the building?" I asked. "Yeah, let's go." Bobby said as we turned around. We cut through someone's yard, and Bobby kicked over some flowers with his sneaker. I rolled my eyes. We walked a few blocks to a small, downtown area. We walked into a corner store with a bell that rung when the door opened. I walked over to their notebooks and grabbed a yellow spiral notebook, a composition book, a pack of 20 pencils, a calendar with paintings of mermaids, some deodorant, cheap makeup, and a black backpack. Since it was a small "Mom and Pop" shop in a small town, I only ended up spending $20 there. I put all of my stuff into my backpack and we were off. "Do you guys have an arcade around here?" I asked. "Yeah, it's about 2 blocks from here, why?" Bobby answered. "I've got $30 left, let's make a visit. I doubt your mom expects us back yet, plus the arcade is a magical place. I mean, tell me a better place than where I can play pacman and pick up dates." "Fair point. I know Mr. Holfield over here's got a thing for the chick at the prize counter." Bobby said, smirking and putting his arm around Dinger. That got me a little fired up, but I shook it off.
