-I wrote the following novel nearly two decades ago. In the years between then and now I've honed my craft, and my perception of this world; my thoughts and ideas; have changed dramatically. However, I still enjoy the premise and have decided to do an overhaul of revisions and rewrites, though likely not until sometime next year. (Though I'm sure I'll do a little as I post chapters)
For now I hope you will enjoy a glimpse into my book writing beginnings...
They are the closest of friends though they have never met in waking life.
Prologue-PT1 Prologue-PT2 Chapter 1
Chapter Nine
At the Parlor, which was an ice cream place/hip little diner, they met up with two other girls- Misty and Janie- as well as their two guy friends Dave and John. Aliyah found herself uncharacteristically quiet, which they all commented on, though none but Amy
could guess why. She shooed it away and forced herself to engage in their usual banter.
“So, is today the day we start a food fight, or what?” Dave positioned some coleslaw on his spoon and feigned flinging it across the table.
“Tell you what, you get it started, a few other people join in, and then I’ll be happy to throw some of these nasty dried out pickles.” Misty tossed one playfully at Dave.
“I second the motion.”
“Here, here.”
Dave looked at his mayo drenched cabbage in quiet deliberation. “Well… , I think today is not a good day. But you know what, we should make a pact to do it on the last day before school. Scratch that, we’ll be stuck here cleaning. The second to last day before school.”
They all agreed in unison, and moved on to other fascinating topics-such as whether or not their gym teacher was gay. Dave jumped up to do an exaggerated imitation of the man prancing around the table.
Aliyah looked around the table while she laughed thinking she was a lucky girl to have such a great group of friends.
They finished their food and ice cream and still had about an hour before the parents were due to pick them up, so they decided to take a walk.
The town of Olin where Aliyah had lived all of her life was quite charming. There were a variety of different shops on Main St. offering all sorts of interesting things. It was a semi-touristy town because they were sandwiched between an array of wineries in the finger lakes region of the state.
Their favorite among them was a candy shop/sticker store. It had a huge picture of a colorful clown face with a glass tear below it’s right eye and a large red grin. The candy was set up in bins along the wall like you find in the bulk sections of big grocery stores, but the décor was so cheerful and flashy that it made the candy infinitely more appealing. The last time they had come here John bought a pound of gum flavored gummy bears. He apparently ate it all within an hour of purchase, and his poor tummy sorely regretted it.
Needless to say, he would likely never touch another one of the little pink gummies, and the rest of them loved to tease him about it.
On the opposite wall of the candy hung stickers of every size, style, color, and texture. Aliyah adored stickers, feeling that she would be thirty and still enjoy collecting them in large sticker books. Her personal favorite were the collections by Lisa Frank.
She had even come across vintage Lisa Frank’s sporting Betty Boop and other lost animated icons.
She carefully selected some, then headed to join the gang at the candy. She filled a baggie with sour patch kids, she couldn’t get enough of the tart yet slightly deranged looking gummies, but had found that she needed to eat them in moderation or her tongue would be sore and chafed from the sour sugar.
Giggling, the six of them headed out onto the sidewalk with their bags of goodies, sharing amongst each other.
“Okay, let’s see your stickers Alibaba.” Dave held out his hand and looked at her with a teasing glint. The others always gave her a playfully hard time about her hobby, they said for a girl who was sooo grown up in speech she sure liked babyish things. She didn’t mind, explaining that she could be mature enough to understand adults and still enjoy things made for kids, and that she hoped to always be that way.
She handed Dave the stickers prepared for another ritual in which he sticks them in his pocket and pretends he doesn’t know what she’s talking about when she asks for them back until she is desperately making grabs for his pockets while he mock yells “Help, she’s robbing me!” A silly game, but made fun by the fact that she secretly had a bit of a crush on him.
They played it out, but this time he added running around in circles frantically waving his arms as she chased behind him until they were both laughing and breathless.
“Come on children, stop flirting.” Misty was keen on anything boy girl related, and often made such comments.
“Flirting, Pah, we are comrades, right Alibaba?”
“Right-O Dave, buddies, pals, practically siblings.”
“You see?” He glowered at Misty for a moment then broke out into a grin.
John and Janie were quiet, which was not unusual, being the less social of the group. They often let Misty and Dave be their voices, content to tag along. Once in awhile they joined in, but usually only when it pertained to things like board games or trivia. Janie loved to read as much as Aliyah did, but her choice in reading material would’ve put Aliyah to sleep by page three.
As far as John, she wasn’t sure if he was a bookworm, but he definitely liked the history channel and other such documentary programs. The two of them were a match made in heaven, as Misty pointed out at every opportunity, causing the pair to blush profusely.
“Dave,” Amy was saying, “you still have yet to find our male additions.”
“Oh come now, I have brought to you such gems as Brian Neddleworth, Jack Stein, and Rick Pewter, and each time you have shot them down in flames.”
Amy put her finger down her throat, then stated “You bring guys like them purposely, you’re terrified of being over shadowed.”
“You hurt me, me lady!”
“And quit with the middle ages talk.”
“Nay, I shall not, I will speak as I want to,‘tis a free country.”
“Argghh, fine, but I’m beginning to wonder about you and your desire for more feminine companionship.”
“Dear Amy, are you looking for a boyfriend, because if you are I can just write your number up on the bathroom wall.”
“You do and you will live to regret it! Come on Davette , a bet is a bet.”
What Amy was speaking of went back four months. Dave was complaining, in jest of course, that the conversation at the lunch table was entirely too female. The one who had just finished speaking was Amy, who generally did not get very girlie about things and took a wee bit of offense. A sparring with words ensued between the two of them, and the end result was that Amy told Dave that he must enjoy the company of girls since he chose to surround himself with them, to which he said that perhaps he should go and find some additions of the masculine gender, to which she bet him that he couldn’t. But it was more than that, Amy and Dave rubbed each other the wrong way somehow, and maybe she was hoping he would find a boy whose company she would enjoy.
“You know, I don’t get you Amy. You and Aliyah are so selective about who you choose to be around, you believe strongly that people have to have substance etc. etc. and yet you just want me to go out and locate such a person. We all met by accident, and if we add anybody it will probably happen the same way. Jeez, I was only joking about the feminine conversation, why don’t you just get off me about this?”
Amy’s eyes had widened during his little speech and she opened her mouth to say something, then shut it again. She looked thoughtful for a second, then she nodded slowly. “You’re right. Sorry Dave, I don’t know, you just made me so mad, you’re always making jokes, and I know you don’t mean anything by it but it seems that a lot of them are directed at me.”
It was Dave’s turn to look thoughtful. “Okay, I didn’t realize that, but I will make an effort Henceforth,” here he reverted to his old world accent “to be more sensitive-yes I know, an open invitation for more of your chiding.”
She shook her head, “Nope and thanks.”
Aliyah let out a breath that she hadn’t realized she was holding.
“Well finally!” Misty piped up. “You two have been at each other for months, and frankly I was getting really sick of it. Besides, most likely whoever we try to bring into the group someone will have a problem with, it’s better for it to happen naturally.”
“Okay, let’s drop it now,” Aliyah suggested. There were nods all around and they continued on down the street to the Parlor where there parents would be showing up shortly.
“Hey, I have an idea.” Misty’s eyes raised up in an exaggerated mischievous way.
“We’re all ears,” Janie said quietly.
“Since we only have a couple weeks before school begins, why don’t we see if we can have a camp out? We could just say “The last hurrah of summer, or something.”
“Where?”
“I vote for Aliyah’s house out in her field.” Amy jumped in.
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