Back to the Dream Chapter
"Hey Kelly," Sharon answered quickly as she hopped around her room trying to find the matching sneaker to the one she was wearing now. "I can't talk. I'm heading out."
"You had the guts to talk to Damon?"
"Not yet. I'm just going to their game tonight and show my support, but I can't find my shoe and Ana's coming any second now to pick me up."
"Look at you, showing your school spirit," Kelly laughed. "Or is it that your ultimate goal is to check Damon out behind his back?"
"You are impossible," Sharon stated matter-of-factly.
"Well, have you gotten anywhere?"
"I found out that he doesn't find Kari to be his type of girl."
"Ooh, that's a step in the right direction. How'd you find that out?"
"Ana and I had a little talk after I'd tried to befriend Kari, or at least get her to tell me what she had against me."
Kelly laughed. "Only you would do something like that. Was I right in saying she thought you were competition?"
"Not surprisingly, yes, you were. I just wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, you know?"
"Still, at least you know that. How are things on the Damon front directly?"
"Nothing's changed. Must you ask this every night?"
"Every night you don't do anything is another night closer to when I get down there and get the chance to stir things up."
"Well don't get your hopes set too high just yet. You have a couple of weeks left until Thanksgiving break and things can happen in the meantime."
"We'll see about that."
A knock at the front door signaled Ana's arrival. "Okay, I gotta go. Ana's here."
"All right. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"Bye." Sharon hung up the phone and quickly grabbed a purse and heading out. "Good night!" she called out to her parents before exiting her home. "Hey Ana!"
"Ready to go?" her friend smiled.
"Yup," she answered as she locked the front door behind her.
"Then let's go!" The two got into Ana's car and were soon on their way out of the neighborhood and into the main streets that would take them over to the highway.
A few minutes into the ride, Sharon asked, "Who's this on the radio right now?" Ana told her and Sharon nodded to herself. "Good beat."
Ana smiled. "It's a great way to get the blood pumping pre-game."
Sharon couldn't help but agree as she and Ana both found themselves singing along with the chorus.
Soon, another song came on, only this time slower and quieter, giving Ana the chance to glance over at Sharon a moment before returning her eyes to the road. "So, Sharon, I'm curious… Are you single?"
Sharon turned to Ana, surprised by her boldness. "Where'd that come from?" she asked, smiling.
"Curious minds want to know."
"Minds?" Ana just smiled and waited for Sharon to answer. "Fine. Yes, I'm single." Ana's smile grew wider. "I broke up with my last boyfriend just before I moved down here."
"He couldn't handle the long distance thing?"
"You could say that," she replied vaguely, uncomfortable about sharing anymore for the moment.
Ana wasn't insensitive to her feelings and dropped that part of the topic for now. "Well, at least you're single. Has anyone caught your eye?"
Sharon was glad that they were in the dark and she could hide the slight coloring in her cheeks. "Oh, I don't know…"
"Come on, I won't tell a soul, I promise."
Sharon laughed. "You sound just like my best friend back home. I think you guys would totally get along with each other and end up ganging up on me or something." In the back of her mind, she remembered Kelly's threat to join forces with Ana should things not progress for Sharon.
Ana smiled. "I bet she knows who you like."
"Of course," she answered before realizing what she'd confessed to.
"A-ha! You do like someone! Tell me! Maybe I can help out!"
"Uh uh," Sharon laughed. "I don't think I'm quite ready for the dating world yet."
"You may not be, but I know guys who are dying to go out with you."
"Guys?" she emphasized the plural, disbelieving.
"Don't tell me you haven't noticed all the attention you've gotten since you've been here."
"No, I haven't noticed, mostly because I've been trying not to. It's just because I'm the new girl, huh?"
Ana nodded. "Most of them are good guys though, so no worries there. And you can trust me on that, seeing how I've grown up with most of these people over the years."
Sharon let this info sink in before turning her head to look out the window. "Well, I'll be honest about one thing. If ever I do go back into the dating world, I hope it's with one of those good guys."
Ana looked over at Sharon with a curious look on her face, but Sharon wasn't going to give any more details that night. With a slight shrug, Ana let the subject drop completely and focused on the road ahead of her.
With a quick wave, Ana left Sharon at the guest stands to join her fellow cheerleaders on the field. Sharon turned around and looked for a place to sit. She found an open area towards one side of the bleachers and was about to head over there when she heard voices calling her name. "Sharon!! Sharon, over here!"
Puzzled, she turned in the direction that the voices were coming from. 'Maybe they mean someone else?' she thought at first when she couldn't find the source, but no, it happened to be Damon's mom and Ros calling over to her. She smiled and waved and then watched as Ros started moving towards her. "Hey, princess. How are you?" she asked as soon as she got closer to her.
"Good," she said, grabbing onto her hand and then dragging her over to where her mother sat in the stands.
"Hi, Mrs. Cardinet. How are you?"
"Very well, dear. And how are you?" Mrs. Cardinet patted the space next to her, inviting her to join them.
"I'm doing all right. Where's Caleb?" she questioned.
"He's with his father at the stand getting us some food. They should be back shortly."
"That's good that Mr. Cardinet was able to make it."
"Indeed, it has been good having him home more often."
Sharon turned her head then to look back at Ros and noticed she was looking at her hands intently, but not wanting to draw attention to herself. Sharon smiled and pulled up the left sleeve of her sweater slightly to show the friendship bracelet Ros had made, thinking also of how Damon had approached her with it.
They were in art class again, working together on their latest project. "Remember class, I want to see what is important to you in this world, see what the world is like for you, through your eyes. Incorporate the things that are important to you in your models," Mr. Flynn was reminding them all as he walked around the room to view the progress.
Sharon was working on creating another clay, spiral ribbon to attach to the base that Damon was working on. "You know, the sketch we made looks so much simpler than it really is to make."
"No kidding. Next time, we'll leave out your details and additions and stick with my simple stick figures. I still think a bunch of circles would have been fine, but no, you want to go all out for this project," he teased.
"Oh please, like we as teens are really constrained to just circles when we're really trying to push our boundaries."
"Just trying to make life a little simpler, that's all," he smiled as he continued working on shaping the human head in front of him. "It's you and Ana who think that we should make something of ourselves during our senior year."
"Very funny," she retorted, but smiled anyway. "So what'd you bring for your contribution to the project?"
He paused from his sculpting to grab his backpack. "Here," he said, taking out small models of a graduation cap and diploma, a stethoscope, and a football. He laid those on table and she nodded her head, taking her own backpack and pulling out a pencil, a small pillow with a message sewn onto it, a blank CD, and a small piece of chain link. He questioned her with a look.
"The pencil is for my drawings, the CD is for music," she explained. "The pillow is something my friends gave me before I left, and the chain…" He noticed a tightness to her features that he'd never seen before as she struggled to find a way to explain it… But she couldn't. She shook her head. "It's a broken chain," she said flatly, ignoring his eyes.
Damon lifted a hand to rest over one of hers in comfort and gave it a little squeeze. She smiled a little at the gesture before drawing her hand away. Unhappy with the sudden loss of contact, he reached back down into his backpack and finally drew out the bracelet Ros had made for her. "Here," he said, handing her the bracelet.
The tightness left Sharon's face and she looked at the bracelet in question. "What's this?"
"Ros made it and wanted you to have it. She's getting to like you a lot, you know."
Immediately, Sharon smiled, and any last trace of uneasiness left her. "How sweet!" she said, putting it on immediately.
"Sharon, Damon," Mr. Flynn's voice addressed the two, interrupting their talk. "Interesting work. Keep at it," he said before moving on.
"Tell her thank you for me," she said lowly as they resumed their work.
"Of course I will. I'm glad you like it."
"You're wearing it!" Ros exclaimed happily.
"Of course I am," she smiled widely. "And I want to thank you personally for making me this bracelet. It was very thoughtful of you," she finished, bending down and giving the younger girl a hug.
Sharon watched as Ros blushed a deep, red color. 'So like her brother,' she smiled inwardly.
"Sharon!" she turned to watch as a few of her friends walked over and settled down in the row in front of them. "Hey, Mrs. Cardinet!" they greeted Damon's mom. "Hey Ros!" The little girl smiled shyly at the others and wrapped her arms tightly around her mother's. "Hello everyone. How are your parents?" Mrs. Cardinet asked each one as they all settled in.
A few moments later, Caleb and Mr. Cardinet joined them in the bleachers, arms loaded with popcorn, soda, hot dogs, candy… "Sharon!" Caleb beamed and Sharon said her hello to him as she stood to help the boys out with the food.
"A little hungry?" she teased Caleb.
"It's tradition," he answered back as he sat down. "Here," he said, offering her some candy. He tossed a bag of gummi bears to his sister and sat down to watch as the teams started assembling out onto the field.
"Perfect timing," Mrs. Cardinet was saying.
"Every time," her husband replied back. "It's nice to see you again, Sharon. How are you today?"
"I'm fine." Before she could say anymore however, the announcer chose that moment to begin introducing the teams, and Sharon felt herself sit back to watch the game with the rest of the crowd.