Chapter 6:
Summer and Such
Summer and Such
Well, apparently, the boys in the class seemed to think she was a wild, wanton woman just asking for it. The following diary entry confirms their beliefs and her utter disgust over the whole subject:
I HATE MAX! He touched my butt twice today. Connor did it once. I told him awhile ago that that was one of the reasons I liked him, he respected me. He didn’t grab my butt. Now all of that has changed.
I DON’T KNOW MY FEELING FOR CONNOR ANYMORE! I HATE MAX!
While she may have been giving off outward appearances of self-confidence and maturity, she was still a little girl. It confused her to have her butt grabbed (she certainly didn’t enjoy it!) but it kept happening! Where were the teachers whom she adored? Why didn’t they ever catch it occurring? Why didn’t she ever just fight back? I guess it’s hard to kick the ones you love in the shin. Apparently, she wasn’t going to really let this affect their relationship, so the big question was, could their young love survive a summer apart? To answer an earlier question, going out in elementary (and for the most part middle school) means going to school and seeing each other. Could they still go out and not be at school?
This was only one of many dramatic happenings of this summer. They included:
1. Traveling to Canada
She was introduced to her older sisters' friends and returned home to regale her friends with stories of older boys, from different cities. Oh and you know, if she had no problem lying to her diary she of course embellished these stories, making it seems as if these exotic boys from different cities with interesting accents were interested in her. Right, because who wants two hot teenage girls when they can spend time with those girls’ ten-year old little sister? If the boy had for some reason been on this trip, he most certainly would have been ignored. He was only top dog in their elementary school!
2. Using a swear word for the first time in the diary
The first word was written tentatively. But once the first one was written, it was like a flood gate had opened. The girl, who had once thought it was bad to sing along with the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, where the duet sings, “I had the time of my life, no I’ve never felt this way before, this I swear,” because she thought that was what swearing was and she knew swearing was off-limits. But once that first “shit” was printed on the page, there was no going back. After that there were lots of references of “bitch” and “ass.”
3. Impending puberty
This one was hard to swallow. It was inevitable. She was the tallest in her class, and nervous about this change that she couldn’t control. Outwardly she used it to her advantage, to make herself seem older and more knowledgeable than her friends, but she was more embarrassed than anything. Her mom tried to help out by bringing home books for her to read, sparing her any mortifying face-to-face information. Even the books were bad. She hid them in brown paper bags like a wino hiding booze and went to the attic to read them by herself.
4. And of course boy drama, including:
Tomorrow is Saturday. I’m getting my hair permed. I can’t wait! Guess what else? Me and Connor broke up. I mean I don’t know if he knows this but I don’t love him. I just want to be friends with him. BYE!
Yes, this is the early 90s. Big hair was trying to make its final stand. Oh yeah. You’ll never believe it, but she ALWAYS wanted permed hair. She looked at her sisters’ fat luscious locks of frizz and body and was so envious. Her perm….fizzled out the first time she washed it. Yes, she waited the correct amount of time before she could wash. Her hair just NEVER would curl. She also tried a perm when she was 21. It didn’t work then either. Maybe that was just good luck though...who wants a perm at age 21?
But back to her and the boy splitting during the summer which can be explained away with a big, fat duh! Or as they loved to say back then, Durrr. They couldn’t go out in the summer because they literally couldn’t go out without school! Don’t worry though, they got back together:
Me and Connor are back together. I LOVE CONNOR!
I guess sometimes short and sweet is the best diary entry. But fourth grade is over. It’s time to move on and gain more life experience. This means getting her bad girl streak over with and trying to tame the bad boy. As much as she had proclaimed her love for him and called him her first official boyfriend (since the third grade private booty-call boy never was made public), things cooled down fast in fifth grade. Luckily, they both moved on to new flirtations and it was an amicable split. Actually, it sort of just drifted apart. No one ended it. They were never upset with each other. They did remain friends. This would come back to bite her one day and turn her world upside-down.
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