Conversations
"Dad, I'm really sorry," Jenna said as she climbed into the Corvette,
still holding her book bag.
"Oh really," Lee said. "Are you sorry that you said it or just sorry
that I heard you?" Jenna said nothing in reply, just stared down at
her hands.
"Buckle your seat belt and put your bag on the floor," Lee said.
"We'll talk about this when we get home."
"Okay," Jenna said, her voice almost a whisper. As they pulled out of
the parking lot, Jenna did what she usually did and reached her hand
over towards the radio knob.
"No music, Jenna," Lee said. "Not now." Jenna pulled her hand back
and put it in her lap. She turned her face away from Lee's and looked
out the window.
My little girl, Lee thought. Or at least she used to be. It seemed
like only yesterday that they'd been watching The Wizard of Oz
together and having tea parties in the family room with Jenna's
stuffed animals and her favorite Scarecrow doll. Now Jenna was
thirteen and things were definitely changing. The walls of her room
were covered with photos from various teen magazines and Jenna seemed
to spend most of her spare time on the phone with Lisa or Christy,
giggling about boys. To top it all off, Amanda had told him that she
was going to take Jenna to buy her first bra, a fact that Lee could
have lived the rest of his life without knowing. What was it that
Amanda had once said about Jenna turning thirteen?
It only gets harder from here.
Stopped at the red light, Lee looked over at his daughter, who was
still silent and looking out the window.
"Jenna look at me," Lee said, and Jenna ignored him. Lee raised his
voice slightly. "Jenna Leigh Stetson, look at me right now."
Jenna looked at him. Her dark eyes, so much like her mother's, were
brimming with tears and she was biting down hard on her lower lip.
"Can you at least tell me what possessed you to say such a thing?" Lee
said. The light turned green. "I mean, why would you even-why?"
Jenna took a deep breath. "It's a long story," she said.
"I have time," Lee said.
"Okay," Jenna said. "Well there's a new boy in our school –he's from
Italy and his name is Romeo Pelucci. All the girls think he's really
cute and I guess he is, but he's not really my type-"
"I get it," Lee said, not wanting to hear the rest. Since when did
Jenna have `types'? "So what happened with this Romeo?" He said.
"Terri Morgan and a couple of her friends," Jenna said, as Lee turned
onto Maplewood. "They dared me to go up and say something to Romeo."
"And you just had to take this dare, right?" Lee said.
"She said if I didn't that she'd call me a gimpy chicken." Jenna
said. "And she would, too."
Lee pulled to a stop right outside the house.
"A gimpy chicken?" he said "Jenna, you only have a little bit of a
limp left and even that's barely noticeable You're back on the dance
team now-you shouldn't even care what Terri Morgan thinks." Lee
remembered that girl's mother, Debbie Morgan, from the time he'd
worked with Amanda on The Nutcracker. If the daughter was anything at
all like the mother she was probably a real witch.
"I know," Jenna said. "I know I shouldn't, but sometimes I still
care-especially when everyone else cares too."
"Taking dares will only get you into trouble, believe me." Lee said,
giving an inward wince when he remembered the dares he took when he
was younger.
"I know that now," Jenna said.
"So you took this dare," Lee said. "And you went up to him and
said-that."
"I said `Hey, Romeo, you forgot to zip your fly'," Jenna said in a low
voice. Her cheeks were bright red. Lee touched his daughter's hand
briefly.
"Let's go inside," he said. "We're going to tell your mother and have
a nice long talk about this."
The End
Author's Chapter Notes:
* the idea came to me while I was reading the other challenges and I
had to write it down-so here it is. Just hope it doesn't completely
suck. Thanks to Cheryl for providing the challenge line*
had to write it down-so here it is. Just hope it doesn't completely
suck. Thanks to Cheryl for providing the challenge line*