I only had about half-an-hour to get to school, so I skipped breakfast. I grabbed a couple Nutrigrain bars and a box of juice to compensate for it. As I hopped down the hill to the numbered streets, I found myself trying to picture Jody as a "smoke-pit person". Ya know the ones that all huddle around in the designated areas with the other smokers in between classes? I was trying to see her as one of them . . . . . yeah, it didn't look too pretty. Problem was, neither do the smoke-pit regulars. As crazy as it's ever gonna be, I could really see Jody popping out the door, head for that under-covered area, pull out a pack of cancer-sticks from her shoulder-bag, and fire it up. All I could think of was how she'd react to us reacting to her if she DID smoke. Damn that dream!
Well, I got to the lockers, and everyone looked a little tired. It might as well have been a Monday (but it wasn't; it was Tuesday)! Well, everyone looked tired except Jody, who still hadn't arrived yet. None of us really said anything . . . . . okay, so Robyn, Meg & Amanda were talking a lot about god knows what. Some kind of girl stuff, I guess. Strange thing: I could kind of feel that everyone knew about the whole problem at hand, and yet no one was saying anything. Why, I don't know. Just that this group simply doesn't open up! Oh well, not that I was expecting anything. Which is probably why I was almost caught off guard when Jody rounded the corner.
So what did we say to her? Nothing. Abso-frickin-lutely nothing! We just kept talking about whatever. Well, actually, I kinda went up to her at one point and asked her if she saw wrestling on Monday. Of course, my secondary motive was to get close enough to smell if there was smoke on her . . . nah, she smelled as clean as she usually does . . . . . and yet she always has some kind of . . .
questionable air around her. Well, to me, at least. Supposedly when she was younger she was just another innocent little girl. I've seen enough of those to know better (not to say they're crooks, or anything. I'm just simply saying . . .).
The morning went by kind of quickly, which I thought was kind of odd. With so much on my mind, the day had NEVER gone that fast. Ever! So yeah, fast morning, now it is lunchtime.
It basically went as normally as they usually ever do: Tina & Jason come back from Wendy's, Craig & Robyn are sitting next to each other and . . . nothing else (unless you heard, you STILL wouldn't know!). Meg is on the verge of screaming, Amanda just did that
stressy "triple-flutter-thing" with her eyes, Tony says something classic that makes some people rub their temples, everyone else is pretty quiet, I tell a joke to kill the silence . . . yeah, normal lunch. STILL no one asks Jody about this latest urban legend . . .
So lunch ends without a hitch. Kinda. A bunch of us start heading for English class now. I forget exactly how it happened, but just suddenly everyone left except for a few of us. Somehow it ended up Craig, Robyn, Jody and I walking down the overcrowded hallways of the overcrowded school (damn grade eight's!). Craig detours to the male lavatory, "and then there were three". So as we talk about god knows what, Robyn suddenly says it. The on thing on EVERYONE'S mind:
"Hey, Jody,"
"Yeah?" Robyn takes sort of a hard swallow and asks,
"I'm just wondering, and I KNOW this is stupid, but . . . . . do you smoke now?" Upon saying that, I felt kinda relieved that I wouldn't have to ask now. We continue to walk, but now both of us are staring at Jody.
Under this bombardment of
ocular-assault, Jody rolls her eyes, then . . . lets a crooked smile creep onto her face.
"
Well . . ." she starts, giving this
innocent facial expression. Damn it! WHY does she have to keep using her damn
gray-personality of hers? I
kinda know that she could be kidding, but the eyes don't work for Robyn, and she goes,
"OMIGOD!!! Jody, you can't do this to me! Just answer the question!" Yeah, she's freaking out again. FINALLY, Jody answers:
"Well,
ya know how I love to do it, 'specially since I know it's the GROSSEST THING a person can do!"
Well, that helped a lot, but it's still not good enough. I can't take it anymore, and I grab her by the shoulder's shaking her slightly,
"So that's a NO, right?"
"YES already!" she concedes. Well, Robyn & I start to breathe again, and we are just absolutely relieved to say the least. Jody doesn't smoke after all.
And Jason's got another thing coming to him . . . . . Aaaaanyway, as we get to class, we agree to let this one draw out for others (like Meg, for example [heh heh heh]) just for the hell of it. You know,
sh__ts & giggles.
Just before we enter the door, I tell Jody,
"Ya know, I couldn't sleep last night thinking about this whole thing?" She laughed a little bit. I guess she thought that was pretty funny.
