“So what do you think ‘bout the noobs?” Nate asks as we all sit down in our flattened out spot in the sunflower field. “They seem cool,” Queen offers. “Definitely. Cyrus will definitely be one of us,” I put in. Nate nodded, “It definitely looked that way.”
“So this is pretty much where we spend the majority of our summer,” I told Cyrus as we led him to the pond. “This is pretty cool,” he said, looking down at the murky water, cast over by the shadows of the trees surrounding it, folding over it to envelope it in their whispery grasp. “Yea, but it would be cooler if we could actually swim here,” Queen said with a smile. Cyrus laughed and we plopped down in a strangely organized-looking line on the grass-lined muddy shore of the large pond, sitting either cross-legged, with our legs out in front of us, or holding our legs up to our chests, resting our chins on our knees. “So what do you guys do down here?” Cyrus asked after a while. “Sit,” Nate replied, “Talk a little bit,” Keira added in, “And get some pretty awesome tans,” Queen said with a nod of agreement to our statements. We all nodded together and after a while Cyrus asked, “That’s all?” Tim laughed. “Wow, clearly you’re gonna love this town even more than we do,” he said with a smirk. Cyrus wrinkled his nose, clearly disappointed to find out that his new home really was as much of a bummer as the local outcast teenagers told him it was.
Summer didn’t get much better with the new people with us. Cameron, the older boy, spent the next two weeks after arriving driving back and forth from his old house to his new house and scoping out who in this town new where the best parties were. Cyrus hung out with us, but just made all of us anxious for school, a feeling we didn’t particularly enjoy. He was so jumpy, he couldn’t stand our day-to-day tradition of sitting around and doing nothing until it was a decent time to see a movie or go home for dinner. “Don’t you guys ever get bored?” he asked on one of his first days hanging out with us, finally jumping up and pacing back and forth on the grass as we sat scattered around the pond. Queen was laying with her hair in the water, claiming we were all chicken and swimming in it wouldn’t be bad for us. Nate was sitting next to her, attempting to skip rocks on the water. Tim and I were sitting on a big blanket on the grass, eating potato chips and watching the water flow quickly down the stream, and Keira was sitting on the opposite side of Queen with her feet in the water. “Of course we do,” Keira said, rolling her eyes, “but there’s not much we can do about there being nothing to do here. And we can’t go to the movies every day, if we want to have money for college.”
“Not that college will get us out of here anyway,” Nate said, sighing as he once again failed at skipping a stone. “There’s got to be something to do,” Cyrus said with a sigh. “Are you A.D.D.?” Keira asked, looking over her shoulder at Cyrus. “KEIRA!” everyone but Cyrus and Tim yelled in unison. “What! I was just wondering!” Cyrus laughed, “No, I’m not, I’m just not used to this much...” he paused, and I looked over at him, waiting for him to continue. “Well, I’m not used to this much nothing. Where I come from, boredom meant not having a totally packed schedule. There was almost always something to do.” Queen popped her gum bubble and quickly pulled it back into her mouth, preventing it from landing on her cheeks. This had become something of an art for her, seeing as she always had gum and was always laying down. “Well, sounds like you’ve got a whole lot of getting used to do.” Nate chuckled and played with Queen’s hair in the murky water.
“I just don’t understand how you guys can just sit around all the time. You seem like such active people.”
“Are you kidding me? Jett here has a freaking body close-down every time anything remotely out of the ordinary happens,” Keira said, rolling her eyes. It was true. Our lifestyle, though boring, really suited me, seeing as I pretty much stopped breathing every time my heart beat speeded up. Cyrus rose his eyebrow, looking me over, and finally said, after a long pause, “Jett?” The question was meant for Keira, but he looked at me as he asked it, and I couldn’t help but blush, knowing Keira’s response. She laughed, “Yea, named after Joan Jett, first-ever female rock star,” she laughed again, “I’d say the name is pretty much the only thing they have in common.” Cyrus smiled slightly and I shrugged, my cheeks heating, “I don’t really have a problem with that. I never wanted to be a rock star.”
“So what did you want to be?” Cyrus asked, smiling. “Well, when I was five I wanted to be a jungle-explorer.” Cyrus laughed, and I smiled and continued, “But now? Now...I guess I want to be a mom. And possibly a novelist.” Cyrus nodded, “Yea? So can you write?” I shrugged, and Keira scoffed, “Are you kidding me? Could Picasso paint? Could Mozart compose? Can Johnny Depp act?” Cyrus laughed, “Ok, so I guess that means you’re pretty awesome.”
“That’s the understatement of the century,” Nate replied with a soft smile. “Well maybe I should read some of this seemingly incredible writing.” I shrugged, “Maybe. Maybe you should just trust their opinions.” Cyrus smiled and sat down next to me, no longer stir-crazy.
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