"Yanna" Craig Owens

hi

new story idea: wrote a couple notes for it but it's pretty god i think. yes i used capitals in it, but whatever. can't win everything CAN YOU?

i don't have names for them yet except for amanda who is the boy who tells the story's best friend. just so you know yes: she has a baby. amanda does. not the boy's baby. it's cam walsh's baby. but anyway tah-dah

Setting: First Date at the Drive-in Movie

I leaned in stopping an inch away from her lips. She could move away. Shove me back. She stayed where she was. Sliding her hands into my hair and closing in the space. I closed my eyes kissing her. Her lips were sour because of the sour coated candy she got. And I knew mine must have tasted like chocolate. We both moved away. I smiled. And she smiled back. She leaned in again and kissed me. I kissed her back. I wanted to kiss her more and more but the music to the moviecredits ended and people would leave soon.

If you stayed too long the janitor went around tapping on the window and peaking in. That was creepy. So we moved away eventually. "Are you hungry?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yeah," She said.

"What do you want to get?" I asked. I guessed she was vegetarian or sometihng like that. Something that involved her cutting out things that were found everywhere food was sold except for sour covered candy.

She paused. "I'm going to sound like a guy," She said. "How about fast food."

I was a little relieved she didn't want something weird like tofu-guck. I nodded. "That's cool," I said.

The McDonalds a few minutes away was thriving with kids all going in. We got into the drive-thru. She looked at the menu. She looked at me. "I'm having trouble." She said. "My sister said that there are two kinds of guys and they are really distinct and stuff. And if we got to get something to eat what to order to make myself look good to the guy. I have no idea what kind of guy you are. Do you like Mandy Moore or Britney Spears better?"

I stared at her. She was cute. I laughed a little. "Um," I said. "Actually neither. I don't really care about movie stars." She was still stuck. "Order whatever, I'm not going ot freak out at you if you order a salad or a hamburger whatever."

She nodded. "Okay," She said. She was nervous. "I'll get..." We moved up. I was stuck behind a van of jocks. This would take forever now. The car I mean. Not her.

We finally pulled up. I ordered the same thing because I thought it would mak he feel more normal. We both got quarter pounder things. Fries and soda. She got orange soda and I just got coke. We moved up. The kids at the window relieved to be only handing back on bag. I paid even though she offered to pay for hers. I drove to the creek because I knew there wouldn't be people around and people usually make comments about Amanda to me. Plus Cam Walsh was there and I didn't want her to hear that stuff thinking I had a baby with Amanda because that would ruin this completely.

She looked at me. "I'm sorry," She said. "I'm really bad at this."

"At what?" I asked smilign a little.

"Dating." She said. "I've never dated a guy I actually liked and I wasn't nervous until you picked me up and I didn't do anything right."

I laughed a little. "What did you do wrong?" I asked.

"I watched the movie," She said. "I mean the couple parked next to us was having sex! I could hear it and it was annoying me and whenever I looked at you and you were watching the movie and then we barely talked and I didn't know what to order and I'm babbling on and on about what my sister told me about guys and everything and I probably seem like I'm twelve right now anyways."

I smiled as she ticked everything off not looking at me. I smiled shaking my head. I pushed her hair out of the way and looked at her. "Don't worry." I said laughing a little. "I didn't notice half of the things you allegedly did wrong."

She looked at me. "Really?" She said. She turned so she was sitting facing me. "Guys don't even notice stuff like that?"

"No," I said. I stopped. "Well maybe some of them do. But I don't really care about those things." Her shoulders looked like I lifted a boulder off of her shoulders. "Was the couple really next to us...?"

"Yeah," She said. "I figured you had to have heard the banging. The moaning was too much for me."

I laughed and she smiled too. She got her orange soda and moved her hands around it. "I must sound like an alien." She said shaking her head. "I go to this art school and there are like forty kids in my grade."

I reached down letting the seat drop back so it was flat. I moved over so I could sit cross legged. She was wearing one of her skirts and couldn't but she moved over too. I got the food and put it in between us. "Really?" I asked.

"Yeah," She said.

"I have like three-hundred kids in my grade. There's over a thousand in the whole school." I said. "You must know everyone pretty well."

She nodded. "We just sit there and paint and talk about everything." She said. "You feel really safe there. High school must be scary."

I shrugged. "Not really." I said. "The people are the scary part."

She nodded taking out a french fry and putting it in her mouth. "What are you like in school?" She asked. "Are you popular?"

"No," I said shaking my head. "I have this really good friend named Amanda, but I'm not popular at all."

Her eyes widened a little. "Really?" She said. "I thought you'd be popular or something."
"Nah," I said. "I'm kind of the weird kid. I play music a lot and stuff." I looked at her taking out her cheesburger and taking a bite- a small one. She was still listening ot her sister a little I think. "What about you, what are you like?"

She smiled. "Don't make fun of me," She said. "But I'm sort of popular I guess. I mean I guess popular to you is lots of friends and stuff. But it's really awkward when you break up with someone."

I raised my eyebrows taking a bite out my cheeseburger. "I thought you said you didn't know anything about dating." I said smiling.

She paused. "Dating a kid at my school is so different because all you do is hold hands and stuff while being really good friends and knowing them front and back." She said. "I'm the first girl in my class go on a date with someone outside of the school tonight." I smiled a little sipping my coke listening ot her. She ate a french fry her glossy finger paint looked black in the lack of light. "I mean, no offense. We just met at the park someday when I was being creepy and just drawing you..."

"I think that's pretty cool." I said. "I mean, at least we didn't just meet at a party. It's more unique."

She nodded. "My teacher, Sheryl," She said smiling a lot brighter. "Died when my friend made me tell the class how I met you. She said it was so romantic and cute. She's making me bring in my picture of you on Monday."

I laughed. "So I'm like show and tell?" I said.

She paused shaking her head. "I'm sorry if that's weird." She said. "I didn't mean it like that-"
"It's fine," I said smiling. "I don't think it's weird. It's just different hearing about when I don't know anyone really well except for Amanda."

"Is Amanda you're good friend?" She asked. Changing the subject.

I nodded. "Yeah," I said. "We've been friends since we were little and we just sort of stuck together. We're neighbors and everything too and our parents are really good friends."
She nodded. She was quieter. So I gave my Amanda speech. The one to all the girls I meet. "She's my sister," I said. "Basically." So I changed the subject. "What about your sister? What's she like?"

She shrugged. "She's a little slutty I think." She said. "She has a new boy every week but she came into my room this afternoon and told me everything I needed to do you impress you or whatever."

"Like what?" I asked smiling a little.

"Like what to start conversation with so you wouldn't think I was weird." She said. "So when we were driving I could ask if I could turn on the radio find a song I'd think you'd like and say I loved it. And then you would start talking about it to me and I'd just say really generic things back like I love their first record and whatever. And when we got there I wasn't supposed to pay attention to the movie but I was supposed to look scared at scary parts and cover my eyes a lot. Which I didn't becuase she looked like an idiot when she demonstrated it for me. And if you started doing weird things just let you until I got uncomfortable. And I was supposed to go along with the moves you were supposed to pull. And then the food incident..."

I laughed. "You had a lot to look out for," I said.

She nodded widening her eyes. "She'd shoot me if she heard me say this." She said. "This is a major don't."

"I think it's fine," I said shrugging one shoulder. "I always get nervous about pulling moves and first dates."

"I never got nervous at all." She said looking down eating more french fries. "Until tonight."
"I was a wreck tonight," I said smiling. "I was so nervous. Especially when you didn't answer the door right away. I felt like some old lady was going to come up and say nobody lives here and I would feel so dumb."

"My sister was just giving me a pep-talk." She said smiling a little. "Sorry about that."
I smiled. "It's okay," I said.

"I didn't think you were nervous at all." She said. "At least you knew what you were doing."
I laughed a little. She was cute. I liked her a lot. She was so honest and jut cute. She wasn't trying so much to impress me but trying toact normal around me. I liked her. I looked at her smiling. "So," I said. "I was thinking, if you weren't busy tomorrow maybe we could go out again."

She smiled putting her fries down. "I'd like that." She said.

"I could take you out to dinner at a nicer place than this," I said.

"That'd be cool." She said.

"Do you like diner food?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Never really had it." She said.

I smiled. "Then we're definatly going to this good place I know." I said. "You'll like it I think. A high class fast food place that takes ten times longer than McDonalds though, but it's really good."

She looked at me. "I always thought public school guys were such jerks." She said. She didnt' take it back or apologize. "You're the opposite of what I was scared you'd be like."

"Girl always seem awful to me." I said. "Art school girls are perfect for me." She smiled flushing pink. I saw the shift in her cheek color because of a pair of headlights. I really liked her. She was so cute and nice. Girls aren't so bad.