Government Policy

By: Lizzie Bundick

------------------------

I sat in the back of the class room in one of those chairs that are suppose to fit everyone, but don’t fit anyone, listening to my teacher drone on about the importance of skeletal system. Admiral Alder, the teacher of my fifth hour advanced health class, had been droning about the skeletal system since class had started about thirty minutes ago. I wasn’t really listening to Alder’s lecture; I was too busy drawing little jets, tanks and other military paraphernalia in the margin of my notes. It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested in what Alder was saying, I mean I wanted to be a doctor so I should have been paying attention, but I always had trouble focusing during health class. I knew why too, because next hour was lunch, my favorite class of the day. I looked up from my doodles to check the clock, catching my best friend’s, Paul Risar, eyes in the process. He noticed where I was looking and rolled his eyes.

“Jesus, Al, the clock isn’t going to go any faster, just because you want to see her,” Paul whispered, nudging me in the ribs from across the isle between our desks.

“What are you talking about?” I whispered back, leaning just a little closer to him.

“Like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” Paul tilted his notebook so I could see the page he was taking notes on and wrote, NINA.

“I’m not thinking about her,” I growled softly, “I’m hungry.”

“Hungry for the little Spanish senorita named Nina.” Paul wiggled his eyebrows, “Come on man, prom’s in two weeks, why don’t you ask her?”

“I wasn’t thinking about her,” I lied, quickly looking back at my doodles before Paul could see the blush that was creeping up my neck.

“Mr. Risar, Mr. Camble, are you two paying attention?” Alder called back to us. Paul and I quickly pretended to take notes while Alder went back to talking. That’s how life had been for the past three years on the Norfolk Naval base, when a teacher told you to pay attention, you did or else you’d end up with a big old detention hanging over your head. I didn’t mind though, usually when I got caught Paul did too, so we hung out a lot. I keep thinking one day I’m going to wake up and Paul was going to be like everyone else. He’ll ignore me until he absolutely had to notice me and then he’d treat me with little respect when he did notice. Yet Paul continued to hang around with me even though he was one of the most popular kids in school. Paul was the quarterback of the football team, star pitcher during baseball season and he never lacked a date to any of the school dances. I, on the other hand, was a plain guy whose only claim to fame was I was the president of the auto club. No one knew me, no one noticed me, but that was okay, I liked it that way. I might have a few friends, but they were really good friends and that’s all I really needed. I jumped to my feet when the bell rang, grabbed everything up from around my desk and went racing from the classroom.

“You know she’ll be waiting for you!” Paul called as I pushed trough to the hallway and to my locker. Okay, so I’m a pathetic loser when it comes to Nina, but how can’t I be one? She’s the only girl who has ever paid any sort of attention to me, and she’s really hot. I sighed again, shaking my head at my self. Maybe Paul was right, I should bite the bullet and ask Nina to the prom. As soon as I thought about it, my head filled with the image of Nina laughing hysterically at me while hanging on the arm of the school’s main actor and resident heartthrob, Chet Macintyre, who literally had girls falling at his feet. Stupid imagination, I thought, kicking the loose pencil that had bumped against my toe, makes everything worse for me.

“Bad day, Al?” I looked up from the floor and into the smiling eyes of Nina Saunders. My heart came to a sudden and complete stop. She had the best eyes in the world, green with little flecks of gold and copper in them and they were always smiling at you. That was what was best about Nina’s eyes.

“Just a little bit,” I sighed, spinning the dial on my lock, before she noticed I was staring at her and probably drooling.

“Aw, but it’s Friday, you can’t have a bad day on Friday.” Nina leaned against the locker next to mine, holding her books against her chest. I tried keeping my focus on the lock and the combination, but I was only human. She was wearing her turtle shirt, a little white tank top with a cartoon turtle plastered on the front; it was one of my favorite shirts of hers. I sighed at my own pathetic-ness, and went back to focusing on my locker.

“Are you going to the Shore Thing concert tonight?” Nina asked, playing with one of the curls in her dark brown hair, smiling a little shyly at me when I looked down at her. Oh boy, I thought, she never looked at me like that before.

“Yeah, I talked my dad into giving me the car.” I shrugged stiffly, “You need a ride or something?”

She chewed a little on lower lip, and I had an image flash in my mind of me chewing on her lower lip, but quickly shook the image out of my head. It was not the time or the place to let my imagination run wild with me. “Well, I wanted to know if maybe...” I could see Nina’s lips moving, she was talking to me but I couldn’t hear her over the sudden roaring in my ears. Nerves, I thought, trying to take a few deep breaths without her noticing, that way I could hear her again. My ears hurt too, like someone was taking rough grain sandpaper and attacking my ears with it. I reached up to rub one and found that it was covered in something that felt like scales. It can’t be scales, I thought; rubbing the ear harder. Maybe dry skin, or something yet underneath my fingers it felt a lot like snakeskin.

“I’ll catch up with you at lunch Nina,” I said hurriedly, cutting her off mid-sentence. I slammed my locker closed and went running for the boy’s room, hands clamped over my ears. Once inside I glanced around to make sure no one else was inside, then ran up to the mirror and pushed my slightly longer than normal hair out of the way to look at my ears. I couldn’t believe what I saw reflected back at me; my ears were covered in small, green scales. My heart jumped a little in my chest as I tried not to panic about my ears. Maybe I was hallucinating, I reasoned, maybe I was dreaming, yeah, that sounded right. I was actually asleep in health class, dreaming this whole mess up. I closed my eyes and focused, trying to tell myself that my ears were fine, that Admiral Alder was walking up to me right now, and he would wake up me. Then the class would laugh at me, but everything would be fine. When I opened my eyes again I was still in the bathroom, but the scales were gone. I could hear again, there were a few other boys looking at me rather strangely, but everything was back to normal. So, I hadn’t been dreaming, I was just hallucinating about the ear thing. I took a deep breath, then another, until my heart rate steadied and I was once again calm. Then I slammed my head against the mirror, and groaned. I’d bet everything I owned that Nina had asked me out and I’d ran because I was hallucinating! I slammed my fist against the mirror too, what crappy luck. I had to redeem myself; I thought with sudden clarity, I had to fix everything and make it right. I’ll ask her out, I thought, yeah, that’s it I’ll make the first move. I walked out of the boy’s room with renewed courage, ready to take that step I’d been avoiding since the first time I’d had the chance to ask Nina out. Except when I stood in the doorway to the lunchroom, I saw Nina sitting with Chet and Paul, she was smiling with Chet leaning a little too close to him. My courage dropped, I turned around and walked away. I spent lunch in the library, staring despondently down at my math homework, cursing my stupid imagination. What had I been thinking? Scales on my ears? Suddenly deaf? I had probably been nervous about Nina asking me out, and made everything up, but now she was cozying up who? No other than Chet Macintyre, shit, aren’t you the fool, Alan? I left the library feeling stupid and depressed, my mood not improving when I heard some girl talking with her friend about who Chet had been cozying up to.

Paul caught up with me on my way to Advanced Statistics, another class we had together, “Hey, man, what’s wrong with you? Nina said you just ran off when she was talking to you.”

“Nothing,” I muttered, holding the door open for him, “It was nothing.”

“She looked pretty down about it.” I sighed, Paul was just trying to cheer me up because he knew about Chet and Nina flirting at lunch.

“Thanks Paul, but just shut up okay?” I dodged around him and went to my desk, really down about everything now. I carefully avoided Nina the rest of the day, I wouldn’t even talk about her with Paul and when he brought it up I’d glare and that would get him to stop. I took different routes down different hallways when I knew I might run into her and even avoided my locker after school when I needed my jacket and books from it.

As I walked home I continued to berate myself, listening to everyone chatting excitedly to each other about the concert. I wondered if I should still go, I wasn’t giving anyone but myself a ride, now that I’d wrecked things with Nina, and there was no reason real for me not to go. Except that Nina would be there and I’d have to explain what had happened before lunch. I didn’t have a good explanation for what had happened, so I’d just lock myself in my room this evening, with the latest issue of Hot Rod Magazine and pray when Monday came around, Nina didn’t hate me.

“Mom, I’m home!” I yelled as I stepped inside the little one story brick house we lived in at the base’s perimeter.

“Alan, your friend Nina called,” Mom said as she stepped out of the kitchen wiping her hands on a rag. My mom was, in my opinion, one of the prettiest people in the world. Mom was just a few inches short of six feet tall, her hair was long, raven black and she had these deep chocolate eyes. She had skin like a porcelain doll, artful cheek bones and a natural grace about her. She was just stunning to me. I was nothing like Mom, sure I was tall, but my hair was shaggy auburn and I always seemed to trip over myself. I guessed I got none of Mom’s talent or looks, though I didn’t really resemble my dad either.

“Oh,” I set my backpack down inside the closet on the floor, “Did she say anything?” I tried to ask this casually, so my mom wouldn’t pick up on the fact that I was trying to dodge Nina in any way, shape or form.

“Yes, she wanted you to call her back,” Mom said, walking over and hugging me, “How was your day at school?”

I returned Mom’s hug and gave a teenager-ly sigh, “Fine, Mom. What you making for dinner?”

“Just some meatloaf, would you like to help, or do you have homework?” Mom kept her arm over my shoulder as she led me towards the kitchen.

“I’ll do my homework after dinner,” I decided, since I wasn’t going to the Shore Thing concert anymore I’d have the time.

“What about calling your friend back?” Mom wasn’t fooled, though she rarely was. She was also trying to subtly push me towards asking Nina out. She thought it was cute the way I constantly fumbled and messed up around Nina. Mom also thought Nina was a gem and perfect for a potential Navy wife. My mom had been trying to find perfect, perky wife for me since I was five though. Every base we live on some girl who maybe I talked to once, or walked home with would become the next potential Mrs. Alan Camble.

“I’ll get to it, but first I promised to help you with dinner.” Mom glanced my way, giving me that knowing look mom’s have. I slipped out from underneath her arm and went to the kitchen counter to prepare the potatoes. Mom went back to making the salad and chatted casually while we worked together. I talked about my day, excluding the ear incident; it was just my imagination anyway and glazed over my depressing library lunch hour. Dad came home at six, looking a little tried around the eyes; luckily dinner was on the table for him. He was the poster boy for the Navy, broad shoulders, tall with a warrior’s gray eyes and stance, he had quickly climbed to the rank of Captain and that gave him more time to be with my mom and me. Compared to my dad, I looked like a cabin boy, skinny as a rail and about as heroic as a head of lettuce.

“Hey slugger,” Dad said as he came into the kitchen, reaching out and ruffling my hair.

“Dad!” I groaned, pushing his hand away then rushing in to hug him.

“Have a good day, kid?” Dad asked as he released me and reached an arm out to Mom, who stepped to his side.

“Yeah, pretty good,” I shrugged and sat down to dinner, so I didn’t have to see my parents kiss. It was nice to know my parents had stayed together all these years, a lot of the time the kids I went to school with came from broken families. One parent couldn’t take the strain of moving from base to base and left, usually the kid stayed with the parent who was in the Navy. My mom joked that she thought about leaving but then she’d see Dad in his uniform as she was in love all over again. Everyone gathered around the table, Dad said grace and we dug in. While Dad talked about his day the feeling of someone rubbing sand paper over my skin came back, only this time it was on my leg. I ignored it for a bit, it was probably my subconscious guilt over what had happened between Nina and me coming back to haunt me, but then my leg really started to hurt. Casually I knocked my fork to the floor, “I’ll get it.” I said when my mom frowned at me. I ducked under the table and ignoring my fork I rolled up the pants leg on the leg that hurt. Green scales were rising out of my sock cuff, slowly inching their way up my leg. Oh lord, I was hallucinating again. I quickly grabbed my fork up from the floor and tossed it onto the tabletop.

“I’m going to my room,” I said, sprinting for the stairs that went down to the two bedrooms. I dodged left, slammed the door closed, locked it. As I leaned against the door, I noticed my leg hurt a little from using it, and it itched manically. I walked over to my bed, with a very pronounced limp and sat on the edge of it. I carefully rolled up the leg of my pants and glanced at it. It was skinnier than normal; shorter as well and when my sock slid down my foot was shaped like well it wasn’t a typical foot. It seemed to be centered on my ankle, with two huge toes going forward and backward. I’d seen the foot somewhere before, it kind of reminded me of the foot on a chameleon.

“No, no, no,” I whispered, falling backwards to stare at my ceiling, “My foot is fine, my leg is fine. I’m not a scaly lizard, I’m a teenager!” I growled, slamming my fist against the bed in anger and a little bit in fear. Suddenly the pain in my leg intensified and I jammed my fist into my mouth to keep from screaming. Once the pain passed I coughed a little and looked back at my leg. Everything was fine, scales were gone and my foot had all five toes. I lay back down on the bed, looking towards the ceiling, a little overwhelmed by everything. I missed a chance with the girl of my dreams, I was having hallucinations about lizard legs, and I was still hungry. Wondering if my life was falling apart I got up from the bed and crossed to my desk, where my computer sat. I flicked it on, and connected myself to the Internet. I like computers, they were useful, and the little gadgets inside and how they worked was really cool too. I signed onto my instant messenger service, but I didn’t think anyone would be on. Everyone would be at the Shore Thing concert, having a good time listening to some garage bands and having fun. I normally would be with them, but I didn’t think this was the night to face down my friends. What surprised me when I got on line was that Nina was also on. Instantly the phone in my room started ringing and I picked it up with a little shake in my hands.

“Al, what happened to you today?” Nina asked without preamble, sounding just on the edge of mad, and more than a little hurt.

“Nothing, I just...felt a little sick, that’s all. I’m sorry for ditching you like that,” I lied, though I really was sorry for ditching her. Anyway, if I told her the truth, that I thought parts of me had turned green and scaly she’d never speak to me again.

“Are you okay?” Nina asked, instantly concerned for me instead of being mad at me.

I glanced down at my leg, “I don’t know, probably.” The conversation lulled until I heard Nina sigh on the other side of the phone.

“If you’re feeling better tomorrow, you want to go see a movie?”

“Just you and me?” I’d probably asked that with a little too much excitement and a little too quickly.

“No,” I wondered if I’d actually heard that regret in her voice, or if it was wishful thinking, but Nina continued on, “With Chet and Paul. We were going to go in Chet’s car, but you could pick Paul up, since your closer.” I instantly didn’t like the idea, Nina alone in Chet’s car, but I couldn’t say anything. Nina lived across base from me, and Chet lived on her street, there was no point in saying I’d pick her up.

“Sure thing, Nina, what time?” She told me the time and where we’d meet up and then I heard her mother start calling for her.

“Hey, Al, I got to go, Chet’s here,” She said, and I dropped my head to the desk. Chet, I hated Chet so much right then if I had been one of Paul’s muscle bound football player buddies I’d have gone to smash Chet’s face into putty. Except I wasn’t a muscle bound football player, I was skinny short Alan, the car geek.

“Yeah, no problem Nina, have fun,” I muttered, then hung up the phone, thinking evil thoughts about Chet Macintyre. Funny thing was, Chet had never been anything but nice to me, he was even vice-president of the auto club, I really shouldn’t have been so mad at him. You’re not mad, my conscious said, you’re jealous. Of course I was jealous, he was going out with Nina, the girl of my dreams. I lifted my head up and started wandering around my favorite custom car sites online, trying to ignore the heavy weight around my heart.

After a few minutes a knock came at my door and my mother’s voice drifted through, “Alan, honey, can I come in?”

“Yeah, sure thing Mom, hang on a second.” I disconnected from the Internet, got up from the desk and opened the door for her. She smiled at my sympathetically, and hugged me tight. I was a little confused, but just patted her back, “Is something wrong Mom?”

She sighed and drew back from me; “Your Dad’s signed you up for basic training this summer.”

“Oh, uh, okay?” I didn’t get it, what was the big deal? I was going to turn eighteen this summer, so I had expected I was going to start basic, what was up with Mom?

“It’s just that you’re growing up so fast,” Mom sniffled a bit and I rolled my eyes.

“Mom, relax, it’s not like I’ll be leaving for college or something. I’ll be right here on base.” But my mom just sniffed again, turned around and walked into my parent’s bedroom. She closed the door behind her, but I could hear her crying. Wow, I thought, what was up with Mom? But as I started to cross the hall my Dad stepped in front of the door and shook his head.

“It’s best if you leave her alone, son. Your mom’s feeling pretty emotional right now,” He said in that authoritative tone that meant it was an order and not a suggestion.

“All right, but I didn’t mean to make her cry or whatever,” I mumbled, hunching my shoulders, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” My Dad kneeled down in front of me, “Your mom’s just managed to trick herself into believing this day would never come. Just like when you started elementary school, she cried the night before that too, remember?”

“Yeah,” I smiled at my Dad, “She kept going on and on like I was never going to come back.”

“Well, this is just like that.” My dad put his hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze, “You’ll make me proud son, really.” He then got up and walked into his bedroom to comfort my mom, leaving me standing in the middle of the hallway. I walked back into my room, not believing a word my dad said. I wasn’t cut out of the military; I was too skinny, to weak to even survive a day of basic training. I was going to flunk out, and embarrass him. I sighed and ran my hands over my face, I’d still try my hardest though, maybe that would count for something. I grabbed the nearest issue of Hot Rod magazine and threw myself down onto the bed. I was depressing myself, I thought, if I kept it up the next thing I knew I would be dressing like a Goth and contemplating how crappy life was all the time. I started to flip through the magazine, reading about transmissions and how to find custom parts for your 76 Chevy until I started to get really tired. I glanced at the clock, just past eleven, the concert would be over, and Chet would probably just be pulling up into Nina’s driveway to drop her off. He’d probably be plying some well-practiced moves on her, I thought bitterly while I got ready for bed. Good thing Nina was smart enough to see through him, but as I climbed back into bed I couldn’t help but think of the way Nina had been looking at Chet at lunch. You’re a fool Alan Camble, I thought as I closed my eyes, why would Nina choose you when she’d got a guy like Chet?

---------------------