School, I won't bore you with who is the bully and who is the best friend. Along with the goths, jocks, nerds, dorks, geeks, freaks, anime fangirls and fanboys, card traders, and the teacher's pets. All of that stuff gets boring for a while. But, my best friend; Almond Oakthistle and I walk to our lunch period. I am telling her about the college people coming to interview my brothers and how my ma acted in the midst of the college people taking an interest in me.
Almond purses her lip glossed pink lips together. "She is going to keep you there. You are going to be an old maid...an old uneducated maid who is like her. Depending on a man for everything."
I agree with her. That is what my mother is trying to do to me and I have known this for a very long time. To be exact, when I turned 7 years old and she took me to a cookery class instead of getting ready for my Cowgirl party I hinted at all year long. In that class, the ladies were old and falling apart, but they knew how to cook and knew what kept a man. At 7 freaking years old, I didn't know anything about a man or keeping one. I just knew about playing and school and maybe having a crush on a few guys. But, husbands, boyfriends, and whatever. . .that was a huge no for me.
We get in the lunch line when I spot a few students going into the gym. I turned in front of me about to ask Almond but decided against it, because she hardly knew what was going on in class much less a school function. To my surprise, Fiacre Ellison walks up behind me to get in line.
Freaking Fiacre Ellison, the hunk of Bear Sunset High school. There are plenty of other hunks here, but Fiacre most certainly takes the cake. He is sweet, educated, wealthy, and has a southern drawl that makes all the girls swoon over him. He stands at six feet even over my five foot small frame. His brown eyes look at me and his white chocolate muscular frame almost makes me lose my mind, on the inside of course. On the outside, I am as cool as a cucumber.
"Hey, Fiacre." I greet him and trying to hide my blushing cheeks from him.
"Heeyy Cammie. What's going on?" He greets me in his thick southern drawl. All of the girls swoon over him but you will never see me tripping over myself around him. . .not in public anyway.
"What's going on in the gym?" I ask pointing towards the gym doors where some students are now coming out.
"Oh," he looks over and tilts his cowboy hat, "they have colleges in there and whoever wants to see about them, well...they go in and meet the different college sponsors. I would go, but you know. . .I have to run my daddy's mill." He smiles.
Moving up in the line, I thank him for the information and tap Almond on her shoulder as she is paying for her lunch.
"What?" Almond asks.
"I want to go in there and see what the commotion is all about," I tell her picking out my own tray and looking at the contents of deer meat, fries, and a chocolate milk.
"Alright, we can do that. I just need to eat something before I really go postal on some of these guys around here." Almond says jokingly as we find our usual seats in the middle of the lunch room.
I know going in there is a huge risk because all around this school, there are a lot of people that know my ma. And I know they tell her what I am doing and how I am doing in my classes. My ma was a teacher for a year, but when my pa promised to marry her, she dropped out of the school system and became a stay at home wife and ma. I shake my head at her foolish choice.
Once finished with our lunches, we trash the trays and go into the gym. There are a dozen colleges lined up against the wall and in the middle of the gym. I start to feel a little dizzy at all of the choices, I never knew there were so many colleges around here. Almond looks as if she is not interested in going to all the tables and gathering information.
"Come on, Almond. Perk up, this could be your future or destiny in here." I pat her back.
She dramatically jerks forward as we make our way to the first table, she states, "I don't know, Cambria. I have never really thought too much about applying to college. I wouldn't even know what to do or where to start."
"This is where you start and they will let you know what to do and what it takes to get into their college." I tell her just what the college people told me last night when I spoke to them on the porch.