Teaser Tuesday

Since November I've been teasing LARCH so today I decided to switch to JUDGEMENT. JUDGEMENT is an edgy contemporary about a boy who has it all and the girl who has nothing. Laura, the girl, sees through his facade to the hurting, abused boy that he is and Jefferson, the MC, sees through her facade to the wonderful girl that she is, and they accept each other but that won't come until much, much later. In this scene, Laura had taken care of Jefferson the day before, after his dad beat the you-know-what out of him. Jefferson is trying to be friends with her, but she isn't letting that happen. Also in this scene are the only two people in the school who are friends with Laura, they were unexpected and I heart them.

It’s lunchtime and the lunch room is crowded by the time I walk in the door. I’ve been thinking about Laura all day and don’t want her to feel not good enough to be my friend. She’s sitting at a table with a couple of younger guys.

“Jefferson.”

Tony is calling me over to our regular table. I really don’t feel like pretending everything is great in my life. My head still throbs.

Laura looks up from her lunch and I wonder what she is thinking as our eyes meet. No harm in finding out.

“Hey Laura. Mind if I join you?”

A shocked look crosses her face, then panic sets into her eyes.

“Laura, tell him he can sit. Geez, what’s wrong with you?” one of the boys says.

“Uh, sure. Sit down.”

The boys watch me as I sit down with my tray.

“Wow, you’re Jefferson. I’m Trey and this is Lyle. Your kind never comes over here.”

“My kind?” I have spent most of the day confused.

“Yeah. Popular. Rich. Good-looking. Athletic. Need I say more?”

“Thanks Trey. ‘Nuff said, okay?” Laura’s voice is quiet.
“I thought we settled this earlier. You don’t have to hang around, Jefferson.”

“How do you know he’s not here to play some kind of practical joke on us. Really Trey, you are just about drooling over a jock. Should I be jealous?” Lyle asks.

I look back and forth between them. Laura is looking at me like she is waiting to see what I am going to do. I wish I could read her mind.

“I’m not here to play any kind of jokes. I just wanted to see Laura. You guys have nothing to worry about. Do people play jokes on you?”

“Well, duh. We are the only two gay guys out of the closet. Laura is the only one who will be seen with us. Damn homophobic Bible-belt South. Plus it doesn’t help that Trey is black. We break two rules at once. Oh, Jefferson? Your friends are looking at us. Maybe you should return to your people. I think you’ve walked on the wild side long enough.” Lyle chuckles to himself.

I glance over my shoulder and see the entire table of my friends looking at me. All ten expressions range from horrified to amused.

“I really don’t care what they think. I can do what I want.”

“Jefferson, please leave.” Laura says.

“Fine Laura, since you are so obviously ashamed to be seen with me, I’ll just leave you alone.”

A horrified look crosses her face.

“No, it’s not that. Look, I don’t want to cause problems for you and that is what you’ll have hanging out over here. We can meet up after school if you want.”

“Only if you let me drive you home.”

She pauses and tilts her head to the side. Her dark hair falls into her face and she pushes it back. “Deal but I have to go straight home since I won’t be on the bus with my sister.”

I have just won a battle and can’t help but smile.

Holidays

The holidays are over - so why are we frying a turkey and having stuffing, cranberries and a butt-load of veggies with my family today? Could it be that mom decide to make spaghetti on Christmas day?

Holidays are crazy with my family which is why I happily spend the Jewish holidays with friends but Christmas is spent with my parents and ninety-two-year-old grandmother.

Today a dear friend of the family will be there, eighty-something-year-old Don. He and my grandmother get along very well and she gets quite perky when he is around.

It should be an amusing day.

Doctors and money

Usually a doctor's office wants their co-pay, right? I have lots of friends who are doctors and I know how frustrating it can be to not get the money they're owed. We went to one of these friends for my children's eye exam and when I tried to pay the co-pay the lady at the desk said they would bill me. I'm sorry. You want my money then take it while I'm offering.

That was five months ago. I pay my bills but for some reason this bill has been hell to pay. I tried four times and finally today I got it paid, after 25 minutes and three transfers. I honestly thought I was going to have to call my friend to pay her office. Even though I have friends who are doctors, I don't bother them with questions. They tell me to but I still feel weird about it. And I know that is normal because I had this discussion with a friend whose husband is a doctor - she feels the same way and doesn't want to bother doctor friends.

So I finally got someone on the phone who could help me and you know what she asked me - do you want to pay the full amount or make an installment? Hell yes, I want to pay the full amount - geez, it's only $30.

Teaser Tuesday

I had a hard time deciding whether I wanted to give everyone a view into my dystopian society or fluff from Stone and Larch, so I chose the latter since I am a romantic and it was kissing day yesterday. I have been filling in spots that needed relationship building and world building and finally got around to writing the first kiss, after I wrote several later kisses. I'm glad I waited because Larch surprised me.

In this scene Larch and Stone have fought with fighting sticks and she was really mad. The guards watched the entire thing. Larch's POV.

“You have literally beat the shit outta me Princess.” Stone said as he pressed my body into the wall. “Do you have any more aggression you want to take out on me, cause I can take it.”

I looked at the blood running down his face and the bruises already forming on the exposed skin of his arms. I saw the guards looking intently at us, they were no longer laughing, instead they looked scared. Stone and I were both breathing hard and at that moment, I didn’t care if he hated me, nor did I care if he would push me away because I was going to do what I wanted to do.

I let go of my stick and it clattered to the floor. My hands grabbed Stone’s shirt while his eyes narrowed in contemplation, like he was preparing to defend himself once more, but before he could move or lower the stick that anchored me to the wall, I surged forward as if I was being pushed from the wall by some unseen force, dragged him to me and kissed him.

Lips met lips and an electrical current moved from me into him or him into me, I didn’t know which but I did know that it was earth-shattering. His eyes widened and he dropped his stick, grabbed the back of my head, burying his hands in my hair and dragged me closer, until I didn’t know where I stopped and he began.

Cat-calls sounded and he broke off abruptly, but his hands were still buried in my hair.

“Wow,” he said and I thought that just about summed it up.

Holiday stuffing

I'm trying to think of a new name for my blog. Yes, it is random but I don't know if I really like Random thoughts. I'm thinking Random Ramblings.

As I think of ramblings I wonder why I stuff myself at holiday gatherings. I ate two plates of food tonight and as I sit here, I wish I could visit the porcelain goddess.

I had a great time as I went to my Aunt's house and got to see my cousin, his wife and their baby, oh yeah, their dog too. Their dog Chip is intact and when he came to our house he constantly hunched my spayed female. Chip is a tiny dachsund, while my dog Snowflake is part lab part Shepherd. Just picture that little thing trying to get it on with my big dog. Perverted. Not the whole size thing just the testosterone-filled male. Not that I'm saying testosterone-filled males are a bad thing - I think I'll quit before I dig my hole even deeper.

New Moon

I haven't blogged in an entire week and have missed several Teaser Tuesdays so I thought I would try to blog about something...anything random I can come up with.

So I went to see New Moon tonight. I must say it was nice to see it without the crowds and screaming fangirls. My girl friends and I laughed at times some would consider inappropriate during the movie because it was just funny. The old women behind me were laughing too.

I had heard about the shirtless wolves and must say that, well, I'm old enough to be Taylor Lautner's mother, but tonight I wished I were sixteen again so I could've enjoyed the view without feeling like a dirty old woman. Yep, my age made me feel guilty.

Now I think I will go and wash my eyes out with soap and hopefully be clean again.

Oh yeah, I look forward to the next movie :)

Paranoia

Ever think about that webcam sitting harmlessly on your computer? What if it really isn't harmless? What if someone taps into it and watches things you do?

What if it catches you, sans clothes, chatting away on Facebook? What if someone posts that to a website?

You may think I'm crazy but one never knows.

Now I shall go find some tape to cover my webcam and I urge you to do the same. And if you don't - don't blame me if you find yourself on the computer and I won't say I told you so. ;)

To have a parrot or not to have a parrot.

I love animals. Really. When I was growing up I wanted to take in every stray, but had parents who realized that was not possible and forbid it - when they found out; I was really good at hiding my forbidden pets.

One time I came home with someone's hamster that was no longer wanted. After he chewed his way out of the cage, made a home under my dad's desk and dug out the carpet to store his food, my dad made my mom take me out into the country where we let him go - probably to be killed since 1- hamsters aren't native to Georgia and 2- there was no way for him to survive.

A stray turned up and my wonderful grandmother, of blessed memory, let me keep him at her house. I named him Kamir and loved him but he disappeared after a few weeks - I still wonder. Another stray turned up and I named him Raccoon. After a couple of months my dad decided to give him to someone in the country because he was afraid Raccoon would get hit by a car. It only took two weeks of him living in the country to be squashed in the road - yep, sure was safer.

This was how it went. I found the animals and cared for them and somehow they had to go with the exception of a few cats and a dachsund which was given to me when I was about ten. I also found a cockatiel in the backyard that my grandmother still has.

I loved animals so much that I decided to be a Vet. Only problem was the pesky Math that was required. I've always said IQ means nothing if one can't succeed in the world. It doesn't matter that I am highly intelligent when my brain isn't wired for Algebra - seriously - so I decided against being a vet and chose Spanish as my major instead.

When I was in college I bought, wait for it, a ball python. My mother told me if I brought it in her house she would chop its head off with her butcher knife. Luckily I had a boyfriend who let me keep her at his apartment until I could return her to the pet store.

So I got married and guess what - my husband never says anything about what I drag home! Once I drug home $150 worth of turtle supplies and a turtle, I said it was for school since we were learning the letter T, that was when my oldest was in kindergarten, seven years ago. Yesterday I drug home $75 worth of turtle supplies for the two new turtles that were given to my daughter. We have had dogs, cats, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs and a parrot. He almost bought me a snake once but it was mean, of course we did catch a couple of them and observed them for a few days (I homeschool so I'm always looking for learning opportunities). We can't have a ferret because we have the parrot or there would be one of those too.

I have learned that we can't feed every stray that comes along so a lot of times I let them go without feeding them (or feed 'em in the neighbor's yard, shhhh.) And my husband, although very patient, doesn't really care for all the animals so I was surprised when he called me and said that a guy at work is looking for a good home for his parrot and is actually considering it - this said after I was told that there was no room for the five cockatiels my friend would like gone from her house. I do agree with him about the cockatiels but another parrot? That's like having another child and it's my decision. All mine. Guess what's coming home.