“Thanks, Tori,” I said.
“Sure.” She nodded at me and got up to leave my room.
I had a lot to learn—about everything. I’m glad Tori could help me a little with clothes at least. I’m sure she had a few things to teach me about how to deal with other girls too.
The next morning, I stood in my bathroom for a while and pulled out the sheet of eye tape the ladies at the salon had given me. It just looked like a sheet of rounded stickers. I carefully peeled off a piece, leaned over the sink and tried to put a piece on my eyelid. I stepped back and looked at myself. I looked like somebody had punched me and my right eye was swelling. I didn’t do it right. I ripped it off. I needed to practice more. Maybe now was not the right time. I didn’t want to be late for school or get puffy eyes from continuously ripping off eyelid tape. I changed gears and decided to get dressed instead.
I put on the same outfit Tori seemed to approve of the night before, and my mom didn’t say anything when I came downstairs, but I did catch her looking at me an extra-long time. I was waiting for her to say something, but she never did.
The girls at school all seemed to notice something different. Emma said, “Krista, I like what you’re wearing today!” and Madison said, “Nice shirt!”
Nobody had ever complimented my clothing before. Was I really so different? “Thanks,” I said, slightly embarrassed. “This is all Tori’s old stuff.”
At recess, they asked me to join them by the tree again. Jason heard and just kind of gave me a wry grin, like he was saying, go ahead, so I said okay. It was the fourth time in the past week that we had not hung out at school together. It felt weird, but he seemed okay with it. I walked with the girls to the tree and scanned my eyes around for Jason in the field. I could see he had found Marcus and Evan, and they were standing in the part of the field where Jason and I usually hung out. It looked like they were laughing.
CHAPTER 12
On the weekend, Dad was going to take me and Tori to the movies. The only problem was his car. It only had two seats.
“Alice, I need to borrow your car later,” my dad told my mom while she drank her morning coffee and read the newspaper.
“Why? Something wrong with yours?” she asked.
“No, it’s just movie day, remember? I’m supposed to take the girls to the movies this afternoon.”
My mom put down her newspaper and looked at my dad with her blank stare. “Oh right,” she said sarcastically. “You have that ridiculous car with only TWO seats and a manual transmission that I can’t drive. I remember now.”
“Alright, alright,” my dad muttered.
“What if I have stuff to do?” My mom was giving Dad a hard time. I watched silently, eating my bowl of cereal. They went through this same routine every time my dad needed to take more than one person in his car. I think my mom loved tormenting him sometimes.
“Can you do your stuff now then? I want to take them to a show in the early afternoon.”
“Don’t you wish you had a car that could actually carry the entire family?” Mom put her coffee cup in the sink. “Fine, I’ll go do my errands now.”
She left to go do whatever moms do on Saturday mornings and so it was just me and my dad at the kitchen table.
“She really hates your car, huh?” I said, chewing my last mouthful of cereal.
“Yes, Krista, yes she does.” My dad opened the newspaper to the sports section.
Tori finally came downstairs. It was almost 9am. She rubbed her head and said, “Where’s Mom?”
“She left to do some errands,” my dad answered.
“Did she leave me any breakfast?” Tori asked.
“No,” I answered as I put my bowl in the sink.
“I’ll make you something,” my dad offered.
Tori rolled her eyes. “I can pour my own bowl of cereal, Dad.” She reached into the cupboard for a bowl.
“So, it’s movie day!” My dad tried to sound cheerful.
“Oh God…” Tori sighed as her shoulders slumped.
“What, too cool to spend some time with your dad?” he asked her as she poured the milk.
“Well actually, yes,” she answered after swallowing her first spoonful.
“It’ll be fun!” He gave her shoulder a playful push.
“No, Dad, no it won’t.”
And Tori was right, the movie wasn’t very fun. My dad hated parking my mom’s minivan so he always ended up parking as far away from the main entrance as possible, even though there were lots of spots close by. When we got there, the movie I wanted to see was sold out, so we ended up seeing this dumb movie about a dumb teenage girl who falls in love with a dumb boy (Tori’s pick). Blah. Then my dad let me eat way too much popcorn (sore belly). On the way home he told us that we had to go to Grandma’s house for dinner (surprise!).
We picked up my mom, who had been at home all afternoon. “So girls.” Mom greeted us as she got into the car. “How was the movie?”
Tori shrugged her shoulders. I said, “Meh.”
“What? Just meh? Personally, I thought it was terrible,” my dad said. This was my dad trying to be funny.
“It was okay. The actor was cute,” said Tori.
I rolled my eyes. My mom was turned in her seat looking at us. She smiled. “Off to Grandma’s house,” Dad said as we drove off.
It was still only 4pm, and after my giant bag of popcorn, I had no interest in eating dinner at all.
We piled out of the minivan and Grandma greeted us at the door with a big smile. Once we were in her house, she pulled me aside and said, “Krista, you help with japchae.”
I
