Rose Visca? The student council president? There’s no way.
Chad Nosmith was face to face with a dainty blonde girl at the front entrance of his house. She was claiming to be the student council president. Their physical traits were quite similar, but they just didn’t seem like the same person. Besides her claim to be Rose Visca, the voice was the only other thing that made him think she could really be the student council president. She spoke in a much more gentle voice now then at the pep rally, but the general tone sounded similar enough.
His mother, not handling the awkward silence well, tried to push him to reply.
“I didn’t know you were friends with the student council president. You sure make some big friends quickly.”
Chad looked at his mom.
“We aren’t friends. Hell, this is the first time I’ve spoken with her. I wouldn’t have even recognized her if she didn’t get booed at the pep rally today.”
Rose winced as she looked at the ground, “Yea, that happened I guess.”
“I am so sorry to hear about that,” Rebecca took her hand and guided her further into the house like an old friend. She glared at Chad, “If I hear anything about you partaking in any of that-”
“Don’t worry, I was doing homework the whole time. I didn’t even really pay attention at all.”
Whap
She slapped the back of his head, “It’s still rude to not pay attention to someone while they're speaking. You’re no better than those other hooligans.”
“Oh it’s completely alright Ms. Nosmith,” Rose smiled anxiously, “If more people at our school had Chad’s study habits I probably wouldn’t have gotten stampeded?”
“Stampeded?”
Rose quickly explained the events of the pep rally where the entire student body stormed the gymnasium floor and how they had to cancel the rest of the event because of it.
“They threw pencils and charged you?” Rebecca was taken aback, “What kind of school did I send you to?”
“A jungle.” Chad meagerly replied.
Rose sheepishly nodded in agreement to his comment.
She couldn’t seem to find the words to reply, but Chad did. It was uncharacteristic of him to continue a conversation that didn’t need to be, but a curiosity burned inside of him. Usually, he would’ve liked to just go back upstairs and ignore this whole interaction entirely, but a question slipped from his tongue.
“Why are you at my house?”
The question came out quite bluntly, perhaps borderline rude. Before his mother could reprimand him for his poor behavior, Rose replied.
“I’m here for you,” she held out her arm, pointing directly at him, “I’m here to recruit you to join the student council.”
“Yea, I’m good.”
He started to do what he should’ve done from the beginning swiveling around on the back of his heel and taking a step towards the stairs.
“Ow ow ow ow.”
Chad stopped in his tracks. A stinging pain radiating from the bottom of his neck. He was all too familiar with it. His mother had him in one of her signature holds, the hair twister. It was where she firmly grabbed a bushel of hair at the bottom of his neck, holding him hostage. With any movement he made, she would then twist his hair, holding complete control over him. She often resorted to this when she physically wanted him to stay somewhere. Since she was quite a bit smaller than him, she relied on this technique a lot.
“Now sweetie,” A chilling smile smeared across her, “Don’t be so rude to our guest. At least hear out her proposal. You never know what the consequences of your reply may hold for you.”
“But I would nev- OW! Ok fine!”
“Wonderful!” Rebecca’s sadistic smile transitioned to one resembling joy, but he wasn’t sure there was much of a difference, “I already made dinner but give me a couple minutes to set the table.” she gave him a glare while heading towards the kitchen door, “Keep your guest company Chad. Don’t scare her off.”
She exited the room leaving him with chills. He and Rose both stood awkwardly next to each other.
His eyes went to her, still not comprehending that this girl was the same as the girl at the pep rally. She seemed uncomfortable being next him, how could she have gone up in front of the entire student body with such confidence?
She continued to sway back and forth while clicking her heels together. His eyes continued to take in her physical appearance, comparing and contrasting it to earlier that day. She eventually gave in to the pressure and broke the silence.
“So why were you so quick to say no? I’m sure you would make a good student council member.” she hesitantly asked.
“I thought we were going to discuss this over dinner.”
She opened her mouth to reply, but no words came out.
Chad had perfectly executed something he had done many times, shutting down a conversation starter. It was one of his signature conversational techniques, or perhaps more fitting, anti-conversational techniques. This one was particularly impressive since it only took a single sentence to completely shut her down.
With mom around I can’t outright reject her offer. I must find a way to make her take back her offer, but if I am too overtly rude I’ll be in for it. I have to approach this smartly.
He concluded that the best thing to do was to bask in this awkward silence. Surely the student council wouldn’t want someone who was socially awkward to join them.
Rebecca doubled her pace in the kitchen, setting up dinner. She sensed her son in the next room wanting to ruin this great opportunity to make some friends. Not too long after he shut down the conversation, she opened the kitchen door wiping sweat from her forehead.
“Ok! Dinner’s ready.”
I don’t think that was a long enough silence. Damn you mother.
She guided the pair into the kitchen. The hardy aroma of chili made his stomach growl. In a short amount of time, his mother had set out a nice looking dinner. In the center of the table was a large crock pot. A bowl of shredded cheese sat on one side and on the other was cornbread stacked as high as the crock pot. Three bowls of chili were set out. Who was supposed to sit in each seat? Well that was obvious to Chad. He took a step forward, trying to foil his mother’s plan, but she quickly slipped into the seat at the head of the table. This left the seats facing each other on either side of her open.
What is she trying to do?
She gestured for them to join her at the table. Rose graciously accepted while Chad reluctantly took his seat. He may have lost this battle, but he was determined to win the war.
Rose’s blue eyes glowed as she looked at the steaming bowl of chili in front of her.
“Wow! This looks amazing Ms. Nosmith. Thank you so much.”
Chad scoffed, “It’s just chili. It's not all that impress-”
Smack.
Rebecca hit the back of his head with a precision slap.
“You are so welcome dear. And please, call me Rebecca. Better yet, Becca.”
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Wow. First name basis already?
“Ok, let’s pray.”
She put both of her hands out. Rose and Chad took hold of each of them. He bowed his head and waited for his mother to start praying.
Ok maybe this seating arrangement isn’t so bad afterall.
“Ahem.”
He looked up at his mother glaring at him. His vision then went across the table. Rose was holding her hand out towards him.
Oh come on.
He reluctantly took hold of her hand, deciding to choose his battles smartly.
Her hand was soft. It was also quite small which surprised him since she was quite tall for a girl. Maybe it was just because he was a guy and he didn’t know the relative hand sizes of women. For all he knew this could be the average size. Although, comparing it to his mother’s hand, who was quite small in stature, they were similar sizes. Maybe she does have small hands. Or maybe his mother has large hands. He would need more data points to come to an accurate conclusion.
“Chad.”
He opened his eyes. Rebecca and Rose had already released each other's hands while he still had a firm grip on each of theirs.
“Oh, sorry.”
He quickly released his grip from both of their hands. He saw a faint smirk on his mother’s face.
Don’t read too much into it, old lady.
Everyone dug into their meals. No conversations had started yet. Was Rebecca lulling him into a false sense of security? Maybe this was normal to not have conversation when you first start eating. He didn’t quite know, but he was content with the silence. He also noted that Rose was particularly fond of the cornbread. She had already finished the two pieces on her plate.
“Rose dear, would you like some more cornbread?”
Oh no, is this…
“Yes please,” Rebecca handed her more pieces of cornbread, even though she was further from the plate than her, “Thank you Mrs. Nosm- I mean Becca.”
the start of…
“No problem... So Rose, what is it like to be a part of the student council?”
a conversation?!?
Rose took the napkin from her lap and wiped some crumbs of cornbread from her mouth, “It is a great way to improve your resume for college applications as well as a way to better the education of your peers.”
“And the education of our peers is going so well.” Chad rolled his eyes in response.
He brought up a spoonful of chili to his mouth but it never reached his taste buds. He dropped the spoon due to the pain from being kicked in the shins by his mother under the table.
“Chad dear, don't be so clumsy.” She gave a sinister glance at him.
“Oh-,” Rose blushed a bit, “The students’ academics have been suffering as of late, but we are trying our best to improve that.”
“So do you think extending the school day will really help with that?”
He reflexively tucked his legs under his chair, dodging the kick from his mother. He looked at her.
“That was a serious question. I wasn’t trying to be sarcastic or anything.”
He didn’t care too much about the school day being extended. Sure it kind of sucked, but it wasn’t all that bad. He was just curious if it would actually help anything.
“Well,” Rose set down her cornbread and began twiddling her thumbs, “that wasn’t necessarily the council’s decision. We were actually against the proposal but the school board overrode our decision.”
“So why did you claim that the student council came to this decision in conjunction with the school board?”
“So you were paying attention at the pep rally?” Rebecca gave her son a mischievous smile.
He ignored his mother’s teasing, focusing on the reply.
“The board thought the proposal would be better received if it came from us. They said ‘having a group of students already agree to these conditions will help the rest of the student body accept it.'”
“That didn’t work out too well.”
“Yea,” she shrugged, looking down at her empty bowl, “We are really just a way for the school board to try to connect with the students.” she shook her head, “And that’s why I’m here. The school board also believes that having a male on the student council would help us be better received by our peers. Especially the male students.”
“So why me?”
Before she could reply, a ringtone went off. Rebecca took her phone out from her jeans.
“I’m sorry, I have to head to work. Chad, can you clean up when you two are done?”
“Yea.”
She quickly stood up and left for work. Before leaving the kitchen she gave him a glare that sent chills down every vertebrae in his spine. No words were spoken, but he could only imagine the hell he would face if he said no to her offer.
I can’t say no, that means I have to make her not want to recruit me anymore.
A little silence lingered after his mother left for work, but he did something he usually would never do. He resumed the conversation.
“So-”
“Isn’t it a bit late to go to work?” Rose asked with cornbread crumbs surrounding her mouth.
She had beaten him at resuming the conversation. Not that he really cared, it was just an interesting observation.
“Uh yea, she’s an editor of a publishing firm. Her hours are the definition of irregular,” he tapped his empty bowl with his spoon, “I sometimes hear her coming back or leaving at God forsaken hours of the night.”
“She must have an incredible work ethic.”
Perfect, I can use this.
“She sure does. Sadly she didn’t pass that gene down to me.”
Rose tilted her head, “Really?”
“Yea,” he leaned back on the hind legs of his chair, “I’m as lazy as lazy gets.”
“So you’re not going to clean up the dishes like you said?”
He froze.
I can’t imagine what that woman would do to me if I left the kitchen a mess.
“O-of course I’m going to do the dishes, but that has nothing to do with work ethic-”
“I think it does.” her voice began to have more bass to it, similar to how it was at the pep rally.
She pulled out a notebook from her purse and opened it. She pushed her glasses up from the tip of her nose closer to her eyes.
“Chad Nosmith, age fifteen, a sophomore at Manha High School. You transferred here this year and have an unweighted GPA of 3.8. You never submitted an assignment late nor have had any unexcused absences. You also work part time at the library to help support your single mother while also doing volunteer work on Sundays.”
Shit, she pulled up with the receipts. Wait, this is really stalkerish.
“H-how’d you get all that information?”
She snapped her notebook shut. She peered into his soul. Her hesitant and dainty demeanor had been tossed to the side and an aura of confidence surrounded her.
“Doesn’t matter. What matters is that you are the perfect candidate to join the student council. You may come across as lazy on the surface, but you are a hard worker like your mom. You may try to act like you don’t really care, but you do.”
“But I’ll make a terrible council member. How am I supposed to help all those shitty students raise their grades?”
She stood up from her chair and slammed her palms on the table. She then leaned forward, intensifying her gaze.
“You’re not trying to reject this proposal because you think you’ll make a poor council member. Hell, you’re not even saying no because you don’t want to do it. You’re saying no because you’re afraid!”
He looked quizzically up at Rose leaning over the table. Afraid of what? After a brief moment of silence, she stood back up on the other side of the table. Her glasses slid back down to the tip of her nose and she switched back to how she was before.
“Uh… so... can I count on you to join us?”
What the hell is this girl’s problem?
He was thinking about what had just occurred in front of him. Rose had gone from a tentative school girl to a pissy boss at a corporation chewing out her subordinate and then back to the tentative school girl. How was he supposed to respond? He couldn’t say no, otherwise his mother would probably kill him. He didn’t want to say yes either. Not because he was afraid or anything like that. He just didn’t want the responsibility. It would also mess up his schedule he loved so much.
He grabbed his plate and began walking to the sink.
“Can I sleep on the decision?” The best option he could find was to push off the decision. He would give himself the weekend to figure out a plan.
“Oh of course,” she dipped her head, “Thank you so much for that wonderful meal and listening to my offer. I look forward to your decision.”
“Yea sure, whatever.”
“Oh, and make sure to thank Becca for me as well.”
“Yup.”
Are all girls crazy like this?
After she left, he made sure to clean up the kitchen to avoid his mother’s wrath. She still wasn’t back from work after he finished, so he prepared for bed.
***
Chad was in his bed, dozing on and off lightly. He usually had a little trouble falling asleep, but tonight was worse than usual. He had too many thoughts flowing through his neurons.
What should I do?
This kept on for a while, he drifted in and out of sleep. He then heard a car pull up into the driveway followed by the door opening. He could almost map out the steps of his mother coming home from work. Even with her chaotic schedule, she still liked her routines. It was one of few things that reaffirmed to him that he was actually her son.
Into the kitchen. Then open the dishwasher. Yep don’t worry mom, I washed the nice one you like. Yep, now grab the bottle from the top shelf and pour it in the glass. Yep, all the way to the top. Now be careful not to spill it on the way to the couch, it’ll stain the carpet. Now grab your laptop sitting on the coffee table, take a sip of wine and relax. You deserve it mom.
Although his mother could be a pain in the ass, he still loved her. He appreciated everything she did for him. She worked absolutely ludicrous hours to allow him to live a comfortable life.
Chad turned to his side. He lifted up the face of his phone sitting on the bedside table. The time “3:43 a.m.” shone brightly on his squinting eyes.
“Work ethic, huh.”
His mind was finally at ease now that his mom was settled in. He found himself quickly falling into a deep sleep.