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“Yellow Submarine, Baby’s in Black…Old Brown Shoe um, shit,shit, shit oh—Blackbird—no Behind These Hazel Eyes !,” Corinne shouts.
I had no idea half those were even Beatles songs. Nor that they had so many songs with colors in the title. Her entire team applauds her.
“Correct !,” the host says, giving them 15 points.
She does a high five with Sev while the next team goes and then the host turns back to them.
“In the Stanley Kubrick movie 2001 Space Odyssey where does the name HAL come from ?,”
They all turn to Sev and she seems to be blanking. Her darkly lined eyes are turned up and she’s searching her mind, twirling in the bar stool. She doesn’t know and it’s killing her.
“ They precede the letters IBM,” Phillip quickly answers for her
“Correct!,” the host says.
Sev jumps over a teammate next to her just to hug him.
“Okay, for the qualifier…Who are John Mora and Steve Tisch ?”
I watch The entire team freezes and exchanges looks. They silently gesture to each other when the host rings the time out buzzer.
I groan along with the rest of the audience and beside me Ethan puts his head into my shoulder frustrated. Matty is wooing on my other side.
“And I’m sorry,” the host announces. “That’s it for our last freshman team, Requiem For A Pistachio Green Prius is out. Thanks guys.”
Defeated they all leave the staged area and form a huddle around the bar table we're sitting at.
“Sorry, guys.” Sev says to her team.
Corinne hugs her and the rest of Requiem For A Pistachio Green Prius joins in.
“9th place isn’t bad,” Corinne says. “We’re the first freshman team to make top 10 in a decade.”
“Hell, yeah !,” Zain shouts, putting a fist in the air.
“New York Giants,” Ethan says. “ John Mora and Steve Tisch own the New York Giants. Come on.”
“Hey, you guys did better than us,” Matty said, putting his arm around Sev.
Matty and Morris’ team had forfeited in the 2nd round because half of them were all too drunk to keep going. It was actually a common occurrence with the older teams since the SEX competition was in a bar.
“Well, thanks guys. It’s been great, but I guess I better get to the airport.,” Sev says hugging everyone again.
The prize for being in the Top 10 is $250 worth of coupons to the bar. The only catch is they expire during winter break, so the team ends up paying our entire tab.
I navigate the wheel chair as we all walk outside where Ethan’s car is waiting, it’s packed with so many bags I think Sev will have over $200 worth of checked bags.
“You better e-mail me or I’m throwing out your mattress,” Corinne tells her.
“Everyday,” Sev promises.
They don’t do a sappy goodbye. Matty opens her door for her and she climbs into the front seat while he gets in the back.
I hope she can see how handsome he is.
Corinne runs after the car and sticks her head in the car window to tell Sev something last minute.
Layla and Zaine walk back to his apartment to start packing for home and I’m left standing with the team’s last minute alternate Phillip. He looks different, his dark hair is pushed back away from his face and he is wearing glasses.
I’d been regarding him during the entire competition. I had thought of him at camp as the inidifferent emo loner type, but he’d been enthusiastically identifying complex molecules and solving math problems like it was nothing for most of the competition.
“Remember how bratty those camp kids were at Three Rivers?,’ he says in the awkward silence.
“Yeah,” I laugh.
“Well, um, I gotta go,” he says. “Guess I’ll see you next week.”
I nodded. I was going to start training to volunteer at the library. I needed something to get me out of my house now that Mom was back for winter break.
He smiles at me and then walks over to Corinne, brushing his hand against her back, he says something and then walks towards his own car.
I kneel so I’m face to face with Abigail in her wheelchair.
“You okay ?,” I ask.
“Mmhm, yeah,” she nods.
She doesn’t need the chair, but it’s the only way the doctors would let her come out to the SEX competition. We also had to tell them it was a spelling bee at a church and not a trivia contest at a bar.
She’s wrapped in her pink coat along with every other winter accessory ever created; red scarf, sequined hat, whit gloves and cashmere blanket over her legs.
She’s quieter now that the entire world can see her. She remembers everything about the fall, even the hours before she was found and they said the silence is part of the shock.
Corinne jogs back up to us and it looks like she’s been crying a little.
“Okay, we have to get you back in an hour…now what
?,” she asks Abigial.
“I want to see the bridge,” Abigail says quietly.
We hesitate, but load her into Corinne’s car and drive to campus. It’s bitingly cold, but a few people are strolling on the bridge. They county decorates the bridge for Christmas and the polls are done up with garland, lights and red bows.
We bypass the spot and stop at one of the benches near the end of the bridge.
I wonder if any of these strollers intend to jump. I wonder if hundreds of people jump every year than maybe it’s not them.
Maybe it’s the bridge.
Abigail stands up on unsteady legs and holding on to me looks over the bay. She just stares.
“It’s so beautiful,” she says. “Can we take a picture ? Together.”
I let help her settle into the bench and Corinne and I get on either side of her. I take out my phone and holding it back take our picture.
I see scars.
The stain Corinne’s always had and the scars across Abigail’s skin where her entire face was smashed at the bottom of this bridge. My scars aren’t so visible. But I also see smiles. I see my friends.
“It’s looks like a Christmas card,” Abigail sighs taking the phone. “Ooh, I can’t wait to see you how my mom does the house for Christmas, Corinne.”
“Hey, she’s spending Christmas with me,” I tease Abigail.
“No way,” Abigail tells her. “You don’t want miss my grandmother’s gingerbread pie,Corinne.”
“Well, you don’t want to miss my dad’s atheist rants while my Uncle Sam puts up the Christmas tree either,” I tell her.
Corinne laughs and it feels familiar. Her messy hair, her purple converses her loud laugh and crass mouth.
“It doesn’t matter where I go,” she laughs. “Either way I’ll be home.”
The End
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A/N
Thank you all for sticking with this and cracking me up in the comments!
Thank you to Baby Em, Laura and EV for all the coffee making skills!
And mostly, thank you to Lile for inspiration to keep going. And also inspiration to write boy serenades girl scenes.
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