1985, It's lunchtime and Jill and her friends, Roger and Timmy are out on the yard playing. Roger and Jill become almost inseparable since the first day of school. Roger was the shortest boy in Jill's class. He had shaggy brown hair, brown eyes and was light skinned. He was really skinny almost clumsy looking but Jill liked him from the first time she saw him. They were friends. Roger's friend Timmy hung out with them as well and often played with them on the yard. Timmy was a little taller than Jill, skinny like Roger, pale skin and had a ducktail haircut. His hair was a lighter brown than Rogers but not quite blonde. He also had a large amount of freckles on his face, Jill found them cute. Jill and Roger had been writing a play. They had been working on it for a couple of weeks and even practiced performing it out on the yard to make sure it sounded ok. This particular afternoon they were rehearsing a scene that required Jill to be asleep in bed and the only way she could wake up is if Roger kissed her. Jill laid on the bench and closed her eyes. She listened to Roger and Timmy reciting their lines.
"Wow!" Exclaimed Tim.
"What's so wowie?" Asked Roger, wiping the sleep from his eyes.
"I just read the new comic book about Captain Dread and it's just amazingly good!"
"Let me see that." Roger grabbed the comic from Timmy's hands.
"Wow that is good. Jill would enjoy this," he said turning Jill's way.
"She's still sleeping," Timmy observed.
"You'd think with all this noise she'd wake up."
"Hmmm. I wonder it she's ok."
"Jill!" Roger yelled her direction, ÒWake up." Roger walked over and shook her by the shoulder.
"That doesn't seem to be working." Timmy stood by waiting for a reaction.
"What else can I try?"
"We could push her."
"No that would hurt, besides, howÕs that going help if she didn't even move when I shook her?"
"Just trying to help."
"I know," said Roger pointing a finger up in the air, "If I kiss her maybe she'll wake up."
"It worked for prince charming." Timmy replied.
Roger leaned over Jill and kissed her softly on the lips. Jill opened her eyes acting tired.
"What are you two doing?" She asked in a groggy voice.
"You gotta check out this new comic that Timmy has," Roger said with enthusiasm, "it's really neat."
"Let me see," Jill got up and walked over to the comic Roger was holding, "Captain Dread, cool!"
"I canÕt wait for the next one," Timmy said handing the comic to Jill.
"Let's all go to the comic book store after school!" Roger said.
"Sounds like a plan," Jill answered.
RING!! RING!! The lunch bell sounded across the yard. They had to go line up and get back to class.
That afternoon Jill was riding home in the back of her mom's van. She was doing her homework in the car on the way to gymnastics practice.
"So," Valerie started, "I heard that you kissed Roger on the yard during lunch today."
Jill could feel her cheeks start to redden. How in the world did she find out? Jill's mom was a teacher at the school. It shouldn't have come as any surprise that she knew everything that was going on around the school. Even those things that Jill thought no one knew about.
"I did what today?" Jill said playing dumb.
"You heard me," Valerie replied, "Why did you kiss him?"
"I didn't," Jill knew she was beat, "he kissed me."
"Well you shouldn't be doing things like that." That comment ended the conversation. The two of them never spoke another word about the event after that time.
Years later Jill met back up with Roger and found out that his parents found out about their little kiss also. News travels fast in small communities. Jill's attraction for white boys never really changed through the years and for Roger, he only continued to date Asian girls. They each claimed the other as their first significant other.
January 1, 2007 was a bright and sunny Monday morning. She woke up late, 11am. Knowing she'd already missed the Rose Parade live on TV she opted to watch the rerun of it when it came back on.
"Babe, you awake?" A male voice called through the house into the bedroom.
"Yeah," she answered, "sort of."
"Come on," the male voice replied, "get dressed we're leaving soon."
"What?"
"Get dressed," he said with a bit more force, "Jesse, Nissa and Craig will be here soon."
"What?" she said confused, "where are we going?"
"Just get dressed," he said poking his head through the bedroom doorway, "I'll tell you later."
"Ok," she replied rolling out of bed. Jill was confused. Greg never left the house unless he had to. He definitely never planned anything in advance. Something was going on.
Jill caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror. God, I look like a hot mess. She grabbed a pair of dark blue jeans, her favorite white tank top and a black college full zip hoodie and threw them on in record time. She hunted for her brown flip-flops and grabbed a rubber band to throw her hair up in a ponytail. Looking in the mirror she thought she look ok, good enough to face the outside world. She walked into the bathroom to brush her teeth and put on a little makeup.
"You ready?" The male voice asked.
"Almost," she said between strokes.
"They'll be here in a few minutes. Hurry up."
"Ok."
Nissa is Jill's best friend, Jesse is her husband and Craig is their 5 year old son. Craig also happens to be Jill's Godson. Jill's brother Chris is Craig's Godfather. She's known Nissa since they were in high school although they didn't go to high school together. They met at a church camp one summer and had been inseparable since. Jill went to high school with Jesse. They werenÕt really close in high school but Jesse dated one of Jill's best friends from high school so they knew each other pretty well. Jill thought it was odd that Nissa hadn't mentioned getting together for the New Year. Normally Jill went to her family's get together but this year no one arranged anything until the evening, for dinner. She just wished that someone had mentioned plans before the day of. She hated being rushed.
"I'm ready!"
"Come on, let's go out front. They're just going to stop for us to get in, we're already late."
Jill walked out of the bathroom and was face to face with her boyfriend Greg. Greg is tall, 6'2", with a full head of light brown hair, hazel eyes, and light tan skin. He looks like your all American guy. He's dressed in light blue jeans, a button down white shirt and black Vans. He smiles big as she reaches out to hug him.
"So nice of you to join the rest of us slug." Jill punched him.
"If you'd told me we were going somewhere this morning I would have gotten up sooner."
"I didn't know until a little while ago either." Greg was always an early riser. Even on the days he didn't have to work he was up around 8am. "I thought I'd let you sleep in. You've been so busy lately."
"Thanks, I think." She kissed him on the cheek. HONK! HONK!
The two of them ran outside to the waiting car.
The four of them exchanged hellos.
"ArenÕt you going to say hi to Auntie Jill and Uncle Greg?" Nissa asked Craig.
"Hi Auntie Jill. Hi Uncle Greg."
"Hi," they answered in unison.
"Auntie Jill, you know I got to go to the movies yesterday." Craig said with a huge grin on his face.
"Really?" She answered sounding just as excited as he was, "what did you see?" Jill already knew the answer to this question but asked anyway.
"Cars!"
"How cool!"
Ever since Craig could start recognizing things and remembering what they are he's always been into cars. On the street he'd remember the makes and models of the cars on the road. He was fascinated by all of them.
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