Chapter
4:
Don’t Want You Back Cause You’re No
Good For Me
I pulled into
Alex’s driveway at 7:25 a.m. I was
running late. Usually, he was waiting
for me outside when I got to his house but today I guess it was a different
story. Alex was nowhere in sight. I leaned on the horn impatiently, knowing
that he and Denise were both out of bed and going strong by the time I got
there.
The door opened
and I sighed with relief—until I saw Denise making her way out of the
house. She greeted me cheerfully,
motioning for me to roll down a window.
I did, and she leaned in.
“Morning,
sweetie,” she grinned. I could see in
her eyes that she was stalling, and I wasn’t really in the mood to deal with
his tardiness on top of my own.
“Hi, Denise. Where’s Alex?” I asked, not beating around the bush.
“Oh, he’s getting
dressed. He performed his skit for me
this morning and he’s in the bathroom, trying to get the make-up off. What are you planning?”
Today’s prompt was
simple enough: portray a character from a movie. The real hitch came because in addition to
the main character in the scene, we also had to do the minor roles to the best
of our abilities. “Probably nothing like
what Alex has in store,” I ventured.
“Howie, I know
Alex can be eccentric but you need to take pride in your own abilities. I’ve known you since you were a little guy
and even then you acted like you were in his shadow sometimes. Alex is my son, but I have come to love you
as a son, too. I want to see you succeed
and be the kind of man God is calling you to be. Don’t let anyone keep you from achieving your
dreams.”
“I know,
Denise. Thank you.” Wow.
She really knew how to make my morning.
Suddenly, I felt like Alex could take until fourth hour to get ready if
he needed to (of course that would defeat the purpose of all the make-up.)
Right then, Alex
came rushing out the door, lugging a plastic bag that looked like it was
overflowing with “supplies” for whatever it was he was planning this time.
In a couple
minutes, we were driving down the road, and Alex pushed his hood off. I stared, open-mouthed at his hair. It was red and green.
He smiled happily
at me, insisting that his mom approved of this hair-color too. (It helped him feel more festive apparently.)
I helped him go over parts in another choir song, “Right Here Waiting” that
were giving him trouble.
Pretty much the
second I parked, Alex darted out of my car and into school. I knew him well enough to realize that he was
in the restroom, getting into character.
By the time Alex walked
into class, he was fifteen minutes late, and the whole class got distracted
when we saw him. I still can’t believe
it, but he was dressed like that little red-haired girl from that movie, Pippi
Longstocking! Seriously, he went all
out!
He had the wig
with the pigtails sticking straight out--even the dress and brown
freckles. (That must have been the
make-up he was getting off this morning.)
All of us broke up laughing when we saw him, even Brian who had begun to
dry-heave in his costume. (He was The
Man in Black/Wesley from The Princess Bride.)
Class was a little
delayed with everyone getting into costume.
Of course, Mike HAD to take that opportunity to go up to Alex and
comment on his choice for a flick.
“Well, well,
well! Mama’s boy finally comes out of
the closet, huh?” Mike asked.
Alex barely
blinked before responding, “Hey, Mike, looks like you finally found something
that belongs to your mama . . .You really shouldn’t borrow her best stuff
without askin’ man. She’ll come after
ya.” Brian and I were behind Alex
suppressing giggles. Mike was wearing a
sequined outfit that resembled a woman’s jumpsuit or something—though he made
it clear to us that he was gonna be John Travolta’s character in Saturday
Night Fever.
“You better watch
your back, asshole—“
“You shouldn’t
talk about yourself like that, man! You
got some self-esteem issues, dude?” Alex was grinning, red braids, freckles and
all.
Mike never got the chance to respond because
we were all told to take our seats so class could begin. I gasped as my name
was called first. I swear everybody in
the room was making jokes about me when I was going up.
I felt like a
doofo in my costume. To this day I don’t know why I suddenly decided that being
Willow, from the movie of the same name was a good idea. I mean, I’m naturally short, and the guy who
plays him is what they call a “short person.”
(Or is it a “little person?”) So
you can imagine all the crap I took from people when I got up there to present!
Alex did an
awesome job, as usual. He was Pippi all
the way! (“How am I supposed to draw a
REAL horse on a tiny piece of paper like that?”) It was the best.
And I guess I
didn’t realize how well Brian could pull off an English accent, but he did a
pretty surprising job. When he told
Indigo that he could “lower a rope or a tree brawnch or find something useful
to do,” right before the sword fight when The Man in Black’s climbing up the
mountain, I almost fell on the floor laughing!
But the entire
class came to a stand-still when Jennifer, this girl, went up to perform. She was doing a scene out of My Girl. But I guess the idea of being two people at
once was a little overwhelming for her, because she froze up after Vada says
her first line and then her little friend Thomas J talks. She couldn’t figure out how to pull it off,
and it was really sad watching her stand there because nobody was helping her,
they were all just laughing at her.
Alex got up
swiftly and stood across from her. (He
had just returned from another considerable amount of time in the restroom,
changing and washing up, so at least he didn’t hinder her performance
any.) He made eye contact with her and
then began reciting Thomas J’s lines.
He didn’t only say
the lines either; he said them convincingly, which was pretty impressive just
given the fact that he hadn’t seen that movie since it came out a couple years
ago.
Jennifer was much
calmer now that someone else was portraying the other character, and she blew
us away with the accuracy of her performance. She reached over to give Alex a quick hug of
thanks before returning to her seat and I heard him murmur, “No problem,
sweetheart. Just call me Alex J.”
Once class was
done, the two of us stood outside waiting for out Man in Black to come out
unmasked. Naturally, Alex got bored and
said he was gonna go ahead to choir and see if he, Kevin and Nick could go over
some sections of “O Holy Night” before class, being that the performance for
that was approaching sooner than we wanted to admit.
I was talking to
Jennifer to pass time. I told her what a
good job she did, and how she impressed everyone by staying in character, even
when she was stuck. She grinned shyly
and told me I had “done really good, too,” before continuing her way down the
hall.
Just my luck that
Mike should appear before Brian. I
braced myself for a confrontation as I saw the look of disgust on his
face. “Michael,” I acknowledged, when it
was pretty clear he wasn’t just gonna pass me by. He wasted no time in getting to the point.
“Hey, Dorough, you
better tell your friend the freak to watch his back tomorrow, man. No one walks all over me in that class! Especially some worthless, arrogant punk
kid!”
“Well, Michael,” I
said, breathing a sigh of relief upon seeing Brian, “I really have to get going
now.” I fell instep beside Brian and the
two of us made our way quickly down the hall.
“What was that all
about?” Brian wanted to know, looking behind him briefly.
“Nothing. He’s just lookin’ for a fight that’s
all. And Alex may have a mouth on him,
but he’d never swing a fist. I guess
Mikey’s gonna have to find somebody else to mess with.”
***
