This is a short story I started a while back. Just thought I'd finish it off. It's about seven short chapters. Here is the first one, and I'll post the others over the next few days as I proofread them. Hope you enjoy and Happy November!
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Part 1
“Come on Jamie!” Susan Padgett chided her 13-year-old son, “and stop your pouting!”
Grumpily, Jamie Padgett got out of the car and followed his mother toward Mrs. Green’s large house. He wasn’t happy to be here, and he wasn’t happy to be wearing these clothes either.
He was nattily dressed in a starchy short sleeve dress shirt and a baby blue bowtie with little white paisleys on it. He wore a dressy pair of scratchy light blue slacks and a narrow black leather belt. He was wearing his black tasseled penny loafers with baby blue dress socks that had white paisleys to match his tie. His mother had combed his medium length brown hair neatly and sprayed it down to hold it in place. He felt like a total dork, and he was grumpy because his mother was dragging him along again to her boring book club meeting like a little boy. For crying out loud, he was a teenager now!
She had made him come with her to the last meeting two weeks ago as well right before his 13th birthday because she couldn’t find someone to stay with him. Although he complained that he was old enough to stay by himself a few hours at home, Susan was reluctant to loosen the apron strings on her new teenager. At least the last time, he had been able to wear more casual clothes and play with his friend Bobby who was Mrs. Green’s 13-year-old son. Bobby and Jamie were in the same grade at school.
Bobby was more of an instigator, while Jamie was a follower, and the boys had gotten so boisterous that they had disrupted the last meeting with their loud and rowdy antics. First, they had annoyed Bobby’s 18-year-old sister Daphne while she was trying to study for the SAT. That had resulted in some yelling and commotion, and Mrs. Green had to leave the book club to go upstairs and kick the boys outside so Daphne could concentrate. Then, Bobby had caught a frog in the garden and let it loose in the great room while the ladies were discussing their book, tracking a fair amount of mud on the carpet in the process. Although Jamie hadn’t really done anything but watch, he had laughed along while the ladies scrambled out of their chairs. Diane Green had not been happy with her mischievous son, and Susan Padgett had chided her own son for letting himself be influenced in such a misbehaving way.
“If Bobby Green jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?!” she had asked rhetorically.
Today, she had decided that Jamie would sit beside her in the book club instead of being left to find trouble on his own, and she had made sure he was dressed appropriately. “We always dress nicely for our book club meetings,” she had told him earlier as she fixed his bowtie. “There,” she had said with a pleased look, “you look like a perfect little gentleman.”
“And don’t worry, your little partner-in-crime Bobby will be there too!” she had added with some amusement.
They reached the front door and rang the bell. Soon Mrs. Green opened the door and welcomed them in. “So good to see you again, and Jamie, don’t you look nice today!” she said pleasantly.
Turning to Susan, she remarked with a curious smile, “I feel sure the boys will stay out of mischief this time!” Continuing, she added, “I know my Bobby very well, and unfortunately he can be quite the troublemaker sometimes. I’m sorry he has been leading young Jamie here into misbehavior!” Then with a slight giggle, “but I think you’ll see I’ve found an effective way to adjust his attitude!”
This mysterious comment made Jamie somewhat confused and a little wary, especially when he saw his mother respond with a knowing smile.
“Thank you, Diane! I’m sure you have things well in hand by now, and I think today will provide a good incentive for Jamie to stay on the straight and narrow too!” his mother said.
“Come along then,” Mrs. Green said pleasantly, “I think you’re the last to arrive so we can get started.” Nervous now, Jamie followed Mrs. Green and his mother into the great room where there were already almost twenty ladies sitting around several small white tables. As he and his mother took the last chairs around one of the tables, Jamie realized that he was the only boy there, and he felt like all the ladies were watching him as they sat down. Bobby was nowhere to be seen.
Jamie shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
Topic: Jamie and the Book Club (Read 279 times)
