Chapter Six

Another dreadful morning for Ariel as she woke up once again to go to school out of all places. Ariel sat up and stretched before getting up to take a shower. During her shower, she couldn't help, but think about Ernest. He seemed to constantly hurt himself and that worried Ariel. She hoped he made it home safe last night.

When Ariel got home last night, she checked the lamp to see if it worked and it did. She fixed it up and made it nice and sat it in her backpack for the clumsy boy she met at Deadmans Bridge.

But overall, he's nothing how her mother described him to be. She always told her to stay away from white men because of how dangerous they are, especially to people like Ariel. Ernest wasn't like that all, in fact, he's more of a danger to himself than anyone else, really.

After Ariel finished her shower, she went into her room and put on her clothing for today, a yellow dress and yellow bow with her little black shoes. Once Ariel finished lotioning down and putting on her clothes, her biggest challenge had come, her hair.

"Oh.. it's all frizzy now." Ariel felt intense regret not wearing her bonnet last night. She should have known better. "Oh.. Well, there's nothing I can do about it now. I may as well go on about my day." Ariel said before grabbing her backpack and going downstairs.

"Ariel, good morning. Did you sleep well?"  Ivory said.

"Good Morning to you too and I did. How about you?" Ariel said as she sat down.

"I slept good too. Breakfast is almost done." Ariel let out a sigh; she loved her momma's cooking. Her grits and biscuits tasted like the heaven her grandma always talked about. The smell of eggs hit Ariel's nose, making her gag. "Don't worry, the eggs are for me." Ivory gave Ariel a plate of biscuits, grits and potatoes.

"Thank you momma." Ariel said. She held her hands together and closed her eyes. "Dear lord, thank you for the hot and edible food you have given me this morning. Amen." Ariel said, but received a glare from her mother.

"Ariel, you need to pray better than that." Ariel bit her lip.

"Sorry momma, I guess I'm not too good at saying prayers." Ivory shook her head and sat at the table and said a prayer that lasted at least one minute.

"See? That's how you pray, child." They both laughed.

"Where's papa?" Ariel askes before taking a bite of her grits.

"He's asleep. He worked the graveyard shift again." That made Ariel frown.

Her father works as a security guard. He usually works throughout the day and comes home at seven, but lately he's been working really late and coming home not even talking to her or her mother. By the time he wakes up, Ariel is already at school and her mother is at work.

"I miss dad. We never hang out like we used to." Ariel said.

"I know baby, but your father is doing this to take care of us. Let's cut him so slack for now, alright? He's trying." Ariel nodded, but let out a sigh in disappointment. One of her favorite things for her day was to come home and tell both of her parents how her day went  and what she learned today. As much as loves her mom, she missed her father's corny jokes that only made her and her mother laugh.

After Ariel finished eating, she helped with the dishes and Ivory drove Ariel to school. Ariel said goodbye to her mother and got out of the car only to be greeted by the nicest, but also most aggressive girl at school.

Her name is Polly. She's a white girl with blonde hair and hazel eyes. She was incredibly nice, but talk about her friends or her weight and you may as well say your prayers. Polly loved her body and how her hips were meant to sway like an ocean and not a river. She didn't mind her triple D's either. She embraced every part of her body without the care of all the eyes watching her.

Polly and Ariel met in freshman year and they liked each other's attitudes about things.

"Good Morning Ariel, oh. ugh." Polly huffed.

"What's wrong, Polly?" Ariel asked.

"You promised me you'd wear something other than a dress. How many dresses do you have?" Ariel blushed.

"A lot.." She admitted, making Polly shake her head.

"That's it. We're going shopping soon, maybe after school.." Polly said while moving her freshly manicured hands around. She always did that when she talked, or ranted.

"Oh Polly, I can't. I'm meeting my new friend after school." Polly eyes widened.

"New friend? Who? Ugh, Ariel, you never tell me anything." Polly said.

"I was planning on telling you today, silly. His name is Ernest." Ariel said.

"Ernest, huh? How'd you two meet?" Polly asked. Ariel explained the entire story and Polly got excited as the story progressed.

"That's so groovy! Ariel, you're his princess charming!" Polly exclaimed.

"Oh, stop it, Polly. He's just my friend. I'm supposed to be meeting his other friend today." Ariel said. "Hey, I have a good idea, why don't you come too? It'd be fun."

"Hmm, alright, but you have to promise to let me take you shopping soon."

"Oh, fine, but nothing too bonkers, Polly." Ariel warned.

"You have my word." She said with a smirk.

Polly was known for wearing the most interesting and out of the box clothing and that scared Ariel a little. She had no idea what was in store for her, but she had no choice now, she had already agreed.

"I'm so excited! Come on, let's head to class!" Polly grabbed Ariel's hand and ran into the school.

First period was AP Literature. The teacher had given them a pop quiz, making the entire class groan. Ms. Floyd liked to test students and if you failed, Ms. Floyd was not the type to keep it a secret.

"Billy, F. Tina, F. Linda, F." The list went on. "Polly and Ariel, A." Polly and Ariel gave each other high fives.

"Told you we should have sat next to them.." A kid mumbled.

"Good job ladies. Maybe some people in here should be studying like those two." She said and continued class.

Second period was AP History. They were on the topic of slavery.

"Dale, which amendment ended slavery?" Mr. Hein asked.

"What? I don't know. Ask Ariel, she's the only black girl here. She should know." Ariel rolled her eyes.

"The 13th amendment abolished slavery, the 14th amendment granted citizenship to everyone born here and the 15th amendment granted black men the right to vote. Women couldn't vote until the 19th amendment. You don't need to be black to know your history, dummy." Polly explained.

"Whatever Ms. Piggy-" Polly threw her history book at his nose. Ariel gasped and others laughed. Ariel is usually the one to control Polly, but Polly was closer to his history book and there was no way Ariel could have stopped her on time. "What the hell!" Dale yelled while holding his bleeding nose.

"Polly, office now! That's definitely a pink slip for you, young lady!" Polly scoffed and got up to leave.

"See you in the third period, Polly." Ariel stated as she went back to write her notes. The principal is Polly’s father, and since she’s a daddy’s little girl, Polly rarely got into any actual trouble, so Ariel never worried about her getting suspended, or expelled.

"You know it!" Polly exclaimed as she skipped out of the classroom.

In third period, algebra 2 was one of the few things Polly wasn't too good at.

"I got 3,698. What did you get?" Polly asked.

"Polly.. the answer is 6." Polly's jaw dropped.

"What? How?" Ariel explained to Polly how she got her answer and Polly nodded.

"Oh.. I multiplied here when I should have divided.. Jeez, math is hard."

"Polly, even if you didn't multiply, how'd you get over 3000 as your answer?" Polly blushed and mumbled some profanities under her breath as she fixed her answer. "Jeez, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Ariel asked.

"I sure do and she loves it." Polly said, making them both laugh.

It was time for fourth period, AP biology.

"Okay everyone, take your time dissecting this frog. We don't want anyone cutting their fingers off." Ms. Joan said. "Ariel, you came to school today." Ms. Joan said.

Ms. Joan hated Ariel ever since Ariel corrected a mistake she made, but could never get Ariel in trouble no matter how hard she tried.

"I hope you have a valid excuse." 

"I do ma'am. I got a 98% on my exam." Everyone stared at Ariel in awe, even Polly.

"No fair, Ariel. I only got a 95%!" Polly exclaimed.

"I know it's difficult for people like you to believe, but I work very hard to receive the score I've gotten. Now if you'd please, Polly and I would like to get started on cutting open the thorax of our frog." Ariel said without any other words exchanged.  Ariel and Polly cut open the frog and then its stomach.

"Ew, is that a beetle?!" Polly screeched, but Ariel looked fascinated.

"Amazing, that must have been the last thing it ate."

"How are you amazed by this?" Polly asked, feeling nauseous. "Oh God, that's gross.." Polly left the classroom, making Ariel giggle.

Lunch time, Ariel and Polly sat down as they had already brought lunch from home.

"Please tell me you brought your moms brownies." Ariel nodded.

"Did you bring your mom's mashed potatoes?" Polly nodded and they traded off. Polly groaned as she took a bite of the brownie.

"Ugh, I need your mom." Polly said.

"Nooo, I love my mom's brownies. How about I have both my mom and your mom?" Ariel asked, making Polly glare at her.

"Ariel, I would die if I couldn't taste my mom's mashed potatoes anymore." Polly said. "Looks like we're just going to have to stick with tradeoffs." She said and Ariel smiled.

"And I'm fine with that." Ariel said.

"I'm sorry, Ariel, but I can't stop thinking about this Ernest guy. What's he like?" Ariel brought up how sweet he is and how he's ridiculously clumsy; she explained how Ernest cut his finger in his lab class and how he bit the inside of his mouth really hard and made it bleed. "He went through all of that and still came to see you? Your love is beautiful."

"Polly, it's not like that. He really is just my friend." Ariel explained.

"Let me ask you this then. Do you think he's cute?" Ariel froze in place with mashed potatoes on her spoon. She stayed quiet and thought about Ernest. His eyes reminded her of golden spec peridots, they were alway shining so brightly when the sun hit them. His eyes remind her of stars, not big ones, but the underappreciated ones.

Ernest had black hair which Ariel found more appealing than blonde. He would push his hair back when it got in his face and considering that he's already clumsy and he needs to pay attention as much as possible.

But those were just the physical aspects. Ernest was so kind and silly. He was definitely a boy of his word and has never done anything to hurt her. And when they held hands yesterday, she felt a little shy. She never held hands with a boy before, but she was so excited about the junkyard that it didn't concern her at the time. It wasn't until he grabbed her hand when she realized holding hands with a boy is different from a girl.

Ernest was different.