All I Want For Christmas Is You

Nine years later and I was better than ever … I’m being extremely sarcastic.

My name is Catherine Taylor. Cat for short. I was a senior in high school, and football season came to a close as our team failed at making playoffs… A normal thing for our school since we had a sucky athletic program. I wasn’t involved in much, I wasn’t in the geeky marching band, or the attention whore cheer squad, or the slutty drill team. The only thing I was involved in was journalism, and I had a passion for writing. The only people in journalism were me and my friend Karla. She was my only true friend since we had the same type of reputation, and we liked to write. It was nice… being with someone that didn’t judge me. She was also the only person I had shared my life story with. I felt comfortable around her. We both were just faces in the crowd at school. I preferred to be a nobody, and I was perfectly fine with that.
On Monday, December 2, 2013, I was walking the hall with Karla to our AP Calculus class. We were chatting about everything like we usually did, from the homework we forgot to do, to the science behind why the earth rotates. We were pretty talkative to each other… but when it came to public speaking, it was a nightmare. Anyway, we stepped into the room together and sat in the very back of the room. I felt eyes piercing through my skull as I walked in front of the preps. We didn’t get along… We were like two positively charged magnets trying to stick together… Meaning, we would never ever get along together.
Karla sat on the left side of me as I opened my binder to pull out the sheet of trigonometry problems we were assigned last night. I flipped through the papers, and couldn’t find it… I was about to have a heart attack because I always have had straight A’s. “Karla… Do you have my paper?” I asked her, knowing she probably wouldn’t since we didn’t have a homework sleepover. She shook her head like I had planned. “Great,” I whispered to myself as I pulled out my biology binder to check in there. “Class, please pass up your papers you were told to finish last night… You know, the trig problems. One through twenty-five!” the teacher said loudly. I rolled my eyes as I threw my biology binder back in the backpack, and slammed my skull into the wooden desk. I heard my pencil roll off of it onto the tile floor, and a snicker followed it as I lifted my head to see our “star quarterback” (obviously he wasn’t that much of a star) pick it up and break it in half and set it back onto my desk. I leaned back into my chair as I stared at him in disbelief. I had never been one to be dramatic, but seriously… C’mon.
“What did that help you gain?” I smartly asked him, as he turned back around to the front. As soon as I spoke his head swerved in my direction and he gave me an evil glare. “It made me realize how much better I am than you,” he said, high fiving one of his stupid fake friends. I knew they all talked behind each other’s backs… You could tell.
“You really had to do something mean to someone else just to make your manliness come out? You realize that is pretty pathetic right?” I asked, not believing I was saying this to someone who treated me like dirt. The quarterback shrugged and turned back around in his seat. He probably didn’t understand me, serves him right.
The teacher came back around, picking up the papers from the front of the row, and I pretended everything was fine.

After we learned another lesson over the basic shapes and calculations, I picked all of my paraphernalia up and placed it in their designated spots in my bag. Karla always laughed at how organized I was… But I couldn’t help it!

We went out of class when the bell shrieked and we walked to our journalism class… Our favorite class.
Mrs. Canterbury, our teacher, met us at the door with a huge smile. “Hello girls,” she said, shaking both of our hands before entering the room. We sat in the front seats and we pulled out our laptops, composition books, and ink pens…. Because I didn’t have another pencil.
“Hmm…. Mrs. Canterbury! What is our topic this week?” Karla asked, pushing her thick, black rimmed hipster glasses closer to her eyes. Mrs. Canterbury paused and glanced over at the white board in the back of the room, examining previous topics. Her face then suddenly lit up. “I’ve got it girls!” she began, “This is Christmas season…. Most people are buying up CDs and concert tickets for bands. Let’s write a narrative about … Pop culture! And the popular bands!”
When she said that, I felt my heart drop. I didn’t give a crap about what’s “in” or “popular”. In fact, I wore vintage clothes from Goodwill, and I listened to the bands no one else listened to, like Muse, Bombay Bicycle Club, Augustana, The 1975… You know… the usual.
But when I glanced over at Karla’s reaction, she was smiling super big and beginning to type on her laptop. I tilted my head in confusion and she giggled at my expression. “Cat… Come on,” Karla said to me. “You know I love pop culture!” she said, almost bouncing out of her seat. I grinned and nodded, “Ohh, I know,” I said in sarcasm as I rolled my eyes. She took no notice to my sarcasm and kept typing her excitement.
I sat there, unmoving for about five minutes before Mrs. Canterbury questioned me. “Are you alright Catherine? You usually are into your writing by now,” I nodded and opened the lid of my laptop to appear as if I was writing. I glanced over at Karla’s screen and saw a picture of some boy band as her wallpaper. I tried to grab her computer, but she slammed her arm into mine, and turned her screen so I couldn’t see it. Of course she would.
“Seriously!” I said, interjecting in the silence of the classroom. “STOP!” Karla said, getting up and taking her laptop with her. She went to the back of the classroom and sat in the corner on the carpeted ground. “Karla! I just wanted to see your background!” I said, sitting next to her. She turned her screen again. “Kar,” I said, getting frustrated. She giggled and looked up at me. “Do you really want to see?” she asked, tugging her sleeves down on her shirt. I nodded rolling my eyes at her. “Okay, but I know you will make fun of me,” she said, finally turning her screen towards my face. I glanced over at the screen and saw five boys staring back at me. Two with brown hair, one with blonde, a dark skinned one, and a curly haired one. “Who are they?” I asked, honestly not knowing who they were. Karla stared blankly at me, for some reason she seemed shocked. “What?!” I asked, wondering why she was reacting like this. She still stared blankly at me, before she whispered. “You don’t know who One Direction are?” I shook my head, still confused as to why I suppose to know. “They are like the MOST popular boy band in the WORLD!” she said louder to me. “That’s why. Karla, you know I don’t like mainstream. All you do is get let down from it,” “But Cat, you can’t say that until you know them!” “And you actually know them personally?” I asked, knowing she had never actually met them in person. She shrugged and continued to search something on the Internet.
I looked at the clock and realized it had only been five minutes. I sighed and looked at Karla’s screen again. She was on Twitter. She was ALWAYS on Twitter. I don’t understand her hobbies.
“See look,” she said, pointing at her screen, indicating some boy with blonde hair. I gazed at her, waiting for the rest of her story. “And?” I said, after she didn’t say anything and kept staring at the picture of the boy. “This could be our topic,” she said, not looking up or changing the screen. I gave a puzzled glare and then stood back up, grabbing the desk to help me. “I’m serious Cat! We are doing a pop culture thing, and this would be perfect! Everyone loves One Direction so everyone would know what we were writing. And maybe people will like us more!” “KAR! I don’t even know who One Direction are!” I interjected, looking at Mrs. Canterbury, waiting for her to back me up on this like she normally did. She looked up at me with a grin and nodded. “I think that would be a great topic! Good work Karla,” Mrs. Canterbury said, looking back down at her papers she was grading. I sighed and flopped myself down in one of the cold desks near Karla. “Fine… We will do your little Direction project,”
“YAY!” Karla said, squirming in her spot like a little kid. I giggled and checked my emails as I pulled my laptop back out. I had a new email from the University of London in London, England in the United Kingdom. I had applied there a month ago for fun, knowing I wouldn’t get in.
I clicked the email, and read the details. My eyes enlarged at the print. A smile came across my face and I screamed, startling both Karla and Mrs. Canterbury. “What is it Catherine?” Mrs. Canterbury asked, getting herself back together. I smiled and turned to her, “I GOT ACCEPTED INTO THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON!” “Great job sweetie!” Mrs. Canterbury replied to me. “Oh my gosh! You really wanted to get in! AWESOME!” Karla said, jumping up and hugging me. I hugged her back.
I then quickly jumped back onto my laptop. I wanted to read the fine print in the message they sent me, so I could figure out the details. It said that there would be an orientation soon in London, and it would be an all expense paid trip there. My smile appeared back on my face and I couldn’t stop thinking about how amazing it was that I got accepted! I would have NEVER thought that!

Notes