At 16 years old, a teenager had a child and named her daughter Yellow. And now I am 16 years old, and sadly my name is Yellow.
“Yellow! Are you in there? You’re going to miss the bus!” shouted out my BFF Rachel.
“One sec, Rach!” I reply, rushing around the kitchen. I hate slept late, and now I looked like a monster. With frizzy hair.
Rachel came walking through my front door, and when she saw me, she snorted a laugh.
“That’s a new look for you, Yellow” she giggled.
“Shut up” I muttered as I looked around for some on-the-go breakfast. I grabbed a box that said “Raspberry Pop Tarts” and a box that said “Blueberry Pop Tarts.” I help up both boxes and thought.
“Definitely blueberry.” I grabbed a blueberry pop tart and walked to the toaster. I unwrapped the silver wrapper and put the pop tart in the toaster. When it was done I put it on a napkin and grabbed my bag. Then Rachel and I ran to the bus stop.
“Hey Ry” I said to my best guy friend.
“Hey, what’s up?” Ry replied.
“Uh, I forgot a jacket” I muttered. “Can I borrow yours?”
“Sure.” I took it in my hands and draped it over my shoulders. It was a couple sizes too big for me, but it still felt warm and comfortable.
“Um, Ry, I really need to talk to you, Rachel” Ry said.
“Ok.” Rachel leaned in to Ry and all I could hear was, “So when are you going to tell –” And then the rest of the sentence was cut off.
Suddenly, the bus came roaring up to us, and Ry stopped talking. We got on and I sat in the middle of Rachel and Ry.
Then Rachel whispered to me, “So do you like Ry?”
“No way!” I said, but I began to blush when Ry looked over at me. His eyes were kind of dreamy. I pushed the thought out of my head and leaned back. We were almost to school.
Chapter 2
Milkshakes
I was dozing off in class, just thinking about all the things that had happened this morning.
“Yellow. Yellow. Yellow!” shouted a voice.
“What?” I cried as I just up in my seat.
“What is the answer to this problem?” asked the teacher. I couldn’t see the board,
so I leaned over out of my chair. But then I slipped and was about to fall on my face when I felt strong hands on my back. I looked up. It was Ry. I jumped up as fast as possible and looked at the board.
“120, 503” I answered, and Ry smiled at me. I began to blush.
“Correct.” Ding! “Class dismissed.” I walked to my locker, and then looked at Ry. His locker was right next to mine, and Monica’s was right across the hall.
“Hey, want to go get some milkshakes?” Ry asked me. I began to blush like crazy, and snapped my head toward Rachel. She nodded, so I said yes, and we walked down the hall. (School was over, we weren’t skipping it or anything.)
We walked across the street, ordered at the milkshake place, and sat down.
“So what was Rachel talking about at the bus stop?” I asked as casually as I could. His cheeks turned red.
But before he could answer, he checked his watch.
“Whoa, it’s 4:00 already! I have to go!” and before I had anything to say about it, he went running out of the store, leaving me staring after him.
“Wait!” I called, but it was no use. He probably already pulled out. I decided I would look desperate if I had two milkshakes and only me, so I took one last sip and dumped mine in the trash.
But as I started to walk through the parking lot, I saw something that I never though I would see before. I saw Ry and Rachel leaning on Ry’s car, whispering stuff to one another. Rachel grinned and tossed her hair, something she always did when she liked a guy, and Ry was staring at her like she was the Italian sports car he had been wanting.
Rachel whispered something to him, and then Ry did the weirdest thing. He leaned in and hugged her. And now I know that they are kind of friends because of me, but I didn’t know they liked each other that much!
Then, as if everything couldn’t get any weirder, I felt tears coming down my face. I mean, was it because I liked Ry? Oh my god, Rachel and I liked the same guy! This was a disaster! Usually we don’t go for the same guys! And then I wiped my tears away and ran across the parking lot.
Because my car was right next to his, I had to go right next to them if I even wanted to get in. So I blinked my eyes a couple of times, and then I rushed over to my yellow car.
When Ry and Rachel saw my coming over, they pushed each other away and pretended to just see each other.
“Go figure!” Rachel cried out a bit too enthusiastically. “All three of us here, right now! I just got here! Well, see you guys later!” I began to cry even harder and rushed into my car.
“Wait, Yellow” Ry said, but I zoomed out. I couldn’t talk to him right now.
“Yellow!” my mom called. “Ry is on the phone, and he really needs to talk to you!” I sighed and dropped my magazine. I clicked the speaker button on the phone in my room.
“Mom, you can hang up now” I said, and when I her hang up, I glared at the phone. “What?” I snapped.
“Why did you rush out of the milkshake place so early?” Ry asked. He sounded worried.
“Me? You’re the one who freaked out when it was 4:00!” I replied. I wasn’t going to tell him that I knew about him and Rachel. I decided to keep that to myself for now.
“Listen, Yellow, I just had an appointment, ok?” he said. Oh, god. Ry had never lied to me before, but now he was lying to my face.
“Ry, listen. I have a lot of homework to do, and I really can’t talk now. I’ll see you at school tomorrow.” I hung up before Ry could say anything else, and then I called Rachel. Maybe I could get something out of her. I dialed her number and waited while it rang.
“Hello?” Rachel’s happy voice greeted me, and it almost made me forget why I was calling her.
“Rach? It’s Yellow. Can you come over? Maybe we can do homework or something.”
“Sure! I’ll drive over in 2 minutes.” I hung up with a sigh. If Ry wouldn’t give me any information, then Rachel definitely wouldn’t help me. But I could still try.
“Ding” went the doorbell. My mom answered it and I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Then my door opened.
“Hey, Yellow” Rachel said when she saw me.
“Hi” I replied, and began to pack up my magazines.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Well, I was actually hoping that we could maybe walk to Starbucks and have a girl talk there. So you can just leave your homework here, ok?” Rachel smiled and nodded. She helped me pack up more magazines, and then we went out the door.
At Starbucks, we settled down in the fuzzy chairs with a huge pile of magazines and two hot chocolates each. (I really wanted her to tell me what was going on.)
“So, Rach” I said, and she set down her magazine.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“Well…have you seen any cute guys out there lately?” I asked off the top of my head.
“Uh…well…not really” she replied. “How about you?” You have no idea, I thought.
“Well, I did see one guy…” I began.
“Omigod, is it that really hot guy from our English class?” Rachel cried, suddenly excited.
“Uh, yeah, sure” I replied, and Rachel squealed.
“I can totally get you two together!” she exclaimed.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Rach, let’s not get carried away” I said to her. I didn’t even know what guy she was talking about!
“Well you see, I have a friend who is, like, best friends with him, and I could totally hook you two up!” She grinned at me, and I forced up a smile. “Great, thanks” I said to her.
And as I sipped my hot chocolate, I knew that this was so totally not the girl talk I was looking for.
She was about to start talking more about the guy (I’m her best friend, I can just tell), when I interrupted her.
“But Rach, enough about me. Why don’t we talk about you! Do you like Ry?” I knew I was jumping into this subject really quickly, but she wasn’t opening up! And if she wouldn’t open up about Ry, I was going to pull it out her.
“What? Omigod, Yellow, I would never do that to you! Besides, it would be really weird…for all of us, you know.” I sighed. She was lying to my face.
“Well…I mean, you know you can tell me anything, right? So come on…who do you seriously like?”
Rachel smiled at me. “I think I like this guy from PE…” I squealed. Ry was in that class!!! “…So his name is George, and he’s really hot” she continued, and I sighed. Her telling me about Ry was a lost cause.
“Rach, please, I just really need to know who you actually like. I can tell that you’re hiding something” I said. Rachel looked stricken.
“What are you talking about?” she asked. “Why would I lie to you? You’re my best friend!”
“I know” I said with a sigh. “I just wish you would tell me what’s going on.”
“What’s going on with what?” she started to laugh hysterically “I love you Yellow, you’re so funny” she said in a babyish voice.
