Short Story

Bland Life

A Short Story

He always had a far away look. It was disappointment, depression, and worry. It was hard to think or even have a good mood when someone like that is around you all the time. It really makes you think and make you feel blessed to have certain things others don't.

Mr. Cooler was a widowed man who has a daughter named Piper. Mr. Cooler lived in solitude. He went to the store alone. He drove to work alone. He did everything a person does alone. Piper was a girl who was not ugly, but not pretty. She wore plain colors and had plain medium white skin with medium blond hair. She was medium everything. Her father was a tall thin man with gray hair and a gray mustache. He wore big black glasses and a suit everyday. They were always in their small lonely world.

Mrs. Cooler died in a car wreck. She was 41 and Piper was 16 months old. Mrs. Cooler was the glue to their family. Supposedly they were one of the more popular families. They went to parties and out to eat with other families and had full schedules, but when she died the Cooler family's life went gray like Mr. Cooler's hair. Their lives were ruined. They spent their free time siting at home reading or drawing. They had no TV and never wished for one.

In case you are wondering, Mr. Cooler is my teacher. His classroom is as dull and gray as his life. He teaches math. He makes it easy to understand, but boring. He has a bland voice, bland face, bland attitude. Sometimes you see the old him come out and he smiles. He has the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen in my life. His face gets color and he has dimples and he looks like someone you would want to know.

“So next you want to-”

“-Mr. Cooler...I don't get it.” Bill Watson interrupts the lesson again. He's not that bright.

“Billie-”

“Bill”

“Bill, you know this. I know you do. Let me-”

“How do you know, you're not in my head.”

“Maybe if you didn't interrupt me every second-”

“No I don-”

“You might learn something!”

Bill was silent after that. Lately, Mr. Cooler has been harsh. Something is happening in his life. Everyone wonders about him and why he is so sad and now suddenly harsh.

“Hmm. Hmm. Let me continue.” Mr. Cooler wiggles his mustache when he clears his throat, “So next, like I was saying, you move the-” The bell rings for lunch and Mr. Cooler's face drops more then it was before.

At lunch, I sat with a big group of kids. We always laughed and gossiped and cried and everything else, but this week was silent. Everyone knew something was up. Mr. Cooler probably thought he was hiding his emotion of whatever was going on in his head.

“So,”

I finally break the ice,

“who else thinks something is going on with Mr. Cooler?”

Rebeka Thompson was sitting across from me. She leaned over the table and got close to my face. “Piper's having issues. I don't know what kind.”

“Wait. Issues?”

Rebeka nods very obviously making her ponytail go all over the place.

“Does anyone know anything else?”

I asked looking worried.

“Oh, Lanie, you always are trying to get in everyone else's business. If Mr. Cooler is just going through some sort of mid-life mental breakdown, so be it! It's not our problem.” Rebeka is a snob. She never cared about anyone. If it was not her business she would either ignore it or make things worse by gossiping so I never believe anything she says, but that's not the case for the other girls. They believe it and even if the person the gossip is about disagrees, it's still true.

“I know it's not, but I just hate to see the man so sad and now angry.”

“Oh! Intense. Poor little Lanie. She cares so much about the old man. He'll never be happy...Embrace it. Because it's true.”

All the other girls nod and look at me like I am stupid.

“Sorry. I'm just curious...” I was uber embarrassed.

“Whatever...”

That afternoon I was doing homework and then suddenly I got a wild hair. I sat down at our family computer and looked up the death of Mr. Cooler's wife. “Meredith Cooler dies at age 41. She was a loving mother and wife. On Saturday 7/12/1997. She died of an unknown poisonous substance. She died at the wheel and hit an oncoming car killing Mikaela Higgins who died at age 29.”

I had been lied to. People say she died from the car wreck. Maybe they did not want to get into details, but that makes a huge difference.

Night came and I could not sleep. I toss and turn. Why was this bugging me so much? I must find out what's going on.....Something is fishy.....

“Good morning class.” Mr. Cooler announced, “You are going to have extra homework tonight. I feel like the class needs extra practice before the test tomorrow.” The whole class groaned with disappointment and Mr. Cooler gave us the stink eye. As I was leaving the room for lunch, with the sea of kids, I looked at his desk trying to find if he has anything weird on his desk. I didn't find anything; just a bunch of papers and a pencil cup. “Lanie?” Mr. Cooler said with slight emotion, “Are you OK?” I started to blink really fast like I was just out of it and staring off into the distance, not snooping right in front of him (stupid me). “Um,” I began, “I'm just tired and glazed over.” I smiled and laughed about it, but he did not buy it. He only looked stern and angry. I looked down and ran off.

“You really did that...In front of him!?!”

One of Rebeka's pretty friends, Juliana said at the lunch table,

“That's so crazy what if he like got mad--er...and did something.”

“I know it's crazy, but what would he do?”

I asked worried.

“I don't know...he's crazy what do you think?”

I nodded and looked off. Over standing in the door way of the lunch room was Mr. Cooler looking right at me. I was so scared. I tried to tell the other girl with my eyes, but Rebeka was all like

“What the heck is wrong with you!?! Doing your eyes like that...Sooooo embarrassing.”

That was the last straw!

“NO! Rebeka, look!”

I stood up and pointed over to the door. Mr. Cooler was gone. Of course.

“What's wrong with you? If this weird hang up on Mr. Cooler and whatever you were looking at continues, you'll be sitting somewhere else.”

She lifted one eyebrow to make her statement sting even worse fallowed by a flip of her (fake) bleach blond hair. She was the thing at the school. If she even looked at you, you would be considered blessed. No one payed that much attention to me because I thought not just followed her every move and word. I fought with her and had my own mind. She was wearing a black sweater with skinny jeans. She had on fuzzy boots which her jeans were tucked into and even though we were inside she wore big black, super model sunglasses. They consumed her face. Her hair was up in a tight ponytail. Everyday she had a theme color. Like yesterday was yellow. That was an interesting choice of colors. She never wears anything twice. That's why I felt threatened by her remark.

“I understand, but he was-”

“-I don't care. And next time try putting less dressing on your salad.” She smiled, but it was really evil still. I looked down at my salad and there was pretty much nothing on it.

After school, a girl stood right in front of me before I got onto the bus,

“Um...” I started out, “I need to get by.”

“Sure you do”, the short homely girl said, “but I know what your up to and don't do it any more! That's too dangerous. Rumor is that he drugged his wife and made her got get milk at the store so she would die on the road. He was never found guilty, but he still did it.”

I was worried then. Maybe I was getting in a dangerous situation. Should I just forget about it. Should I just turn around and talk to him....What do I do?

“What do you mean? Are you suggesting I just forget about this whole thing?”

The girl tucked her long black hair behind her ear and exhaled leaving her breath visible on the cold cloudy day. She looked around to make sure people weren't looking,

“More then that. Just pretend you don't know anything. Go straight home and don't talk to anyone!” “OK.” She looked fiercely at me and pointed her mitten covered finger to me, “You didn't hear this from me.” She turned and walked towards the neighborhood across the street from the school and her walk turned into a run.

I walked onto the bus and it felt like everyone was staring at me like I was some freak. My emotions showed on my face as I walked towards a seat away from people, but the bus filled with kids and I got claustrophobic. I was wrapped up in big coats and a scarf and I tugged at them and shifted around uncomfortably. The bus ride felt like 5 hours.

When we got to my stop I ran off the bus towards my house. I flung the front door open and ran towards my bedroom. I shut the door. With my back to the door I slid down and sat. I reached into my backpack and started on homework. As I reached in my back pack I found a note.

Stop What You're Doing

My heart started to pound with fear. I locked my door and my window, shutting the blinds and the curtains. I ran to my bed and looked underneath and looked in my closest. I was safe in my room, but felt like someone was watching me. I looked through my blinds and saw Piper, Mr. Cooler's daughter, walking by my house very slow and calmly. She suddenly stopped and looked right into my eyes. Then she continued walking. I felt like screaming, but I held my mouth shut. Breathing quickly. I hurried towards my door. I unlocked it and ran to my front door making sure it was locked. Then I looked through the peep hole seeing Piper's face. I was silent. She reached for the door trying to open it. It was locked so she gave up. She walked off and away from my house. When she had left my vision I turned around. My mother came out of the kitchen,

“Oh Lanie you're back I guess you snuck in the house.”

“Hi mom.”

“Are you...OK?”

“Yeah. Of course!”

I smiled and walked towards my bedroom “Lots of homework!” I smiled to my mom and she smiled back. As I walked in my bedroom I locked the door and checked the windows again.

In the morning I woke up almost forgetting about the whole Piper thing yesterday. Fear consumed me on the short walk to my bus stop. The wind was strong today and I was in a dress with tights and a long sleeved shirt underneath it. I had a big coat over everything, but I was still chilled.

As I look around there were no kids anywhere. The street seemed empty and cold. It sent shivers up my spine as I felt a very strong wind rush by. I spun around to find Piper standing in the street next to me. I looked down to not believe she was standing there.

“Lanie? Hi...I switched buses because I moved. That's why I was near your house yesterday. I tried to say 'hi', but your door was locked.” Who would just barge in like that and just say “Hi”? But I did the polite rout because I was too freaked out to put up a fight and like Juliana said, you never know with crazy people.

“Oh, well welcome to the neighborhood. Why'd you move so far away from the school?”

“Thank you and we moved to be closer to...other....things.”

“Oh. So I guess I'll be seeing a lot of you then?”

“I suppose so.”

She was standing normally and talking normally. I guess she just didn't know not to walk into people's houses. What if it's just a big misunderstanding?

The bus came around the corner and pulled up next to us. I sat next to her and we talked a little bit about school and how her dad became a teacher. I felt comfortable with her instead of screaming and running away like I wanted to before we got on the bus. She has a pretty smile like her dad and she laughed really sweetly, but people were still scared of her. When child after child loaded on the bus they stared at her in disbelief and sat as far away as they could. She ignored it because I guess she is used to it.

At lunch I decided to sit with Piper. As I sat for a while Rebeka walked up to the table. Her color today was lime green. She wore a green: Sun hat, sunglasses, sweater, tank top, jeans, flip flops (even though it's winter).

“Why are you sitting with this hopeless little...thing? Just leave before anyone sees you!!”

“She's not weird, she's nice. I'm not going to sit with you unless she sits with us too.”

“Nice doesn't matter silly. And no. Sit with us alone or not....At all!”

I shrugged and shook my head no. She looked completely appalled, “Fine then...Don't.”

Later that day Rebeka came up to me in the hall. “Look Lanie. My other friends are boring and you are interesting and fight with me and make me look awesome! OK so dump that loser Piper and come sit at owr table!”

“You know her name?”

“Well.....Everyone knows her name...I mean she's Piper...The freak.”

“You never remember people's names! Not even your own friends.”

She looked down and looked guilty.

“Listen don't tell anyone! Piper and I have a history. When we were little we played together a lot and I thought she was all awesome and everything, but her dad.........”

“What did he do?”

“Nothing to me....But.....Listen, he's not a good man and I don't want you to get hurt. Stay away from Piper please.....”

“Tell me what he did first.”

She ran off to her locker and got her other books for class. Her eyes were full of tiers and she ran off. I knew she was serious when she took off her sunglasses when she talked to me.

I know there is more to this. Plenty. I must figure this out for Rebeka, Piper, and Mrs. Cooler.