Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Part Two!

Well, as you can see it is not tomorrow... I blame it on my parents. I was supposed to write the next part of the story on the drive back from Spokane but instead I drove the whole six hours and then Monday I was running around doing things for them ‘cause that’s just the kind of wonderful daughter I am.


(Ok… so it took a few days to write it too…enjoy the reading! And it may be a mile long but don’t give up. I promise it’s awesome. I wrote it so it has to be, right?


Now, to pick up where we left off…


Kayla went to a movie with the boys and after that she spent almost every Sunday evening at their apartment playing games. They were all so much fun it was ridiculous. Every night Kayla would leave thinking “Too bad Kevin has a girlfriend. He’s tall and cute and best of all, he is REALLY funny!” (His sense of humor was incredibly similar to her own, so how could he not be funny?) Of course she didn’t really know that he had a girlfriend, but remember, she was a creeper and she had learned all sorts of things about him without his knowing it and one of those things was that he had a girlfriend.


Kayla couldn’t quite figure out what was going on with this apartment of boys. Tyler had asked for her number and was always the one to invite her to do things. That was until another one of their roommates, Tanner, texted her out of the blue and started texting her to do things, but most importantly she still couldn’t figure out if Kevin really had a girlfriend. (Her friends pointed out that if he did have a girlfriend then it was extremely suspicious that he would spend almost every weekend with her.) She wondered how good of friends they even were, I mean she still didn’t have his phone number and as far as she knew he didn’t have hers. Anytime she would invite the guys to go do things (like visiting IHOP at 2:00am on a Tuesday – which they tried to get out of, but thank goodness for text messages that don’t come through when they are supposed to) she would send a message to Tyler and Tanner and ask them both to make sure that Kevin knew about it and that he was invited. It was all very strange. Kayla was certainly curious why this boy (Kevin) didn’t seem to want her number when she definitely wanted his – if only to make sure that she could invite him to all the activities because she always seemed to have more fun when he was there. Hmm…dilemma…


Halloween was coming up, and one night while she was over visiting the guys apartment to play card games she mentioned that it would be strange to not be able to do a haunted corn maze since she had been doing one for years back home. That night they all decided that they should go to the haunted corn maze nearby. Oddly, it was actually Kayla that was kind of heading the activity – this was surprising since in the not too distant past she was afraid to even talk to guys, she spent most of her time alone, and she would never have dreamed of inviting anyone anywhere because she was terrified of rejection. The group for the visit to the corn maze included Kayla’s roommates from the previous year, the new apartment of guys she had met as well as a few other miscellaneous people.


Upon arrival at Cornbilly’s the group purchased their wristbands and headed off to have a great time of running through a darkened maze while having being scared half to death. Kayla’s old roommates were too scared to do the haunted maze so they took off towards the regular corn maze leaving Kayla with the Kevin, Tyler and Tanner. They all wanted to go to the haunted maze so they hiked over there only to find that the maze was only open on the weekends and they were there on a Thursday. Of course.


Still wanting to do a maze they headed back to where they had started but now they were separated from the other group. They probably would have been able to get through a lot faster if the darn boys hadn’t kept cutting through the walls (which, by the way, was against the rules). There were two sections of the maze and they kept starting in one and ending up in the other. Darn boys and their need to cut corners. It took them about a year and a half to get through the maze but Kayla started to think this may have been a part of Kevin’s plan because with their long legs they kept pulling ahead of the other two in their group and they walked through most of the maze side by side. (Kayla was pretty sure at this point that Kevin didn’t have a girlfriend anymore, by the way.) Kayla had a great time talking to Kevin. It only made her realize how much fun he was and how much she enjoyed having him as a friend. It also reminded her that she didn’t have his number and she resolved to ask for it when it wouldn’t be too awkward. She just needed to be casual. Riiiiggghhttt….Eventually they cut through enough walls to get to an exit (the wrong one mind you) and they decided to enjoys some of the other attractions such as the giant blow up Lizard.


The idea of the blow up Lizard was this: You enter the mouth and work your way through its insides until you eventually walk out from beneath its tail. Strange concept, but surprisingly fun. It was pitch dark, and there were random inflated walls all over the place. For a scardy cat like Kayla it was somewhat terrifying to be stumbling through the dark, bouncing off walls. And she couldn’t help but scream when someone unexpectedly popped out from behind a wall. At least these people hadn’t intended to be scary – Kevin on the other hand kept trying to get away from the group so he could hide behind the walls and scare them. At one point he even resorted to crawling on his hands and knees to get away but Kayla caught him every time. He thinks he’s so sneaky. THINK AGAIN!


When they finally met up with the other half of their group they decided, with much urging from Kevin, that they should all go through the monster again. Why you ask? Because, they had spent fourteen dollars to get in to this place and they weren’t going to leave until they had some serious fun! In they went. This time Kayla didn’t do quite as good a job of keeping track of Kevin and as soon as she noticed he was gone she became very jumpy as she approached each corner. And for good reason. As she rounded one of the corners somewhere near the heart of the beast someone jumped out and grabbed her waist! She was preparing to beat the crap out of the creeper who touched her when she spun around and realized it was just silly old Kevin. Once she realized it was just her friend she punched him in the gut, laughed and ran away. (It wasn’t the most graceful run away in history as she bounced off a few walls…but it got her away from the mean boy so…)


By the time they finished playing on the various contraptions out in the cold October air it was about 1:00. Perfect time for breakfast! (Is there ever a time that’s not perfect for breakfast though?) To IHOP! As Kayla and Kevin were walking to the table Kayla decided it would be a good time to casually bring up the fact that she didn’t have his number. The conversation went a little like this:


Kayla: “So, I’m beginning to wonder if we’re really friends. I mean I have the numbers of both your roommates but I don’t have yours.”


Kevin: “Yeah, I don’t really give out my number.” *big cheesy grin* (In his head: ha ha! I so funny! I tease her and she will fall for me for sure!)


*awkward silence*


Kayla: “Ok. I guess we’re not friends then…That’s cool. (In her head: So… does he really not want to give me his number…or is he just teasing me? I guess I’ll tease back and see what happens) I guess you don’t need my number then either. Good. We’ll keep things the way they are then.”


Kevin:”That’s perfect. I don’t really need yours”


*they walk awkwardly to the table while chuckling uncomfortably*


Kayla: (In her head: this did not go as planned)


As they all moved to the table it’s not really clear who sat by whom but they did indeed end up sitting next to one another. However, they ended up sitting uncomfortably at the table for a few minutes while looking at the menus and Kayla needed to fidget so she ripped off her wristband and started folding it and playing with it. After a few more minutes of uncomfortable silence (the teasing had definitely taken a wrong turn somewhere) Kayla finally decided she needed to break the tension so she whipped a pen out of her purse, wrote her number on the wristband and pushed it in front of Kevin as she said “well, someone’s going to have to bend.” You see, she really wanted to have his number but she figured as long as he had hers that was something. They spent the rest of breakfast joking and laughing and generally having a great time. Finally Kevin asked to borrow Kayla’s pen and he started writing on his napkin. He wouldn’t let her see as he was writing so she figured he might actually be giving her his number. When he kind of pushed the napkin between them she got really excited but then said it wasn’t for her, it was for Steve, their waiter. Hmmm… should she be worried about this boy? Finally she got up the courage to grab the napkin and take a look and sure enough, it was written for Steve. In fact it said: “Hey Steve, if you’re looking for a good time call Kevin at: 208-313-248_.” She laughed, hoped it was a joke and stuck the napkin in her purse as she they were walking out of the restaurant. (Kayla kept the napkin for a long time until one day it disappeared in her black hole of a room - - Kevin however still has the wristband she gave him - - he is much more romantic than she, for instance he always remembers how long they’ve been dating, Kayla not so much.)


Kayla safely drove the boys home, although you might hear a different story from the boys who were a little scared by her excellent U-turn skills. As she was locking her car she looked over and was shocked to see that Kevin was still standing on the other side of her car. (The strangest part was that this wasn’t the first time this had happened to Kayla this year – although she turned down the first guy to go to that first movie with Kevin and his roommates…) Kevin looked a tad bit uncomfortable as he blurted out “So, some friends and I are going four-wheeling this Saturday and I was wondering if you would want to go.” Kayla hesitantly responded that it sounded really fun. She was ‘hesitant’ for a couple of reasons. First, she wasn’t sure it was a date and second, if this was a date it would be the third date of her entire life and the first two were less than stellar. However, she always had an amazing time with him in the past and no matter what she was sure she would have a good time if it actually pulled through. The next day she was extremely excited and she couldn’t wait until Saturday to see if it would really happen.


Yes, it’s true you’ve made it to the end of this ridiculously long blog post and the adorable couple still has not been on their first date. I guess you’ll just have to wait until I get my butt in gear again and get around to finishing the story… I figure I should give you a little time to recover from the length of this one first though so I figure I’m off the hook for at least another week right?

Friday, May 1, 2009

The Rumors are...

Once upon a time, in a not so distant land, in a time not so long ago, there was a young girl, only nineteen. She was the loner child, book worm, ugly duckling of McKay Manor. Her name was Kayla.

The time had come again for the young girl to return to the magical kingdom at the base of the Wasatch Mountains where she would fill her brain with all kinds of 'important information.'

Upon arriving at her apartment Kayla found that she was only going to have one roommate and it wasn't long before she realized that she would be doing a lot of things by herself in the coming months. It was this fact that made her force herself to get off her butt and go to the first Ward family home evening of the year.

It was the same bishopric she had the year before and they already loved her so she figured it couldn't be all bad. Plus, there was free food with no clean up so that right there made it worth the drive up Provo Canyon to Timpanogas Park.

When she arrived people were milling about talking and waiting for the food to be served but of course since she had come alone and didn't know anyone but the bishopric she didn't have anyone to talk to so she just sat on a table near the front of the food line waiting for the prayer.

Not one to be shy about food, as soon as the prayer was said our little duckling headed straight for the food and was the first in line to fill up her plate. This of course meant that every table was open which was actually a very good thing because this meant that she was the first to sit down at a table and then the table filled in around her. Awesome! She thought to herself. No awkward moment of wondering who she could possibly sit by, now she only had to hope that others would choose to sit at the same table she chose.

Slowly, people began to sit next to the young girl and they were all male-type people. It was shocking!

Now, this girl left school last year with a crush on a boy named Kyle. He was tall, muscular and in Kayla’s opinion very cute. Well, who would sit down right next to her but Kyle! Ok, this activity just got a heck of a lot better! And to think that at first she didn’t want to come just because she didn’t want to drive up the canyon by herself (she was a little worried she would get lost – she’s not the best with directions and can’t seem to drive anywhere without at least one u-turn).


Well, since she had been crushing on this boy for about a year now she couldn’t possibly talk to him… I mean really, who actually talks to the people they have a crush on? So she sat there, silently happy until a few more people sat down. A nice guy in a blue shirt sat down across from her at the table and started talking to his friend. He was talking loudly and Kayla loves to listen in to the conversations of others (because she has no life of her own, and she’s a little bit of a creeper) so when he started saying funny things she couldn’t help but laugh and join in.


He asked her name and she asked his. Kevin Conrad…that was familiar. He had been roommates with her friend Jacob over the summer and Jacob had told her all about him. He was the nice, pre-Med roommate with a girlfriend that wasn’t around all that often. Hmm…well she already knew the answers to most of the twenty questions people ask when meeting one another – where are you from? How old are you? What are you majoring in (or where do you work?) etc. – but she didn’t want to seem like total creeper so she asked them all anyway.


He and his friend Tyler asked the girl if she played any sports. After all, she was tall and thin – it would seem logical that she would be the athletic type right? Wrong! She quickly corrected them saying that she tried to avoid all physical activity if possible and games with a ball were definitely out because the stupid ball always seemed magnetically attracted to her head. She told them her hobbies included reading, photography, watching TV, basically being lazy.


They wanted to know if she did anything else, anything the least bit physical – so she answered that she actually did like hiking. Apparently Kevin doesn’t have the best hearing, so after her response a perplexed look came across his face and with a quizzical voice he asked, “You like hiding?”


Not one to let an opportunity to be sarcastic pass her by she responded “yes, that is exactly how I like to spend my time. I don’t even need anyone to find me. Just the joy of finding a great hiding place is enough to make my day.” (Now that may not be exactly what was said – but it was certainly something along those lines). Luckily this was a rather sarcastic boy and he took the little jest in the light it was intended, laughed, and asked what she said then.


He may not be able to hear but he was cute and nice and he was willing to talk to the girl trying to stuff a sloppy-joe in her face, so she wasn’t complaining.


Our little homebody walked away from the evening feeling pretty good about herself. She had spent a good 45 min. sitting next to the boy she liked (no talking necessary there) and she had been at a table surrounded by boys and she was actually able to speak with them without looking too incredibly stupid. Nice! Now she just had to keep this trend going.


The following Sunday in church the two boys, Kevin and Tyler, sat behind her in Sunday school and they talked before class started. Can you believe it? She had somehow managed to make friends, with BOYS! (Maybe they weren’t all that terrifying.) Eventually Tyler asked for her number and things finally started to move. The next friday she went to a movie with Tyler, Kevin and a few of their friends. It was great and She had a great time! This was something entirely new to her and she was loving it.

...tune in tomorrow for the next installation in the story