"American Girl Breaking Traditions Everywhere"

Chapter one




The day was warm and the sky was bright. Everybody seemed happy and the world was at peace… Until Lydia got her research paper back. The walls in the classroom lit on fire and what felt like smoke left Lydia’s ears. Looking down at the big red C she seemed to be fitting the urge to attack the professor. Of course this was college and Of course she would take it like the calm human being she was.

The class ended and most of the students exited the room. Lydia trotted down to her Professor and said “excuse me but I think you gave me the wrong grade.”

Mr.Audrews turn to Lydia looked at her posture and sighed. “Lydia you’re paper was good. But it wasn’t great and that’s what gets you an A.”

“Mr.Audrews I say this with the utmost respect but I’m not an A student, this I know. I just think that I am not a C student. Neither can I afford to be a C student. I’m on a scholarship here sir. My paper is surely a B!”

“Lydia it was eight and a half pages long.”

“And?” Lydia said hand on hip.

“Let me tell you how I grade papers. There is an A, B, C, D, and F. So I give each paper 500 points. A hundred points for each letter. The assignment was supposed to be ten pages long. I subtract fifty points for not meeting that requirement. Consider you’re spelling errors there is about a hundred points worth of mistakes in that paper. So that is a hundred and fifty points subtracted. That puts you in the B-C range. Now you’re piece was supposed to be persuasive and honestly you supported all of your opinions with facts but it still didn’t sound persuasive. It was good but if you want a B use spell check and make sure you make it as long as I wanted it.”

Lydia stood there stunned. She’d never gotten it so harshly. Turning away from her professor and she walked away. She was angry at what he had said. She had put hard work and efforts into this paper. She used spell check! Then it hit her. Ahmet. Angry again she regretted dating that Turkish bastard. He distracted her while she was editing and she must not have hit save. She printed out an unedited paper!

Speed walking her way of the college campus she reached her car. She jumped in and turned it on. Driving around in fury she didn’t know what to do. Deciding she needed to just sit in peace she drove for the park. She parked her car in the lot across from the baseball field and jumped out. She walked down the hill towards the pond and sat on the bench. The pond was to the left of the parking lot and the baseball field was in front of the lot. Behind the lot was a small play ground that was blocked off from the parking lot. Lydia knew that they had added that there after a small child wondered from his mother and was run over by a vehicle leaving the lot. The pond in front of her was swarming with ducks and geese. Lydia stopped being angry for a second and inhaled some air.

Lydia lived in New York. She lived with gangsters and hoodlums. So when she inhaled this air that should smell great she actually inhaled the awful smell of dirty water. Why did the people of New York need to destroy the earth? Why did humans as a whole need to pollute the earth. Lydia herself was a community service kind of girl. She hated littering and she tried her best to do things for the community. Of course her community was helpless if no one cooperated.

Suddenly as she was mid-thought the sound of glass braking caught her attention and she was forced to turn her head toward the parking lot. She didn’t see any one so she stood up. Confused she walked up the hill in resentment. When she got to the top she was faced with a horrible sight. A baseball had hit her windshield and broken the glass. The baseball was still on the windshield so Lydia picked it up and threw it as far as she could with all her might. She was past furious.

She was hysterical. Life wasn’t going so great. Her boyfriend wasn’t exactly a great boyfriend. School just seemed to be getting harder and harder and as if to add icing on the cake her father had been recently hospitalized. Lydia stared at the windshield and once again let go of her anger. She hated being angry and found it a useless emotion. There were times she couldn’t let it go as easily but most times she did her best.

Suddenly she spotted something from the corner of her eye and saw a man running her way. She looked at him and watched him as he got closer and closer. Minutes passed and he finally approached her breathless. “I’m so sorry” he said as he reached her and held onto his knees trying to breath.

Looking at the large field Lydia scanned for where the ball would have came from. Finally she found a pitching machine all the way on the opposite side of the field maybe about a football field away. Lydia was impressed.


Taking a long glance at the man she analyzed him. He was Asian and she could tell from the curves in his eyes and his tan to yellow skin complexion. Maybe he was mixed with something because his eyes were light brown. His hair was medium long. It was jet black and rather straight. His body type seemed of strong build so she guessed she’d just met a pretty athletic Asian.

“I’m really sorry” he said looking at her car.

“Yeah, I am too. Look, don’t worry about it. Let’s say you give me you’re name and number and we call it even.” Lydia smiled. She took another look at this man and knew for sure.

“how does that make us even?” He asked.

“Because the girl I’m giving your number just might cause more damage then what you did to my car.” Lydia smiled wide and winked.


**********************************

Christine clamped the hair straightener on her client’s hair and pulled it down slowly watching exactly what the device was designed to do. She continued this for twenty minutes and a whole part of the woman’s head was straight. It fascinated her how much of a difference it made. Her hair went from poofy and curly to straight and silky. It was beautiful.

Once she thought about it Chrissy was living the life she wanted when she was younger. She lived with Lydia and she lived in New York. She lived close to Yankee stadium and she worked in a beauty parlor. The pay was good and she was living in a good neighbor hood with her sister living twenty minutes away. This was the life wasn’t it?

Maybe not. Some how she felt incomplete. Thinking about it she was only twenty three. It wasn’t as if she was running out of time so she couldn’t feel like she hadn’t accomplished anything because truth be it she actually accomplished much. She went to beauty school and graduated top of her class. She found a job quickly and mastered her position. She dated ever so often and was a great babysitting aunt on the weekends. What more could she do?

Chrissy focused on the woman’s hair and kicked her feelings to the side. When it came to beauty feelings were put on hold. She worked on the woman’s hair for another half hour till she was finally done in the end her hair looked amazing. She smiled at her and said “Looks great don’t you think?”

“Yes, I do thank you. You’re truly amazing and I WILL be coming back” The young woman walked out the salon and Chrissy felt like she’d just done something great for that woman. Truly she did do amazing things for woman. She had the important job of making them feel confident that they had amazing hair.

Just then another woman stormed into the salon her hair a complete mess. Chrissy remember this lady from yesterday and knew exactly what happened to her hair. “I demand I get my money back!” The lady screamed to the girl working at the register.

“I’m sorry your service was non refundable.” She told her not even glancing away form her magazine.

Chrissy shook her head and interrupted. “Listen I would love to give you a refund but you had a perm. I warned you that you should not wet you’re hair for twenty four hours. We don’t account for your actions against my words.”

“My actions against your words?! Listen little girl if you don’t fix my hair I will sue you!” just the Lydia walked in her face saying she had a bad day.

“Is there a problem here?” Lydia asked when Chrissy sent her the help me look.

“Yes there is a problem here. This little girl says my hair is non refundable when look what she did to my hair!” The lady pointed to her hair and pulled on it a bit.

“Did you get a perm and wet it?” Lydia asked.

“yes.” The woman said her tone very harsh.

“Well then that is your problem. If you were told not to wet it and you wet it then you messed up. Don’t ask for your money back when you did what a moron would do and didn’t listen to her. Now get out of this salon and don’t even think of suing them because I’m in a college on my forth year majoring in law and I will do my best to make sure you get negative amounts of money from this store. If you know what negative amount of money is you’ll know that that means you’d owe us!” Lydia yelled pointing at the exit.

The woman sucked her teeth and walked out. Lydia watched her scurry away and her attitude changed. “So how was your day Chrissy?”

Chrissy was never surprised by Lydia’s mood change lately. It seemed ever since her father was hospitalized she was a ticking clock.

“It was ok. Same old you know?” Chrissy told her taking a seat in one of the salon benches.

“Well me? My day was horrible but it got better when a hot Asian broke my window.” Lydia smiled and Chrissy gave her a weird look. “Ok, so it doesn’t sound so great for me but I think it’s great for you. I got his number and his name. He’s really hot Chrissy and you know how he broke my window? Major hit in the baseball field. That thing was gone! Well… until it hit my windshield.”

Chrissy sighed “you seem extremely excited about this Lyd.”

“I just know it will work out Chrissy. You have to give him a try. Do it for me. Do it for Papa Rosario!” Lydia gave Chrissy a lip pout and Chrissy knew she was going on a date with an Asian some time soon. For papa Rosario if not anything else.