“Of course,” he snickers.
The dream felt like a sign. A sign that something is waiting for me there. I intend to find out what that something is. Maybe it’s just a chance to experience her again; that would be enough for me.
I tell him this and he offers to come with me, but I decline. I feel it in my bones that I need to go alone.
When I get to the rec center, it’s quiet. I wasn’t expecting a bunch of kids at this hour since it’s a school day, but I was expecting someone. Some sort of adult class, people playing basketball, anything. Instead, there’s just one woman sitting on one of the couches with her headphones on, writing furiously in a notebook, and another woman pacing back and forth while reading a stack of papers to herself quietly.
I walk over to the woman with the papers, not wanting to make the woman on the couch remove her headphones. “Hi, is there someone working today?”
She turns to me and that’s when I see she’s not a woman at all. She can’t be any older than fifteen, maybe, but she’s only about an inch shorter than me. “Oh my God, oh my God,” she yells.
The woman on the couch squints over at us, lifting her headphones off one ear, but returns to whatever she’s doing when I give her a thumbs-up.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t be so loud, but you’re Dani Jenkins, aren’t you?”
“That would be me.”
Her voice jumps a half octave. “You’re my idol!”
I slap my hand against my chest. “That is so sweet, thank you.”
Her legs start shaking and she hides her stack of papers behind her back. “I have so many questions for you, oh my God.” She shakes her head. “No, you’re busy. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t bother you.”
I look at this girl, beautiful yet awkward in her stance. I approached her, and yet she apologized for bothering me. Her white blouse looks fantastic against the russet color of her skin, but she tugs on the bottom of her shirt like she’s dressed inappropriately. Somewhere along the lines of her life, she’s been told that she’s too much and that she needed to take up less space. I wish I could wrap my hands around the throat of everyperson that’s ever told her that and squeeze until they couldn’t fill her head with lies anymore.
“I’m not busy and you’re not bothering me. Do you want to sit down?”
Her eyes bulge out of her skull. “Really?”
“Really.”
She starts to skip over to the bleachers, but then looks back at me, embarrassed, and slows down to a stroll. I catch up to her and skip past her, all the way to the bleachers, happy when I see her doing the same.
“So, what’s your name?”
“Veronica.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” I hold my hand out to hers and she nearly rips my arm out of its socket with how fast and hard she shakes it.
“Sorry, sorry. Nice to meet you too.”
“You said you had questions for me?”
She rubs her hands down her face, letting out a small shriek. “I don’t even know where to start. Umm, how did you get into modeling?”
I happily give her a brief rundown of what led me here and I can see her mouth moving as I talk, trying to memorize every word.
“Are you interested in modeling, Veronica?”
Her hand flies behind her to the stack of papers she stashed there when we sat down. “Sort of. I want to model, act, and sing.”
“A triple threat, I like it.”
I expect her to smile at that, but she doesn’t. She looks away, suddenly very interested in her nails.
“Did I say something wrong?”
Her eyes jump to mine as she frantically waves her hands. “No, no, no. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.”
