Merry Christmas,
Mr. Wajeski!
By Nick Carter
It happened just the other evening
as we made our way home from
school through the sleet and snow.
I was doing my usual trick of impersonating
Mr. Wajeski, our geography teacher.
Of course the gang were in stitches-
I can impersonate most of the
teachers in our grade but the guys love it
when I do Mr. Wajeski, he's such a
bumbling idiot and I've got him down to perfection.
The way he stumbles around dropping
his books in the hall, how he stutters and
screws up his eyes when he's trying
to explain something. This time I'd been
putting up posters for the Christmas
dance, Jimmy had accidentally-on-purpose
banged into him scattering his papers
everywhere! We left the short-sighted
buffoon on the floor scrambling to
pick them up. "Sorry Sir!" laughed Jimmy
as he ran off. It was cool, he never
dared shout out anyone, especially us.
But then it happened, I mean you hear
those dumb, soppy tales about how
love hits you like a bolt from the
blue. I never believed it until that moment but
there she was, standing by the grocery
store. Even though it was getting darker
her piercing green eyes sparkled and
she looked just like an angel waiting to be
placed on the top of the Christmas
tree. Wow! Gorgeous long, beautiful blond
hair, shy, smiling mouth but those
eyes! I'd seen her from a distance at school
but as usual I'd played it cool and
had made no attempt to be friendly. She
wasn't in my class and I didn't even
know her name, but now I had to find out.
So I broke away from the guys and
made some excuse about needing to go into
the store. As I approached her, her
eyes dropped. I heard a loud Tut! sound and
there was Cherry standing protectively
behind the counter, staring at her. The
Cherry! The Cherry who'd been
my 12th girlfriend this term, had been a token.
She was pretty girlfriend who I'd
mess around and then ditch when I got bored.
Darn, I'd forgotten about Cherry!
She was chewing gum and, before I could even
blind, she'd blown a bubble big enough
to swallow me up and send me to the
moon. As it popped she sucked it back
into her mouth with the speed of a bullet
and blurted out: "Whaddya want?" "Probably
still bitter about our split", I mused.
"Six packets of Oreo biscuits and
a tub of your finest Ben & Jerry's ice cream if
you please." I don't know why I said
that, it just sorta came out but at least it took
Cherry scuttling into the back of
the store for a minute while I struck up the
courage to speak to my angel. "You're
new here, aren't ya?" I blurted. "Yup," she
replied, shyly. "I'm Zac, what's your
name?" She looked up smiling but, just as
she was about to reveal it all, Cherry
stormed past her at threw by grocery bag
under my nose and said, "That will
be $8 exactly, thank you!" I was
fuming, Cherry had spoilt my
moment of truth. As I delved around deep in my
pocket I realized that I'd spent all
of my money on soda pop in school. My anger
quickly subsided into complete embarrassment
and I called over to the guys to
help me out. "What are you buying
ice cream in this weather for, Zac?" They
challenged. "Listen, who's the leader
of the gang? Just give me the money!" I
stormed. I paid up and scurried off,
not daring to look at the total confusion I'd left
my angel in. How was I to ask her
on a date while she was in Cherry's viperous
clutches? She'd probably poisoned
her brain with horror stories of the trouble
our gang has caused. All completely
untrue of course. I spent the whole sunday
evening dreaming of my angel and devising
plans of how I'd ask her to the
Christmas Dance. Why did I always
have to act like the the tough guy all the
time? She was never going to trust
me with my reputation! Outside I could hear
carol singers from the neighborhood
singing out of tune, while inside my mom
was bustling around putting finishing
touches to the tree, wrapping presents and
fussing about the state of the Christmas
cookies she'd baked for Aunty Maisie.
What is it about moms and Christmas?
They flap around in such a panic. I didn't
care if I ate another turkey or had
another present, all I wanted for Christmas
was my angel. The Christmas dance
was two days away, I had to pluck up the
courage to approach her. Back at school
everyone had gone crazy. Jimmy and
the guys were running around like
dumbos with mistletoe trying to kiss
every girl in the hall. "C 'mon Zac,
what's matter?" grumbled Jimmy, "you're no fun
anymore!" "Get off my case will you!"
I answered grumpily. I leaned back on my
chair in the diner hall and dreamed
of the day I'd be united with my angel.
Suddenly, a rude, shrill scream brought
me back down to my senses like a ton of
weights being dropped off the Empire
State Building. It was Cherry. "Nooooo, I
don't want meat loaf, you silly woman,
I'm a vegetarian and I asked for mushroom
medley!" The poor cook was so
embarrassed and apologized profusely to
Cherry. "Oh, don't worry about it,
I'd be better off picking my own mushrooms
from outside", she snapped. And with
that she turned to her back and called her
friend to follow her, "Come on Lucky,
let's go." Wow, I couldn't believe my ears,
I'd found out my angel's name:
it was Lucky. If only my Christmas wish would
come true, that I'd be lucky too and
be granted a date with my dream girl. I spent
the whole day repeating Lucky over
and over to myself and devising a plan of
how I'd ask her for a date. I'd decided
that I'd catch her at the lockers at the end
of the day and if she was still in
Cherry's clutches I'd have the guy cause a
diversion while I dropped a note into
her pocket. That damn perfect Cherry, why
they make someone like her look after
all the freshmen is beyond me. The day
dragged on so slowly it reminded me
of what it was like waiting for Santa Claus
to arrive when I was little-an eternity.
Finally, 3.30 came around and the
school bell chimed but it was immediately
drowned out by everyone
thundering down the corridor. Instead,
I made my way slowly to lockers, my heart
pounding so hard that I thought if
I opened my mouth to speak it would pop out
and dance down the corridor and out
into the Christmassy night. "Thank God," I
thought as I saw Lucky filling her
bag with the contents of her locker. I quickened
my pace but before I arrived who should
appear but Mr. Wajeski. I couldn't hear
what they were talking about but Mr.
Wajeski seemed to have take a shine to
her. Well, at least, it wasn't
Cherry, I thought. Mr. Wajeski made his way to the
water fountain, so it was now or never.
"Erm, um, erm, Lucky," I whispered, "How
would you like to..." But before I
could blurt it out Cherry's voice took over,
hollering down the corridor as she
marched toward us. "Lucky! Lucky! Come
over here, now!" she screamed. "No,
Cherry, you go down the hall, now!" yelled
Mr. Wajeski. "There are freshmen waiting
to be taken to the gym!" Wow! I'd
never heard old Wajeski shout like
that! I composed myself and turned out to
Lucky. "Lucky, would you go to the
Christmas dance with me?" Lucky looked up
and peered over my head in the
direction of Mr. Wajeski. I turned around and I
could have sworn I saw Mr. Wajeski,
but I just dismissed it. "Yes, I'd love to!" was
her sweet answer that rolled off her
tongue! And with that we made
arrangements to meet the next night.
I was in heaven. "Wait till I
tell the guys," I thought. I spent
hours and hours the next day pruning and
preening myself, much to the amusement
of my mom. I felt sorry for mom. Since
dad died she'd been really lonely
and Christmas wasn't a time to be on your own.
Still, she'd been visiting one of
her friends a lot lately so perhaps she'd go over
there tonight after she'd dropped
me at Lucky's. I was so excited, I could hardly
contain myself. What would we talk
about? Would we get on? Mom pulled out of
the driveway and we set off our 10
minutes journey through the snow. Never
before have I felt so much Christmas
spirit and I had to stop myself from
launching into a special rendition
of Jingle bells. We reached Lucky's house and I
bounded up the path, careful not to
slip in the icy, crazy paving and pressed
the bell. Lucky opened the
door and my, did she look fantastic.
"Wow, you look absolutely gorgeous,"
I said, unable to stop myself. Her
green eyes were smiling as she yelled
back into the warm glow of the house.
"See you later, Dad!" And with that
she took my hand and led me back down the
path. "Where's your mom? Oh, sorry,
I don't mean to pry," I said, already wanting
to know everything about her. "Oh,
that's all right," she said sweetly, "Mom
moved to England and I didn't want
to go so I came to live with Dad." My heart
nearly melted and I was lost for words
so I slipped my arms around her shoulders
and she snuggled up close as we made
our way to the dance. I could tell already
that I'd be having the best Christmas
of my life. As they turned the corner, Zac's
mom Davina checked her make-up in
the car mirror, climbed up and made her
way up the path of Luky's house and
rang the bell. Moments later, Mr. Wajeski
opened the door and with a generous
smile welcomed Davina's in.