elizabethlevett

Candy Masters is fast. Like I wish I could be. She wears pink Dittoes and peasant blouses without a bra, or else she wears baggy overalls with just a tube top. I’m not allowed to wear a tube top. Besides, on me a tube top looks like a soda straw, an actual tube.

Candy Masters has a beautiful old Impala – shiny aqua – and she drives fast all over the valley. She loves that car. I’m not allowed to drive unless my dad comes with me. Candy drives with the radio up loud and the windows down –the wind blowing her peasant blouse all over the place. She likes to listen to the radio loud. She sings along with “Barracuda.” Candy Masters just loves that song. And “You’re No Good.” That’s another one she likes. Sometimes she gives me a ride to the mall. I get a little bit scared in a way that’s all new to me. It’s a kind of scared I can’t really resist. It’s better than staying home all the time anyway.

Candy Masters has a way of talking a person into doing something they might not be ready to do. She talked me into asking Todd Holbrook to the boat dance. I was so nervous. Candy Masters pretty much always has a date for everything because she always lets boys kiss her. I finally went up to Todd Holbrook and asked him even though a bunch of other kids were around. “It’s only two weeks away,” he said to me. “Do you really think I don’t have a date yet?” Just like that. I wished I could have turned into a bug right then and just crawled away under a rock. I probably would have gotten seasick at the boat dance anyway and I have no idea what I thought I’d wear.

Candy Masters does crazy things sometimes. Like one day she kissed Eli Swain upside down in U.S. History. She sits right behind Eli and he sits next to me. She knows I have a terrible crush on Eli Swain. He’s so tall. Eli Swain is on the swim team. He has to get up early for practice. So one day in U.S. History, Eli must have just been really tired, so he leaned his head backwards all the way and looked up at Candy Masters. Candy pulled out her gum and kissed Eli right square on the mouth. Upside down. And I couldn’t really say anything because class was starting. Plus, if I did, then Eli Swain would know I have a crush on him.

I don’t think Candy’s going to college. At least not the same one as me. She says she’s gonna marry Tim, the guy with the red hair. I guess he doesn’t know she’s been seeing Coach Randall. Or that she kisses people upside down in U.S. History. But he won’t hear it from me.

(From a series of short portraits I’m working on…)