OCD, the Dude, and Me - By Lauren Roedy Vaughn Page 0,56

explain to me why James got suspended for the outfit he wore today for Decade Day? (I dressed like the sixties in a tie-dyed shirt and painted a peace symbol on my face in case you didn’t see me today.) Anyway, look, the eighteen hundreds had decades and so why did James get in trouble for dressing like a slave? There were slaves in many decades in the eighteen hundreds. The shackles he wore had to be pretty expensive, and those whip marks took some effort to create. I applaud his effort. If we were only allowed to dress in outfits from the nineteen sixties, seventies, or eighties, someone should have told us. I know the administration told James his outfit was inappropriate, and he responded by saying, “Yeah, it is pretty frickin’ inappropriate. It was inappropriate for hundreds of years.” James was right. So why was he suspended?

Confused,

Danielle

*MARV MISSIVE*

Letter from Marv to me, which I receive soon after my letter to him.

Danielle,

I have two explanations for you. One, people may have believed he was mocking a terrible situation. Or, two, in the face of undeniable, painful truth, many do not know how to react. They just want it to go away.

Marv

*MARV MISSIVE*

Letter from me to Marv

Marv,

Thank you.

Danielle

*ME-MOIR JOURNAL* 5/26

We have dinner with the social skills class and an unfortunate thing happens.

The quest to get my mother to see that I am now beyond my social skills class continues. I’m done. I’ve got a friend. Daniel keeps playing the same card with his parents, too, and they aren’t biting either. He even tried to tell them he has a newfound relationship with the Lord and that should suffice. They don’t agree.

So we were both stuck going to dinner with the class at the Galleria on a Saturday night, which is just death. The entire Meadow Oaks student body goes to the Galleria on Saturday. My mom said that would be wonderful because people would see me socializing. Oh God, she just never gets it. But Daniel and I realized we would have to go. He suggested we get stoned beforehand because we had one joint left. I didn’t want to do that. It’s one thing to do that alone in his room. I didn’t trust myself out in public that way. Although, looking back on how I actually behaved, I would have been better off stoned.

Anyway, we met at the restaurant. You couldn’t miss Lisa, who was wearing the brightest yellow suit I’d ever seen. She looked like a banana. Does she own anything but these suits? I wore my green sherpa hat even though the weather is warm because I thought, worse case scenario, if I didn’t want to listen to anybody, I could tie the flaps over my ears.

We all looked like we were taken out of the asylum for a night, which was kind of true. We were sitting as a befuddled, geeky group at a big table in the front of the restaurant when Jacob, Keira, James, and Heather walked through the door. I saw Keira see me and move her group toward our table for at least a “hello” and at worst a public shaming.

I reacted totally on crazed instinct. Daniel was seated next to me, and I leaned over and grabbed his face and planted a big kiss on him as Keira and Jacob approached the table. Daniel was stunned but recovered quickly when he realized who was standing before us.

“Hey, Danielle,” Keira said. “Is this your boyfriend?”

In quite deliberate language I said, “Yes, Keira, this is my boyfriend, Daniel. And Daniel this is Jacob.”

“Hey, man,” Jacob condescended.

Daniel brilliantly continued, “Hey, are you guys joining our Save the Children dinner meeting? We can pull up chairs.”

Lisa was stunned. She had no idea what was going on, and all the other doofuses just stared in disbelief that I had kissed Daniel so boldly. Iggie threw some paper bird in the air and slammed his head down on the table. So weird.

Jacob said, “Naw, we’re here to eat before we see a movie. But you guys have fun saving the planet. Later, Danielle.”

After they left, Lisa lectured everyone on the poor social graces of lying about yourself out in public. “You all have nothing to be ashamed of, so covering up who you are to impress others is not necessary. Now I expect all of us to think about what we can actually do to begin to save the children in order to live up to