The Confusing Night

The rain fell in steady sheets onto the sidewalk, and I shivered. Next to me, my friend Chloe glanced at her watch.

“Four minutes until they let us in.” she rubbed her arms. “It's really cold.”

“And loud.” I added, as another group of teens next to us exploded with laughter. 

“You think they would at least let us wait inside…” Chloe trailed off. We were waiting to enter the building where a Teen Science Cafe was scheduled to start at 6. 

“Yah…” I also trailed off. We stood in silence until the door slowly creaked open and rushed forward along with around a 100 other kids ages 13-18. I craned my neck forward as the rush of warm air hit me. There were two tables with lades behind them, doing something as kids walked forward. I leaned over to Chloe.

“Were we supposed to show them something, or have a parent with us?” 

She shrugged. 

“Hopefully not,”

“Yah.” a pause as my fingers bruised the black purse that hung at my side. It was barely big enough to fit the giant 6 ½ inch phone that I used for baby-sitting, only smart enough to text and call incase of an emergency.

“We can always text my mom if we need to do something.” she nodded and we took a few steps forward. Suddenly one of the ladies behind the table stood up. 

“Anyone with a name from A-M  please come to this side,  N-Z over there.”

“Last name or first?” I whispered.

“I’m not sure.”

“I think last?”

“Probably.” She moved over to the next row of people, parallel to me. There were two people in front of me now. My palms started to sweat, what if it was supposed to be by first name? If so, I needed to get in the other row… 

One person. What if I made a complete fool of myself? 

“Next!” I walked forward. 

“Name please?”

I swallowed.

“Fairfield”

She ran her highlighter down a row of names.

“Nichol?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Take a map, there are seven stations that you will be able to visit, make yourself a name tag, pizza is over there. Next!”

I stepped out of the way, grabbed a map, dogged between two people in the next line, and looked around. Where were the nametags?  

A girl stepped away from the large white desk in the center, peeling one of those sticker tags off of the role. Oh.  I took her place and quickly wrote Nichol under the bright green: Hello My Name Is:

Beside me, Cholie got out of line and stood behind me. I peeled off the sticker, and helped it awkwardly as she put Cholie under her red banner. When she turned, I heeled out mine to her.

“Where am I supposed to put this?”

“On your shirt I guess?” She placed her own there, and I followed. 

“What are we supposed to do next?” she asked, folding her map into a neat square and placing it in her purse. 

“Ummm, the lady said that there was food somewhere that way?” I pointed vaguely to the left of the desk, around a corner, then walked over there.

A couple of servers stood behind more white tables, an open box of cheese tethering dangerously on top of 6 other boxes.  Cholie got into line, and I followed suit.

One of the staff silently handed me a paper plate, and I nodded my thanks as I moved on. 

“One or two?” a man asked me, holding two pieces of pizza in his hand.

“Two please.” 

He slapped the slides on my plate, and I moved forward, grabbing chips and a cup of water before catching up with Cholie. 

“I guess we just follow everyone else?” 

“Sure.” 

Balancing my plate and cup, we followed yet another group of people to the cafe. Cholie glanced inside. 

“It looks full.”

“Oh.”

“I guess, we turn around?” That's what we did. Eventually we found a group of the tables that you stand at, and quietly put our food down. All around us, people were talking loudly to their friends, and running around like maniacs.  I felt shaky and cold at the same time, which normally happens when I get nervous. I finished my pizza quickly, and looked around. 

“Are we supposed to do something now?” I ask.

“I’m not sure.” She looks down at her map. “We have six places to go. Are we supposed to do them now?”

“Noooo? Should we just wait to see what everyone else does?” 

“Mhm.” 

We dumped our plates in the trash, and went back to standing awkwardly at the wall. All around us, people were running around talking to their friends, or on their phones. 

It’s almost like there is an unspoken rule that if you don’t know anyone you need to be on your phone. I thought. Cholie and I stood there for about 10 minutes, until we were told to go to a different room for the presentation. A girl with black hair and too much concealer covering her face stepped on my foot as we walked. I saw her look at me, and then hurry forward without even a ‘sorry’

“Rude.” I murmured as we took our place on the floor.  I shifted position several times before the presentation started. The lady speaking took her place at the podium.

“Hello Everyone, today I am here to talk about”

A boy behind us burped loudly, causing an outbreak of giggling.  She continued as if nothing had happened. The presentation lasted about five minutes, after which we were sent on different activities. The first one was CPR, which we learned on toy ambulances. 

“I. never. thought. I. would. see. the. day. that. i. would. do. CPR. on. an ambulance.” I pant, massaging my arms as we make our way to the next activities. 

The rest of the evening passed in a blur of loud noises, petting a snake, and making your own paper hand. I was exhausted by the time my mom came to pick us up. 

“How was it?” she asked.

“Lets just say, confusing.”