The Road to L.A.

Chapter One

              "And we are done!"

The words emanated from the bubbly blonde with the words
Cheer Captain
printed on the front of her pink t-shirt.  Carly furtively glanced at her watch and noted the time with mild irritation.  She hadn't counted on practice running this late and knew her friends would be waiting for her at the diner.  As of right now she was already twenty minutes late.  Carly was determined to make haste.  She had begun to sprint to the women's locker room when she heard a voice calling to her.  She immediately recognized that voice.  In fact, it was hard to confuse its source.

              "Where are you headed off to?"

Carly halted, turned, and waited for Susan to close the distance between them.  Her first instinct had been to ignore Susan and pretend she hadn't heard her calling her name.  But because Susan was in a position of power this year as the cheer captain, Carly wanted to stay in her good graces and not cause any friction.  Her anxiety over being late, though, was making it hard to stay put to see what the perky blonde wanted.  Particularly since the petite ball of energy could talk and talk endlessly without ever letting anyone get a word in edge-wise.  Carly groaned inwardly at her misfortune.

              "I'm headed to The Pit Stop to meet some friends, and I'm already running kind of late." She conspicuously glanced at her watch, hoping Susan would get the hint.

              "Oh," Susan replied.  "Well, some of the girls and I were thinking about getting mani's and pedi's in town.  But I guess if you're busy you can join us next time." 

Carly groaned inwardly again.  This time it wasn't because Susan was holding her up, but because she knew the blonde was trying to integrate her into her popular circle of friends and Carly fully appreciated the kind gesture.  And yet here she was blowing Susan off by declining the invitation.  A feeling of guilt had prompted that groan and was now consuming her conscience.  Not that Carly really cared to be a part of Susan's elite clique.  She just figured that if she ingratiated herself with Susan and her friends she would have an easier time as a cheerleader this year.  But Carly couldn't let down her real friends either, so she strategically replied, "How about this weekend we all go to Cleveland for a shopping trip.  I think my parents are going to let me use their car on Saturday."  

Susan appeared genuinely interested in Carly's offer because the cheer captain's face brightened to the same color as her platinum blonde locks.

              "Sounds great, Cabrerra.  Call or text me to let me know the details."

Carly was relieved to see that the conversation was over as evinced by Susan's retreat in the opposite direction.  Susan turned around once, however, to quickly inquire who exactly Carly was meeting at The Pit Stop.  Despite conjecturing Susan's true intentions about the inquiry, Carly willingly offered the sought-after identities and noted that one of the names seemed to spark Susan's interest.  Her eyes twinkled and a smile formed on the blonde's lips before she replied, "Cool.  Have fun."

With that Susan turned and was off.

After grabbing her personal effects from her locker, Carly made every effort to avoid any more run-ins with people she knew.  She needed to get to the popular diner immediately.  After a quick jog to her car and the toss of her duffel bag and purse into the back seat, she was finally on her way.  Fortunately, it wouldn't take too long to get to The Pit Stop since Clanton was such a small town.  In fact, Clanton, Ohio, embodied what many considered a typical rural town with just enough suburban flair to make living there tolerable for its younger residents.  Long stretches of farmland surrounded the country road leading into town, with ranches and barns sporadically dotting the flat landscape.  The city square of Clanton was probably the liveliest place in town, although the new strip mall being built would likely change that.  Also, a few fast food "joints" and three sit-down restaurants provided some entertainment.  One of those sit-down restaurants was owned and operated by Carly's parents.  Mr. and Mrs. Cabrerra were both well-respected members of Clanton and owned a Cuban restaurant located on the town square. Carly sometimes worked there as a waitress during the summers.  She didn't mind it but hoped her parents weren't grooming her to one day take over the place.  She sometimes daydreamed about getting out of this small and stifling town to explore what else was out there.  In fact, her current desire was to go to college in a big city such as Cleveland, which was only an hour-and-a-half southwest of Cleveland. That was the important stipulation, that the city had to still be within reasonable driving distance from Clanton.  Because while she longed for an escape, she was still nervous about going too far away from home.  She attributed this to her upbringing.  Her parents had always been overprotective of their only daughter and had sheltered her all her life.  Their nurturing had made her life very comfortable.  But she now knew that it had also stifled her pioneering spirit and sense of independence.  While she wished she could change some aspects of her childhood, there was one thing that she would never change - meeting Jake Harmon.       

Carly easily recalled the day her parents had had the Harmon family over for dinner.  The family was one of the more affluent ones in town, largely due to Mr. Harmon's status as head football coach and Mrs. Harmon's family pedigree.  Mrs. Harmon was the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Clanton, which owned and ran a dairy farm and a grocery store.  Their son Jake only completed the picture of a perfect family.  He was popular in school, good at sports, and was showing signs of having inherited his mother's attractive features and father's impressive height.  Carly remembered how she had stared at Jake, who occupied the seat across from hers at the dinner table.  She had especially marveled at the twinkle in his large blue eyes that hinted at an adventurous spirit she longed to experience.  She felt the tickle of nervous excitement as the parents retreated to the living room, leaving her and this boy alone to play.  Not shy in the least, Jake had risen from his half-eaten dessert and followed Carly outside in the yard.  Running around in a dizzying game of tag, it didn't take long for Carly to decide that she liked this boy.  It seemed as if they had played for hours and, after falling to the ground in a breathless heap, they exchanged names.  Even though they had been formally introduced earlier, this was their own way of cementing the start of a friendship she couldn't wait to fully explore. 

From that point on, their relationship had blossomed.  Because Jake lived only a few houses up the street from Carly’s, she was usually over at his.  It was more fun to play at his house because there were no rules and very lax adult supervision.  Carly frequently marveled at how completely free Jake was to do whatever he pleased.  To Carly, it appeared that Jake enjoyed all the freedoms of an adult, with no one telling him what to do or when to do it.  In fact, she couldn't recall a time when either his father or mother had imposed a curfew on him or assigned limits on his play activities. 

Although Carly was Jake's closest companion throughout their childhood, he also had had his other friends. Together they had formed a rambunctious band of boisterous little boys with nothing else on their minds but mischief.  Carly always knew, though, that she was special to Jake, and sometimes she was allowed to hang out with him and his male companions.  They all treated her like one of the boys and even included her in some of their neighborhood pranks – which often ended with her in deep trouble.  Jake was rarely punished for his antics. Either it was because his parents were hardly ever around or because they simply did not concern themselves much with his daily activities.  Mr. Harmon's head coaching duties kept him very busy and his mother either attended charity events or hosted them herself at the local country club.

Even now as Carly swung into one of the parking spaces in front of The Pit Stop, she could easily recall how deeply she had envied the leniency of Jake's childhood experience.  She had no doubts at all that this is what made him such a strong, independent personality now.  He always appeared so confident and sure of everything and easily took charge with little fear of failure.  He was a leader, brave and unrelenting.  That is what she and countless others saw when they beheld Jake Harmon, the golden boy of Clanton, Ohio.