"Everything Changes" by Kim Chae Young

-tried to write in viewpoints of Jane        

 

           Stradlater was mouthing right next to me. I wasn't really paying attention to him, because all he talked was just about how close he was with Ed Banky, his basketball coach, that even loaned him a car, and how he was outstanding at basketball team. Such a phony. I had no such interest on how he was proud on himself. Instead, I was thinking of Holden Caulfield, the guy who had lived right next to me. At the moment that I've heard Old Stradlater was living together with Holden, I damn near dropped dead. It was the only reason why I decided to meet Old Stradlater again because there's no such a reason for me to deal with this phony, even wasting my time to read another book.

           "So just before the game ended, I threw a three-pointer, and everyone, I mean, everyone at the stadium just cheered. And then.."

 

I couldn't just bear listening to that kind of stuff.

 

"Can you tell me how's Holden doing? I mean, does he still hate watching movies?"

 

I tried not to be nonchalant, but still, Stradlater seemed quite displeased about the fact that a girl is talking about another boy in front of him, who is smart, handsome, and even good on basketball.

 

"He just got kicked out."

 

That was the end. He didn't really like much about talking another guy, not him, so I just gave up. And I told him that I'm just signed out for nine-thirty. Of course it was not true. Holden and I used to make a lot of lies, because it made us laugh when phony-adults took everything seriously what we said, even though those were phony. Holden often chucked the old crap around. And that killed me.

          

           After I escaped from Stradlater, I had an impulse to call to Holden. Maybe he could be at his home since old Stradlater said he got kicked out. However his mother could get the phone. She didn't really like me. It's not that I liked her, but still, I didn't want to have a phone call with her. You should have to be in the mood. Maybe Phoebe could get the phone. She is a nice kid. She really understands what you're talking about, not the way how adults perceive your story-spurious.

           Phoebe, Holden and I used to go to the Museum of Natural History. Things never change in museum. They're not like adults who get spoiled and become "phony" as they grow up. The fact that museum's never gonna be phony made us relieved to be in that place. Since Holden's brother, D.B. went to Hollywood, we never went to movie. Also, after that day, Holden often kept saying "I felt like I was dying." To Holden, it seemed like death was the definite way to never change, and never be a phony. Even though D.B. has already changed, his another brother, Allie, is memorized by the time when he was still young, and to Holden, Allie will be still forever. Phoebe has yet not changed. For Chrissake, it made me depressed that Phoebe has "yet" not changed. Everything changes. Even I get different. I do not get the kings all lined up in the back row. I enjoy watching movies.

          

           That was the reason why I wasn't in the mood to call Holden Caulfield.