The Book Series Ready For The World - Driver’s Education...
The Book Series
Ready For The World - Driver’s Education:
Fifteen year-old Brandon Delacruz’s wantsare simple. He wants to be popular, drive a cool car, and have the girl of hisdreams on his arm. Instead, he’ll have to settle for being on the honor roll,riding his ten speed bike, and having his best friends, Josh and Ally besidehim as they learn the ins and outs of high school.
But as Brandon begins to discover feelingsfor Ally, a tragedy occurs that changes their lives. And now, he’ll spend therest of the year sorting through his complicated feelings and his uncertainrelationship with Ally...all while keeping his grades up. Because unlikegetting a driver’s license, life doesn’t’t offer a practice test. Brandon will haveto rise and meet the challenges of the real world, whether he’s ready for itnot.
Ready For The World – Superstar:
Brandon Delacruz is destined to write thenext great novel. At least, that’s what he hopes what’s in those stacks ofnotebooks around him. And why shouldn’t he be full of confidence? He’s doinggreat in school and after a long hard road, he finally has the girl of hisdreams, his best friend, Ally.
But before the year can even start,Brandon’s life is turned upside down. Nothing is what he thought and thingsdon’t happen the way he hoped. And as he sifts through his feelings and triesto make sense of everything, he meets Rachel, a confident and self assured girlthat doesn’t suffer fools lightly.
Ally has been the love of Brandon’s life,but things between them have become complicated without explanation. While heand Rachel are seemingly a perfect fit. Which girl will he choose? And moreimportantly, which girl will choose him?
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Ready For The World: Driver’sEducation
Ready For The World: Superstar
Book Excerpt fromReady For The World: Driver’s Education
We pulled into theparking lot at the 32nd Street Bowl-A-Rama and jumped out of the car. EveryFriday during the summer, they cleared the game room and turned it into a club.Josh spent the first few minutes gawking at every perm and pair of neon legwarmers that walked by.
“You‘re making uslook like a couple of stalkers,” I said.
He walked up tothis short blonde girl with a triangular haircut and neon green sweater. “Whichgirl did you think was cute, Brandon? THIS ONE?”
The blonde girlglared over at the troublemaker, which was me and not the doofus pointing rightat her. Josh looked over at me and laughed his famous silent laugh withsquinted eyes. But it wouldn‘t be complete without the knee-slap.
A few hours later,we were sitting at a table in the corner of the club. We were toastingourselves with a couple of sodas on a great night out.
“Good times,” Isaid.
“This night ain‘tover yet,” Josh said after taking a sip. “Whose turn is it?”
“Mine,” I said. I slammed my empty glass on thetable. “Go ahead. Bring it.”
Josh and I alwaysplayed a game we called “Two Bucks.” It was “Truth or Dare” but without thetruth part. One of us would come up with a task and a time frame to completeit. Whoever failed gave the other two bucks. Neither one of us had to give upany money in the last month and a half. The last time we played, Josh startedevery conversation by barking like a dog. It made for some great entertainmentwhen we went to the McDonald‘s drive-thru that night.
“Since you‘regrounded, I‘m gonna go easy on you,” Josh said. “Two bucks says that you can‘tgo over to that girl in the corner and get her to dance with you in less thanfifteen minutes. You have to dance one whole song. If you guys start in themiddle of one song, you must keep her on the floor with you through theentirety of the next song. Deal?”
I took his hand andshook it. “Which girl is it again?”
“That one,” hesaid. “The girl wearing the white sweater and pink dress.”
I saw a tallbrunette with long straight hair and shapely legs in the far corner. She lookedpretty good from where we were, but her back was to us.
I whipped off myjacket and threw it at his face. “Keep an eye on that for me.”
I walked throughthe dance floor and made a beeline toward the girl. It was getting near the endof the night and the DJ had already started up the slow jams. If I was going towin the bet, I had to work fast. I checked my breath by huffing into my palmand taking a whiff. It smelled passable enough, like a mix of French fries andspearmint chewing gum. I got close to the brunette and leaned in her ear.“Excuse me, do you wanna dance?”
“That depends,” thebrunette said as she turned around. “Do I get a share of the bet?”
Standing before mewas Ally. Gone was her ever present Cincinnati Reds baseball cap. In its placewas a long, silky head of hair that flowed with every little motion. Her funkyrimmed glasses were gone too. I saw a pair of deep brown eyes and longeyelashes touched with a bit of makeup. Her lips, which were usually smackingon a piece of bubble gum, looked redder and fuller. She had on a fluffy whitesweater and a soft pink dress that made me think of the sky before sunset. Shewas the most beautiful girl that I had ever seen.
Ally snapped herfingers. “Earth to Brandon, come in.”
I blinked for whatfelt like the first time in a long time. “Um…sorry about that.”
“You and Josh areplaying ‘Two Bucks‘ aren‘t you? What‘s the bet?”
“The bet is thatI‘m…um, supposed to talk to um…the girl that he pointed at…um…you…which youalready know…and we‘re supposed to dance for one song.” Jeez, how many timescan a guy use “um” in a sentence?
She tilted her headand her hair cascaded down alongside her like a waterfall. “Well, I don‘t wantto make it too easy for you,” she said.
“Huh?”
“The bet. I‘vegotta make it at least look good.”
I smiled. “Oh youdo, do you?”
“Of course,” shebeamed. “So, let me hear it.”
I had never noticedhow beautiful her smile was. “Um...hear what?”
“Your pick up line.If you didn‘t know me, what line would you have used to get me to go and dancewith you?”
I shuffled my feeta bit. “I pretty much gave it.”
“So your best lineconsists of ‘Excuse me, do you wanna dance?’”
“Well, I tend tosay it with a great deal of charm,” I said as I extended my hand. “So, what doyou say?”
She gave me a tinysmile. “Okay.”
I walked beside hertoward the dance floor until we got to a small clearing in the middle. We facedeach other and I put my hands at her waist. A flush of heat ran up to my headand pulled my hands away. “Sorry, was that okay?” I asked her.
She put her handson my shoulders and laughed. “Yes, Brandon. It‘s fine.”
Neither of us saidanything for the first few moments. At times, I‘d look at her face and watchthe colored lights move across her cheeks and shine on her eyes. But when sheturned toward me, I‘d look away and marvel at the mirror ball above us. When Ithought it might be safe to look back, I‘d catch her looking down toward thefloor. This happened a couple more times until we finally met eye to eye. Weboth laughed and the tension in my shoulders melted away. From that moment on,neither of us looked away.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hi,” she said.
“Tell me if I stepon your feet. “
She smiled. “Iwill. “
“They‘re nice,” Isaid. “Your shoes, I mean. They‘re nice.”
“Thanks,” she saidas she stroked her hair behind her ear. “I like your shirt. “
“This old thing?” Iasked. I moved my hands from her sides to her back.
She rested herhands on my shoulders and bit her lip. “It fits you really well. “
My hands brushedagainst her hair. “I never knew your hair was so long. “
“That‘s because Iusually have it tied up and under a baseball cap. “ Her fingers grazed the backof my neck.
“I like it,” Isaid. I moved my hands upward until I could feel the ends of her long strandsof hair near the middle of her back. “It‘s soft. “
She brushed a fewstray hairs away from my eyes. “You‘ve got soft hair too.”
The music swelledin my ears. My fingers brushed against the tiny straps of her dress. Shecaressed my neck with both hands and nestled her cheek against mine. I liftedmy head from her shoulder and pressed my forehead against hers. I stared rightinto her closed eyes and I could feel myself losing air.
“Ally?”I asked.
Her eyes opened.“Yes, Brandon?”
I tilted my headand drifted toward her. I felt the heat from her lips getting closer and closerto mine. I got a whiff of her cherry perfume and felt dizzy. But as our lipswere about to touch, I felt a rhythmic buzzing on my chest. Ally looked down ather tiny purse trapped between us. She looked down and I felt her shouldersslump.
“It‘s my pager,”she said.
“A what?” I asked.I knew what a pager was. But my brain wasn’t exactly working at the moment.
“Dad makes me carryone whenever I go out,” she said as she reached into her purse. “It‘s fromhome. I‘d better call them back. Did you see a payphone around here?”
I shook my head toget my vision back in focus. “Um…there‘sone near the bathrooms toward the back.”
She smiled andgrabbed my hand. “I‘ll look for you when I get back.”
“I‘ll be here,” Isaid. We kept eye contact as she made her way across the room.
Author
Charmeljun Gallardois a former Radiologist and author. His first book is Readyfor the World young adult book series. He graduated from San Francisco StateUniversity with a Creative Writing degree in 1996. He is a writer, photography enthusiast,sports fan, movie geek, stroke survivor, and an adventurous foodie. He lives inSan Diego, California with his wife and son.
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