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Episode 10: Just in Time
Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? But after waiting far too long to produce this tenth episode, I have finally finished it! This time we see Juliana with another one of her rare, but seemingly endless hiccup cases. They're just in time to spoil something that could be totally wonderful. And come to find out, she isn't the only one in that rather unenviable position. Hope you enjoy it, and I promise I won't make the next one take so long! --The Author
*HUCK* Juliana Davis sat at the lunch table with her friends, silently wishing her hiccups - which were definitely not silent - would just quit.
"Aren't you gonna get something to eat, Jules?" her friend Ellie asked, looking from her own plate of food to the empty space on the table in front of the hiccupping girl. "Or are your hiccups too bad for eating?"
"No, *hic* it's not that, I'm just n-*huck* not hungry," Juliana explained. "They just *huck* sound bad; they hardly hu-*hic* hurt at all."
"Oh, I see, that's good," Ellie said.
"I *huck* really do wish they'd st-*huck* stop, though, cause I want *hic* to go talk to him," Juliana continued, looking toward another table partway across the room.
"Talk to whom?" her friend Hannah asked. Then she remembered, "Oh, you mean - the guy you're going out with tonight?"
"Yep," Juliana answered with a playful smile.
"Come on, tell us, who is it?" Hannah, Ellie, and the others around the table asked, almost in unison. It wasn't that often that Juliana was asked out, and even less often that she would accept.
Juliana laughed. "OK, well I *huck* guess it's about time I tell y-*hic* you."
"Yay! Who is it? Who is it?" Hannah giggled.
"You really *huck* want to know?" Juliana teased.
"Yes!" they all answered.
"Well, *huck* his name is Justin," she hinted.
Hannah thought for a moment, considering the different guys named Justin in their school. "Justin Walker?"
"No."
"Justin Brown?" Ellie guessed.
"No again, *huck*" Juliana said.
"It's not Justin Toussaint, is it?" Hannah ventured, naming a kid three grades back of them who constantly tried to hit on the older girls - with minimal success.
Juliana had to laugh. "No way!"
Ellie gasped. "Juliana! Did you get asked out by Justin Thomas?"
"You got it!" Juliana replied, beaming.
Justin Thomas was the guy that all the girls in Juliana's age group practically idolized. He was very good-looking and athletic, and on top of that, he was a really smart guy. He didn't ask many girls out, but those that he did always said he was the sweetest date they had ever had.
"Oh my God, you are so lucky!" another girl at the table said. "How did you ever get the hottest guy in school to ask you out? I mean, you're great and all, but he doesn't ask just anyone on a date - he hasn't even asked me out before!"
"I really *huck* don't know, Rachel," Juliana admitted, not bothering to comment on her friend's rather condescending inference. "I've hardly even met *hic* him."
"Wow, so why don't you go talk to him?" Hannah asked.
"I can't *huck* go talk to him hiccupping *huck* like this!" Juliana said.
"Why not?" Hannah pressed. "I mean, he knows you can't help it."
Juliana wasn't convinced. "Still, *hic-cup* that would be so em-*huck* embarrassing! You - *huck* you know, not all guys a-*hic* are turned on by hiccups l-*hic* like Chris is."
"Whatever," Hannah capitulated. "But I still think you should just ignore them and go talk to him."
* * * * *
A few hours later, the two girls were walking together out of their last class of the day, with Juliana's hiccups still going like there was no tomorrow. "What *huck* am I gonna do if I *hulk* still have these tonight when we-*huck* we're supposed to go out? *huck*" she asked, slightly concerned.
"Aw, don't worry about that," Hannah said. "They'll be gone by then."
"I'm not *hic* so sure about that..." Juliana worried. "I've had *hic* them all day, and you kn-*huck* know when I get them, they *hic* last forever."
"Well, how about this," Hannah suggested, "I've got to go over to Chris's place to take him his papers and all, since he's sick. So you and your hiccups come with me and we'll try to get some help curing them from the Beloit's, OK?"
"Well, *hulk* it can't h-*huck* hurt, I guess," Juliana admitted, though she wasn't convinced that anything Chris's family could do would help. She didn't get the hiccups often - no more than three or four times in a year - but when she did, they were almost always an all-day affair, sometimes even lasting a few days before finally relenting.
When the two girls entered the Beloits' home, however, what should they hear coming from within but - that's right - hiccups. "Sounds like you're not alone," Hannah laughed.
In the midst of the living room stood Mrs. Beloit, bent over a cup of water in the infamous "drinking upside-down" pose. When Hannah asked what was the matter, Sarah explained that her mom had an important presentation to make at work in less than a half-hour, and a case of hiccups was the last thing she wanted interrupting her!
Yet despite a number of upside-down drinking attempts, as well as few other purported hiccup cures that they came up with, Mrs. Beloit's hiccups were not going to stop. Finally, she gave up and quickly got ready to go to work for her important meeting and presentation. Meanwhile, Chris and Amanda had come home, and as Mrs. Beloit left, they all now started working on Juliana's hiccups.
Upside-down water didn't work. Deep breathing didn't work. Breathing into a paper bag didn't work. As the list of unsuccessful cures grew longer, and Juliana was starting to get discouraged, all of the sudden, the smoke detector started beeping loudly, and Chris came running into the living room.
"Fire! Fire!" he yelled.
"What? Where?" the girls screamed, practically in unison.
"In the kitchen," he answered, darting back down the hall and into the kitchen. Moments later, as the girls were already rushing down the hall, he popped back out of the supposedly burning room. "Oh, never mind," he said, smirking. "There's no fire. But did I stop your hiccups?"
"Christopher James Beloit!" Sarah scolded, "You had us scared to death!"
"I'm sorry," he said, and then quickly added, "But did it work?"
Juliana beamed. "I think it did! Thank you soooo much!" She threw her arms around his neck. "You're the greatest," she giggled. "Now I have to go get ready so I'm not late. Thanks so much for your help!"
"No problem," Chris answered. "I wish I had thought of that for Mom."
The girls exchanged good-byes and Juliana left, very grateful that her all-day hiccups had been stopped in time for her date.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, Mrs. Beloit hadn't had the same luck; and as she made the short drive to the office, she was incredibly frustrated by her hiccups. They were rather slow, only one every ten or fifteen seconds or so, and they weren't particularly loud. But they were hard hiccups, and they were very obvious when they interrupted her speech. Not only that, but even if she kept them silent, her body clearly gave them away. Even when she tried to keep still, her head and upper body would jerk back and upward, and her neck would cave in with every hiccup. In short, they were supremely embarrassing to her. She tried desperately to stop them, but everything she tried was to no avail.
When she got to work, she rushed as inconspicuously as possible to her office, where she made one last effort to stop the hiccups. But all she managed to do was make them even harder. Finally, she resigned herself to her apparent fate. "OK," she spoke firmly to herself, "I'm going to go out there, and I'm g-*HURK* going to make my presentation as if nothing is wrong, even if I am hiccupping like a *HURK* schoolgirl." She took a deep breath, and stepped out of her office, headed for the meeting room.
Before she even made it to the meeting room, her manager met her in the hall. "I'm very interested to hear the findings of your research," he said. "By the way, about how long are you going to need today?"
"Probably fifteen or twenty minutes, I'll try to keep it from going beyond t-*HURK* that," she answered, interrupted by a powerful hiccup. "Oh, excuse me, I've got really bad hiccups right now."
The boss laughed. "Annoying things, aren't they?"
"Definitely," she replied, far more jovially than she felt about the matter.
As she sat through her manager's introduction to the meeting, she kept her mouth firmly shut, and her hiccups remained silent. Silent does not imply unnoticeable, though, and she received a few odd looks from those around the table as she bounced a few times every minute.
Her time to speak came, and she hiccupped before she had even gotten her slideshow program running. However, as she started into her report, she was amazed to realize that the hiccups had stopped - at the last possible moment. With a great deal of relief, she continued on through her talk, hiccup-free.
* * * * *
Juliana was also enjoying being hiccup-free as she made the short walk home from the Beloit's house. "I don't know what I would have done on a date with the hiccups like that," she mused as she rounded the last corner onto her street. Then just as she passed Hannah's house, the very last one before her own, she hiccupped.
"Oh my God, NO!" she wailed aloud. She actually cried as the hiccups started right back into full swing - now even more disappointed than she would have been had they never stopped!
Actually, it wasn't really that the hiccups bothered her so much. They were rather uncomfortable and inconvenient, but the main thing was simply the fact that they contributed to her usual feelings of inferiority. She just about always felt like she wasn't as good as other people - she didn't feel as pretty, as popular, or even as intelligent. On top of that, it always seemed like things went as badly as possible for her. Although she rarely showed it, the fact that guys almost never asked her out had always bothered her; it made her feel like she somehow wasn't good enough. And here she had finally been asked out - by a really great guy, in fact - and right on cue, it appeared that her hiccupping body was going to find a way to ruin it.
As she came into the house, her dad, who was already home, was startled to see the tears in her eyes. "What's the matter, sweetheart?" he asked with obvious concern.
"I have a date *huck* tonight, but I just g-*hic* got the freakin' hiccups again!" Juliana moaned.
Mr. Davis knew his daughter, ever the perfectionist, couldn't countenance the thought of being on a date anything less than perfect. Thus while some girls might have shrugged off the hiccups with little more than a wry "oh well", it was a major problem in her perspective. "Well you still have some time; they could still stop between now and then," he suggested optimistically.
As Juliana went about the various tasks involved in getting ready to go, her hiccups showed little sign of quitting. When she showered, the hiccups rang through the small bathroom. When she stood in front of the mirror to put on a little makeup, they jerked her head at the most inconvenient times. Brushing her teeth, she practically choked on the toothpaste thanks to an ill-timed hiccup. Despite all the activity, when she emerged from her room, as pretty as can be, the hiccups continued unabated. "How do I *huck* look?" she asked.
"You look perfectly beautiful!" Mr. Davis exclaimed, truly impressed with his daughter's appearance. Her dark brown hair was all done up nicely, her face was rosy, and she was wearing the cutest little light blue outfit. "I dare say you'll be the prettiest girl Justin Thomas has ever taken out," he said with a smile.
"Aww, thanks, *hic*" she replied. Then she frowned. "Do you *hic* think he'll still really w-*huck* want to go out with me *huck* hiccupping like this? *huck* I mean, it's got to be embarrassing going ou-*hilk*-t on a date with a girl who's *hic* got the hiccups all night!"
"Don't worry about that; I doubt it will bother him at all," Mr. Davis assured her.
Juliana wasn't convinced. "But *hulk* what if he like, thinks *hic* they're gross or something a-*hic* and doesn't like me because of them? *hic-ulk*"
"Well, if he's the kind of guy that wouldn't like you just because of something silly like that, then he's certainly not the guy you want to be dating in the first place," he reasoned.
Their discussion was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Oh God, that *hic* must be him now," Juliana gasped. "Pray for me!"
It was indeed Justin, and so after brief greetings and introductions, they headed out to his car.
"You look so pretty tonight!" he said when they had both gotten in.
"Why thanks! *huck*" she replied.
"Man, Juliana, you still have the hiccups?" he asked incredulously, hearing her last un-stifled hiccup.
Juliana blushed a deep red. "Yeah, *hic* I'm really sorry. They stopped for *huck* like 15 minutes earlier, but th-*hic* they came back. I hope they d-*huck* don't annoy you."
"Oh, don't worry about it, he assured her. "I'm just sorry they're still bothering you."
Just as Mr. Davis had said, Justin didn't mind Juliana's hiccups in the least. He offered to do something different if they were going to keep her from being able to have dinner. The simple fact that they didn't bother him made Juliana feel much better. She decided to have a little to eat, and they had a very nice time.
Talking was rather entertaining since she was constantly being interrupted by hiccups, but they just laughed about it, and had a really great conversation. Even though Juliana wasn't really talkative, she really seemed to be able to open up and have plenty to say to Justin. Despite having only been with him for a few minutes, she felt so much happier, well - just because! She couldn't help but wonder - was this what true love really felt like? "No way," she chided herself. Something as wonderful as that couldn't possibly happen to her. Or could it? Whatever this feeling was, she wasn't about to let it go.
After dinner, they ended up going bowling - something that hiccups wouldn't cause any problem with! Juliana had never been bowling before, so Justin taught her how to hold the ball and release it down the lane. His short instruction and a lot of beginner's luck paid off as her first heave of the ball sent it rolling right down the middle, and amazingly, knocked down all ten pins.
"Oh my *hic-ulk* goodness, what is that ca-*hic* called when it knocks down *hic* all of them?" she asked, bouncing with excitement.
Justin laughed. "It's called a strike," he informed her, throwing his own ball down the lane, resulting in a spare. "And it's pretty sad when a girl who's never thrown a bowling ball before outscores me on the very first frame!"
"I *hulk* know!"
"A girl with the hiccups, nonetheless," he teased.
The rest of the match didn't fall quite so impressively for Juliana; it was only a few throws later that she had to ask what it was called when the ball missed the pins altogether! In the end, though, they both had a great time.
Justin had always thought Juliana seemed like a really great girl; after all, he probably wouldn't have asked her out otherwise. But now as they spent just a short evening together, he really felt attracted to her in a way he had hardly expected. She had never been known as a really "hot" girl, but he found her beautiful nonetheless. Everything about their evening had been so wonderful - the conversation, the dinner together, and the fun they had at the bowling alley. Juliana's crazy hiccups hadn't even been able to stop that! So it was that on the drive back home, he asked if she would like to go out again on Saturday night, just a couple days away.
Juliana was nothing short of thrilled. "I'd love *hic* to!" she answered excitedly.
Even when they arrived at her house, they sat for several minutes longer in the car, just talking and enjoying one another's company.
When they finally did part, and Juliana went inside, it was instantly clear to Mr. Davis that everything had gone very well, and that those constant hiccups hadn't been a problem for either her or Justin.
After she happily recounted the events of the evening to him, she went to Hannah's house to tell her all about it, as well. As she listened to Juliana's excited description of her date, Hannah was so happy to see the joy on her friend's face. "Juliana really deserves something great like this," she thought to herself, remembering how many times her friend had felt so unloved and inferior. She could only hope that the friendship Juliana and Justin were beginning would grow into something truly amazing. But along with that hope, she knew that, whatever ended up happening, Juliana would remember this wonderful evening for a long time.