How to Speak Boy

by Tiana Smith

  We took our seats on the grass with everyone else. My teammates were all talking excitedly about something, but I was too busy wondering if Coach smiled at Grayson too.

  The whole time we were eating, I couldn’t taste my food. Twenty minutes had never felt so long in all my life. By the time Coach stood up on the porch and waved for us all to be quiet, I was pretty sure I was developing an ulcer.

  “Welcome to a new season of speech and debate!” she announced, and all I could think was Blah, blah, blah, get on with it already.

  Coach Bates cleared her throat.

  I died a little inside.

  “We have a few announcements, like the itinerary, information on our home tournament since we’re hosting the state competition this year, and other specifics, but I know you all want to find out who this year’s team captain will be.”

  I didn’t breathe.

  “There were so many qualified candidates this year. The problem was narrowing it down.”

  I sneaked a glance over at Grayson, who didn’t seem nearly as concerned as I was. I could feel the eyes of my teammates on me like a heavy blanket. Grayson leaned back nonchalantly in the grass, putting his weight on his elbows. I sat up straighter.

  “I’m breaking with tradition this year,” Coach said. “I couldn’t pick only one, so there will be two. Everyone, please congratulate Quinn Edwards and Grayson Hawks, who will be co–team captains this year!”

  I heard the clapping around me, but it didn’t register. Once again, I hadn’t been enough to beat Grayson.

  “Think of it this way,” Carter said, leaning over, “at least the car ride home won’t be so awkward.”

  But that was where he was so, so wrong.

  Chapter Two

  “So, is it true you and Grayson kissed last week?” Naomi asked as AP Government and Politics was getting out. We’d picked up our bags and were making our way toward the cubbies that held our returned assignments.

  “What?” My head jerked back. “That so did not happen.” I actually stopped where I was and someone bumped into me from behind. I let them pass before continuing at a whisper. “Who said that?” I was going to kill them.

  “Not in so many words,” Naomi said. “Carter said Grayson gave you a ride. I guess I was hoping that someone finally managed to shake your resolve.”

  I resumed walking down the aisle. Yes, I’d gotten a ride from Grayson, because no one else was available. Carter hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he had to leave early. I’d barely asked a handful of people by the time I looked around and realized my backup plan had already left.

  “I’d rather kiss a blobfish than Grayson Hawks. Besides, schoolwork doesn’t allow time for a boyfriend,” I said. This was a common refrain of mine, and the more I said it, the more I almost believed it. This way, my single status was something I’d chosen, rather than the sad reality of my life.

  Some people were naturally good at school. It was effortless. I was not one of those people. I spent twice as long on my homework as Naomi, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at my grades. This was yet another area where Grayson also seemed to excel without trying, which was all kinds of unfair when you competed with him in everything.

  This AP Government class was going to be my doom especially. It was the worst of them all. In general, my grades were okay, enough that my guidance counselor suggested I take this AP class to beef up my college applications. I’d picked Government, figuring that if history relied a lot on memorizing events and stuff like that, I would be fine. If I could memorize speeches, I could memorize historical facts.

  Problem was, memorizing a speech involved strings of words that made sense one after another, and history involved random dates that had nothing to do with anything else. Besides, speech and debate was all about the presentation. The show. A multiple-choice test didn’t care whether you appeared confident or not. It cared whether you knew the answers.

  “Did you at least invite him in?” Naomi asked.

  I scoffed. “Right. I invited my biggest competition into my home for teatime and cookies. Then my mom showed him her photos and we chatted about world peace. No, I didn’t invite him in!”

  The only good thing about that car ride was that I made it from point A to point B when no one else had been able to drive me. The whole time he’d pushed my buttons and made me flustered to the point that simply stepping out of the car had been a relief.

  Naomi nodded like she agreed with everything I’d said, but her eyes told a different story. They were all squinty at the sides and she wouldn’t really make eye contact. We made it up to the front of the room and separated to our perspective cubbies. Hers was on the right and mine was on the far left, because our school ID numbers were so far apart.

  We never used names for any of our assignments at our high school. School IDs were on everything. Supposedly it was to help the teachers grade fairly, but I was pretty sure they all had my number memorized by now. I bet they laughed about me in the teacher’s lounge. Oh, that poor 15511. Will they ever pull it together?

  I grabbed my assignment from the cubby and shoved it in my backpack without looking at it. Naomi met me at the door.

  “How’d you do?” she asked.

  “Don’t know, don’t care,” I replied.

  Naomi rolled her eyes at me.

  “Not looking at your score won’t change it. I know you secretly care. This is like when you kept putting off going to the barbecue. Sometimes you simply need to face the facts.”

  “I will look at it,” I said. “Just somewhere more private, thank you very much.”

  Naomi raised an eyebrow, but let it go. “Congrats on the team captain thing, by the way.”

  “Co–team captain,” I corrected her. “I have to share the title. With Grayson.” I’d been stewing about it all weekend. On the one hand, I’d gotten everything that I’d wanted. But on the other, well, so had Grayson. Was it really so much to ask that I beat him at just one thing? It’d been far too long since that had happened.

  Naomi and I walked down the hallway toward our lockers. AP Government was our last class of the day, so we took our time.

  Naomi turned to me, and I knew she was up to something. There was that glint in her eye. “So, if you and Grayson are co–team captains, does that mean you’ll be spending a lot of time with him?” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. I pushed her away, but she was not deterred. “Because you two would make the cutest couple.”

  “Hush, you,” I said, looking around to see if anyone else had noticed the breakdown my best friend was having. Thankfully, everyone else was too preoccupied with what they were doing.

  “I thought you were supposed to be my friend. Why would you wish that kind of evil on me?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “You know he only teases you like that because he’s dying for your attention. He likes you.”

  “Right.” I snorted. “Like how he liked Zara Hayer? What happened there again? Oh, yeah, he used her to win the election. We’re competitors, Naomi. Zara just wasn’t smart enough to see it coming.”

  “Never judge anyone by their exes.” Naomi shuddered, and I pounced on the opportunity for a subject change.

  “Oh, you mean like when you dated Matt ‘Mouth Breather’ Brayford?”

  “For one week!” Naomi laughed. “In eighth grade!”

  “Mmm-hmm,” I hummed, playing it up.

  The more I got her thinking about herself, the better. Then maybe she’d forget about playing matchmaker between me and my sworn enemy.

  I opened up my locker and started organizing the books I’d need to take home.

  “You know, I hear Matt’s single,” I said, hoping to leave the topic of Grayson far behind.

  “Speak of the devil,” Naomi murmured, and I turned to face her so she could get the full force of my teasing grin.

  “Oh, is the mouth breather nearby?” I asked, not bothering to keep my voice low.

  That was when I heard him behind me, and
it wasn’t Matt Brayford.

  “Hey, Quinn,” Grayson said.

  I turned so fast my backpack hit him in the stomach, and he steadied himself by grabbing my shoulder. Why was he standing so close?

  “Ummm, hi.” I wasn’t sure what my face looked like right now. Then again, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. I could already feel the heat creeping up my neck, and I was pretty sure my skin was blotchy. It tended to do that when I got nervous, like when I was waiting for something horrible to happen. Grayson removed his hand and leaned against the row of lockers.

  “I forgot to get your number on Friday.” He pulled his phone from his pocket, like he had no doubt I’d give him my number simply because he asked.

  I looked at Grayson, confused and unable to actually do anything besides stand there. Students moved all around us, but it was like I was caught in my own mini bubble of inactivity. Naomi nudged me from behind and I regained enough sense to utter a single word.

  “What?”

  “Your phone number?” Grayson asked, his brows pulling together.

  Grayson Hawks was asking for my phone number. But why? So he could prank call me in the middle of the night?

  “You know,” Grayson said. “Because we’ll be co–team captains, unfortunately. I guess we should have a way to get ahold of each other.”

  I stared at his phone, wondering how many ways he could use my phone number against me. Then again, did I have a choice? Whether I liked it or not—hint, I didn’t—we’d have to work together this year. Ugh.

  “Right,” I said, nodding to my internal thoughts as much as I was answering him. “Here, give me your phone and I’ll put it in.”

  My fingers moved robotically, punching the numbers in, one by one. By the time I handed him back his phone, I was pretty sure I could talk civilly.

  “Smile,” he said, taking a picture of me. I heard the click before I could process what he was doing.

  I scowled. “I wasn’t ready.”

  He looked at his phone and pinched his lips to one side. “Whoa, you’re right. You’re usually much more photogenic than this, Quinn, yikes. What’s going on with your hair?”

  I quickly swiped his phone from him to see for myself, but the picture I saw was normal. But that didn’t matter, because Grayson was already laughing at my response.

  “Relax, you take everything too seriously.” He took his phone back, presumably programming my picture in with my phone number. A second later, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

  “I just texted you so you have my number now.” Grayson’s eyes crinkled around the corners when he smiled. “I know it might be tempting, but try not to send me anything too scandalous.”

  I rolled my eyes and he started to walk away, but I couldn’t let him get the last word.

  “So, you get an awkward picture of me, but I don’t get one of you?” I called. Grayson turned, a smirk already on his face. He held his arms out to his sides, as if to say, Ready when you are.

  I clicked his picture. It was a shame he was so good-looking. What a waste of a pretty face.

  “You good?” Grayson asked, and I nodded.

  “You have my number. Don’t be afraid to use it,” he said. Then he turned and walked away again. I brought my phone back to my pocket and spun around to find Naomi watching me, her smugness radiating off her in waves.

  “What?” I asked, already knowing what she was going to say, even though she was dead wrong.

  “He was flirting with you. I totally saw it.”

  I scoffed. “I was there too, remember? And he definitely was not flirting.” She should know; that was simply part of Grayson’s enigmatic personality. Sometimes he was cheeky, sometimes he was smooth, but he always had his own agenda in mind. I knew better than anyone else that he wasn’t to be trusted. It was a show, just like his speeches. His mom had taught him all she knew about winning people over, and Grayson was a natural. When he wanted to be, or when he had something to gain, he could be very charming. And sure, maybe sometimes I enjoyed our little spats. When I came out on top. But that was a secret I’d take to my grave.

  I hiked my backpack up on my shoulder and closed my locker door. Naomi watched me with one eyebrow raised, but I pretended not to see.

  “You’re like a pesky little gnat. Or a tall one, rather. Don’t you have practice?” I asked, motioning for her to shoo.

  She scowled, then sighed. “Catch you later.” Her curls bounced as she walked away.

  It was only after she’d rounded the corner that I finally allowed myself to look at my returned assignment for AP Government.

  I pulled it free from my backpack and stared at the red A at the top, not understanding what I was seeing. Seriously? An A? That had never happened before. Well, not in my hardest class.

  Finally, all my hard work actually amounted to something. I grinned and brought the paper close to my chest, clutching it there in a hug. My entire body felt weightless and I leaned back against the lockers before I could do anything reckless, like shout my success to the hallway. But I couldn’t stop smiling, no matter how hard I tried. Passing freshman gave me weird looks. Not that I cared. I brought the paper in front of me again, to make sure I hadn’t been imagining things. But there it was, a bright red A, slashed across the top like a crimson kiss of approval.

  But then I saw something I’d missed earlier, and my grin dropped. The student ID number at the top of the paper was one digit off from mine. Instead of 15511, this one read 15211.

  This was not my assignment.

  Chapter Three

  I had my own practice to get to. But on the way there, I stopped by my AP Government classroom. No one was there to witness my humiliation, including the teacher, thankfully. I didn’t need her apologetic look as I explained to her that I’d actually thought I’d earned a good grade in her class for once.

  I checked the cubbies surrounding mine, looking to see if perhaps my assignment got shelved to the right or something. They were all empty. Most likely my assignment had gotten switched with 15211’s because our numbers were so similar, so I found theirs and looked inside to see if my assignment was there. It wasn’t.

  But I’d had mixed up assignments happen before over the years, so the odds were pretty good that it’d happened again. Whoever it was must have taken mine home without realizing the teacher’s mistake. Poor A student, thinking they’d bombed the homework. Well, I didn’t feel too sorry for them.

  I ripped a page from my notebook and pulled out a pen to write 15211 a note. If they didn’t have my assignment, at least they’d be able to tell me so I could ask our teacher what might have happened.

  Sorry if I gave your AP Government–loving heart some kind of an attack when you saw my grade instead of yours. I’m guessing our assignments got swapped, and even though I’m sure my grade is spectacular in comparison, it’d be great if I could get it back. If you don’t have my assignment, please let me know so I can hound Ms. Navarrete about the black hole in her office. But yeah, if you do, please send it back. You know, so I can hang it on my wall of shame or something like that.

  More like, I needed to know which questions I’d gotten wrong, so I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice, which I was sure to do anyway.

  I placed their assignment and my note in their cubby, then walked out the door and to the stairs leading to the second floor. Speech practice was held in the theater classroom, which was ironically one of the farthest rooms from the auditorium where they actually performed. But Coach Bates also taught theater, which was why we met in her room.

  At the base of the stairway, my phone dinged with a text from my mom.

  First speech practice as team captain. SO PROUD OF YOU!

  She took the cheerleader thing a little far sometimes, but I loved her anyway. I sent back several kissing face emojis and put the phone back in my pocket. I squared my shoulders and walked up the stairs. It was time.

  Grayson was already there. Of course. He’d probably come straight here after he
’d left my locker because he wanted to make me look bad. I pulled up the desk next to him and sat down, pretending like I wasn’t itching to leave his presence already.

  “So,” I said, pulling out my notebook, “I guess we need a game plan on how we’re going to not strangle each other. How do you think we should divvy up the captain duties?”

  He placed his elbow on the edge of his desk, bringing his hand to his chin like he was pondering life’s mysteries.

  “Not even a little strangulation? What about light hazing?”

  I rolled my eyes and he chuckled, leaning back in his chair and placing his hands behind his head.

  “Okay, okay,” Grayson said. “We should probably do the food planning for our home tournament together, since it’s the state meet and that’s kind of a big deal. But Coach wants us to work with some of the newer members during practices and we could do that from opposite ends of the room, if you can’t stand being next to all my awesomeness. What do you want to do about team activities?”

  “Yes,” I said dryly. “It’s so hard to be next to your … awesomeness.” I leaned over as if inspecting something unpleasant. “Is that a TARDIS on your shirt?”

  He smiled, completely unfazed by my scrutiny, holding out the bottom edge of his shirt to better show off the graphic. “The fact that you called it a TARDIS and not a phone booth means maybe there’s hope for you after all.”

  I sighed. “Back to business, please. I could plan the Thanksgiving party if you want to do the bus cheer on the way to tournaments.” The bus cheer was the one thing I did not want to touch with a ninety-nine-and-a-half-foot pole. The team captain had to come up with a different one for each meet and, on the bus ride there, was forced to stand up at the front and get everyone pumped to compete. It was humiliating. And I didn’t want anything to do with it.