by Kristie Cook
“Yeah, but you come up to it from your locker on the East wing, Clara’s locker is on the South. You don’t even touch delinquent hall and it’d take too long for her to walk around it.”
She pouted and looked hurt. I knew better. Witch.
“Are you ok?” Tate asked quietly. “Did he hurt you?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“You’re sure? I’m sure I can find out who this guy is. I’ll make sure he understands not to-”
“I’m fine. Really,” I soothed and put my hand on his leg. “So, what time is your match?”
“Uh … .five. You’re coming right?”
“Yep. I love to see you hug sweaty men. It really does it for me,” I said sarcastically but with a sweet smile plastered on.
“Aww,” he crooned and pinched my cheek. “What a thoughtful girlfriend.”
I laughed and leaned in to kiss him quickly but he pulled me back to him, keeping me there and once again, kissing me in front of the whole school, which he never did. I had a feeling this had a lot to do with Eli but I would never accuse of him of such.
With his hand on my cheek I let him kiss me. When I heard our friends start to comment and joke, I pulled back and licked my lips before looking up, straight to Eli.
He was looking between ecstasy and pain. It was strange how he got that look but this time he didn’t seem to be enjoying it, whatever it was; like it was something he had to do but didn’t like it.
When he saw me looking he quickly schooled his features into neutral and began studying his food, but I was intrigued now to say the least. I looked back up to Tate to see smug satisfaction as he threw his arm over my shoulder. He was content for the moment and that was good enough for me.
“So, babe. Wanna do something after the match? We can go to Snitzy’s.”
“Yes!” Deidre chimed loudly like her say was final. “Let’s all go to Snitzy’s after the match.”
“I meant me and you,” he muttered softly to me, but we both knew better than to mess with Deidre.
“Bell’s about to ring,” Mike said.
“Crap,” Tate said sitting up. “I gotta go all the way to the back lot so I’m gonna take off.” He looked at me. “See you in the stands?”
“I’ll be there.”
He kissed me quickly and shot up from his seat, striding across the lunchroom with a smile. Our group quickly dispersed from there. I asked Eli about the rest of his schedule. We had every class together after lunch.
Great.
So, we walked together. I told him about the wrestling match tonight and asked if he wanted to come. My friends had been friendly enough to him. Sarah still giggled at him and made flirty jokes about his accent. He said he would like to go and I told him where and when.
We were assigned alphabetically in the next class, Math, so we didn’t get to sit beside each other; which was probably for the best anyway. It went by quickly as we were given our books and an outline of our curriculum for the year. Then our next and last class of the day was Art. We walked together again. I told myself it was to show him where it was but I could foresee us walking together everyday. Why not?
Art was a laid back—sit wherever—do whatever—kinda thing. I moseyed nonchalantly to the back and took a corner work desk. It was a two seater, kind of like a lab desk. Eli came to stand beside me and I couldn’t tell if I was happy or not about the fact that he was going to ask to sit down.
“Do you think I could sit here, or would Tate not be happy about that?”
“Um …” I stalled.
“Alright. Just thought I’d ask even though I already knew the answer,” he said and turned to go.
I bit my lip. This was ridiculous. Tate couldn’t tell me who to be friends with.
“Wait,” I called. “It’s fine.”
“Don’t feel sorry for me. I can sit somewhere else, it’s fine. I just figured it’d be more fun to sit with you.”
“I don’t feel sorry for you. I want you to sit. I never get to pair off with anyone I know for these things.”
“You’re sure? I don’t want to get you in trouble.”
I bristled at his implication but knew it wasn’t really him I was upset about. If Tate hadn’t showed his butt last night, Eli would have no reason to think that.
“No, I promise. It’s fine.”
He sat down, taking off his bag and throwing it over the edge of the chair. I didn’t want things to be weird so I started talking right away.
“So. Where did you go to school before? Did you go to where your parents taught?”
“Yep. Over there kids of all ages sit in the same classroom. It was weird I guess. It was kind of like being homeschooled. It was very laid back and they tried to make it fun.”
“That’s sounds cool. So why did you move to the states?”
“Back to the states, actually,” he clarified. “We lived in Seattle until I was twelve. Then moved to Zimbabwe until now. Now I’m eighteen, graduating and they’ll be leaving for some other place soon and I’ll have to figure out what I want to do.”
“I hear you there. I’m so lost on what to do with the rest of my life.”
“What do your parents do?” he asked, putting his head on his elbow to look at me.
“They died a few months ago,” I answered smoothly and tried to keep the sting out of my voice.
That response always elicited mixed responses from people and I tried to not make it uncomfortable for them by tearing up.
“Ah, man, I’m sorry.”
I shrugged. It wasn’t like I could say ‘it’s ok’ because it wasn’t, but I could at least try to keep it together.
The teacher came in and started to explain our goals for the year. To create a piece for submission to any art school of our choice, whether we wanted to go to Art school or not, was our final grade.
“And today, we’ll be learning about shading. No piddling in my class. We’ll be starting right out of the gate with a graded project due by the end of class.”
The collective groan of the class was lost on me. I was excited. Art was exciting and fun and with Eli as my table partner, I had a feeling it would be interesting this year.
“I’m sorry I brought up your parents,” he said and looked up at me a moment before looking back to his paper.
“It’s ok that you did. You couldn’t have known,” I said and felt my heart break a little at having to say that. “I want to remember them. It’s nice to talk about them sometimes. Everyone else avoids it because they think it’ll make me sad.”
Having to tell someone they were allowed to bring my parents up … It was just wrong. I looked at Eli and saw that same expression on his face as before. Ecstasy wrapped in pain and discomfort.
“Are you ok?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered, his voice strained. “I’m fine, just uh …” He looked at me and I felt bad. I had made him uncomfortable with all that dead parent talk and now he was embarrassed or something. I felt even worse. And then his face twisted even more. “I’ve got to go,” he said suddenly and huskily.
“What? Class just started?” I protested, completely baffled.
“I’ll see you tonight, ok? At the match,” he called as he grabbed his stuff and made a swift getaway out the classroom door.
I was so very confused, but what could I do? I didn’t have his number to check on him. He’d been acting kind of weird all day. I would ask him tonight. Maybe he was going through something or having a problem about moving again.
Class ended uneventfully and I turned my shade in of a Dogwood tree along the river bank to which the teacher smiled at me me in appreciation. I made my way across the street quickly and prepared for the barrage of screams and squeals.
“Clara! Clara’s home!” Josiah announced loudly, as he did everyday.
“Clawa!” Hannah yelled happily and wrapped herself around my leg. “I had fishies today.”
“You did,” I crooned and picked her up, slating her to my hip.
“Oh, man. I could really chow down on some gold fishies right now.”
“There’s more! In there!” she pointed towards the kitchen and I followed her instruction. “Mommy, mommy! Clawa wants fishies too!”
“Oh does she now?” Ruth said and smiled at me. “Hi, Clara. How was school today?”
“Great. I can handle my new classes pretty well. And there was a new guy today. Eli, from Zimbabwe.”
“Really? That’s interesting. What was he doing there?”
“He said his parents were some kind of teaching missionaries or something.”
“That’s awesome. God Bless them. Now, honey, would you mind taking this stack of letters to the post office on your way to the match tonight? I didn’t make it today and it’s the get well cards for the church members.”
“Sure. No problem.”
“You’re such a sweet girl. You know we love having you around, don’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am, I do, and I like being here too.”
“Good. Have fun tonight and you know Pastor’s rules.”
“No after midnight and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do if he was watching me.”
“That’s our girl. Everybody say, have fun Clara.”
A sweet shrill untamed chorus of ‘have fun Clara’ rang out as I smiled and ran to my room in the back of the hall. The parish was a small but pretty green cottage type house right next to the church. It was one story but I got lucky, my room was all the way on the other side of the house so I never heard babies crying at night.
I took a quick shower and went to put on some clothes. I had to be at the games and matches half an hour early to sell hats and buttons and ribbons and such.
I picked out a red long sleeve shirt and jeans with my black boots, to match our school colors for The Red Devils.
It was getting chilly out at night now but I figured long sleeves were good enough. I fixed my hair in the mirror on my dresser. My room, my temporary room, was cute. It had been Mrs. Ruth’s sewing room but when I moved in, she let me have it because there was no where else to go. The walls were a pastel purple and the trim and carpet was a lime green. She’d asked me several times if I wanted to paint or change anything, but I figured I wouldn’t be here that long and I wanted to make it as easy on them as possible when I left to get things back to normal.
Once I was ready, I headed downstairs and said my goodbyes before walking down to the post office and then hurrying across the street to the school and around back to the gym. Sarah already had our table set up and was putting out all our merchandise. She was the only one of my friends who participated in the sprit squad, or anything really. The boys were into their sports but Dee and Meagan refused anything extracurricular for school.
“Hey! Ready to sell the mess outta some t-shirts? Mrs. Collins said if we don’t sell the t-shirts tonight, she won’t order anymore. I say we kiss whoever buys one. They’ll sell like hotcakes.”
“You go right ahead,” I told her laughing. “I’ll stick to the buttons and mugs.”
Sarah was the quirky friend. She wore these outrageous outfits and her crazy curly red hair was always bunched into some kinda wild bun or pigtails. She was so very pretty and guys liked her because she was fun and outgoing, and her skirts were usually shorter than they should be.
Within no time, the people started pouring in and I saw Eli. He looked casual and did a subtle double take when he saw me. He smiled and made his way over to me, but Sarah intercepted him. I couldn’t hear them because her back was to me, but I saw her put her hand on his arm and I felt a flare of something strange go through me. Jealousy? Me? No …
I looked back up to see Eli watching me with a slightly shocked expression. He seemed almost pleased about something and it irked me even more, though he was looking at me not Sarah. But I had no right or claim to him. I had a boyfriend and felt bad enough as it was. I wiped those thoughts away and concentrated on the people flowing by.
“So, anyway,” she was saying as she walked towards me with her arm in his. “I sit in the middle behind the home team. I’ll find you when I’m done, ok?”
“Alright,” he said smoothly and detangled himself from her. “Clara, hey.”
Sarah bristled and a frown appeared as she heard his tone. She huffed silently and turned to take care of a customer.
“Hey, you made it.”
“I told you I would.”
“Listen. Are you ok? You seem to be acting a little … strange, and you ran out of class today. I’ve never been the new kid before, but I’m sure it sucks.”
“It’s not that. I’m just going through something, I guess.” He stuck his hands in his pockets. “I’m sorry if I was rude.”
“No. No, I was just worried about you,” I assured and turned the ring on my finger to keep from looking at him.
“You were worried about me,” he repeated and smiled crookedly at me.
“Yeah … ok. Well, we’ll be done here in a few minutes. We’ll join you, if you want to sit with us,” I said, giving him an out if he wanted it.
“Yeah,” he said softly and flicked his eyes to the table. “And I’ll take a … hmm. What’s a big selling item?”
“Mugs and buttons are our biggest.”
“What’s your lamest?”
“T-shirts.”
“Well them I’ll take a t-shirt.”
I laughed and picked through them to find his size and took his ten dollars. “You want the lamest item? Why? Trying to go against the flow?” I joked.
“Nope, just don’t want the t-shirt to feel left out,” he said and winked before walking away.
“OMG. He was so flirting with you,” Sarah said loudly and I shh’ed her.
“No, he’s not. You’re just like Tate. Just because a guy talks to me doesn’t mean he wants to date me, ok?”
“Yeah, but I want to date him and he wants to date you. I can tell these things.”
“Well then get your radar checked,” I yelled playfully. “Everyone needs to get over it. I’m dating Tate, end of story.”
“Well it better be. You already got a hunk!” she chimed. “Well, let me sit next to him when we go out there, ok? I need a little help. Maybe I came on too strong earlier,” she mused and bit her thumb nail.
“You? Never,” I said, my sarcasm dripping.
We laughed as we put up our wares and made our way to the packed bleachers. It seemed the whole town came out for these things. I let Sarah sit next to Eli and other than a quick look from him, I received no reaction. Once we sat down I remembered that I hadn’t had any supper and was going to get a hotdog. I turned to Sarah to say as much, but Eli stood and waved me off.
“I’ll get it. I was going anyway.”
“Ok, great, thanks.”
“You want anything, Sarah?” he asked politely.
“Diet Coke, no ice, please.”
“Sure thing.”
As soon as he was gone she leaned over and put her head on my shoulder dreamily.
“His eyes. Oh my gosh, those eyes! Have you seen them? The most gorgeous purple eyes ever.”
Yes, I wanted to say. Yes, I’d seen his gorgeous eyes. In fact, I saw them first. But I held my tongue and looked out to see Tate about to take the mat. As Sarah droned on in my ear about Eli’s accent, Tate looked for me and when he found me he smiled. He made kiss lips at me, too, making Sarah produce gagging noises beside me. I punched her arm playfully and she laughed before starting a chant for our team. Eli came back a couple minutes later with our food and drinks and passed them out before taking a seat … next to me.
I heard Sarah huff beside me and I tried not to giggle. I glanced at Eli and he was smiling like he knew a secret.
We watched the match and I finished my hotdog in record time. Sarah was going on and on about the opposing team. About how hot Tate’s wrestling opponent was and how she was going to get his number after the match. Eli was forgotten, just like that.
The match didn’t last long. We won, of
course, and Mike and Deidre finally made their way over to us.
“Hey, guys. Snitzy’s right? Let’s go get a burger,” Mike reminded.
“We just ate,” Sarah groaned, but then changed her expression to a smile. “But I’d love to go and hang out. Eli, you in?”
“Are you in?” he asked me and I saw Deidre put a hand on her hip in my peripheral.
“Yeah. It’s still early. My curfew’s midnight.”
“Then I’m in,” he answered and smiled slightly at me.
Deidre pushed Mike aside, squeezed herself towards us and then plopped herself on Eli’s lap. Eli remained still and expressionless as he watched me. When she wound her arms around his neck, I closed my eyes and shook my head as I looked away.
“So,” Dee started, “Clara, why don’t you go get your boyfriend?”
“I’m sure he’s coming.”
“Well then let’s go. I’m riding with Eli.”
Being able to tolerate Dee was getting harder by the minute. So I got up without a word and walked to the locker room. Tate was all showered and changed, checking his phone when I came up. I apparently startled him because he looked shocked at seeing me. He put his phone away quickly, like he’d been waiting for a call or text maybe.
“What’s up? Are you ok?” I asked.
“Yeah. I was about to text you, but here you are.” He kissed my cheek and threw an arm around my shoulder. “What’s up with you? You never come to the locker rooms after matches.”
“Everybody wants to go eat, remember? You still wanna come with us?”
“Everybody who?”
“Mike, Dee, Eli-”
“Ok. Cool.”
We all piled into Tate’s truck and Mike’s car and made our way across town. Dee and Eli rode in the back seat of the truck with us and I heard Dee trying to coax him into taking her out this weekend. He didn’t say much, but once when I glanced back, she had her lips on his chin, nipping playfully and then kissing it. Eli and my eyes locked for a second before I looked away.
Tate pulled me from the seat out his door once we arrived. He seemed anxious or riled up. Maybe it was from the match. He held my hand a little too tightly. I looked at him funny and he smirked and kissed my fingers as we waited for everyone else to order. Tate ordered me an iced coffee and himself a big burger with the works. We sat scattered around two pushed together tables and listened to the country playing on the radio above us screaming some Taylor Swift song.