Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1)

by Shirley Miranda

  * * *

  When I got to fourth period, English, Patrick was talking just outside the classroom door with two other guys. They looked familiar, but I didn’t know their names. I might have had one, or maybe both, of them in a class before.

  I was going to walk past them and go directly into the classroom, when I heard my name.

  “Liz!” Patrick tried to get my attention.

  I stopped and took a step back to see what he wanted. “Hi.”

  “Guys,” He turned to look at his two friends. “This is Liz.” He turned to me, “Liz, this is Jason and Bobby.” Pointing to each one of them.

  “Hi.” I greeted them.

  “Liz is going to watch the game today. It’ll be her first game, so it’s important that you don’t suck, or she won’t go again.” He ordered his friends.

  Bobby laughed, “I make no guarantees.”

  Jason added, “I can.”

  They were so easy-going with each other. I could tell they were all really good friends.

  “We’ll see you later.” Bobby and Jason said their goodbyes and headed off to nearby classrooms.

  Patrick and I walked into our English class. He opened up his backpack and started to pull out a notebook.

  “They seem nice.” I commented.

  “Jason and Bobby are great. They always have my back.” He got the notebook out and pulled out a sheet of paper. “Here. Look this over. Let me know what you think. I had some time last period to work on the stuff for physics.”

  He handed me the paper. I couldn’t believe he was already working on it. I was going to start working on it at lunch. Wow. My eyes were wide. “Oh. Okay.”

  He chuckled. “Don’t look so surprised. I said I would do it.”

  “Yeah, I know. But, I didn’t expect you to already be working on it.”

  “I do that sometimes. Besides, I have to prove to someone that they can trust me.” He flashed a smile and sat down at his seat.

  The bell rang and Mr. Ludlow started class. I went to my desk and started reading over what he had written. It was very thorough. He had included comments that I had made when we worked on it in class. I was impressed. Maybe I could trust him enough to work as a team.

  It was a hard thing for me to do. Trusting someone with your grade in class was the equivalent to trusting your future with them. If they ruined your grade on a project or assignment, then it would hurt your overall grade, which would hurt your overall GPA, which would hurt your chances for college and your future. My future was the way out from my parents. It was all logically connected to me.

  I guess he hadn’t yet given me a specific reason to not trust him. There was something about his confidence that I couldn’t quite describe. It wasn’t cockiness or smugness. It was almost like he could kill you with kindness and you wanted him to do it. Maybe it was just because he was the first person in a long time that didn’t use me for getting our projects done. Maybe I was over thinking the whole thing. Maybe not. I don’t know anymore.

  Mr. Ludlow let us self-select groups to discuss reading from last night. I always hated that. Did he not know our names yet? It’s October! Was the teacher too lazy to assign groups? Did he know that groups were really pointless and some of us did all the work while others did nothing? Did he think of the assignment that morning and didn’t get around to figuring out the whole thing? Usually, when it was ‘pick your groups’ I sat and did the work myself. Everyone picked their friends anyway. It was better that way. There was no pretense of teamwork. I didn’t have to resent the other person.

  This time, Patrick came over and sat beside me. It startled me.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He must have seen me jump a little in my seat.

  “It’s okay. I just wasn’t expecting…never mind.” I shook my head.

  He read the first question from the screen at the front of the room. We discussed the questions that were posted and wrote our responses to turn in. The overachievers that we were, we got done very quickly. “So, did you get a chance to read over what I wrote earlier?”

  “Yeah. I did. It’s good.” Really good, actually. I was impressed.

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” I handed it back to him. “I…I didn’t start yet. I haven’t had time. I was gonna start at lunch.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I know you’ll get it done. I trust you.” He winked. His grin was coy and playful. Suddenly, his smile disappeared. “Wait. I don’t want you spending your lunch doing it, just ‘cause I got some of it done. That’s not why I showed it to you.”

  “Oh, I know.” I shrugged my shoulder. “I just wanted to get some stuff done, so I had less to do tonight.”

  “Oh. Okay.” His smile returned. “So, you got big plans tonight?”

  “No major plans.”

  “I thought you said you needed to bail from the game before 5:00.” He looked confused. “’Cause if you don’t….”

  I quickly thought of a reason I could share that was still the truth. “Well, it’s just that I’ll have the house to myself. And, I can practice before my folks get home.”

  “Practice?” I could see his mind working trying to figure out what I was talking about.

  I had said too much. The words had come out of my mouth before I could stop them. Why did I say that? “Uh…yeah.”

  “For what?”

  I felt myself shrinking in my seat. If I could hide in a shell like a hermit crab, I would have. “Nothing.”

  “Come on. Tell me.” His voice was kind.

  “No. You’re going to laugh.” I shook my head. I could hear my mom in what I said.

  “I won’t. I swear.” His face was soft and welcoming. “Please?”

  I took a deep breath. “Auditions for the winter concert.” I rushed through my words and watched his reaction. I braced myself.

  “Really? Playing or singing?” He seemed genuinely curious.

  “Singing. I’m going to tryout for a solo.” I paused and waited for him to laugh. He didn’t. “I don’t think I’ll get it.”

  “Why not?” His brow furrowed.

  “There are some really good singers in choir. Some of them take lessons. I just sing along with songs I like.”

  “That doesn’t mean you’re not good. I bet you’re great.”

  “Thanks. But you’ve never heard me sing. I could be awful.” I nervously laughed.

  “Somehow, I doubt that. You could prove me wrong.”

  “By…?” How would I prove him wrong? There was only one way I could think of.

  “Singing for me.” He looked so matter-of-fact.

  “Right now? In the middle of class?” I couldn’t believe it.

  He nodded.

  “Uh. No. I don’t think so.” I vehemently shook my head back and forth. My eyes bugged out of my head in fear.

  He looked around the room. The rest of the class was still discussing the questions that shown on the screen. “Ok. Maybe it’s not the best place or time. But…” A sly grin crossed his face. It was like he was about to say ‘checkmate.’ “You didn’t say ‘no’ to singing for me.”

  He was right. I didn’t. I said ‘no’ to singing in the classroom at that moment. It wasn’t that he tricked me, I walked into it. Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to get feedback, so I could really know if I should bother to audition or if it was delusions of grandeur. Then again, it could. But it would probably be better than finding out during the audition itself and everyone watching.

  “I guess, I didn’t.” I finally admitted to him.

  “So, you’ll sing for me sometime?” His voice was hopeful.

  “But I didn’t exactly say ‘yes’ either.” This would at least give me an out.

  He shook his head and laughed. “Okay, you got me there. But, really, I would like to hear you sing. I wish I could.”

  Mr. Ludlow came by to check up on us. “Did you guys finish the questions?”

  “Yes, sir.” Patrick ha
nded him our responses.

  Mr. Ludlow skimmed the answers and nodded. “Very good. Insightful.” He moved on to check up on another group before heading to the front of the classroom. Mr. Ludlow announced what the homework was for tonight. I wrote down the assignment in my notebook.

  “So, when is the audition?” He didn’t get distracted easily. I swear, he remembered everything.

  “Less than two weeks. But, I need to take advantage of every opportunity to practice.”

  “I totally understand. I get how important practice is.” He nodded.

  “So, you were right about 17c on the math homework last night.” I finally found a subject to switch to.

  “Yeah? Good. It wasn’t just me.” He ran his hand through his hair.

  “No. Thanks for letting me know, though. I hate when I think everything will be easy and then I hit a brick wall.”

  “It’s like your brain isn’t ready for it. Huh?” He laughed. “Yeah, that sometimes happens to me too.” He put his stuff away and the bell rang. It was time for lunch.

  “Bye.” I slowly got up from my seat. I held my notebook in my arms. There was no need to put it away, since I was going to use it once I got outside for lunch.

  “See you later. Don’t spend all of lunch doing homework.” He said as he threw his backpack over his shoulder. He walked to the door and called back, “Don’t forget. Tip off is at 3:00!”

  “Are you going to remind me every period?” I asked him.

  “Just making sure you remember!” He turned and walked out the door. Bobby and Jason were waiting for him outside.

  I left the classroom and went to my usual place against a far side tree in the quad. I sat down and leaned against the tree. About 30 yards away, I saw Patrick and his friends at one of the lunch tables.

  It was yearbook picture perfect. Food, friends and laughter. I could tell there were three couples in the group. Patrick, Bobby and Jason had either an arm around or holding hands with their respective girlfriends. There were two other guys in their group, who, didn’t seem to mind the others were coupled. They were just as much part of the circle of friends.

  I opened up my notebook and worked on physics. The more I got done at lunch, the less I’d have to do tonight and the more I could practice before my parents got home from their dinner. By the time the bell rang ending lunch, I only had one problem left to do. I was pleased with my progress.

  I hurried to math class. Ms. Adams asked if there any homework problems we wanted to go over. Students shouted out different problem numbers. Seventeen came up the most often, along with 15 and 16. It seemed most of the class had a hard time starting the problem. Patrick looked over at me and chuckled. Ms. Adams always called upon students to write their answers on the board and share their solution.

  “Patrick. What did you get for number 17?” She extended out the marker to him as an invitation to the board. He got up from desk and headed to the board. “You can bring your homework with you.”

  “It’s okay.” He got to the board empty-ended and took the dry-erase marker from her. He wrote his solution on the board and took a step back. He reviewed his answer before handing the marker back to her.

  She looked over his solution. “Okay. Thank you, Patrick. You can sit down. Who can explain his answer?” Ms. Adams liked having one person write the answer and another one explain it.

  The room went quiet as no one wanted to draw attention to themselves. I looked around and saw confusion in my classmates’ faces. It was obvious she wasn’t going to call on the people who had requested the problem to begin with. She scanned the room, her gaze finally falling on someone. “Liz, can you explain what Patrick did?”

  Thankfully, I didn’t have to go the board. I nodded and explained his written work.