“Hello, beauties,” he said, eyeing both of us. “How may I assist you today?”
“There’s something we need to ask you,” Andie said. “We figured you’d be the one to ask, since you know everything about everyone around here.” She laid it on thick. Boys fell for her routine, and since it worked, she kept recycling her approach.
“Since you put it that way,” he said, “I’d be happy to fill you in. Both of you,” he said with a meaningful look at me.
He’d tripped over Andie’s ridiculous line!
“So,” she said, “what were you doing, spying on Jared?”
That’s it, Andie, shoot from the hip, I thought.
“Who wants to know?” he said, getting defensive.
“Let’s put it this way. It’s important,” Andie said.
“What do you care?” he asked.
Andie was smart enough not to tell him we hoped to clear his name.
“He attends our church, and we thought—”
“You thought he was a good church boy, right?” he jeered. “Well, nobody’s perfect.”
“Christian kids have a perfect example to follow,” I chimed in. “God’s Son.”
“Oh, really?” he mocked.
Andie pressed on. “I thought I saw you in the gym watching intramurals yesterday during lunch.”
“Well, you’re wrong.”
She turned to me. “Holly, you saw him there, right?”
Come to think of it, I had! He had been inside the gym the whole hour. I nodded.
“So maybe you didn’t see Jared and those guys smoking at all. Right?”
“Back off. You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tom shot back.
Bingo! Andie, the genius, had touched a nerve.
And Tom looked guilty. I was beginning to suspect something was amiss.
“Guess we’ll just have to get our information from a reliable source,” Andie said.
“Excuse me, I have a class to catch.” He shoved past us.
We looked at each other and grinned knowingly.
“He’s hiding something,” Andie said, watching as he disappeared into a crowd of students.
“Definitely,” I agreed. “Meet me at lunch?”
“Okay.” And we were off to first period.
The morning dragged by. I could barely pay attention in history and math. The situations with Daddy and Jared weighed on my mind. I caught myself daydreaming several times.
When lunchtime came, I was nibbling on my roast beef sandwich as Andie came into the cafeteria, carrying her lunch tray piled high.
“Check this out,” she said, balancing her tray on the back of a chair. “Jared gave me some of his leftovers. He said something about having timed tests in gym. Guess he didn’t wanna pig out before the tests.”
“Coach really puts the guys through the ropes on those tests,” I said, remembering what I’d heard last year. I slid a piece of lettuce out of my sandwich.
Andie handed over a dish of apple cobbler. “Here, this is for you, from Jared.”
“Jared?” I picked up my spoon. My cheeks burned.
“You’re blushing,” she sang.
He was thinking of me. Still, I worried. “Is this because he thinks I’m too skinny?” I asked.
“Think? Anybody can see that. But don’t worry. Things’ll change soon.” She took a bite of her sandwich. “I can’t wait till after school. Are you sure you can’t come over to Jared’s with me for the audition practice?”
I shook my head. I didn’t want Andie to know, but I didn’t like being around her and Jared at the same time. So I said, “I promised Mom I’d be home on time to be with Carrie.”
On the way out of the cafeteria I ran into Jared. His eyes lit up, and he fell into step with me. My knees felt like jelly. Again. But all I could think of was how to bring up the subject of what had happened yesterday.
“Good luck on your timed tests,” I said.
“Thanks. Did you get the dessert I gave to Andie?”
“I wasn’t sure why you gave it to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m self-conscious about being thin.” I looked away, embarrassed.
“Holly, I think you’re perfect. Besides, I like tall, thin girls.”
Good! And that left Andie out. She was only four-feet-ten and a little on the chunky side.
“Are you ready to wow them at the choir auditions?” he asked, waving at Marcia Greene as she passed us in the hallway.
“I will be by the end of the week. Mom’s going to accompany me.” I hoped he’d mention that Andie was accompanying him, but he didn’t. Maybe it was no big deal to him.
“Did you hear the choir’s going to Southern California?”
My heart jumped. That’s where Daddy lived!
“Tough competition, too,” he said. “Half the youth group is trying out, and there’s only room for thirty.”
“Guess we’d better get our voices in shape,” I said. But my mind wasn’t on the auditions. I wanted to know the truth about what had happened yesterday behind the gym. We stopped near the entrance to the boys’ locker room. If I was going to ask, I’d better do it now.
I took a deep breath. “Were you really smoking at the noon hour yesterday?”
“No way!” he said. “It was a complete setup. I was having lunch with my dad—you can’t have a better alibi than that. Someone’s trying to get me booted off the team, and I know who.”
I thought I knew who it was, too. Tom Sly. “I bet he’s threatened by the competition,” I said, “and he doesn’t want to share the accolades with some new kid. Totally paranoid.”
“My thought exactly,” he agreed, smiling. “Hey, where did you get the vocabulary?”
“From books,” I said, realizing I was going to be late for home ec. “I devour them.”
“Hey, I like that. By the way, I heard you wrote some terrific story for the assignment in English.”
“I liked yours a lot. Ever think about becoming a writer?” I couldn’t believe how much fun he was to talk to.
“It’s one of my life goals,” he said. “Did you have someone in mind when you wrote your story?”
Who had told him about “Love Times Two”? Surely not Andie. I played dumb. “What do you mean?” I said.
“Maybe we can talk about it sometime,” he said, moving toward the locker room. “See you later,” he said over his shoulder, flashing a grin that melted my heart.
“Set the record for the timed tests,” I said.
“Thanks.” He was about to push open the locker room door when he turned and said, “Holly, I’ll call you tonight. How’s eight o’clock?”
“Perfect,” I said. I waved and took off down the hall before he could see the huge grin on my face. I kept smiling all the way from my locker to the home-ec room. I couldn’t wait to tell Andie that Jared was cleared of the smoking charges. But the rest of our talk I planned to keep to myself.
I sprinted into class just in time. I settled onto one of the workstation stools as Mrs. Bowen began giving instructions for the day’s culinary creation: lasagna. When she finished, Andie made a mad dash for the sink and started to scrub her hands vigorously.
“Hey,” I said, “we’re making lasagna, not performing surgery.”
Andie looked serious. “Tom manhandled my arm in the hall. He’s ticked. Tried to get me to quit asking questions about Jared smoking. I’m scrubbing the contamination off me.”
I laughed. “Jared’s not even guilty, just like I thought.”
“You thought? We both knew he was innocent. Did I miss some more important info?” She slipped a green-and-white terry cloth apron around her waist.
“Well, I just so happened to talk to Jared himself,” I announced. “He’s off the hook. His dad vouched for him, since they had lunch together yesterday. Besides, Jared agreed Tom’s paranoid—thinks Jared will show him up on the team. Tom’s been number one around here too long. Well, move over, number one,
here comes Jared Wilkins!”
The girls at the next station were gawking.
“You must be having a personality change,” Andie said, eyeballing me. “I’ve read about things like this. Crushes do strange things to people.”
“My countenance shineth,” I said, prancing around, waiting for the noodle water to boil.
“My friend needs help,” Andie said to the other girls. “Come along, you poor dear.” She led me back to the workstation, pretending I was senile.
We fried up the ground beef and prepared the tomato sauce. After draining the noodles, we started creating the lasagna casserole layer by gooey layer.
“Whoops!” I almost spilled the tomato sauce. “Watch what you’re doing!” Andie warned.
My mind was on Jared. And Daddy’s letter. I still couldn’t believe my father had written to me and completely bypassed Mom. He’d overlooked the fact that she could easily veto his spring break invitation.
A few minutes before the lasagna was finished baking, a siren rang out in the distance. Because of all the ski slopes in the area, we were used to this sound. But this siren, instead of fading away as it climbed into the mountains, grew louder and louder. It sounded like it was heading for our school!
Andie raced to the window. “An ambulance is parked out front,” she said.
Mrs. Bowen went to the window, and soon we were all there, squeezing in, trying to see. “Look, Holly!” Andie said, pointing at a woman. “I think Jared’s mother is down there.”
“How do you know it’s her?” I asked.
“I saw her in church last week. What’s she doing here?” Andie stared at me, her face filled with fear.
Pressing my nose against the icy window, I saw a white stretcher emerge from the ambulance. Two men wheeled it into the gym entrance. “Something terrible has happened,” I whispered.
Minutes later, there was more commotion. Now the stretcher carried a tall, brown-haired boy wrapped in wool blankets.
It was Jared. Was he alive?
Mrs. Wilkins stepped inside the ambulance. The doors closed.
My heart sank as the siren sang its mournful song.
BEST FRIEND, WORST ENEMY
Chapter 8
The ambulance was long gone when I backed away from the window. I wandered over to Andie, a huge lump in my throat. She had removed the lasagna from the oven and was staring down at it sorrowfully. The cheese was brown and some of the noodles were burned black around the edges.
“I feel sick,” I said, holding my stomach. “And not because of the ruined lasagna.”
“I can’t believe this!” Andie cried. “We have to find out what happened.”
“Someone next period might know something,” I said. “Ugh. I’ll probably bomb for sure on the English test.”
Andie pushed the chairs under the tables. “Who cares about English tests—Jared’s been hurt!”
Tears blinded my eyes.
The bell rang as Andie put her arm around me. “Let’s go to the rest room. We’ll pray in there,” she whispered.
I gathered up my books. Andie led the way to the bathroom. She always seemed stronger in situations like this, even when we were little girls. For me, the tears came all too quickly.
“C’mon, let’s pray,” Andie said, grabbing my hands. I balanced my books on the sink. Andie’s prayer was long and fervent. When we opened our eyes she looked up at me, poised for action.
“Here’s the deal,” she said. “After school we split to my house and get Mom to drive us to the hospital.”
“Okay,” I said, “but I’ll have to call my mom first.”
A toilet flushed. The serene moment gushed away. An astonished girl came out of the stall. I guess she’d never heard anyone pray out loud. And in school, too. She turned to stare at us before making her departure. We smiled back.
“I feel better,” I said.
“Me too,” Andie said. We headed for English in silence.
Settling in for the test, I noticed Tom Sly and Billy Hill were missing. Rats! No chance to ask about Jared and what had happened in gym during timed tests today.
My stomach churned. I felt as prepared for this exam as a computer without a printer. The short time I’d spent studying wasn’t going to earn me the kind of grade I was used to getting.
The questions on the test blurred together as I thought about Jared in the hospital.
Hospital. A scary thought. It reminded me of Aunt Marla. She was dying! My favorite aunt. It wasn’t fair. She was so cool—always doing terrific things for Carrie and me, spoiling us when we went to visit at Christmas and in the summer.
Just then, Marcia Greene, the smartest kid in class, brushed past me on her way to Miss Wannamaker’s desk. She’d already finished the test! Daydreaming was a luxury I couldn’t afford. I gripped my pencil and filled in some answers.
After class Andie and I hung around until two boys who had been in gym during last period finished talking to Miss W. Then we headed for them like vultures.
“Hey, Jeff, do you know what happened to Jared Wilkins in gym?” Andie asked.
“Yeah,” Jeff Kinney said. “He fell off the trampoline during warm-ups for timed tests.”
“He was up really high,” Mark Jones added.
“What happened?” I asked.
“He lost his balance and fell. The bone was sticking out of his leg,” Mark said.
“I hope he won’t have to have surgery,” I said.
Mark shrugged. “Beats me.”
“C’mon, let’s go,” Andie said, pulling me away. We turned and headed down the hallway.
I held my books tightly against my chest. “Mark’s attitude is sick.”
“You got that right.”
I didn’t get it. “What’s the entire male population of the school have against Jared, anyhow?”
“You’ve seen how new kids get treated around here. We’re a bunch of snobs,” Andie said.
“But the guys must be jealous of Jared. For once here’s a guy who has more than muscles and good looks. He’s got smarts, too.”
Andie nodded, then gave me a fierce look. “I have a feeling Tom Sly knows something about Jared’s accident.” She jammed her books into her locker. “And I intend to find out what.”
At Andie’s house, the smell of brownies lured us into the kitchen. Mrs. Martinez looked similar to Andie, with dark curly hair and sparkling eyes. “Brownies, girls?” she asked.
We plopped down at the bar while Mrs. Martinez cut two large pieces.
“Mom, there’s been an emergency at school,” Andie blurted out. “Can you take us to the hospital?”
“What’s wrong?” her mother asked, pouring a glass of milk. I spoke up. “We want to go see Jared Wilkins. He’s been hurt.”
“What happened?”
We explained what we knew of the accident, and Mrs. Martinez listened sympathetically. But at the end she shook her head. “I think the two of you should stay put and pray for him instead. I doubt you could see him now anyway,” she said.
Andie’s curly-haired twin brothers bounced into the kitchen. Seeing the treats, they tripped over each other to get to us.
“Me get tweet?” one of the two-year-olds asked.
“Yes, Chris. You get treat,” Andie said, pulling the pan of brownies closer. She cut a small piece for each of them. Chris and Jon jammed the brownies into their mouths and went running around the kitchen. Mrs. Martinez followed them to make sure they wouldn’t make a mess of things.
“Still want to get together tomorrow?” Andie asked.
“What for?” I’d completely spaced out.
“The Loyalty Papers, remember?” Andie said. “We’re going to revise them. And now that I see how much we both care for Jared, I think it’s urgent.”
Andie’s comment confused me. I thought things were actually improving between us.
Just then I remembered something else. “I forgot to call Mom.”
I hurried to the wall phone and pun
ched in the number for her office. She answered almost immediately.
“Mom? I’m at Andie’s. I didn’t go right home because there’s been an accident…. A friend of mine was hurt at school.”
There was a pause. Then Mom, sounding quite displeased, said, “Holly, your sister’s been home alone all this time. Usually you’re more responsible than this.”
“But I had to come straight to Andie’s house,” I said, defending myself.
She didn’t buy it. “You should’ve called. I’ll phone Carrie to let her know you’re on your way.”
She hadn’t even asked about the accident. All she cared about was Carrie, who was perfectly able to take care of herself. Frustrated,
I said, “I don’t need a lecture about this, Mom. I really don’t.” I hung up without saying good-bye.
When I arrived home, Carrie was watching cartoons. “How was your test today?” she asked.
“Probably flunked it,” I told her. “Where’s Mom?”
“She’s home now, and boy, are you in trouble.”
“Why?” I slouched into the arms of my favorite sofa.
“Something about your disrespectful back talk.” Carrie was sounding like a grown-up. Too big for her britches.
“Guess I should go up and apologize,” I complained. I stood and trudged up the stairs. Mom’s bedroom door was closed. I knocked and waited.
“Come in,” she said.
Not daring to look at her, I plodded over to the bed and sat down. The first few seconds were tense. Then she put her arm around me. “I love you, Holly-Heart, you know that.”
“Mom?”
“Yes, honey?”
“It’s getting harder to be…” I didn’t know how to tell her that I was feeling more and more rebellious—at least sometimes. “To be obedient.”
She smiled knowingly. “There are hundreds of changes occuring in your body right now. Your emotions will fluctuate, swing up and down. And most of the time, you won’t understand why you’re feeling the way you are.”
“So this will happen more and more?”
“It’s part of becoming a woman,” she said.
I picked up the rose-colored sachet pillow on her bed. Hugging it against my flat chest, I breathed in its sweet fragrance. “I was very sassy on the phone. I’m sorry, Mom.”
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