The Bookworm Next Door: The Expanded and Revised Edition
Page 5
No, Hannah was thankful to avoid Aimee. Everybody still talked about the time where she had stolen Kristin Westbrook’s clothes while the younger girl was changing in the locker room before gym. If Kristen’s best friend hadn’t had a spare school uniform then Kristen would have had some serious issues.
Laughing, Hannah even liked the new school uniforms, frequently opting to wear her skirts instead of the khaki pants or navy slacks they were required to wear.
But that reminded her of the time Aimee had Kelly “accidently” spill her Dr. Pepper on Kari Helton’s white button-up shirt. Poor Kari didn’t have anything to cover the stain for the rest of the day.
There was one thing Hannah liked that she knew was impossible to obtain. There was no possible way that she would ever start dating Brady Johnson. Not only did he have a completely amazing girlfriend, but she had never made it onto his radar.
The first time she saw Brady with Savannah Blake was when the Senior girl brought him to Wednesday night Bible Study class. The couple had been dating for several weeks and it was the first time that Savannah had ever brought somebody over for the weekly class. The chatter from the milling teenagers dropped suddenly before picking back up after a few short moments.
“Is that..?” the girl next to Hannah whispered.
“I think so...” she responded, stunned that her crush from afar was suddenly within ten feet of her.
It wasn’t difficult to overhear their conversation either, especially when they were so close. Savannah was excitedly telling him about the prom dress she had picked up that day.
It was torture, having him within reach yet so far away. She had to watch as Savannah held his hand while they discussed whatever it was planned for that day’s lesson; Hannah found it difficult to focus with Brady right across from her.
Holding Savannah’s hand.
Smiling.
Smiling at Savannah.
Torture. Plain and simple torture.
Chapter Fifteen
There were times when Kelly felt trapped and pulled in directions that she wasn’t certain she wanted to be pulled in. So many people were being dragged along in Aimee’s net that it was difficult to tell who was there out of fear or out of friendship.
She didn’t even know why she was friends with Aimee anymore, but she also didn’t know how she could get out of this particular friendship.
Kelly would suggest harmless pranks – hiding notes for example – but Aimee took things to destructive levels. It was extremely difficult to be friends with somebody who was obsessed over popularity and a particular male.
“Why can’t you just date someone else? Will is cute. Kyle needs a girlfriend.” Kelly tried to suggest other alternatives to David Carver.
Kelly also had to pretend to miss Aimee’s eye roll. “Kyle is off-limits and Will is an idiot. He’s also David’s best friend.” Aimee went on for several minutes waxing poetic about David’s many virtues.
She wanted to point out that Will had suggested that Kelly feel around about his chances. “But Will’s a great guy.”
“His father owns the tractor supply place,” Aimee said dismissively.
“But he owns it…” Kelly tried to point out.
“It’s a tractor place. They sell tractors. Will’s going to go into the family business after college.”
Kelly barely refrained from rolling her eyes. While Aimee was dismissive of tractors Kelly recognized that it was a significant business surrounded by people who would always need tractors to deal with the soybean fields. Aimee saw tractors and Kelly saw job security.
Peeking around the corner, Kelly silently observed Brady and Savannah working on their homework at the dining room table. She had no clue why her parents insisted on having a dining room table; they never ate at it except for holidays or the other rare occasion that a non-immediate family member came over for dinner. Most of their meals were at the kitchen table or in the living room if there was something going on and not everybody was present.
She liked Savannah. If she’d been facing Brady’s latest girlfriend then she would have already been invited to join them. Kelly enjoyed it when she could do her homework with Brady and his girlfriends; it meant that she could get the help she needed for some of her classes. She hated how Aimee would manipulate David into helping her with the assignments she needed help with. If she heard Aimee reference ‘that deal we made freshmen year’ one more time she’d probably scream.
Honestly, Kelly liked most of Brady’s ex-girlfriends. Except Wendy who threatened to kick Ms. Peaches. And the ones who would get annoyed when she’d ask them if they could help her with homework.
It helped that they had most likely already taken the class.
It was homework. It wasn’t a date.
Only Savannah did invite her to join them on occasion. Like at the movies when something big was being released. Kelly didn’t always tag along; she knew they needed time to themselves. But there were times when Kelly wondered if Savannah saw her as the little sister that Savannah never had.
It was nice.
It was easier than dealing with Aimee’s growing fixation with David.
“What do you need, Kelly?” Brady asked, not turning around to look at his sister.
“I need something explained about The Crucible,” she answered him.
“Well, come on in and stop lurking in the doorway,” he responded.
Taking a moment to reopen her notes and textbook, Kelly pulled out her study guide and found the question that was troubling her. “Arthur Miller wrote this play because he was accused of being a communist during the Red Scare after World War Two. Which character or characters would most likely be Arthur Miller? Which character or characters would most likely represent Senator Joseph McCarthy?” Looking up at Brady and Savannah, “McCarthy would most likely be Abigail Williams and the other girls who were claiming that their fellow townspeople were performing witchcraft.”
Savannah smiled, looking impressed. “That doesn’t sound like you are having a problem.”
Looking at her brother’s girlfriend, “I’m having trouble with the Arthur Miller comparison. I get that John Proctor is the obvious choice, but wouldn’t Elizabeth Proctor and the other innocent accused be more accurate. Proctor wasn’t as innocent as he wanted to seem, but his wife was innocent. She was only accused because Abigail wanted her out of the picture.”
“Again, what is the problem?”
Blinking, “I’m over thinking it, aren’t I?” Kelly whispered.
“Yes,” Savannah answered, “but sometimes over thinking things is a good thing. In this case it just means that you understood your teacher’s question a bit better than she intended. When Mrs. Lindsey asks that question in class you need to answer it exactly like you just did. It’ll give you brownie points with her that might help when she’s grading the short answer question portion of her test.”
“Or when she’s assigning the groups for The Trial of Abigail Williams project she always assigns,” Brady added. “She’s more likely to put you in a better group.”
“Thank you,” Kelly smiled while starting to stack her things up to return to her room.
“You don’t have to leave,” Savannah intervened. “You might need more help.”
Shaking her head, “Thanks, but no thanks,” Kelly responded. “This was the last question. I had David Carver help me at lunch with my Algebra Two assignment.” Continuing to stack her papers up, Kelly gave them a faint smile before leaving the room.
As much as she was thankful towards David’s forced help, she really wished for something, or someone, more along the lines of the relationship Brady and Savannah shared.
Chapter Sixteen
Remaining seated, Savannah continued chatting with one of her Bible Study friends as Brady went over to grab her some of the cookies that Pastor Samuel’s wife had baked. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him talking to one of the juniors from their high school; she thought the other girl’s
name was Hannah.
It was interesting watching other people reacting to her good-looking boyfriend. Sometimes it wasn’t possible to bring him along to the Wednesday night classes, but he’d been willing enough to go to Sunday morning service with her. Every single time she’d catch Hannah Stanfield peeking glances over at Brady before shaking her head.
Letting out a chuckle, she’d remembered the times she first blushed when he looked her way. “I’m sorry, what?” Savannah asked, shaking her head to clear out the thoughts circling.
Letting out a laugh, her friend stated, “I’d be distracted too if I had him on my arm.” Chuckling some more, “And it looks like that Theatre Geek agrees. If you aren’t careful, Hannah might steal your man.”
“We aren’t that serious,” Savannah responded, looking back over at Brady and Hannah. But I wonder… she thought.
It wasn’t until later, when Brady was driving her home, that Savannah had a thought. “We haven’t taken a picture together. We’ve been dating for weeks now and not a single photo.”
“Then we’ll have to fix that,” he grinned. Grabbing her phone, he opened up the camera and moved in next to her. With a quick smile he snapped the picture before returning her phone.
But what caught Savannah’s attention was that he didn’t ask for her to send him a copy. She didn’t even feel the urge to post it anywhere or make it her profile photo.
“Hey, I was having a conversation at the snack table with one of the theatre girls. Do you think it’s possible that Mrs. Samuel bought her cookies from the bakery instead of making them herself?”
Turning to look at him, “What brought that on?”
Brady turned to face Savannah as he started making his points. “Hannah was looking at the cookies and noticed that they weren’t quite like how homemade cookies tend to turn out. No slightly burnt bottoms or irregular sizes. She pointed out that there were also four different kinds and it would take a couple of days for her to bake all of the cookies needed for all of the Bible Study classes.”
All she could do was blink in response. “How would she know?” Savannah finally asked.
“You know, I don’t know.”
Savannah Blake stared at the picture of her boyfriend, Brady Johnson, and herself. It had only been a few days since it was taken, but something was not quite right about it. She had trouble making sense of it because Brady was the perfect gentleman. He opened doors, including the car door – he would make her wait to be certain that he had not parked her next to a puddle. He asked her opinion about everything.
Actually, that was a bit annoying! Sometimes a nice surprise would be better than having to discuss everything before they did it.
Her parents adored him – probably since he had brought her mother flowers before their first date. Some nights they would have study nights and he would barely touch her; her parents had no problem with him being in Savannah’s room with the door closed.
Savannah knew what the problem was – the urge to do anything other than hold hands was gone! She liked knowing that she always had a date to places, that she could call on him if she needed help with anything (as long as he was not at work), and that everybody liked him.
However, it did not change the fact that she no longer felt any urge to kiss him, that any of the chemistry they felt early in their relationship was gone.
Too bad she was thinking about all of this while watching his baseball practice.
There were a few things that Brady did not want to think about during practice, but certain things were intertwined more than he cared to admit.
He could see his sister, Kelly – a junior – talking with his girlfriend, Savannah, in the bleachers while the team warmed down. Kelly had only been sitting there for a few minutes, knowing how long it would take practice to last; he refused to think about where she had been before then.
His girlfriend, however, had been there for most of practice. She watched practice at least once a week and it was usually the day after one of her track meets when they didn’t have practice. He would then take her home and they would either do homework or watch T.V.
They had a routine and had only been dating for three months. Half of the time this routine meant spending time with his younger sister.
Savannah didn’t mind how often Kelly wanted to tag along with her older brother; he remembered her there among the crowd that had gathered on the day that Brady had pushed Kelly out of the way of that speeding car.
He had been lucky to only break his arm, if a broken arm on a baseball player during baseball season could ever be considered lucky. It still ached whenever there was going to be a heavy storm or when he played a little too hard during a game.
Everybody there that day knew that Kelly would not have survived the impact with the car. None of it changed the fact – and this is where the story varied from person to person – that Kelly was in her brother’s arms when his right arm hit the curb and it cracked.
Chapter Seventeen
Closing her eyes to the computer screen for a moment to gather her wandering thoughts, Savannah began typing into the chat window.
Savannah Blake: Hey, Hannah! Do you have a minute?
Hannah Stanfield: Sure. What’s up?
Savannah Blake: I was just wondering if you were going to be at bible study tomorrow night.
Hannah Stanfield: I was planning on it. Why?
Savannah Blake: No real reason. There’s just somebody I think you should meet.
Yes, she decided while closing out the conversation, this was definitely the step that she wanted to take! Now, she just had to make certain that Kelly didn’t decide to join them tomorrow night.
Things were not going to be simple. Whoever would have thought that she would be breaking up with her boyfriend, setting him up with somebody else at the same time, and that it would make sense for her to do it?
And it did! It made sense to Savannah. They were more friends than they were boyfriend and girlfriend and they let things remain the way they were because it was comfortable, like a pair of jeans that you had washed a million times until they were nice and soft and about to fall apart at some very vital seams. That was their relationship.
One of those seams was the fact that she knew Brady would look over at Hannah during school or during Bible study, even if he failed to recognize or acknowledge what he was doing. She had also caught Hannah looking at Brady until she found out that Brady was dating Savannah, and even occasionally after that.
Savannah knew they rarely talked; they barely even passed each other in the hallway. People would wonder how this unlikely pair would have met let alone gotten together. But she knew. She knew that they would make an excellent couple; it made more sense than Brady with her. Savannah couldn’t adequately explain it, but she had a feeling that Brady and Hannah would click.
It was a risky move. There were so many things that could go wrong with this plan. Savannah hoped that Kelly wouldn’t insist on joining them, again. If she did then it would be nearly impossible for Brady and Hannah to have the meeting that Savannah was hoping for!
There were a few things in her favor though if Kelly did decide to tag along; she already knew Hannah, even if the girls were not close friends. Savannah knew that Hannah was smart enough to know she would need to get on Kelly’s good side; she could probably even deal with Aimee Kirkland if necessary.
Picking Savannah up for Bible study, Brady didn’t miss the sigh of relief that Savannah let slip when she saw that Kelly was not already waiting in the car.
After about five minutes of companionable silence Savannah took a deep breath and blurted out, “This is going to sound completely odd, but I’m going to set you up tonight with somebody I think is a better match for you.” As soon as she stopped talking another sigh of relief escaped her lips, as if she was thankful that she had been able to get her little spiel out.
Brady looked in her direction briefly, “What?” It was all he could manage to say to her.
Brady chuckled, “So this is why you wanted me to try to make sure Kelly didn’t come with us.”
“Yes, exactly,” she stated, obviously relieved. “I’m glad you understand!”
Laughing, “I think you just want to be able to date my teammates.”
“Well, the entire team is something to look at when you are all on the field practicing.” Shaking her head, “But no, I don’t have a replacement in mind for you, just for somebody to replace me.”
Pulling into the church parking lot, “Why do you think that she’ll be a good match for me?”
“I’ve seen the way you both look at each other without realizing it. I think she would have a crush on you if you weren’t attached to me; she’s honorable like that and I know that loyalty and respect are important to you. I also think that she could handle Kelly and Aimee. Anybody who dates you would have to be able to do that.” Turning to him with a smile, “and I have a gut feeling.”
Chuckling, “And we both know your gut feelings tend to be spot on.”
“I did call it when I thought that guy was shoplifting and then three seconds later the store manager came over and took him back to the office.”
“I meant that time when the noisy, rude family didn’t tip the waitress that they had sent on a million errands and then left the table trashed.”