The Bet (Persaud Girl)

by Mott, Teisha

  “The only thing you don’t read are the prescribed books on your course outline,” Nathan put in. “I will take you to the movies if you read off ‘The Old Man and The Sea’ by weekend.”

  “I read that off when I was ten!” Shauna said. “What I’m struggling with is ‘Canterbury Tales’ for my Intro to Chaucer class.”

  “Well, struggle over it tonight,” Nathan told her. “And when you’re finished, I’ll take you to see any G-Rated movie that’s out.”

  “G-rated? Oh please. It’s like having my father on campus,” Fern commented, rolling her eyes. “Come, Shauna. Let’s go get food. I’ll buy.” They waved goodbye to the cousins and Nathan and left the library.

  “I wonder what they would do if they had two big brothers on campus?” Klao commented. “That’s my cry. I swear sometimes they’re worse than Daddy!”

  “It’s certainly better than having a Christopher!” Andie said. “I think he’s worse than Nathan, the twins and Daddy all put together.”

  Bianca and Klao nodded in agreement.

  “Christopher is too old for someone who just hatched the other day,” Bianca commented.

  Nathan smiled. “So where’s Samantha this evening?”

  “Board meeting with her mentor,” Andie explained. “The company is going public and she’s seeing first-hand how an IPO is carried out.”

  “So how you going home?”

  Andie shrugged. “I can wait on Daddy until he is finished teaching. He has a seven to nine class by the Business school. Or I can ask Dylan to take me home when he comes for Klao and Bianca.”

  “Well if you really want to go home now, I could take all of you,” Nathan offered.

  “Nice of you to offer, Nathan,” Bianca said, “but here comes Dylan.”

  Andie looked across the reading room, and sure enough, her cousin was striding purposely over to them. He was dressed in his clinical whites and dark pants with his stethoscope peeping out of his top pocket. He looked exactly like his twin Darrin – so much so that Grandpa Ravi still got them confused after twenty-two years. But Dylan had something that Darrin did not have. Dylan was focused and mature, while Darrin was hot-tempered and impetuous. Dylan was the one who would beat the books inside and out, aiming to get all A’s and perhaps a Rhodes Scholarship like Uncle Jeffrey. Darrin on the other hand was quite comfortable with just getting by – as long as he got out of Medical School in the requisite five years and not kill anyone thereafter.

  “Sorry I took so long to come,” Dylan greeted his cousins and sister. “I stayed back to look in on a C-Section.”

  “Cool!” Bianca said. “What happened?”

  “The girl is fifteen and the baby was oblique,” Dylan explained. “I don’t think she followed the doctor’s orders of abstinence during the pregnancy, because the umbilical cord was tied up around the baby’s neck….”

  “That is so nasty!” Klao said, making a face. “I know who won’t be able to eat dinner this evening.”

  Dylan looked at her. “Nah… Blood and gore comes with the territory. But let me tell you something, little pickney: never have sex until you are married, you hear me? Being a teenage baby mother is nothing to write home about.”

  “I think it is a little late for that advice,” Klao laughed. “I have passed fifteen.”

  “This is no joke thing, KoKo,” Dylan said seriously. “And the same goes for Bianca and Andie and Samantha. Where’s Samantha?”

  “She went to see her mentor,” Andie told him.

  “So I’m taking you home then.” It was not a question. “You ready?”

  “Why don’t you hang around a little longer, Andie,” Nathan interjected. “I can take you home.”

  Dylan looked at him. “Hang around with you?”

  Nathan did not like the look Andie’s cousin had given him. Not even Andie’s father or grandfathers had looked at him like that. “Why not?” He asked. “Do you have any work that you need to finish up, Andie?”

  Andie’s eyes trailed from her cousin to the boy who gave her butterflies in her stomach, and instantly decided. “Um… Calculus I midterm is coming up, and if I go home I’m sure I’m going to go to sleep,” she said. “I wouldn’t mind staying back and doing some work. If Nathan can’t drop me, I’ll wait on Daddy.”

  “Alright,” Dylan agreed. He turned to Nathan. “And you, this is my cousin, you see me? Don’t mess with her, because I plan to major in surgery, and I have no qualms about practicing on you.”

  Nathan believed him.

  “Later guys,” Andie said, waving to Klao and Bianca as they left the library with Dylan. She was alone with Nathan. “So what are we going to do now?”

  “We can stay here, or we can go to Preston,” Nathan suggested. “Which do you prefer?”

  “Preston!” Andie answered immediately. “You have sweetbread?”

  “Of course!” Nathan said. “And chocolate milk.” He gathered her books. “Let’s go!”

  He ushered Andie out of the library with thoughts of the bet at the back of his head. Four weeks to go, and Andie did not suspect a thing. He looked at her, looking so fine in her boot cut jeans and baby tee that exposed her belly button. He imagined running his hands over her smooth, flat stomach, exploring the curves and avenues that made up her body. He smiled. Winning the bet would certainly not be a bad thing indeed!

  ***

  Cluster six, house C was deserted when Nathan and Andie got to Preston Hall, and Nathan was glad. He needed the alone time with Andie. He was going to kiss her tonight, he decided, and nothing was going to stop him.

  “Where is everybody?” Andie asked.

  “Don’t know; don’t care,” Nathan said with a smile. He put his books on his desk, and took Andie’s books from her. “You hungry now? I’ll make you a sandwich.”

  “I will never say no to your grandmother’s sweetbread!” Andie said, following Nathan into the kitchen. She removed the peanut butter from the fridge as Nathan sliced the bread. “Do you want jam on yours?”

  “Along with diabetes? Why not!” Nathan laughed.

  “We can have regular milk instead of chocolate milk,” Andie suggested, pulling out a box of soymilk. “Whose crap is this?”

  “That’s Micah’s,” Nathan said. “He’s health conscious – only salads, fruits, and soy.”

  “Samantha went through a period when she was vegetarian,” Andie said, returning the soymilk to the fridge. “Theresa’s chicken ham put an end to that. Now, she claims she will only eat white meat and the only carbs she has is whole wheat everything. Is this ours?”

  Nathan looked at the box she held out. “Yup. Put the chocolate syrup in mine.”

  “Jeez, you are heading to diabetes nation!” Andie commented reaching for the Hershey’s in the cupboard.

  “That’s why I’m so sweet!” Nathan leaned over and kissed her cheek.

  “Well lookie here! Isn’t it Mr and Mrs?”

  Nathan frowned as Jeremy Malcolm came into the common area.

  “Hello, Miss Persaud!” Jeremy continued. “Your daddy knows you’re down here?”

  “Hello, Jeremy,” Andie said cordially. She began mixing the Hershey chocolate syrup and milk for Nathan.

  “What are we studying tonight?” Jeremy continued, looking at Andie. “I thought your Politics paper was safely in.”

  “You don’t have anything to do, Jeremy?” Nathan asked, cutting Andie’s sandwich.

  “Not really,” Jeremy shrugged. “Why? Are you planning to do anyone – oops, I mean anything tonight that you want to tell me about.”

  “Not really,” Nathan answered sharply, shooting him an icy glare.

  “Your milk is ready, Nathan,” Andie said, feeling a little bit conspicuous.

  “Let’s go eat in my room,” Nathan suggested. He ushered Andie from the kitchen to his bedroom, l
eaving Jeremy smirking in the common area.

  “Try to keep the noise down in there,” Jeremy called after them. “I have to study for Fin. Man II midterm, and I don’t want to be disturbed.”

  Nathan ignored him.

  “Is Jeremy always such a heel?” Andie asked.

  “Yup!” Nathan affirmed. “Always has been, and probably always will be!”

  “You know what he needs?” Andie said, taking a bite of her sandwich. “Someone to put him in his place,”

  “Someone will, and that someone is me,” Nathan thought. He looked at Andie, sitting in the middle of his bed, happily munching away on her sandwich and completed his thought. “And you are going to help me do it.”

  ***

  Nathan glanced at the clock. It was approaching eight thirty, and Andie had been pouring over her Calculus I notes and problem sets from the time she had finished her sandwich and milk. The only break she took was to have some water, when she had a bout of hiccups fifteen minutes before.

  “I cannot get any Cs,” she had explained, “or Daddy is going to have me exiled to grandparents all summer.”

  “He wouldn’t do that to you,” Nathan laughed.

  “My father has never promised me anything and not come through,” Andie said wryly. “I have no desire to test that hypothesis. Besides, maybe if I get all A’s, he’ll get me a car.”

  “I think I’m wasting my time doing Calculus I, though,” Andie said, looking up from her book.

  Nathan closed his Econometrics text, and turned to her. “Why do you say that?”

  Andie sighed. “I don’t know how all this is going to help me be a banker. I mean, listen to this question: ‘Find two non-negative numbers whose sum is nine, and so that the product of one number and the square of the other number is a maximum’. I mean, really, who cares?”

  Nathan pulled his fingers through his hair. “You should have learned to work that from A’Level Math, Andie,” he said.

  “I know how to work it, Nathan,” Andie pointed out. “And don’t get me wrong, I love Math, but I’m just saying that in the grand scheme of things, knowing how to find Max and Min and product rule and chain rule are not going to help me run Persaud Financials.”

  “It will help you,” Nathan laughed, “when you get A in Calculus I and II, get First Class Honours and a bashment MBA from Harvard or Columbia!”

  “Hmm… I better practice then,” Andie said, removing a fresh pencil from her pencil case. Nathan watched her, brow knitted in deep concentration, and pencil working as fast as it could. She was a left-hander, just like he was. They had so much in common, he thought. It was as though they were destined to be friends, and they were destined to have a relationship. He wondered whether they would still be friends in January when this whole bet thing was over.

  “Done!” Andie declared triumphantly, three minutes later. X is 3 and Y is 6. The maximum product is 108! Does that sound right, Nate?”

  “How the hell should I know?” Nathan said. “I did Calculus a lifetime ago. Give that a break and come hang out with me. Let me show you pictures of my family.”

  “Cool!” Andie closed her Calculus text and sat next to Nathan on the bed. He smelled manly, she thought. “She took a sip of her water and peered over into the album that Nathan had.

  “Here I am as a fresh baby, just born,” He said.

  Andie peered at the picture. She had only ever seen two new babies – Christopher and Serena, her cousin Kamilla’s baby. She had, however seen countless pictures of herself and her cousins, and had come to the realisation that all babies, looked like aliens at birth. They were wrinkly and crushed looking. Nathan was no exception.

  “I looked like something from another planet!” Nathan said, voicing her opinion. “But at least I grew cute.”

  “You certainly did!” Andie agreed. She turned the page and looked at another picture. It was of Nathan, as a toddler. His hair looked as it did then – fluffy, curly, and uncombed.

  “This was the day I turned one,” he explained. “Of course I don’t remember that day, but I think my mother said that was also the day I walked for the first time.”

  He turned the page. There were more pictures of Nathan as he moved from being a baby to being a little boy.

  “Here I am on the first day of first grade,” he said.

  Andie laughed at the picture. Nathan was wearing navy shorts with a white shirt and a navy blazer, and a little blue beanie on his head. He was holding hands with a tall, beautiful woman.

  “You went to Prep School!” She said

  “St. Peter’s Day Academy in Long Island!” Nathan told her. “Where they take great pleasure - and pains - turning boys into men.”

  “Who is the woman holding your hand? Your mother?”

  “No. Soledad. She was my nanny.”

  “It’s weird thinking about you as a little boy going to Prep School and having a nanny!” Andie commented.

  “It was so long ago it seems weird to me too!” Nathan said, turning the page. “I was thirteen in this picture. This was when I probably started looking like I do now.”

  Andie looked at the picture of Nathan with an elderly gentleman. He was right. He looked pretty much the same, except shorter, and his curly hair was short cropped.

  “Is that your grandpa?” Andie asked, pointing to the older gentleman.

  “Yup!” Nathan nodded. “We had all gone fishing that day – me, Mom, Joie and Grandma.”

  “Are there any pictures of your mother…and your father?” Andie asked.

  “I have pictures of Mom,” Nathan confirmed. “But none of Dad.”

  Andie looked at him curiously. “How come?”

  Nathan looked away. “Mom didn’t want to keep any after he died.”

  “Why not?”

  “Upset her too much, I think,” Nathan said, shrugging.

  “Did you at least keep one for Joie so she could see what he looked like?” Andie asked again.

  “What difference does it make whether she sees a picture or not?” Nathan asked, a little bit annoyed. “It’s not like she will ever get the chance to meet him.”

  “She’ll meet him in Heaven,” Andie said, soothingly.

  “I doubt that very much,” Nathan murmured.

  Andie did not respond immediately, but her mind was ticking. She was getting more and more curious about how Nathan’s father had died. She recalled that at dinner he told Christopher that he had an accident. Her aunt Janine had died in a car accident. She was only twenty-one years old, and a senior at Brown University. Aunt Janine, it seemed, was Grandma and Grandpa Moreno’s favourite daughter. She was bright and vivacious, and set to take on the world. However, she was not very smart, as she chose to drive drunk on her way home from a party, and wrapped her Chevrolet Corvette around a light post. It was a long time ago, but still her mother and grandparents remembered her on her birthdays, and her death day, and there were framed photographs of her all over the house. Andie, Samantha, and even Christopher knew exactly what Aunt Janine looked like. It struck Andie as odd that Nathan’s mother would destroy all the pictures of Nathan’s father, not even keeping one for Joie, who was born only a few months after he died, according to Nathan. Andie could not remember if Nathan had even mentioned his father’s first name!

  “You’re quiet,” Nathan commented.

  “Yeah, I am,” Andie said. She took a deep breath. “Nathan, if you don’t want to discuss it, I understand, but how did your father die?”

  Nathan looked at her. Concern was evident in her dark brown eyes. He wanted to tell her, but he couldn’t. He looked away. “You’re right. I don’t want to discuss it,” he said when he finally spoke.

  “But, Nate …” Andie began.

  “I said I don’t want to discuss it, Andie!” He repeated forcefully. “You said you’d understand.” />
  “Fair enough,” Andie said, backing off. “Can I see a picture of your mother?”

  He turned the page and pointed out another photograph. “That’s all of us. It was my graduation from Cornwall High.”

  “I know your mother!” Andie exclaimed. “She looked after me in the hospital once.”

  “How come?”

  “I broke my arm,” Andie explained. “I was spending the weekend at Uncle Michael and Auntie Kim because it was Klao’s birthday. All my other cousins and Samantha were there too, and they were playing, but no one was playing with me – they didn’t like me, you see. I was bored, so I went and opened some of Klao’s birthday presents. She came upstairs and saw me playing with this stupid dolly that my Aunt Phoebe had sent for her, and she tried to beat me up!”

  “You’re kidding!” Nathan gasped. “Klao broke your arm.”

  “No,” Andie smiled wryly. “I was running from her and fell down the stairs. That’s how I broke my arm.”

  Nathan swallowed a snicker. “That will teach you not to open other people’s presents!”

  “Whatever, Nathan!” Andie rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t even understand how much my arm hurt. Your Mommy was great, though. She fixed it up nicely, and told me how brave I was not to have cried.”

  Nathan looked at her. “So, tell me Miss Persaud - why didn’t your cousins like you?”

  “What are you asking me?” Andie questioned. “I don’t know. They just didn’t – except Dylan. Not that he liked me, but he was nice to me. The others gave me hell – particularly Bianca and Klao.”

  “But you must have some idea why!” Nathan persisted. “I mean, they are your cousins. You grew up together. How could they not like you?”

  Andie shrugged again. “Bianca and Klao grew up closer than any of us. The twins were older, and since they were boys, I really wasn’t interested in them, and Alex and Margaux lived all the way in Connecticut. We didn’t see them except on holidays. And Kamilla and Phillip were really, really old! Alex and Margaux did pretty much whatever Bianca and Klao told them to do, which mostly involved ‘ignore Andie’, the twins never had many older boys around, so they looked on Phillip like he was some kind of God, and Samantha spent all her time following Kamilla around, so I basically played by myself. You know we only became friends this past summer?” She sighed, and took another sip of her water. “I guess it took them eighteen years to realise that I was not too bad a person after all...”