“Look at the time you’ve wasted having to come all the way back to school when you could be already at home doing your homework.”
Calvin thinks: No, I would not be at home doing homework. I’d be buying candy right now to eat at Richard’s while I check out his new video game and just generally mess around. But he knows he shouldn’t tell his teacher that.
He knows he probably wouldn’t have gotten to his homework until after dinner, when his father was tired and wanting to just relax and not be hunched over a word problem, taking him through the steps: Underline what’s being asked. Cross out all the extra information that you don’t need to solve the problem. Solve the problem using all the relevant information.
But instead of saying all that, he simply stares at her.
Now she’s talking about responsibility and developing good habits because they’ll serve him in the future and on and on, and he stops listening. Can he just get the invitation out of his desk and be gone? He stands there politely, waiting it out, until finally she finishes.
When she goes back to her paper correcting, he scoots to his desk and plucks out the invitation, happy that it’s easy to find. He can just imagine what it would have been like if he’d had to pull everything out of his desk to search for it. He’d probably get another lecture on the importance of being organized, the time it can save, and blah, blah, blah.
He holds it up so she can see it. “Got it, Ms. Shelby-Ortiz.”
She smiles, probably satisfied that she got to engage him in a teachable moment. Ms. Shelby-Ortiz is always talking about teachable moments, whatever those are.
As Calvin leaves the classroom, he’s got chips on his mind. He’ll swing by Mr. D.’s on his way to Richard’s. He starts whistling as he walks down the hall, imagining the taste. He passes Mr. Willis’s room and sees he’s right in the middle of a parent-teacher conference . . . with Harper and his grandmother? Calvin backs up out of view and presses himself against the wall so he can listen.
Mr. Willis is listing Harper’s latest infractions. He’s telling Harper’s grandmother about Harper going to the restroom and throwing pieces of wet paper towel onto the restroom ceiling. “Do you know how troublesome it is for the janitor to remove clumps of wet paper towel off the ceiling?”
“I do, I do,” Harper’s grandmother says. “But I don’t know what to do with this boy.”
Mr. Willis turns to Harper. “What do you have to say about all of this, Harper?”
Calvin takes a peek around the door frame and sees Harper slouched in his seat with his mouth poked out, picking at a fingernail. “I dunno,” he says.
“Is that all you got to say to your teacher?” his grandmother asks. “What’s wrong with you?”
Calvin puts his hand over his mouth to stifle a laugh. That’s when he feels a hand on his shoulder. Not a kid hand. A grownup hand, heavy and pressing down a bit like it means business. He looks up to see the frowning face of Mr. Brown, the principal.
“What are you doing?” he asks.
“Nothing,” Calvin says, and he knows it’s a stupid response even as it’s coming out of his mouth.
“Didn’t anyone ever teach you not to eavesdrop?”
Calvin can’t remember anyone actually teaching him not to eavesdrop—because maybe he’s never done it before, that he can remember—but he nods his head anyway and looks down. Here’s the thing he doesn’t want: He doesn’t want Mr. Brown to have a bad opinion of him. And it might already be too late for that, because of that stupid newsletter Deja put out earlier in the year—she and her friend Nikki.
Ayanna had gotten her book-fair money stolen, and in that newsletter, which he hopes Mr. Brown never saw, Deja had kind of pointed the finger at Calvin. She’d sort of mentioned him as a prime suspect, using his initials. Everyone knew CV was meant to be him. And he’s never stolen anything.
Deja was probably thinking about the time when Ralph traded his Hot Wheels Pharodox for Calvin’s Lego key chain. The key chain had impressed Ralph for a little while, and he must have traded the car without thinking and then realized there was nothing much to do with a key chain except put your keys on it—but he had no keys.
So Ralph tried to trade back, but Calvin wasn’t having it. Ralph gave the key chain back anyway, and Calvin simply put it in his desk along with the Pharodox. If Ralph wanted to give him back his key chain, that was his choice; Calvin would take that too. But then Ralph went to Ms. Shelby-Ortiz and accused Calvin of stealing the Hot Wheels car, and the whole class had to listen to her lecture about bringing toys to school.
Of course, the Pharodox was in his desk because it was his. But then Deja put it in her neighborhood newsletter that he, Calvin, was a thief. Not fair! Especially if Mr. Brown read that about him. Calvin was so happy when the newsletter fizzled out and Deja and Nikki had to print retractions of all the things they got wrong.
“I think you need to run along and mind your own business,” Mr. Brown is saying. “Don’t you think so?”
“Yes, Mr. Brown.”
“Good.”
Calvin hurries down the hall, deciding to go straight home instead of to Mr. D.’s. He’s kind of lost his appetite for chips. Richard and the others will probably wonder what happened to him. He’ll explain tomorrow that he just decided to go home.
Six
Dad’s Very, Very, Very Lame Idea
The next afternoon, Calvin comes straight home from school. He doesn’t have to sneak in or watch his back because Carlos told him that Harper has detention—again. Calvin’s father is at the sink, washing broccoli. Calvin stands there a while, trying to overcome his gag reflex and thinking, What other things might go wrong today?
His dad glances over at him and says, “So how did it go yesterday? It’s been so busy at work, I forgot to ask.” Now he looks all eager.
Calvin stares at the broccoli. “It was fine,” he says, and he knows his face doesn’t match his words. “Fine.”
“Well, what happened? Did you collect your data?”
“Yeah.”
“So what were the results?” Calvin’s dad wipes his hands on a dishtowel and turns to look at him.
“The girls were faster than the boys.”
His father looks like he wants to laugh. Calvin doesn’t understand what that’s all about, but he doesn’t like it.
“All of them?” Dad asks, still looking like he’s about to laugh.
“All of them.”
“Well, you have to accept the results.”
But Calvin was counting on different results. He counted on showing up the girls. It’s going to be hard to be excited about girls being faster than boys. He shakes his head.
“You know,” his father tells him, “you just have to accept it. Girls are faster at some things—boys are faster at others.”
Maybe that’s true. But that doesn’t mean Calvin shouldn’t be disappointed in the results. Sometimes a parent just can’t understand a thing the way a kid can. First of all, Calvin’s dad doesn’t understand that this means that his science fair experiment didn’t work out. It was a big deal to sit there and see the girls do way better than the boys. Especially since Calvin even included Erik Castillo, the smartest boy in the class, on his list of subjects. The smartest boy in the class. And the girls did better than him. What is wrong with that Erik? Maybe he needs glasses.
Later, in his room, Calvin pulls out his data sheet from his backpack. He stares at it. For just a moment—the tiniest moment—Calvin toys with the idea of slightly, kind of . . . altering the results. Just a little bit. Just so the girls don’t show up the boys so much. He almost reaches for a pencil on his desk. But then he stops himself. Best to leave everything as is.
Anyway, the fact that he used real human subjects might just give him a leg up over the other kids’ projects.
Richard had tried to ruin Calvin’s optimism when Calvin happened to mention that fact at recess. “You don’t know that you’re the only on
e who used real subjects in your project,” Richard had said. “A bunch of other people could have too.”
Calvin had thought, But I bet you there aren’t a bunch of people who used real human subjects besides me. He didn’t say it, though, because Richard would have come back with reasons why he thought other kids used real subjects, and Calvin didn’t want to hear it.
Calvin’s dad pokes his head into Calvin’s bedroom to remind him to get started writing up the results of his project. “Don’t put it off until the last minute. Remember, the science fair is sooner than you think.”
He knows the science fair is close, and he knows, as he sits at his desk staring at his data sheet again, that he’ll have to record the truth: When it comes to optical illusions, the girls he used as subjects were faster than the boys.
That night, at dinner, Calvin’s dad comes up with a “great idea.” It seems he was taking the trashcans to the curb in the morning when he saw Harper’s grandmother, Mrs. Jeffers, struggling with hers. Apparently he introduced himself and insisted on helping her. Then they got to talking. (This is where Calvin gets a little sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.) Of course, the subject of Harper and her struggles with his behavior came up.
Calvin takes a bite of his mashed potatoes and waits.
“She was telling me how she wished Harper had a man’s influence in his life—someone who could show him a little attention.” His father pauses, and Calvin thinks, Here it comes.
“So I thought it would be nice if we invited him to go to the movies with us on Saturday to see The Thing from Another Planet Three.”
Calvin puts his fork down. This is his father’s great idea? He looks at the table and frowns, to show his father how he feels about it.
“I think that kid just needs someone to be nice to him,” his father continues.
“But it was only going to be the two of us. Anyway, Harper probably hasn’t even seen The Thing from Another Planet One and Two. He’s not going to even know what’s going on. And if I have to explain everything, that’s going to ruin the movie for me and—”
His father stops him right there by holding up a palm. “I’ll explain everything on our way to the movie. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”
“You don’t know him, Dad.”
“Maybe we should get to know him.”
“He’s not someone you can get to know! When’s Mom coming home?” Calvin adds. Suddenly everything is not to his liking.
“You know when she’s coming home. In another month or so.” His father shakes his head as if he’s a little bit disappointed in Calvin. But Calvin’s the one who’s more disappointed. He’s been looking forward to this outing with his father. They have their own moviegoing routine: getting there early enough to see all the previews, getting a big tub of popcorn and two giant boxes of Milk Duds to sprinkle in the popcorn and two large cherry slushies, getting seats close to the aisle so they don’t have to step over people if one of them has to go to the bathroom. Heaven. Having Harper along is going to ruin all of that. It’s not fair.
The next day at the lunch table, Calvin’s friends can’t believe what Calvin’s father is up to. “Why’s he doing that to you?”
“He thinks Harper needs people to be nice to him. That if he had more kindness shown to him, he’d behave better,” Calvin says.
“Harper’s probably going to make it miserable for you,” Gavin says, opening up his bag of chips. Richard holds out his hand, and Gavin shakes one chip into his palm.
“Just one?” Richard protests.
“I don’t hardly have any. They put a whole bunch of air in the bags.”
Gavin turns to Calvin. “Betcha he’ll steal something from the concession stand and then you will get in trouble,” Gavin says.
“No,” Carlos says. “The candy and stuff is behind glass.”
“Not all of it,” Gavin insists. “Better keep your eyes on him.”
“Or he could get into a fight with another kid,” Richard adds. “Over nothing.”
“He’s not going to get into any fight,” Calvin says, realizing he’s actually sticking up for Harper.
“He might,” Richard tells him. “Maybe a kid will look at him funny. You never know.”
For some reason Calvin doesn’t think that Harper is going to pound anyone into the ground at the movies—not while he’s with Calvin’s dad, at least.
“So now he’s going to know you live right next door to him,” Carlos observes.
“And that you’ve been hiding out from him,” Richard adds.
“He’s not going to think I’ve been hiding out from him. He’s just going to think we haven’t seen each other. Yet.”
“Hope he doesn’t get jealous that you have a dad and he just lives with his grandmother.”
Calvin frowns—because that is a possibility. He hadn’t even thought of that.
Seven
The Thing from Another Planet 3
The movie starts at two. It’s one fifteen and Harper still hasn’t shown up. Calvin paces the living room floor, throwing his arms up from time to time. “I can’t believe it,” he says under his breath. “I knew he’d find a way to ruin things.”
His dad is in the kitchen, washing his hands after working in the garden. “He’s not here, Dad, and the movie starts at two. We’re going to miss the previews.”
“The previews start at two,” his father corrects him. “Why don’t you just run next door and see what’s delaying him?”
“I don’t want to go and see what’s delaying him.” He’s never even spoken to Harper. Never.
“Get going,” his father says in a tone that means there’ll be no discussion. Calvin sighs and starts out the door.
When he rings the bell, he has to wait a while before Harper’s grandmother opens the door. She has a cigarette in her hand. He stares at it. She laughs and puts it out in an ashtray on the coffee table. There are still boxes stacked in the living room. Someone must’ve slept on the sofa, because a sheet and blanket are balled up at the end of it.
“I’m here for Harper,” Calvin says.
“Harper?” she repeats.
“He’s going to the movies with me and my dad.”
“Oh, right.” She turns her head and calls, “Harper! That boy from next door is here. He and his daddy are supposed to be takin’ you to the movies. Now don’t keep them waitin.’ ”
Calvin waits.
“Harper!” she calls again.
Still nothing. She looks at Calvin and says, “You go on up to his room and get him. He’s down the hall, first door on the right. Go on now and hurry him along.”
Calvin doesn’t want to go on up there and hurry Harper along. That’s the last thing he wants to do. He looks at the darkened staircase, and feels a sense of dread. He looks back at Harper’s grandmother, hoping she’ll have another suggestion. But she just looks at him as if waiting for him to follow her instructions.
“Go on now,” she says as if she can read his mind.
He swallows. He can feel her watching him as he walks carefully up the stairs. The first door on the right is open. Harper is lying on his bed, staring at his ceiling. He looks over at Calvin but doesn’t say anything.
Calvin doesn’t think he’s ever been this close to Harper before. He doesn’t know what to say. Finally he manages, “Uh, my dad’s waiting for you.”
“You go to my school,” he says.
“Uh . . . yeah,” Calvin says and braces himself.
“I have to wash my face and brush my teeth.” Harper gets up and passes a little too close to Calvin as he crosses in front of him to get to the bathroom down the hall. Calvin frowns. Shouldn’t he have already done that?
While he’s gone, Calvin looks around. The walls are covered with posters of the most valuable players from different basketball teams. Calvin is a little surprised to see this side of Harper—that he’s a person with regular interests like any other boy. There’s a framed photograph
of a woman about Calvin’s mother’s age on Harper’s dresser. Calvin is looking at it closely when Harper walks back into the room.
Calvin feels as if he was caught being nosy, so he’s quick to explain. “I was . . . I was just wondering who this person is,” he says.
“That’s my mother,” Harper says glumly.
“Your mother?”
“Right.”
“Where is she?”
“Around.”
“You don’t live with her?” Calvin asks.
“No.”
“My mom’s gone,” Calvin says—just to have something to say. “Because my grandmother broke her hip and my mother has to take care of her.”
Harper doesn’t say anything. It’s almost as if he didn’t even hear. Then he says, “My mom’s homeless.”
Calvin is caught completely off-guard. He looks at the picture again. Harper’s mother doesn’t look homeless. She’s standing next to a tree, laughing and shielding her eyes. She has on regular clothes and everything.
Calvin doesn’t know what to say. Then he asks, “Is that why you live with your grandmother?”
Harper looks puzzled.
“Mrs. Jeffers,” Calvin says.
“She’s not my grandmother. She’s my foster mother.”
Foster mother? Now Calvin’s doubly surprised. He doesn’t think he’s ever met a foster kid. He knows about them, but he doesn’t remember how. TV, probably. Or maybe he heard his mom and dad say something about foster kids. Don’t they have sad, sad lives because their mothers and fathers can’t take care of them and they have to go to a foster home? And aren’t some of those homes not good? He thinks about Mrs. Jeffers and her cigarettes.
“Let’s go,” Harper says in a bored tone.
He doesn’t even look happy to be going to the movies with Calvin and his dad. It must be hard for Harper to be happy, Calvin thinks.
Trouble Next Door Page 4