True Colors

by Krysten Lindsay Hager

  I wasn’t sure where to sit when I got on the bus. Devon would think I was ignoring her if I sat with Ashanti, but Ashanti might get weird on me if I sat with Devon. I waited until the last minute to get on the bus, and by then, they were both sitting with other people. I ended up having to sit behind the bus driver. I probably would have tossed myself out the window if Ashanti hadn’t asked me to come over. Of course, I could never get the bus windows to slide down so I was probably safe.

  Ashanti helped me with my math homework after we watched As the Days Roll On. I told her my dad would pay her since he had been bugging me to get a tutor, but she said it was no big deal.

  “Unless your dad wants to pay me to be friends with you,” she said laughing. She asked me what was going on with Devon, and I lied and said everything was fine.

  “Remember how she and India used to fight all the time last year?” she asked.

  “I guess,” I said.

  “I could have hit her at your party. I mean, come on, ‘If you guys are gonna watch TV all night then we’re gonna sleep in the other room,’” Ashanti said in a whiny voice. “It’s like, if I don’t get my way, I’m gonna take my ball and go home.”

  I didn’t say anything.

  “I know you’re friends with her, but she bugs me sometimes,” she said.

  Ashanti showed me the new sweaters her mom had bought her for school. School clothes are almost always boring because we have a dress code, but these sweaters were soft and pretty. She had a light blue one, and it was fuzzy and beautiful. I held it in front of me, and she said it looked good.

  “Light colors don’t look good on me.” I put it back on the bed, but she held it again.

  “No, it looks pretty with your hair and eyes,” she said. “See?”

  I looked in the mirror, and the color did make my blue eyes stand out. I used to have a baby blue sweater my grandma had bought me, but Ericka told me I looked pale in it, so I never wore it again even though Mom said Grandma had spent a lot of money on it. I wasn’t even sure where it was anymore.

  “You can borrow it if you want,” she said.

  “You should wear it first,” I said.

  She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I was planning on wearing the white one tomorrow. Just don’t order the spaghetti.”

  “I’ll get a sloppy joe instead,” I said, and she stuck her tongue out. “My hair looks so blah today,” I said.

  “It looks fine. I have matching hair for it,” she said digging through her drawer. “Want me to put it in your hair?”

  I sat on her bed, and she kneeled behind me and pulled the top section of my hair back, while leaving the rest down. It looked cute the way she had styled it, but I wanted my hair to look like hers — with the top part of her hair pulled back.

  When I went home, Mom thought my hair looked cute.

  “Just like Ashanti’s,” she said.

  I went to my room and put the sweater in front of me. I liked the way my hair looked, but the barrette kept sliding down because my hair wasn’t as thick as Ashanti’s. I put it back the way Ashanti had done it the first time, and it did look better.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The next day I got up early to do my hair. I put the bracelet in my pocket so I could decide if I wanted to wear it after I saw Devon’s arm. Tori said I looked cute at the bus stop. I told her I was wearing Ashanti’s sweater. She said I should try pulling my hair up like Ashanti’s, but I said it wouldn’t hold.

  Devon didn’t say much. She just talked about how cold it was, and she had her hands pulled inside her sleeves so I couldn’t see her wrists. Ashanti wasn’t on the bus, so I sat with Peyton.

  “Oh, I love your sweater. The color looks so good on you,” Peyton said.

  “It’s Ashanti’s.”

  “Super cute,” Peyton said.

  Thalia told me I looked good in homeroom, and Kyle rubbed my shoulders in math class and said, “Fuzzy.”

  Thankfully Yasmin wasn’t in our class or she would have had me killed. Ashanti looked gorgeous in the white turtleneck sweater. It set off her dark hair and eyes and made her look like she should be at some rich ski resort or something. Even Jay told her she looked “hot.” On the way to class Peyton passed me a note.

  Landry-

  Do you have to work, or can you do something on Friday? We could go to the J.V. game and see Vladi or hang out at my house. I won’t say anything to Devon if you don’t want me to.

  Got-to-go, Peyton

  At lunch, Devon said we should all go to the game on Friday. I thought Peyton had meant for just the two of us to do something because she had written she wouldn’t say anything to Devon. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I told Peyton how Devon wanted us to go to the game.

  “Oh, you told her?” she asked.

  “No, I thought you did,” I said.

  She shook her head. “No, but if you wanna go in a group…”

  India walked in so we changed the subject and started talking about the assignment on the board. Peyton and I didn’t bring up the plans for Friday night, but on the ride home, Devon said her mom could drive us to the game. I asked Mom if I could go to the game, but she wanted to know who I was going with.

  “Devon, India, and Peyton,” I said. “Devon said her mom could drop us off.”

  Mom thought for a moment. “I can take you guys and pick you up. I’ll let you go to the J.V. game, but I don’t like the idea of you guys staying there later with the older kids,” she said.

  “But everybody goes to the varsity game,” I said.

  “I get nervous with you guys going over to the public high school. Besides, Devon is a little more, um, advanced than you,” she said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “She’s… more into boys,” she said.

  “I’m into boys,” I said.

  She sighed. “She’s more likely to give a guy her number.”

  I went into the kitchen to call Devon, and she said she wanted everybody to come over to her house after the game. I told her my mom would only let me go to the J.V. game, but she said they were staying for the varsity game. I can’t believe Devon’s overprotective mother would let her go to the varsity game, while my mom wouldn’t. I went back in my mom’s room and flopped on her bed.

  “I don’t want to leave by myself,” I said.

  “And I don’t want you coming out of the gym alone at night. See if Peyton will go with you,” she said, handing me the cell phone.

  Peyton was fine with my mom driving us. She said her parents weren’t crazy about her staying for the varsity game either.

  “I have no idea what to wear to this thing. Can I wear jeans?” she asked. “Because Devon said something about a skirt.”

  “I’ll wear jeans if you do so at least if we look dumb then we’ll look dumb together,” I said. “I’m going to see if Ashanti wants to come with us, too.”

  Ashanti said she was in and she was fine with leaving early. I hung up the phone and wondered if going to this game was such a good idea after all. I wanted to see Vladi again, but did I want my friends around when he ignored me?

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Peyton came over after school to get ready. She did my hair with a big barrel curling iron. Peyton put on the lip gloss she had gotten from Thalia’s party, and I started to put on the gloss I bought with Devon when Peyton asked if I still had the one I got from the party. She said the color Thalia picked out for me looked better so I put it on instead.

  We picked Ashanti up, and Mom made us promise not to talk to strange boys or drink anything we hadn’t bought ourselves. She wanted us to call her right after the J.V. game, and we had to wait inside until we saw her flash her lights three times. She was so embarrassing sometimes. I’m surprised she didn’t want me to sit in a car seat and color on the way to the game.

  “Did you e-mail Cristian?” Devon asked as soon as she saw us.

  I said he never wrote me back. I knew there were a lot of fourteen-ye
ar-olds there from the public school because we sometimes got together and had city-wide tournaments and meets, but I still felt like a little kid. For some reason, students from the public school looked way older than the ones from Hillcrest.

  Devon made us wait over by the concession stand for Doug. Peyton and I bought some candy, but I wanted to go into the gym to watch Vladi play. Ashanti was getting bored since we were just standing around, so she told Devon we were going to watch the game.

  “Whatever. India and I are gonna wait for the guys,” Devon said.

  We sat in the front since there were a bunch of loud older guys sitting on the top of the bleachers. The J.V. team won their game, and more people started to come into the gym for the varsity game. I said I wanted to stay until Vladi came out of the locker room.

  “Won’t your mom get mad?” Peyton asked.

  “I’m texting her, but it’ll take her a while to get here, so we’ll be okay,” I said.

  Vladi came out, and he seemed sort of shy as he ducked his head whenever somebody yelled out his name. He made his way through the crowd, and Ashanti pushed me right into his path. I almost died as he stopped and looked at me.

  “Hey, what’s up?” he asked.

  “Hi.” I felt someone poking me so I said, “You were great.” Seriously, could I get any dumber?

  “Thanks,” he said. “Are you staying for the varsity game?” he asked.

  Mother, you’re ruining my life. Why, why, why are you so overprotective?

  “Because, we’re heading over to Ignatowski’s Ice Cream Palace now. You should come,” he said as he walked away to join his friends.

  “Oh my. Oh my. Oh. My,” Ashanti said.

  “Hottest guy I’ve ever seen,” Peyton said.

  “Oh, we are so going for ice cream,” I said.

  We went to tell Devon and India, but they wanted to stay since Doug had finally shown up. We ran out to the car before mom even flashed her lights once.

  “We’ve gotta go to Ignatowski’s Ice Cream Palace,” I said.

  “Why?” she asked as we all piled into the car.

  “I never ask for anything, but—”

  “Seriously?” Mom said.

  “Mo-om. The hottest guy on the planet basically asked us to go,” I said.

  “Asked her,” Peyton said. “The rest of us were invisible.”

  Mom wanted to know how old he was, and we all acted like we had no idea.

  “He’s tall so it’s hard to tell,” Ashanti said.

  Mom sighed. “So some strange guy—”

  “No, I know him. He’s a friend,” I said, and the girls nodded.

  Mom said they had to check with their parents. Peyton’s parents were fine with it, and Ashanti’s dad said she could go as long as she was home by eleven.

  “Eleven? I thought he’d say ten. The old man’s getting soft,” Ashanti said.

  Mom gave me money for all of us and said she’d sit somewhere else. Vladi and his friends were sitting at a table in the center of the restaurant. There weren’t many people in the restaurant since the varsity game was still going on. We got our ice cream, and Peyton asked where we should sit. I wasn’t sure if we should walk near his table and then act surprised to see him there, but Ashanti pointed out he did tell me I should go there. We didn’t have to decide because he waved us over.

  I figured Vladi wouldn’t remember my name so I tried to think of a way I could work it into the conversation without looking like a total dork. I couldn’t come up with any way to bring my name up, but I was surprised how easy he was to talk to. He asked me about my favorite movies, and he was telling me about his dog when his friend said they had to leave.

  “I guess I gotta go. See ya, Landry,” he said as he got up.

  I waited until he had cleared the doorway before I screamed, “He remembered my name!” Ashanti said Vladi and his friends were still standing outside so I should try to control my happy dance a little.

  “You should go out there,” she said.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Remember what I said about guys being freaked out by groups? If you want him to ask for your e-mail, you need to be alone. Just pretend you have to go get something out of the car.”

  “Get my jacket,” Peyton said. “I left it in your mom’s car. Get her keys.”

  I don’t know if it was all the sugar I had eaten or if I had just gone insane, but I got the keys and went to get Peyton’s coat.

  “Hey,” Vladi said as I walked over to our car. My nose was starting to run from the cold, and I had to sniff loudly to keep it from running down my face.

  “Hi,” I said.

  “Can I get your e-mail address?” he asked.

  I was going to have to buy a whole new journal to record this moment. I found a pen in the glove compartment but no paper. He pulled out the paper ring which had been around his ice cream cone, and I wrote on it. His friends yelled at him to hurry up.

  “I gotta go. See ya around,” he said as he jogged back to his friends.

  “What happened?” Ashanti asked the second I came back.

  “First, you are the smartest person in the universe and I’m naming my first born after you,” I said.

  “Ashanti Yagudin Jr. I like it, but I might change my name if I become famous,” she said.

  “Ashanti Peyton Yagudin Jr. because it was her jacket that gave me the reason to go out there, which gave him the reason to come over and ask me for my e-mail address,” I said.

  They freaked out, and Peyton pointed out I had forgotten to bring her jacket inside and she was freezing after eating ice cream. I gave her my coat, and they pumped me for details.

  “He asked for my e-mail address, I gave it, and he’ll probably never write me,” I said.

  “Did you get his, too?” Peyton asked.

  “No, but I wouldn’t write to him first even if he gave it to me.”

  “He’s adorbs. This is major,” Ashanti said.

  I told Mom when we got in the car. She said he looked cute from where she was sitting and asked how old he was again.

  “It won’t matter when we’re in college,” I said.

  “Is he eighteen?” she asked. “Because so help me—”

  Ashanti said he was definitely not eighteen because they put all the eighteen-year-olds on the varsity team.

  “You know, he speaks English well so he’s probably lived here for a while,” Peyton said.

  “I’m going with him if he goes back to Russia,” I said.

  “I’ll go with you. Maybe it’s a country full of hot men,” Ashanti said.

  “I think Mr. Ivanov is from there,” Peyton said.

  “Maybe he’ll grow up and look like the janitor. Mr. Ivanov’s pretty hot for an older guy,” Ashanti said.

  “Mr. Ivanov is cool. He got my locker open when it had gum stuck in it,” I said.

  “How did you get gum stuck in your locker?” Mom asked.

  I shrugged. I figured either Tori or Ericka shoved it in there when they were mad at me, but I never told anybody about it even though I got a tardy in science because it made me late.

  I started thinking about what Devon was doing, and I wondered if she and India went somewhere with Doug and Jeremy after the game. They’d probably start double dating and every weekend the four of them would go out and they’d introduce Cristian to Peyton and then they’d be one big happy family. Meanwhile, I’d still be waiting by the computer for Vladi to e-mail me.

  I snuggled up with my mouse when I got home. So what if some hot older guy had talked to me? He was never going to ask me out. Mom came in to tell me Devon was on the phone.

  “Hey,” Devon said.

  “I have something to tell—”

  “India, shut up! Hold on a sec,” she said putting the phone down. “Sorry, she’s so hyper. She had two Super Slushies tonight. We just got back. What time did you get home?” she asked.

  “I dunno,” I said.

  “Did you go anywhere afterwar
d?” she asked.

  “We stopped at Ignatowski’s and—”

  “All of you? India — shush,” she said. I could hear India laughing in the background.

  “Yeah, Vladi said he was going so—”

  “The older guy? He asked you to go with him?” she asked.

  “Well, he mentioned he was going—”

  “So you followed him?” she asked.

  “Well, no—”

  She put me on hold while she answered her other line. “Gotta let ya go. It’s Doug. I’ll call you back.”

  ****

  Devon didn’t call me until Saturday afternoon, and then she was in a bad mood.

  “I can’t believe India. She was flirting with Doug on the phone last night,” she said.

  “India?” I asked.

  Devon said India had even let Doug have a sip of her soda at the game. I didn’t think it sounded too bad, but I wasn’t going to start anything.

  “I tried to ignore the drink thing yesterday, but then he called again this morning and asked me for her phone number. What a jerk.”

  “What did you do?” I asked.

  “I said I had to ask her. He’s such a loser.”

  “Does India like him?” I asked.

  “She says she doesn’t, but you wouldn’t know it by the way she acted. Hey, can you come over? Maybe you could spend the night,” she said.

  Part of me wanted to go, but I didn’t feel like spending another weekend sleeping over at someone else’s house. I told her my mom wouldn’t let me stay overnight, but maybe I could come over for a little while.

  “Why won’t she let you sleep over?” she asked.

  I didn’t want to her to know I had slept over at both Tori’s and Peyton’s houses last weekend, so I made up some excuse about Mom wanting me home tonight. It sounded pretty weak even to me.

  “Whatever, hold on, my mom’s calling me.” She came back to the phone and said her mom had to go to Kalamazoo to pick something up. “I guess I’ll go with her since you can’t sleep over. E-mail me tomorrow, okay?”

  I e-mailed her about Vladi, and the only thing she said when she wrote back was she didn’t think he would be interested in a fourteen-year-old.