Tyler, the one that cleared his throat, was cute, although not as cute as Josh. He was taller than Josh and skinny, and his brown hair was messy like he didn’t care much about fixing it. His demeanor put off a vibe that warned “charming goofball and slacker.”
The appearance of Sam with the other two, however, reminded me of the song from Sesame Street, “One of these things is not like the other.” His blond hair looked as though the hairdresser had goofed, cut it too short, and didn’t bother fixing it. His clothing appeared too big for him and out-of-date, and even as they sat I could tell he was about a foot lacking in height. He seemed like the type of kid who cared about his grades, did his homework, and then played video games to fill up the rest of his boring existence.
Lexi, Nicole, and I had yet to rent our skates, so we strolled over to join the short but noisy line of mostly pre-teens.
We had barely gotten out of hearing distance when Nicole declared, “I call Tyler.”
“Are you seriously calling dibs on a guy we don’t even know?” Lexi stared at her incredulously. She sounded annoyed but probably less at Nicole’s audacity in calling dibs and more at the fact that she had failed to do so first. We had all seen Sam, and I think we all agreed Tyler was the superior candidate.
“Fine. You know what? That’s okay, because I’m not here for guys anyway.” Lexi lifted her chin proudly in an attempt to appear dignified and noble. “I’m simply here to be a good wingman for Iris on her first date with Josh. And good wingmen don’t ditch to go get some for themselves.”
I appreciated Lexi’s loyalty, but when the six of us finally approached the doors to the rink itself, laughing in disbelief as we read the posters hung on either side, I had a feeling all four of them would want to ditch:
Old-School Night!
Playing all your favorites
from the late 80s through the early 90s!
Friday, 7-9 p.m.
We all shifted to face Josh with open mouths and raised eyebrows. Eventually, Tyler asked, “Did you know about this, Josh?”
“Um…no. I promise, I did not know about this.” Josh ducked his head, completely embarrassed, and Tyler and Sam both bent over roaring with laughter.
I eyed Nicole and Lexi to enlist support and turned back to Josh. “Well, I think it’ll be fun. It’s fine, really.” I lowered my head to look Josh in the eye for encouragement, and he raised his head slowly in relief.
Nicole stared pointedly at Tyler. “Oh, come on, Tyler, don’t you know how to kick it old-school?” She smiled flirtatiously and his face brightened in surprise at her boldness.
“Maybe if you teach me.” He grinned. Then he turned back to Josh with an exaggerated surfer-dude impression. “This is going to be awesome, man!” He patted Josh on the back and winked at Nicole who flushed with excitement. Lexi rolled her eyes, and we all clomped in ungracefully on our skates.
If we thought the posters were ominous, we had no clue just how seriously the rink owners took Old-School Night. The lights had been dimmed way down and were replaced by a colorful array of moving spotlights that danced around the rink, occasionally crossing over one another as they searched the ice back and forth and side to side. A fog machine periodically exhaled murky smoke into the air, and “Everybody Dance Now” blared from the speakers so loudly you had to lean in close if you wanted anyone to hear you. That part I didn’t mind so much.
“Sweet.” Tyler drew the word out appreciatively, bobbing his head as he took it all in. “Well…let’s get it on! Come on, Nicole.” He motioned for her to follow him on the ice, and she grinned at me with wide eyes before turning and obeying.
Josh took my hand in his and led me to the ice as well, which just left Lexi and Sam by themselves. I glanced back apologetically, feeling sorry for my friend as they got on the ice together by default. While Sam was trying to make small talk with Lexi, she was being polite as usual, listening and nodding when appropriate. I smiled at how kindhearted Lexi was and hoped it didn’t backfire on her.
I skated for a while in awkward silence beside Josh, who had much more coordination and skill while I struggled to stay on my feet and practically hung on him.
Once the song “Ice Ice Baby” began to play, I decided somebody needed to say something. “So, ‘Ice Ice Baby,’ huh? You think they’re hitting the puns a little too hard?”
He broke out a warm, genuine laugh, and I smiled to myself. My confidence was starting to return. But that was short-lived as I suddenly lost my footing and began to fall, almost putting a dent in the ice with my rear end. Despite being humiliated, I wasn’t sorry I fell, though, because that forced the extreme close contact of him catching me—with great skill, I might add—from behind with both arms outstretched, firmly supporting mine.
“Come here often?” I asked as he helped me up, trying to imply how skilled he was at skating but sounding more like a corny pickup artist trying to hit on him. I would have blushed, but I was already too flustered.
He laughed, but not at me. It was a warm, intimate laugh that made me feel as though he truly knew me…and still liked me. We both gazed into each other’s eyes for a few seconds, smiled, and then shyly looked away.
“I used to come quite a bit when I was younger with my family,” he stated as he expertly steered me around a corner.
“Oh.” I was about to ask him when or if his family had stopped coming but was distracted as my eyes were drawn to the entrance of the rink. Several dark shadows had just wafted in, swarming around five loud, reckless-looking teenagers. However, I didn’t have to see their shadows to know what was wrong with them. Evidenced by their inability to stand properly, their loud shouts and guffaws, and their general lack of concern and respect for everyone around them, anyone could tell they were exceedingly drunk.
I tried to hide my discomfort and anxiety at what I saw, but Josh followed my eyes. The rambunctious group was now attempting to get on the ice and failing miserably.
“Well, somebody’s completely trashed!” He chuckled and shook his head.
The way he said it made me uneasy, like he had too much experience in that department.
“You don’t drink, do you?” I surprised myself with how bold and potentially rude I probably sounded.
He hesitated and gazed at the ice under our feet for a moment. I was afraid either I must have offended him or he did drink and was turned off by my obvious aversion to alcohol.
“Uh…no, I don’t.” He looked up slowly and thoughtfully. “My dad is an alcoholic. I’ve seen what alcohol can do to people, so I basically just stay away from it.” He smiled at me, seemingly relieved to get that off his chest but also a little apprehensive at what I might think.
I smiled at him reassuringly and squeezed his hand to show my feelings for him hadn’t changed in the slightest. If anything, his confession just made us closer.
“Besides,” he continued, flirtatiously pulling me toward him with a magnetic grin and sweetly moving my bangs from my eyes, “who needs alcohol to have a good time, anyway?”
When I have you by my side, I finished for him in my head. I mean, we were already holding hands in a darkened ice skating rink, slow-skating to “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.” Why not add the sappy cherry on the already extremely cliché sundae and enjoy it?
After another awkward yet enchanting goodbye in the skating rink parking lot that began with holding hands and ended in an elongated hug, Josh and I parted ways, and I ducked into my car with a smile plastered on my face.
“Ugh, finally!” Lexi groaned after slamming the passenger door and making sure all the boys were out of earshot.
“Are you kidding? I didn’t want the night to end!” Nicole sighed as she slumped down in the backseat with a dreamy expression probably not too far from my own.
“Yeah, well, you got to hang out with Mr. McDreamy while I had to spend the entire night listening to the most boring person in the world. He kept talking about all the video games he loves playing, and all the projects
he’s working on for school, not to mention all the colleges he’s already thinking about attending.” She was really getting herself worked up, and it was hard not to laugh.
“But that’s not the worst part.” She paused for dramatic effect, waiting for one of us to respond.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” I said, trying to hold in my laughter. “What’s the worst part?”
“I’m pretty sure…he likes me.” She uttered the word as if it were the most disgusting thing she’d ever tasted and crossed her arms with an intense frown.
Nicole and I did our best to hide our snickering and express how sorry we were, as we knew the situation truly wasn’t funny to Lexi.
“Oh, what do you care?” Lexi muttered, lightening up gradually. “You both had a wonderful time, I’m sure.” She rolled her eyes.
We both grinned and answered at the same time. “We really did!”
She laughed. “Okay, I’ll bite this time. Tell me all about it.”
The rest of the ride home was spent with Nicole and me in competition to see whose man was the best date, telling every detail about how cute, charming, and funny they both were. I thought I won, but, of course, I was biased.
When we got home at nine-thirty and strolled into my living room giggling, we found the lights dimmed and the TV set on some sappy made-for-television movie with the volume barely audible. My mom sat curled up on the couch by herself, staring at the television blankly.
Upon seeing us, she immediately perked up. “So? How did it go? Did you girls have fun?”
I started to tell her how wonderful the night was with Josh and how Nicole had hit it off with Josh’s friend, but I didn’t get too far until my mom’s interest and excitement for us began to fade and her melancholy, blank stare returned. She seemed lonely. I felt sorry for her, so I cut my news report short and asked her how her date went.
“Oh…not as good as yours.” She attempted a lighthearted smile that failed at hiding her true disappointment. “Let’s just say there won’t be a second date.”
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
“No worries.” She smiled. “You girls go have fun. Talk about your dates.” She waved us off to my room insistently. But after we had settled in my bedroom and I went back out to get some extra blankets from the hall closet, I cringed at the sight of my mother still sitting on the couch with a heartbreaking, lonely look on her face, wrapped in the murky, fluttering blanket of a shadow.
Chapter 5
GREAT. I FLIPPANTLY ROLLED my eyes as I scanned the classroom and headed to my seat. Mr. Delaney was tardy. In his absence, three dark silhouettes lingered around a few students and anxiously eyed the door. Of course they would scurry once he stepped foot in the classroom.
While I waited, I remembered I had something important to tell Lexi. I plopped down in my seat backward and faced her with an insinuating smile. “So…guess who’s sitting with us at lunch today?”
“Josh?” Lexi squealed. “When did you talk to him?”
“Last night. He told me he had a great time Saturday, and then he got all nervous and asked if I’d mind him sitting with us at lunch today.”
“So, what did you tell him?” Lexi leaned forward in interest.
“Well, obviously, I told him we’d love for them to sit with us.” I closed my mouth tightly and slapped my hand over my mouth as Lexi’s smile turned into a guarded frown.
“Them? Who’s…them…exactly?” she asked with her eyes squinted, sounding like a mobster interrogating his victim.
I sank in my chair and grinned sheepishly. “Josh and his friends?”
“Ugh! You would!” Lexi rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in a huff.
“Come on. It won’t be that bad,” I pleaded, knowing my efforts were futile.
“Yeah, okay. We’ll see.”
Just as I was about to try another angle with her that would be equally fruitless, I was saved from wasting my breath. Mr. Delaney finally wandered in with a smile on his flawless face that drew everyone’s attention, and, just as I suspected, immediately the three shadows scrambled over each other in a hurry to exit the room.
By lunchtime, Nicole and I were giddy with excitement, and Lexi was irritably apprehensive. We all rushed through the same food line as fast as we could in order to sit down first and be able to choose our seats, in essence, choosing the guys’ seats for them as well.
However, we came to a sudden halt about ten yards away when we spotted all three guys already sitting at our table. They were equally spaced out among the six chairs that circled it, leaving each one of us a designated seat. As my eyes fell on the open seat next to Josh, a pleasant fluttering sensation filled my stomach and chest. That seat was meant for me. But then there were Tyler and Sam and the other empty seats. Nicole would obviously sit next to Tyler, which left Lexi only one choice: to sit beside Sam.
We both looked at Lexi apologetically as her shoulders and head slumped with a deep sigh.
“Be brave. Be brave,” she repeated to herself. She picked up her shoulders, focused on her unfortunate destination straight ahead, and started marching with bold determination, as a soldier would, getting ready to cross into enemy territory.
“Well, all right then!” Nicole declared, both surprised and impressed, and began to follow her. I picked up the rear.
Despite the fact that sitting next to my “almost boyfriend” meant I would have to sit facing the shadowy lunch crowd, a jolt of unexpected energy raced through me as I settled into the seat and regarded him with a shy grin.
Josh broke the ice for us once we all got situated and started rustling with the packaging of our various hamburgers, burritos, and French fries. “So, despite everybody thinking ‘Old-school Night’ was going to be stupid, did you all have fun anyway? I know me and Iris did.” Josh smiled at me and I blushed with satisfaction.
Everyone nodded, Lexi less emphatically than the other three.
But Tyler didn’t hold back. “Heck yeah, we did!” He looked to Nicole to share in his enthusiasm, and she giggled flirtatiously in response.
“Well, you guys certainly seemed to be having a good time,” Josh teased.
Tyler and Nicole smiled at each other, not denying the claim.
“Lexi and I had a good time too,” Sam offered cluelessly. “Didn’t we, Lexi?”
Lexi gaped at all of us like a deer in headlights until finally replying, “Um…yeah,” as she twisted her head away from Sam’s uncomfortable, questioning gaze.
Sam smiled to himself and continued eating while Lexi appeared horrified. The rest of us gawked at each other, our hands over our mouths in an effort to stifle our laughter. Clearly all of us but Sam were in on the silent joke…Awkward!
I made an effort to change the subject for my obviously miserable friend. “So, Josh, Nicole, are you ready for spelunking with Mr. Keller on Wednesday?”
“I am so ready!” Nicole exclaimed. “Oh.” Her smile faded and she slouched into her chair, remembering something. “Don’t forget, he said to bring extra clothes because we might get muddy.” She rolled her eyes at the unwelcome idea.
“Oh, right.” I grimaced as I recalled Mr. Keller’s brief instructions and wondered what all “muddy” might entail.
“Oh, quit being such pansies,” Lexi chided as she daintily picked up a French fry. “I mean, it’s just a little mud.”
“Really?” I asked, skeptically. “This coming from Miss Dainty Priss herself?”
Lexi just shrugged and raised her eyebrows slightly as if to say, “What? Dainty Prisses can’t get muddy?”
“Well, I don’t mind the mud,” Josh declared, turning to me, “but I’ll do my best to keep you out of it.” He smiled sincerely and I melted at his charm, however corny.
“Please!” Tyler rolled his eyes dramatically and then continued with a fake lisp and exaggerated hand gestures. “The knight in shining armor thing is so thirteenth century.”
Laughter erupted all around the table until Nicole saw something that
made her freeze and look down at her food anxiously. “Is that…Mr. Delaney?” She cautiously studied her tray and tried to appear nonchalant, but her blushing face gave her away.
Lexi and I glanced over to where Nicole’s eyes had been focused and saw Mr. Delaney standing aloof by a pillar in the cafeteria. He was gazing around the room with more concentration and vigilance than I’d ever seen in a lunch duty teacher. Before his gaze made its way to us, we spun back around so hastily that Lexi smacked her tray with her arm, rattling her fork and knocking over her water bottle.
I rolled my eyes and nodded at Nicole in confirmation.
Tyler sighed deeply in annoyance. “I don’t see what everybody’s obsession is! I mean, he’s a teacher! That, by definition, means he’s lame.” He pointed his fork at each of us, as though his statement were obvious and couldn’t be refuted.
“I agree,” Sam said. “I mean, he’s obviously too old for any student here, so why bother getting all worked up about it?”
I agreed with Sam more than Tyler, but I didn’t say so because my attention was somewhat preoccupied. Mr. Delaney was plainly in my view, and I couldn’t help but notice he had stopped his survey of the lunchroom and had begun eyeing a particular table. As the rest of my friends continued their conversation unaware, I followed his stare and immediately became uncomfortable at the scene in front of me. It would have been bad enough by itself, but the hovering cloudy mass of hateful shadows simply made it worse.
Three junior boys, including Mike from Science, were crowding around the table, looming over a small-framed freshman boy, clearly threatening him with their posture, facial-expressions, and, no doubt, menacing words.
I glared at Mr. Delaney with disappointed astonishment. Why didn’t he do anything? I mean, sure he couldn’t see the shadows, but you didn’t need to have my vision to see what was going on.
I was debating on whether or not to ask Josh or Tyler to go do something for the poor kid, when I detected a slight change in the direction of Mr. Delaney’s gaze. He was now looking just to the right of the bullies at a well-liked senior basketball player I recognized. Mr. Delaney’s expression changed to a smile even though the senior hadn’t moved as far as I could tell, and I began to see the same type of bright, flowing figure of light I had seen around Hanna now appear beside this senior.
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