Ellie Makes Her Move

by Marilyn Kaye

  “You’ve got a boyfriend!” she squealed.

  “Shh!” I lowered my own voice. “No, it’s not like that.” I grinned. “But…yeah. He’s nice.”

  Rachel hugged herself in glee. “Call me tonight and tell me everything!”

  I wasn’t able to find Alyssa until after school, when I ran out of my last class and cornered her at her locker. I explained hurriedly.

  “Listen, I can’t meet with you guys today. Mike Twersky wants to come over and look in the spyglass.”

  Alyssa’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re inviting Mike Twersky to join the Spyglass Sisterhood?”

  I shook my head. “No. He thinks it’s an ordinary telescope. He just wants to look at . . at stuff.” I didn’t know if maybe his bird watching was some sort of secret, since it wasn’t exactly like shooting hoops or whatever.

  Now Alyssa’s expression went stone cold. “So you’re blowing us off to get into the popular crowd?”

  “No! That has nothing to do with it. It’s that—I like him. Kind of. You know what I mean.”

  “No, Ellie. I don’t.” With that, she slammed her locker shut and stormed away.

  I stared after her in shock. Was she really angry? I was upset, but I couldn’t stand here and think about it. And I couldn’t run after her. I had to meet Mike.

  It was funny, how I now felt comfortable thinking of him as Mike, not Mike Twersky. Like we were actually friends. As I walked quickly to the exit, I tried to imagine what we might talk about as we walked together. Birds? Or maybe just the usual stuff kids who didn’t know each other very well talked about. Complaints about homework, teachers we didn’t like, the crummy food in the cafeteria, that sort of thing.

  He was waiting just outside the door. We exchanged the usual greetings and started walking through the parking lot. At one point, we passed Paige with some of her friends, and they were all looking at us with very surprised expressions. I had to admit to myself that felt kind of good. A couple of them called, “Hi, Mike,” and he waved in response. Of course, they didn’t say, “Hi, Ellie.” And I didn’t care at all—which also felt good.

  And I didn’t have to start a conversation—because he did!

  “So how do you like Lakeside?” he asked.

  I wasn’t sure if he meant the school or the town, so I gave a general response. “It’s nice.”

  “They’re going to build a really cool community center over there,” he said, pointing.

  “I know,” I replied, and almost blurted out that I’d seen it, but I caught myself in time. “My dad told me about it.”

  “Yeah, my dad’s been talking about it too. He wants to know if the folks in the homeless shelter will be able to use it.”

  “Why wouldn’t they?” I asked.

  “Well, it’s supposed to be only for residents of Lakeside, and some people don’t think the shelter is a real residence. I think they’re just afraid of people who aren’t exactly like they are.”

  “That’s not cool,” I remarked. “I like knowing people who are nothing like me.”

  “Yeah, I can tell. I’ve seen you with that girl who wears black all the time.”

  “Alyssa. She was my first friend here.” Although after our last encounter, I wasn’t so sure we were still friends. I pushed that worrisome thought to the back of my mind.

  “My dad says he might have to see a lawyer, to make sure the shelter residents can get into the community center.”

  “My dad’s a lawyer.”

  “Really? Cool. I’ll tell my dad.”

  I couldn’t believe it—we were having a real conversation about real stuff. It lasted all the way to my house.

  When we went inside, I could see that my dad’s office door was closed, which meant he was meeting with a client. Which was just as well—Mike’s and my relationship hadn’t reached the “meet the parents” point yet. If it even was a relationship.

  I took his coat, took mine off, and put them both on the coatrack by the door. Our coats, together. Side by side. Then I led Mike up to the turret.

  “Wow, that’s a really old telescope,” he commented. It wasn’t a criticism—he was looking at it in admiration.

  “It works pretty well,” I told him. “And you can magnify what you see.” I demonstrated the dial. “Go ahead, try it.”

  I waited in suspense as he peered through the eyepiece. What would he see? Would the spyglass reveal something to him? And if it did, should I tell him about the Spyglass Sisterhood? Would he want to join? We’d have to change the name, then. Spyglass Peoplehood? That didn’t sound as good.

  He let out a whoop. I held my breath. But I had nothing to worry about.

  “A white-breasted nuthatch! I can see the cap!” He turned to me. “Take a look.”

  I saw a bird.

  “Does the cap look black to you?” he asked. “If it’s gray, it’s female.”

  “It looks more like a very, very dark gray. But that could be the sun.”

  Mike pulled a book from his backpack. “Remember that book I took out of the library? I bought a paperback copy so I could check off birds I’ve seen. Is the nuthatch still in the tree?”

  “Yeah.”

  Quickly, he flipped some pages, looked at a picture, and asked me to step aside. I did.

  “No, definitely a male. If it was a female, it would be a lighter gray. Oops, there he goes.”

  He made a mark in his book and looked very pleased with himself.

  “Why don’t you let me hold the book?” I suggested. “You can call out what you see, I’ll look it up, and then you can compare the picture with the bird right away.”

  “Great idea.” He handed me the book.

  He called out the birds he saw: a wren, a gull, and a white-winged crossbill. None stuck around long enough for me to see them, but that was okay because they would all probably look the same to me from a distance. I found them in the book and checked them off. At one point, it occurred to me that maybe the spyglass was showing him the birds he wanted to see. But of course, I couldn’t tell him that.

  “Red-tailed hawk!”

  “Got it!”

  “We make a good team,” he said.

  I couldn’t remember any boy ever speaking to me like that before. I couldn’t even respond. I just smiled and nodded happily.

  Then the sun began to set, and soon nothing else could be spotted. He took the book back from me and put it in his backpack.

  “You’re really into bird watching,” I said.

  “Yeah. I guess it’s my number one hobby.”

  “Do your friends watch birds too?”

  He shook his head. “Nah, I’ve told them about it but they’re not interested. I’m thinking maybe I should join a club or something, so I can have other people to talk about birds.”

  I tried to sound casual, offhand. “I think it’s interesting. I’d like to know more about it.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  There was a moment of silence. “Want something to eat?” I asked.

  “Thanks, but I can’t, I have to get home. It’s my night to help make dinner.”

  “You can cook?”

  He grinned. “I can slice and chop, that’s about it. But I have two younger brothers and a sister, so there’s always a lot of slicing and chopping to do.”

  I went downstairs with him and gave him his coat.

  “That was great,” he said. “I don’t know if I could have seen those birds with my binoculars. You can cover a wider area with a telescope.”

  “You can come again,” I said. “Anytime you want.”

  “Thanks.”

  I opened the door, and he started out. But then he paused and looked back at me. “I mean it, really. Thanks a lot. That was fun.”

  I nodded. “Yes, it was.”

  Then he was gone. I shut the door, leaned against it, and closed my eyes.

  “Ellie? Are you okay?”

  I hadn’t even heard my father come out of his office.<
br />
  “I’m fine,” I said quickly. “Just—just thinking about all the homework I have to do.”

  “But you’re smiling.”

  “Well, it’s…it’s interesting homework.” I fled up the stairs.

  I did have a lot of homework, and I’d left my backpack in the turret. Up there, I couldn’t resist a quick look through the spyglass. Maybe I could see a future vision of Mike and me, strolling along, holding hands…

  It wasn’t dusk out there anymore. It was daytime, but very cloudy, and a light rain was falling. The spyglass was showing me the kind of day that could make a person feel unhappy, only nothing could really get me down at that moment.

  But I did see something that cut into my joy. On the lake that wasn’t really there, a swan floated. All alone—no FunnyBunny, no PigglyWiggly, no BigBadBear13. And none of the other creatures I’d seen her playing with either.

  It was just SwanK, by herself. No friends. And even though I couldn’t see any expression on her face, I just knew that Kiara was sad.

  I wasn’t going to give up. I had to reach her.

  ON FRIDAY MORNING, AS I WALKED TO SCHOOL, I was thinking about Mike. As I walked to my locker, I thought about Kiara. But as I made my way to English class, the only person in my head was Alyssa. And when I saw her, wearing a stony glare, waiting outside the classroom door with Rachel, I didn’t know what to expect from her.

  Certainly not the first words that came out of her mouth.

  “I’ve decided to forgive you.”

  I was so surprised, I couldn’t think of anything to say. Fortunately, Alyssa continued.

  “I shouldn’t have been so angry. But you see, I have trust issues.”

  I spoke carefully. “I’m not exactly sure what that means.”

  “I never think I can count on people. Like, I’m sure they’ll always let me down.”

  I was still a little confused, but I managed an “Okay.”

  “It’s a typical attitude of the social outcast,” Alyssa explained. “We just don’t trust other people. Unless they’re also outcasts, of course.”

  “Well, I’m sorry I had to change our plans yesterday,” I told her.

  Rachel stepped into the conversation. “Only, you didn’t have to,” she said. “You wanted to.”

  That really surprised me. I’d never heard Rachel make a critical statement like that. And she was reprimanding me!

  She was right, of course. I didn’t have to break our plans. It wasn’t like I was feeling sick or being kept after school for detention. It was my choice.

  “I’m sorry,” I said again, but more humbly this time. Because it truly wasn’t nice of me, what I’d done. Then I looked at Rachel curiously. “But…you weren’t angry at me, the way Alyssa was.”

  “I guess that’s because I don’t have trust issues,” Rachel replied. “And because you and Alyssa…well, you’re like my first real friends. You guys accept me. I didn’t want to lose that by getting into an argument.”

  I thought about this. “I guess I don’t have trust issues either. Because I trusted that you two would still be my friends. And you’d forgive me, because that’s what friends do. And you’d understand, because I’ve got a serious crush on this guy, and—”

  Alyssa broke in. “Okay, okay, we get it, we’re still friends. Here comes Ms. Gonzalez.”

  We hurried into the classroom just as the bell started to ring. As I passed Kiara to take my seat behind hers, I said, “Hi.” I didn’t expect her to respond. And she didn’t.

  “I still don’t know how we’re going to get through to her,” I told the others later at lunch. “She won’t even look at me.”

  “We were going to Google her family,” Rachel reminded me. “See if we can find anything out about them.”

  “Right. Yeah, let’s do that at my place after school,” I said.

  “What if Mike Twersky wants to come over?” Alyssa asked.

  I replied firmly. “I’ll tell him he can’t, that I’m busy today.”

  I didn’t get the opportunity to keep my promise. In pre-algebra, Mike was hanging with some guys when I walked in, and when class was over, he stayed to speak to the teacher. So after school, I met the girls, and we went to my house.

  We started off searching the name Kiara Douglas. And there were several of them, all over the country. When we clicked on them, a few were total dead ends, and the few we could get some info about were clearly wrong—too young or too old. She wasn’t on Facebook, she didn’t have an Instagram account.

  We found her father’s name in the school directory, but Googling him only told us that he was a professor at Bascomb College. We couldn’t Google her mother for an obituary or anything because we didn’t know her first name.

  “We’re not getting anywhere,” said Alyssa, sitting back and sounding annoyed.

  “Okay. What’s everything we know about Kiara?” Rachel asked.

  “We know she spends her time alone, that she doesn’t have any friends, and that she claims to not want any,” I said.

  “What we don’t know is why,” said Rachel.

  “Let’s check the spyglass,” I suggested. “Maybe it will show us something new.”

  Up in the turret, we took turns scanning the town, but the spyglass didn’t reveal anything—no Kiara or SwanK, and nothing interesting about anyone else either. Not even Mr. Clark, dancing with Ms. Hannigan. Alyssa was getting impatient and Rachel looked a little depressed. I felt bad, helpless, as if I’d personally disappointed them.

  Rachel seemed to sense my feelings. “It’s not your fault, Ellie.”

  “Maybe it’s broken,” Alyssa said, and slapped the side of the telescope.

  I flinched. “I don’t think so. I hope not.” I really meant that too. A broken spyglass would mean no more Spyglass Sisterhood.

  “Maybe it just needs a break,” Rachel suggested. “We’ve been working it pretty hard.”

  Alyssa frowned. “You’re making it sound like it’s human. Things don’t get tired.” Then she cocked her head thoughtfully. “Unless it needs a battery.”

  “It doesn’t run on batteries,” I said.

  “It’s magic,” Rachel pointed out. “Maybe it makes its own rules.”

  We all just stood there, staring at it. Finally, I said, “Want some food?”

  But just then we heard a strange tinkling sound. Rachel looked at the spyglass hopefully, but Alyssa began fumbling in her bag.

  “It’s my phone,” she muttered. She took it out, looked at the screen, and made a face. But she accepted the call.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  After a few seconds, she groaned. “Can’t Josh or Madison do it?”

  She listened and grimaced. Whatever she was hearing couldn’t be good news.

  “Okay, okay, I’ll go. Bye.” She tossed the phone back in her bag.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  “My mom’s been called in to do some emergency surgery, so I have to pick up my little brother at the playhouse. His rehearsal’s running long and she doesn’t want him going home alone after dark.”

  “She sounds like my mothers,” Rachel said.

  “There’s a big difference,” Alyssa pointed out. “Ethan’s nine and you’re almost thirteen.”

  I thought that sounded kind of mean, but Rachel didn’t seem to be insulted. She just sighed and said, “Yeah, I know.”

  “You guys want to come with me?” Alyssa asked.

  I didn’t have any urgent homework to do—tomorrow was Saturday. And I was curious to know more about Alyssa’s family. Rachel nodded too.

  “Isn’t one of your parents coming to pick you up here?” I asked.

  Rachel did a not-so-bad imitation of an Alyssa shrug. “I’ll call them. I’ll tell them I’m going to do something with you guys and I’ll get myself home.”

  I looked at her with interest. Was Rachel declaring independence? Was a rebellion in the works?

  “Tell them we’ll walk you home,” Alyssa said. “No p
oint in making them hysterical.”

  Now, that was interesting too. Alyssa, showing concern for parents? Was everyone behaving differently today except me? Maybe there was something in the air. Maybe, on Monday, Kiara Douglas would be friendly. But I doubted it.

  Rachel made her call, I left a note for my parents, and we collected our coats. I remembered passing the playhouse once, and it wasn’t near here.

  “How are we getting there? Bus?”

  Alyssa waved her cell phone. “I get to use a rideshare app when I have to do a family errand.” She tapped on her phone, waited a few seconds, and then announced, “The driver will be here in three minutes.” Then she turned to me.

  “Okay, what’s Mike Twersky really like?”

  “He’s nice,” I replied.

  Alyssa shook her head. “I have never known a popular kid who was nice.”

  “He’s not like them,” I told her.

  “How is he different?”

  I tried to think of a good example. “The other day, he stopped a guy at his table from tripping a smaller kid in the cafeteria. The big guy is named Thayer something.”

  Alyssa shuddered. “I know Thayer. He’s a bully. Mike Twersky’s friends with him?”

  “Probably not close friends. I mean, he’s friends with Jim Berger too. He’s not a bully.”

  Alyssa still looked dubious.

  “He’s also into bird watching,” I added. I hadn’t told her that before, but at this point I figured if anything was going to convince her Mike was different, now would be the time to share it.

  That statement reduced Alyssa to momentary silence.

  “Really?”

  “Yep. That’s why he wanted to look in the spyglass. He didn’t see anything except birds,” I added. “And I didn’t tell him about the Spyglass Sisterhood.”

  They both looked relieved. It was still our secret.

  “I wonder if we’ll ever see anything again,” Rachel said wistfully.

  At that moment, our car arrived. We didn’t say much during the ride, probably because we were thinking about the spyglass and couldn’t let the driver hear us.

  We arrived at the Lakeside Playhouse, and Alyssa led us to the stage door on the side of the building. We followed her down a corridor lined with doors.