Between the Girls (The Basin Lake Series Book 3)

by Stephanie Vercier

  Nick appears to catch Tyler’s eye for a second, giving him that look that says, “I told you so.”

  “He was just saying hi,” I insist, pulling my hand away from Tyler’s and throwing a glare toward Nina.

  “Austin is the ex,” Nina explains to Tyler. “One of the most popular guys at school, and she dumped his ass last year.”

  “We should really get this experiment started,” I interrupt, not willing to allow Nina to turn this into some kind of high school reality show.

  “I second that,” Nick adds, and I throw him a thankful smile.

  “I’ll third,” Tyler says with warmth, and I have to actually pull myself away from just staring at him.

  “You going to take the lead on this one?” Nick asks me. “Or shall I?”

  “Let the girl take the lead,” Nina says, a double meaning underneath her words no doubt.

  I barely catch Tyler’s eyes again—definitely brown—hating that my heart has now decided to start thrumming underneath my chest, hating this sense that I’m not in full control.

  “I can lead if—” Nick begins.

  “No, that’s okay,” I say, steeling myself and turning away from Tyler’s kind eyes. “We can both lead.”

  “Oooh, a girl in control!” Nina says, not giving up her attempt at embarrassing the hell out of me.

  “Everything all right over here?” Mr. Turner has come over and is narrowing his eyes at Nina.

  “It’s fine, Mr. Turner!” She waves and smiles at him, always the innocent act with her, and men usually buy it, even older men like Mr. Turner.

  “Let’s just get this done, okay?” I say to nobody in particular as our teacher moves on to a different table.

  “What’s the experiment?” Tyler asks, a slight catch, almost a crack in his voice.

  “Thermometric titration,” Nick replies, scanning the worksheet in front of us.

  “Thermo what?” Nina is playing dumb, but she’s much smarter than the way she likes to act in front of cute guys.

  “Don’t act stupid,” I tell her, calling her out on it since she’s been so willing to embarrass me in front of Tyler. “It’s not going to help if we have to keep repeating directions to you so you can play the part of the airheaded cheerleader.”

  Nick sort of laughs and fetches the tray that all of our supplies are on. When I grab my set of goggles and hand another pair to Nina, I sneak another look at Tyler. There’s a grin on his face too, and he probably finds all of this quite amusing.

  “So, Tyler…” Nina puts her goggles on and straightens herself on her stool, choosing not to answer my assessment of her. “Where are you from exactly?”

  “Uh, Denver.” He puts his goggles on, which adds some kind of nerdy cuteness to his look.

  “I’ll put the sodium hydroxide in the cup, and you take the temp,” Nick says to me before turning to Tyler. “I’m guessing there’s actually shit to do in Denver, huh?”

  “It’s twenty-two degrees Celsius,” I say. “Can you write that down, Nina?”

  She ignores me—of course—and keeps her eyes trained on Tyler. “Did you have a girlfriend in Denver?”

  Pushing off my annoyance with Nina, I write the temperature down myself and await Tyler’s answer with exaggerated interest.

  He shrugs. “I did.”

  And just then, I look up at him, a darkness coming over his features.

  “As in past tense?” Nina asks.

  “I’ll add the hydrochloric acid now,” Nick says to me.

  “What can I do?” Tyler clears his throat again.

  “You can swirl the cup after I add the acid,” Nick instructs, “and then Claire can get the temperature again.”

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Nina pushes. “So, this girlfriend of yours in Denver—you’re broken up or just long distance?”

  Nick adds the acid and Tyler swirls, not saying anything and looking like he definitely doesn’t want to.

  I take the temperature again. “It’s twenty-eight degrees.”

  “Hello… I’m just trying to be—”

  “We are definitely broken up,” Tyler says, his jaw clenching.

  “Can we focus, Nina?” She’s really irritating me, even if I’m just as curious about Tyler as she is, but maybe for a different reason, a reason I’m not completely sure of.

  “Adding more acid,” Nick says, staying on task. “Go ahead and swirl again, Tyler.”

  Tyler does as he’s asked, and then I take the temperature, note the volume and write it down.

  “What’s her name?” Nina isn’t giving up as we continue our experiment, Nick adding the acid, Tyler swirling, and me taking temperature and volume.

  “Her name is Laney,” Tyler answers, not looking at Nina as he does, just focusing on his job of swirling the cup.

  “Laney… hmm… I’m not sure we have any Laney’s in Basin Lake. What was she like?”

  I want to throw Nina a glare, but I don’t. I kind of want to know the type of girl Tyler would date.

  Tyler shrugs, that darkness still in his eyes. “She was just a girl.”

  “Any brothers or sisters… I mean for you, not this Laney that is just a girl?” Nina appears to realize she’s not going to get anything more from Tyler about his ex, and I’m a little disappointed.

  “Nope… just me and my parents.”

  “Why did you move here?”

  “Are you counting the questions?” Nick says to me after adding more acid to the solution.

  I shake my head.

  “Because when we get to twenty, we need to shut her down.”

  “I’m naturally inquisitive,” Nina says, no trace of being offended.

  “My dad’s the new fire chief,” Tyler answers. “It’s kind of a promotion for him.”

  “Fire chief? Wow. The old one died, didn’t he?”

  “Retired,” Nick breaks in. “He retired.” Then he looks to Tyler. “Kind of cool, though. Fire chief should be a good gig.”

  “I suppose.” Tyler swirls the solution yet again.

  “You didn’t want to come here, did you?” I say, almost sure he didn’t want to leave Laney behind, sure he didn’t want to leave a city like Denver to come to a small town like ours. I wouldn’t have if I’d been in his shoes.

  He looks at me with surprise I think, his eyes wide under his goggles before they relax. Instead of saying anything, he shakes his head, and I nod, a silent kind of understanding between us.

  We continue our experiment, Nina choosing to help with the graph and giving up on asking Tyler any more questions. Our group is the first to finish calculating the concentration of hydrochloric acid, and Mr. Tuner comes over, nods in approval and then asks us to clean up, which we all do, even Nina.

  “Nice working with you, Kessel,” Nick says with a smirk when we’re finished and have a good fifteen minutes left in class to spare.

  “You too, Ollerman,” I tease, then tentatively look over to Tyler who remains quiet.

  He’s the first to return to the desk in the back, and Nick follows a minute later.

  “He’s kind of mysterious,” Nina says in a lowered voice instead of the loud one she’d used earlier.

  “Yeah… that much I’ll agree on.”

  And with a mystery comes a curious mind, my curious mind. I don’t have time for Tyler this year, don’t have time for drama or even the time it would take to build a new friendship, but some feeling inside of me tells me I might be persuaded to change that.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CLAIRE

  I haven’t stopped thinking about Tyler, all the way through third and fourth period and into lunch. The last thing I want is to have my mind filled with thoughts about a boy when this last year of high school is so important. I need that 4.0 so I can remain competitive for a pre-med slot at UW. Those two B’s last year, due to me getting wrapped up in Austin, still nag at me, two castaways in a sea full of A’s that would stand out like giant red arrows to the admissions department at
UW.

  “You look stressed,” McKenzie says, dragging her tray behind mine in the lunch line.

  “No… not at all.” I pick up a salad and a grilled cheese sandwich.

  “It’s understandable if you are,” she continues, loading her tray up. “I mean, I keep thinking that maybe Kate had some boyfriend we don’t know about. You don’t think she’s like pregnant or something, do you?”

  I shake my head, feeling a shot of heavy guilt at the fact that I hadn’t given Kate much thought since this morning. “I think I’d know if she was pregnant.”

  “But it’s something, and you don’t know what it is, so it could be anything.”

  With trays in hands, we’re walking toward the table we usually sit at. James is there along with Nina and a handful of other friends I mainly only ever see at school or at the lake.

  “Yeah, but she won’t tell me.” Almost to the table, I see her, my sister who is sitting alone at a table in the corner of the cafeteria, looking like a stranger with her black hair and moody expression.

  McKenzie must have followed my line of sight because she stops just like I do. “She’s sitting all by herself,” she says, sadness in her voice.

  I sigh and start to walk again, turning away from our usual table and heading over to my sister instead. McKenzie is right by my side.

  “What are you doing sitting all by yourself?” I ask, setting my tray down across from Kate. “And you’re not eating?”

  “I’m not hungry.” Kate glares at me. If looks could kill, they probably would.

  “You have to eat,” McKenzie says, sliding her apple over to Kate. “Or would you prefer my mac and cheese?”

  “I don’t want anything,” Kate snaps, starting to get up from the table.

  “You aren’t going anywhere.” I grab her hand just as McKenzie and I are settling in. “You don’t get to act this way and not tell me what’s going on.”

  Kate gives me a look, one that is angry and hurt, and I do a quick search of my memories to try to place what I might have ever done to her to make her feel this way because that look is directed at me.

  “You’re kind of scaring the shit out of us,” McKenzie says, causing Kate to turn her head toward her instead.

  “Don’t worry… I’m not going to like kill myself or anything.”

  “Don’t even joke about that,” I snap. Perhaps I’d been naïve, but that dark thought hadn’t even entered into my head until just right now.

  “Seriously,” McKenzie offers, an edge in her voice. “Talk to us, Kate. I’ve been through plenty of shit with my parents, so I might—”

  “You could never understand.” Kate looks like she’s about to break down into tears, yanking her hand from mine, taking up her purse and a few books and then rushing across the cafeteria.

  Frozen, I watch as she runs up the aisle, eventually crashing into someone, their tray of food pushed up against their chest and then thrown to the ground.

  Tyler.

  Kate just ran right into Tyler.

  I’m on my feet to go after her, but before I can reach them, Tyler is bent down, picking her books up and handing them to her. He doesn’t even seem all that irritated that some of his lunch has ended up on his shirt, the other part of it on the floor.

  “Kate, you should…” I’m about to tell her she should apologize, but there is still so much hurt in her eyes that I don’t want to push it.

  “You okay?” he asks my sister who nods, stands straight up, throws me a nasty look and then proceeds to leave the cafeteria.

  I should follow her, but that look. McKenzie sees it too—we are the last people she wants to talk to.

  “I’m so sorry,” I tell Tyler who picks his now empty tray off the floor and half smiles at me.

  “Not your fault,” he says.

  “No, but she is my sister. She just hasn’t been her usual self lately.” I want to reach out and wipe the mustard that’s gotten on his shirt. It’s definitely going to stain.

  He shrugs. “I get it. We all have our bad days.”

  I’m about to tell him it’s been a bad few months, but I don’t, and besides, McKenzie is at my side now.

  “Hey guy from this morning,” she says. “Not much of a welcome on your first day, huh?”

  “Not a big deal,” he reiterates, dragging his hand behind his neck and looking away from us, as if he’s only being polite in standing here.

  “Well, whatever… it still kind of sucks. There’s some, uh, mustard on your shirt.” She reaches out and points at his right upper chest.

  He looks down. “So there is,” he says, unconcerned.

  “Well, you should wash it out if you don’t want it ruined. Anyway, I’m McKenzie, and this is Claire.”

  “Nice to meet you,” he says, looking briefly at McKenzie and then at me before those brown eyes of his dance somewhere else again.

  “I have advanced chemistry with him,” I say, not having divulged this information to McKenzie during our last locker break.

  “Oh, really?” She gets an impish look in her eyes. “This school is so damn small, and I haven’t had even one class with you,” she says to Tyler.

  “Look, nice meeting you, and uh, seeing you again, Claire,” he answers, holding his now empty tray at his side, a messenger bag slung around his shoulders. “But I should go and grab another tray.”

  “Let me buy it,” I offer, wanting to make up for what my sister did.

  He shakes his head. “Not necessary. See you guys around.” And then he’s off to join the lunch line again.

  “Wow, he’s kind of… pretentious?” McKenzie turns to me, as if waiting for me to confirm.

  “He was nicer in class, but I’d be pissed if someone knocked the food out of my hands too.”

  “Well, whatever, not a shock,” she says, starting to turn back to the table we’d abandoned. “A guy as cute as that probably thinks the world revolves around him.”

  “I’m not so sure,” I say, considering there might be another reason for his aloofness. But any further thoughts on that will have to wait. I just really need to find out what’s wrong with my sister.

  I hadn’t rejoined McKenzie at our usual table. Instead, I’d gone off in search of Mom, deciding that it was time she told me whatever it was she knew about Kate. I won’t go another day with my little sister acting like a complete stranger and me having absolutely no clue as to why.

  Mom is in her classroom, eating and looking over paperwork, probably trying to get a grasp on all of her new students. I’d had Mom for a teacher every high school year except for this one.

  “Well, look who’s here,” she says, still chewing a part of her sandwich, swallowing before brushing some crumbs off of her desk. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

  I shake my head and sit in the chair next to her desk. “Mom, can you please tell me what’s wrong with Kate?”

  Mom’s smile fades. She knows my serious face demands answers and that I’m done with accepting partial, generic ones.

  “Did something happen?” she asks, her concern for her youngest daughter obvious.

  “She was sitting alone at lunch, Mom. And then she got up and ran off and plowed into this guy and didn’t even apologize.”

  “Where is she now?”

  I shrug. “I’m not sure. Probably the library or something.”

  “Well, then we should go and look for her.”

  Mom gets up, but I stand in front of her before she can make any headway toward the door. “I think she’ll be fine… for now. But you need to tell me.”

  Her face relaxes, and she sighs, and she has that look like she figures she should have told me a long time ago. When we’re both sitting down again, she closes her eyes for just a moment before beginning.

  “Kate will never be able to have children,” she says quietly.

  “What?” For a second or two, it feels like Mom is trying to throw me off whatever the real truth is. “That doesn’t even make sense. She’s only fif
teen.”

  “Sadly, it’s true, honey. I didn’t want to believe it either, but after you’ve had two specialists come to the same conclusion, you can’t just pretend it isn’t real.”

  I shake my head, searching for any possible reason a girl that is only fifteen could be diagnosed with a lifetime of infertility. I’ve always been drawn to articles about odd medical conditions, though my main interest has always been in neurological disorders, like the one my father had. But, as for issues of fertility, I’m drawing a blank.

  “It’s called Müllerian agenesis,” Mom says, shaking her head as the name comes out her mouth. “You’d think your father having MS would have been enough for this family to bear, but apparently not.”

  I’d never heard of the disease before, but I know what agenesis is, the failed development of a body part, one to do with sterility.

  “She must have been devastated,” I say, not needing to know the specifics of the disease quite yet but rather focusing on the pain my sister has most certainly been enduring.

  “Beyond.” Mom wipes a pool of moisture from her eyes.

  “That’s what those trips to Spokane were about, then?” I’d been a little jealous when Mom and Kate had gone off to the city without me, Mom saying Kate needed a little extra “mom time,” more than I apparently did.

  “Yes. We knew something was wrong before that. Dr. Cramer had pretty much diagnosed it, but he’d sent us to Spokane to be sure.”

  All of sudden, things were making sense. Kate had gotten her period so much later than me and Paige, and then when she finally did, the timing was sporadic, and she’d miss months at a time. But I’d thought it had all been worked out with our family physician. I guess her eye hadn’t been as keen as Dr. Cramer’s who could be short and a little gruff but was a great doctor. He was also McKenzie’s stepdad, and she didn’t have to tell me how married to his work he was, how he paid more attention to his practice and his patients than he did to his own family.

  “She didn’t want you to know,” Mom says, drawing me out of my thoughts and a sense that I should have known.

  “I’m her sister,” I remind her.

  “And I’m her mother, but if she’d found this out when she was older, I’m not sure she would have ever told me either. She’s incredibly embarrassed about it. She’s always dreamed of having a family.”