by Anna Cackler
“Emily Prudence Bates!” Finn said loudly.
I rounded on Finn. “Shout that a little louder, why don’t you?”
“Emily Prudence!” he shouted louder.
“Don’t make me leave you here in the parking lot!” I threatened, but before the words were even out of my mouth, he had opened the passenger door and had gotten in.
“Dang!” I exhaled and climbed into the driver’s seat.
“What’s with you today?” Finn asked, shoving his backpack into the floorboard.
“Nothing’s with me.”
“You’re distracted.”
I stared after Shannon and Margo as they disappeared around the corner. “What?”
He sighed. “Nothing. Drive.”
Oscar lurched into gear and I backed out of the spot. “So, did Shannon ever tell you about her plans for you and Margo?” I asked
He shrugged. “Yeah, she said something about getting me a girlfriend.”
“What do you think?”
“About getting a girlfriend?” he asked with mock innocence. “I wouldn’t say no.”
“No, about Margo.”
“Eh,” he said. “I never really thought about her like that.”
“Do you think you could?”
“Why do you care so much?”
“I dunno. Shannon says Margo’s had a thing for you for a while.” I looked over at him. “She’s a nice girl, you know.”
“Oh, I know. I’ve known her just as long as you two have.” He looked out the window. “You shouldn’t play games with her, though.”
“Who says anyone’s playing games?” I asked. “Margo wants to hook up with you, and Shannon wants to help her do it.”
“And where do you stand on the issue?” He sounded bored. Maybe there really wasn’t any point in trying to get him to notice her.
I shrugged and pulled up to the curb in front of the old library. “I just think that Margo deserves a chance, that’s all. I think it’s worth trying to get you to notice her.”
He stared at me, unconvinced.
“Look, we’re not asking you to pretend to like her or take her out as a favor or anything,” I said all in a rush. “We just think you should give her a shot, that’s all.”
“Whatever,” he said and hauled himself out of the car.
That night I called Shannon and told her that Mom said I couldn’t come over that night because she was so sick and needed me home. It was a lie, but I didn’t feel like doing calculus with an audience. I regretted this later that night as I stared at the text in utter bewilderment. After about half an hour of getting absolutely nowhere, I finally gave up. I had chewed through two different pencils and erased through three pieces of paper, but had finished not one single problem.
The next day at lunch, I pulled out the assignment again to make one last-ditch attempt at having something to turn in. Shannon was across the room talking with a group of girls from her Civics Class, but she dashed over to our table when she saw me coming.
“Why didn’t you do that last night?” Shannon stopped short when she noticed the Calculus book in my arms and the nervous sweat that had broken out on my forehead.
“I couldn’t figure it out.”
“We got through most of it,” Margo said. “We could have helped you.”
“Not a great way to start off a new year,” Ethan said, sliding his lunch tray out of his way and replacing it with my calculus book. “This stuff isn’t bad. Here, I’ll show you.”
I hesitated, still unused to having such pretty guys in such close proximity to me. There was one chair between us, but he pushed that chair away from the table and waited for me to occupy it.
“Well?”
I glanced over at Finn, who was pretending to read the book that he held in front of his face (the biography of Elvis Presley today) but was actually watching me over the top of it.
“Fine,” Ethan said, scooting closer to me instead of waiting for me to close the gap. “Here, look. This is just a review of algebra basics. Solve the equation for X. Just set Y equal to zero, then work it out from there.” I looked down at the page as he carefully wrote out each step in full detail. Suddenly I couldn’t see how I’d not understood in the first place.
“See? X equals 12?”
“Yeah, I see,” I said. Glancing back up at Finn, I saw his eyes had moved from my face to stare at Ethan instead. He looked oddly confused.
He wasn’t the only one.
“What about this one?” I asked, pointing to number two. “Same thing, right?” I took the pencil from Ethan, careful not to touch his hand when I did so.
By the time lunch was over, I had finished the last problem on my assignment, but neither Ethan nor I had remembered to eat. I suffered through most of Calculus with a grumbling stomach, which, of course, Ethan noticed.
“You’re regretting missing lunch too, eh?” he asked on our way out. Shannon glanced back at us, a small smile on her wide mouth, and then hid her face behind her flaming hair. “Want to go grab something after school? My treat.”
“Ah.” My heart was pounding against my ribs. “I think me and Shannon were planning-”
“No!” Ethan and I both jumped. Shannon stopped in her tracks and whirled around to face us. “No, you two go have fun.”
“But you said-” I began again, desperate to avoid what would certainly end in disaster.
“It can wait until after dinner,” she said. She knew me all too well. We didn’t really have plans, but she had effectively blocked my attempts at shrugging off what could be construed as a date with a guy that I was having a very hard time keeping out of my head. And this was only the second day of school, too.
“Great.” Ethan grinned, and disappeared in a rush of people that flowed down the hallway like white water.
I rounded on Shannon. “What do you think you’re doing?” I hissed at her.
She held out her hand, palm up. “Give me your keys.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
“No.”
Without warning, she snatched my bag from me. She dragged me along with her as she shoved herself between me and the bag that was still around my shoulder.
“Shannon! Cut it out!” She pulled me awkwardly through the deluge of other students, all of which were casting us dirty looks.
“Ha!” she cried in triumph, releasing me from her death grip so quickly that I actually slipped over my own two feet and landed hard on the floor.
“Ow!” I cried irritably and scrambled back to my feet. “What was that for?”
She dangled my key ring in front of my eyes and then hid them behind her back before I could snatch them back. “You will go with Ethan after school, and I will drive your car home. Then, when you’re done, he can drop you off at my place, and you can tell me everything.”
“That plan has a million flaws, Shannon!”
“See you after your date!” She laughed and slipped back into the general crowd. She caught sight of Charlie Hamilton and was immediately drawn into conversation with him. It was as if she’d suddenly forgotten I was even there.
“Out of the way, Bates!” someone shouted behind me, and I stepped back into the flow of traffic that swept me away to Government class without further argument.
Four
After Lit, I raced out of the door and to the parking lot, leaving Finn to stare after me in confusion. The goal was to reach my car before Shannon and take back my dignity, but by the time I reached the parking lot, I could just see the lime green monster tooling along the highway towards Shannon’s house.
“You ready to go?”
I whirled around to find Ethan coming up behind me, grinning as usual. His teeth seemed especially white against his dark skin, and his piercing eyes dove right down to my very soul. I didn’t know anyone could do that, let alone that anyone would want to do that to me. Ethan was just so charming.
“What?”
His smile faltered. “To get some
thing to eat?”
My empty stomach growled again. “Oh. Right. Yeah.”
He looked around the parking lot. “Where’s your car?”
“Oh, uh, Shannon took it. You can drop me off at her place later.”
“I guess that is more convenient.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m kind of surprised that she isn’t coming with us, actually.” He unlocked his truck and I climbed in, leaving my stomach behind on the pavement.
“Oh, did you want her to come? We can pick her up.” Of course he had a thing for Shannon. Of course this gorgeous guy would have a thing for my gorgeous best friend. He was probably just using me as a way to get closer to her. What a jerk.
“No need,” he said.
Ha! He was such an angel!
“So, where do you want to go?” he asked me, pulling out of the student parking lot.
“Have you been to Rick’s yet?” I asked. “There’s not much to do in St. John, but Chris can make some good coffee.”
“Who’s Chris?”
“He owns Rick’s.”
“Ah.” He laughed, rubbing the back of his neck again. “Does Chris serve food at Rick’s? Or is coffee the only option?”
“Chris has sandwiches.”
“Sandwiches it is.” He gunned it down the highway, his truck roaring smoothly under the mild strain. Oscar would have stalled out again. “Did you bring your calculus? We could work on it if you want.”
“Oh, crap!” I exclaimed, making Ethan jump. “I forgot it!”
He laughed again. “You’re hopeless, Emily! The first day of school, you don’t do your homework, and the second, you don’t even bother to bring it home!”
“No, no! Turn around!” I cried. “I can get it before the janitors lock up.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I’ve got my book. We’ll do it before I take you to Shannon’s place.”
“Oh. Okay.” That certainly sounded like a reasonable alternative. It was definitely nothing to get all worked up about. I turned to stare out of the window so that Ethan couldn’t see my flushing face.
“So you’re not going to get in trouble for staying out for a while, are you? Are your parents strict?”
“Naw. Mom’ll just assume I’m at Shannon’s or something. No big deal. What about you?”
He shrugged. “Dad and Nancy won’t even be home until five or so.”
“Oh.”
Twenty minutes later, the pair of us was sitting on the same side of a two-person table. I was picking at a blueberry muffin, while he opened his calculus book to the right page and laid it out on the table so that we could both see it easily.
“So, tell me about yourself,” he said, and took a healthy bite of his BLT.
“What do you want to know?”
“Nothing important,” he said after a moment of careful chewing and deep thought. “Just stupid stuff that nobody really cares about.”
“Nothing important, eh?” I grinned stupidly. “All right. My favorite color is yellow, but I look terrible in yellow clothes. I have absolutely no talent for anything that means anything. Not music, not school, not sports. Nothing.”
“Music, school, and sports don’t run the world,” he said, taking another bite.
Of course he would say that. He was great at math and was evidently an amazing basketball player. If only he was a virtuoso pianist too.
“Why soy milk?” he asked, gesturing to my latte with his sandwich. “Are you lactose intolerant?”
“Don’t health and allergies fall into the ‘important’ category?”
“It doesn’t count if I ask a direct question,” he said. “That’s just how the game works.”
“No, I’m not allergic to milk, I just like the way it tastes. It’s thicker, kind of. You know?”
Ethan shook his head. Sitting this close to him, I could smell his shampoo as his hair moved. Like strawberries and cotton.
That was a dangerous observation. I leaned away as inconspicuously as I could.
“I never tried soy milk.” He was obviously fishing for a taste.
“Well, here,” I offered him my drink without question. If this charming boy wanted a taste, he would get a taste.
“But I’ve never had a latte, so I wouldn’t have a basis for comparison.” He took another bite of his sandwich.
“Don’t you like coffee?”
“It’s all right, I guess,” he shrugged. “But frankly I think coffee shops are too fruity for my taste.” I followed his gaze to an older girl at the front counter. She was wearing a knee-length and sleeveless blue dress with stockings that had wide, horizontal black stripes like the Wicked Witch of the West. Her forearms were covered with black arm warmers to match her stockings, and she had more piercing spattered across her face than were exactly necessary.
“She’s more artsy fartsy than fruity,” I said.
“Either way, it’s not really my scene.”
I turned my gaze back to my muffin. “So, tell me about yourself, Ethan. All of the unimportant things.”
He sat back in his chair. “Okay. I, like you, am not lactose intolerant.”
“Interesting.”
“I don’t really have much interest in it, but I can read music pretty well.”
I knew it. He was a musician. How could I have ever doubted it? “What do you play?”
“I play the cello, but not publicly.”
“You play cello?”
He shrugged. “Not well. My mom made me take it up when I was a kid and Nancy wouldn’t let me quit my lessons. I can play a couple of tunes pretty well, but I’m no enthusiast, that’s for sure.”
Yeah right. “Okay, so continue.”
“No, I think it’s your turn now.”
I glanced over at the forgotten calculus book that lay open on the other side of the table. It suddenly occurred to me that we were sitting very close to each other for no real reason, now.
I decided against mentioning it. “All right. I hate peas. You go.”
“Peas are all right, I think. But anime is completely out.”
“Definitely. Napoleon Dynamite, too, along with every other stupid movie that ever copied its stupidity.”
A grin flashed across Ethan’s boyish face before he could smother it. “Of course. Absolutely stupid. I do like that llama, though.”
“Don’t start with that!” I warned him. “I don’t want to hear it.”
He laughed. “Do you like Monty Python?”
“The Holy Grail was great, I’ll give them that, but otherwise it’s just the same old dry British humor.”
“Have you seen The Meaning of Life?”
“No, I’m afraid to say that I have not.” I smiled. Who knew I was capable of talking to another human being for more than five minutes without making a fool of myself?
He smiled back, misinterpreting my expression. “We’ll have to watch it sometime.”
“Sure,” I said, telling myself that I only said yes because he expected me to.
“Great.” His eyes fell to the forgotten text book on the table. “I guess we should get to work, then.”
“Yeah,” I agreed half heartedly. I swallowed the last of my muffin and took a swig of my coffee. He pushed his empty plate off to one side and handed me a pencil and some paper. I didn’t try to avoid direct contact with his hand this time, and made a mental note to thank Shannon for making me do this.
I knocked on Shannon’s front door an hour later. Finn answered, a bowl of Raisin Bran balanced in one hand.
“What are you grinning about?” he asked. “And why’d you ditch me after school? Shannon didn’t even wait for me, and she had a freaking car. Your freaking car.”
“I’m not grinning about anything.” I pushed him out of my way. He kicked the door shut with his heel and followed me inside.
“Yes you are. You’re grinning like an idiot.” Finn held the curtains in the front window aside with one finger and peered outside.
; “I am doing no such thing. Where is your sister? I need my keys.”
He ignored me.
The O’Malley house was considerably larger than ours, but I’d always felt very comfortable there. Maybe it was the fact that it was always cluttered up with books and spreadsheets. Mr. O’Malley wasn’t very organized.
A huge family portrait hung over the fireplace. Shannon and Finn were very young in that picture. It was taken when their mom was still alive. Mrs. O’Malley had eyes like Finn’s, the kind that always seemed to know more than they should.
“Is that that new kid’s truck pulling out of our driveway?” Finn rounded on me. “Did you go out with that guy? You’ve only known him for a day!”
“Ethan, and no. We had coffee and did homework, which is hardly ‘going out’.”
“Freaking close enough. Shannon’s behind this, isn’t she?”
“Why would Shannon be behind this?”
“Because Shannon had your car!”
“Maybe I asked her to take it.”
“Oh, please, Emily!”
“Emily!” We both turned to find Shannon and Margo running down the stairs. I forced myself not to glare at Margo. Shannon had a lot of friends, but she never carted any of them around like she did with Margo. “That didn’t take long! Tell us everything that happened.”
Finn stood up a little straighter, looking vindicated. He took another bite of his cereal and settled down on the couch.
“Nothing happened,” I said. I smiled shyly at Margo. Should I say something to her? Greet her or something? I decided to just ignore the situation and pretend as if nothing was out of the ordinary. “We did calculus, that’s it. Now give me my keys.” I held out my hand.
“I don’t think so. You two had to talk about something.”
I rolled my eyes and leaned my hip against the couch. “We talked about the usual: the weather, the food. You know.”
“You’re such a liar,” Shannon said.
“Yes, and I’d like to keep it that way if you don’t mind. Now give me my keys.”
“Fine.” She darted off to her room to grab her bag. Finn watched me over his cereal, so I turned and glared at him.