by West, Shay
“You tell her to turn the volume down! I don’t want you going deaf, young lady.”
“I will! Bye, Mom!”
Alex climbed in the car and shouted hello to Jennifer. As Jennifer pulled away, Alex reached for the volume knob and cranked it even louder. The girls sang along as Jennifer raced to school, hoping to get a good parking spot. Alex grabbed her phone and sent a text message to Amy, Simon, and Paul asking if they were at school yet.
“They’re all there and hanging outside on the grass,” she told Jennifer.
“Cool! Tell them we’ll be there in a sec.”
Alex grabbed onto the door handle as Jennifer whipped the car expertly into the parking lot, coming to a stop so quickly that Alex was thrown forward against the belt. Jennifer was out of the car in seconds, grabbing her backpack from the back seat, nearly decapitating Alex in the process.
“Is Drake here yet?”
Alex shrugged her shoulders. “I guess I forgot to add him to the text earlier. I’ll send another one.”
“You okay? Did you see the girl again?”
Alex tried to ignore Jennifer’s glance. “No. I haven’t seen her since the time she knocked the mirror down.”
“It’s just not like you to not think of sending him a text first.”
“It’s no big. I just forgot is all.”
“If you say so.”
“He’s with James and should be here in a little bit,” Alex said.
The two girls met their friends on the south side of the school in their usual hang-out spot near one of the large elm trees. Alex hugged all of them. It felt as though she hadn’t seen them in years. Well, a month at any rate. They were all happy that Alex wouldn’t be working nearly as much. When she told them about finally getting her learner’s permit, Paul put his hand to his head in mock disbelief, sitting down heavily on the seat of the picnic table.
“Can it be? Can our little Alex really be growing up?”
Alex punched him. “You know, as much as the two of you carry on,” she pointed to Simon who was doubled over in laughter, “I’m surprised you aren’t in theater.”
“You’ll never catch us dead up on that stage. We’ll leave that to you girls,” Simon said.
Alex couldn’t stop looking at him. She remembered the first time she saw him in English class: a tall skinny boy with a face full of too many freckles and ears that were much too big for his head. Something had happened to him over the summer. He had grown more broad around the chest and his ears had either shrunk or his head had grown. Either way, everything now appeared to be in perfect proportion.
“Why are you staring at me like that for?”
Alex shook her head. “Just imagining you in a pair of tights playing the part of Peter Pan.”
“Forget that! Your silly boyfriend can wear the tights.”
Alex followed the rest of the group inside so they could find their lockers before class. She had first period Social Studies with Paul so the two of them walked to class together. As they threaded their way between students in the crowded halls, Alex kept her eyes peeled for Beau or Catelyn. She sent up a silent prayer that the rumors were correct and that the girl was out of her life forever. Or for the rest of high school anyway!
Maybe you should spend a little time looking for your own boyfriend.
Alex ignored the guilt weeding its way into her gut. What is wrong with me? She had a great boyfriend so what was she doing scanning the halls for another guy?
And that’s when she saw him. Beau Johnson. It was as if a golden god had settled to Earth and was wandering around Grand Junction High School. His hair was even more blonde than she remembered and he was so tan as to look like a beautiful golden idol. And the best thing...no Catelyn! Alex wanted to jump up and down and squeal in delight.
Instead, she sauntered past and stared straight ahead, refusing to even look over at him. If he was watching her, she didn’t want him to catch her looking.
“...and all the museums of the world have been taken over by aliens and the TARDIS has been spotted flying about New York City.”
Alex stopped dead in her tracks. “What the heck did you just say?”
“Oh, so you aren’t deaf. I was worried since I’ve been asking you for the last ten minutes if you had seen any good movies this summer. When I saw you staring off into space I thought maybe you had gone deaf and weren’t ignoring me to daydream about some jock jerk strutting his stuff.”
Alex blushed when she heard the hurt tone in Paul’s voice. She hadn’t realized he had been speaking to her. As soon as Beau had walked into view, all coherent thought flew out the window.
“I was not thinking about him, thank you very much. I was trying to figure out when to take my written test for my permit.” She was quite proud of herself for the quick thinking.
Paul frowned and crossed his arms. Everything about his posture screamed that he didn’t believe her, but that he couldn’t find any proof to the contrary. “Well, in that case I forgive you and I take back what I said about the museums. I know that probably made you want to cry.”
Alex punched him in the arm. “I knew you were full of it.”
The first morning of classes went smoothly. As they walked through the line to get lunch, Alex’s day got brighter when she spotted Catelyn’s groupies sitting at a table without their fearless leader. Beau was sitting with his teammates and telling them a story that made them all laugh, some choking on whatever they had been eating.
“Look at that jerk. Probably telling all of them about his great ‘conquest’. Did you know he was out with Mandy Fletcher a few days after he’d been caught with Catelyn?”
Alex’s heart sank. If he was out with another girl, then he obviously hadn’t been pining for her all summer.
“Why do you look so down? Wait...you don’t still like him do you?” Jennifer looked at her with disgust.
“Don’t be ridiculous—”
“I knew it! You’ve been acting all moony ever since I told you about Catelyn being sent away. I should have seen it.” Jennifer shook her head.
“So you were daydreaming about that jackass this morning, weren’t you!” Paul clenched his jaw and moved off to find a table.
Amy and Simon shook their heads and brushed past Alex. She stood there for a minute staring after her friends wondering what the hell she’d done to deserve the brush off. She agonized over whether to follow them or to find somewhere to sit on her own. It was obvious they were angry with her. Alex didn’t know if she could handle getting into a fight with her friends on the first day of school.
If you leave now, it will be worse tomorrow.
She hated that logical voice. But she knew it was right. After taking a deep breath, Alex forced her feet to move toward the table where Simon, Amy, Jennifer and Paul sat whispering together. Her face burned; she knew they were probably talking about her.
As soon as she got within ear shot, the four of them stopped talking but none of them would look at her. With her hands trembling so bad she could hardly hold her tray, Alex carefully took a seat, not wanting to spill her lunch and humiliate herself even further.
“What did I do to piss you all off?” She was proud of the way that her voice barely shook.
“Seriously? Alex, you have a great boyfriend, who I’m willing to bet you haven’t even seen today, and you are wasting your time dreaming about Beau!” Jennifer said his name with so much venom that Alex leaned back.
“But I’m not—”
“Don’t try to deny it, Alex. You’re acting just like you did our freshman year. The guy is a loser. He treated you like crap, he treated Catelyn like crap, although I think she deserved it. The minute she was out of the picture, he hooked up with someone else. He’s a pretty face with no heart. If you let him, he’ll use you and spit you out.”
Alex couldn’t meet Jennifer’s eyes. She knew she was wrong in wanting a guy who had already been so mean to her and who had obviously not cared anything for Catelyn sinc
e he went and found someone new.
But she couldn’t help the way she felt. Just the sound of his name gave her goosebumps. She could only imagine what touching him or kissing him would do.
“Let’s leave her alone guys. Clearly we don’t understand her little crush. Maybe if he spits on her in public, she’ll finally be able to be in the same universe with the guy and not act like a girl at a Justin Beiber concert,” Paul said.
Alex swallowed hard. She thought he was being totally unfair. She tried to think of something witty and funny to say but no words would come. She nibbled on her sandwich and kept her head down.
“Hey guys.”
Alex glanced up. Drake was standing there staring at her expectantly. She felt as though she were in the Twilight Zone. Time slowed down to a slow crawl. The loud buzz in the cafeteria died down to a light murmur. She could feel her friend staring at her, waiting for her to say something, but for the life of her, she couldn’t think of what to say.
Drake’s smile faltered.
“Well, don’t just stand there, take a seat. We were just leaving,” Paul said as he stood. Simon followed suit, looking a little confused.
Jennifer and Amy stayed where they were, their loyalty to Alex going beyond their anger at how she was acting about Beau.
“You’ll have to excuse Alex. She’s feeling a bit under the weather today,” Amy said, elbowing Jennifer.
“Oh, yeah, right. Sick. Yeah,” Jennifer said.
Alex wanted to crawl into a hole and die. I’m sick all right. “Yeah, woke up feeling crappy. Maybe you shouldn’t be sitting so close. Wouldn’t want you to catch it.”
Alex couldn’t believe she was asking Drake to go. But she was terrified of having Beau catch the two of them sitting together. He might get the wrong idea.
What wrong idea? Drake’s your boyfriend!
“Well, I guess...if that’s what you want.” Drake picked up his tray.
Alex ignored the pained look on his face and just stared at her food. As soon as she was gone, she looked at Beau’s table.
Alex gasped and looked away. He had been staring right at her!
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Jennifer asked angrily.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, I think the way you’re treating Drake is totally uncool. He’s never been anything but nice to you and treated you decent. On the other hand, the one guy that has hurt you the most is the one you can’t keep your eyes off of.”
“You just don’t understand—”
“You’re right. I don’t.” Jennifer stood abruptly and left.
Alex looked up at Amy, who looked like she wanted to be in a pit with ravenous tigers rather than be sitting at the table with her.
“Aren’t you going to tell me I’m wrong too?” Alex asked miserably.
“I wasn’t planning on it but if you think it would help...”
Alex threw down the rest of her sandwich, appetite gone. She sighed and nearly burst into tears. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me! Jenn’s right. I mean, I have this great guy and all I can do is act like a total bitch and treat him like crap. But I can’t stop thinking about Beau. Ever since Jenn told me about him and Catelyn, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him. I don’t know what to do.”
“Not to be mean or anything, but the guy has never given you a second glance, unless it was to be mean to you. I’m not saying you should stay with Drake if you don’t like him, but what exactly is it about Beau that is so irresistible? Because I seriously don’t get it.”
‘Everything...literally everything. The way he looks, the sound of his voice, he likes the same bands I do, he smells amazing, and did you notice how much bigger he got this summer?” She ended the sentence in a rush, then looked around, hoping no one had heard her.
“All you have said so far is that he’s hot. I’ll admit he’s nice on the eyes but you haven’t mentioned anything about how he acts or anything. Which is mean and hateful most of the time.”
Alex nodded, miserable. She knew Amy was right but she didn’t want to admit that this thing with Beau would never go anywhere. At least, not anywhere good.
“And where does that leave Drake? You were kinda harsh earlier.”
“I know, I know but all I could think about was that if Beau saw us together he’d never ask me out.” As soon as she said the words, Alex regretted opening her mouth. They sounded lame and immature, even to her.
“Alex...” Amy ran her hands through her hair. “I hate to be the one to break it to you, but Beau will never ask you out. The sooner you realize that and get over him, the better off you’ll be.” Amy gave Alex a sad smile and left.
As she sat in AP History, she wondered what was wrong with her. Maybe this time travel thing is messing up my brain. Logic dictated that she should forget about Beau Johnson forever. But her heart and body wanted to be close to him.
“Alex, would you mind staying after class?”
She looked at Mr. Edwards and cringed inside. Alex didn’t think she had been all that much of a space cadet during class so she hoped she wasn’t in trouble for something. She slowly made her way to the front of the room, ignoring the curious glances from the other students in the class.
“I just wanted to welcome you to the class. Your other teachers have been very impressed with your work thus far and say your knack for memorizing historical knowledge is almost uncanny. Almost like you have a special gift.”
The blood drained from Alex’s face. He can’t possibly know!
“Since you do seem to have a gift of being able to recall historical facts, I thought maybe you wouldn’t mind working a few hours a week as a tutor. Some of our athletes are really struggling with their classes, but history seems to be the bane of their existence.”
Alex was so relieved that she agreed to tutor before realizing exactly what it was he was asking. She had been sure that when he mentioned the word “gift” that he somehow knew about her other gift.
“Thanks for agreeing to help.”
Alex spent the next several minutes figuring out a schedule that would work around her theater and work obligations. She would tutor twice a week for an hour each afternoon right after school.
As she walked to her next class, she wondered if she shouldn’t call Jennifer. She was supposed to give Alex a ride home, but after their fight Alex wasn’t sure Jennifer wanted to be in the same room with her. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to ride with Jennifer if she was going to give her crap about Beau.
With her heart pounding, Alex sent Jennifer a text, saying she was sorry and asked where she wanted to meet after school. Jennifer waited so long to reply that Alex was afraid she would end up having to ride the bus home.
-meet me @ my locker
She sighed in relief. But she knew she better not say Beau’s name or even think about him at all on the drive home. Alex sighed in misery. It wasn’t like she wanted to be fixated on Beau; she just couldn’t help it. She hadn’t even thought about him much since she started seeing Drake. But as soon as she had heard about what he and Catelyn had done, it was like her brain was making up for lost time.
Wait...she never said if she was actually taking me or not.
As Alex sat through her last class, her mind was tied up wondering if Jennifer was really going to take her home or if she planned on yelling at her or something instead. She missed her name when the teacher called it so she had to tell him after class.
“Were you daydreaming while I was taking roll?”
“I haven’t been feeling well. I just missed it is all,” Alex said, trying to look pitiful.
Mr. Jameson marked her down. “Hopefully you heard about what you are supposed to bring with you tomorrow.”
“Yes, drawing paper and charcoal pencils.”
Mr. Jameson grunted as though disappointed that she had heard that part. “Well, then I guess I didn’t completely waste my time.” He gathered his papers and left the room.
Great. No
w my art teacher hates me. How much worse can this day get anyway?
CHAPTER 34
ALEX LEANED AGAINST the locker next to Jennifer’s. Her art class had gotten out about fifteen minutes ahead of schedule so she had nothing to do but wait. Maybe I should send Drake a text or something. Rather than grab her phone, Alex reached into her bag and took out her small pocket mirror so she could check her reflection.
Guess I could use a little more gloss.
Before she could get her shimmery peach gloss, her reflection changed to that of the Mongol girl. She stared at Alex, mouth moving, her head swiveling as though making sure no one else was with her. Alex tried hard to see anything in the background or anything about the girl herself that would indicate who she was or what time period she lived in.
“She’s probably having a seizure or something.”
Alex gasped as the connection was broken. She felt the blood rush to her face as laughter broke through her confusion. Three of Catelyn’s groupies were walking down the hall and staring at Alex like she had some sort of disease.
“Catelyn always said she was a freak.”
Their giggles echoed down the hallway. Alex tossed the mirror into her bag and tried to shut out the laughter. This day just keeps getting better and better. All she wanted to do was get home and crawl under her covers and sleep away her junior year. It was feeling an awful lot like her freshman year, which had been mostly miserable with a few high points thrown in.
“What the hell are they cackling about?” Jennifer came striding up to her locker giving the trio of Catelyn’s friends a dirty look as they disappeared around the corner.
“They caught me in one of my ‘moments’.”
“Oh crap, that sucks! So did you see anything helpful?”
“Not really. Just her face.”
“Seems like these little glimpses into the past don’t really help you at all, do they? I mean, we thought that we could find something useful but it seems impossible. Unless you travel into someone famous that you know.”
“I know. It’s frustrating. Guess that means I’ll be heading back any day now.”