Crushing It

by Joanne Levy

  Another eye roll. “Nope. Next?”

  “Movies?”

  She looked at me sideways. “What kind of movies?”

  “Mostly ninja and samurai movies. Some of the comic-book ones. He watches a lot of anime, too.”

  “Like Disney movies?” she asked.

  “No, not animated movies—anime,” I said, trying not to be mean about it, but seriously, how did she not know what anime was? I was sure I’d talked about it a million times. “You know, the Japanese-style shows I watch sometimes?”

  “The ones with the big eyes?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Those are animated, Kat,” she said as though I were the clueless one. Whatever.

  “Anyway, that’s what he watches.”

  She looked down at the book in her hand. “I guess I’ll start with this. Any chance the movie version is on Netflix?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “There’s going to be a movie, but it’s in preproduction.” I knew this from surfing the author’s website the weekend after I finished the last book in the series for the third time. “We don’t have time to wait for it, though.”

  “Awesome,” she said, clearly not meaning it. “So tell me more about him so I can impress him. I guess all I really know is that he’s good at math; he always seems to know all the answers in class.”

  I sat back down on the bed beside her, nodding. “He’s really good at math. He wants to be either a mathematician or an architect when he grows up.”

  “Okay, that’s cool,” she said. Finally, something we could agree on! “What other things does he like?”

  I thought about that. “Well, he likes animals.” Though I didn’t think that fact was going to help very much, since Olivia wasn’t an animal lover. She didn’t mind Hector so much, probably because all he did was lie there beside her. But she’d hated dogs ever since that Thanksgiving when we were four and our uncle Fred’s giant Great Dane had barreled into her and knocked her down.

  “What’s his favorite food?”

  “Hamburgers,” I said, reaching over and giving Hector a scratch on the head. He yawned and got up to stretch before settling himself on my legs to continue his nap.

  “That’s weird, isn’t it?” she asked.

  I looked up at her. “What?”

  “Hamburgers?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s what he likes. But he likes most food. Except olives.”

  “Hmm. I like olives,” she said.

  This is when you’re supposed to realize you have nothing in common with him AT ALL and change your mind about wanting to go to the dance with him. Unfortunately, Olivia couldn’t read my mind.

  “So what else does he like to do? What did he do over the summer that made him so tan?”

  I was about to tell her about his wilderness camp when there was a knock at my bedroom door. A half second later Laura opened it really quickly, like she was hoping to bust us doing something wrong. All she did was scare Hector half to death, making him jump off me, but not before he dug all of his claws into my legs.

  “Laura!” I yelled. “Ugh! Ow!”

  She rolled her eyes at me. “Whatever. Mom said to wash up and come set the table for dinner.”

  “Hi, Laura,” Olivia said.

  Laura grunted something but didn’t even look at Olivia before she left. So rude! But my horrid sister wasn’t my immediate concern. I was wearing jeans, so I couldn’t see exactly what Hector had done to my legs, but the burning sensation told me I was going to have red welts all over.

  “When did she get so mean? She wasn’t like that at the Fourth of July barbecue,” Olivia said.

  I shrugged as I stood up. “I don’t know. Mostly since starting high school a couple of weeks ago. I try to stay away from her.”

  “I don’t blame you. You okay?” she asked as I cringed at the pain in my legs.

  I did a quick check of my legs under my pants, and sure enough, there were puffy red scratches on both of them. At least they weren’t bleeding.

  Hector: Ninja Cat strikes! I was going to make a joke out of it, but outside of my family, only Tyler knew about my manga, and I wanted to keep it that way—for now, at least—so I kept my mouth shut.

  “Holy cow!” Olivia said. “Your cat did that just now?”

  “Yeah. But it was Laura’s fault.”

  Olivia looked at me funny. “Uh, not to point out the obvious, but the cat did that to you, not your sister. Your sister is mean, for sure, but cats are evil. Ugh. I can’t believe you even have a pet that could do that to you.”

  I tried to ignore the itchy and stinging scratches, knowing they would go away eventually. “He’s normally very sweet.”

  “Right,” she said, but I could tell she wasn’t convinced.

  “Come on,” I said, heading toward the door. “We’d better go downstairs.”

  Chapter 6

  THE NEXT DAY AT LUNCH, the three of us—Olivia, Tyler, and me—were in the cafeteria. Laura had assembled my lunch, which meant it wasn’t as bad as Dad’s, but it wasn’t exactly fine dining. She’d put one shaved piece of turkey between two slices of bread (no mustard!) and thrown it in a bag with a whole apple (which of course I couldn’t eat) and loose fish crackers, which had crumbled into cracker dust under the apple. I suppose I should have been happy it wasn’t a boiled egg and a can of sardines.

  Anyway, there we were, eating and talking. Well, Olivia was talking. Tyler was doing a lot of blinking and staring. He was too polite to tell her he wasn’t at all interested in her dance-team stuff, but it wasn’t like he looked interested. She was totally clueless. I tried to catch her eye to make her stop, but she just went on and on, while we sat there staring at her. I was definitely going to have to talk to her about getting carried away and babbling when no one was listening, but there wasn’t much I could do about it while Tyler was with us.

  Finally, Tyler seemed to have had enough. “So what did you think of that math assignment we got today?” he asked us. He kind of cut Olivia off, but he hardly had a choice, since she never stopped to take a breath!

  “Oh,” she said, her face falling as she thought about math, her worst subject. “I don’t know. It looks really hard.”

  Tyler is a math whiz, so I wasn’t at all surprised when he said, “It’s not that hard—you just have to work through the stuff we’ve learned already and apply it to the problems in the assignment.”

  She glanced at me as if to say, Really? but then turned back to him. “I’m not very good at math, but I’m sure it’s because of Ms. Carter; normally I’m really smart.”

  Tyler opened his mouth. I was sure he was going to defend our teacher, so I cut in before he could.

  “Hey, Tyler, maybe you could help Olivia with the assignment,” I suggested. “Since you’re so good at math, and it actually is pretty hard for people who aren’t math geniuses.”

  Tyler looked over at me, blushing a little. I normally loved teasing him about being so brainy, but his blush suddenly made me feel weird. Like panicky weird.

  He didn’t seem to notice, though. He cleared his throat and said, “Yeah, I guess I could do that. Should we go to the library after school?”

  Olivia gave him her brightest smile. “Oh, that would be perfect! Thank you so much!”

  “So what do you say? We’ll meet in the library right after last class?” Tyler asked, looking at me.

  I glanced at Olivia, who must have realized that Tyler was expecting all three of us to go to the library. She gave me a tiny panicked shake of her head. Right: She wanted to be alone with him.

  “Er . . . I can’t. I have to . . .” I couldn’t think of anything as they both looked at me. I had to come up with something!

  “Don’t you have to make dinner tonight for your family?” Olivia said helpfully.

  Thank you, Olivia! “Yes! That’s right. I promised my mom I would help with dinner tonight,” I said way too loudly. The kid at the table next to us actually stopped midchew to stare.
>
  Tyler narrowed his eyes at me. “You okay, Kat?”

  “Of course!” I realized that my really eager voice probably wasn’t all that convincing, so I toned it down. “Of course. Just really excited about tonight’s dinner!”

  He smiled back at me. “I didn’t know you were into cooking. What are you making?”

  I stared at him for a second and then glanced over at Olivia for help. She thankfully clued in and said, “She’s making lasagna. Since it takes so long to make, she has to go right home the second school ends.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Right away, so I can’t go to the library at all. But you two go. I’m sure you’ll get that assignment worked out, Olivia.”

  “I’m sure I will too,” she said, making googly eyes at Tyler.

  Too bad he didn’t notice; he was busy looking at his phone.

  I probably should have gone home after school, especially since I knew my mom actually would have appreciated some help with dinner, but I was too curious about Tyler and Olivia’s study session. So I said good-bye to the two of them at our lockers and pretended I needed to use the bathroom on my way out of school, giving them a few minutes to get settled in the library before I could follow and spy on them.

  Two seconds after I entered the restroom, though, the door burst open and a panicked Olivia practically bashed into me.

  “Wha?” I managed to say, grabbing onto her arms to steady her. “What’s going on?”

  “Oh, Kat. I’m so glad you came in here!” she panted. “He still doesn’t seem to get when I’m flirting with him. Like, at lunch I gave him my best looks and talked about dance, but I don’t think it’s working! Will you give me some pointers before I go to the library with him?”

  I looked at her sideways. “Pointers? What do you mean?”

  “You know, like what I should say, stuff like that.”

  Right, because I was some sort of pro at flirting or something. “I don’t know. Talk about the book. You did read some of it, right?”

  She nodded. “Yep, I did. Okay, great. What else?”

  “Uh . . .” I thought for a second. “What do you know about football?”

  “Less than nothing!” she said, and then her eyes filled up and her lip quivered.

  Oh no. I grabbed her arm and squeezed encouragingly. “Livvy, it’s okay. Chill out. Just talk about the book. Get him started and he’ll take it from there. He can seriously talk about those books for hours. And if that doesn’t work, you may as well get him to help you with the assignment—you know, the reason you’re meeting with him in the first place?”

  She nodded, and even though she still looked pretty frazzled, she seemed like she wasn’t about to have a meltdown anymore. Whew. Crisis averted.

  “You’d better get out there.”

  She nodded again and then threw her arms around me. “Thank you so much, Kat. You’re the best best cousin ever.”

  I squeezed her and let her go. “Go on. Text me later.”

  She agreed she would and then left the bathroom.

  It’s not wrong to peek in on your friends, I told myself as I watched her go. And anyway, I wasn’t going to stay long; I just wanted to see what happened. Something told me it was going to be a disaster, which made my heart ache for Olivia. Deep down, I didn’t really want her to get hurt, but she seemed so sure Tyler was the guy for her. This couldn’t end well, but secretly I didn’t want to miss it, even though I knew it made me a horrible friend and cousin.

  I waited as long as I could in the bathroom and then snuck out into the hall, relieved that it was mostly empty. I walked to the library, hoping they weren’t near the door. Knowing Olivia, she would have done her best to get him back into the quieter area, where there were some tables behind a bunch of stacks.

  “I wasn’t expecting you this afternoon,” a voice came from beside me as I passed the checkout desk. It scared me almost out of my skin.

  After I managed to not scream in terror, I turned and saw the librarian, Ms. Watkins, who was smiling at me. I helped her reshelve books a few times a week, but usually during a free period or lunch.

  “Oh, uh, no,” I said. “I’m just here looking around for a bit. My dad works late these days, so there’s no rush to get home.”

  “I’m here for another half hour or so,” she said, waving toward the stacks. “You know where everything is.”

  Well, not everything, I didn’t say, turning to scan the library for my friends. Sure enough, I didn’t see them immediately, which meant I was going to have to sneak around the stacks.

  Or . . . I had an idea. I turned back toward Ms. Watkins. “Can I go into a music room?”

  Without a word she reached into her desk, grabbed a big wooden key chain in the shape of a number two, and held it out toward me. “Bring it back in thirty minutes so I don’t have to come searching for you.”

  “Thanks,” I said, taking the key. This was perfect: The music rooms were up on the second floor of the library and overlooked the back section where all the tables were, so I’d be able to spy on them and they’d never know I was even there. I wouldn’t be able to hear what they were saying, but you can tell a lot by body language. Like when my mom crosses her arms and Dad pinches the bridge of his nose: Those things mean Laura is driving them crazy.

  I took the stairs up to the mezzanine and went along the hall to music room two, unlocking the door and then stepping inside and up to the window, where I peeked through the mostly closed blinds.

  Aha! There they were, down on the main floor, sitting at a round table next to each other.

  Olivia was talking. Surprise surprise.

  Tyler pointed at her backpack and said something, probably something like, “Let’s get this over with so I can get home and play Zombie Slashers.”

  Olivia smiled at him and then said something else as she reached for her backpack. Maybe: “Oh, right. Ha-ha, let me get my book out and you can help me ace this assignment. Also, I really want you to take me to the Fall Ball because you’re so cute this year. I love your mysterious hair!”

  Okay, she probably didn’t say most of that—especially that last part—but she was likely thinking it. She sure was doing a lot of talking. She slid her notebook out of her bag as she talked. Then she talked some more as she flipped the book open and found the right page. I knew she always talked a lot, but with him just sitting there, it was really obvious just how much.

  I looked from her to Tyler; he was frowning. Then he said a few words. She said something else, and he frowned more.

  Then, all of a sudden, she got up out of her chair and started jumping around.

  “What are you doing?” I whispered, even though she couldn’t possibly hear me.

  Wait . . . could she be . . . ? Yes! She was dancing in the middle of the library!

  No! I glanced over at him, and he was all wide-eyed as he stared at her, and I could only imagine what was going through his head. That she was completely crazy, I guessed.

  It was pretty much the worst thing she could have done. I had to help her. But how?

  Before I got the chance to come up with anything, Tyler said something and rose from the table. He didn’t gather his things, so at least he wasn’t bailing on her, but he walked quickly toward the bathrooms. The second he rounded the corner out of sight, Olivia grabbed her phone out of her pocket, and seconds later mine rang.

  I was going to ask her what on earth she was doing, but I quickly remembered I wasn’t supposed to be in the school, let alone spying on her, so instead I took a breath and answered normally.

  Not that she would have noticed, since I barely got out my hello before she screeched: “Kat!”

  I had to hold the phone away from my face. “Livvy? What’s going on?”

  “It’s going sooooo wrong! Kat, it’s a complete disaster. You have to help me!”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, even though I already knew it wasn’t going well.

  “Well, I started talking about that Blackburn Kni
ghts book—”

  “It’s Blackwood Knights,” I corrected her.

  “Whatever! Anyway,” she said, “I told him I was reading it and loved the part about that guy Kincaid and how he won the duel and then the part when the dragons went into the rainbows and—”

  “Livvy,” I said, cutting her off again. “You got a few facts wrong. His name is Kincairn. And he lost the duel when he was almost killed by his brother, who tried to murder him to become heir to the throne. And the dragons didn’t go into rainbows; they were all killed at the Battle of Reignbough. Did you actually read the book?”

  “Uh . . . yeah, I did . . . sort of. I mean, I was watching The Bachelor at the same time, but I flipped through some of the pages.”

  I sighed. “Livvy. You need to know what you’re talking about; you can’t just skim and then fill in the rest with stuff you make up. He’s smart and will catch on.”

  “But it was so boring,” she whined. “Why can’t you just tell me what happens in the book? I wish you could be in my head and help me do this.”

  “Yeah, well, I can’t,” I said absently. I looked at my phone’s screen because a text had come in.

  Tyler: Olivia is nuts!

  Uh-oh.

  Kat: No. Just bad at math.

  Tyler: she was just dancing.

  At least he recognized it as dancing.

  Kat: she’s a great dancer! Where r u?

  Tyler: Bathroom. But why is she dancing?

  Kat: maybe she’s nervous

  “Kat! Are you there?” Livvy squealed through the phone, reminding me I was still talking to her. “I asked you what you think!”

  “Sorry. My mom was talking to me. What I think about what?”

  She sighed loudly. “Helping me.”

  “I am helping you.”

  “No, I mean helping me figure out what to say to him.”

  “How?”

  There was a short pause. “I’ll put my earbuds in and hide them in my hair, and you can just tell me what to say.”

  “But how will I know what he’s saying?” I asked.

  “My microphone! My hair doesn’t cover it totally, but it sort of blends in, so I don’t think he’ll see. You’ll be able to hear enough.”