by Noe Dearden
*****
It started in the locker rooms after PE.
Emi was fixing her hair in the mirror when she saw Lisa Chen appear in the reflection behind her.
“That was totally unfair of Coach Rigo to make us run two extra laps. It’s freakin’ raining outside,” Lisa said. She had her school clothes on already, and was applying a fresh coat of lip-gloss.
Emi gave Lisa a distracted glance. “I know, seriously.” She started to walk back to her locker, but Lisa stopped her.
“I have to ask you something,” Lisa said.
Emi paused mid-step, confused and intrigued. Lisa was not her friend. They’d never talked at great length. As an upperclassman, Lisa wasn’t obliged to acknowledge Emi’s lowly, sophomore existence. It occurred to Emi that Lisa probably wanted to talk about volleyball again. Lisa was a member of the junior varsity team, and more than once had tried persuading Emi to join. All the tall girls were recruited for volleyball.
“Is this about tryouts? Because I’m sorry, but there’s only so many times I can throw a ball back and forth across a net before I lose interest.”
Lisa gave Emi a blank look. “Huh?”
“Oh,” Emi said. “I thought you were – uh, never mind. What were you going to say?”
“Well, this is kind of awkward, I guess,” Lisa said, still scrutinizing her appearance in the mirror. She zipped up her cosmetic bag and faced Emi. “But…I heard you and Josh Stokowski are kind of an item now. Is it true?”
Emi had not anticipated that question. She had kissed him yesterday with the expectation that news would spread, but she certainly hadn’t believed it would spread this quickly.
“I was thinking of asking him to the thing tomorrow night, but someone told me you’re together,” Lisa explained.
“What thing tomorrow night?”
“Tomorrow’s Friday. The luau.”
The luau! In the stress of the new year, Emi had forgotten all about it. Every September, Staley hosted an informal dinner for the high schoolers, and even though students weren’t expected to go together as dates, everyone still obsessed over who would take whom. This was largely because luau was scheduled conveniently two weeks into the school year, right as the social boundaries were being renegotiated. All the students were figuring out where they stood in the social hierarchy, and how to improve their standing. There was always that one person who had miraculously transformed over summer vacation to return in the fall more mature, more popular, more desirable.
Emi wondered if Lisa was using Josh to catalyze her own social ascent through the school’s pecking order. Why else would she want to bring him to luau?
“Josh and I are sort of figuring things out,” Emi said ambiguously. Assuming I didn’t scare him off for good with yesterday’s kissing stunt.
“Huh,” Lisa said thoughtfully. “So there might be something going on?”
“Maybe.” Emi grabbed her wet towel and brought it over to exchange with the locker room attendant.
She returned to discover Lisa looking at her appraisingly, a new gleam of appreciation in her eyes. “I really like the way you do your hair,” Lisa said. “Does it curl naturally that way?”
Emi sensed an almost tangible shift in the girl’s attitude toward her, like a very subtle change in the temperature. “Yeah. It’s natural.”
“Nice. Well, anyway, keep me posted. I’ve been trying to snag that boy for years.” Lisa winked at her as she left the room.
Emi returned to the mirror with a smile playing on her lips. The mere suggestion of a relationship with Josh had been enough to elicit the admiration of someone she barely knew. It was amazing how much a kiss could accomplish. Emi couldn’t wait for the news to reach Kainoa and Natalie.