by Noe Dearden
The school’s front parking lot was a madhouse after school, as all the high schoolers converged en masse to catch school buses to the Annual Luau. This year, the event was being held at the Waikiki Aquarium, which was about five miles away. Parent chaperones counted off students and loaded them onto buses, handing out fake flower garlands for everyone to wear for the occasion.
Charlotte stuffed her lei into her backpack and slumped into a window seat near the back of the bus. Emi joined her, not speaking a word. Charlotte noticed her cousin was acting more subdued than usual. Normally, Emi could be counted upon to supply endless chatter, but not today. It didn’t bother Charlotte. She was feeling more than a little moody herself. The excitement generated by all her classmates’ hooting and hollering was jarringly at odds with her state of mind.
The bus started with a low rumble of its engine.
“So what were you and my mom talking about this morning?” Emi asked after the bus had pulled off campus.
Charlotte swallowed. “She helped me pick my clothes for luau.” She knew Emi might probe for a better answer, so she quickly changed the subject, and she didn’t want to have to explain about Mr. Kerrigan. “So what do people do at a luau, anyway?”
“Eat. It’s a Hawaiian feast,” Emi said. “They kalua a pig in the ‘imu and they serve other foods like poi and lomi salmon.”
Charlotte made a face. She was knew what poi was. Uncle Eddie ate it every day for breakfast, and she had tried a spoonful once. It was a thick, purple paste made out of some kind of root vegetable, and it tasted sour and bland at the same time. Charlotte was not very fond of it. “That’s it? Food?” she asked, disappointed.
“Well, the dancing is the best part.”
“Are you going to dance with what’s his name?”
“Josh?” Emi supplied. “No. He won’t be there.”
For some reason, that seemed to shut Emi up. They passed the rest of the bus ride in silence.
When they got off at the aquarium, Charlotte and Emi followed their classmates through the entrance and onto an open, grassy lawn. Pop music was already playing loudly from an enclosed tent near the monk seal habitat, and a sizable crowd of students had already begun to congregate inside.
“Let’s check it out,” Emi said.
They grabbed cups of iced tea from a foldout table near the entrance and ventured into the darkened tent.
A lot of students were milling around the edges shouting at each other over the deafening music. Charlotte watched while several male classmates made fools of themselves breakdancing and probably losing valuable brain cells in the process.
“Charlotte!” someone called
She knew who it must be. There was only one person at school who ever spoke to her. Sure enough, working his way through the crowd was Asher, proudly sporting the fake flower lei and an oversized aloha shirt printed with half-naked hula girls.
“Hello, wallflower,” he said, dropping an arm across her shoulders. “Want to dance?”
He didn’t give her a chance to say no. He grabbed her hand and swung her close to him, until they were smack dab in the middle of the dance floor. A few people turned to stare.
“You look nice in red,” he said. “It matches your face.”
“Shut up.”
Asher’s hands slipped down her hips, so she squeezed his nipple through his shirt, causing him to yelp. “Watch your hands,” she warned.
Two numbers in, she was warm and tired and her heart was pounding, but she felt good for the first time all day. She even had a smile on her face when she caught sight of Mr. Kerrigan standing on the sidelines looking her way. Mr. Kerrigan waved and mouthed something she didn’t understand.
“What?” she mouthed back.
He shook his head and smiled like it didn’t matter.
Even in the midst of the throbbing pop music and flashing lights, the sight of him was enough to fill her with an intense loneliness.
She rested her head against Asher’s shoulder and watched Mr. Kerrigan as he flashed in and out of her sightline, the crowd passing between them.
He must have felt her gaze on him, because he looked toward her a second time. Their eyes locked just as Asher slipped a hand up her skirt and grasped her inner thigh. She gasped, mouth open, eyes still on Mr. Kerrigan who watched with a frown.
Another teacher, Mrs. Harding must have sensed something fishy going on, because she came forward to break them up. “Alright, kids. Let’s keep it at an appropriate distance, shall we?”
“Oops,” Asher said, grinning wickedly.
They moved back to the sidelines, away from Mrs. Harding’s watchful eye. Asher pulled a piece of paper out of his pants pocket and handed it to Charlotte. “I wrote my address down here. I’m having an after-party at my place if you want to come tonight. It’ll be fun.” He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “My girlfriend’s on the mainland visiting colleges, so we don’t have to worry about her getting in the way.”
Charlotte took the paper reluctantly and stuffed it into her purse.
She looked over her shoulder to where Mr. Kerrigan had stood moments ago. But he was gone now, swallowed back into the crowd.