by Natasja Eby
“I know, but you fell so wonderfully,” she says like she really, actually means it. Thankfully, she reaches down and helps me up. I have no idea how I would’ve gotten up without her.
“Thanks,” I say, trying to brush ice dust off my backside. I look around and see that whoever was watching us before is gone, and I feel better about my little tumble.
“You had a good rhythm going,” she says, looking happy. Happy for me, because I’m doing something she likes. That’s kind of sweet. “Here, take my hand again and I’ll help you even it out.”
I muster up my courage and take Cherry’s hand again. She insisted I wear thin gloves and I’m glad for them now. Because when I fell I hit my hands hard, and I imagine it would have been worse without the gloves. Cherry starts going slowly and I try to mimic her movements. She doesn’t seem to mind that I’m crushing her hand, which leads me to believe that she is probably the nicest person I know.
When I feel like everything is finally under control, I decide to start up a conversation. “So,” swish, “what’s going on between you and Julian?”
Cherry falters for half a second but not enough to knock us off balance.
Swish.
Swish.
Swish.
“Cherry, did you hear me?” I ask softly, hoping I didn’t offend her or something.
“Yeah, I’m just not sure how to answer you,” she says. She sounds shy, like I’ve asked her who her celebrity crush is.
“Start from the beginning,” I suggest gently.
Cherry whirls around so that she’s skating backwards and facing me, but she doesn’t let go of my hand. “Jules and I didn’t know each other that well. We’re both kind of loners, in case you haven’t noticed.” She gives me a wry smile. “But when a guy starts looking at you a certain way, you start to see him a certain way.”
Now Cherry lets go of my hand which scares me until I realize I’m steady on my own. She swirls around a couple of times and I’m so mesmerized, I almost forget to keep pushing off.
“We started talking a little bit, and I thought he was kinda cool.” There’s a wistfulness to her voice while she tells the story. “So, I asked him out. He seemed pretty happy about it, but then he never showed. End of story.”
She skates away abruptly to do some fancy footwork and more turns, while I’m left with my thoughts. She told me basically the same story I got from Julian, but he never told me she was the one who asked him out.
“You don’t look surprised,” she says as she comes back to me.
“I’m sorry,” I say, and I’m sure I have a guilty look on my face. “He kind of told me about that.”
“Oh,” she says slowly. I feel so bad. “Well, did he tell you why? Because I’d really like to know why.”
I shake my head, my eyebrows all scrunched up together. “You never asked him?”
Cherry purses her lips to the side like she has something to say but doesn’t want to say it. “I think he tried to tell me once, but I was too angry at the time to listen. We haven’t spoken since.” She shrugs.
There has got to be a really good reason why Julian stood Cherry up. Anyone with eyes can see that she’s amazing, especially him. I narrow my eyes and think of the most devious ways of getting him to spill his guts to me. I have a job, a purpose now before I go back to my home permanently. Obviously, I’ll have to take it upon myself to right some wrongs here.
“Ugh, of all the guys at our school,” she says, “and Julian turned out to be a heartbreaker. Typical.”
But he’s not typical. I know he’s not. And I’m going to find a way to fix it.
***
The next day at school, I have a little spring in my step. I have a mission now. I’m going to make Julian spill his guts to me, and then I’m going to make him make it up to Cherry. How I’ll accomplish this, I have no idea. But I will.
I pass by the announcements board, where the big ad for the boxing tournament is still front and centre. Now that I know about Red, I wonder why anyone would willingly choose to join the boxing team. I mean, aren’t they afraid to get completely pummelled by him?
It makes me think about Unc—Dan. We haven’t really talked much since that night that he came home drunk, but I’ve been secretly keeping tabs on him. He totally does not seem like the boxing type, but maybe that’s because I really only have a few examples to go on. Aggressive, fit, agile—not exactly traits that I would attribute to Dan.
At lunch, I am positively bursting with energy and I know Julian can tell. He gives me this look like he’s afraid of what I can do in this state of mind, and maybe he should be afraid.
I’m trying to come up with a tactful way of bringing up Cherry when Julian says, “You know, I never really asked you about Hawaii. It seems like a neat place.”
“Neat?” I spit the word out. “It’s not neat, it’s amazing! I mean, there’s a reason they call it Paradise. Everything there is perfect.”
“Sorry you have to be here, then,” he mumbles.
I look at his pale face that has lost any sort of emotion and gulp down my stupid words. “I didn’t really mean it that way. Sorry. Um, can we just go back and you ask me again?”
Jules gives me that over-the-glasses look that he loves so much, but he obliges anyway. “What’s Hawaii like?”
I smile. “It’s amazing. You’d really like it. No snow, so that’s kinda crappy, but it has its moments.”
He smiles back at me and his perfectly straight teeth gleam. “That is kinda crappy. I can’t imagine why anyone would ever want to live in a place where it’s always hot.”
“I know, right?” I tease back. I pause a moment and think. Maybe if I open up to Jules, he’ll open up to me. “I’m still sore over the move because, well I mean, that’s my home and all my friends were there. But I also almost had a boyfriend. And he kinda stopped messaging me, so I can only assume he’s forgotten about me.”
Although that was really hard for me to say, it’s all true. Kai did stop messaging me, which makes me really sad. But on the other hand, who could blame him? I’m over here and he’s over there.
Jules gives me a sympathetic look and says, “I imagine you’re very difficult to forget, so either he’s an idiot or something else is going on.”
I can’t help but smile and blush a little bit. “That’s really sweet of you to say.”
He shrugs and looks down at his hands. I’ve embarrassed him. Not good. Think of something else to say, Elli.
“Speaking of boyfriends,” I start, having absolutely no idea where I’m going with that, “have you ever been one?”
Julian raises one coy eyebrow at me and doesn’t even deign to answer my question. “So like, do people go to school in bikinis in Hawaii?” he asks.
“Yeah, ‘cause we have school on the beach, and that’s totally school appropriate,” I deadpan. “Speaking of bikinis...you ever seen Cherry in one?”
Julian’s eyes widen. Oops, a little too strong. “Seriously, Elli. When I said I didn’t want to talk about it, I really meant that I didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Ugh.” I slouch down in my seat. “The amount of things you and Cherry don’t want to talk about is equivalent to the things you do talk about.”
“You’ve been talking to Cherry about me?” he asks. To his credit, he sounds more curious than upset.
“I’d say it’s more the other way around,” I tell him cryptically.
It worked. He’s hooked. “What did she say, exactly?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Well, I would,” he says smugly. “But the bell’s about to ring.”
And then it does, and for one second I believe he’s psychic or something. But he’s not; he just knows this school very well. I roll my eyes as I follow him out of the caf. I almost got somewhere. This sucks.
“Cheer up, Ella,” he says in a teasing voice. “There are plenty of potential almost boyfriends here in Canada for you.”
I laugh
at Julian’s stupid joke because really, what does one say to that? My laughter is abruptly cut off when Julian is propelled forward and lands on the ground in front of us. I swivel my head around to see what happened, though it should be obvious the way the other students are parting like the Red Sea.
Red.
It’s him.
I’m livid. I stomp right up to him, despite Julian’s protests, and cut Red off in his tracks. With my arms crossed and my face displaying what I hope is an intimidating scowl, I say to him, “Hey! You can’t just push people over whenever you feel like it!”
I can feel the other students’ stares as they wait for Red’s reaction. He doesn’t say anything. Instead, he puts out one hand and pushes me to the side. Perhaps he didn’t mean to knock me over, but he caught me off guard and I barely have time to put my hands out and catch myself before I hit the floor.
I can’t believe it. Julian was right.
CHAPTER ten
Julian recovers quickly and suddenly he’s racing after Red. He glances at me briefly, but I tell him I’m okay and he just keeps going until he’s caught up to the meathead. Julian does exactly what I did which was to stand straight in Red’s path. I’m terrified for his safety and wish I’d never stepped in. I’m already back on my feet when Jules starts his tirade.
“Oh, you think you’re so tough because you can take out some tiny little girl and a nerdy kid?” he says defiantly.
I’m not a tiny little girl... Okay, everyone is tiny compared to Red. Except Jules. I never quite realized how tall Julian is, since we’re always sitting together, but he’s actually taller than Red.
“What are you gonna do about it?” Red growls.
So it speaks.
I stand next to Julian and say, “You don’t want to mess with this kid.”
I’m talking to Red, not Julian. Red doesn’t exactly look like the intellectual type, so I’m hoping that maybe I can bluff my way out of this. “He—he has anger issues. He’ll just go off on you and it won’t be good.”
I can feel the confusion radiating off of Julian, but he doesn’t disagree. Maybe he’ll work with me on this.
“Is that so?” Red says with a little smirk. Uh oh. Maybe he has more brain cells than I originally thought. “Let’s see what you got then.” He puts up his fists and I just about faint.
“Not here!” Julian says frantically.
I can tell the other students are trying to decide whether they should stay to catch the fight or hurry to their classes before they’re late.
“Yeah, not here,” I agree. “You’ll get suspended.”
Red snorts and throws a lazy punch past Jules’ face that I realize was just his warm-up. Think, Elli, think.
“No!” I say so forcefully Red drops his hands in shock. “He’ll take you on in that stupid boxing tournament. Then you’ll see what I really meant.”
Don’t back down, Julian, please don’t back down. Most of the other students have realized that nothing interesting is going to happen here, so they’ve left.
“Hm,” Red muses, like he is actually capable of musing. “Fine. See you there, loser.”
“Yeah, you’ll see me there!” Julian calls to Red’s retreating back. Everyone else rushes away to make their classes, but we stay behind.
“What the heck, Elli?” Jules says once the crowd has dispersed. He’s covering his face with his hands, as if shutting his eyes could take back everything we just said and did.
“It’s fine, Jules,” I say with a shaky voice. “Really. Let’s just go to math.”
“Let’s just go to math?” he repeats incredulously, finally showing his face. It’s red and his eyes look like they’ll bulge out of their sockets. I’ve never seen him so…so not placid. It’s a good look for him.
“Do you have any idea when that tournament is, Elli?” he asks.
We’re totally late for math now, but at this point I guess it’d be better just to skip and deal with the monster we’ve created. I take him by the arm and lead him away from the empty hallway as we continue our conversation.
“No?” I say. I feel bad. I really do.
“It’s in three months!” he exclaims.
“Great,” I say cheerfully. I receive a glare that I most definitely deserve, but I’m not ready to desert him just yet.
“Not great,” he says. “Terrible.”
I pull harder on his arm and take him back to the cafeteria where some students are spending their free periods. I can’t have him making such a huge scene in the hall where a teacher could find us.
“Are you listening to me, Elli?” he asks, his voice stern in a way that I guess I’m supposed to take to mean that he’s mad at me.
“Look, I take full responsibility for my actions just now, but you didn’t exactly back down, or just take the hit and walk away,” I tell him. He looks like he wants to retort but he knows I’m telling the truth. “And I’m proud of you. I’ll help you figure this thing out, alright?”
He swallows a few big gulps of air and takes a seat in the closest available chair. Dumping his backpack on the floor, he asks, “Help me figure what out?”
“How we’re going to get you into the tournament,” I say. Isn’t that what this is all about?
“You think I’m actually going to fight that guy?” he says, raising his voice again. “Are you insane? I’ll be killed.”
“Shhh, relax,” I say, looking around nervously. No one needs to hear us right now. “You will not be killed. Half that guy’s fight is in his bravado. Which you just proved you could match.”
Julian’s face flushes and he almost smiles. “I kinda did, didn’t I?”
“And you kinda liked it,” I say, this time coaxing a full smile out of him.
“I have to admit, it was invigorating.” His face sobers again. “But I still can’t fight him, Ella. I mean, look at me.”
I do look at him. He’s not skinny, which is actually to his advantage. But he’d have to start working out and training right away. I have to wonder if this is doable. I look back up into Julian’s gaze. There’s a fire in his eyes now that’s undeniable, and suddenly I feel like that’s all he might need.
“Imagine, Julian,” I say wistfully, “you could be the one to put Red in his place.”
“I—I…” he’s going to say that he can’t, that he’s not cut out for that kind of thing, that he shouldn’t do it. Except he doesn’t say that. “I don’t even know where to start.”
My heart lifts for a moment and I can’t help but throw my arms around him. He did, after all, stand up for me and me alone, when he wouldn’t even do that for himself. I figure I owe him.
“First, we need to sign you up for the tournament,” I say, grabbing his arm once again. I start pulling him in the direction of the guidance office and he doesn’t even complain as he hastily grabs his backpack. “Second, we need to get you an instructor. And third, you have to start working out and training like…today.”
“There are so many problems with this,” he says, his voice wavering. “I mean, where am I supposed to get a boxing instructor this late? And also, me and physical activity? Not a good combination.”
“Oh, you can do anything you set your mind to, Jules,” I tell him just as we reach the office. “And I think I know someone who can help us.”
I haven’t even stopped to think about what I’m doing. I can’t think about the implications of putting my friend in such a predicament. I just hope my uncle won’t wig out on me when I ask him to teach my friend to box in just three months.
This can be done. I’ll do everything it takes to make Julian into a hero, because I honestly believe he has a hero’s heart.
“Hi, Ms. Robertson,” I say brightly as soon as I walk into the office. The receptionist has her head bent over her work, but as soon as she looks up and sees me, she smiles. Yes, another friend. That’s always good to have.
“What can I do for you, deary?” she asks pleasantly.
Julian frowns at
our seeming familiarity. I say, “We’re just wondering how we can sign up for the boxing tournament.”
“That’s not exactly the type of sport I’d expect you to be interested in,” she says patronizingly.
I try not to groan at her fifties-esque way of thinking and instead force my smile to stay in place. “It’s for Julian.” I point to him. Then I have an idea. “But actually, do you have a ladies’ boxing tourney? I wouldn’t mind trying that.”
Ms. Robertson looks sceptically at both of us. “Well, you don’t look like the type either,” she says, looking pointedly at Julian. “But to each his own. All you need to do is fill out the proper forms. Let me just find them.”
As she scuttles to the back of her office, Julian whispers, “Elli, what are you doing? It’s not like they’ll let you fight Red, too.”
Oh, how I’d love to. “No, but I can train with you,” I tell him. “It’ll be a little bonding exercise.”
He huffs, but I can tell that he’s actually pleasantly surprised at my support. Again, it’s the least I can do since I basically got him into this mess. I squeeze his arm to show that I really mean it. He awkwardly pats my hand, which I’m sure means that he appreciates me a lot and I’m his best friend.
Only once we’ve filled out the forms and handed them back to Ms. Robertson have I finally been able to slow down and really think. And what I think is that I have no idea what I’m doing. I’ve just signed me and Julian up for a boxing tournament regardless of the fact that neither of us knows anything about boxing. Not only that, but we don’t really have an instructor and I’m not even sure I can get one.
Plus, I have to agree with Julian when he says that he doesn’t do physical activity, because I don’t either. I mean, yeah I used to go swimming back home all the time, but that was more for the boys than anything else. Ugh, what was I thinking?
“Elli, I sincerely hope you actually know someone who can help us. Or else, I hope you’re okay with me switching schools and never fighting your battles again.” I wish Julian were joking, but a part of me knows that he’s not.
We’re wandering aimlessly around the school now, since the period isn’t over yet. I shrug. “My uncle was the boxing champion at this school. We’re on good terms, so I don’t see why he wouldn’t help.”
