Pyramid of One

by Zoe Evans

  “And I was too embarrassed to tell you all of that,” I went on. “So . . . instead, I just avoided you, hoping you’d just get bored of me. And I wouldn’t actually have to say no to a date with you.”

  When I was done explaining why I’d been avoiding him, I finally looked up at his face. I guess I expected him to be angry. But instead his brown eyes looked sort of thoughtful.

  “I totally get being so dedicated to a sport that you’d give up anything that gets in the way of being at the top of your game,” he said. His face had a look to it that told me that once he made his mind up about something, there was no stopping him from getting what he wanted. “It just sucks that I’m the something that’s getting in the way.” The corners of his lips curled into a smile as he looked at me. My heart did a little flip.

  I was so relieved that I was able to tell him how I’ve been feeling this whole time. (It also made me feel superembarrassed to tell him that stuff, but at least now I don’t have to worry about running away from him anymore.)

  “You want to grab something to eat?” he asked. I could hear the hope in his voice. So cute.

  I was starving and excited to stretch our talk even longer. So we went to the Wok & Roll for California rolls (my latest obsession). And then we ended up hanging out for, like, hours! We walked all around the mall, not really doing anything but talking.

  We tried out those massage chairs in the expensive electronics store and let them go to town on our backs.

  “We should really get one of these for the Lounge, don’t you think?” I asked.

  “Ye-eh-eh-eh-ssss,” he stuttered back, mid-vibration.

  He leaned back into his chair and wrinkled his brow. I could tell something was the matter.

  “You ok?” I asked him. It was strange, because we had just been laughing and joking.

  “Yeah, I was just thinking about my buddy Rob. I’d just come from his house before coming here. Actually, he was supposed to come with me to the mall today. But that was before he got hurt.”

  “Oh.” I frowned. “That sucks. He’s one of the best players on the team, isn’t he?” I asked. “So, what does that mean for the team? Are they gonna replace him?”

  Bevan played with the buttons on his chair. “Yeah, probably. And yeah, that does suck, but I’m actually more worried about his actual knee. The doc says he might need major surgery.”

  Sooo cute! I gave him big points for not being all macho and instead being worried about his friend. Most guys would be freaking out about whether they’d still be able to win as many games. Yet another reason why Bevan was the exact definition of “awesome.”

  We tried on silly hats at one of the hat stands, and he took a picture with his phone of me wearing a Russian—style hat with fur on the earflaps. I’ll have to ask Katarina if she has one of those. They’re kinda cute!

  “Nice. This will be your profile pic on my phone when you call,” he said after he saved the picture to his phone.

  His arm kept brushing against mine when we walked, and he was like, “Sorry,” and I was like, “Sorry,” and then we both laughed.

  Sigh. It was soooo much fun. It felt so easy, like hanging out with a friend (a very, very cute friend).

  Unforch, Mom had to pick me up at three ’cuz she had errands to run after. “Did you have fun with Jacqui?” she asked when I got into the car.

  “Oh. Uh. She didn’t show, actually.”

  “Oh, honey, I would have picked you up,” she said, turning out of the parking lot.

  “No, it was cool,” I said, flopping my head back dreamily into the seat. “I hung out with another friend.”

  “A friend?” Mom looked at me strangely. “Hmm. Ok,” she said with a little smile.

  I turned on the radio, and luckily that was the end of the convo. I’m glad she didn’t ask me any more questions because I so didn’t feel like getting into it with her just then.

  Unfortunately, my dreamy feeling didn’t last. I went from floating on air to absolutely crazed within one car ride. I didn’t mean for this to happen, but now I realized—duh duh duhnnn-I’d hung out with Bevan even though I wasn’t supposed to!!!

  If Katie finds out, she’ll totally go psycho. Even though I’d been trying to avoid hanging out with him before, I’m glad my plan didn’t work out. I like him a lot. And it isn’t exactly like I hung out with him on purpose. Bumping into someone at the mall isn’t the definition of a date. Wait. Another thing—even though it wasn’t a “real” date, was this Bevan’s and my “first date”? Will he ask me out again? Do I WANT him to? He hadn’t mentioned a next time. So frustrating!

  Later I called Lanie to tell her what happened.

  “Madison, what’s wrong? You’re out of breath.”

  “I was running. To. Tell. You.”

  “What? Is everything ok?”

  “I just hung out with Bevan Ramsey!” I said, practically all in one breath.

  “What? How?”

  I told her everything that happened this afternoon, and she was so surprised but also excited for me. Go, BFFs!

  “Aww, little Madison Hays. All grown up,” Lanie joked.

  “This is serious!” I said. “What if Katie finds out?”

  “Katie won’t find out,” said Lanie. “Unless Bevan’s the kind of guy to brag to the whole soccer team. And even though I’m not the biggest fan of jocks, I actually don’t think he’s the type to do that.”

  Phew! That made me feel a little better.

  “You promise?” I pleaded.

  “Well, obviously I have no control over this. But I do think it’s doubtful.”

  “Sweet! But you know, there is one thing you do have control over . . . ,” I hinted.

  “What now?”

  “Can you just please not tell Evan? He got so weird a few weeks ago when we bumped into Bevan at the mall, and I just don’t really want to deal with his attitude right now. I have way too many other things going on.”

  “Ok, deal. But I’m telling you, I’m not a big fan of secrets. I’m only doing this because I totally heart you.”

  “Noted!”

  Yay!

  I hung up the phone and realized I’d missed a call from Jacqui.

  She didn’t even wait for me to say hello when I called back. “Madison, I am so sorry for flaking out today,” she said. “I never do that, but I thought this stupid pain would go away with a couple Advil. It just got worse.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Jacqui,” I told her. “You’ll never believe what happened. But you have to swear not to tell anyone.”

  “Uh-oh,” said Jacqui when I was done telling my story the second time. “Not good news if Katie finds out. But of course your secret’s safe with me. I mean, I’ll do my very best to keep it. And I’m happy for you. You guys will be such a great couple.”

  “Whoa! I’m not saying we’re gonna be a couple! One date that I’m still not sure counts as a real date doesn’t automatically mean boyfriend-girlfriend, right?”

  “Well, you know what I mean,” said Jacqui. “He seems to like you a lot. He’s been following you around like a puppy after practices. Don’t act like you haven’t noticed!”

  “Hee hee—I have.” I laughed, thinking about the times he was trying to talk to me about making plans.

  “Well, I think you look really cute together,” she said.

  I didn’t say anything, but secretly I absolutely agreed with her.

  This day sure did not turn out as planned. Instead of keeping my mind off the Bevan thing, I’m way back on it. There’s a rule for this in cheer, of course. The book says, “Always Prepare for the Unexpected.” You never know what might happen-like, you could have to do a dance to a song you’ve never even heard before at a competition. Or in Bevan’s case, his team lost one of their best players, and now they have to work around it. I should have been thinking about the “Unexpected” rule when I got to the mall earlier this afternoon. Little did I know my whole “avoid Bevan” plan would go entirely of
f track. Now I just have to hope this doesn’t get around the school. If this gets back to Katie, I’ll be kissing the Titans good-bye.

  Ummm . . . Whoa. I passed Katie in the halls today, and instead of stopping and saying hey as usual and just talking about whatever, she gave me such a stink eye that I thought maybe, like, her worst enemy was behind me. Then I turned around, and it was just Rose Turnblatt with her too—thick glasses and long hippie skirt, drinking from the water fountain. And as far as I know, Rose and Katie don’t have a problem with each other (besides different tastes in fashion). I’m spazzing out. Does she have some kind of freaky “Maddy hung out with Bevan” sixth sense? How in the world would she have found out that Bevan and I chilled together? Ok, there’s another possibility: Maybe she decided she doesn’t like the uniforms I designed, and every time she looks at me now she’s filled with disgust for the uniforms. But no, she would say something if it was about the uniforms, I think. It’s so weird because we were so cool with each other recently—ever since I came up with the idea to lend the Titans the Grizzly uniforms at their big game a few weeks ago. Ugh! So confusing. And it’s not like I can just go up and talk to her about it. Like, “Hey, Katie. Um. Did you hear Bevan and I went sort of on a date the other day? Oh, you didn’t? Ok, never mind!”

  Before practice, Mom told Jacqui and me that the Grizzlies have another “game” coming up-we’re cheering at the speech club’s next competition. It wasn’t on our original cheer schedule, but the other day Mom was approached by Principal Gershon, who asked if we could help them out.

  Jacqui and I talked about it before the rest of the squad showed up.

  “Do you think the team will be cool with cheering at a speech geek competition after what happened last week?” asked Jacqui. She looked a little worried.

  “I think so.”

  But even as I said that, I wasn’t so sure. What if everyone WOULD in fact be annoyed about cheering at another loser—ish type of game? So I made sure that practice was especially hard, with new moves to learn, hoping to get everyone into the spirit.

  Ian was really upset that he still hadn’t gotten his back walkover from the other day, so we started off with those.

  “Ian, come here. I’ll show you how easy it is,” said Tabitha Sue, brushing her hands off on her shirt. She and Katarina had been doing synchronized back walkovers down the length of the mat.

  “You? You’re gonna show me? I think Katarina probably can do it better.”

  Tabitha Sue narrowed her eyes. “What’s your problem? I can do this just as well as Katarina. Watch.” She demonstrated her now REALLY good back walkover. She must have been practicing this one at home.

  “Point those toes!” Jacqui instructed.

  “Oops, sorry!” said Tabitha Sue, coming into her landing.

  I don’t think Katarina liked being compared to anyone, even if that person was her friend. She did a running start and launched into some backflips while Tabitha Sue, Ian, and Matt all watched in awe.

  “I am excellent flipper,” Katarina declared. I couldn’t help laughing, but she was right. That girl can flip.

  Katarina and Tabitha Sue worked with Jared and Matt, and Jacqui and I continued spotting Ian. He had finally realized he wasn’t going to improve without our help. After a while we got him to arch his back and get his arms to the floor without any spotting. The whole team applauded.

  “Look! I did it!” he said from upside down. “Matt! Bro, look!”

  “Yeah, I see,” said Matt. “But can you get out of it?”

  “Uh . . . hold on.” Ian scrunched his face—which was getting redder by the second—and tried to lift his legs over his head. But he just couldn’t do it. “Ladies? I think I’m stuck.”

  I helped Ian out of his awkward position. He was panting, and his forehead was beaded with sweat. “Take a breather, Ian. You’ll get this. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

  “If I don’t get this, I’m quitting. I don’t understand how everyone can do this but me,” he mumbled angrily, looking at Jared, who had just hit his back walkover. Jacqui whistled and Mom clapped.

  “Hey, everyone has their Achilles’ heel,” I said, patting Ian on the back. He just looked at me blankly. “Their weakness, Ian,” I clarified. “Everyone has that one thing that gives them problems. Mine is the scorpion.”

  Ian started to arch backward without a spotter, trying to get into position again for the back walkover.

  “Wait-Ian!” I stopped him before his arms reached the floor. “Come on. You have to relax. If you push yourself too hard on something your body isn’t ready for, you might hurt yourself. It’s one of the spirit rules.”

  “It is?”

  “Yeah. The rule is actually ‘Work Your Team—But Never Push Too Hard.’ If I made you get this today, I’d be a bad captain. I even heard last week that a cheerleader at Bay High got put into the hospital because he tried to do a rewind. He hadn’t trained to that level yet, but his captain had told him to just ‘try’ it.” I made little quote marks in the air.

  “This definitely isn’t the football team,” he said, shaking his head. “In football, there is no ‘try.’ You just go for it.”

  I guess the football captain has different rules for running a team.

  At the end of practice we worked on a new cheer for the speech competition that I thought up on the fly:

  OUR SPEECH TEAM CAN’T BE BEAT.

  WE NEVER SAY THE WORD “DEFEAT”!

  GO, PORT ANGELES! PORT ANGELES!

  GOOOOOO, PORT ANGELES!

  It was simple, but our team needed simple so they could feel good about themselves. We added in some basic arm motions, and Jacqui and I did some easy stunts in the front of the line to draw attention. At the end we practiced a thigh stand—it was a little wobbly, but with practice I know it will be great. Mom thought the whole thing looked awesome.

  Before everyone left, Mom brought up the car wash we decided to have this weekend. Going to away competitions is not a cheap endeavor, so we’ll need to raise some cashola to cut down on the costs. But if what Lanie was saying the other day is true, I’m pretty sure the Titans aren’t sweating over it. I guess that’s just the way it works. Anyway, what better way for people to give thanks on Thanksgiving than to help spread school spirit by sending the Grizzlies to the qualifier?

  “Hope you’re all ready to roll up your sleeves on Saturday,” said Mom.

  “Aren’t car washes, like, a chick thing?” asked Matt. His arms were crossed over his chest defensively.

  “Excuse me?” said Jacqui. “I smell some sit—ups coming on,” she warned.

  “Yeah, Matt, get over yourself,” said Tabitha Sue, rolling her eyes. “You know you love any excuse to take your shirt off.”

  “Ahem,” said Mom. “This will be a shirts-on type of car wash. That means you, too, Ian.”

  “Hey,” said Jared, “why can’t us guys work on our tans? Right, fellas?” Jared jabbed his elbow into Matt.

  “I changed my mind,” said Ian with a look of horror on his face. I guess he must have agreed with the rest of the team that the image of Jared shirtless would probably drive away any possible customers. “I’m down for shirts on,” he said, and smiled angelically.

  “All right, guys, don’t be late.”

  I looked for Bevan right after practice but couldn’t find him in the gym. I haven’t seen him all day and it’s so weird. Of course when I was avoiding him, he was everywhere. Now when I want to see him, he’s hard to find! I didn’t want to push my luck and end up face-to-face with Katie and her evil eye, so I didn’t stay in the gym for long. I stuck my head into the weight room and just kind of hung outside the boys’ locker room for a few, pretending to check my messages.

  Jacqui spotted me. “You waiting for someone?”

  “Oh, uh . . .” I was gonna deny it, but then I realized, who cares? Jacqui’s my friend. And she already said she likes the idea of the two of us together.

  “You know. B.” I leaned again
st the smooth, cool walls, tracing my fingers in the cracks between the tiles.

  “I think I saw the guys peace out of practice early.” She frowned.

  “Oh. Ok, thanks for letting me know. I would have stood here like a nerd for, like, who knows how long?”

  “Eventually you would have figured it out,” she said, smiling.

  “Right.”

  We decided to walk over to Steak & Fries and grab a bite before going home. It’s just what I need after this weird day with the whole Katie thing. I guess maybe I should take some of my own advice to Ian and just chill, not push it too far . . . right?

  Sooooooo. I’ve got a problem. Not a GINORMOUS problem, but still, it’s kind of big. I’m hanging in the Lounge, reading through The Spirit Rules and taking some notes in my journal, when Clementine and Hilary come up to me! I could tell from the looks on their faces that this wasn’t a “Hey, how’s it goin’?” kind of visit. Which made me panic: Were they gonna say something about Bevan and me? It would be so like them to do Katie’s dirty work.

  But what they had to say took me completely by surprise.

  “So, your friend with the blue hair has been talking to our teammates, you know,” said Hilary. She was chewing her gum with so much force that I was worried her jaw would dislocate. Then I realized that would mean she’d have to stop talking for a while, and I thought, “Cool-that wouldn’t be so bad!”

  I had hoped this thing with Lanie and her article wasn’t gonna come back to haunt me. Wishful thinking . Thing is, a part of me IS relieved they didn’t say anything about Bevan.

  “Yeah, she’s interviewing them for an article for the Daily Angeles.” I forced my face to look blank, like I didn’t really know what they could possibly be worried about. Yeah, me—Little Miss Innocent.

  Hilary took out a compact mirror and started applying a lip gloss with a label that read “The Big Glossip.” All the Titan cheerleaders have been wearing it lately—apparently it stings their lips but it makes ’em look like Angelina Jolie’s. Typical cheerleader mentality. No pain, no gain.