Leavesly

by Reni Huang

  She was deep in the middle of reading her Biology textbook, fascinated by how human genes and physical and mental makeup can be found in such small molecules, when she felt someone leaning over her shoulder. With a gasp, Julia pulled away and looked up to see a mischievous grin on Wynn’s face.

  “Sorry,” he laughed at her reaction. “I tried coughing earlier to get your attention, but those,” he squinted at the diagram shown on the page she was poring over, “DNAs must be a really fascinating read.”

  “How long have you been standing here?” Julia asked, feeling self-conscious. She looked around but Wynn was alone.

  He laughed again. “I was studying over there,” he gestured towards a set of cubicles against the wall of windows. Julia stared at the hard rain lashing against the row of trees outside, the water pouring down the glass panes, the skies had darkened to a wet and somber black.

  “When did it start raining?”

  Wynn laughed again and shook his head. “You have some serious concentration skills.”

  Feeling disorientated, Julia glanced at her cell phone and noticed the time. “It’s almost two? I wonder what happened to Lexi and Elliott.”

  Wynn shifted around while she checked her messages and shoved her textbook back into her bag with her free hand. Recently Elliott had gotten into the habit of charging Lexi’s cell phone every night before leaving their dorm room. Putting her phone away, Julia stood up and he said, “I’m headed over to Brooks now, I could drop you off at your dorm.”

  “Oh, thanks. But, no, I’ll be ok.”

  He gave her light clothing a skeptical look but didn’t say anything.

  “Do you usually study down here?” Julia asked him as they walked up the stairwell of the Science Library towards the main entrance.

  “Yeah, no one ever comes here, so it’s nice and quiet.”

  Julia silently agreed. Lexi preferred to go to the Main Library, where they could barely ever find a table to sit at. Julia had a suspicious that Lexi went there more to find people to hang out with between classes rather than to study.

  Pushing open the glass doors, Wynn leaned against it to let her through. The second she stepped outside she was completely drenched. Wynn chuckled at her forlorn expression and gave her a nudge.

  “C’mon, this way,” he said and lightly pulled her arm along as he began a brisk jog towards the student parking lot. “Watch out for those puddles,” he called back to her as they dodged their way pass the tall science buildings.

  The water fell down in sheets, and by the time Wynn managed to unlock his car doors, Julia practically flooded his car with the amount of water she brought in. He reached over to grab her bag and tossed it onto the back seat. Leaning in between the two seats, he pulled out a beach towel from the rear, and handed it over to her. Julia wringed out her long hair as much as she could then offered the now wet towel back to him. He scrubbed his hair and face roughly then shook his head like a dog, making his hair stand up slightly. He peeked over the towel catching her watching him and gave her an incongruous expression making her laugh.

  “Better?” Julia teased him.

  He tossed the towel behind him and started the engine then quipped, “By the way, thanks for fogging up my windows.”

  Julia bit back a smile but didn’t respond.

  “So what do you have planned for this week?” he asked conversationally, as he took the inner roads back around to her dormitory.

  “Usual, classes. Chloe mentioned she has a piano competition this Saturday that I really want to attend, but I think it’s pretty far away.”

  Wynn nodded. “She’s been competing in those ever since she was a little kid. Do you know where it’s at?”

  “She emailed the information to me.”

  “I have some errands to run in the morning, but if it’s in the afternoon, I can drive you.”

  Her heart sped up. “I think it starts around three, but I need to double-check.”

  “Cool. Forward me the details.”

  Julia stared at him in wonder. He glanced at her as he pulled into the cul-de-sac behind her building.

  “What?”

  “Thanks. I really mean it. I think Chloe will really appreciate you coming out to support her like this.”

  Wynn looked away and nodded. “It’s no big deal.”

  Julia flashed him her most grateful smile then opened the passenger side door. She waved as his taillights pulled away from the curb, and the rain continued to pour down over her. She had never loved this cold, black rain as much as she did at this moment.

  * * *

  The rest of the week seemed to roll right on by, not remarkable enough for Julia to give it her full attention, her only sight set on the weekend to come. She had emailed Wynn about Chloe’s competition, and he had sent back a short reply confirming it. There was a short break mid-week, when her day slowed to a crawl in anticipation of seeing Wynn during the A.A.C.F.’s meeting. But he was sitting at the back sound booth as usual, and she didn’t get a chance to talk to him with all the other upperclassmen crowding around him afterwards. Other than a brief smile and nod, they didn’t have any contact. Lexi and Elliott were getting to know the other freshmen in their fellowship pretty well, and Julia ended up following them to Beans afterwards, turning down Geoff’s offer to go out with him and his friends, which a disappointed Julia assumed included Wynn.

  Friday arrived at last, and even Elliott began noticing Julia’s jitters. He was in his usual sprawled out position on Lexi’s bed, guitar in his arms, head thrown back staring at the ceiling, fingers lazily strumming out the same no-name melodic tune he couldn’t seem to get out of his head. Lexi was at her desk downloading the songs she claimed were her favorites this week on to her iPod. Although Lexi had a revolving list of artists and genres that tended to grow and change as time went on, her current obsession was the band called The Fray.

  Julia had tried to get as much of her reading assignments out of the way, but to no avail. Everything distracted her. It was the most unproductive morning, as she flitted back and forth around the room, unable to settle her mind down enough to accomplish anything. Sighing, Julia wander to the closet to change her outfit for the third time.

  Lexi whirled around in her chair and said exasperatedly, “Lia, can you please stop moving around. What is wrong with you?”

  “It’s Friday,” Elliott murmured cryptically from the bed. Julia threw him a quizzical look, did he know? He caught the question in her eyes and hid his smile. But he chose to ignore her and went back to his strumming.

  Mercifully the next half hour finally ran its course and Julia was soon happily strapped into her new favorite car, and weaving through the heavy rain towards Leavesly Church. They were in for a couple surprises this night.

  Lexi was helping Elliott set up the drum set Mudd had let them borrow on the stage, and Julia was seated on the piano beach waiting for Chloe to arrive, when the double doors of the sanctuary flew open and Vangy and Pamela burst in surrounded by a posse of giggling girls.

  “We brought our friends!” Vangy announced as she led the group skipping down the aisle to the stage.

  “Can they join our Christmas play? Please?” Pamela begged as she ran up to Wynn.

  “Sure, anyone is welcomed to join!” Lexi answered for him, clearly excited about the sudden growth of their youth group.

  “Whoa, hold on a second,” Wynn said, and motioned to talk privately with Lexi. As he walked by, he reached out to snag the sleeve of Julia’s sweater and tugged her along as well.

  “What’s wrong,” Lexi said defensively once they reached the far end of the room.

  “We can’t let just anyone be in the skit,” Wynn stated.

  “Why? It’s fun, it’s the holidays. Parents will love it.”

  “This is their first time coming to our church, how do we even know we’re going to see them again? We don’t know their commitment level. We don’t even know if they know who Jesus is. How can they be sharing
a story about God when they don’t understand the meaning behind it?”

  “So we teach them about God, we explain to them the purpose of putting on this skit, the reason we celebrate Christmas. I mean, we want more people to come out to church right?”

  “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean they can just join the performance.”

  Lexi sighed. “I don’t understand what the big deal it. None of us are professionals. We didn’t make any of the kids audition. If they want to go up on stage and sing a couple Christmas carols, what’s the harm?”

  Wynn looked at Julia, who had remained quiet throughout the exchange.

  “What do you think?”

  Julia looked at Lexi then back at Wynn. She could see where both of them were coming from. “Well,” she began slowly, trying to find the right words. “I think we should make sure they’re committed to becoming part of the youth group. You know make sure they’ll show up to rehearsals and also to go through Wynn’s lessons so they understand the purpose why we’re putting on this skit. It doesn’t matter how God brought them to church, we just need to make sure we do our part in teaching them about Him.”

  “Alright,” Lexi beamed, “I’ll explain it to them,” and whirled around to rejoin the cluster of girls giggling and trying to eavesdrop in on their conversation.

  Julia peeked at Wynn. He had that same unreadable expression on his face. As he walked away, he said in a low voice, “Do me a favor and get down their email addresses? And we should get some sort of contact sheet set up.”

  Julia nodded and made a note of it.

  Chapter Nine

  Julia woke up wide-eyed to the soft pitter patter of raindrops outside the window.

  “What time is it?” Lexi mumbled groggily from under her thick comforter when her roommate stumbled out of bed.

  “Six-thirty.”

  Lexi groaned and buried herself deeper into her mountain of blankets.

  Slipping on her earphones, Julia tucked her iPod into the drawstring of her pajama pants, and moved to her closet, swaying to One Republic as she rummaged through her overstuffed wardrobe, pushing the wooden racks methodically, searching for the right outfit.

  She managed to concentrate enough to study for her Biology midterm, and by the time Lexi woke up and Elliott wandered over to their room his hair rumpled from sleep, it had stopped drizzling outside.

  “You’re out of food,” Elliott announced, as he shook the box of Kix he grabbed from above the mini-fridge.

  “What? There were still some left the last I checked,” Lexi grumbled, never having been a morning person. She tossed her hairbrush aside to examine the evidence. Taking the box from Elliott, she rattled it around until some dust crumbs and a small handful of round yellow cereal puffs rolled out. “See?”

  Elliott gave her a look that said “are you kidding me?” then shrugged and reached over to grab the leftover puffs from her hand.

  “Hey!” Lexi balked as he scooped them into his mouth, “Share!”

  Julia laughed and grabbed her keys. “C’mon, it stopped raining. Let’s go to Beans and get some real food.”

  The day continued to brighten up, so after breakfast at their favorite coffee shop, the three friends made their familiar trek up to Staten Lighthouse. The stoic white tower stood like a beacon on the edge of the cliffs like a safe haven above the grey and turbulent crashing waves below. Julia quicken her pace, guiding her rusty bike up the path ignoring the sporadic splashes of water from the muddy puddles that sprayed the bottom of her dark blue jeans as she pedaled.

  “So what time is Wynn picking you up tonight,” Lexi asked as they leaned their bikes against the stone ledge that wrapped around the base of the light house.

  “You’re going on a date with him?”

  “No, it’s not a date,” Julia clarified to Elliott. “He’s just giving me a ride to Chloe’s piano competition.”

  “So can we come along?”

  Lexi hit Elliott in the arm, and he laughed and rubbed it.

  “What? It’s not a date, right?” He gave Julia a teasing yet skeptical look. Julia knew Elliott liked music, but she also knew he wouldn’t willingly volunteer to sit through a high school piano competition.

  Calling his bluff, she said, “Sure, if you want.”

  “Cool, what time? Ow,” he winced when Lexi hit him harder. “What? I just think she’ll need a chaperon,” his words marred with laughter as he sidestepped Lexi’s attempt to give him another punch.

  “Oh, look, Ellie! Sedimentary rocks!”

  Julia laughed at Elliott’s perplexed expression at Lexi’s abrupt change of focus. But he quickly shifted gears, familiar with the fact that she was easily distracted.

  Lexi turned to Julia and explained, “For our Earth Science class we’re supposed to find four types of sedimentary rocks, like, sandstone, amber, limestone, and … what was the last one?”

  “Anthracite,” Elliott filled in for her.

  “Right! C’mon, Ellie, let’s go collect some,” she suggested and they wandered off towards the edge of the cliff, singing, “Extra credit, here we come!”

  * * *

  If there had been any doubts about the night being a date, Wynn’s appearance later that evening chased any lingering confusions away. Dressed casually in jeans, a dark brown shirt and jacket, he looked the same as he did any other day, no flowers or super gelled-back hair or flirty smiles.

  He leaned against the door frame, surveying their room. Sitting cross legged in the middle of the room was Lexi with bright pink, green, and yellow flash cards surrounding her like Saturn’s rings orbiting the planet. Lying on her bed was Elliott, his long arms dangling over the edge trying to help her sort out the conjugated verbs and vocabulary cards they had made to cram for their Spanish mid-term exam.

  “Hey,” they both greeted him, barely looking up from the complex schematic they were attempting to create.

  “Ready?” he asked Julia as she slipped her wool coat over the knit turtleneck sweater and fresh pair of jeans, the mud splattered ones she had worn earlier that day to the lighthouse were now discarded in the laundry basket.

  “Ready.”

  She took a deep breath, avoided Lexi’s gaze in case she was throwing any subliminal messages, and followed Wynn out the door.

  * * *

  Too many hours later, Julia was back in Wynn’s car exiting the parking structure of Copley Symphony Hall in downtown San Diego where the competition had taken place. In front of them was Chloe’s parent’s red minivan pulling on to the freeway ramp.

  “I’m so sorry,” Julia said for the fourth time since exiting the concert hall.

  Wynn gave her an amused look. “Stop apologizing, it’s fine.”

  They had unsuccessfully begged off Chloe’s parents’ invitation to join their family for dinner. Chloe’s mom especially was very intent on expressing her gratitude by refusing to let her daughter’s youth group leaders head back home unfed.

  As Wynn turned in to the shopping plaza where the Royal Dragon Palace Chinese restaurant was located, Julia struggled with the need to apologize again. She seriously hoped he had accompanied her to the concert today because he wanted to hear Chloe compete. If not, she owed him big time. It seemed that every single musically competent teenager from southern California perform one classical song after another, until they started sounding like one continuous background drone.

  God, I do care about Chloe. But please don’t ever have me sit though another tortuous evening like this, Julia had desperately thought on and off throughout the event. On top of that, she felt an overwhelming sense of guilt every time she glanced over at Wynn and saw his glazed over bored expression.

  The only highlight was when Chloe’s name was called and she walked confidently up to the stage.

  From that moment Julia knew Chloe was going to be good. The girl who walked up those steps and sat down before the grand piano was a different girl from the one who moped around in the background on
Friday nights.

  Yet as the first couple of notes were played, Julia was seriously stunned. Chloe was really talented. The baroque concerto “Four Seasons” by Vivaldi, that Julia was positive thirty other kids played right before her, resonated throughout the large auditorium. But more than that, she brought it to life, building on her crescendos to an intensified climax then masterfully pulling back into a blithely exuberant melody. Her technique demonstrated her skills in showing the contrast between the different sections without losing the flow of the piece.

  After her applause died down, Julia had turned to Wynn and whispered, “I wonder why she doesn’t play like that at church?”

  “You should ask her,” he said, then grimaced when the next contestant headed up the platform. The good news was Chloe’s name was announced at the end of the program as one of the selected pianist to qualify for the regional competition in January.

  During dinner, which included platter after platter of succulent lobster, crab, shrimp and oyster, Julia managed to talk to Chloe a little bit while her parents and sister vied for Wynn’s attention.

  “You played really good,” Julia complimented her, as a waiter approached their table to clear away some empty plates only to add more heaping piles of vegetables platters to it.

  “Thanks for sitting through that,” Chloe laughed, in between bites of her garlic smothered scallops. “I know it’s not the most exciting way to spend your day.”

  Why don’t you play that way at church, Julia wanted to ask but couldn’t make herself say it without feeling like it was insulting Chloe’s prior piano playing during fellowship nights. How did people like Wynn and Lexi manage to be so honest without apologizing for it?

  Thankfully she was relieved of the dilemma when Chloe said, “Can you imagine if I played that way at church?”

  Seizing the opportunity, Julia quickly asked, “Why don’t you?”

  Chloe laughed like she was joking. When she realized Julia wasn’t, she shrugged and said, “And have Koda and the others tease me even more? He already thinks it’s lame that I play the piano so much. Anyways, I don’t know the songs we sing at church well enough to know what they’re supposed to sound like.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She thought for a moment then said, “With the Vivaldi piece I played today, I’ve listened to that song so many times before I even learned how to play it. So I already knew what it was supposed to sound like.”