The Bookworm Next Door: The Expanded and Revised Edition

by Alicia J. Chumney

  David wore a strange expression on his features. There were moments where he was lost in the world that Austen had created, where he was wondering what it was that Delilah saw in Mr. Darcy. In certain moments he would remember his hallway outburst to Aimee and how quickly the popular crowd had learned about it. He had a feeling that tomorrow the rest of the school would know by the final bell. He wondered what the ultimate verdict would be and if he would be shunned.

  Were people still shunned? he wondered.

  Seniors should be above this. We are supposed to be mature, he thought after dinner was finally over and he had decided to dive back into the book as an escape from reality.

  Later that night, after passing her son's room and seeing that his light was still on but not daring to knock, Mrs. Carver realized something. Behind the darkened mood in his eyes, her youngest son's face was also filled with astonishment. She once again started to wonder what had started the battling expressions on his face.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “Did you hear what David said to Aimee?” a freshman whispered to her friends, barely looking at Kyle as they walked past him. “He said that all of their friends were idiots and that he never wanted to even see them again.”

  “He didn’t!” the friend gasped dramatically

  Kyle smiled. “About time he figured that out.” He knew how the grapevine worked and that David’s words would be twisted around with only a kernel of the truth left behind.

  It was Friday before school and David could barely stop himself from counting the moments until the final bell rang. Even pulling into the parking lot had him ill at ease. Armed with his new book - in a nondescript book cover - David set out to discover what new world awaited him among the rubble that was his former reality.

  His entrance alone was enough to make it obvious that more people knew about his statement to Aimee. There was no doubt that it was blown out of proportion as things tend to be with gossip and rumors.

  The biggest shock for everybody watching was when Wesley and Kyle Goldman walked up and joined him. Penny, who happened to be walking past them with a friend from the school newspaper, stopped walking and waited with bated breath to know what the star quarterback was about to say to David. It wasn’t often that she could claim to be at the forefront of gossip as it took place.

  Even Penny would say that there is a difference between gossip and the truth.

  She had heard some of the rumors, plus the story somebody had hurriedly told her, and she recognized that a lot of the details had been exaggerated to make David look worse than necessary. Penny wondered what was Aimee-generated and what was from other sources. Ruining David’s reputation seemed counterproductive towards her goal of getting him back.

  "Hey, man!" Kyle greeted David as if nothing was wrong. "So, did you really denounce the popular crowd as being stupid?"

  "I had said, basically, that Wesley wasn't somebody who would stab people in the back and stand around all day doing nothing but talking about people like some of the idiots that I would call my friends. Well, I guess they aren't my friends anymore." David finished this with a cynical laugh.

  "That, my friend, is the smartest thing that I have ever heard you say. Truthfully, I thought you were one of those idiots because you were best friends with Will." Kyle nodded to Wesley and smiled towards some of the girls at their lockers as the four of them headed down the halls. "I'm on your side and so is Wesley. I'm glad somebody said something; I was tired of the act that you have to pull just to be accepted in this school. I have more important things to deal with than people like Aimee."

  "Maybe…" Penny's voice came out as a squeak. Realizing that she was joining the conversation uninvited she cleared her throat and tried again, "Maybe the new trend will be actually using your brain instead of just having one."

  Kyle started laughing. It was the second best thing that he had heard all day - David's statement being the first. "I like this girl. Kyle Goldman at your service," grinned, holding out his hand.

  "Penny Dryer, Editor of the James Madison Chronicles."

  "Oh right. You're the newspaper editor. Now that I'm willingly becoming an outcast in this socially driven world, there wouldn’t happen to be an opening at the paper by chance?" Kyle was only semi-joking and they knew it. They all knew his social standing was secure in spite of the people he chose to hang around; as long as he wore a jersey and cleats while playing quarterback he would be safe.

  "Bring me a sample article early next week and we'll see if you are qualified for a position. If you are then I'll run the article and you can become an official member of my team." Holding out her hand for him to shake, she waited before turning to go towards her own locker.

  "Wait just one second," Kyle interrupted, halting her process.

  Kyle set his bag down and started looking through his notebooks. Moments later he pulled out a few typed out pages and handed them over. "I hope a commentary is okay. Sometimes I'll just sit down and words start coming out and onto my screen, or notebook, or whatever surface I can write on that is available. David's experience here gave me some good ideas." While his comment had been in jest, he was beginning to like the idea more than he expected.

  Penny scanned the papers, her eyes widening as a smile formed on her face. Looking up at Kyle, "You're hired. I'm going to see if I can get this in Monday's edition. This will rock the foundations of the so-called ruling class of this place."

  She wasn’t completely serious in the way that the people ease dropping around her thought she meant. Overexcited Penny was thinking about how having the star football player on her newspaper staff was going to change the perspective of how the student body viewed the school paper. (Mistaken assumptions aside, the school newspaper would have record sales for the first issue of the school year.)

  Aimee watched silently as Kyle started talking to David. If anybody could talk some sense into him it would be Kyle Goldman. She had a feeling that phase two of her plan was working when she saw Kyle hand some papers over to Penny. With Kyle on his side David just might emerge from this rumor nearly unscathed. It had been a gamble, but nobody wanted to be on Kyle’s bad side; the golden boy was too well-liked by the general population.

  “Will, we need to talk,” she said, pulling Will away from the girls he was trying to flirt with.

  He resisted even though he was mostly failing at the attempt. “Can it wait?” he hissed, smiling at the blonde instead of paying attention to Aimee.

  “No,” Aimee steadfastly answered him, ignoring his annoyance and tugging on his arm.

  “What do you want?” he huffed when they were a few feet away. He barely missed noticing the quick escape the blonde and her friend made.

  Looking right at him and refusing to let his attention wander, Aimee stated her needs clearly. “I need your help. You need to get David back on your side. You need to be friends with him again.”

  Will blinked at her, “After what he said?”

  “You know he wasn’t talking about you. You are his best friend.” Aimee smiled, running her hand down his arm where nobody could observe the move.

  Looking at her wandering hand, “What’s in it for me?”

  Thinking it would just be another hook-up, “What do you want?” she asked, her hand still sliding downward.

  Making himself clear, Will made his demands. “Hannah Stanfield.”

  “Done,” Aimee responded, holding out her hand for him to shake. It would be a piece of cake to get Hannah back on the dating market.

  While they were shaking on it, neither saw Hannah standing behind Will, having heard everything including the terms of Will’s price. She started planning her own next move carefully. Aimee could not afford to continue feeling like everything was spiraling out of control; that feeling made her sloppy and frustrated. Desperation never was pretty.

  The dull roar of the lunch room died down when David entered. Everybody was curious what this fallen star would do and where he would sit. Taking
everything in stride, he looked around as if searching for somebody or something before walking coolly over to the lunch line. He saw Penny and Kyle working on Kyle's article. Jennifer and Grace were looking at the addition to their table with wonder and surprise; the news had yet to reach them that Kyle had also ‘denounced’ the popular crowd. The other three weren’t talking because of their curiosity and concern over the quarterback sitting at their lunch table. However, Delilah was honestly distracted and didn’t care at all about what was going on around her.

  Delilah had her 'missing' book in front of her, keeping a weather eye on it in case it disappeared again. Last night she couldn’t understand how she had overlooked it in her locker yesterday morning, but that afternoon it was right in the middle and on top of her things. It took her until this morning to realize that somebody had given out her locker combination, but none of her friends were talking.

  There had also been a new book in her locker; Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca was sitting where Pride and Prejudice had sat yesterday and on top the new book was a typed note.

  D -

  While Austen will always be your favorite, I saw this, thought of you, and assumed that you might like to read it someday.

  - An Admirer.

  She was not stupid; she knew what was going on. The question was if she should continue to allow him to worm his way back into her life or if she should ask for a new locker.

  Her friends had already looked over the note, Kyle smiling as he added his two cents into the theories surrounding the secret admirer note. He had noticed the strange look that Wesley wore and Kyle quickly realized just who it was that had given out Delilah's locker combination. Jennifer had distracted Delilah from the silent exchange between the boys and both girls went on without noticing that Wesley knew who had secretly given Delilah the book.

  This note was the reason that Delilah failed to notice that David had sat down beside her until he had grabbed the note from her hands and started to read it aloud. She managed to miss that the lunch room suddenly had started talking again and was louder than ever.

  "That is mine," Delilah hissed while trying to take the note back and failing, unable to reach around David’s arm span.

  Kyle looked up from his editing and grinned. David was playing keep away in a flirtatious move that he’d seen employed many times.

  Everybody else stopped their conversations in order to watch David and Delilah going back and forth with each other. He started it by teasing her further. "But it is so tempting to mess with you."

  "And what gives you the right?"

  "I have known you my whole life."

  Narrowing her eyes, Delilah addressed David’s comment. "Barely. In the past couple of years people can change and you haven't been around even though you live right next door."

  "I didn’t know that I disgust you so."

  "Only when you take things that don't belong to you," Delilah retorted, still trying to grab for the note.

  David smirked and leaned forward, "Like kisses," he whispered and looked at her mouth. The temptation was there and all he had to do was lean forward and stake his claim.

  But that was before Kyle wisely interrupted with, "Have any of you ever seen You've Got Mail?" With the nodding of several heads, including David's, Kyle went on. "My mom made me watch that with her last night. I thought Joe Fox was a genius for befriending Kathleen before letting her know that they were e-mailing each other. She hated him and he managed to get her to trust him before he ruined what was possibly a good thing for the both of them."

  The last bit was directed at David and he knew well enough to take a hint and the good advice that Kyle was giving.

  Rolling his eyes, Kyle concluded his message. “I think my mom was trying to give me a message about being friends first, but my dad started dragging me to the weight room as soon as the credits started rolling.”

  Jennifer, never one to miss an opportunity to say something she shouldn’t say, blurted out. “I heard that your father was an ass.”

  “Jennifer!” Delilah hissed.

  “What? I can’t help it if I overhear how much Mr. Goldman is a bastard.” She looked around at her friends.

  “See,” Penny sighed, “this is why I wish you guys wanted to try out my swear jar idea.”

  “Swear jar?” Kyle asked.

  Penny turned to answer his question, “My mom set up a broken rules jar at home, but mostly it’s used as a swear jar for every time my dad cusses.” Sending a glare at her friends, “I’d suggested it a few years ago with the idea that we could use that money to do something fun with it once the jar is full.”

  “But…” Delilah interrupted, “it wouldn’t have been fair to Jennifer who lets out a string of foul language at least once day, sometimes twice.”

  “Although,” Wesley added with a smirk, “Grace would have given Jennifer a run for her money the other day when her younger brother backed her car into a concrete post.” Thinking back on it, “I think she beat Jennifer’s record and Jennifer hadn’t even heard of some of the words Grace had used.”

  “I saw that movie a few times,” Grace breathed. She purposely was bringing the group back to the conversation Kyle had started and away from the swear jar and her uncharacteristic outburst on Wednesday. She also didn’t like the way that Kyle was looking at Jennifer even though Wesley was talking about her.

  This feeling of jealously made her feel extremely uncomfortable. Her! Jealous! She was never jealous!

  Penny, always the quick and observant one, "You are right. They wouldn't have worked out if he hadn't of done that. Although, my mom made me watch the original, Little Shop on the Corner, and I have to say that it is better than the remake."

  "Even Mr. Darcy did the same thing for Elizabeth Bennet," Delilah added. "He was falling in love with her. Once he realized that he wouldn't gain her affection by his arrogant demeanor he changed, even though he knew that the chances of meeting her again were slim."

  The table, except David and Kyle, groaned. They were used to the random Pride and Prejudice references from their resident Austen 'expert', but sometimes it got old when they were talking about other movies and books. Penny wondered if David's gift, because yes she had figured that out too based on the way David was looking at Delilah, of a different book by a different author would push her friend away from her Mr. Darcy obsession.

  Kyle found that he liked sitting with this new lunch table. He hoped that Penny wouldn’t make him edit his articles every single day, but he respected her dedication to the newspaper. It also meant that he got to meet Jennifer and Grace up close instead of at a distance. Grace seemed sweet, but the pesky voice of his father in his head told him to get to know Jennifer better. He imagined that she would fit nicely into the social world where his father constantly reminded Kyle to be diligent about appearances. Jennifer’s golden brown hair and medium height would match nicely with his build and coloring.

  He would have thought differently if he could have heard what Jennifer had whispered to Delilah and Grace.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Delilah held the red cover in her hands; the used paperback copy looked like a theatre curtain and the simple design appealed to her senses. The used stamp on the inside cover was enough to tell her that this secret admirer wisely had picked up the book from Mr. Ray’s bookstore, The Book Nook, which sold both new and used books. She hated some of the new covers that one of the major classics publishers were putting on the books; she felt as if they were making the books seem shallow and superficial despite the depth of reading material that could be found amongst the pages.

  Seconds later, after curling up in her favorite chair that overlooked the tree house in the backyard, Delilah cracked open the cover carefully. She could feel the lack of resistance that only a well-loved book can create. With enthusiasm she dove into the struggles of a second wife trying to find her footing with a household staff that adored the seemingly perfect first wife, Rebecca.

  Whe
n the natural light started to fade as the sun settled behind the Carver’s house, she switched on a lamp and continued reading. Delilah only put the book down to go downstairs for supper, finish some homework, shower, and then went to bed with the book back in her hands. The obsessed reader inside of her managed to get a third of the way through the book before falling asleep.

  What she wasn’t aware of was that David was reading his own copy on his backyard patio waiting and hoping that Delilah would slip out of her kitchen door and head towards the tree house to hide away with what he hoped would become one of her new treasures. Everybody in the surrounding area knew that the treehouse was Delilah’s favorite place to read.

  He had four more books – two titles - hidden safely away under his bed, still in the bookstore bag. Two of them were books he’d planned on putting in Delilah’s locker and the other two was his own copy to read while Delilah, hopefully, read hers. Pride and Prejudice had been finished on Thursday night and in a vague attempt at ‘improving his mind,’ Delilah’s words from long ago, and making himself worthy of Delilah's attention, his words, he started reading the book he had given Delilah. David was finding Rebecca as more of a ‘what not to do in trying to win over the fair maiden next door’ guide.

  It wasn’t until his mother called him down for dinner that he had a bigger surprise than he had expected. He became aware of two things at almost precisely the same time: Aimee was sitting at the exact same spot in the living room where she had been sitting a couple of nights before, and his mother saw the book that was still in his hands.