Alivia’s words made my stomach feel like a huge, heavy lump of clay, weighing me down. I was trying to think of some way to respond when we started hearing noises from the locker room. The boys were about to come out.
Alivia stood up. I gathered all my things and stood next to her. “You and Mateo and me and Logan should go to the movies sometime,” she said.
“I’m not—” I started to explain that I wasn’t actually going out with Mateo, but Alivia interrupted me and said, “If you want, I could start telling people I think you’re an awesome Cupid.”
“Really? That would be great!”
Just then, I heard a loud voice saying, “She probably started this whole matchmaking thing just to find her own guy, but now that I’m taken, she can’t get anyone.”
It was Logan. He was the first person to come around the cinder-block wall of the locker room. He stopped short when he saw me standing there and blinked at me a few times. Then he looked at the ground.
“Clara!” Mateo bounded happily over to me when he came around the wall.
“Hey,” I said, watching Alivia watch me.
“Have fun, you guys,” she said, wiggling her fingers at us. Then she linked her arm through Logan’s, and they walked off down the hall together. The other players all headed out the door into the parking lot.
Soon Mateo and I were standing alone in the hallway. My stomach began to churn. It reminded me of when I had stomach flu last year, except that my heart was also starting to pound a million beats a minute and my forehead was starting to sweat.
“Thanks for coming,” Mateo said. “I’ve been wanting to ask you this for a while, but it’s really uncomfortable. I just didn’t know how to do it.”
A huge pressure began to squeeze my chest. I felt like I couldn’t get a breath. Was Mateo going to ask me to go out with him? What should I say?
I didn’t think I liked him, but maybe I did. Maybe that’s why my body felt like it was about to explode. I’d never really liked anyone before, so how was I supposed to even know what it felt like?
Mateo was nicer than Logan anyway, and Alivia said it would be good for my business.
I probably did like him. That had to be what all these feelings meant. I took a deep breath.
“Yes,” I said.
“Yes, what?” he asked, wrinkling his brows in confusion.
A nervous giggle bubbled up from my pinched throat. Oh yeah. I should probably wait for him to ask me before I answered. “I meant, yes, go ahead and ask me your question,” I explained. “It’s okay.”
Mateo took a deep breath. “It’s about when we were in elementary school together.” He put his hand on his forehead and looked down at my feet.
An uncomfortable tingle began to work its way down my spine. “What about it?” I asked, my voice shaky.
He bit his bottom lip and wouldn’t look up at me. “If a boy hadn’t been so nice to a girl, I mean, he was never mean to her, but he just hadn’t been that nice, and now he felt really bad about it. Do you think she could ever forgive him?”
Suddenly all my breath came out in a rush. I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding it. Mateo was actually apologizing for being part of the crowd. For not standing up to the bullies. Could I forgive him? I looked at his face. He still wasn’t looking right at me, but I could see his eyes, and that let me know that was his feelings were true. He did feel really bad about how he’d acted.
“Yeah,” I said softly. “I think she could.”
Mateo lifted his head to me in a smile that radiated happiness like sunshine. It was sweet. “So how do you think he should apologize?”
Wow. I was impressed. He wanted to make the apology all official and everything. “He should write the girl a letter. That might make the apology feel more real.”
It seemed impossible, but I thought Mateo’s smile grew even bigger. “Thanks, Clara, you’re the best.”
“No problem,” I said.
“One more thing,” he added, his face turning bright red. “Since I think you know who I’m talking about. Could the girl ever, maybe, like the boy as more than a friend?”
My heart got all fluttery for a second. Could she? I meant, could I? Maybe I was already starting to. “Yeah,” I said. “I think she could.”
That night, while I was making tortas for Papi and me to have for dinner, I couldn’t stop imagining what it would be like to go out with Mateo. I tried to picture myself eating lunch next to Mateo, going to the movies with Mateo, and dancing with him at the Hot Chocolate Social. Everything I pictured made my heart to do a little flip. My insides felt like melted chocolate, soft and gooey.
Going out with Mateo would probably also help me stay in the popular group. Would we hang out with Alivia and Logan all the time? I didn’t think Logan was that nice, but maybe Alivia would start liking someone else soon. Anyway, Alivia seemed to like the idea of me dating Mateo. So that was good.
“Clara, yoo-hoo. Are you there?”
I turned around and saw my father standing next to me. And the table wasn’t even set!
“Sorry, Papi!” I said. “I must have lost track of time.”
“It’s okay. I’ll set the table.” Papi grabbed two plates from the cabinet. “What were you thinking about?”
There was no way I was telling Papi about Mateo! “Nothing,” I told him.
Papi paused. “I know I’m an old man, but I want you to be able to talk to me. I feel as though lately all you give me is silence and ‘it’s okay, it’s okay.’ ”
I took our sandwiches to the table and put one on each plate. “You’re not an old man,” I reminded him. “You’re younger than every other dad I know.”
Papi filled our water glasses. “But I’m still not cool enough for you to talk to me.”
“Papi,” I pleaded. How could I explain that I didn’t want to give him any grief? “Everything is okay. Really.”
Papi pulled his cell phone from his back pocket. He started dialing a number. “If everything is okay, then why haven’t you called Mami? You won’t talk to me, but you have to talk to her.” He handed me the phone. It was already ringing.
Tears sprung up behind my eyes. “No,” I pleaded.
“We can eat when you are done,” he said, walking into the other room.
“David?” I heard my mother’s voice squeaking in the kitchen. “Hello?”
I sighed and held the phone up to my ear. “It’s Clara,” I said, swallowing back the lump in my throat.
“Clara!” she said. I could hear the smile in her voice. “I’m so glad to finally hear from you. It’s been a little while.”
“Yeah, sorry. I’ve got a lot going on at my new school this semester.” I sank down into my chair at the kitchen table and pushed my plate away to make room for my elbows.
“So your father tells me. Honey, listen, sometimes it’s hard for a girl to talk to her father. Especially one who is your age.”
“It’s not hard to talk to Papi,” I told her. “There’s just nothing to talk about.”
“There’s always something to talk about,” she said laughing. “And the older you get, the more things there will be. Maybe it hasn’t started yet, but soon you’re going to have a crush. Not to mention all the problems that can happen with girlfriends. You’re going to need your mami.”
“I don’t have a crush,” I started to say, but stopped when I pictured Mateo’s sparkling smile. I felt my cheeks heating up and hoped my mother couldn’t tell the truth through the phone.
“I know you aren’t used to talking to me yet. We haven’t had as much time to grow close as you and your father have had over the past couple of years. And I think when a girl is little it’s good for her to have such a strong relationship with her papi. But now you need women. If you come to live with me, you’ll have not only me but your abuela and all your tías. Just think about it, okay? That’s all I ask.”
“Okay,” I said. Not because I really was going to think about it, but because I wan
ted to get off the phone.
“Thank you, baby. Will you put Papi back on?”
I went into my father’s office and silently handed Papi the phone. Then I went back to the kitchen to finish setting the table. I loved my mom, I really did, but I was insulted she thought I needed her more than I needed Papi, especially after ignoring us for an entire year. I was sure I wanted to stay with Papi. Somehow I had to show him that I wasn’t any trouble.
Walking into school the next day, I couldn’t believe how many people called out my name and said hello to me as I passed. It was weird. Most people had been friendly to me before, but this was more than that.
“I’m signing up for Cupid Clara today,” Mari, a girl from my gym class, shouted when she saw me coming.
“Awesome.” I smiled, handing her a flyer, even though she’d already decided to be my customer. “Maybe you could give that to one of your friends?”
She tucked it in her backpack. “Sure! And congratulations on you and Mateo,” she said.
“Uh, me and Mateo?” I asked. What was she talking about?
“Oh,” she said, nodding knowingly. “Got it. Anyway, I hope you can find me a guy as cute as he is.”
“Definitely,” I said, though I didn’t know what she meant, exactly.
When I arrived at the Cupid Clara table, a small crowd was waiting for me, even though it was early. Alivia was unloading the day’s pastries. Emily was nowhere to be seen.
Alivia stepped over to me and whispered in my ear. “I told Emily you wanted her to wait by your locker this morning. You’re welcome!”
Alivia went back to her booth, and I felt a little pang in my heart as I thought of Emily sitting alone by my locker. But there were people with money wanting to get their matches, and I couldn’t leave my table now or even take a break to text her. Not when business had finally picked up again. I’d explain to Emily later.
When the bell rang, I rushed to my locker to find her, but she wasn’t there, so I hurried to science and took my seat next to her.
“Hey!” I said. “Sorry about this morning. Business is back. There were so many people signing up!”
“Oh. No problem,” Emily said, but she didn’t look at me. She was busy playing that game on her phone again. Actually, about half the kids in our class were playing it.
“Two hundred and thirty-five lily pads!” one kid called out.
“What?” said Emily. “No way. I’ve never gotten higher than eighty-seven.”
“You cheat!” said another kid.
“There’s no way to cheat,” Emily answered.
Just then, Mrs. Fox walked in. “Phones away. I don’t care if the bell hasn’t rung yet. The second you walk through my door this is a No Phone Zone.” She pointed to the sign on her wall that had a picture of a cell phone in a red circle with a diagonal line across it.
Everyone groaned as they put their phones away, and the bell rang. Mrs. Fox pulled a stack of papers from her tote bag and walked around to the front of her desk. “I have your tests here, and most of you did very well. Good work.”
Mrs. Fox began to hand the papers back to everyone, and I felt my shoulders relax. I’d been spending so much time making matches and Claragrams, I hadn’t really studied that much. I was glad to hear we’d done well.
Mrs. Fox put my paper on my desk face down, and I flipped it over to see what I got. It took me a second to register that 23/50 was not a good grade. That was only 46 percent. At the bottom of the paper, Mrs. Fox had written, Please come see me after school, in green pen.
I flipped my paper back over quickly, looking over my shoulders to see if anyone had seen my results, but if they had, I couldn’t tell. My eyes felt heavy and fuzzy, and my chest felt like someone was closing a door on me. I’d never gotten a grade that low in my entire life.
What would Papi say? I had a sinking feeling I already knew. I shoved my test to the bottom of my backpack and paid extra close attention for the rest of the class.
After school, I went to talk to Mrs. Fox.
She told me I’d have to get Papi’s signature on my test. I felt tears welling up in my eyes, but I blinked them back. Somehow there had to be a way to convince Papi that this wasn’t a big deal. That one test didn’t mean I couldn’t handle school. I trudged through the snow to my house, trying to decide if I should tell him before or after dinner. When I got to my front door, though, I stopped in my tracks. Hanging from the wreath hook was a big orange construction-paper heart with my name written in brown cursive letters. It sort of reminded me of a heart-shaped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.
I slowly reached out and lifted the brown ribbon loop off the hook and flipped the paper heart over. A note was pasted in the center of the heart, and my own heart was pounding. Was this Mateo’s apology?
I took a deep breath and read it slowly.
When I finished reading, I flipped the heart over and over to see if Mateo had signed the poem. But there was nothing. It was a nice letter, but it wasn’t exactly an apology. Did he think that it was? I turned to look at the street. I don’t know why, it’s not like I expected to see him standing there waiting for me. But there he was, standing on Sofia’s driveway. I waved to him, and he looked both ways before jogging across the street to me.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hey.” He gave me a funny lopsided grin. “I guess you know why I’m here.”
I nodded. “Yep.” I held out the heart to him and smiled. “Someone left this on my door.”
Mateo took the heart, flipped it over, and read the back. Then he looked up at me and laughed. “Someone who thinks you’re pretty great,” he said.
I grinned. “Someone with really good taste, right?”
Mateo looked right into my eyes and grinned back. My stomach got all fluttery, and my breath caught. Mateo was fun to hang around with, and he’d really changed since elementary school. Plus I’d never noticed how his eyes were such a deep, rich blue. And I liked the way they were always a little crinkled on the edges. Mateo was happy all the time.
Behind Mateo, Joey’s front door opened. Joey stepped outside and headed right toward my front walkway. I started to wave, but when he saw me standing there with Mateo, he changed directions and jogged to his mailbox, like that’s where he’d originally meant to be going.
“Hey,” I called out to him as he opened the mailbox door and checked inside. He didn’t answer, but the box must have been empty because he turned around and headed back to his house empty-handed. I watched him the whole time, but he kept his gaze off in the opposite direction, like he was avoiding my eyes.
“Joey!” I said, as he went up his walkway.
“Sorry,” he said, pointing at his sweatshirt. “I’m freezing.” He went inside and I turned back to Mateo, my shoulders feeling sunken and heavy.
Suddenly Mateo’s eyes went wide like he had just remembered something. “Did you ever ask your dad about the snowball fight? Can we all still come over tomorrow?”
“Oops! I forgot,” I said. I didn’t add that once Papi heard about my test he wasn’t likely to say yes either.
“Well, ask him tonight, okay, because Ryan and Connor planned to ask Kacy and Danielle to go out tomorrow.”
“I’ll try,” I said, even though the thought of asking Papi made my stomach flip.
“Oh, I almost forgot, Alivia told me to tell you she can’t wait! And I can’t wait either.”
Alivia was excited to come to my house? There was no way I was going to let tomorrow’s snowball fight get canceled. “Don’t worry. I’m sure he’ll say yes,” I said. “Tell everyone I’ll see them at ten.”
I went inside and up to my bedroom. I took out my science test and stared at the blue line Mrs. Fox had drawn for my father’s signature. If I showed Papi this test, he’d freak out. But I’d work hard and raise my grade, and he’d never have to know. I found a pen in my desk and wrote David Martinez in a messy scrawl on the blue line. I knew it was wrong to fake his signature, but it would be mor
e wrong for me to miss my snowball fight and have to go live with my mom for one stupid mistake.
I shoved the test back into my science folder and went downstairs to warm up the carnitas Papi had prepared last night. Carnitas were my father’s favorite dinner. I’d ask him about the snowball fight when he was full and happy.
It took me forever to figure out what I was going to wear to the snowball fight. Snow pants would keep my legs warm and dry, but they would also make them look puffy. My big snow boots were the only thing that would stop my toes from getting frostbite, but they made me walk like Frankenstein. And then there was the question of my hat. Going to a snowball fight without a hat was begging for someone to dump a bucket of snow on your head. Going to a snowball fight with a hat was risking looking like a dork.
I decided to risk it.
I bundled myself up like I was visiting Antarctica. I even zipped my coat all the way up to my chin. Then I went out front at ten minutes to ten to set up a card table with a big insulated jug of my special hot chocolate and cups.
“Is that the winter version of a lemonade stand?” Joey called, tromping down his front steps.
I laughed. “No, I’m having some friends over for a snowball fight.” A strange flutter beat in my chest for a second as I remembered the snowball he threw at me a couple of weeks ago. I wondered if I should invite him to join us. A part of me wanted to until I remembered how awkward it would be. He wasn’t in our friend group. He wasn’t even in our grade. It would be weird for him to hang out with us, even if he was my next-door neighbor.
“I’d invite you, but then we’d have an odd number of people. For teams,” I stammered, feeling like an idiot.
“Don’t worry,” Joey said, backing away from me. “I’m only outside to wait for Evan’s dad to pick me up. He’s taking us to a triple feature of the Lord of the Rings in Chicago.”
“Oh,” I said, a strange tug-of-war between relief and disappointment twisted my stomach. “I wasn’t worried. I mean, it would have been fine if you stayed.”
Playing Cupid Page 10
