by Rachel Hera
“It’s like you missed us or something,” Blake chuckled as I neared them in the lunch line.
“An unlikely story,” I said, peeking around the corner to see if any of them were in line. When I didn’t see them, I went down the hall to the seating area, looking around to see if I could spot them. Evan spotted me, and I gave a small wave, but I kept moving. Maybe they’d gone back down to my locker to grab me.
It was the downfall of a school this big. Two people could roam the halls searching for each other for an entire period. Why couldn’t Kristy and Chantelle have just waited for me at the beginning of lunch?
When I didn’t spot them at my locker, I went outside to see if Maegan’s car was still there. It was, so they didn’t go out for lunch. They could be outside. I began heading towards the park. And if I couldn’t find them there, then… I don’t know. I’d go back and eat with Evan and Philip… or something.
I was in luck, though, because there they were.
“Thanks for ditching me,” I called out.
“I thought you were giving Blake and Jason a tour of the school?” Kristy said as I approached the group. They sat outside on a picnic table under a tall pine tree. A gentle breeze danced around us, lifting up the leaves that had begun to fall off the deciduous trees in the park.
“I sorta skipped out on it,” I told her, taking a seat beside Maddie. “He’s kind of… intimidating, you know?”
“Oh, we know,” Maegan snorted.
“But, very attractive,” Maddie interjected.
“You show him around then,” I told her.
“Somehow, I don’t think he’d accept,” Maddie said, laughing a little. “Because I’ve already offered.”
“Somehow, I’m not surprised,” I pushed her gently with my elbow.
“Not surprised that I asked, or that he turned me down?”
“That you asked. It is surprising that he turned you down,” I stroked her ego as I stole the leftovers of her lunch. Celery sticks and half a salami sandwich. Chantelle offered me her grapes. “Thanks.”
“Agreed,” Kristy nodded. “Most guys go along with whatever Maddie has to say, just so they can stare at her assets for a while.”
“That’s teenage boys for you,” Maegan laughed.
“I’ve been known to abuse my assets, as Kristy put it, for that very reason,” Maddie grinned.
“That, too, doesn’t surprise me,” I smiled as I bit into the sandwich. “So, how was class?”
“Ugh, boring,” Maddie rested her elbow on the table, placing her chin in her hand. “Though Jason’s been putting up with me and Kristy well enough.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“On a side note, unrelated,” Chantelle cleared her throat. “Any of you know what you’re going to be doing next year?”
“College, university? I haven’t a clue,” Maegan jumped into the conversation easily. “Mom wants me to go to Western, like she did.”
“I don’t even know what I want to do, yet,” Maddie muttered.
“But, according to all the teachers –”
“No one does,” we all said, in near unison.
“What’s the difference between going to a university after getting out of school with no goal in mind, and going in a few years when we know what we want to do? Why don’t we have a life coaching class or something in grade twelve?” Kristy asked.
“What about you, Evelyn?” Chantelle asked.
“Probably just working,” I said. “Who knows, maybe I’ll pick up a trade or something. Or, you know, world domination. I’m trying to keep my options open. Really though, your guess is as good as mine.”
They all laughed, but Chantelle pressed on, “Does anyone know what they want to do?”
She received a round of shrugs.
“Right now, all I want is to go to the cafeteria and get a cookie,” I said finally. I paused for a moment before pushing myself up out of the seat. “Actually, I think I’m going to go do that. Ah, see that? Short term goal making. That’s all I really want to focus on at this point of my life.”
“The future’s going to sneak up on all of you.”
“Good thing I like surprises,” I responded, taking a step away from the table. “I’ll catch you guys later.”
“Want me to come?” Maddie asked.
“Nah, it’s fine,” I told her. “You look comfortable.”
“Alright,” she said. “Have fun. Meet me at my locker before the bell?”
“I’ll be there,” I told her, then bid adieu to the rest of the group as I went on my way.
I headed back to the school, pulling open the heavy door and then slowly walking along the hallway.
“Oh –Evelyn,” a friendly voice called out. I turned to see Jenna, who I’d known through all of high school, heading my way. She was in my English class this year, and I was a little disappointed that it was the only class I had with her. I recalled some good times in grade nine science and grade ten math. We had almost all of our grade eleven courses together.
“Did you do the homework for English?” she walked beside me, carrying her books in her hand. I headed for the stairs, still keen on getting that cookie. “I worked late last night, so I didn’t get a chance to finish it.”
“Yeah, do you need to copy it?” I asked, stopping on the second floor. The cookie was just down the hall, but the faster I got my notebook for Jenna out of my locker, the more time she’d have to finish her homework. She didn’t ask often, so I didn’t mind helping her out once in a while.
“That would be great,” she told me.
“Yeah, I’ll get it for you now. Let’s –”
I felt a force against my back, and my foot slipped off the step. I managed to grip the railing, but my body swung around and my head hit the bar. I let go of the railing, letting myself sit on the step for a moment to gather my bearings.
“Evelyn? Are you okay?” Jenna asked, helping me to my feet. My vision black rimmed as I stood up, and I shook my head to get rid of it, only to make it worse. Jenna looked above us, shouting, “Watch where you’re going next time, asshole!”
“Well… shit,” I murmured, feeling the back of my head, the pounding almost unbearable. “I think I was pushed.”
“I didn’t recognize him,” she said, looking up again as if he might’ve come back. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but I can already feel the headache coming on,” I muttered. “But, whatever; let’s go. I’ll get you my notes.”
“Still –what the hell? Who knocks someone down the stairs?” Jenna grumbled as we walked down. “If you’re a new kid in school, messing with other kids isn’t going to make you friends.”
Somehow, I didn’t think ‘making friends’ was the intention of the person who pushed me.
“You’re sure you’re okay? I can take you to the walk-in-clinic down the road,” Jenna offered.
“I could walk there just fine –but I’m okay. A little shaken up, but I’ll survive,” I answered as we reached the first floor once again. We headed for my locker. “I almost had a heart attack, though. Nearly falling down a set of stairs is bad for my heart.”
“Worse than missing the last step on a flight of stairs?” she asked.
“Probably about the same,” I forced a laugh. I opened my locker, quickly grabbing my notes and handing them to her. “Class is in fifteen minutes. Let your feather pen fly.”
“I’ll write as fast as I can, trust me,” she said, taking the notes gratefully. She glanced at them before looking up at me and smiling. “Thanks again, Evelyn. I really appreciate it. Let’s schedule a day where you don’t do the homework and I do, just so that I can pay back the favour.”
“It’ll be like grade ten math all over again,” I closed my locker. “Anyway. I’m starving, so I’m going back upstairs to the cafeteria. See you in class.”
“Careful on those stairs,” she called after me.
Jenna didn’t have to warn me –though my grip on the railing might have be
en slightly exaggerated. Still, I was already feeling better after I got in line outside the cafeteria. It was green onion cake day –which meant a lot of people went back for seconds. Did I want a green onion cake? They were so good, but I could probably do without it.
“Evelyn –what can I get you?” the cafeteria lady greeted me.
“Green onion cake, please,” I said, giving in to the temptation.
“Are they any good?”
I turned to see Blake. “I thought you already bought lunch.”
“I’m a growing boy with an bottomless stomach,” he replied. I snorted, rubbing the back of my head as I waited for my food. He pressed on: “So?”
“So what?”
“Are the green onion cakes any good?”
“Delicious,” I answered, grabbing mine.
“Then I’ll take two,” he told the lunch lady.
I moved on to the refrigerator, taking out a chocolate milk and heading for the register they had set up by the exit back to the hallway. While I was there I grabbed two cookies.
“Have any luck finding Maddie?” Blake kept close behind me.
“Yeah, she was outside,” I replied, paying with the spare change in my wallet.
“Gorgeous day,” he commented as he found his own wallet. “So what happened?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, unintentionally waiting for him.
“I mean, why’d you come back inside?”
“Food. They’d already eaten by the time I found them, and leftovers just weren’t cutting it,” I debated going and sitting down at the tables down the hall. Were Evan and Philip still there? But Blake started heading in the opposite direction, and I followed as I spoke. “Where’d Jason disappear to?”
“He had a quick errand to run before class, so I let him take my truck,” Blake said, turning and heading to the stairwell. He took a few steps down and sat closest to the wall. I hesitated only a second before taking a seat, too. It’d been so long since I’d sat in the stairwell. And you think I’d have been uncomfortable since I’d just been pushed down the stairs, but this felt okay. Maybe it was because Blake appeared watchful. Another intimidating feature of his. One that I felt he shared with Jason.
“Errand, huh?” I rested the paper plate with the green onion cake on my lap, along with my cookies as I opened the milk carton. I took a small drink. “For what?”
“My father,” his answer was vague.
“Why didn’t he ask you?”
“Jason and Dante live with us rent free. They both hate it –so they don’t mind doing a little work here and there for him. This one was small; just picking up a small package from the post office,” he said.
“And you? Do you steer clear of helping your dad around the house?” I inquired.
“I handle a lot of his business labour. You could say I’m the muscle,” he joked.
And muscles did he have. As he said it, I glanced towards his biceps, hating myself a little for being so shallow. I changed the subject. “Who hates living rent free?”
“Right?” He chuckled. After a moment, he frowned a little at me and then asked, “Are you okay?”
“Dandy. Why?” I ripped the green onion cake into quarters before I began eating it. With the first bite I was content. I don’t know what it was about these things.
“You keep rubbing the back of your head.”
“Oh, that. I, uh, slipped on the stairs earlier,” I told him. “Caught myself, but the back of my head met the railing. It’s just a little tender.”
“You’re not worried about a concussion?” he asked.
“I don’t think I hit it that hard,” I said. “I feel fine. But it happened only… seven minutes ago? So, I guess, if I do have a concussion we’ll have to wait and see. Anyway, what do you think of your green onion cake?”
“It’s good. Surprisingly good,” he answered. “I wonder if Carlos could make these.”
“Carlos?”
“My father,” he answered.
“Do you call him by name?” I asked. “Like, to his face?”
“Well, yeah,” Blake finished his last bite, crumpling the paper plate in his hand. “It’s been that way for as long as I can remember –but he’s my adoptive father.”
“Oh,” I took another sip of my milk.
“I’ve never known my biological father, so Carlos might as well be my actual father,” he went on.
“And why do Jason and Dante live with you?”
“Business –”
“Right,” I interrupted, remembering what he’d said at the ice cream parlour. “Live-in staff, and the like. But what kind of business is it?”
“We lend our services to people across Canada. If a person in Nova Scotia is selling something valuable to someone in BC, we’ll pick it up and deliver it personally to make sure it doesn’t get damaged or stolen along the way. Sometimes people need protection –Dante and Jason’s father are pretty knowledgeable with security. Basically it’s a lot of travelling.”
“That’s… actually pretty cool,” I admitted, glancing at my phone to check the time. I should probably start heading towards my locker to get my things. I got to my feet, picking up the cookies and dusting any crumbs off my lap. He, too, got to his feet.
“Evelyn,” Maddie called as she hiked up the steps. “There you are. Did you get your cookie?”
“Sure did,” I told her. I glanced at Blake, giving a small wave as he nodded, heading down the stairs to go to his locker.
“So you’re warming up to Blake, huh?” Maddie elbowed my side as we stood there on the stairs. “Have you gotten your things yet?”
“No, and no,” I told her. She nodded, beginning her descent once more down the stairs. “I was just being polite.”
“Liar,” Maddie laughed. “What makes you so special, anyway? The girls are right –he doesn’t really talk much to anyone but you.”
“Maybe he has a complexity when it comes to strangers,” I suggested. “And the only way he can overcome it is to put his sole focus on getting to know one person at a time.”
“That seems a little far-fetched, don’t you think?” she said.
“To me, far-fetched would be the implication that you think he possesses even the slightest interest in me,” I scoffed. I opened my locker for what felt like the millionth time that lunch period.
“I wish you could see you the way that we all see you.”
“Cliché much? And don’t take my negativity for lack of self-confidence. I’m just a realist,” I told her.
“Realistically dumb,” she muttered under her breath, closing my locker for me after I’d grabbed my things. She also ripped off a piece of my cookie. “I don’t have ugly friends, Evelyn. Just… keep that in mind, or something.”
I rolled my eyes, laughing as I pushed her shoulder. The bell rang. “Let’s take a moment to get back to reality –and reality involves English class. Let’s go get your things.”
“Aye-Aye, Captain,” she saluted me half-heartedly.
We gathered her things, then headed for class, making it moments before the second bell. The teacher wasn’t in the room, so Jenna gave me back my notes, thanking me again. Blake sat behind me, the place he’d been assigned the day before. He was silent throughout the period, though Maddie often leaned over to whisper to me. My headache worsened during class, and I began counting down the minutes until it was over.
“Are you sticking around until the end of the day?” Maddie asked me as we gathered our things at the end of class.
“No, I was supposed to go to work, but this headache is killing me,” I told her. “I think I’m going to call in, then go home and take a Tylenol, maybe take a nap.”
“If it’s a concussion, you shouldn’t sleep,” Blake said, following Maddie and I out of the class.
“Wait, what happened?” Maddie asked.
“I fell down the stairs,” I dismissed it with a wave. “I’m fine for all but this headache.”
“No dizziness?”
Maddie asked. “Nauseous?”
“No,” I told her, glancing down the hallway only to see Cole talking to Philip and Evan. “Well, now I am. I hate him.”
“Philip?” Blake asked.
“Cole,” Maddie and I said in unison. She gave me a small smile, patting me on the shoulder. “Hope you feel better –but I got to get to class.”
“Bye, Maddie,” I called after her.
“What’d this Cole guy ever do to you?” Blake asked, trailing behind me as I headed to my locker to retrieve my gym clothes so I could wash them tonight. I tried to wash them every day, if I remembered –which I was usually good for.
“Just about everything. He and I never got along. Same with Marissa –well, no. Marissa wasn’t as bad as he was at first. But the two just seemed to team up against me, for whatever reason. Philip’s cool, though. It’s weird to think that he and Marissa are related.”
“Is that so?” Blake said slowly, processing it.
“Sorry –I’m so used to people knowing everything I’m talking about. You’re new. Well, Blake, here’s something to know. Stay away from guys like Cole, because he only ruins your mood instantly. Philip and Evan are pretty cool guys, in case you ever need someone to hang out with when Jason’s not around,” I told him.
“I’d rather be alone,” he said under his breath.
I just laughed. “Yeah, you’re the talk of the school. You and Jason: the new guys who distance themselves from everyone else. Except me –thanks for the attention, by the way. Nothing like some good old drama to spice up your final year of high school.”
“That was never my intention,” Blake said.
“And just what are your intentions? Blake? Because I’m not really having fun trying to figure you out,” I told him. “We met two days ago.”
“I just act on instincts,” he replied. “Jason, too. You’re easy to talk to. And funny.”
“How vague,” I spoke dryly. We’d reached my locker. My headache was making me debate getting my clothes. I didn’t feel like they’d get done tonight. I could leave with what I had in my hands –my English binder and the current book we were reading. “So I’ll tell you what I told Jason. Screw your intentions.”
