I tried not to take it personally. Maybe he was sick of the Avett Brothers. Maybe his musical taste had evolved. Just because I went to their concert in the 5th grade didn’t mean I wanted to listen to them today. But, his finger hit the skip button angry fast. And it was hard to imagine it was the song he was angry at.
Simon
Well this was a mistake. I thought I could put on my Key Club president hat and leave everything else behind, but having Lucy in my car was like one giant reminder that we used to be best friends.
We pulled up to the picnic area where we could park and walk down to the creek. Already I could see the garbage littered around the grills that would make its way down to the water. Campers in this area were notorious for not picking up after themselves.
“What a mess,” she scowled as we climbed out of my mom’s Suburban.
“Yeah, they call us a few times a year. Kids come out here over Halloween and party. Jerks never clean up after themselves.”
“Gross.” She kicked a crushed can that appeared to be some sort of toxic energy drink.
“We have gloves and a trash grabber.” I went around to the trunk and pulled out the usual supplies where Lucy met me with a helpless look on her face.
She had a long-sleeve flannel and a zip-up fleece over the top. Even picking up trash, she looked cute.
“It’s easier if one of us holds the bag. I can do that if you want to use this.” I handed her some gloves and a trash grabber and watched as she took a deep breath. This was going to be interesting.
For the first thirty minutes of our slow-progress, we didn’t say much. But after a while, she seemed to get the hang of it. She even pulled off her fleece and wrapped it around her waist, pulling up the sleeves of her flannel and picking up speed as we moved farther around the park and along the creek.
“What a bunch of punks,” she said after picking up her tenth empty can of cheap-looking beer.
“Yeah, you don’t even want to know what we’ve picked up out here.”
She turned up her nose at me and let out a sound of disgust. “You’re a saint, Simon,” she said, shaking her head.
“Well, look at you. Now, you’re a saint too, Lucy.” I cracked a smile at her. “So, why did you bring up a wildlife refuge at the meeting yesterday? Did you have something in mind?”
I’d been curious about that all night but wasn’t ready to admit that thinking about Lucy and our plans to meet had kept me sleepless until past midnight.
“Oh, the hawks,” she said, perking up. “I picked up an application at the rescue. The lady who runs it looks like she could use some help.”
I had to admit I didn’t expect that. Lucy taking care of birds? Nothing surprised me anymore. Next she’d be saying that she was taking up goat yoga and crystal healing.
“There are hawks in Minnesota?”
“Tons. Nora’s property is teeming with them,”
“And they need rescuing because?”
“Nora is a terrible driver,” she answered with a laugh.
One laugh from Lucy and a rush of blood made my cheeks turn bright red. I kept my blush hidden as I picked up yet another disgusting cigarette butt.
Lucy’s smiles were like dangerous weapons, and she really had to be more careful where she pointed those things.
Clearing my throat, I added without looking at her, “Well, if you want, I can go with you to check it out. Just...you know...to make sure it counts as volunteer hours.”
She glanced at me, and our eyes met for a moment. “That would be great.”
“How did you find out about that?” Asking Lucy questions was dangerous, but I was too curious. Any answer could have been too personal, too much of a reminder that I didn’t know anything about her anymore.
“Nora finds them in her barn.”
Oh yes. Her two best friends, Nora and Addy. Even when Lucy and I were friends, we never hung out with the two other girls much. Now that I’d been tagging along with them, I found them a strange group. They were always up to something, and I realized then they must have been behind this whole new side of Lucy.
We made some more small talk while we worked, about Addy and Gray’s disgusting PDA habits and Hailey’s high-strung disposition. And it came as a bit of a surprise that we were getting along pretty naturally. And working much faster than I expected.
When we came to an area of the creek that the party animals hadn’t tainted with their bad habits, we looked at our phones to realize that it had only been an hour. I noticed Lucy’s disappointed face.
“I’ll sign off on two hours,” I blurted out as we walked back to the SUV. “You worked hard today.” It was the least I could do—for the club, of course. It wasn’t like students were banging down our door, and having Lucy as a Key Club ambassador could be great for the lacking popularity of our crew.
I just happened to look over at her at the exact moment she sent me another one of those disarming smiles as our eyes met, electricity buzzing in the brief interaction.
Yeah, I was in big trouble.
Chapter Six
Lucy
“We are staging an intervention,” said Addy. The three of us were hanging out at Nora’s farm, waiting for Gray and Max to pick us up for a special showing of The Goonies at the Longhorn Theatre. Now that Gray and Addy were dating, Mr. and Mrs. Altman were convinced that the only way to prevent teen pregnancy was to make them take a chaperone on every date. Hence, the fact that Nora, Max, and I had spent nearly as much time together as those two had.
“An intervention? From what?” I asked, “Spending too much time contributing to the world and not enough time geeking out with you two?”
Addy held her finger up in a tsk-tsk motion. “The problem, my dear, is that you aren’t geeking out with anyone. Your goal was to be nerdy by New Year, not volunteery.”
“Just to be clear,” I said, fixing my eyes on Addy. “You made up the nerdy part.”
“And rightfully so!” she declared. “Let’s address the facts. One, only nerds are in the Key Club.”
“It’s true,” said Nora, glancing up from her phone for the first time since we’d started this conversation. “Hailey Yi listed leopodology as her hobby in the text that goes under your senior yearbook photo.” I smirked, picturing Hailey spending her summer chasing butterflies with a giant white net. She was catty like a mean girl, but she didn’t have the popularity to back it up. She was a mean nerd. I didn’t even know those existed!
“And two,” continued Addy. “In order to work on bullet point two...” She grabbed the squad goals book from my purse for reference. “Make things right with Trevor. You are going to have to sink down to his level, the nerd level. Your ex-boyfriend is now a card-carrying member of the pocket protector club!”
“I feel like I am only partially responsible for that,” I said.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Addy, her voice wrought with sarcasm. “It must have been someone else who told everyone you two broke up because he had a crush on his cousin.”
“Ew!” cried Nora. “I totally forgot about that.”
“If only the rest of the student body had,” sighed Addy.
“Point taken,” I admitted, though I hated it when Addy was right. “Alright then, on with the intervention. What am I doing wrong?”
“Everything,” said Nora, smiling brightly. “Which is why we have enlisted some outside help.”
“You sure I can’t just follow you two bottom feeders around?” I joked. Addy and Nora shot twin glares in my direction. To be fair, they weren’t really nerds. They just didn’t really fit in to any typical high school categories. They were total middle grounders. Ten years from now when we all attended our reunion, there was a good chance most people would draw a blank when it came to remembering their names.
“Wait right here,” said Nora, a slight edge to her voice.
I looked to Addy for clues about who our guest might be, but she was giving nothing away as she braided her long dark hair
and hit her lashes one more time with the mascara wand. She could be pretty without much effort. I envied that, especially each morning while I was applying moisturizer, foundation, powder, lip gloss, the whole shebang. Being Lucy took work.
Nora returned a moment later, pushing her sister Nina into the room. Poor Nina—she was three years into braces, her allergies were too intense to allow for contacts, and she’d hit her growth spurt early to put it gentle. Eighth grade was hard for me, and by then, I was already a looker. It must be brutal for her.
“Hey Nina,” I said, giving an awkward half wave. It probably didn’t feel too great being asked to represent nerd kind as a whole.
“Hi Lucy,” she replied, heavy braces induced lisp on the ‘c’.
“Enough small talk,” declared Addy, smacking her newly glossed lips together. “We’ve brought you here for a reason. Lucy needs a make-under and fast!”
“Gee thanks,” said Nina, her face twisted up in a scowl.
Behind her, Nora shrugged. “She’s the only nerd I have access to,”
“Not true,” giggled Addy. “Max just wouldn’t understand the project.”
I could tell that Nora wanted to interject and stand up for Max, but doing so would have been double insulting to Nina so she kept her mouth shut.
I looked at Nina from my spot on the corner of Nora’s bed. She kept her fiery red hair in a ponytail at all times. Flyaways were always popping out, but she didn’t seem to care. Her face was dotted with a thin scattering of freckles, every one of which I could see because Nina had yet to discover make-up. She had the typical nerd trademarks, glasses and braces and a nose that was a tiny bit too long, but it was the girl’s outfits that were really sinking her ship. I had an idea.
“How about a trade?” I said, looking directly at Nina.
“A trade?”
“Yeah, you give me a few tips on how to fit in with the nerds, and I’ll give you some advice on how to spruce up your look.”
Nina bit her lip, like she was thinking it over. I knew for a fact that Nora constantly pestered her about her look. She’d tried to take her shopping for school clothes. She’d even given her some good hand-me-downs, but it was hard to take feedback from a sibling. Finally, she agreed.
“Okay. But you have to listen to me without laughing, and I get to say when is enough when it comes to my makeover.”
“I can handle that,” I said, already mentally composing a five step facial routine for her.
“To start with, you can’t spend so much time on your hair.”
Nora snorted, then pulled her vanity chair out, motioning for me to sit down.
“So just like a simple conditioner routine, minimal curling iron action, light blow-out?” I asked, getting situated in front of the mirror.
Nina tilted her head to the side, “I meant like brush it, put it in a pony, and call it good.”
I grimaced, “A pony….”
“Just sit still,” she whined, grabbing a brush off the table and getting started. In thirty seconds or less, she had managed to completely destroy the thirty minutes I had spent turning my stick straight hair into beach waves.
“There’s a bump,” I said, reaching up to point out the spot she’d missed while pulling my hair into the elastic band.
Nina smiled. “Good, nerds have bumps.”
Next, she grabbed a makeup remover and relentlessly scrubbed my face bare.
Behind me, Addy gasped. “Is that your face?”
“Shut up!” I growled, taking in my new reflection. “I look like a naked mole rat.”
“As a nerd, you would feel like a naked mole rat every day,” sighed Nina, making me feel like a major jerk.
“Sorry,” I said. “This is just a big change for me.”
“Here,” said Nina, handing me a pink-tinted chapstick and a tube of mascara. “Baby steps.”
I smiled gratefully, applying the contraband before Addy or Nora could object.
“That’s as good as I can do, given what I have to work with,” said Nina, taking a step back.
I spun to face the girls. “What do you think?”
“I think you are the prettiest mole rat I have ever seen,” said Addy with a grin.
“I think you are lucky my sister’s wardrobe is too small for you,” laughed Nora.
Beside me, Nina’s shoulders slumped, reminding me that I wasn’t the only one getting a makeover today.
“Ahem,” I coughed. “Speaking of that wardrobe. Nora, bestow upon me something foxy for your sister to wear.”
Nora’s eyes filled with glee, “Gladly!”
It took a lot longer to makeover Nina than it did to make-under me, but by the time we were finished, the only sign of Nina’s nerdy former self was her towering height. She stared at herself in the mirror with disbelief.
“I can look like this?” she murmured.
Nora wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Well duh, why do you think I’m always trying to get you to try makeup? You’re a total knock-out.”
“Thanks,” said Nina, with one last glance in the mirror. “That almost makes up for you designating me Queen of the Nerds….almost.”
“Hey!” cried Addy, doing a little happy jump. “The boys are here.”
Nora and I rolled our eyes. “You know it is slightly less exciting for us right? Hanging out with your boyfriend and brother.”
“Gag me!” said Addy. “Don’t say boyfriend and brother in the same sentence. Also, it’s not just them.”
“What do you mean it’s not just them?” I asked, butterflies taking flight in my stomach.
Addy looked away guiltily. “Gray kind of invited Simon along too.”
Simon
Max was in the driver’s seat of the SUV while we waited in front of Nora’s house for the girls to come outside. Meanwhile, I was in the backseat, my leg bouncing nonstop. I had myself convinced on the drive over that Lucy and I could hang out in the same circle still, especially since we were on speaking terms again, and I would not be caught off guard by her disarming smile.
It was so dark out here on Nora’s property. The white farmhouse stood alone with a single porch light. And for some reason, the eerie silence only added to my nerves. Finally, the front door opened and three girls spilled out, running to the car. I scanned the group for Lucy and almost didn’t recognize her as she came trailing behind the other two. Something was different about her.
“We’ll have to pull up the third row,” Max said as he got out of the car which made sense. There were six of us going, so we needed more seats. I got out to let someone get in the back.
“Hey Simon,” Addy chirped just before she wrapped her arms around Gray, pressing her face against his chest. He squeezed her closer and kissed the top of her head, and I had to look away. Something about it made me envious, those special coupley actions that I had zero experience with. The one girlfriend I had in high school lasted three weeks, and she wouldn’t even let me hold her hand.
Addy and Gray were quick to climb in the very back, and Nora was in the passenger seat before I could even greet her. When I turned around to look for Lucy, I had to do a double-take. She climbed into the middle row, and I silently got in after her, dumbstruck by...her.
“Hey,” I muttered, wanting to look at her, but afraid to stare.
“Hey.” She kept her eyes forward.
“You look—” I stopped myself. I wanted to say she looked nice, but the sound of those words coming out of my mouth made me pause. They sounded like a dating thing to say, and I didn’t want her thinking I was hitting on her or getting the wrong idea. Our friendship was about mutual friends dating and some random Key Club business. This wasn’t some blossoming love story.
“What was that?” She looked my way. Her face was lit only by the radio screen, and I noticed that her eyes were softer, not covered in black and glitter. She looked like 5th grade Lucy, the one I remembered from summers at the public pool and fireworks at the fairgrounds on the 4th of July.
“I said you look nice.” I didn’t give my mouth permission to say that, but it did anyway.
“Thanks,” she answered softly.
In the front seat, Nora and Max were fighting over the music, and I wasn’t concerning myself with what Addy and Gray were doing in the back. I just felt the awkward silence in the middle row...that not-dating and not-quite-friends area we were in made it very difficult to know how to behave.
When we got to the theater, we sat in a very similar pattern. Addy and Gray sat first, followed by Max proclaiming that he had to sit as far from them as possible, so he went to the opposite end, leaving me, Lucy, and Nora stuck in between.
Gray stood and tapped my shoulder. “Want to go grab some snacks?”
“Sure,” I answered before turning to Lucy. “Want anything?” She smiled hesitantly at me before finally saying, “Twizzlers?”
Gray, Max, and I left to get food from the concessions when Gray shot me a look.
“What’s up with you and Lucy?” He elbowed me as we walked.
“What? Nothing.” I shrugged it off and kept my eyes forward. Max kept quiet, thankfully. He knew everything, but I didn’t take him for the kind of guy who would unleash someone else’s skeletons.
“You don’t like her?” Gray pushed the subject.
“No, I mean...she’s nice. But she’s like the most popular girl in school. Even if I did like her...which I don’t.”
Gray let out smirk as he watched me babble my way out of that question.
“My point is...she dates guys like Trevor Hatfield.”
“Trevor Hatfield is a jerk,” Max pointed out from his place next to us in line. I had a feeling that Max thought most people were jerks, but I was willing to bet, in this case, he was right.
When we got back to the seats, we found the girls decked out in pirate hats and eye patches. Apparently, this special showing came with props. I handed Lucy her candy and let my eyes linger again on her face. I almost forgot that she had freckles, but without all of the makeup on her face, I could pick out the light sprinkle of spots along her nose and cheekbones.
Nerdy by New Year Page 4
