by Judy Corry
I raised my hand in the air. "Do we have to choreograph ballroom-type dances, like they do on the real show?" I may have danced for most of my life, but that didn't mean I knew the difference between the tango and the rumba.
"I don't think it matters. They just want a dance that's entertaining and well done."
"Then I can help," I said. My mom was always helping with different charities, maybe she'd think I was doing something with my life if I started following in her footsteps.
Coach Meyer brightened at my offer. "Thank you, Ashlyn. I appreciate it." She tapped on her tablet for a moment, probably typing in my name, and then looked up at the rest of the team expectantly. "You can go ahead and change, Ashlyn. Someone will let you know the details when we have them."
I stood, relieved I'd have time to get ready after all. When I walked past Kelsie and Madison, I couldn't help but notice their sour expressions. I just smiled back.
As soon as the lunch bell rang, I rushed down the halls to get to the Chemistry lab. I’d made sure to make myself lunch again, and had taken it with me to class so I wouldn't have to stop by my locker before heading to meet British Boy. I didn't want to miss a moment of our time together just because my stomach was hungry. Every minute was invaluable, and I couldn't have Luke or anyone else making me late again.
I got stuck in a traffic jam in the A hall but found one of the tall football players pushing himself through the crowd, so I followed right behind him.
I drew in a deep breath once I made it to the lab.
"Is anyone in here?" I asked, like I had on Monday.
"Yes, and you're late again."
I smiled. That voice! He could read the dictionary to me and I would hang onto every single word. I put my scarf over my head and snuck in.
"Sorry I got stuck in the hall. I really was hurrying." I shut the door, letting the darkness envelop me in its mystery.
He laughed. "It's okay. You gave me plenty of time to find a more comfortable spot to sit."
"Where are you?" I could tell his voice was coming from farther away than it had been last time.
"I'm in the back corner."
"Do you mind if I join you?"
"Not at all. Come on over. I even brought a blanket, so you wouldn't have to sit on the cold floor this time."
My heart swelled. He brought a blanket? He was so thoughtful!
I inched forward carefully, holding my hands out in front of me so I wouldn't accidentally bump into anything.
"I'm this way," he said, probably noticing my footsteps had veered in the wrong direction.
I righted my course and continued slowly. My hand brushed against one of the lab tables. I used it as my guide until it ended. "This would be a lot easier if we could just turn on the lights, you know."
I heard his deep chuckle. "It would also ruin the fun."
I grinned, following his voice again. "True."
"Watch out for my feet," he said suddenly. "We don't want a repeat of our first meeting."
I stopped and felt around with the toe of my sandal, which hit what was probably the bottom of his shoe. "Which side should I sit on?"
"This side." I heard a soft patting sound. Probably his hand on the blanket.
I took the last couple of steps forward, without tripping over his feet I might add, and then slowly lowered myself down beside him. I misjudged the distance and ended up bumping against his shoulder. The skin on my arm immediately burst to life at the touch. I scooted an inch or so from him, not wanting to scare him away or anything.
But I had touched British Boy! He was real!
"So what do you want to talk about today?" I asked, feeling all jittery with nerves.
"I'm not sure. Last time we got really deep. Do you want to keep it light and just get to know each other better?"
"But I thought we were supposed to be scuba diving. Don't you have to go down deep to do that?" I asked with a smile on my lips. My cheeks were going to be so sore today. Being around him just made me happy for some reason. Like a kid in Disneyland.
"Okay, whatever you want. I'm just happy to be with you again. I don't care what we talk about."
Was it possible he was as intrigued by me as I was with him? Someone needed to pinch me so I would know this wasn't some sort of dream. Guys didn't ever want to just be with me.
I drew in a breath, hoping it would help calm my mind which was running away with thoughts of how too good to be true this guy seemed to be.
"Ask me the first question that pops into your head," I said.
"Really?" He sounded unsure.
"Yes. I'm an open book in here."
"What was the happiest moment in your life?"
Right now!
But I couldn't say that because he might think I was crazy. We were supposed to be honest…but not that honest.
"Hmm…" I thought about it.
"You're not about to tell me that it was when you looked up at the sky this morning and saw it was blue again, are you?"
I laughed. He was too perfect! "No. I was actually thinking about the question."
"Just checking."
"I don't know if I could choose just one, but if I have to, I'd say that my happiest moment was just playing in the ocean this summer when my family rented a house in the Hamptons for a couple of weeks."
"Really?"
"Yeah, after everything with No— I mean, with my ex-boyfriend, it was nice to just relax and have fun again. My best friend came with us, and we had the funnest time letting the ocean push and pull us along the shore."
"That does sound nice. I wish I'd had your summer." There was a somber tone to his voice, and I remembered what he'd said on Monday about moving here being his biggest fear.
"You must miss your friends back home."
"What?" He paused, and then cleared his throat. "I mean, yeah. I do. They were great. We didn't do cool things like play in the ocean though."
"That's right. You had your daily tea and crumpets. I wonder if I could buy any here somewhere?"
"I don't think you can. I actually looked for them when I went to the store yesterday."
"You said they're crackers, right?"
"Did I say cracker? I actually meant a griddle cake."
"What's a griddle cake?" I’d never heard of those before
"Kind of like the English muffins you have here."
"But they're not the same thing."
"No. According to an article I read…one time…for a report I did in school, crumpets are made with butter while English muffins aren't. And a crumpet is made from a batter and cooked only on one side, but an English muffin is made from dough and toasted on both sides."
"Wow, you really did your research. I'm surprised you remembered those small details."
"I had a lot of time on my hands." He shifted to get more comfortable. "Anyway, enough about that boring stuff. Let's get back to our scuba diving. I want to know everything there is to know about you, Mystery Girl."
I smiled, loving how his interest and sincerity made me feel. "Then ask me another question. I'll tell you anything you want to know."
"Anything? Hmm…" He grew quiet, thinking. "Do you make your bed in the morning?"
I laughed. I didn’t expect that one. "So we're going with surface level now?"
"It's a very telling question. You can learn a lot about a person based on whether they make their bed or not." There was a hint of a smile in his voice that I loved.
"Okay, fine. Yes, I make my bed in the morning. I hate messes."
"Me too." Of course he did.
"My turn now. What's your favorite color?"
"Blue. And yours."
"Pink."
"Look how stereotypical we are. Okay, now for a harder one." His voice became suddenly more serious. "Do you think that life is fair?"
I pursed my lips. "What do you mean by that?"
He sighed, and I heard his head lean against the wall behind us. "Like, do you think that good people have mostly
good things happen to them? And bad people have bad things happen to them?"
I thought about it for a minute. "I don't know. I don't think it's fair, exactly. But I think that a lot of times we can choose whether or not to do things based on what the consequence will be. I think hard work plays a much bigger role in whether things are fair for us."
"Like a 'you make your own luck' kind of thing?"
"Yes. Exactly."
"Okay, but what if you were to, say, write the best song in the whole universe, but only one person hears it so it never makes you any money. But then a really famous singer puts a few catchy lyrics on repeat to an upbeat sound and it immediately races high in rankings just because he's well known. Did their hard work pay off? Is that fair?"
"Maybe the first person should have worked harder to get their song heard."
"Okay, fine. Bad scenario." He exhaled. "What about this—say there's a person who did everything in their power to live a healthy life. They never ate junk food. Ate veggies like they were going out of style. Exercised regularly. Got enough sleep. And then they go to the doctor one day and find out they have a terminal illness. Did their hard work pay off?"
I shrugged, not having an answer. I thought about the girl we were doing a fundraiser for, and how she was only fourteen and fighting for her life. "Are you talking about Lacey? Did you hear about her, too?"
"Lacey?" He was quiet for a moment. "No. I don't know a Lacey. Someone else I was close to had…Parkinson's Disease."
"How close?" From the somber tone of his voice, it sounded like they were pretty close.
"My, um, my grandma had it before she died."
"And you were close to your grandma?"
He sighed. "She practically raised me."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," I said, not knowing what else to say.
Should I scoot closer and hug him? He spoke before I had time to decide.
"It's okay. It happened a long time ago."
"It can still be hard though."
He sighed again. "Yes, it can."
We were quiet for a while, and I tried to figure out this boy. He was so different from other guys I knew at school. He was deep and emotional. And I was having a hard time believing that he was actually real. Maybe it was the magic of the dark room, but I never knew it was possible to get this close to someone in just a few conversations.
"How about another question," I suggested eventually.
"Another question would be great."
"If you had to choose just one food to eat for the rest of your life, what would you pick?"
"Easy! Pizza. You can vary the toppings and make it anything. What about you?"
"I could say the same thing about salad, and make my mom so proud. But I think I'm gonna have to agree with you. I'd definitely pick pizza."
We got lost in conversation after that. It was amazing how easy he was to talk to. The conversation just flowed, with no awkward pauses. It was like we had known each other forever, not just a week. And when the warning bell rang, I realized that I'd completely forgotten to eat my lunch. I hadn't even thought about it once.
"Should we do this again sometime?" I stood, lifting my full lunchbox from the floor.
"Are you busy on Tuesday during lunch?" he asked, and I was so relieved he hadn't grown bored of me yet.
"Tuesday is perfect." And then I left, knowing these lunch periods were moving higher and higher on my happiest moments list.
8
Luke
My stomach was grumbling by the time Ashlyn and I finished our conversation. These secret meetings were getting a lot deeper than I'd expected, and I was revealing way more about myself than I’d planned. I was starting to wonder if the whole prank idea was actually worth continuing. What if I slip up? Like messing up by calling crumpets crackers last week. Sure, I'd corrected my mistake today, and I didn't think she had realized what I'd done, but that was a very lucky break. And then I almost ruined things again when I brought up the whole fairness-in-terminal-illness thing. But she seemed to buy the grandma story so that should be okay too. Most everyone I knew had someone in their life who had died from a terminal illness, which was sad that it was true, but maybe if I didn't run off on any more tangents in the future I could keep this whole charade up.
And I really wanted to keep this thing going, even if I never used any of this for some huge prank of all pranks. Because already the thought of not having someone to open up to was suffocating. And it seemed like she enjoyed our time together just as much as I did. I'd worried she might not like the blanket-on-the-floor gesture, but she totally loved it. And sitting next to her had been nice. She smelled amazing, and the sensations from when she accidentally bumped against my arm hadn't been half bad either.
I'd purposely not worn any cologne today, since I didn't want to give her any clues about who I really was, but maybe I could find a new scent just for British Boy to wear during our lunch meetings.
As soon as she was out of the Chemistry lab, I folded up the blanket and stuffed it in my backpack. I'd have to bring it next time too. Maybe I'd even bring something else to sweeten the deal. Chocolates, possibly? I'd have to add "ways to win over a girl" into my research for tonight. Not that I was trying to win over Ashlyn. I'd only need that stuff in case British Boy decided he wanted to finish off the prank. Until then, I would just see where this new friendship took us.
Max Knowles, the student body president, stopped me on my way to football practice.
"Hey, Luke." Max pushed his hipster glasses up farther on his nose. "I need to ask you a question."
"I have to get to practice, so make it quick."
He bit his lip, as if thinking over the next words. I wasn't going to like whatever he had to say. "I don't know if you heard about this yet, but one of the kids in school was just diagnosed with leukemia. And the faculty and student government came up with a plan to help her and her family out. They don’t have good enough insurance to cover all the treatments, so we thought we'd hold a fundraising event for her."
This must be the girl Ashlyn had mentioned earlier. The girl with cancer. Oh how I hated cancer. And Max probably knew that. Which meant he knew what my answer already was.
I crossed my arms. "What’s this fundraising event going to be and what do I have to do?"
Max looked down at his shoes for a second before meeting my eyes. "They thought it would be fun to have a Dancing with the Stars of Ridgewater High night. Kind of like the show but with the stars of our school. And since you're the football captain, we wanted to ask you to help us out."
"Dancing?" I was about the worst dancer I knew of.
"Yes, dancing. We have a few volunteers from the drill team willing to teach you guys."
"The drill team, you say?" I asked, my interest sparked.
"Yeah, so far we have Kelsie Perkins, Avery Sinter, Camilla Reyes, Ashlyn Brooks, Trinity Weaver…"
Ashlyn.
After Max had finished saying a few more names that I didn't recognize, he asked, "So, what will it be? You willing to help Lacey out?"
I drew in a deep breath, trying to talk myself out of what I was going to say. Dancing in front of the school was about the last thing I wanted to do. But cancer? I hated cancer and I hated the idea of a family not only worried about fighting the horrible disease, but also possibly being financially ruined because of it. We'd been lucky enough with my mom to have awesome insurance. I couldn't imagine having to worry about more than just getting her better.
I pinched my eyes shut for second and said, "Okay, I'll do it."
Max's face brightened like I just saved the world or something. "Thank you, Luke. We really appreciate it."
9
Ashlyn
"You partnered me with who?" I couldn't believe my ears. There was no way in the world they would put me and Luke together for this dancing competition. Didn't they pay attention to anything that went on at our school?
"We asked Luke who he thought would make the best coach an
d partner for him. He looked over the list and immediately said your name." Max Knowles looked as shocked as I felt. "I wasn't about to argue with him. Getting guys to do this thing was hard enough."
"But I have to dance with Luke?" We could barely stand each other. And he wanted to spend hours upon hours alone with me?
Max looked around the hall before saying in a low voice, "Think of it this way, you're in charge during your practice sessions. You get to choose the choreography. You can decide how to spend your time together. You can make it as painful as you like. But in all honesty, I hope you'll work well together. This event means so much to a lot of people at our school. We want it to be the best it can be."
I shook my head, still baffled at the prospect of teaching Luke Davenport a dance. I'd just have to come up with something that didn't involve a lot of physical contact. Although, I had to admit that his arms would probably feel nice. Those muscles. I shook my head again. Those muscles were attached to Luke. And Luke was... I thought back to our last interaction. Luke had been nice. He said he wanted to mend things between us. Maybe he was being honest. I'd just have to wait and see. Who knew, maybe he was turning over a new leaf, and maybe this partnership of ours could finally get us out of our war once and for all. I smiled at the thought. And if it didn't, I could torture him by making him wear tights.
Monday at lunch, Max called a meeting for all the dance contestants to figure out the details of the event. There were only eleven guys who'd agreed to do it, Luke being one of them. To my dismay, Noah was there as well. I was suddenly thankful Luke had chosen to be my partner, so I wouldn't have to dance with Noah.
"Thank you all for coming here. I'm hoping we can make this quick as I know you're anxious to get your lunch." Max looked around at the group of drill team members with their partners. I'd never guessed they'd have jocks competing against chess club members and band nerds, but Max had done a great job of finding guys from almost every group at school. And from the way most of them were standing, the guys all seemed pretty uncomfortable to be here, regardless of their popularity status.
