by Jaclyn Weist
I was about to shut down the computer for class when another email came in. It was the same generic email address as before with no signature.
Roses are red,
violets are blue,
I’d love to dance
with no one but you.
I had to admit that whoever was sending the emails had style. Not that the poems were super original. It was more the mystery around the whole thing. Were they on purpose, or was someone really just that clueless?
The bell rang, so I saved and sent off what I’d done and hurried to science. Heather sat near the window and had her bag sitting on the desk behind her so I could take it.
“Did you see the paper this morning?” I handed her the one that had hit my head.
“It’s all over the place. Hard to miss. Any good news for you yet?” She set it aside and opened her notebook.
I shook my head. “It’s early still. If neither of us get asked, we can just go together like we did last year and like we did for Homecoming.”
She leaned in. “Do we have to hang out with Anna and Max this time?”
“Possibly. Although they didn’t really stay with us last time either. Anna’s other friends were too busy gossiping with her.” I handed her my assignment to pass forward and got out my pen. “Oh, guess what. It’s going well enough they only have me working on that for now. And they might do the same thing for prom.”
Heather raised her eyebrows. “Seriously? That’s pretty cool.”
Class started, but I couldn’t concentrate on what the teacher was saying. I was too busy checking out the other guys in the class, deciding who would be good for taking Heather out. Or me. That could work too. Although if I was being honest, it would have been nice for Brandon to ask me. I mean, I was helping him with his homework. And he seemed to like hanging out with me.
Maybe I could casually drop the hint to him during math. As long as he wasn’t anywhere near Ellie. I’d never live it down otherwise. And maybe I’d die of embarrassment if I even tried. Me trying to flirt wasn’t exactly a pretty sight.
“Alayna?”
I jumped and looked around to find everyone staring at me. “Yeah?”
Snickers broke out, and Mrs. Wilkinson rolled her eyes. “You’re needed at the office.”
“Oh.” I grabbed my bag. “Thanks.”
I took off and hurried down the empty halls to the office. Worry settled in my stomach. I never got in trouble. Ever. And Mom worked during the day, so she wouldn’t be trying to get me out of class.
A tall, thin man stood at the counter laughing at something one of the secretaries said. My breath caught when he turned and smiled. “Cupcake!”
My breath caught.
“Dad? What are you doing here?” I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him tight, fighting back tears.
Dad had a job that required travel and he would be gone months at a time. This last trip to India should have lasted another month or two at least. Not that I wasn’t glad to have him home. It was just . . . odd.
“The job ended early. Mom told me I could check you out so we can go get lunch.” He pulled back and studied my face. “That’s all right, isn’t it? Am I being uncool by being here?”
“You’re being uncool by mentioning it.” I ran through the day in my head to make sure I wasn’t missing anything huge. Play practice, but hopefully they could run through a different part of the script. “I can go.”
“Wonderful.” He waved at the office staff and wrapped an arm around my waist as we left the school. “Tell me what’s going on. Mom says you have a pretty fun project going on with the paper.”
I grinned. “It’s awesome. I’ll tell you about it at home.”
He tipped his head to the side. “At home? Why not—oh, you have a car. Okay. I’ll see you there, then.”
That’s what happened when he was gone for months. He’d forget the smallest things like I could drive, or I was about to graduate, or that I didn’t like pink anymore. And honestly, I was surprised that Mom let him check me out. Usually I had to have the plague or something for her to even think about letting me stay home.
Dad’s Mercedes was a few cars of ahead of me all the way home. Yes, Mercedes. Mom drove it sometimes, but usually it just stayed covered in our garage. He pulled in, and I pulled up next to him. Mom’s car was parked on the street, which was also strange. She should have been at work.
Mom looked up from her paperwork when I got inside the house. Ah. She took work home with her. “Hey, sweetie. I was going to call, but Dad wanted to surprise you.”
Dad leaned down and kissed her cheek. “It’s not often I get to do that.”
“So . . . can I ask why you’re home?” I leaned against the countertop. “You never come home early.”
“They wanted to extend my contract another three months, which means I would have missed your graduation. I’ve missed a lot of things over the years, but that was one thing I wanted to avoid.”
I glanced over at Mom who was staring at her hands. “Okay, so what’s really going on?”
Mom’s head shot up. “He told you.”
“No. He told me the “you’re too young to understand” version. I want the truth. Is something wrong?”
Mom and Dad exchanged looks before Dad finally looked over at me. “Maybe we should go sit down in the living room.”
That was never good.
I sank onto the couch, and my parents faced me holding hands. Usually that was reserved for when I was in big trouble.
“Honey . . . I don’t work for a tech company. I never have.”
“Let me guess. Next you’re going to tell me you do some undercover work thing for the CIA.”
Dad grimaced. “FBI actually.”
I laughed until I realized he was serious. “No.”
Mom nodded. “He’s telling the truth.”
“That’s . . . That’s insane.” But it really wasn’t. What kind of tech company would take a person away from his family for years at a time? “That doesn’t explain why you’re home, though. The world didn’t just stop being bad.”
More exchanged glances.
“No, it didn’t. And to be honest, my job isn’t actually done. It just moved stateside. I need to leave again in a couple of days, but I insisted I come and see you two before I started the next part of the assignment.” Dad leaned forward. “You may see me on the news. And it’s going to be dangerous work, but I want you to know I’m doing everything I can to stay safe. Make sure you don’t tell anyone who I work for, or you could blow my cover.”
“Or you can stay home. Let someone else do it. I just got you back.” I was still trying to get over the fact that he lied to me all my life. And I knew why. He had to for our safety. But this was something you saw in movies, not in real life.
Dad moved over onto the couch and pulled me into a hug. “Cupcake, I wish I could do that. I’d walk away right now if I could, but I’m the only one who can do this. The bad people we’re trying to stop trust me.”
Bad people. It was like he was talking to a four-year-old. Which is probably how I was acting at the time.
“Will you have backup?” I met his eyes.
“Always.” He kissed my forehead. “But can we forget about this for today? I want to enjoy it as a family.”
I nodded. “I’d like that.”
Mom stood and picked up her purse. “We’d better get going then. The movie starts in half an hour.”
And just like that, he was gone. Dad headed off to wherever his mystery job was, leaving Mom and I behind. It was hard after only a few days of having him with us, but he promised to try to contact us more often. At least that was something. Except that for the first two weeks we heard nothing.
Mom shut off like she usually did when he left, so I was pretty much left to myself. And thanks to my newspaper article, I had plenty to do. Work, play practice, school, more play practice, and more school. One could say I threw myself into my work, and honestl
y, it would probably be right. The thought of Dad out there doing dangerous stuff scared me to death.
The requests had slowed down because there were only so many guys at the high school, but they were replaced by the girls answering. They were more creative, and while a few were rejections because they either had a boyfriend or they were asked more than once, most of them were positive.
And those anonymous notes? They kept coming. Once a day. I spread them out through the paper so they were like little Easter eggs. And by the time the fourth edition went out with the regular paper, people had started taking notice. By the sixth, the whole school knew.
Cupid had an admirer.
I had to laugh at that. It would mean that they liked me, and that was laughable. I mean, true, Brandon still hadn’t asked anyone—believe me, I checked every day—but that didn’t mean anything. It was possible he’d asked the girl in a different way.
“You’re here early.” Mr. Reynolds set his clipboard and tablet on the table and pulled out his chair. “Did you forget to go home last night?”
“No, I just had to make sure these last few names got in before the print went out today.” I yawned. “It’s ready to go now, though.”
Mr. Reynold’s checked the printer and scanned through everything. “Looks good. I’ll get it going.”
I nodded and rested my head on my arms. Maybe after this, I would let myself nap after school. Or maybe during math. That sounded good too.
“You know, we could try to do a search for this mystery email address. See who it’s registered to.”
I looked up. The thought had crossed my mind more than once, but I always pushed it away. “That would take away the mystery.”
The humming of the printer seemed to agree with me as it produced copy after copy. Mr. Reynolds chuckled.
“I suppose you’re right. Listen, it’s another hour before school starts. Go find a place to lie down and take a quick nap. You’re not going to be awake enough for class if you don’t get some sleep.”
“I’d argue, but I’m too tired. Don’t give my job to someone else.” I stood and trudged out of the room to head straight for the auditorium wing. They had the comfiest chairs there. Sleeping in my car would have been more private, but it was only ten degrees outside, and I didn’t want to freeze.
The hallway was empty as I settled in on the couch. I used my coat as a blanket and closed my eyes, hoping I’d wake up before everyone got there.
Which didn’t happen. Instead I woke up to someone shaking my shoulder. Max stood over me, his face close to mine.
“Hey, sleepyhead. I was already worried when you didn’t pick me up this morning, and now you’re sleeping in the school. What’s going on?” He glared at one of the students who walked by snickering.
“I just got here early and needed to sleep for a bit. Sorry I didn’t pick you up.” I yawned and sat up. “Please don’t tell me I was snoring.”
Max stood and held out a hand. “Okay, I won’t tell you that half the students thought the rumbling was from the school falling down.”
I slugged his shoulder. “Thanks for that.”
“Still having a hard time with your dad being gone?” Max picked up my bag and handed it to me.
“Yeah. It’s not helping the sleep situation for sure.” I combed my fingers through my hair. “I don’t have a handprint on my face, do I?”
“Nope, you look amazing as usual.” Max grinned. “Now, get to class or we’ll both be late.”
I sighed. “Thanks.”
Apparently I needed the sleep that morning, because I fell asleep in class a few more times throughout the day. It wasn’t until I nearly ran into a banner after school that I even realized they were decorating for the dance. That meant my job was almost done. It also meant that we were within a week of the dance and I still hadn’t been asked.
At least Heather had a date. That is, if she said yes. The email came in during lunch, and I almost squealed and gave it away. She was going to flip when she saw who it was. She’d been crushing on Ethan since seventh grade.
“Hey, Alayna, wait up.” Brandon jogged up behind me. “You weren’t in math today.”
“Yeah, I was kinda asleep on a couch. What did I miss?” I moved over so we wouldn’t get caught in the stampede of students who were leaving for the day.
He grinned sheepishly. “I wish I could tell you. It was so confusing. Do you think you could help again?”
I nodded. “Do you have work? Because that was a little hard to get things done last time.”
“I got it off. And all we’re doing for basketball is watching film for the game coming up tomorrow. We could actually go now if that works for you.”
“Sure. Want to meet me somewhere? I have my car.”
Brandon shook his head. “We can just go in mine and then I can bring you back to get it. If that works for you, I mean.”
With how exhausted I was, it was probably a good idea. “Sounds good.”
We went out to his black truck and he held the door open for me, then went around to get in. He drove us to the local library a few blocks away.
“I figured this would be a lot quieter for us.” He turned off the truck.
“It’s perfect.” Not sure I’d stay awake, but at least we could concentrate easier.
We waved at the librarian and walked over to one of the tables that wasn’t currently being used. Instead of sitting across the table like I figured he would, he put his books down and sat next to me. Which made sense since I was helping him figure out the problems, but it made my stomach flutter.
“Thank you again for helping me. I feel like this is really one-sided. You help me over and over and I don’t do anything for you.” He pulled out the worksheet packet.
“You fed me. That’s something. And you gave me a free game of bowling. Also, cool.” I glanced over the page to see what I’d missed, and thankfully I knew what we were doing. Sleeping through class hadn’t put me completely behind.
Brandon laughed. “So, all you need to make you happy is bowling and food?”
“And sleep.” I picked up my pencil. “All right. Where are you stuck?”
He pointed at the first problem. “Right there. Seriously. It’s like I have this mental block for math.”
“It happens.” I ran through it in my head first before explaining it to him. Then I wrote it out one step at a time on my paper so he could follow along. It was slow, but after a few more problems, he was able to repeat the process back to me.
Brandon leaned back in his chair and threw his arms up in a mock cheer. “I did it.”
“Yes, you did. If I had a gold star, I’d give you one.” I turned the page of the worksheet to start on the next side.
“Gold star?” He raised his eyebrows.
“That’s what they used to give out when students did something right. I found my dad’s chart in one of his boxes from grade school and it was covered with all these little stars.” I laughed. “My reaction was about the same as yours.”
Brandon pulled out a piece of paper and leaned over it so I couldn’t see what he was doing. He finally handed it to me, and my breath caught. It was a star, but with dimensions and it looked like you could almost peel it off the page. He handed it to me. “There, now you have a gold star for helping me. Well, it’s more like a black star, but you get the point.”
I took it from him. “I didn’t know you could draw like this.”
“I don’t let a lot of people know that.” He went back to his homework, allowing me to stare at him without being noticed.
The only other guy I ever hung out with was Max, and we’d been together for long enough that nothing seemed to surprise me anymore. We knew each other’s best and worst secrets. Except the one I just found out about my dad. But this friendship with Brandon was different. He was clearly popular and could have gotten help from anyone. Not that most of the popular girls knew how to do the math homework, but they still seemed more likely.
&
nbsp; Brandon looked up. “I think I got something wrong. Is this right?”
I looked over his shoulder and did the work in my head. He’d done the problem slightly different than I would have, but still managed to get the right answer. Impressive.
“Looks good to me. Here, wait.” I drew him a star, but it wasn’t nearly as good as the one he’d made me. “There. Now I can give you a gold star. As lame as it might be.”
He chuckled. “I love it. But maybe you should stick with math and writing.”
“Funny, that’s what my art teacher said.” I frowned. “I just call it the art of simplicity and mediocrity.”
“It’s not that bad. Besides, you just gave me my first gold star.” He checked his watch. “Hey, it’s still a little early. Want to go get some food?”
I shrugged, even though I was screaming with joy inside.. “Sure. I could use some food.”
“Well, you did say that’s one of the things that make you happy.” He set his work into his bag.
“You’re sure you don’t need any more help? We didn’t finish the packet.” I set my stuff in my bag as well.
He nodded. “I think I’ve got it now. I hope. Otherwise, I’ll have to bribe you again tomorrow.”
We went to his truck and drove to a small diner that was a favorite for the high school kids. Max, Heather, and I would come sometimes, but usually avoided it for something quieter. I ordered a burger and strawberry shake and moved to get my wallet, but he put a hand on my arm.
“Nope. My treat as a thank you.” He paid for both of us and turned to find somewhere to sit.
This was turning out to be more of a date than a study session, and I couldn’t say I felt too bad about it. Now if I could just figure out how to bring up the dance so I’d know if he had a date yet.
We found a spot near the back where it was a little quieter. My eyes widened when I saw one of my newspapers sitting at the table next to us. I’d only seen them at school or in my room, so the fact that it was out there in the wild seemed more exciting.
