Shy Girls Social Club

by Kailin Gow

It wasn’t a particularly big space, in the way that some commercial kitchens are. It didn’t need to be, since the shop generally didn’t sell anything more complex to prepare than a few sandwiches and desserts. It was neat though, and as free from chaos as Lacey’s parents could make it. It was also a good place to hide out for a while. At least until Tempest was gone.

  Lacey’s father was there, slicing ingredients on a bench as he worked to prepare fresh sandwiches. Where Lacey’s mother looked almost exactly like an older version of her, her father’s features were a little more rugged, his hair cropped short. Though that was mostly because her mother teased him on the first flecks of grey in it when it was longer.

  Neat stacks of sandwiches were taking shape beside him. Although on a day like today, most people would just want ice cream, there were always a few who wanted more, and Lacey’s dad believed in being prepared when it came to food. He looked up as Lacey stepped into the kitchen, though his hands didn’t stop working for a moment.

  “Hi, Lacey. What’s up?”

  Obviously, Lacey wasn’t going to explain to her father all about what had just happened, so she settled for the most obvious excuse instead.

  “Hi, Dad. I just came in here to see if you needed any help.”

  “Nope, everything’s fine.” As if to prove it, another sandwich came into existence under his hands and the steady beat of the knife against the chopping board resumed. “You could go and help your mother if you want to be useful. It sounds like there’s quite a rush out there.”

  Lacey should probably have seen that one coming. Still she did her best. “I think Mom has things pretty much under control.”

  “Well then,” her father said, “it looks like you’re free to do what you want, doesn’t it? Why not go back out to see those two friends of yours? Or even head out onto the beach?”

  “Anything so long as I’m not cluttering up the kitchen?” Lacey said it with a smile, but she didn’t quite feel it.

  She heard the steady work of the knife stop as her father finally put it down. “Lacey, you’re not trying to hide in here, are you? Is something wrong? Have you had an argument with your friends, or something?”

  Lacey shook her head. “No Dad. It’s nothing like that.”

  “Then what?” Her father moved up to her, then stepped past Lacey to take a peek out through the big double doors to the kitchen. When he was finished, he pulled them back with a knowing smile. “Ah. Isn’t that Tempest Tatou out there? The girl you used to be friends with?”

  “That was a long time ago,” Lacey said. “I’m fine, Dad.”

  Her father didn’t let it go. “Best friends, as I recall.”

  Lacey let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. “Back in preschool, maybe. Now, it seems more like she hates me.”

  “Hates you?” her father raised an eyebrow.

  “Ever since junior high. She started hanging out with the popular crowd and she ditched me, Penny and Valerie, just like that. I don’t know why. Maybe we did something wrong, or something.”

  Her father folded Lacey into a hug, before stepping back to look at her with serious eyes. “I’m sure you didn’t do anything, Lacey. Some people are just unpleasant. It’s not like you need to care about what Tempest thinks though, is it? You have some good friends out there, some real friends, who are probably wondering where you have gone.”

  Lacey knew that her dad was right. Penny and Valerie probably would be wondering what she was doing. Though if they had seen Tempest, they might have guessed. Still, Lacey knew that she needed to head back out there. She couldn’t hide in the kitchen all day. Even if she wanted to.

  “Sure, Dad. Um…”

  Her father laughed and peeked through the doors again, obviously guessing what Lacey was going to ask. “It looks like the coast is clear. Tempest and her friend have gone.”

  Well, that solved that problem, at least. There was no chance of Tempest saying anything hurtful if she wasn’t even there, and Lacey wouldn’t find herself staring at Landers either, or getting embarrassed every time he looked her way, or hoping that he would talk to her, only to start getting nervous the moment that he did.

  “That was fast,” Lacey said, giving her father another quick hug, “thanks, Dad. I’ll talk to you later.”

  She left the kitchen and saw that Tempest and Landers were indeed both gone. The sundae Tempest had ordered was untouched too, and both Penny and Valerie were practically jumping up and down with excitement as Lacey made her way over to them.

  “Where did Tempest and Landers go?” Lacey asked. “And what have you two so excited?”

  “You didn’t see?” Valerie asked.

  Penny joined in. “You didn’t hear?”

  Lacey shrugged. Through the kitchen doors, it would have been hard to hear anything very much. “Obviously not. What happened that’s so exciting?”

  “It was Tempest and Landers,” Valerie said, and Penny nodded. They were obviously determined to drag things out.

  “So what happened?” Lacey insisted. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to know. After all, if they had just kissed or something, then all that did was to confirm just how unavailable Landers was to her. Although that didn’t do much to explain the abandoned sundae.

  “They had a fight!” Penny and Valerie said it in unison, as though neither one could wait an instant longer to give Lacey such a juicy piece of gossip. Each looked at the other as though she had just spoiled the big moment, but then they both laughed.

  “A fight?” Lacey asked. “What kind of fight.”

  Penny beat Valerie to it. “It started just after you went into the kitchen,” she explained. “At first, we only noticed because we were watching.”

  “Why were you watching?”

  “Because obviously Tempest had been mean to you,” Valerie said, “and we wanted to know what was going on. Besides, we couldn’t believe that a guy like Landers would want anything to do with her.”

  “I could,” Lacey said. “Tempest can get any guy she wants.”

  “But that’s just it,” Penny said. “Tempest was trying to stay close to Landers, I mean, she was all over him, but something happened. They started to argue about it, and Landers made her let go of him. That’s when Tempest just… lost it.”

  “Lost it how?” Lacey asked.

  Valerie smiled at that. “Oh, she started calling Landers every name under the sun, right in the middle of the parlor. She said that he obviously didn’t care about her, and that he would regret not being nice to her. She said that they were over, and then she stormed out.”

  “Though I think your mom was getting ready to tell her to leave,” Penny said.

  “And what did Landers do,” Lacey asked.

  “He just sat around for a minute or two, and then left. He didn’t look happy, but I guess he didn’t exactly look broken up about it, either.”

  Lacey didn’t know what to think. Landers and Tempest had fought? Had it been about her? It was hard to see how. After all, all Lacey had done was wait on their table. Even if she had played some role in it, did it necessarily mean anything? Just because Landers suddenly wasn’t with Tempest didn’t mean that he would notice her, let alone want anything to do with her. Besides, knowing Tempest, she would probably either make things up with Landers in a day or two or find some way to make him jealous.

  Still, Lacey couldn’t help thinking about Landers saying that he would talk to her again. That had to mean something, didn’t it? Even if it wasn’t what she hoped, just the thought of talking to him made Lacey smile. And knot up with nervousness, obviously. But mostly smile.

  Chapter 2

  The summer vacation came to an end, and Lacey actually found herself looking forward to being back at school. She was even more excited when she realized that the locker she had been assigned was just a couple rows down from the ones belonging to Penny and Valerie. They stood in front of them, chatting like they hadn’t seen one another only the other day. They talke
d about what had happened at the ice cream parlor, but also about what classes they were taking, who was around whom they hadn’t seen over the summer, and how excited they were to be finally starting high school.

  Lacey was surprised to find that they weren’t taking quite the same classes this year. She and Valerie had opted to take a journalism class, but Penny had gone for drama instead. That was not a surprise to anyone since Penny was never slow to jump on any opportunity to express herself.

  They were still talking when a tall, flame-haired girl their own age crashed into Valerie, almost knocking her sprawling, and sending several of Valerie’s books tumbling to the ground. Though to be fair, almost as many of the other girl’s tumbled with them. The newcomer wore a vivid purple t-shirt that didn’t really go with her hair, along with a flowing, gypsy style skirt.

  “Sorry,” the girl knelt and helped to pick up the books from where they had fallen. “I’m just in so much of a hurry. Plus, I think I’m probably lost. Are these my books, or yours?”

  “I think this is yours,” Lacey said, handing the other girl one of the books. “Where were you trying to get to? Which class?”

  The red-haired girl looked down at her schedule. “I’m looking for Mrs. Tuttle’s drama class.”

  “Oh, that’s where I’m going,” Penny piped in. “I could show you the way if you’d like.”

  “That would be great.” The new girl held out a hand. “I’m Sandy.”

  “Penny. This is Lacey and Valerie.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Sandy said. “Sorry about bumping into you, Valerie.”

  “It’s not a problem.”

  Sandy and Penny hurried off in search of their drama class, and Valerie nodded to the other end of the hall. “We should get going too. We’ve got a journalism class to get to.”

  It didn’t take long to find the right classroom. Although the high school was new to them, it was laid out fairly sensibly, and both Lacey and Valerie soon found themselves in a class full of other eager would-be journalists. Although full was probably the wrong term for it. There were only four others there besides them. There was an older girl dressed in a full Goth outfit, a junior who was perky, blonde and very friendly as they stepped through the door, and a muscular senior boy who looked like he was on either the football or wrestling team.

  The fourth occupant of the room, a nerdy but actually quite good-looking boy their own age with sandy blond hair and a perpetually disheveled appearance, they both recognized.

  “Samuel,” Lacey asked, “you’re taking Journalism?”

  Samuel Jacobs had worked with both of them on the school newspaper back in junior high, usually either doing the photography or anything computer-related, so it wasn’t that surprising that he would be there. Even so, it was good to see him.

  The three of them were the only freshmen there. Apparently, that previous experience had counted for a lot.

  “Is Penny not with you?” Samuel asked, sounding slightly disappointed. Lacey was willing to forgive him for that. After all, he’d had a crush on her friend practically since Lacey had known him.

  “She’s taking drama instead this year,” Lacey said. “Apparently, she wants to act more than she wants to be a journalist.”

  “Oh.” The disappointment was easy to hear, this time. “I was kind of hoping that she would be in this class.”

  “You’ve still got Lacey and me,” Valerie said.

  “All three of us in the same class together,” Lacey said. “How much fun is that going to be?”

  “It is pretty awesome,” Samuel admitted.

  Lacey took a look around the group. The other three were chatting amongst themselves. “Do you think this is everyone?”

  Samuel shook his head. “We’re still waiting for the Editor-in-Chief, apparently. I don’t know what he’s going to be like, but… ”

  Samuel left it there as the door opened again. Lacey turned her head to get a good look at the new arrival. She swallowed as she recognized Landers, the nerves from the day before making their return felt. Landers took this class?

  It turned out to be more than that, though, because Landers walked straight up to the board at the end of the room and wrote out his name. “Landers Lowe - ” Lacey found herself staring at that dash for a breathless moment, until the words “Editor-in-Chief” followed it. Landers turned to face the room.

  “Hi,” he said, with a smile, “I’m Landers. I’ll be the Chief Editor of the newspaper, the Seagull Gazette, this year. Now, I know some of you,” here his eyes drifted to Lacey, and just for a moment, she thought she saw him wink, “but there are a few of you who will need to introduce yourselves.”

  He pointed at the Goth girl.

  “I’m Bridget,” she said.

  “Valerie,” Valerie said as the finger moved to her.

  “Samuel.”

  “Great.” Landers actually sounded genuinely pleased. Maybe he just had the knack of making people feel good around him. “Though I suppose if we’re doing this properly, we should all say a little bit more about ourselves, what we’ve done before, and what we’re interested in here. I’ll start. As I said, I’m Landers. This is my third year working on the Seagull. I started as a reporter, but I have done most of the other jobs here too at one point or another. I set up the website for it, for example. But I’ll explain more about the newspaper in a minute.”

  They went around the room then. Bridget started, then Valerie and Samuel. It turned out that the blonde girl was called Celeste, and had worked on newspapers before. The remaining boy was Kurt, and he had spent time doing sports’ reporting. Finally, it was Lacey’s turn. With Landers there looking at her, it was hard to think what to say.

  “I-I’m Lacey. I worked on my junior high paper, and I’m hoping to do more journalism as I get older.”

  It seemed to be good enough, even if to Lacey’s ears it sounded extremely nervous. Landers started to explain how the school newspaper had been running for more than twenty years, and how they would all need to work hard to make sure that it got out okay.

  “It works like this,” he said. “We’ll talk through assignments together, so that we try to find ones that you want to do, but that people will want to read. Then you’ll need to go out, do your research, and get the finished copy back to me with enough time before we go to print that I can edit it, lay it out, and get everything together. All right?”

  Everybody murmured that it was fine. Lacey nodded.

  “Great,” Landers said. “Obviously, if you have any problems, come and see me. Don’t just ignore them, otherwise, I think I’m getting a great story from you but I actually end up with a big blank space. Now, assignments…”

  They talked about it for a while, and Landers eventually forced people to pin down ideas. Kurt got to do something on the football team’s chances this year. Bridget was given a piece on some recent changes to the school. One by one, everyone got an assignment. Everyone, that was, except Lacey. She was just about to ask what hers should be when the bell for the end of class went. The others hurried out, eager to get to their next lesson, but Lacey hesitated, and so did Landers.

  “You didn’t give me an assignment,” Lacey pointed out.

  Landers looked her in the eyes. “I figured that if I waited, I would get a chance to talk to you alone.”

  Lacey’s brow creased a little. “Why would you want to do that?”

  “I wanted to apologize about what happened yesterday at the ice cream parlor. Tempest isn’t usually like that.”

  Lacey wasn’t so sure about that. After all, she had known Tempest for a while. “Well, she was pretty rude.”

  “Yes,” Landers said, “and I’m sorry about that, Lacey. She shouldn’t have done it.”

  Lacey shook her head. “You shouldn’t have to apologize for someone else, Landers. You didn’t decide what Tempest would do.”

  Landers smiled then. “You’re right, but can I apologize for being around while she was doing it? For not stopp
ing her?”

  Lacey thought for a moment, and then nodded. “Yes, you can apologize for that. After all, if you let someone bully someone else, it’s not much better than doing it yourself.”

  “I know,” Landers said, “and I’m sorry. It won’t happen again though. Tempest and I are over.”

  Lacey gave just the smallest smile. “I heard that.”

  “She’s a knockout, but the way she behaves sometimes… it’s just mean-spirited. She’s particularly bad when she is around any girl she thinks of as potential competition.”

  Lacey couldn’t believe that one. “Competition? Me?”

  “Why not?” Landers’ eyes remained on hers, and Lacey found the seriousness of them a little intimidating. They promised so much. Too much, really. Lacey looked away, feeling the blush starting yet again.

  “I… I think it’s probably time for that assignment,” she said. “You do have an assignment for me, don’t you?”

  Landers nodded. “I do, and it’s probably one of the bigger ones. I want you to do a few pieces on all the various groups in the school- the geeks, the popular crowd, the Goths, that sort of thing- and find out all about them. How do they work? How do they think about themselves? What do they think about each other?”

  It did, Lacey had to admit, sound like a juicy assignment. Particularly considering that she wasn’t the most experienced member of the team. “Any ideas on where I should start?” she asked.

  Landers shrugged. “How about with me?”

  “With you?”

  “Well, I am the football captain, and I suppose you could say I’m in with the popular crowd, so it might be one way to get started. You don’t have to, obviously…”

  Lacey shook her head. “No, it’s a good idea.” She put on her best reporter voice. “So, Mr. Lowe, how does it feel to be the most popular guy in school?”

  “Not here,” Landers said. “How about I meet you later? On the beach, maybe? Or in front of your ice cream shop? You can ask me there.”

  The tone of that made Lacey want to jump out of her skin. For a moment, she didn’t know what to do. What to say. Finally, she managed to force herself to nod. “I’d like that. How about if we meet in front of the shop after school?”