by Kailin Gow
Landers nodded, and Lacey could hardly wait to get out of there. She was sure that Landers could see her shaking with nerves just at the thought of it. When his hand touched her arm, she nearly yelped with shock.
“I look forward to seeing you then, Lacey.”
Chapter 3
As she walked from the room used by the Seagull Gazette, Lacey found her heart pounding. Had she just agreed to an interview with Landers, or to a date? She simply didn’t know. At that moment, with her heart fluttering away in her chest, Lacey wasn’t even sure which to hope for.
She headed for the school cafeteria, deciding that what she needed right now was the distraction of her friends. Valerie, Penny and the new girl Sandy were already there, having taken a table in one corner. They had saved Lacey a seat, which was just as well really, because the cafeteria was already getting very crowded. Getting her lunch, Lacey went over to join them.
“So, how was drama class?” she asked Penny.
“It was great. Really exciting, wasn’t it, Sandy?”
The red-haired girl nodded, and she and Penny started to talk all about the different acting exercises they had started to do in class, and how Mrs. Tuttle was the best. Valerie interrupted the excitement with a few questions about Sandy. Where she was from, what bands she liked, the usual kind of thing people inevitably asked when they were getting to know one another. Sandy was quite slow to talk about herself, but Lacey joined in the questioning, and eventually she started to open up a little more.
It turned out that Sandy’s parents both worked for the same major corporation, and she had only just moved to the area. Her family was originally from Ireland, or Eire as Sandy called it. She seemed to love drama almost as much as Penny did too. The more Sandy talked, the more Lacey found herself liking the new girl. Just the four of them sitting around a table talking seemed right somehow, even when Valerie managed to turn the talk to the newspaper, and who was editor.
“Did Landers give you an assignment in the end?” she asked.
Lacey nodded. “He wants me to do something on all the different cliques there are in school. I’m supposed to interview different people.”
Penny looked around them, at all the other kids. “Do you think we count as a clique?”
Lacey had to admit that she didn’t know.
“I don’t think we’re anything except a group of friends,” Valerie said.
“Well, what’s a clique then?” Penny asked.
“Maybe I’ll find out when I do the research,” Lacey said, deciding to head off the inevitable argument. Some days, she could have sworn that her friends loved to disagree almost as much as anything else.
“So where are you going to start?” Valerie asked. “Are you going to interview some nerds or something?”
Lacey bit her lip nervously. “Actually, Landers suggested that I might like to start by interviewing… him.”
“He did?” Penny practically jumped for joy. “That’s great!”
The other girls nodded their agreement. Getting to spend time alone with Landers was apparently a major coup.
“It’s not like it’s a big deal,” Lacey said. “I mean, he’s the Chief Editor. I’m obviously going to see him sometimes.”
“And he just happened to give you the assignment where you have to interview him?” Sandy pointed out. It seemed that she was perceptive, although she was shy about speaking.
“Um…”
“Yes,” Valerie said. “All I got was a story on whether we’re eating healthily enough with the food in the cafeteria.”
“Well, that’s a good story too,” Lacey said.
“I bet you wouldn’t swap though. What is it you’re having? I suppose I should start my research some time.”
The others told Valerie, and Lacey had to admit, it probably wasn’t the healthiest selection in the world. Even Penny, who had been talking about wanting to lose ten pounds just the other day, had burgers.
“I wonder if it will be this easy to do research for your story?” Valerie said to Lacey.
Penny grinned. “It will be with Landers there.”
Thoughts of Landers and the interview ahead kept Lacey going through her remaining classes that day, even if they also meant that she more or less daydreamed her way through them too. In her history class, she was so busy thinking about what she would ask Landers that she almost missed the part where the teacher gave them an assignment. Thankfully, Valerie had been listening, and was only too willing to tell Lacey what they were supposed to be doing.
Lacey managed to get a ride home with Valerie too, though once she was back, she didn’t have any time to waste. Her parents were still down at the ice cream parlor, and Lacey needed to be too, if she wanted to meet Landers. She changed into a nice soft peach blouse, white pants and wedges before combing her hair and putting on make-up that would suit the beach. Once she was done, Lacey collected up a few things that she would need and set out for her parents’ shop.
The beach was close enough for Lacey to walk to, and it wasn’t too long before she was making her way along the sand to the ice cream parlor. There was no sign of Landers there yet, but it was still early. Lacey looked in at the parlor, just to say hello to her parents and let them know how her first day back at school had gone, before stepping outside to wait for Landers.
And wait. People passed on the beachfront, and enjoyed themselves out on the sand, but there wasn’t any sign of her would be interviewee as Lacey leaned against the outside of her parents’ shop, looking for some glimpse of him. Had he forgotten her?
Worse, was he doing this deliberately? Lacey didn’t want to believe it of Landers, but if he was so very popular, and such a good friend of Tempest’s, then maybe he thought that it would be funny to leave her waiting out there. Maybe he would be laughing with his friends over standing her up like this, even as Lacey was starting to get bored.
No, Lacey decided. Landers wouldn’t do that. He just wouldn’t.
Even so, it wasn’t very comfortable just waiting out in front of the shop, so Lacey decided to wait for him on the beach instead. There, she could look out over the ocean, enjoy the sun, and spend some time having fun until Landers arrived.
Finding a clear patch of sand with a good view of the ice cream shop, Lacey sat down to wait. While she did so, she took out her journal from her bag along with a pen, and started to write, the way she had every day for years. She wrote about school, and what it was like to be on the newspaper, and her ideas for the article she had to write. Lacey didn’t write about Landers, but that was just because there were some things that she was too embarrassed to say, even in a diary.
Lacey was still writing when a shadow fell over her, dulling the heat of the sun for a moment. She looked up and saw Landers standing there. With the sun behind him, he looked even more handsome than usual.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said with a smile, “I got held up. I tried calling, but the only number I had was for the ice cream parlor. Did you get my message?”
Lacey shook her head, and found herself feeling a little guilty for her earlier thoughts about him abandoning her there. It seemed that Landers had actually gone out of his way to try to contact her, though Lacey wasn’t sure why she hadn’t gotten the message. She wasn’t sure that she cared. She was simply happy that he had come after all.
“You’re here now,” she said. “That’s all that matters. So, how about that interview?”
Landers sat down next to her on the sand. “So, you’re straight to business.”
“Sorry.”
“No,” he said, “I like that. I like that you’re taking the assignment seriously.” Landers looked out across the beach for a moment, and Lacey realized just how close he had sat to her. “So, you want to know all about cliques, Lacey? Well ask away, and I’ll do my best to answer honestly.”
“I know you will,” Lacey said, and tried to compose her thoughts. “Well, the obvious first question is whether you think you are a part of a c
lique at school.”
Landers thought for a moment. “I don’t really think that way, but I suppose most of the people I hang out with would say that I’m part of their clique, yes.”
“What clique is that?” Lacey inquired. She smiled. “Like I have to ask.”
Landers shrugged. “I belong in the group that… well, I would call it ‘high profile’, because it tends to be the one that gets noticed.”
Lacey raised an eyebrow at the choice of term. “Popular, you mean?”
“I suppose so. If being football captain and school newspaper editor automatically makes you popular, then yes. I guess I must be part of the popular crowd.”
“You don’t sound very enthusiastic about it,” Lacey said. “I mean, a lot of my friends really want to be in with that group.”
Landers shook his head. “It’s not like it was my goal, or anything. With things like being the captain of the football team and Editor of the newspaper, I’m looking to get a scholarship for college. That kind of thing always looks good on an application.”
“And if it lets you date hot girls like Tempest in the meantime,” Lacey guessed, “so much the better.”
Again though, Landers shook his head. Rather more forcefully, this time. “That really wasn’t the plan. Tempest… well, she didn’t really give me the chance to say “no” to her. She just pushed and pushed until I agreed to take her out a couple of times, but she’s not really my type.”
Lacey laughed. “I find that hard to believe. Tempest is everybody’s type.”
“Sure, she’s pretty, and she’s popular too… ”
“Says the guy who claims not to have set out to be.”
“…but she’s mean too.”
Lacey shrugged. “Aren’t most popular people?” She realized what she had just said. “Sorry.”
“No, I can see why you’d think it. But not everyone who is popular has to be like her. I’m not.”
Lacey grinned at that. “Modest, aren’t you?”
Landers cocked his head to one side, and his voice took on a more sincere tone. “Well, would you say that I’m nice?”
Lacey nodded automatically. “I have to admit though that I wasn’t expecting it. I half expected you to be like Tempest. To just blow off anyone who wasn’t in your little group.”
“Well, it seems like you’ve worked out what cliques are for, at least,” Landers said.
“What? To keep out everyone else, so it’s just you and the people like you in the group?”
Landers spread his hands. “Maybe that’s not all of it, I don’t know, but it’s an interesting point, isn’t it? That’s why I wanted you to do this assignment. I think it might change the way a few people at school think. Take me. I never really thought that I was part of a clique, but now, I’m beginning to suspect that everyone is.”
“Yes, well, at least you don’t need to worry,” Lacey pointed out. “You’re part of the most popular group.”
“But my brother won’t be.”
“Your brother?” Lacey vaguely recalled a name. “Sean, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Landers said. “Sean’s twelve.”
“What is it you’re worried about?”
“He’s autistic and it’s hard for him sometimes…” Landers turned serious. “I’m worried about cliques when he becomes a teen and goes to high school. He’s fine, but sometimes he has little quirks that would make him stand out as different. I know how cruel someone like Tempest might be about that stuff.”
Lacey could imagine it too, though right then, she didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t known about Sean, and hearing it made her think very differently of his brother.
Chapter 4
Lacey was starting to suspect that she was out of her depth when it came to this talk with Landers. She hadn’t done enough research yet on cliques to be able to argue convincingly about them, and she really didn’t know much about autism, either. Rather than embarrass herself further, Lacey said as much, and was surprised to see Landers smile.
“You don’t need to worry about not knowing, Lacey. Most people don’t. Unless you happen to know someone who is autistic, it’s hard to have a real sense of what it can be like.”
They both looked out over the ocean for a moment, and as that moment stretched Lacey got the feeling that Landers was waiting for her to say something. Lacey looked out at the waves and tried to work out what she should say. Was this a test of how she would react?
“What is it like?” she asked. “What was it like with Sean?”
Landers’ smile suggested that she had said the right thing. “I thought you might not ask it, for a moment. Some people don’t. They think that if they ignore what I’ve said, it will just go away.”
“Or maybe they just don’t know what to ask,” Lacey suggested.
“Maybe.” Landers didn’t sound convinced.
“So what is it like?” Lacey repeated.
Landers sat there and thought about it for a moment, while a few people strolled along the beach in the background. “It can be hard. In the beginning my parents were devastated. Sean was a healthy, happy baby until he turned two.”
“What happened when he turned two?” Lacey asked. She knew she had to.
Landers shrugged, but his expression wasn’t nearly so casual. In fact, the pain in it made Lacey briefly sorry that she had asked at all. “He was developing normally until then…having the right amount of vocabulary for his age, making eye contact, being sociable. Everything you would expect. Then at two, something happened. He stopped talking. He withdrew. We couldn’t get him to reach out, to talk.”
For a moment, the pained expression on Landers’ face intensified. “At first it was very hard, but that didn’t change how we felt about him. We loved him very much. We love him very much.” That was said fiercely, as though daring Lacey to disbelieve him.
Lacey nodded. “He’s your brother. Of course you do.”
“Not everybody would think that,” Landers said.
“I’m not everybody.”
“No,” Landers agreed, looking at her for a long moment. “I guess you aren’t.”
“So, what happened when Sean was diagnosed?” Lacey asked. She wanted to hear the whole story, and besides, if Landers kept looking at her like that, she would only end up with the old nervousness coming back.
“We tried to get all the help we could,” Landers explained. “My parents and I would take turns helping him associate words with pictures, and we would take time to bring him to peer groups so he could learn to socialize more. It took a long time, but he made some progress.”
“What kind of progress?” Lacey asked. “I’m sorry, I just don’t know what would happen, what the condition would mean for someone.”
Landers paused as he tried to think of how best to explain. “For my brother, autism initially meant problems with the most basic things. Sean needed a speech therapist and an occupational therapist to help him with things we take for granted – eating on our own, using utensils, things like that.”
Lacey tried to imagine what it would have been like for Landers’ brother. Tried to imagine what it would have been like for Landers too. After all, the boy was only a few years older than his brother, yet from the sounds of it, he had had to grow up fast. Would it have been hard for Landers, trying to help his brother while he was just a kid too? Or would it just have been normal for him?
Lacey was going to ask it, but it seemed that Landers wasn’t done. “When Sean was four, he made a huge jump and began speaking in full sentences, being sociable with others, making eye contact. Just simple things really, but you don’t realize how vital they are until someone can’t do them. Sean made so much progress that he was able to make it into a regular school, but with occasional sessions with a speech therapist.”
“It sounds like he’s doing a lot better,” Lacey ventured. She didn’t want to sound too positive, in case it sounded like she was trivializing things, but she knew she needed to say some
thing.
Landers smiled, and Lacey basked in the warmth of it for a moment. Landers obviously cared about his brother a lot. “He is. But he’s still sensitive when it comes to loud noises and other things. Part of the reason that we moved out here in the first place was because there are some great special needs schools around here.”
Lacey actually felt a little guilty then. Not for what had happened to Sean, but simply that she hadn’t known any of this before. She hadn’t made much of an effort to find out about Landers when he first moved in, and she hadn’t known about Sean’s condition at all until Landers told her.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “I wish I’d learned more about you and your family earlier. If I had known, I would have tried to be more helpful.”
“That’s the thing, though,” Landers said, stretching out on the beach more, “my parents really don’t want Sean being labeled. For people to pity him. People don’t understand properly.”
“Then help me understand,” Lacey suggested.
Landers hesitated, but then nodded. “What you have to realize is that autism isn’t just one thing. It covers a whole spectrum of symptoms, from the mildest forms of Asperger’s syndrome right up to people who really can’t function at all. Everyone with the condition is unique.”
“And Sean’s condition is towards the less severe end of the scale?” Lacey asked.
Landers nodded. “But the moment anyone mentions autism, people automatically think of the worst problems. Even my parents and I didn’t understand that at first, we thought that Sean would fit in with the worst case scenario, but he’s really not that different from anyone else. We just have to make a few adjustments to keep up with his needs. We’ve generally kept it just in the family, though, because we know the assumptions people will make. How differently they would end up treating Sean.”
Because it felt right at that moment, Lacey reached out and put her hand over Landers’.
