He gave me a quick sideways glance and I started to smile, but he quickly
averted his eyes.
Ouch. What was that about? Was I wrong when I thought he’d be looking
forward to this, too? Hadn’t he smiled at me that morning as he was
walking out? I’d thought that had meant something. I’d been counting on it,
actually .
Barry introduced himself and they shook hands.
“So. Let’ s get to it then.”
Barry led us down the dimly lit hall, past the science labs, and into one of
those rarely visited corners of the school where there were random offices
and a bathroom no one ever used. Jake and I fell into st ep behind him, only
about two feet apart, but it felt like there was a wall between us.
Barry shoved open the door of a closet marked CUSTODIAN ONL Y and went
inside. It wasn’t big enough for all of us, so Jake and I waited on either side
of the door , facing each other but not talking to each other .
I had no idea what was going on, but I was not going to be the first to
speak.
“So. Here you go!”
Barry reemerged and handed us each a putty knife and a plastic bucket.
They looked as if they had seen better days.
“What’re these for?” Jake asked.
“They’re for scraping!” Barry announced happily , walking past us. He
was like a Disney W orld ice cream hawker . On speed. “Come on!”
Scraping. Why did I not like the sound of this? Barry led us down the
main hallway, which was quiet as a church on Friday night, and into the
cafeteria. The lights were ablaze, and every single table in the place was
turned upside down. Instantly , I knew what we were going to be scraping.
The tables’ undersides were all pimpled with a disgustingly colorful array
of gum wads.
“We didn’t get a chance to clear away all the gum over break,” Barry
said, putting his hands on his hips and sticking his gut out as he surveyed
the tables with what seemed like pride. “I got ’em all turned over before
you got here, so I saved you that.” He whipped out two pairs of plastic
gloves as if from nowhere and handed them to me. Then he slapped us on
our backs. “So. Enjoy!”
The cafeteria door let out a loud squeal as he shut us in together . Jake and
I looked at each another . It was almost like he was seeing me for the first
time and he didn’ t like what he saw .
“Is something wrong?” I asked, unable to take the silence any longer .
“No. What could be wrong?” he asked, dropping to the floor next to the
first table. His vibe was so cold I was turning into a Popsicle.
“I don’t know. You tell me.” I sat down next to him, my bucket clunking
against the floor. “Are you mad at me? Because it’s not like it’s my fault
we’re here.”
“I know that,” he said through his teeth.
“Then, what?” I asked, my voice small.
Jake looked up at me. He did a sort of double take and rubbed his
forehead with his hand. “It’s nothing. Sorry. I just . . . I guess I’m not a
morning person.”
I snorted a laugh, relaxing a little. “Maybe tomorrow I’ll bring cof fee.”
“Yeah. Good idea.”
There was a long moment of silence. I fiddled with my putty knife and
bit my lip, trying to think of what to say next.
“Listen, I’m sorry about all this,” Jake said finally .
I handed him a pair of gloves. “I should have figured out they were
setting me up. Y ou were just trying to help.”
Jake looked down at the gloves and blushed.
“So, really I should be thanking you,” I rambled on, “for, you know,
swooping in and trying to save me.”
Jake smiled for the first time. “I thought you didn’t need a knight in
shining armor .”
I was pulling on a glove as he said this, and it snapped against my wrist.
Ow. But I couldn’ t believe he’d actually remembered something I said back
in S eptember .
“Yeah, well . . . I guess sometim es I do,” I said, tugging the other glove
over my fingers. “But in the future, try saving me before the cops show .”
Jake’s laugh filled the cafeteria and melted my insides like s’mores over
a flame. He had this de ep, uninhibited laugh. I could listen to it all day .
And then I realized that I would be listening to it—to his laugh, his voice
—for two hours every day for the next ten school days. Who ever said
detention was a bad thing?
“Heads up!”
I looked up just in time to stop the basketball that was hurtling toward
my head. I batted it down with my forearm and glared at Shannen as she
strolled across the gym toward me.
“Nice reflexes.” She picked up the ball and cradled it between her wrist
and hip. “W anna warm up?”
She had to be kidding me. I got up and walked past her, grabbing a ball
from the rack near the wall and shooting it over her head. It swished
through the hoop, and I grabbed another .
“Oh. So, what? You’re not talking to me now?” she teased, tossing her
ball from hand to hand.
I glared at her and shot another perfect, arcing shot over her head.
“Come on, Ally. It was just a joke. God, you’re as bad as Jake,” she said,
grabbing my third ball out of my hands.
“A joke?” I blurted. “I thought we called a truce. What the hell,
Shannen?” I jogged over to the corner, picked up my ball, and shot a layup,
then got out of the way as some of our teammates started to take their
warm-up shots.
“Calm down,” Shannen said, looking me up and down. “It wasn’t even
my idea.”
“Oh, please. Don’t talk to me like I don’t know you,” I said, unzipping
my hoodie and tossing it onto the ground. “You’re always the mastermind
of these things.”
“Not this time! This one was all Faith,” Shannen protested.
I looked at her doubtfully . “Okay, fine. Let’s say I believe you. That
means you had nothing to do with it? What is Faith, the Megatron of the
crest or somethin g? She’s so freaking unstoppable? You can’t talk her out of
doing something intensely mean and stupid to people you supposedly like?”
“I didn’ t know Jake was going to be there,” she said.