The Agent's Daughter by Ron Corriveau Page A

after-school
life for years,” Melina said. She wanted to say more about it, but
she stopped. “This is my class. I had better be getting inside
before the bell rings.
    “ Okay,” Alex
said.
    Neither Melina nor Alex knew what to say at
this point. They had covered a lot of ground. There would have to
be consultations with friends before either of them would know the
meaning of this conversation, and know how to proceed. Finally,
Alex said, “I had better get going too. I’ll see you in English
class.”
    Melina watched from the doorway of her
classroom as Alex slowly backed away, and then walked down the
hall. When he disappeared around a corner, she smiled and drifted
into her class.

    ………………………… .

    “ Melina! Over
here.”
    Jean was calling to Melina from a table in
the lunchroom. She was sitting with two of their friends, Lindsey
and Denise. Jean did not have friends so it would be more correct
to say that Jean was sitting with two of Melina’s friends. They
were a few of the sort of friends that you have at school but do
not see outside of school. Melina knew Lindsey from middle school.
She was pretty but not particularly smart. Denise had been in
Melina’s advanced classes since elementary school. All of their
eyes were on Melina as she sat down at the table.
    “ What are you guys looking
at?” Melina asked.
    “ Well?” Jean said as if
Melina had asked a stupid question.
    Melina looked confused. Then it dawned on
her. “Are you wondering about Alex?”
    “ Jean told us all about
your new crush,” Denise said, excited.
    “ Yeah,” Lindsey said,
laughing. “We heard the whole story. The embarrassing episode in
language arts class yesterday, the meeting with Alex after class,
the embarrassment at the meeting with Alex after class, and finally
the meeting with Alex today in physics class.”
    “ And we are dying to find
out how it ends,” Denise said.
    “ Okay,” Melina started as
the three friends’ heads leaned in to hear. “First, he doesn’t
think that I am crazy or weird. He totally understands my situation
with my mom and he even told me a similar story about his dad.
Then, we had a nice chat about homework and other non-school stuff
when he was walking me to my history class.”
    “ He walked you to your
next class?” Denise shrieked.
    Melina smiled. “Yes he did. All the way over
to the D wing.”
    “ Did Alex walk you
specifically to your class, or was he just walking with you to your
class as he continued on to his own class?” Jean asked as if she
were an attorney cross-examining a witness.
    Melina thought for a moment. “I guess I
would have to say that he may have been walking with me to my class
as he did continue down the same hallway past my class.”
    “ Doesn’t sound like we
have anything interesting here, folks,” Jean said, “Just a couple
of geeks walkin’ and talkin’ about science stuff.”
    “ I guess that’s true,”
Melina said. “Just a couple of lab partners talkin’ about their
magnetics lab project.”
    “ Lab partners?” Denise
said. “What luck. Mr. Clary’s random lab partner assignment always
pairs me with the weird guys.”
    Melina leaned in with a
sly look. “If only the assignment were random. Alex went to Mr. Clary
before class and asked him if he could be my lab
partner.”
    “ Oooooooooh,” Denise and
Lindsey cooed.
    “ Wait a minute,” Jean
interrupted. “You are the smartest one in that class. What if he
just needed some help and wanted to be paired with the smart
girl.”
    “ Yeah,” Melina said.
“That’s what I thought too. Until he told me that the reason that
he asked to be my lab partner, was that he liked being around me. I
told him that I liked being around him too.”
    “ Ooooooooooh,” again from
Denise and Lindsey.
    Jean leaned back from the table. “Looks like
our Melina has herself a boyfriend.”
    “ With the kissing
privileges that come with it,” Lindsey followed.
    “ Wait, what?”