listening?” Tyler asked, the next grape at the ready.
Opening the top of my burger and fishing out the pickle slice, I answered his tilted eyebrows with a smirk and countered, “Try it, and you’ll have this splattered on your forehead.”
Tyler’s hands lifted in surrender. “White flag, man!” He popped the grape into his mouth with a big grin. A truce was fine with me, as long as no more fruit nailed me in the eye.
After lunch, as everyone started off in different directions, I caught up with Ryan and walked with him to biology. Curiosity was a curse that I couldn’t seem to shake off today. “What’s the deal with Miss Snappy and Rude sitting at your table? Thought she’d be friendly with the volcano-builders.”
“Miller? She’s cool.” Ryan glanced at me sideways. “Why? Are you interested in her?”
“No. She’s hanging out with my brother, and that’s just a little strange, considering we’re talking about”—I shrugged and frowned at him—“ Ethan .” Ryan was the most discreet person I knew and one of the few people who also knew about my brother’s supposed preferences. When the rumors had almost made it outside the basketball team and Ethan quit playing, I talked to Ryan quite often. One of his cousins was gay, too, so he could talk a lot about it with me.
“Give Ethan a chance. I think they’d make a fine match.” Hunter chuckled and slapped me on the shoulder. “While you, my friend, don’t seem to be healthy company for the book lover.”
I lifted both eyebrows. “Sorry, what?”
“For the first time in—I believe her entire life—she’s been put in detention.”
Thinking that news over, I walked through the door into biology, but then stopped when Hunter didn’t follow. “Where’re you going?”
With a grin, he explained, “Done with school for the day. Got some class president stuff to do.”
A meeting? Oh, the lucky dude. Now that he mentioned it, I remembered that this was also the reason for Rebecca not joining us at lunch. She was his VP, and Tyler had said something about that before he nearly blinded me with a grape. Before Ryan could head off, I shouted after him, “What got Miss Snappy in detention?”
He laughed, cutting me a quick glance over his shoulder as he walked away. “As if you don't know.”
Heck, should I? Dumbfounded, I stood on the threshold to biology until the bell rang half a minute later and Mr. Murphy shoved me into the room as he came around the corner. The stout man, who always wore a white lab coat with big white buttons on it, pushed his glasses up his nose and coughed.
“Have something better in mind than listening to my lesson, Mr. Donovan?” he asked in a voice that broke on every other word, sounding like he was stuck in a pubescent voice change for the rest of his life. Everybody liked the teacher, who had the face of a koala, mostly because we couldn’t do bad enough at any of his tests for him to give us a grade worse than a C, ever.
“You’re lucky, Mr. Murphy, I think I’m going to stay today,” I bantered back and walked to my seat by the window. Shrugging out of my leather jacket, I made myself comfortable for watching yet another film on the dissection of a human brain, which laid free all the slimy stuff. It was one of the most disgusting things they showed in high schools but most of my classmates enjoyed the view. For me, it was easy to zone out and let the hour pass without registering much.
Carefully, so as not to be seen by koala Murphy, I threaded the cable of my headphones under my Dunkin’ Sharks jersey from bottom to top. At the collar, I fished them out and plugged them in my ears from behind my neck. The volume on a minimum, just loud enough so it tuned out the sound of the nasty documentary, I leaned back, scooted lower in my chair, and focused on the clock above the blackboard instead of the TV.
My music always on shuffle, I counted the minutes ticking away to my favorite song, “Take Me
Opening the top of my burger and fishing out the pickle slice, I answered his tilted eyebrows with a smirk and countered, “Try it, and you’ll have this splattered on your forehead.”
Tyler’s hands lifted in surrender. “White flag, man!” He popped the grape into his mouth with a big grin. A truce was fine with me, as long as no more fruit nailed me in the eye.
After lunch, as everyone started off in different directions, I caught up with Ryan and walked with him to biology. Curiosity was a curse that I couldn’t seem to shake off today. “What’s the deal with Miss Snappy and Rude sitting at your table? Thought she’d be friendly with the volcano-builders.”
“Miller? She’s cool.” Ryan glanced at me sideways. “Why? Are you interested in her?”
“No. She’s hanging out with my brother, and that’s just a little strange, considering we’re talking about”—I shrugged and frowned at him—“ Ethan .” Ryan was the most discreet person I knew and one of the few people who also knew about my brother’s supposed preferences. When the rumors had almost made it outside the basketball team and Ethan quit playing, I talked to Ryan quite often. One of his cousins was gay, too, so he could talk a lot about it with me.
“Give Ethan a chance. I think they’d make a fine match.” Hunter chuckled and slapped me on the shoulder. “While you, my friend, don’t seem to be healthy company for the book lover.”
I lifted both eyebrows. “Sorry, what?”
“For the first time in—I believe her entire life—she’s been put in detention.”
Thinking that news over, I walked through the door into biology, but then stopped when Hunter didn’t follow. “Where’re you going?”
With a grin, he explained, “Done with school for the day. Got some class president stuff to do.”
A meeting? Oh, the lucky dude. Now that he mentioned it, I remembered that this was also the reason for Rebecca not joining us at lunch. She was his VP, and Tyler had said something about that before he nearly blinded me with a grape. Before Ryan could head off, I shouted after him, “What got Miss Snappy in detention?”
He laughed, cutting me a quick glance over his shoulder as he walked away. “As if you don't know.”
Heck, should I? Dumbfounded, I stood on the threshold to biology until the bell rang half a minute later and Mr. Murphy shoved me into the room as he came around the corner. The stout man, who always wore a white lab coat with big white buttons on it, pushed his glasses up his nose and coughed.
“Have something better in mind than listening to my lesson, Mr. Donovan?” he asked in a voice that broke on every other word, sounding like he was stuck in a pubescent voice change for the rest of his life. Everybody liked the teacher, who had the face of a koala, mostly because we couldn’t do bad enough at any of his tests for him to give us a grade worse than a C, ever.
“You’re lucky, Mr. Murphy, I think I’m going to stay today,” I bantered back and walked to my seat by the window. Shrugging out of my leather jacket, I made myself comfortable for watching yet another film on the dissection of a human brain, which laid free all the slimy stuff. It was one of the most disgusting things they showed in high schools but most of my classmates enjoyed the view. For me, it was easy to zone out and let the hour pass without registering much.
Carefully, so as not to be seen by koala Murphy, I threaded the cable of my headphones under my Dunkin’ Sharks jersey from bottom to top. At the collar, I fished them out and plugged them in my ears from behind my neck. The volume on a minimum, just loud enough so it tuned out the sound of the nasty documentary, I leaned back, scooted lower in my chair, and focused on the clock above the blackboard instead of the TV.
My music always on shuffle, I counted the minutes ticking away to my favorite song, “Take Me
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