Miss Taken (4 page)

It was freezing and we didn’t have coats but
to the courtyard we would go. At the very least, I figured I could
cut the argument short due to inclement weather.

We stood there in the frigid air. I for one
was willing to call an immediate cease fire and head back indoors.
I took the most direct route: I wrapped as much of me around him as
I could for warmth and kissed him.

Ned was only slightly appeased. “That’s nice
but what the hell is up with you and that dude?”

“Nothing,” the shrill tone of my voice did
not add to the veracity of my statement. I sounded totally guilty
when all I had done was virtuously assist another hapless member of
the mathematically-challenged population.

Okay, maybe I had a few eensy, weensy
disloyal thoughts about the level of Kyle’s cuteness, but my mind
seems to have a mind of its own sometimes.

In a show of mental acumen that I would have
preferred he produce at some other time - say, during a math
midterm - Ned seemed to be able to read my thoughts exactly. “You
think he’s cute.”

“No!” Once again, my protest sounded lame and
unconvincing.

Ned disentangled himself. “Yes you do.” He
started toward the door.

“Wait, Ned!” I wailed. “Where are you
going?”

“Inside. It’s freakin’ freezin’ out
here.”

Had he instantly forgotten the exchange that
just took place or was he dumping me? I ran to catch up with him.
“Who cares about Kyle? I l-l-like, I like you.”

That was a close one. Probably not the best
time to bandy about the L-word. I hooked his arm and planted
another smooch on his lips to prove my fidelity.

Ned accepted the kiss, thank goodness. “So
it’s Kyle, huh? You guys are on a first name basis already?” There
was a wry smirk on his face.

I took this as a good sign. “Well, actually,
we never got to last names. I talked to him for about five seconds
after helping him with trinomials yesterday. I guess he just wanted
a freebie on the homework.”

Huh. Now that I said it out loud, this was
more than a little likely. And here I was, dumb enough to actually
believe his smooth talking.

“Yeah, well don’t go giving Mr. Wild West any
other freebies, okay? This Saturday, you’re busy. Even if it means
I have to use my lasso to climb out a second story window.”

How exciting. Ned was willing to fight for
me. Maybe I would let him think...

No. That would not be an upstanding,
honorable, Robin Jane-esque thing to do.

Strange but true scientific fact: Queen bees
battle constantly with their workers over the sex of the offspring.
Workers want more females to help but the queen wants mates. When
the queen is ready to reproduce she lays all male eggs, which the
workers proceed to destroy as fast as possible.

I managed to have minimal interaction with
Kyle for a whole day and a half. I was even happy to cede the honor
of escorting him between math and bio to Diana, who claimed it with
scantily-concealed triumph. So immature.

I totally knew I could have him back in a
second, anyway, if I wanted him.

Which I did not.

For an entire thirty-six hours, I didn’t have
a single dishonorable thought about Kyle. Then we had gym. I
learned that Kyle got the letter on his jacket for baseball. His
athletic talents should have made me despise him, but it didn’t for
reasons I will explain.

Coach Meany has this sixth sense when it
comes to sniffing out athletes and chose Kyle as a team captain. No
surprise there. The real shocker came when Kyle chose me (!) first
(!!) for his volleyball team. I was so honored that I hated to let
him down, which I most certainly would do.

On my word, he picked Diana. This isn’t as
suicidal as it sounds. Diana is actually quite good at volleyball,
especially when she remembers to wear sneakers instead of heels. I
felt slightly drunk with the power I was wielding.

She pranced over and sat on the other side of
Kyle, smiling smugly at the as-yet-unchosen goddesses of all things
sporty, Hannah, Meliss and Bree, totally ignoring the role I had
played in getting her there.

In the true spirit of Robin Jane, I let her
have her paltry victory. She gets so few, it would be cruel to take
it away from her.

I was even willing to go so far as to be
preemptive and warn Kyle about my total lack of ability in this
sport (and all other sports, but no reason to bring that up today).
I don’t like volleyball at all. It hurts. I hate serving because
your wrist feels numb and tingly for the rest of the day. And
although I no longer have the problem of getting my glasses smashed
into my face, it still hurts when the ball collides with your nose,
whether or not it also grinds a sharp piece of metal into your eye
socket.

I really tried to make my confession before
the picking ended so he could send me back to the corral if he so
chose. But the selection went on without my getting a chance to say
anything. When I did finally get a word in, Kyle just winked at me.
With a click of his invisible gum and a tiny little BB shot out of
his finger pistol, he promised, “I’ll take care of you. Just stay
by me.”

A little whiff of jealousy floated over from
Hannah’s direction who ended up on our team after all, as well as
from several other girls including Bree and Meliss who were all the
way across the net. An extra flutter of the eyelashes and a pop of
gum told me they had heard every word.

Kyle started off serving and thoughtfully put
me to his left so I would avoid that position for as long as
possible. He hit all the balls that came in our direction and
bumped into me in a not-unpleasant fashion once or twice. He wasn’t
the most fantastic player I had ever seen, but he had great team
spirit and willingly took the blame even when someone else really
should have gotten the ball.

Diana really outdid herself today and Kyle
gave her a few purely platonic high fives. Then he immediately
turned and winked at me in thanks for tipping him off about Diana,
but also just because he likes me better.

Kyle showed me how to serve in a way that was
much less painful and forgave me every time I screwed it up anyway.
I managed to lose the game that Diana had brought us to the brink
of winning. It was utterly humiliating but Kyle was gracious and
non-accusatory.

All I have to say about Diana is that she
could have taken a page out of Kyle’s book. It’s not like I did it
on purpose. I wanted more than anything to look good in front of
the new boy too. And while I was not planning on going out for the
volleyball team any time soon, this particular game was the most
enjoyable one I had ever played.

Freckles can really grow on a person.

His sweat didn’t even smell bad. But before
going any further into that kind of thinking, I stopped myself.

Not only were these thoughts bordering on
disloyalty to Ned again, but I needed to be wary because maybe Kyle
was just being nice to me so I would help him with math.

Never before in my life had my math skills
been so much in demand. This was pretty cool.

In the locker room, I overheard some snide
comments being made by Meliss and Bree about a certain someone
feigning helplessness due to the presence of a new person in a
letterman jacket. I protested, if only to myself. Even those two
self-absorbed twits should know that when it comes to handling
balls, my poor performance is not an act.

I was very glad I did not make that rebuttal
aloud.

At least Hannah didn’t join in. I was glad of
her loyalty, even if it only extended to her keeping silent.

But it was kind of exhilarating to excite
jealousy in girls who think they are so superior.

I turned to Diana, thinking she would share
in my joy of getting one up on the cool girls. She pretended to be
deeply engaged in straightening her pantyhose. How is it possible
that she finds the one shade of hose that doesn’t match her beige
suit and looks nothing like her natural skin color?

I would have been happy to share this useful
advice with her, but Bree and Meliss cracked another joke about me
and Kyle, and Diana had the nerve to roll her eyes at me!

If she wants to look clashy and unpolished,
that is her choice.

Strange but true scientific fact: Stomach
acids are strong enough to dissolve razor blades.

At lunch that day, I toyed with the idea of
going to the library again but it felt too risky. I didn’t want to
have any more impromptu tête-à-têtes with Kyle. So I went to the
cafeteria and sat down by myself with the added protection of a
book. The noise made it harder to concentrate, but it was only a
boring assignment for English, so it really didn’t matter.

I was actually sort of getting into the story
when I felt someone standing over me.

Kyle.

“Mind if I sit with you?” he said, not
waiting for an answer. “Funny the way all of life boils down to who
you eat lunch with, isn’t it?” He gave me a self-deprecating
smile.

Kyle sure seemed to ask a lot of rhetorical
questions. But I could hardly tell him to go away when he was being
so honest and vulnerable. Plus, I totally agreed with him.

He started in on his lunch. “Whatcha
reading?”

“The Odyssey.”

“It’s not bad, once you get past the weird
language.”

That was just what I was thinking, but I
refrained from saying it out loud. I didn’t want to encourage him.
I merely nodded.

I only got about one sentence further when
Kyle interrupted again. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but your
eyes are so beautiful. They remind me of the Caribbean sea.”

My first real compliment. How could he think
I would misinterpret a comment like that? I set my book down with a
snap. “Thank you,” I said with a firm nod. I followed it up with,
“Are you from a Caribbean island?”

“No,” Kyle dismissed the idea with a clack of
his invisigum. He flicked his shades down in front of his eyes as
if imagining the glare of the hot equatorial sun. “Been there a few
times though.”

I was just about to ask which island he was
from when he cut me off with, “So, who do you have for French?”

“M. Waddell.”

“Mister Waddell, eh?” He pronounced it
“waddle.” “What’s he like?”

“It’s Monsieur Waddell. Don’t ever let him
hear you call him Mister. Even though he naps through most of
class, he’s weird strict about a few things.”

“Naps?”

“Yeah. We watch a lot of videos.”

“Sounds cool, you know, easy-peasy.”

I agreed that it was not the most challenging
class I had ever taken. He winked at me as he took a big bite of
his hamburger. He ate his lunch cheerfully and neatly without
getting crumbs and ketchup all over his face like some people I
know. I, however, did not feel comfortable eating in front of this
cute boy.

I mean, this plain, ordinary boy.

As he chewed, I mentally ran through the list
of islands he could still be from now that the Caribbean was out.
Kyle is in Miss Bourgeois’ French class, which is a level above
mine. I wondered momentarily if he was from Tahiti. But that didn’t
make sense because then he wouldn’t need to take French at all. I
narrowed the list.

I was still wondering if the people of Bali
spoke English when Kyle walked into M. Waddell’s room. Due to my
extraordinary auditory skills, from the back of the room I could
hear him say he was switching to my class.

There happened to be an empty seat next to me
that day. M. Waddell is so laid back (or lazy), he doesn’t care
where anyone sits. Kyle made a beeline for the desk next to mine.
His attentiveness pleased me but I was careful not to show it.

It was one of the rare days when we weren’t
watching a video, so we couldn’t chat. I was actually kind of
relieved. After spending so many hours in his company I needed a
break from keeping my stomach sucked in and having a a pleasant,
non-vacant expression plastered on my face all the time.

As we walked from French to woodshop, I asked
if he would be taking the bus that afternoon. He said his mother
was “a little bit of a freak” about buses and so she drives him.
Kyle looked embarrassed about it, so I was left conjecturing as to
what direction her freakishness took.

Strange but true scientific fact: After skin,
the liver is the 2nd largest human organ. It performs over 200
functions, and is the only internal organ that spontaneously
regenerates.

For our next French class, we had a video, M.
Waddell not being in the habit of having to exert himself two days
in a row. Kyle chose the seat next to me again. I made a point of
being very interested in what Mirabelle and Michael were up to in
the Live It! Learn It! French tape.

At least I was until a little wad of paper
appeared on my desk. Kyle’s wink let me know who it was from. It
would be rude not open it. It said, “Hey.”

It would also be rude not to reply. I
scribbled, “Hey,” and crumpled it back up. I double checked to make
sure M. Waddell was still dozing before dropping it deftly onto
Kyle’s desk. Well, I thought I was being smooth. I missed by half
an inch because even little balls of paper refuse to cooperate with
my fingers.

It fell on the floor and bounced half a row
in front of us. It wasn’t exactly an incriminating piece of paper,
but I still didn’t want to get caught passing notes during class
because when you do, you have to fill up a chalkboard with some
obscure phrase like “The asparagus takes the train from the North
Station” and then wash it off afterwards till the board is like
new.

In other words, not worth getting caught over
two “heys.”

I stretched the toe of my granny boot out as
far as it would go, but it was still several inches beyond my
reach. I didn’t want to move my chair and risk waking up M.
Waddell.