Or woman.
Keesh looks back at us with a snarl. This female teacher is not what she had in mind. I don’t care either way. History is not my thing.
Travis, however, is wishing he was sitting in the front row with Keesh. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if he paid her to switch seats. I thought Ms. McGallian was hot. This woman has JLo’s ass, Selma’s boobs, and Jessica Alba’s face. Damn, if I had a wood, I’d totally be popping a chub right about now.
“Close your mouth, Trav.”
He doesn’t even blink. None of the guys do. The girls watch the guys make fools of themselves. It’s pretty entertaining witnessing them straightening their posture in their seats, trying to look tall and confident. Some dig for a pencil out of their bags, and one even takes out highlighters. Like any of you have a chance, I want to say. I really want to laugh out loud but our teacher seems unaffected by the whole thing.
“Welcome back, seniors,” Ms. Angel says. Oh my god. What happened to our scheduled teacher, Mr. Curtis. Ms. Angel? Really? I can already hear the wise cracks forming in Travis’s head. “Mr. Curtis decided to retire so I’m a new hire. Just added on last week. But don’t you fear. I have a lot of experience.”
Travis lets out a sound. Did he just moan? “Down boy,” I whisper.
“Do you have a question? Miss?” she says, staring me down.
“My name is Megan. No question. My friend sneezed. I was just being polite and saying, ‘bless you’.” I pulled that one straight out of my ass. My ass that is currently sulking because it pales in comparison to the perfectly shaped rump that’s attached to Ms. Angel. Surely, her booty-licious rear was a gift from God himself.
“Since you’re so polite, maybe you and your friend would like to stay after school today and help me unpack.”
Before I can protest, Travis speaks up. “Of course we can stay. As long as you need.”
I give him the evil eye, but nothing can wipe that silly grin off his face. I glance at Keesh, who’s looking back at me and shaking with silent laughter at my demise.
I’m going to kill Travis. If Andi doesn’t first.
“You shithead. You didn’t even do anything but stare at her ass while she was standing on that damn stool.” I smack Travis on the arm with my folder several times as we leave the school building.
“What are you talking about? I was totally working up a sweat.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you will later too, along with a bottle of lotion and a towel.”
He suddenly stops walking. I turn around and laugh at the serious face he’s giving me. “Let’s not talk about a man and his lube okay.”
We both bust up laughing as we leave campus.
“I can’t believe we got in trouble again,” I say.
“I wouldn’t call that trouble. That was like heaven.”
“Of course. Heaven with Ms. Angel.”
“She’s angelic, isn’t she? Did you see her calves?”
“Oh yeah, I could hardly contain myself. I just wanted to reach out and touch them.”
“I know.”
I punch him in the shoulder this time. “Knock it off. Or you’re walking on the other side of the street.” We walk in silence for a few seconds. “I can’t believe everyone left us. They only needed to wait a half hour.”
“I’m kinda glad they did.”
“Why’s that?” I ask, hip checking him.
He does it back and I almost trip. He catches my arm before I fall completely. “Because we haven’t spent much time together lately. I miss my friend. Just hanging out. The two of us. Not anything sexual or anything. Just friends. Like the good old days.”
“In the good old days, we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.”
He laughs. “Last year, at this time, we were half naked in your kitchen.”
“Don’t remind me,” I tell him, feeling my cheeks get hot. It’s not like I want to do that again. Not with him anyway, but that day we had record breaking heat between us. It was intense. I look forward to experiencing that again. Just not with Trav, if you know what I mean.
“What are you talking about? That was fun. I think we can talk about it without getting all weird. It’s not like we’re doing it now. We’re just talking.”
“I know. Let’s just talk about something else.”
“Hey, did Mrs. Fuller tell you what they’re having?” he asks.
“Yeah, it’s a boy.” I can still picture her telling me all the details. She’s due in December over our holiday break. She won’t be coming back to school until the middle of February. Mrs. Gelson is due in November. “They’re going to have a blast raising kids together.”
“I bet their kids get married. They’re going to grow up together and fall in love.”
The back of my hand flings across his chest. “They’ll be cousins, sicko.”
He holds up his hands, shielding himself from me. “Oh, shit. That’s right. I forgot.” We both laugh. “Okay then, I bet he protects her from all the boys in high school.”
“Yeah, much better.” I elbow him in the side. “But wow, Trav, when did you become such a romantic.”
He tosses his arm over my shoulder. “It’s Andi. She has me watching all the old classic romance movies. They’re in black and white. Cheesy as hell, but she loves them.”
“And you love her?”
“I think I do, Meg.” I look up at him with a smile. “I can totally understand what you and Alex have now. It’s a cool feeling.”
“I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks, Megster. I’m happy for you too.”
“That means a lot to me, Trav.”
“I know. And I mean it.”
We walk the rest of the way to my house in silence, enjoying our friendship and the special bond we still have.
“Wanna come in?” I ask.
“Nah, I’m gonna go to Andi’s. Maybe I can get her to sketch me naked.”
Chapter 5
“Mom, have you seen my ASB shirt?” I’ve turned my room upside down looking for it and we have to wear them to the game tonight. Everything seems out of place. I haven’t had much time to organize or keep things tidy.
My mom shows up at my door holding the black shirt. “What time do you have to be at school?”
I take the top from her and quickly put it on. “Five. They’re coming to get me at four so we can pick up some snacks.”
“And then what?” She stands in the doorway leaning against the frame.
“There’s the game and then we might go to a party.”
“What time are you going to be home?”
“What time do you want me home?” I wiggle my brows up and down at her.
She smiles. “One should be fine. But call us if you need anything.”
“Need anything? Like what?”
She comes in and takes a seat on my bed. Oh god. I shouldn’t have asked. “Like a designated driver.”
“C’mon, Mom.”
She holds up a hand. “I’m not stupid, Meg. I was in high school once. We probably should have had this talk a long time ago. Anyway, just be safe.”
“We always are.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re finally getting out. You’ve been cooped up in your room since school started.”
“I know. I thought senior year was supposed to be a breeze. My classes are hard. I’m so over math. I’m tempted to just drop it and go to a community college.” We have homework every day. It’s only a few problems but those few take forever to solve.
“Sorry, kiddo. That isn’t going to happen. Tough it out. You’ll be fine.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to like it. Thank god for ASB and being a teacher’s aide or I’d be stuck at home doing more work than I already am.”
“It’s a good thing you finished your foreign language requirement over the summer or you’d really be up a shit creek.” She’s right. I really wanted to be Mrs. Fuller’s TA, so I enrolled in the local community college to take sign language for the last two summers. My original plan was to complete the minimum two semesters, but I liked it so much, I decided to go for a third. It helped that Keesh and Steph joined me.
“No more talk about school. It’s making my brain hurt.” I flop down on the bed next to her.
She lies back beside me. “How about boy talk? How’s Alex?”
“He’s doing well. Classes have started for him so he’s really busy. I miss him though.”
“Of course you do, honey. When is he coming home for a visit?”
“Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
“Wow. That’s it.”
“Yeah. Whenever he comes home a lot, his grades suffer. And he wants to make sure he does well so he doesn’t have to repeat any classes and stay up north any longer than he has to.”
“Because of you?”
“Maybe.”
“Are you considering going to Berkeley too?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it. I haven’t thought about any schools.”
She sits up and pats me on the thigh. “Well you better start. This is it, Meg. Time to start planning.”
Ugh. She’s making my brain hurt again.
“Yeah. No problem. I’ll get right on that. After the party.”
It’s Spirit Night. The first home football game of the season. We have a stellar team this year. Finally. They won their first three games so I’m excited to see what we can do on our home turf. Ethan, our star defensive back, doesn’t have to carry the team anymore. He’s had some wiggle room since our offense has been scoring. We have a new quarterback who can throw and the receivers are actually catching the ball. I’m still not convinced the coach isn’t putting glue on their hands to make it stick. How did these fumbling fools learn how to catch all of a sudden? Dom says it’s the QB. They’ve made a connection. Whatever.
The best thing the coaches did this year was recruit Eric to be their kicker. A point here, and three for field goals makes a difference. Not many high school teams have a good leg. But we do. Eric loves it. All he does at practice is run and kick balls. Perfect conditioning for soccer, his real sport of choice.
Unfortunately, we’re stuck in the handball courts getting our float ready for the class parade so we don’t get to see the first half of the game.
“What are you thinking about, Meg?” Keesh asks.
“Our football team.” I must’ve been zoning out.
She hands me some balloons. “Well, work and think at the same time. We need to hurry.”
Roars of cheering can be heard from the bleachers. Damn it. I missed something good.
“Touchdown Tigers,” Josh yells as he runs back toward us.
“Hey, if I can’t watch the game, neither can you,” I scold him.
“Then who would give you all the highlights?”
“I’ll watch them on ESPN.”
To this he laughs and starts tying balloons. We always get balloon duty. It sucks, but beats getting dirty with all the paint and glitter. Andi is all over that stuff. She’s a creative soul. Our float is going to kick ass with her in charge. She painted our letters, S-E-N-I-O-R-S, to look like they are on fire.
When we’re done, we walk the two red balloon columns over to the float so they can be attached at both ends of the flatbed truck.
“That’s awesome,” I say in awe of Andi’s work. It’s the first time we’ve seen it all put together and not in pieces on the ASB room floor.
She’s created a sexy volcano scene that looks like hot red lava is really flowing out of it. The theme this year is chemistry. I thought it was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard until they explained each class was going to be a classic element. We got fire. The juniors got water, sophomores got earth, and the freshmen got air. The ninth graders always get the shaft.
“Dude, what do you think?” Andi asks as she jumps down from the truck. Paint is smeared all over her clothes. Her hands are varying shades of red. She looks like she’s been dipped in a tub of colorful glitter.
“That’s bad ass,” Keesh says.
“I can’t believe you did all that,” Steph adds.
Andi waves them off. “Don’t be silly. I didn’t do it all by myself. Everyone helped.”
I cut her off. “But it was your vision. I couldn’t have dreamed up something like this.” I whip out my phone from my pocket. “I gotta get a picture and send it to my mom and Alex. This is amazing.”
“Wait. Let me turn on the eruption so you can get the fire coming out of the big volcano.”
She jogs over to the truck again.
I look over at the girls. Keesh mouths, “Fire?” Steph looks a little scared. Does someone have a fire extinguisher?
“You ready?” Andi yells. I nod, holding up my camera to capture the scene. And then we see it. A glow starts coming from the peak of the volcano. Seconds later, red, orange, and yellow metallic material bellow from the center. She must have a fan in there somewhere to keep the action moving.
“That is the coolest thing ever, Andi.” She’s standing beside me now. “Where were you our freshmen year when our float looked like that?” I point to the pathetic display of air behind us which happens to be a bunch of yellow balloons. And that’s it.
“Travis and his dad made the eruption work. I knew what I wanted but didn’t know how to make it happen. But he did.” She stands tall, obviously proud of her work.