Lucky Cap (11 page)

Evan told me this was how big companies got free advertising. It was something he called “branding.” It reminded me of cows, and maybe that's what it was. Kap branded kids instead.

Maybe that's what Dad meant when he said Kap went after kids. Maybe Evan went after me. Maybe that's why he'd invited me on the trip in the first place. To brainwash me. To Kap me. To Kap Stan. To Kap Pasadero. And eventually, the world. The cap was sure cool enough to take over the world.

Those guys at big companies like Kap are so smart!

I guess I should be grateful for everything Kap gave me. I got a great month and a half of traveling with Dad and Evan. I'll never forget it. Ever. I got the cap, which got me elected class president (Was that good? I still hadn't decided…) and got me on the basketball team. That was good—at least till it got stolen and I got detention and got dropped from the starting five.

Maybe the cap wasn't really magical at all. Maybe it was just lucky, like a lucky rabbit's foot or a four-leaf clover. When you had the cap, good things happened. When you didn't, bad things happened. That's the thing about luck. There's two kinds: good and bad. There's no in-between.

Before I got the cap, I had a best friend, a dog, and a family. None of them were super great. The best friend wouldn't grow up, the dog was a spaz, and the family was mostly girls. The parents were okay, with okay jobs. We weren't rich, but we weren't poor. I wasn't lucky or unlucky.

After Kap, I still had the spastic dog, only now he wore earrings, and the girls had ruined the house with girl stuff. Dad had the coolest job on the planet, but was considering quitting it. And the best friend? I'd lost him.

Did I have
any
friends?

I sat next to Iris in homeroom to find out.

* Yes, I skipped Chapter 13. If hotels can be superstitious, so can I.

“Am I total loser now?” I asked Iris.

“Yes, Mr. President,” she said.

“And it's because I lost the cap, right?”

“No, sir. It's because you think it's because you lost the cap.”

I nodded. I understood that. “I've given up on finding it. I don't care about it anymore.”

“Glad to hear it, sir.”

“My dad's thinking about quitting his job at Kap.”

“So no more caps?”

“I still have plenty.” I took off the one I was wearing and stowed it under my seat. “I got another detention.”

“I heard.”

“Already?”

“Middle school's a fishbowl, sir.”

“Did you see the pictures Lance took?”

She snickered.

I glared.

“Sorry, sir.”

“Tell me something, Iris,” I said. “Why do
you
get out of the bed in the morning?”

She made a serious expression, which made me uncomfortable.

“You should talk to Kai,” she said softly.

“Nah. He hates me now. Anyway, he should.”

“I bet he doesn't.”

I shrugged. “Maybe. I doubt it.”

I wasn't going to talk to him.

Coach asked me into his office when I arrived at the gym for P.E. He suspended me from the team for a week, which was two games plus practices, because of Ms. Kish's detention. That's right, a suspension for a detention. I was being punished for being punished. Things were getting out of hand.

“Did you find your cap?” he asked.

“No. But I gave up looking. It's caused me nothing but trouble.”

“Good plan.”

“The cheerleader you saw was just delivering a note, by the way,” I said.

“I see,” he said.

“Do I have to tell you her name?” I didn't want to get Misa in trouble.

“No. Let's just put all this behind us.”

“After two games,” I added. “And practices.”

He smiled. “Right. Stay in shape, now. And stay out of trouble.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, and suited up for P.E.

I'd now told both Coach and Iris I was done thinking about who stole my cap. But I wasn't. I still thought about it all the time. Did I still want it back? Did I still need to know who took it? What did I want? And what didn't I want? I thought about it all during math class instead of paying attention. Here's some of the things I thought:

I wanted to play on the team.

I wanted to be a starter.

I still wanted to hang out with Chase. He was a good guy.

I didn't want to hang out with Lance. He was a bad guy.

I wanted to be a good guy. I wanted to stay out of trouble.

I wanted to hang out with Kai again.

I didn't want Analisa to be mad at me anymore, and wanted to hang out with her, even though she was a girl.

I didn't want the cap back. It caused too much trouble.

I wanted to know who took it.

I didn't want to punish them.

I just wanted to know why they took it.

I wrote my letter of resignation during lunch detention. I gave it to Iris during social studies. I wasn't sure who to hand it to, and I didn't feel like digging into the handbook to find out. This lack of interest in school rules alone was reason enough to show me I wasn't cut out to lead our class.

“Not really your gig, was it?” Iris said when I handed it to her.

“Nope.”

“Better to quit than be impeached, I always say.”

I'd stopped listening and was checking out Kai, who sat a few seats ahead of me. I stood up and gathered my stuff.

“Where you going?” Iris asked.

“Kai,” I said, and walked away.

“Good boy,” she said.

“Hey, Kai.” I sat in the seat in front of him and twisted around to face him. “I don't have basketball tonight. Want to ride the bus home together?”

He stared at the pencil in his hand. The tip was worn down to the wood.

“Kai?”

Nothing.

I decided to leave him alone, give him time, go to the bus stop later, and see what happened.

Chase was in social studies, too. I moved over and sat behind him. I noticed Kai turn and watch me, and wondered if I'd made another mistake.

Chase acted as if he didn't see me come over. Or care that I did. I leaned over his shoulder.

“Listen, dude,” I whispered. “I'm sorry I got into your duffel. That was totally stupid.”

He nodded.

“I'm glad it worked out between you and Misa,” I went on. “She'll be class president now, you know. I resigned today.”

He didn't turn around, but I could tell this got his attention. He got all perky and alert, like Ink.

“I was thinking we could stop being mad at each other now that you pretty much got everything you dreamed of. What do you say?”

He puffed a laugh, then said, “Maybe.”

“But I'm done with Lance. That guy's the biggest jerk I ever met. No offense.”

“He's my friend, dude. You should give him a chance. He just thinks you're trying to squeeze him out.”

“Maybe,” I said. It didn't sound like such a hot idea, but none of my recent ideas had been so hot. “So we're cool?”

He sat there a couple seconds, then he held up his hand and I slapped him five.

“Cool,” I said.

Analisa was next.

I found her at cheerleading practice after school. The basketball team was practicing in the gym, too. I didn't want to be seen by Coach, or the guys, or the other cheerleaders, actually. This not wanting to be seen did not make me feel very good about myself.

I stood in the hallway, with my visor pulled down, and tried to catch Analisa's eye. Why did I think the visor would disguise me from everyone except the person I wanted to notice me? I was beginning to realize I wasn't a big thinker and wanted to change that somehow.

Analisa never saw me, and I was going to miss my bus and stand up Kai. I pulled a notebook and a pencil out of my backpack and scribbled a note:

I tore this out and wadded it up like the trash it was and stuffed it into my bag. It was too late to take the time to figure out how to write it without sounding like a total dork. Anyway, how would I get it to her? It could wait.

I ran to the bus stop. Kai wasn't there. No one was there. I'd missed the bus.

I sat down, got out my notebook again, and tried writing Analisa another note. And another. And another. Like I said: I'm not a big thinker.

Finally, I came up with a note I could live with:

I folded it up, wrote a big
A
on it, and stuffed it into my pocket. Practice would be over in twenty minutes. I thought about sneaking into the girls' locker room and putting it in her locker, then realized that would be a really stupid thing to do, so decided instead to just sit there by the front doors and wait for her to come out.

It was definitely weird that I'd written a note to a girl, especially one asking her to not hate me and telling her I was sorry… twice. Weirder was that I was so nervous about giving it to her, and that I was risking having a bunch of girls see me do it. Maybe even a bunch of guys. The
team,
in fact.

Weirdest of all was that I went through with it.

People warned me that middle school changes you. Maybe this was part of what they meant. I'd spent my whole life steering clear of girls—not an easy thing to do in my house. Maybe it was the four sisters who soured me so much on the whole girl thing in the first place. Maybe that wasn't fair. Maybe there was a difference between sisters and girls. Analisa was different than my sisters. For one thing, she was my age. But there were other things, too.

When I saw the cheerleaders walking toward the glass doors, I hid in some bushes. They were all there: Analisa, Misa, Mackenzie, and Cassie. My four former suspects. I stepped out of the bushes when they came by. They jumped a little. Cassie jumped the most. She's the jumpiest.

“Hi, squad,” I said, pretending I wasn't the big jerk loser they probably thought I'd become.

They paused, more out of surprise and disgust than willingness to listen to me. Cassie just tried to catch her breath. I seized the moment.

“I wanted to apologize for bugging you guys about my stupid cap,” I said. I realized I'd just spoiled part of the note I was going to give to Analisa, but shook it off. “It was… stupid of me.”

Mackenzie groaned and pushed by me.

Cassie said, “You shouldn't jump out of bushes at people.” And walked away.

Misa blushed. “That's okay, Enzo.”

That left Analisa. She had her hand on her hip and did not smile. But she didn't frown, either.

I fingered the note in my pocket.

“I hope you don't hate me,” I said. “I was a real jerk.”

“True,” she said.

“I knew you didn't take it.
Wouldn't
take it. I was just, like, a total freaky jerk. I'm sorry.”

I heard guy voices. The team was heading toward the doors.

“Can we walk?” I asked.

“Because of…?” She pointed at the guys.