Transcendence (4 page)

More time must have passed than I realized,
and the sound of the door opening interrupted my thoughts. I looked
up to see Jeremy stride into the room. He still wore his brown gym
shorts and white jersey with the number 12 on the back below his
last name that was spelled in all capital letters. His hair was a
little darker than its normal dark blonde because of sweat, and his
cheeks were still red from practice.

I dropped my pencil in the crease of my
sketchbook, disappointed to have to stop mid-way through the
drawing. “Did you get co-captain?” I asked, trying not to get
irritated about being interrupted while sketching. I could always
finish when I got home from school.

“You bet I did!” he answered pumping his
fist in the air in excitement. He walked over and joined me on the
beanbag, slinging his arm around my shoulders. He was still sweaty,
but I tried to ignore it as I rested my head on his chest, noticing
that his arms were firmer than they were in the beginning of summer
because of his intense workouts. “It was pretty much a given that I
would get it,” he continued, "but it’s good knowing it’s
official.”

“That’s awesome, Jere,” I said, looking up
at him and smiling to show him I meant it. In that moment, he was
back to the same Jeremy I knew growing up. Excitable, fun, and
relaxed, he looked down at me with those blue eyes that were as
familiar as the back of my hand. “I had a feeling you would get
it.”

“Thanks, Liz.” He leaned closer and rested
his forehead against mine, the sweat from his hair matting on my
skin. The slight movement caused the pencil to roll out of the
crease of my sketchbook, and it fell to the floor. “What're you
drawing?” he asked, moving his hand down to the book in my lap.
Despite knowing that I didn't like anyone seeing my drawings before
they were completed, he grabbed it before I could respond and
lifted it out of my reach.

“You don’t want to look at that…” I pleaded,
reaching forward to try getting it back. I was unsuccessful. “It’s
not even close to finished yet.”

He ignored me and pulled it closer,
examining the sketch. “This is different from your other stuff,” he
said, squinting as he looked at it.

“Different how?” I asked, even though I knew
he was right.

“You normally draw scenery.” He rotated the
book in his hand, continuing to study the image. “Did you have some
strange assignment to draw yourself in medieval clothes?”

“It’s not medieval,” I said, a little
harsher than necessary. “It’s what people wore in the early
nineteenth century when
Pride and Prejudice
was written.
It’s the first book we had to read in my English class.”

“Weird.” He looked at me like I’d lost my
mind and shut the book, handing it back to me before standing. “But
anyway, what do you say we go to dinner to celebrate my
victory?”

Even though I was tired, I smiled in
agreement, allowing him to pull me out of the chair. I wasn’t about
to ruin his good day by whining about how terrible mine was, and my
mom wouldn’t mind if I went to dinner with Jeremy instead of eating
with her. Unlike some of the other kids my age, I’d never been the
type to get into trouble or make irrational decisions, so I was
pretty much allowed to do what I wanted.

I packed my books in my bag and decided that
for Jeremy’s sake, I would pretend everything was the same as it
had always been. It pretty much was, minus his recent attitude
change and the new table at lunch. But it was impossible to deny
the biggest change of them all—that no matter how hard I tried, I
couldn’t seem to get Drew Carmichael out of my head.

However, judging from his actions today, I
doubted he felt the same.

Drew ignored me for the next two weeks.
Although maybe “ignored” wasn’t the right term. Is it possible to
ignore someone if you don’t know them in the first place? It’s not
like one conversation meant we were friends. Still, I couldn’t
shake the feeling that he was going out of his way to avoid
speaking to me. He always came to first period right before the
late bell and sat as far as possible from Chelsea and me. It was
the same in French class—he was always the last one there, rushing
in before Mrs. Evans began the lesson. I lingered around Jeremy’s
desk and talked with him before class, walking to my seat just
before the bell to avoid any unnecessary interaction with Drew.
Well, it was more like a lack of interaction, since he didn’t seem
to notice my existence.

When I did sit in my assigned seat next to
him, my skin prickled like it was absorbing a radioactive force
emitted from his body. There were times when I felt like he watched
me out of the corner of his eye, especially when I stumbled over my
words when Mrs. Evans called on me to answer a question. When I
walked around school or ate with friends in the cafeteria, I could
always tell when he was near, like I was tuned into a frequency
that picked up waves in his presence. I tried telling myself it was
nothing but a high school crush and I would get over it, but I knew
my feelings for him weren’t something I could turn off like a light
switch, no matter how hard I tried.

* * *

“
In general, the quizzes were good
,”
Mrs. Evans spoke in French as she walked around the room, handing
back the pop-quiz she’d sprung on us earlier that week. “
The
average was an A-, and most of you received grades in that
range
.”

She looked at me for a second longer than
the other students before placing my quiz facedown on my desk.
Slowly lifting the corner of the paper, I peeked at the grade
written on the top. A bright red D stared back at me, laughing at
my near-failure.

A slight movement on my right caught my
attention, and I glanced over to catch Drew sneaking a quick look
at my grade. I shoved the quiz into my bag so he couldn’t see it,
but the sunlight from the window shined through the paper, making
the red ink visible from the other side. No one else cared enough
to try to peek at my grade, but the concerned look in Drew’s eyes
let me know he’d seen it, and he turned his attention to the front
of the room without saying anything. My cheeks flushed at the fact
that he knew how poorly I’d done, and not wanting to be more
embarrassed than I already was, I blinked away tears of frustration
and prepared to focus on the lesson for the day.

“
As you know, the reading from last night
discussed vacations
,” Mrs. Evans began in French. “
So let’s
hear about some vacations you’ve been on and anything interesting
you saw or learned
.”

Lindsay Newman, a girl I’d only spoken to a
few times who sat in the middle of the room, started the
conversation by talking about a recent trip she went on to Italy.
Just like the other private schools in the area, admission to Beech
Tree wasn’t cheap, and it wasn’t unusual for students to vacation
out of the country. However, instead of listening to people discuss
their vacations, I thought about the quiz, trying to calculate how
much it would affect my final grade in the class.

“
Élisabeth
.” Mrs. Evans disrupted my
thoughts, causing me to jump a bit in my seat. “
Have you ever
taken a vacation to a foreign country and had an interesting
experience while there
?”

I paused to translate the question in my
head, catching the words “interesting,” “experience,” and
“vacation.” There were a few words in the middle that I didn’t
understand, but not wanting to embarrass myself by letting everyone
know I wasn’t paying attention, I decided I got the gist of it
enough to answer.

“
Two years ago I went to Hawaii
.” I
spoke quickly, wanting to get the focus away from myself as soon as
possible. “
We went on a helicopter ride and saw the
volcanoes
.”

Mrs. Evans looked baffled, and a few
students began laughing—Jeremy included.

I looked around, confused. “What?” I asked
in English, wondering what was so funny about helicopters and
volcanoes.

“Hawaii’s a state,” Jeremy said, not making
an effort to contain his laughter.

“Yeah,” I said, still unsure what the
problem was. “I know.”

“But you just said your vacation to a
foreign country was to Hawaii.”

A foreign country—those must have been the
French words I didn’t understand enough to translate into English.
The entire class looked at me like I was an idiot, and I glanced at
Mrs. Evans for help only to find her laughing right along with
them, although she tried to control herself when her eyes met
mine.

“I just didn’t know the French words for
foreign country,” I explained, hoping everyone believed me.

Jeremy laughed again. “Sure. Whatever you
say.”

I nearly threw my pencil at him in
frustration. “I know Hawaii’s a state,” I said, crossing my arms
over my chest. “I just misunderstood the question.”

He smirked in disbelief, and I knew I
wouldn’t hear the end of this later. I was beginning to re-consider
switching out of AP.

When class ended, I left without waiting for
Jeremy. It wasn’t long until he caught up with me.

“You never told us how your trip to the
foreign country of Hawaii was,” he said with a laugh, entertained
by my embarrassment.

“You know I didn’t actually think that.” I
looked at him in annoyance, pleading for him to let it go. Arguing
about this was stupid.

“Sure you didn’t,” he drawled, leaning
closer towards me. “Anyway, how’d you do on that quiz?”

I took a step back. “I did fine,” I lied,
not meeting his eyes.

“I got an A-,” he jumped at the chance to
brag about his grade. “But don’t worry too much about what you got.
It was one quiz. It doesn’t matter that much.” He stopped in front
of one of the English rooms for his next class, which was on the
way to the science wing where I had genetics. “I’ll catch you at
lunch,” he said, seeming to have already put the Hawaii incident
behind him.

I started to walk towards my next class, but
didn’t get far before hearing someone calmly say my name.

I recognized Drew’s voice before I turned
around. He leaned against the cement wall, both hands inside the
front pockets of his jacket. “I know you don’t think Hawaii’s a
foreign country,” he said with a smirk, like he was proud of
himself for being the only other person in the class who believed
me.

I stopped walking, confused about why he
decided to talk to me after pretending that I didn’t exist for the
past few weeks. “Really?” I asked, walking towards him and resting
my hand against the wall. “Because everyone else seems to think I
do.”

“I believe you,” he repeated, standing close
enough to me that I could see the small flecks of gold in his eyes,
made darker by the lackluster lighting in the hall. I waited for
him to say more, but he stared down at me, waiting for a
response.

“That makes you the only person who does.” I
shrugged, glancing at the ground before looking back up at him.

“I can help you with French,” he offered,
catching me by surprise. “If you want.”

I paused, wondering if I heard him
correctly. “Thanks,” I said, playing with the strap of my bag. The
offer was tempting, but Jeremy wouldn’t be happy if he found out I
was spending time with Drew. “But I think I might just switch out
of AP.”

“Come on.” He leaned in closer, causing that
whole electricity over my skin thing to happen again. “I know
you’re smart. If you practice a little, you’ll blow everyone
away.”

I tried to focus on the conversation and not
on how there were only inches between us, positive that my heart
was beating loud enough for him to hear. “I’m pretty hopeless in
French,” I said, my voice steadier than I expected. “But if you
want to try helping me, I’ll think about staying in the class.”

“You’re not hopeless,” he said, his eyes
softening as he spoke. He hadn’t looked at me that way since the
first day of school. “And even though I probably shouldn’t help
you, I will.”

I looked at him in confusion. “What do you
mean that you
shouldn’t
?”

“Just that Jeremy might not be happy,” he
said with a small smirk. “He seemed threatened when we talked on
the first day of school. Not that I care about that, but I wouldn’t
want to cause problems between the two of you.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t see
Jeremy offering to help,” I pointed out, feeling bad about the
words the moment I said them.

“So,” he said, a mischievous smile forming
on his face as he leaned closer towards me. “When are you up for
the first study session?”

We were standing so close that I could feel
his breath on my cheek when he spoke, and I ran through my schedule
in my mind. “Jeremy drives me to school on Fridays, so I’ll be in
the back of the library tomorrow until he gets out of soccer
practice,” I said, telling myself that there was nothing wrong with
getting help outside of class. It wasn’t like we were going on a
date. It was just a tutoring session.

He looked at me quizzically. “You just wait
around for him to drive you home?”

“Just on the days when he doesn’t have
workouts in the morning,” I said in defense. “It’s a good time to
get homework done. Or to read.”

“Whatever you say.” The halls started
emptying and he glanced at his watch, which looked more expensive
than anything the other students had at Beech Tree. “I know you
probably want a break from school after what happened in French,
but as much as I’m up for ditching my next class, I’m guessing
that’s not your thing.”

I jerked my head up in surprise. “How do you
know I wouldn’t be up for ditching?”

“Just a guess.” He smirked. “If you’re up
for it, my car’s outside.”

I paused, considering what to do. I’d never
skipped before, but my lab partner in genetics was also in my
French class, and I wasn’t in the mood to further defend my
knowledge of world geography.