Elle
At lunch, Jeanna found me at our table while I was waiting for Jimmy.
“What is going on?” she asked before she even got all the way to my table.
“What do you mean?” I replied with as much innocence as I could muster.
She slid across from me and gave me that Jeanna look. The one that let me know she wasn’t going to let me rest until I told her everything.
“You get a ride home with some strange, new boy, a senior, then this morning, Chrissy tells me she saw you hugging this very same, very hot boy.”
I sighed heavily as I frantically tried to figure out what I could get away with. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Oh, then what was it like? Since when does Elle Watson go around hugging strange boys.
“I didn’t hug him. He hugged me.”
She just raised an eyebrow and said, “Okay, since when does Elle Watson let strange, hot boys hug her in the middle of school. Or anywhere for that matter?”
Jeanna wasn’t going to let it rest until I spilled everything. She was like that. Relentless. Especially when it came to gossip. We’d been best friends since sixth grade and Mrs. Hunt’s class of pure torture. All the other girls were fluttering from boy to boy while Jeanna and I had been left on the sidelines. Watching, waiting to be noticed.
Realizing it couldn’t be avoided, I told her about Jimmy getting bullied and me asking Nate to look out for him.
“What?” she demanded. “He just agreed to help out. And what does that have to do with you hugging him? Chrissy said it looked like you wanted to kiss him half to death.”
Shaking my head, I reminded myself I was going to have to have a little talk with Chrissy Peterson. She needed to mind her own business.
“I wasn’t going to kiss him, and he was hugging me. Remember?”
“Okay, why was he hugging you? What does that have to do with him watching out for Jimmy?”
Swallowing hard, I hesitated, this next part was going to be difficult. Jeanna was going to jump to the wrong conclusions. I just knew it.
“He said it would be more believable, more effective if people thought we were dating. So we have to pretend to you know, be infatuated. But don’t tell anyone, especially Jimmy.”
Jeanna’s mouth dropped open as she stared at me with disbelief. “You get a boyfriend and you’re just now telling me?”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I hissed, looking around to make sure no one had heard her.
She laughed, “I don’t know. He gives you a ride home. Sticks up for your little brother. Gives you hugs in the hall. Sounds a lot like a boyfriend to me.”
“Well, he’s not,” I insisted. “And, don’t you go telling people he is,” I added as I stared at her with my most serious scowl.
She smiled and slowly shook her head. “Sure, Elle, you keep telling yourself that and eventually, you might begin to believe it. Besides, I thought you wanted people to think that you two were together. You know for Jimmy.”
The smirk she shot me set the hairs on the back of my neck to full attention. How dare she think I was doing this because I found Nate Clark interesting, or exciting, or butterfly inducing in any way.
Taking a deep breath, I was preparing to set her straight when the corner of my eye caught Jimmy and Nate walking toward us.
“Shss,” I hissed, “here they come.”
Jeanna glanced over her shoulder and I swear her eyes lingered on Nate a little longer than I cared for. You know, that appraising, appreciative look a girl gives a boy when she likes what she sees.
“Hey, Jimmy,” she said as she scooted over to make room. My heart dropped. My best friend had just maneuvered things so that Jimmy would sit next to her, leaving Nate to sit next to me.
I shot her a frown that let her know I knew what she had done. She shot me back a smile that dripped with false innocence.
“Hi Jeanna,” Jimmy said, “This is Nate,” he added pointing to the big guy sitting down next to me.
“Hey,” he said with a quick head nod.
That was so Nate Clark, I thought, a man of a few words. Unless he was teasing me, then it seemed he couldn’t shut up.
It felt like a cloud of awkwardness settled over the four of us. Swallowing hard, I glanced at Jeanna. She was secretly looking at Nate, he was looking at me. And Jimmy was oblivious.
“So, Nate, where are you from?” Jeanna asked. “And what brings you to our fine city?”
My heart skipped a beat as I turned to hear his answer. A burning curiosity rose inside of me as I suddenly had a desperate need to know everything about him.
“Seattle?” he said, “and I drove.”
I tried to hide a smile, but Jeanna caught it. She raised an eyebrow and obviously could see that Nate wasn’t going to provide her with anything. Instead, she turned to Jimmy.
“So, what is this I hear about you getting into a fight this morning?” she asked Jimmy as she reached over to ruffle his hair. An act that I knew he despised to the ninth degree. Which made Jeanna want to do it even more. Those two had been bugging each other since he was old enough to talk.
“It wasn’t a fight,” Jimmy replied as he smoothed out his hair and quickly took a bite of his sandwich.
“Oookaaaay,” she drew out. “What was it then.”
Jimmy shrugged his shoulders and kept eating.
“More a disagreement,” Nate said. “Jimmy demonstrated that Joe McCain was an idiot and as dumb as a bag of rocks. Joe disagreed.”
Jeanna looked at Nate then back at Jimmy as she slowly shook her head. “For someone so smart, you can be such an idiot at times.”
“Why?” Jimmy asked. “What is wrong with correcting someone when they obviously need help getting to the right answer? Why is that such a bad thing? Isn’t that why we are here?”
Both Jeanna and I laughed.
“No,” I said. “Never forget, the purpose of high school is to grind the individuality out of us. To press and mold us into compliant workers ready to follow authority. To manufacture productive adults.”
“That, and dating of course,” Jeanna interjected, shooting me a sly smile.
Jimmy looked at her like she’d grown a third head.
Nate laughed and raised both of his eyebrows. “They’re not far off,” he said to Jimmy as he took another bite of his sandwich.
Me? I could only sigh internally as I realized just how unimportant it all was.