High school should qualify as a lower level of hell when you’ve been up all night at the hospital, Sunnie decided as she tapped her forehead against the door of her locker. Most of her classes were barely tolerable when she’d slept the night before. Now, when she was exhausted, they were layers of torture mayonnaised with boredom.
She already hated everything about her sophomore year, so there was no downhill to slide to. She felt like a lifer the state had imprisoned for no reason at all.
She hadn’t learned anything in school for years. Why did they need teachers anyway? She could find out any information she wanted to know on Google in one minute.
Like a drunk zombie, she moved down the hallway.
Half the kids in her class had already reached their mental heights and were just hanging around, hoping to have fun, so they could talk about the good old days on fifteen-minute work breaks for the rest of their lives.
She’d slept through two classes and no one noticed. Mayor’s daughter or not, she’d given up responding when she was called on. It took a while, but the teachers had finally stopped asking her questions in class. She read the chapter, watched the films, plowed though the computer games designed to make learning fun. But she didn’t talk in class. That would be like talking to the goldfish in the commons aquarium.
As long as she made passing grades, no one pestered her for class participation.
When lunch finally came, she wove around all the groups that were talking in clusters. Sunnie decided they really did look like the schools of fish in the huge tank that separated the cafeteria from the hallway.
“What did you get on the algebra test?” Brianna Baxter bounced into her line of sight. She was a head shorter and three bra sizes bigger than Sunnie. Life was so unfair.
“I made a hundred. My mom says if I keep it up, I can have a mani and a pedi every month, even if it’s not sandals weather.”
One of the fish was talking. Sunnie kept walking.
Brianna stayed beside her. “Unless it’s like, snowing or something, I think it’s okay to wear flip-flops, don’t you? Of course your toes get dirty if it’s muddy. I can’t stand that.”
Sunnie shrugged and went back to the first question. “I don’t remember what I got on the test.”
“You failed it, didn’t you?” Brianna made a sad face cute enough to put on any text. “Don’t worry. You’ll catch on. I could even help you. Mrs. McDonald said I’m a good tutor. I taught Elbert Rhodes his sevens last year. Can you believe he made it to the ninth grade and didn’t know all his multiplication tables?” She raised her way-too-thick eyebrows. “So, we could study together if you want to.”
“No, thanks,” Sunnie managed to say without cussing as she wondered how pretty, perky Brianna would look with her nose inverted.
“I got to go. Thanks for the offer.” Sunnie backed away. Another sad state of high school. Double B was probably her best friend, and she hadn’t even asked about how Gram was. The whole town seemed to know that Gram had taken a fall and was in the hospital. Honestly, Dad did not need to bother with a news blog.
She walked out to the atrium—or the green space, as they called it—which was walled in by an eight-foot-high brick wall. Dead leaves and smashed milk cartons circled in baby tornados across colorful concrete blocks that had been designed to give a modern look to a worthless corridor. No one ever came out here. It was too cold in winter, too hot in summer, too depressing year-round.
Sunnie’s favorite place to eat lunch. Alone. Cold. Quiet.
Pulling out an apple she’d stolen off Gram’s tray at the hospital, she sat down under a tree that offered no shelter and dialed Gram’s cell.
One ring. Two. Three.
“Hi, Button.” Joe Dunaway answered after he juggled the phone for a while.
Sunnie smiled. The man had been old all her life, and he’d always called her Button for no reason at all. “Hi, Joe. You still at the hospital with Gram? Shouldn’t you go home and rest?”
“I’m not leaving until Jeanie does. Which might be later today. We’ve been watching Golden Girls reruns since breakfast and she just dozed off. I’m supposed to call your daddy to come get her when they’re ready for her to check out of this place. Once he picks her up, I’m going home and sleeping the clock around.”
“You’re a good friend, Joe.”
“Have been since we were your age. She started dating my best friend, and I just decided I’d better hang around and watch over them both.”
“You still are.”
“Jeanie’s got many others keeping up with her. For one, you’re the best great-granddaughter she’s got. Best one she ever had.”
“I’m the only one she ever had.” Sunnie decided they should make a talking doll just like Joe. It would be downright huggable.
“Tell Gram I’ll see her when I get home from school.”
“I will. Bye, Button.”
Sunnie shoved the phone back into her pocket and finished her apple. She’d hear the bell when it was time to go back. She’d somehow survive the next three classes. Then, she’d go home and spend time with Gram.
The glass door clicked open, but Sunnie didn’t turn around. All she wanted was her quiet time, alone time.
“You all right, Shorty?” A familiar voice sounded from behind her.
“I’m fine.” She didn’t have to turn around to know who’d wandered out to bother her.
“How’s your gram?” Derrick moved into her line of sight, and she tried to figure out why she’d ever thought he was good-looking.
“I’m only asking because everyone thinks we’re together, and they’re all asking me how you’re doing and how that old lady is. My history teacher even asked and so did that crazy secretary in the office. You know the one that has wooden jewelry for every holiday, including Flag Day.”
“Tell everyone we’re not together, me and you. That’s a good answer.” They hadn’t even had their first date, but they did have one hell of an argument.
“I was thinking about that. Maybe I should give you another chance. This is a rough time for you and you might need someone to lean on.”
“Any chain-link fence will do, but thanks for the offer.”
He shrugged. “I’ll give you some time to think about it. You don’t even drive, Shorty. I could take you wherever you need to go.”
“Thanks.” A gnat’s life would be too long to ponder her option, but right now she just wanted him to leave.
When he didn’t move, she stood and asked, “Would you tell the office I had to go home? My gram needs me.”
“I could take you?”
Since the Autumn Acres bus gave her a lift this morning, she could use a ride home. If she called her dad, he’d just tell her to stay the day. Even when she claimed she was sick, he’d make her go to school so the nurse could offer a second opinion.
“All right, but you can’t come in. Gram will need her rest.” Hopefully he didn’t know Gram was still in the hospital.
“Sure. I’ll just tell the office I’m running you home and will be right back.”
Ten minutes later when she thanked him for the ride, he said he’d check in later. Sunnie was too tired to argue. Between the machines last night, the nurses coming in every ten minutes and Joe’s snoring, Sunnie wasn’t sure she’d slept, period.
She made it four feet inside, collapsed on the couch, and was asleep before Derrick backed out of the drive.
What felt like moments later, someone was pounding on something out front.
Sunnie scrubbed her face and staggered to the door. The noise wasn’t a knocking sound, but banging coming from the side of the porch.
“What’s going on?” She yelled out into the yard when she didn’t see anyone.
Reese Milton raised his head, removed his dirty hat and let his wild, rust-colored hair stand up in every direction. He stared at her through the white spokes on the porch railing. “Sorry, Sunnie. Didn’t know you were home.”
She walked out far enough to see the pile of boards and piping scattered in the grass like a huge Erector set. “Shouldn’t you be in school, Reese?” He’d been in every other class she’d taken since she started school but they’d never been friends. Funny how some people are just around, but you never really bother talking to them.
“School was out an hour ago. The mayor called my dad and asked him to put up a ramp. Dad’s busy on a remodel so he told me to get started.”
“Do you know how?” She shoved hair out of her face.
“It’s not rocket science, Sunnie. I’ve been helping my dad the past two summers, plus most weekends on remodels.” He cocked his head, studying her. “Were you asleep? You got serious bed hair.”
“You got hat hair,” she answered back like a third grader.
Reese shoved his cap back on. “I’m not picking on you. I understand if you want to nap. Your boyfriend told everyone in biology that you stayed up all night with your gram at the hospital. He said you held her hand while she suffered.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend and Gram didn’t suffer. She slept.” The hammering may have stopped on the porch, but it still seemed to be going on in her head.
“That’s not what Derrick said.” Reese grinned and shifted his hammer from one hand to the other.
Maybe he was lying about Derrick, or trying to irritate her because she was keeping him from working. She tried reason. It was that or all-out screaming. “What would Derrick be doing in your sophomore biology? He’s a senior.”
“I didn’t ask. He sits behind me, though, and it’s my guess, judging from his grades, the guy may have a third senior year, but he’s good-looking. Just ask him. There is no mistaking Derrick for anyone else. Every day, like clockwork, he makes an entrance into class just as the bell sounds.” Reese started back to work. “I don’t know what girls see in the guy. He’s got no brains. He passed me a picture of an amoeba last week and whispered, ‘Do you think this is male or female?’”
She didn’t argue. Maybe Reese was right. She sat down on the porch and watched him work. Until last year, he’d been shorter than her, but lately he’d shot up. He’d finally gotten over that awkward stage when boys look like colts. Working for his dad had put muscle on his thin frame.
After a while, she said, “Reese, how long have we known each other?”
He didn’t look up from measuring. “I don’t know. Forever, I guess. I saw you naked when we were five. That’s my first memory of you.”
“How’d I look?” Her cover girl smile was wasted on him.
“Skinny. Skin as white as chalk. You took off your clothes right here in this front yard and slid down the slip ’n slide.”
She laughed. “I think I remember that, or maybe I just remember Dad lecturing me for years about how proper young ladies don’t take off their clothes in the front yard. You’d think it was some major crime.”
“I don’t think so.” He smiled. “You never did it again. I was sorry for that. I used to ride by on my bike just to make sure.”
She watched Reese work. “Have I ever lied to you, Reese?”
“Nope,” he answered. “You usually don’t even bother talking to me.”
“Then believe me now. I am not involved in any way with Derrick. He just offered to drive me home.”
“Someone needs to tell him that. Everyone’s asking him how you are. You’d think by the way he talks that he’s nearly one of the family.”
“I plan to correct him, if I ever see him again. Then I’m giving up even talking to guys altogether. It’s a bother I don’t need. I plan to be someone. They’ll put a sign up at the edge of town someday. Sunnie Larady was Born Here. I don’t see that happening if I talk to Derrick often.”
“I believe you. I figured Derrick out the first week in biology.” He grinned. “That sounds super about you wanting to make the town proud. If anyone can do it, it’s you.”
He went back to measuring, but at least he’d listened to her. Sunnie curled into one of the porch chairs. Since she was awake she might as well talk to someone. “What about you, Reese? What do you plan to do?”
“Dad says he’ll bring me into the business at full salary after I graduate. If it works out, I could be a partner by the time I’m twenty-one. Doing odd jobs and remodels keeps us busy, but I’d like to build houses someday. I can already read the plans as good as my pop can.”
“As well,” she corrected, then felt bad about it. Not everyone’s father was an editor. “Have you ever thought of being an architect and actually designing the homes you build?”
He shrugged and shook his head. “That would be something. I did design this ramp though, so I guess that’s a start.” Reese pulled out a scrap of paper from his back pocket. “It’s kind of like a puzzle figuring out exactly how to put it together, how much supplies, how much incline. Funny, before I started helping Pop I didn’t care much about math, but now it’s my favorite subject.”
He hadn’t offered the paper to her, so she stepped off the porch and took it from his hand. It made little sense to her. The drawing looked like some kind of modern art sketch with numbers floating around it.
He bumped her shoulder with his. “I wanted the ramp long enough so your gram could roll herself up without too much effort and wide enough she wouldn’t scrape her hands.”
“This is great.” Reese Milton had impressed her. “Could you use a little help?”
His eyebrows rose to the rim of his baseball hat. “Sure. If everything I’ve already cut is right, this should fit together pretty fast. Another pair of hands would really come in handy.”
An hour later, the ramp was taking shape when she saw Derrick’s car turn the corner.
“Reese, did you brush your teeth this morning?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Would you kiss me?”
While he thought about it, she leaned over and kissed him. Thankfully, he didn’t pull away. Not until Derrick had driven by.
When she leaned back, Reese just stared at her. She couldn’t tell if he liked the kiss or not. In truth, she really didn’t care. The show was for Derrick’s sake. Now maybe he’d get the hint that she wasn’t his girl and never would be.
“Where’d you learn to kiss?” she snapped at Reese.
“You have to learn?”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me this was your first kiss. No one makes it to sixteen without being kissed.”
“I’m still fifteen. I don’t turn sixteen for two more months.”
“I guess you don’t have a girlfriend, then?”
“No. I don’t have time.”
“Good. You mind if I’m your girlfriend until Derrick goes away? You wouldn’t have to do anything and I’m not kissing you again, I promise.” She frowned at him. “You’re still fifteen. Somehow, kissing a fifteen-year-old just seems wrong.”
“What happens when I turn sixteen?”
“We break up. Are you okay with helping me or not?”
“Let me get this right. I’m your boyfriend?”
“Right.”
“Until Derrick gives up on his lie and goes away.”
“Right. This isn’t rocket science, Reese. All I’m asking is for a few weeks at the most.”
“All right, I’ll help you out. I’ll be your new boyfriend, but you have to help me out on all that entails. Any chance, since you’re my girlfriend, that I’d get to see you naked again?”
She caught his shoulder with one swing and sent him rolling over the ramp.
He bounced, landing on his feet and rubbing his arm. When he grinned at her, she knew he was kidding her. “I was just asking to see if you’ve changed. I was kind of hoping your chest might have popped out.”
“It doesn’t work that way and don’t ask again.”
“I think I’ll remember.” He rubbed his arm. “I’m guessing the answer’s no anyway.”
She thought of hitting him again.
Reese was smart enough to change the subject. “How about we get back to work before I’m too beat up to swing a hammer.”
When she moved closer, he flinched. “I didn’t know having a girlfriend would involve pain.”
She felt sorry for him. Reese hadn’t asked for this and he was being good-natured about the whole thing. “Tell you what I’ll do.” She patted his shoulder. “You be my boyfriend long enough to get rid of Derrick, and I’ll teach you to kiss before we break up.”
“Fair enough, but you have to promise to tell Brianna Baxter that I’m a great kisser.”
She hit him again on the shoulder, but this time he absorbed the blow without moving. “Don’t tell me you like Brianna because she’s popped out?”
“No. I like the way she giggles at everything I say.”
Sunnie shook her head. “You two were made for each other.”
“So you’ll tell her?”
“All right. I promise, if you’ll be my boyfriend and swear you’ll not tell anyone it’s only a trick we’re playing to get rid of Derrick.”
As she helped him build the ramp, Sunnie decided it wasn’t half-bad having Reese around. He wasn’t popular and his clothes were nothing special, but he was nice and he made her laugh.
She could get used to that.