Chapter 5
Chase dropped his books on his desk and sat down. The last period of the day. He actually liked the class. Physics with Mr. Morgan. He liked learning about force, power, and motion. It made sense to him. The tests were easy, and Mr. Morgan made the lectures fun.
But today he couldn’t get rid of the anxious feeling he had. He wanted to call Five. His mother had set up another audition for the weekend, and he wanted to talk to her about it. Plus, he wanted to thank her. He’d been a little worried when he came to school that morning, but Five had kept her word. She apparently hadn’t told anyone about what he’d shared with her.
Mr. Morgan walked in the classroom and grinned. “Beginning-of-class joke. A neutron walked into a bar and asked how much a beer was. The bartender said, ‘For you, no charge.’”
A few students laughed, a few groaned, and Mr. Morgan clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “We’re at that point in the year, folks. It’s time to start working on our science projects.”
More groans came. Mr. Morgan shook his head. “Now, it’s not that bad. Our projects are going to be fun.” He picked up a stack of papers. “I’m passing out some ideas for you. We’ll be pairing up for this, so students in the front row, you’ll partner with the student behind you. We’ll continue this down the rows.”
Chase took the stack of papers and pulled the top one off, then handed them down the line. Mr. Morgan made a motion with his hand. “Go ahead and turn your desks around. I want you to spend the rest of the class collaborating. This project will be worth one-quarter of your grade, so take it seriously.”
Scraping noises filled the classroom as the students obeyed. Chase lifted his desk and turned it to face his partner—a girl with long, brown hair and owl-like glasses. Her eyes were wide, like she was in shock. Sometimes people were a bit intimidated by him, so he gave her a smile to put her at ease.
“Hi.”
She nodded but didn’t say anything.
He tried again. “I’m Chase. Guess we’ll be working together on this one.”
Her face drained of color and she looked like she was going to faint.
The poor girl.
She nodded again, then cleared her throat. “Hi.”
“What’s your name?”
She swallowed hard, staring at him with big, brown eyes. “Isabella,” she said, in almost a whisper.
He gave her another reassuring smile, then pulled out the sheet Mr. Morgan passed out. “Do any of these look interesting to you?”
Isabella buried herself behind the piece of paper for a few moments. When she lowered it, she cleared her throat again. “Building a motor looks fun.”
“I like that, too. Should we pick that one?”
A smile flashed across her lips but it left as quickly as it came. “Sounds good.”
“We’ll need to do some research to figure out what we need.”
She pulled out a notebook and a pencil. She wrote “Science Project: Building a Motor” in neat lettering at the top of the page.
Her fingers trembled. She was nervous.
He needed to get her talking.
“Mr. Morgan’s one of my favorite teachers.”
She fiddled with her pen. “Mine too.”
“What other classes do you like?”
“Art.” She said it quickly, then lowered her gaze as if embarrassed. “I like art.”
“That’s great. I’ve never been good at that kind of thing. All I can do is draw stick figures.” He chuckled, and she forced a smile. “Have you lived in Los Angeles your whole life?”
She shook her head but didn’t elaborate.
This girl intrigued him. He squinted at her. She seemed familiar somehow. “Are we in any other classes together?”
“No.”
Maybe his subconscious had taken note of her sitting behind him and he hadn’t fully realized it. He pulled out his phone, and she stiffened. “It’s okay. Mr. Morgan doesn’t care if we have phones in here as long as we’re getting our work done. I’m going to search and see what we need for materials.”
She gave him a smile. “I’ll write them down.”
They worked on building a list of materials and figured out how many items they had already. After that, they discussed what they would focus their paper on. The hour flew by.
Before the bell rang, Mr. Morgan stood. “You will need to meet with your partner outside of class, as we will be continuing our lectures. Please set up a time now so you don’t procrastinate. You’ll have two weeks to finish the project, write a paper on it, and present your materials to the class.”
Chase leaned forward. “Do you want to get together at my house after school today?”
“I can’t. I have something right after school. But I could later tonight.”
“What time?”
She swallowed again. “Seven?”
He had to fight to keep a frown off his face. He was anxious to speak to Five, and meeting with Isabella at seven would push his phone call back even further. But he knew they probably should get started. “All right. I’ll write down my address.”
He scribbled it down and handed her the paper. She stuck it in her back pocket. He tried to not let his disappointment show. “See you tonight,” he said.
When the final bell rang, he turned his desk around and slipped out of the classroom. He checked his watch. Three thirty. He pulled out his phone and texted Five.
Can I call you at eight tonight? Something came up. School project.
He couldn’t believe how anxious he was to hear back from her. Staring at the phone, he walked toward his car. The chime made him smile.
Sure, no problem.
“Chase!”
He looked up to see Delilah and her sister walking toward him. Delilah was waving her hand high in the air. He forced a smile. “Hi, girls.”
They giggled. Delilah grabbed his arm. “Thanks for coming to my party. I’m sorry we didn’t get to spend more time together. I kind of lost sight of you for a while. I don’t know where you went off to.”
“Hmm. Sorry about that.” He gave her an I-don’t-know-what-happened-either look.
“I just wanted to tell you how excited I am for the fall formal. I know it’s not for a couple of weeks yet, so if you’re not ready to ask someone, that’s fine . . .” She batted her eyes at him.
He shook his head. “Yes, you’re right. I’m not ready yet.”
“Okay. That’s cool.” She let go of his arm. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
He lifted his hand and waved. “Yeah. See ya.”
The sisters walked off, giggling.
He rubbed his forehead. How was he going to get out of that one without hurting her feelings? He’d have to think of something.
Time seemed to drag on as he waited for the evening so he could call Five. He thought about texting her, but if he got her in trouble with her stepmother, he’d feel bad.
At seven o’clock the doorbell rang, and he ushered Isabella in. His little sister sat in the living room, putting a puzzle together on the floor. Chase glanced at his sister. “Maybe we should go in my room.”
Isabella clasped her hands together nervously. “Sure.”
He led her down the hall to his room, glad he’d listened when his mom told him to pick up his dirty laundry from the floor. “You can sit at the desk. I’ll just sit on the bed.”
“You have a lovely home.” She pulled out the chair, slipped her backpack off, and sat down.
“Thanks.” The foot of his bed was close enough to the desk that it wasn’t awkward, and he sat down. “I had time to look up a few things.” He pulled out a sheet of notes he’d made and went over them with Isabella.
They talked about the project and how they would present it to the class. As they talked, Isabella relaxed. She seemed to get comfortable around him. After making a shopping list, they decided they’d go out the next evening to get the items they needed.
“I can drive us to the store. You free after school?”
She stiffened, and suddenly the nervous girl was back. “No,” she said, wiping her hands on her jeans. “I . . . I have work every day after school. I’m not off until seven.”
Well, that was just great. Working on this project was going to interfere with talking to Five. He tried not to let his frustration show. “Okay. We’ll go shopping at seven then. Do you want me to pick you up?”
Her eyes grew wide and she shook her head. “No, I can come here.”
“It’s no big deal for me to pick you up. Where do you work?”
She looked down at her hands. “I’d much rather walk here.”
He wasn’t sure what the problem was, but she looked extremely uncomfortable so he let it go. “Okay. Come here after work, and we’ll go shopping.”
Her shoulders relaxed. “Sounds good.”
He wondered what was up with her but didn’t push it. She was so nervous. He didn’t want to see her bolt.
She stood and threaded her arms through her backpack. “Okay. See you tomorrow then.” She hugged her arms to herself, and he walked her through the house to the front door.
“Bye,” he said as she jaunted down the steps. She turned and gave him a small smile.
He closed the door. Maybe she’d mellow out over time.
Excited to be done with his physics partner, he rushed to his room and pulled out his phone. He pressed the button to call Five.
The phone rang a few times before she picked up. “Hello?”
“Hey. You sound out of breath. You done cleaning?”
“Yes. Sorry, just going for a walk. But I can talk at the same time. How was your day?”
He sat down on his chair and leaned on his desk. “Long. How was yours?”
“It was . . . interesting.”
“Really? What happened?”
She didn’t speak for a few seconds, and all he heard were the rustling sounds of movement. “I don’t know. Just things.”
“Come on. I told you some pretty serious stuff about me. And I don’t even know your name.” He picked up a pen and started doodling on the paper Isabella had left with him.
“It’s about a guy.”
He sat up in his chair. “You have a boyfriend?”
“No. He’s just a guy I like.”
Chase wasn’t sure why that annoyed him. “What happened with this guy?”
“Nothing serious. We talked. That’s all.”
“Then you had a good day?”
She let out a breath like he didn’t understand. “Yeah, I guess. It’s just kind of weird.”
That made Chase feel better. “If it was weird, then maybe he’s not the guy for you.”
She laughed. “Maybe.”
“So all weekend my mom’s been asking me if I thought that audition went well, and if I thought I’d get a callback, and I’ve been feeling guiltier and guiltier about throwing it, ya know?”
“Sorry, that was a bad idea.”
“No, it was a great idea because Mom would be livid if I told her I didn’t want to do it, but I really didn’t want that part.”
“Hopefully she’ll forget about it.”
“I think she will, because today she told me she got me another audition. It’s a small part, like I’ve been doing. But I’m not sure if I should I do it. I mean, like try out like I want the part.”
“Do you want the part?”
“I don’t know.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I sort of do, but I don’t want to get stuck in this rut, either.”
“Okay, I’m going to flip a coin. Heads, you do it. Tails, you don’t.”
“Seriously? That’s how you’re going to decide?”
“Bear with me. I’m getting the coin out now. Flipping . . . and done.”
He waited for the results. When she didn’t speak, he said, “Well, what is it?”
“Which are you hoping it is?”
“Heads.”
“Then there you go. You should go for it.”
He stilled his pen. “Did you really flip a coin?”
“No. I just wanted you to figure out which one you really wanted to do.”
He laughed and sat back in the chair. “You’re a stinkin’ genius. Again. You’re like crazy smart.”
“Not really. I saw it on Frasier.”
“Well, I still think you’re crazy smart.”
She laughed, and he smiled. He liked the sound of her laugh. “Thanks, Chase,” she said.
“Are you thankful enough to tell me your name?”
“No.”
“Dang.”
“It’s getting late. I’d better go.”
Disappointment settled in his chest. “Okay. Talk to you tomorrow night?”
She hesitated. “Okay.”
“Great. Have sweet dreams, Five.”
“You too.”