hadn’t, I never would have crashed into Colin Dirge and scored tickets. After talking to Declan last night and clearing everything up, I felt so much better, I’d almost forgotten what was still waiting for me. This.
I glance over at Eva, knowing there is no way to stop her from spreading stories and making me look like an idiot. Are the glances and mean comments from last year going to start up all over again? What if it never ends? What if she won’t let it? What if everyone believes her?
I want to get up and leave, but there is no escape. Beside me, Cooper gives me an inquisitive look but I dodge his probing gaze and hug my hoodie tightly around my body. Then, the bell rings and the room quiets as everyone anxiously flips over the exam. Cooper hunches over his paper, his pencil scratching away. My eyes go blurry as I study the first test question.
Calculate the correct answer: If Declan lives 40 miles west of the city in Worcester and I live 20 miles south of the city in Dansville, how long would it take to get to his house, walking five minutes over to the station, then traveling 50 minutes by commuter rail to South Station and taking an hour-and-three-quarters train ride to his home, then walking 10 blocks at a rate of 5 miles an hour?
No, Ms. Pinella’s test doesn’t actually include this particular question. But I realize it’s the only one I want to solve for X. That’s it. I’m doing it. Today. I’m going to just go and finally meet Declan, face-to-face. The way he described our romantic first date still sends shivers down my spine, but why wait weeks until his grounding is over? If Declan can’t come to me, I’ll go to him. Track down every O’Keefe family within the Worcester city limits if I need to. Plus, if I can come home with a photo of the two of us together, it’ll prove to Eva and whoever else she blabs to that Declan really does exist. That I’m not just making him up.
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea. I
can
do it. My mom is working the swing shift today, so she won’t even be home until midnight. I’ll go see him after school, pop in on him in person, surprise him. I’m sure if I can tell his parents the whole amazing story of how I was given the tickets, they will relent and suspend his grounding for this one night. If I plead with them, make my case, okay, put them on the spot, how can they say no? And when I show up at the concert on Declan’s arm, even Eva will have to admit to the world she was dead wrong.
“Ten more minutes,” Ms. Pinella announces, gently jarring me back to reality.
Crap. I have made little to no progress on this test. I quickly scratch in a few answers, skipping the ones that are too hard. Maybe I should have spent more time studying last night after I got home from the mall instead of chatting away with Declan for hours, while listening to the new version of “Inner Beauty” on repeat. I see Noelle Spiers, who probably did spend the rest of the night studying, finish the test early, get up, and saunter out of the room, glancing back smugly at the rest of us.
The bell tolls, indifferent to my cause. Cooper spies my test paper and gives me an odd look, noticing I have left the back page mostly incomplete. I quickly turn it over and shove it into the pile making its way up towards the front of the room. I can’t think about it right now. Or him.
Ms. Pinella’s sensible heels click on the tile floor as she circles the room; last call for dawdlers. As I rush out the door, I can hear Eva pleading with her for, like, one more second, and am pleased when she gets firmly denied.
“How much longer?”
I pull the earbuds out of my ears and squint at the route map. “Three more stops.”
Maeve and I are squished in the back row of a Friday afternoon packed commuter train rumbling toward Worcester, listening to “Inner Beauty” for probably the seventy-eighth time in the last twenty-four hours, but who’s counting? When I told her
I glance over at Eva, knowing there is no way to stop her from spreading stories and making me look like an idiot. Are the glances and mean comments from last year going to start up all over again? What if it never ends? What if she won’t let it? What if everyone believes her?
I want to get up and leave, but there is no escape. Beside me, Cooper gives me an inquisitive look but I dodge his probing gaze and hug my hoodie tightly around my body. Then, the bell rings and the room quiets as everyone anxiously flips over the exam. Cooper hunches over his paper, his pencil scratching away. My eyes go blurry as I study the first test question.
Calculate the correct answer: If Declan lives 40 miles west of the city in Worcester and I live 20 miles south of the city in Dansville, how long would it take to get to his house, walking five minutes over to the station, then traveling 50 minutes by commuter rail to South Station and taking an hour-and-three-quarters train ride to his home, then walking 10 blocks at a rate of 5 miles an hour?
No, Ms. Pinella’s test doesn’t actually include this particular question. But I realize it’s the only one I want to solve for X. That’s it. I’m doing it. Today. I’m going to just go and finally meet Declan, face-to-face. The way he described our romantic first date still sends shivers down my spine, but why wait weeks until his grounding is over? If Declan can’t come to me, I’ll go to him. Track down every O’Keefe family within the Worcester city limits if I need to. Plus, if I can come home with a photo of the two of us together, it’ll prove to Eva and whoever else she blabs to that Declan really does exist. That I’m not just making him up.
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea. I
can
do it. My mom is working the swing shift today, so she won’t even be home until midnight. I’ll go see him after school, pop in on him in person, surprise him. I’m sure if I can tell his parents the whole amazing story of how I was given the tickets, they will relent and suspend his grounding for this one night. If I plead with them, make my case, okay, put them on the spot, how can they say no? And when I show up at the concert on Declan’s arm, even Eva will have to admit to the world she was dead wrong.
“Ten more minutes,” Ms. Pinella announces, gently jarring me back to reality.
Crap. I have made little to no progress on this test. I quickly scratch in a few answers, skipping the ones that are too hard. Maybe I should have spent more time studying last night after I got home from the mall instead of chatting away with Declan for hours, while listening to the new version of “Inner Beauty” on repeat. I see Noelle Spiers, who probably did spend the rest of the night studying, finish the test early, get up, and saunter out of the room, glancing back smugly at the rest of us.
The bell tolls, indifferent to my cause. Cooper spies my test paper and gives me an odd look, noticing I have left the back page mostly incomplete. I quickly turn it over and shove it into the pile making its way up towards the front of the room. I can’t think about it right now. Or him.
Ms. Pinella’s sensible heels click on the tile floor as she circles the room; last call for dawdlers. As I rush out the door, I can hear Eva pleading with her for, like, one more second, and am pleased when she gets firmly denied.
“How much longer?”
I pull the earbuds out of my ears and squint at the route map. “Three more stops.”
Maeve and I are squished in the back row of a Friday afternoon packed commuter train rumbling toward Worcester, listening to “Inner Beauty” for probably the seventy-eighth time in the last twenty-four hours, but who’s counting? When I told her
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