Free Sticks and Stones by Beth Goobie Page B

walked back to the gym. Just inside the door, he leaned over and we kissed.
    “Sorry,” he said.
    I could see kids watching us. I wasso relieved that things were O.K. between us again that I grinned at them. When I looked up at Brent, I saw him grinning too. The rest of the night went like that — one big grin. When Brent dropped me off at my house, we sat there looking at each other’s lips. I reached over and touched his mouth.
    “I like you,” I said.
    “A lot?” he murmured against my fingers.
    “A lot. See you Monday.”
    I watched his car drive off into the falling snow. I decided to forget that bad moment in the back seat as if it’d never happened.
    I spent the weekend studying for tests and reading The Taming of the Shrew for English. Old Dead Lips, our teacher, was a major problem if you didn’t get your work done.
    Sophie, my roommate, studies in front of the TV with a textbook open in her lap in case someone walks in. Sophie’s three years older than me. A few years back, her parents split up because her father was beating Sophie up. He went to jail for six months. Sophie had to live in a group home while her mother went into an alcohol rehab program. It was a rough year and she ended up flunking grade ten. After the rehab program, Sophie and her mother moved in with us.
    “How’s your chem coming along?” I asked her.
    Sophie was watching Saturday morning cartoons. She asked, “How was your date? Any good chemistry there?”
    Sophie likes to tease me about sex. Her boyfriend is away at college so all she can do is talk about it.
    “It was O.K.” I knew I was going red.
    Sophie laughed. “Learn anything new?”
    I groaned. She was really missing her boyfriend. “Brent’s got a nickname — ‘Mr. Warp Speed.’”
    Sophie frowned. “Is he like that?”
    I shrugged.
    Sophie grinned. “If he was, you’d know by now.”
    Brent didn’t call all weekend. I wondered about that, but not a lot. After all, I didn’t call him either. I was still looking forward to first period, Monday morning — English. As I walked through the doorway, I could hear Brent’s voice, the kids around him laughing.
    Always the joker , I thought.
    I turned toward him and there he was, leaned back in his desk like always. He was looking right at me. I started to smile. Then I noticed all the kids around him were looking at me too. I glanced away from them, back to Brent. For asecond, he looked like he was in some sort of fast pain. Then a grin came up on his face and it was gone.
    “Hi,” I made myself say.
    It wasn’t Brent who answered. The guy next to him grinned and said, “Jujube — bet you feel like some new woman, eh?”
    The group started to laugh. I opened my mouth to say something back, anything, but no words came. Brent wasn’t looking at me anymore. Instead, he had his head down, grinning sideways at the guy who’d spoken. Someone punched his shoulder.
    Then Brent leaned across the aisle and started talking to another girl. Everyone turned away from me as if I wasn’t there anymore. Something had just happened. But I couldn’t figure out what it was. Or could I? Either way, I couldn’t keep standing around as if time had stopped. My chin came up and carried meover to my seat behind Carlos. I dropped myself and my textbooks into my desk like a two-ton truck.
    “Hey,” Carlos said. He was turned around in his desk.
    “What?” I stared out the window. I needed a couple of minutes to figure things out.
    Carlos tugged at one of my fingers. “Hey.”
    I had to look at him.
    “They’re jerks,” he said. He hung onto my hand as if it was some sort of prize.
    Suddenly, I was blinking fast. “Yeah?”
    “Yeah.”
    Old Dead Lips stood up and cleared his throat. Then he asked someone to give him the plot of The Taming of the Shrew . As usual, all he got was the sound of a lot of breathing. Then one of the guys over by Brent spoke up.
    “It’s about this guy who wants to get this girl. She plays