Free A Girl Like Gracie by Scarlett Haven Page B

She always left these
encouraging notes. The thought of somebody not having that with
their own mom breaks my heart.
    “ Your dad must really care about you a
lot,” I say, thinking about all those driving courses.
    “ I am a burden to him,” Jace says.
“Anything he does in life, it’s to punish me. Maybe he thinks it’s
my fault she died.”
    I don’t say anything to that, but I disagree
with him. Maybe his dad isn’t around much, but to make him take all
those driving courses… he wouldn’t do that if he didn’t care. I
think maybe his dad loves him more than he thinks. But it’s easy to
say that, because I’m on the outside looking in.
    “ Did you have fun with Noah on
Saturday?” Alfie asks me.
    “ I actually did,” I answer. “We didn’t
spend much time at the reception, then we went to a Korean
restaurant. There was this awesome ajumma there. She has only been in America a few
years. She cooked amazing. We had kimchi, spicy rice cakes and
black bean noodles. We have to go sometime.”
    “ I haven’t had kimchi since the last
time I visited Korea,” Alfie says. “What did Noah think of
kimchi?”
    I laugh. “He didn’t like it.
The ajumma made him some
fried chicken. It smelled so good. I wanted to try it.”
    “ You ate
chicken?” Alfie asks.
    “ No. But I wanted to,” I say. “I
wanted to so bad.”
    “ Why don’t you eat meat?” Jace
asks.
    “ Because my mom doesn’t,” I answer.
“I’ve just never ate it.”
    “ Well that’s not right,” Jace says.
“You can’t decide to be a vegetarian if you’ve never ate meat. It
should be something you decide on your own.”
    “ Exactly,” Alfie says. “I love meat
now.”
    “ Okay. I’ll try it. But I want the
first thing I try to be that ajumma’s fried chicken,” I say, my stomach
growling just thinking about it.
    “ What’s an ajumma ?” Jace asks.
    “ It’s just something we call middle
aged women in Korea,” I answer. “By calling them that, we honor
them. People in America don’t respect their elders. In Korea it’s a
really big deal.”
    “ Ah, okay,” he says. “I like that. The
respect your elders thing. You’re right. When I get older, I want
to be respected too.”
    “ There are a lot of things I miss
about coming to Korea,” Alfie says. “The culture there is
amazing.”
    “ I like the language too,” I say. “I
can be over dramatic there and it’s just normal. If I’m over
dramatic here, people get annoyed and call me a drama
queen.”
    Alfie laughs. “Gracie, you can be dramatic
all you want. I promise not to get annoyed.”
    “ I don’t think anybody will get
annoyed,” Jace says. “Alfie’s right. When other girls do that
whiney thing, it’s annoying. But I’ve seen you use it with Alfie
and I see why it works. Even I find it hard to resist.”
    I laugh.
    “ So, what should I expect out of this
whole Noah thing?” Alfie asks me. “Are you two going to
date?”
    “ Aniyo ,” I
say. “Absolutely not. He’s just my friend.”
    “ Good,” he says. “I’d hate to have to
give him another bloody nose.”
    Noah and me isn’t going to happen. Why would
it? He’s dated lots of girls, most of them probably much more
beautiful than I am. I wouldn’t stand a chance even if I was
interested. Which I’m not.
     
    Now you’re too late.
     
    When we get to school, we all head our
separate directions. I stop by my locker to drop my books off. When
I open my locker, inside there is a cup of coffee sitting inside
with a sticky note on the side of it.
     
    I like you.
    — Noah
     
    I smile as I read the note. I slip my books
inside, and sip my coffee on the way to class.
    Yum. White chocolate and raspberry.
    I read the note one more time before I slip
it into my purse and head into class. When I get there, there is a
huge teddybear sitting at my desk and another note on top. I pick
it up and read it.
     
    If you date me, then I
promise to take you to eat Korean food every night. I