Lessons I Never Learned at Meadowbrook Academy by Liz Maccie

Author:Liz Maccie
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: JUVENILE FICTION/General
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2014-07-13T16:00:00+00:00

Free Period

2:00 p.m.

The first bell, ending chorus, hadn’t even finished ringing when Thaddeus ran out the door. I gave the big kid a shove, quickly hopped down off the risers, and ran after him. Fortunately he was still waiting right outside the door.

“Whoa,” he said, “you got somewhere to be?”

Half-breathless, I said, “Nope.”

“Want to hang?”

I took a second to make it seem like I was pondering the countless other opportunities I had going on in my life. “Sounds cool.”

“Let’s see if there’s a class in the auditorium. We can just chill there if it’s empty.”

Thaddeus led the way, and I followed close behind. I couldn’t believe I was about to spend an entire forty-five minutes with him…alone. God, I just hoped I wouldn’t screw it up. I was praying that he wouldn’t bring up those damn Yankees tickets I had lied about earlier. Over the course of the day, my conscience had gotten the best of me, and I was feeling bad for grossly misrepresenting my capacity to acquire Yankees box seats behind home plate.

Standing somewhat downwind of him, I could faintly smell his deodorant or his fabric softener, body soap, shampoo, conditioner…I wasn’t really sure what I was inhaling, but whatever it was, it was delicious. It reminded me of grass and vanilla ice cream.

Thaddeus opened the back door to the auditorium and peered inside. “Coast is clear.”

He moved to an aisle seat and plopped down, dropping his backpack on the ground. I was still standing by the doorway.

“Do you want to sit or stand?”

“Sit,” I said, sounding like a complete and total idiot.

He patted the seat next to him. “This one looks empty.”

My heart was beating so fast I could hear it pounding in my head. I felt his knee rub against the outside of my thigh as I slid past him. It made me tingle. I couldn’t help but have a flashback to earlier, when I had fallen on him. The mere memory sent a shiver of embarrassment through my spine. Thankfully I sat down without any major mishaps. I anxiously tapped my foot and looked straight ahead at the empty stage. There was a half-deflated purple balloon on the ground, left behind from morning meeting.

Thaddeus put his feet up on the seat in front of him. He leaned over, pressing against my right shoulder and recuffed his pant leg. I could feel this immense amount of heat coming from our touching shoulders. He finished the cuff and leaned back.

“How do you like this place so far?” he asked. “Must be weird coming from another school and all.”

I tried to answer, but my mouth was so dry I couldn’t get any words out. I swallowed hard and decided shrugging would be an adequate enough answer.

He leaned over toward his bag and grabbed a piece of peppermint Trident, popped it in his mouth, and offered me one. I took the gum, hoping to restore some moisture to my mouth. It worked as I smoothed out the empty wrapper on my thigh.

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