How to Be Brave by E. Katherine Kottaras

Author:E. Katherine Kottaras
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466884670
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

9

The hallway’s buzzing. Everyone’s on a post-Thanksgiving, pre–winter break high. There’s only three weeks of classes left, which makes everyone freak out, about their grades or their college applications or their ACT scores. The only thing I’m freaking out about right now is seeing Daniel again and figuring out the rain check situation.

But I haven’t seen him all day. I run to Marquez’s class, taking the steps two by two. I’m out of breath when I get to the door. I peek inside, but Daniel’s not there yet, so I slide into my desk and try to calm myself down.

Play it cool, Georgia.

Everyone is deep in conversation around me. I play with my phone and pretend to be busy. The bell rings. I look up at the door. No Daniel.

“Okay, people!” Marquez yells. “Let’s get started!”

Damn it. Where is he?

No one listens to Marquez, so he tries again. “The bell has rung,” he yells. “Everyone take a seat!” No one pays attention to him. He’s lost all control. They all go right on talking.

And then Daniel runs in. He’s about to head to his seat, but instead he looks straight at me and comes my way. My heart is in my throat. It’s as though I’m still running up those steps.

“Are you going to Avery’s party?”

“Yes!” I say. “I’ll be there!” I feel like I’m yelling. I feel like I’m not playing it cool at all.

But he’s so nice. “Good!” he says. And then he puts his hand on my shoulder and squeezes it tight. “I want to hang out!”

I’m melting. His hand feels so good. I’m about to say that I want to hang out, too, when Marquez starts flipping the lights on and off like we’re in the third grade. “People!” he yells. “Have a seat already!”

“Oops!” Daniel laughs. He lets go of my shoulder and runs to his desk. Everyone quiets down.

“If we do not begin at precisely two twenty-seven P.M.,” Marquez intones, “the administration is going to come in here and strip me of my tenure!” He’s not really mad at us—he just likes being the center of attention and ruining my chances of connecting with hot guys.

“Now, you had an actual standards-driven assignment due today.” He drops his voice to a whisper. “But please, don’t tell anyone about this. It’ll destroy my reputation.”

Ah, that old Marquez. He’s a laugh a minute.

I shuffle through my backpack to dig out my paper. We were assigned a one-page proposal previewing our chosen artist and our motivation for choosing him or her for our midyear project. Today, we’re meeting with Marquez individually to get approval. I’ve titled my project “Parallel Uplifts: An Exploration of Lee Mullican, California Painter.” I printed out copies of a few of his paintings, in case Marquez isn’t familiar. I don’t expect that he is. My mom always talked about how he was one of the most underrated painters of the twentieth century. She thought it was a crime that no one, except for the art historians on the West Coast, had heard of him.

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