Shuffle, Repeat by Jen Klein

Author:Jen Klein [Klein, Jen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2016-05-02T22:00:00+00:00

“Okay, check this.” Oliver merges onto the highway. “Rock salt.”

“Rock salt,” I repeat.

“We’ll use it to write our class year in huge numbers on the football field.” He holds up a hand toward my face. “Hear me out before you start squawking.” Since I am, in fact, poised to squawk, the only thing I can do is clamp my mouth shut. “No one will be able to tell at first. The field will look exactly the same as it always has, but then the salt will slowly kill the grass and the numbers will gradually appear. Like magic.”

“Magic.”

“Magic!” Oliver does a sparkle thing with his hands, as if he’s revealing a card trick. “Best of all, no animals!”

I smile because he’s so goofy, but of course I still don’t approve. However, I pretend to consider it. “It does seem like a reasonable prank, because you’re not really harming anything.”

“Exactly! Just the grass!”

“And grass will grow back sometime, right? It’s not like it needs to be on the field permanently or anything.”

Oliver grins, triumphant. “Finally, something the relentless June Rafferty will approve!”

“Yeah.” I nod, still pretending. “I mean, it’s just a football field. Only the stage upon which plays a myriad of high school dramas that will fade into obscurity the minute we all disappear…much like the grass under your salt.”

Oliver deflates. “You don’t actually approve, do you?”

“Nope.”

“And you’re taking a new song.”

“Yep.”

“You’re the worst,” he tells me.

“You’re going to be hearing a lot more of the Clash.”

“Fine,” Oliver says. “Back to the drawing board.”

• • •

I’m almost done with my sandwich when I ask it. “Where’s Itch?” It’s a reasonable question, since he’s been sitting with us for the past few weeks.

Darbs’s soda pauses halfway between the table and her mouth. “I don’t know.” Her gaze slides to Lily.

“What?” I ask. “Lily, I saw that. What was that? What?”

“Calm down,” Darbs says. “You weren’t here yesterday. You were off with the pom-poms again. Itch can do the same thing. He can have lunch elsewhere.”

I look around the cafeteria. No Itch at any table that I can see. “Where else would he be?”

Lily’s the one who tells me. “He’s eating in the art room.”

“The art room? Itch doesn’t do art. Is he being weird about me again? I thought we were over that. We’ve been fine. Haven’t we seemed fine?…What?”

“I don’t think it has anything to do with you,” Darbs says in an overly gentle tone.

“Of course it does. Why else would he be in the art room?”

“Because that’s where Zoe eats,” Lily tells me.

“Zoe Smith? What does Zoe Smith have to do with…oh.” The synapses suddenly connect. “Itch likes Zoe.”

“Zoe likes him back,” Darbs says helpfully, and Lily elbows her. “What?”

“It’s cool,” I tell them. “Really, it’s totally fine.”

And it is. Or at least it should be. Just like I told Oliver, none of this really matters anyway. In the grand scheme of life, Itch is just some guy I dated for a little while in high school. A bump in the road.

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