Will by Maria Boyd

Author:Maria Boyd [Boyd, Maria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-375-89404-6
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2010-07-13T04:00:00+00:00

Making the right move

I’d spent the whole night trying to figure out a way to introduce myself to Elizabeth. I couldn’t come up with anything that didn’t seem totally obvious. Maybe Mark was right. Maybe he could introduce us. But that’s when you risk the horrible three minutes’ silence where everyone is trying to figure out what to say. It’s in those awkward, not very smooth silences that I begin to glow a rosy, very uncool red. That just can’t happen.

I was still thinking about it during the trip to school.

Are you all right, Will?

Yeah, Mum.

So it looks like from here on in I’ll be taking care of the veggie patch….

But then it would be better because there’d be other people around so I wouldn’t have to be the only one talking.

Will?

Yeah?

As long as Mark didn’t carry on.

Meaning … it’s getting down to the final weeks.

I looked over at her, wondering what she was going on about.

Well, that’s what the note on the fridge says, full rehearsals for the next three weekends and then the show.

So that’s the only time I have left. I have to make my move today, otherwise there’s no point.

Will …? It would be nice if you actually listened while your mother tried to communicate with you.

Yeah, no, it’s all good, Mum.

Well, I never thought I would ever hear Will Armstrong say that spending three consecutive weekends at school was good. You must be enjoying it.

Maybe Mark was right, maybe all I had to do was …

Have you made any new friends?

I willed myself back into the car and back into the conversation. She had given me another lift to school after all. And I knew she was making up for lost veggie-patch bonding time.

A couple.

Pause.

Any girls, Will?

Left field! Left field! Back up! How did she do that? I looked over at her, trying to suss whether she had one of those I know everything about you smiles on her face. Mum always asked a lot of questions but she never asked those types of questions. She left that up to Dad.

Come on, Mum. It’s a school musical, not somewhere you go to pick up.

I know that, Will, I was just wondering if there was anyone, well, you know, special?

Anyone special! As soon as the opposite sex is mentioned Mum turns into one of Andrews’s walking stereotypes. That was the difference—if I told Dad we’d end up having a laugh, I tell Mum and it’s serious. I pushed that thought straight back out of my head as soon as it got there.

We pulled up outside the gates again. The unanswered question filled the car.

No, Mum, but if there is I’ll fill you in—as long as you don’t ask me if she’s special.

Deal.

I reached over and threw a kiss on her left cheek. I was getting used to that smile, and I liked it.

As soon as I had picked up the guitar and turned toward the hall the Freak had sniffed me out.

Is that your mum?

I turned to find him doing the fox-terrier jump at my side.

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