Entry Five
Observation #1: Boys have no problem stealing food off your plate without asking.
I’m telling you, it’s ALL ABOUT their stomachs!
Observation #2: Boys are not always on the ball.
Turns out Finn blabbers just like me sometimes.
Observation #3: Boys CAN think for themselves.
Evan sat with me at lunch and Finn totally doesn’t agree with the whole “ice Megan” plan either. Maybe Doug isn’t quite the evil mastermind he thinks he is.
Seven
Megan emerged from the lunch line with her tray, a rolled-up copy of Motorcycle magazine sticking out from the back pocket of her baggy fatigues. If she was going to be sitting outside with silent Miller again, she was bringing her own entertainment. She knew better than to hope that Evan would join her two days in a row.
“Megan! Over here!”
Aimee waved at her from the center of the cafeteria. Megan glanced at the courtyard and saw Miller already engrossed in his game. He hadn’t said one word to her or Evan yesterday. As much as she was hoping to make a breakthrough with Miller, Megan decided a little social interaction might be a nice change of pace. She made a beeline for Aimee, Ria, and their friends.
“Hey,” Aimee said, smiling as she dropped back into her chair.
“Hi,” Megan said. “Hi, Ria.”
“What’s up?” Ria said. “Have you met Jenna and Pearl?” she asked, gesturing at the two girls across from her.
“No . . . hi,” Megan said, sliding into the seat next to the new girls.
She recognized Pearl from the team. She had short blond hair and a round face and was busy making a bracelet from a box of colorful beads. Jenna had a long dark braid that hung down to the middle of her back and was sporting a pair of stylish aviator glasses.
“Hi,” Jenna said. “You’re in my Spanish class, right?”
“Sixth period with Ms. Krantz?” Megan asked. “I don’t think she likes me too much.”
“That’s ’cuz you know more Spanish than she does,” Jenna said with a grin.
“Pearl was my grandmother’s name,” Pearl announced, sliding a purple bead onto a thin string next to a random array of blues, greens, and aquas.
“Oh . . . okay,” Megan replied. “That’s really pretty,” she added, gesturing at the bracelet.
“You want one? I can make you one. I make them for everybody,” Pearl said excitedly. Aimee, Ria, and Jenna all raised their arms slowly. Their wrists were packed with bracelets.
“She can’t sit still,” Aimee explained.
“Really? I’m the same way,” Megan said.
“You are?” Pearl’s whole face lit up. “See? I told you guys I don’t need Ritalin. Megan and I are perfectly normal. So, Megan, do you want a bracelet? I just came up with a couple new styles.”
“Yeah, sure. I’d love one,” Megan said.
“Great!” Pearl reached past Jenna to drop the box of beads in front of her. “Pick some colors.”
Megan laughed. “Okay. Can I do it after lunch?”
“Sure! Absolutely!” Pearl replied.
“So, Megan, let’s get down to it,” Ria said, leaning her elbows on the table. “How, exactly, did you end up bunking in boy heaven?”
Megan took a bite of her sandwich. “I wouldn’t exactly call it heaven.”
“Omigod, are you kidding? The McGowan boys?” Aimee said. “They’re like the hotness brigade.”
Megan laughed and took a long slug of soda. “The hotness brigade?”
“What? They are!” Aimee said. “I still can’t believe my sister is dating one of them.”
“Please. Once those two both won best looking in eighth grade, we all knew they were gonna be swapping saliva sooner or later,” Ria said, digging into her pasta.
“Ria!” her friends exclaimed.
“Ew,” Aimee added, sticking her finger down her throat.
“So . . . what?” Ria said to Megan, ignoring the others. “Did you win some contest or something?”
“Our parents are old friends,” Megan explained, flushed over the image of Evan and Hailey swapping spit. “My dad got transferred overseas and I didn’t want to go, so the McGowans offered to let me stay with them.”
“Wow. So have you, like, seen any of them naked?” Ria asked.
Jenna, Aimee, and Pearl were all rapt with attention.
“No, I have not seen any of them naked,” Megan replied. She looked around and leaned in toward the table. “But I have seen most of them in their boxers.”
Jenna nearly swooned. “Omigosh. Evan McGowan in his boxers. What was it like?”
Scary, Megan thought, recalling the major morning hard-on. “It was . . . interesting.”
“Evan McGowan is so perfect,” Pearl said. She paused in her bracelet making and looked off dreamily. “I had my first ever sexual daydream about him.”
“Really?” Megan asked.
“I think most of us did,” Aimee replied. “How could you not? I mean, he’s such a flirt.”
Megan’s body heat skyrocketed and she put her sandwich down in favor of her soda. “He is?”
“What, you haven’t noticed?” Ria asked. “That boy will flirt with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Even the ugly girls.”
“Ria!” her friends shouted again.
Megan forced herself to breathe. Of course he’s a huge flirt, she thought. Did you think you were somehow special? But even as she thought this, she realized that she had. She had thought that his comments and smiles meant something. That they had to mean something.
“What? It’s a good thing!” Ria countered, eyes wide. “To have an Adonis like that flirting with the trolls? It’s gotta be good for the self-esteem.”
Okay, I’m going to smack myself right here, right now, Megan thought.
“Sorry. Ria doesn’t realize that not all of us need attention from cute boys in order to have self-esteem,” Jenna said, pushing her glasses up on her nose.
Megan recalled how giddy and confident she felt whenever Evan joked with her or called her Kicks and felt a wave of shame wash through her. Her feminist mother would be so appalled. But I don’t need his attention, she told herself. I just . . . like it.
“Well, whatever,” Aimee said. “I wish he would quit it already. He’s gonna give Hailey an aneurysm and the rest of my family will suffer the consequences.”
“She doesn’t like it, huh?” Megan asked, swallowing hard.
“Hates it,” Aimee replied, spearing some lettuce out of her salad. “She lives for that guy, I swear. To be honest, I don’t see what the big deal is. He can be kind of a jerk and he isn’t even the hottest one.”
“Oh no. That would be Finn,” Ria put in.
“Really?” Megan asked, happy for a change in subject.
“Omigod! Evan is so much hotter than Finn,” Pearl said.
“Actually, I was talking about Miller,” Aimee said.
“Miller?” they all repeated, dumbstruck.
Aimee glanced across the cafeteria at the courtyard, where Miller was leaning back in his seat, listening to his radio. “I don’t know. There’s just something about him,” she said, narrowing her eyes wistfully as she watched him.
“Yeah, something weird,” Ria said.
“Ria!” her friends scolded.
“No, I get it,” Megan said. “He’s like the strong, silent type.”
“Yeah,” Aimee said with bashful smile, sitting up straight. “Not that I could ever get a guy like that. Or any guy.”
“What?” Megan asked.
“Please. Look at me,” Aimee said.
“What? You’re beautiful,” Megan said.
“Don’t even bother, Megan,” Ria said, waving her fork around. “We tell this girl all the time that she’s hands down the better-looking Farmer, but she refuses to believe us.”
“My arms are thicker than Hailey’s calves,” Aimee said frowning. “Give me a break.”
Ria and Jenna rolled their eyes. Aimee had b
road shoulders, a lot of muscle, and maybe a little extra meat on her bones, but she was hardly a giant.
“Whatever! You guys know I’m fine with my size. Someday some guy will totally fall in love with me. Just not in high school,” Aimee said. “Boys in high school are too superficial.”
“Well, maybe not all boys,” Megan said, glancing over at Miller, then leaning in toward the table. “Have you ever seen his smile?” she asked.
“Actually, I don’t think so,” Aimee replied.
“Just wait,” Megan said. “It’ll blow you away.”
Aimee bit her bottom lip and looked out at Miller again. Suddenly he raised his fists in the air and cheered, startling the goths across the courtyard. Aimee laughed and returned to her salad.
“Well, whatever. I still say it’s Finn. You guys just don’t have the same refined taste as me. I like the deep, soulful type,” Ria said, gazing past Megan’s shoulder. “I mean, just look at the boy. Those blue eyes, that just-got-out-of-bed hair. And look at the way he dresses. Any guy that can just throw on whatever and still be that beautiful has got my vote.”
Megan glanced over her shoulder and found Finn sitting at one of the tables by the window, wearing a faded black T-shirt, baggy jeans, and his ever-present paint-splattered boots. The sun poured in through the windows on his left, highlighting his dark blond hair and his intense expression. He was surrounded by a group of guys who were all laughing and joking with each other, but Finn’s concentration was riveted on the sketchbook in front of him. His hand moved quickly across the page and even when someone threw an orange past his nose, he barely looked up.
“Well, you do have to admire that level of concentration,” Jenna said.
“Yeah, but it’s totally pointless. That babe only has eyes for one girl,” Ria said.
“Really? Who?” Megan asked.
Ria pointed with her plastic fork. “Kayla Bird.”
A tall, willowy, olive-skinned beauty floated over to Finn’s table in a long skirt and black boots. She lowered herself into the chair across from his and lifted her light brown, wavy hair over her slim shoulder. Finn glanced up, saw her, and instantly closed the sketchbook.
“Who’s she?” Megan asked.
“Kayla Bird, junior. Artistic, beautiful, perpetually tan,” Ria said.
“The girl wears string bikinis at the town pool,” Aimee put in. “This is Massachusetts. I mean, who can compete with that?”
Megan stared at Kayla’s back. There was a small birthmark right next to the strap of her white tank top and she was wearing a delicate, antique-looking gold watch on her slim wrist. Everything about her was graceful. Even when she lifted her water bottle to twist open the top, she looked like a ballerina.
Megan glanced over at Finn and he was looking right at her. Not at Kayla, but at her. Megan’s heart skipped a beat at being caught gaping and Finn shot her a quizzical look. He waved and Megan lifted a hand to acknowledge him before quickly turning back to the table. She sank down in her seat, blushing furiously. The one McGowan boy who didn’t think she was a freak and now . . . well, now he did.
“Oh! I think we know which McGowan Megan likes,” Ria teased, pointing at Megan. “You’re a Finn girl. I knew we’d get along.”
“No, I’m not,” Megan replied. “I am so not a Finn girl.”
“Please. Look at your face!” Ria replied.
“She’s right,” Jenna said matter-of-factly. “You are blushing rather profusely.”
“Well, that’s just me. I do that a lot,” Megan said, sitting up straight again and clearing her throat. “Trust me. I am not a Finn girl.”
“Whatever you say,” Ria replied, waving her fork again.
“Well, at least you’re not an Evan girl, ’cuz that could be disastrous,” Aimee added.
“Yeah,” Megan replied, avoiding all eye contact. “At least I’m not that.”
* * *
Megan headed for the locker room that afternoon, more than ready to take out the frustrations of the day on a soccer ball. Everyone in chemistry was refusing to partner with her because of her first-day mishap, and Ms. Krantz had actually scolded her for working ahead of the class level in Spanish class. Apparently she was confusing everyone around her. What was she supposed to do, forget her knowledge of Spanish verb tenses?
As she came around the corner into the physical education wing, Megan heard a couple of voices talking loudly. Someone was arguing just around the next bend, in front of the school store. And the voices sounded mighty familiar. Was that . . . Evan?
“. . . know I don’t mean anything by it.”
“It doesn’t matter if I know that. They don’t know that,” Hailey’s voice replied. “Half the girls in school are looking at me like they know something I don’t know. Do you have any idea what that feels like?”
“I don’t understand. What do they know that you don’t know?” Evan replied.
“They think that you like them, Evan!” Hailey replied. “They think they have something over me because you flirt with them right in front of me.”
There was an exhalation of air. Megan looked behind her to see if anyone was coming, but the hallway was empty. She didn’t want to be caught spying, but this was good stuff. She couldn’t tear herself away.
“Hailey, that’s just the way I am,” Evan said. “I’m a friendly person.”
“Yeah, right,” Hailey said sarcastically.
“I am! And you knew that going in,” Evan replied. “Come on, don’t you trust me?”
“Of course I do,” Hailey said. “It’s just . . . well . . . imagine how you’d feel if it seemed like every guy in school wanted me.”
Megan blinked as her heart squeezed. Hailey actually sounded kind of vulnerable there. She thought of Pearl’s comment about her Evan-centered sexual fantasy. Maybe it wasn’t the easiest thing, dating the hottest guy in school.
“Well, they do,” Evan said lightly.
Megan rolled her eyes.
“Evan, I’m trying to be serious here!”
“Fine! Fine! What do you want me to do? Stop talking to girls entirely?” Evan asked.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Hailey replied.
Megan’s jaw dropped.
“I don’t believe you,” Evan said.
“Neither do I,” Megan said under her breath. Maybe Hailey’s relationship wasn’t easy, but she didn’t have to try to control Evan.
At that moment she heard a bunch of her teammates coming down the hall. She lunged forward and yanked open the door to the locker room, pretending she had just arrived. Aimee, Ria, and a few of the other girls came around the corner, making enough noise to silence Hailey and Evan.
“Hey!” Megan said. “You guys ready to rumble?”
“You bet your ass I am,” Ria said. “Can I pretend the ball is our math teacher’s face? Would that be wrong?”
Megan laughed. Who knew what would happen between Evan and Hailey? She didn’t care. She was finally feeling like she fit in. And if that could happen, anything was possible.
* * *
Megan sat on a bench in the locker room after practice while Ria worked a French braid into Megan’s wet hair. Her heels bounced up and down and she glanced at her thick, black plastic watch. Her new garnet red bracelet rolled up and down her arm whenever she moved.
“How much longer is this gonna take?” she asked.
“I’m almost done,” Ria replied.
Aimee walked out of the bathroom and grabbed her backpack and gym bag. “You should let it dry like that and then take it out for the party tonight,” she said. “I bet your hair would look amazing all wavy.”
Megan swallowed against her dry throat. “Party?” she asked, leaning forward to grab her Gatorade from between her feet.
“If you keep moving, it’s only going to take longer,” Ria told her.
“Fine,” Megan replied. Maybe this was why she had never had a whole troop of girlfriends before. This primping stuff was just not her thin
g.
“Oh, yeah. The guys’ soccer team is having a party tonight,” Aimee told her, lifting the strap of her duffel bag over her head. “I thought I told you.”
“You should come,” Ria put in, leaning over her shoulder. “It’s the first big party of the year and it usually ends with major drama.”
“Yeah, the cops busted it up last year,” Pearl said as she tied her sneakers. “It was so totally great.”
“Pearl, you weren’t even there,” Ria said. “You were visiting your grandma.”
“Well, I heard it was so totally great,” Pearl replied, unfazed.
Ria grabbed a hair band from the bench and tied off Megan’s braid. “There. Finished.”
Megan was on her feet in an instant. “Thanks,” she said, grabbing her stuff. “I guess maybe I’ll see you guys tonight.”
Megan turned to walk out the door just as Hailey and her friends emerged from the second row of lockers. Hailey glared at Megan. Megan rolled her eyes and pushed through the door. Hailey jumped in at the exact same second so that their overstuffed gym bags slammed against each other and for a split second, they got wedged in.
“Rude much?” Hailey said.
Megan scrambled for a comeback, but as always, she knew she wouldn’t be able to choke one out if she happened to think of one. Instead she rolled her eyes and pushed through the door.
Just once, she thought, fuming. Just once I wish I could actually defend myself.
“Megan! Wait up!” Aimee called out.
Megan paused just outside the door. Once again, Evan’s car was parked down below. Evan stood in front of it, talking to Darnell and a couple of his friends who had just gotten out of football practice. When Megan turned around, almost the entire team had emptied out of the building.
“Here. This is Christian Todd’s address,” Aimee said, tearing a piece of paper out of her notebook and handing it over. “That’s where the party’s gonna be, but call me if you need a ride.”
“You know, Aimee, I don’t think Megan’s going to be able to make the party,” Hailey said, striding up to them. “Shouldn’t you be working on your penalty kicks? We do have a game coming up.”
“My penalty kicks are fine,” Megan said flatly.
“Please. What were you, three for seven?” Hailey asked, glancing over her shoulder at Deena, the goalie. “It’s hard to believe you really won the state championship with a leg like that. Or did you just make that up to impress all of us?”