He folded his arms. “So you’d rather have him sit with Todd?”
He had a valid point.
Bruce was going to meet Todd in Spanish class, so I knew I had to tell him about the Club before he got some demented version of the story from Todd Chesney.
Todd and I used to get along. He was your typical playful jock who walked around like his only care in the world was scoring on and off the court. He had dated practically every girl in our class, and he’d set his sights on me right as I formed the Club. He did not take rejection well. As the Club took off, he harbored a lot of resentment toward me, which ended up in an altercation between us after what had been an otherwise insanely fun karaoke night. While he had since apologized for his drunken behavior, things hadn’t been the same between us. And I doubted they ever would.
Bruce met up with me as I was walking toward class. “Hey, sorry about lunch,” he said.
“There’s no need to apologize.” Which was the truth.
He looked around the hallway. “I felt like I was intruding. But I saw a big table of girls, and what guy wouldn’t want to sit there?”
“Yeah, so there’s something you should know.” I figured now was the best time to tell him, but I never knew exactly what to say. So there was this guy I’d been in love with since I was a kid and he broke my heart. I decided to form The Lonely Hearts Club and stop dating for the rest of my high school existence. Then others joined, a revolution took over the school, egos were bruised, fights were had, and in the end we decided that guys are okay to date as long as they aren’t jerks.
Maybe it was that simple?
I gave him the brief history, then said, “Originally, we sort of swore off dating; you know, boys are stupid and all that.”
He nodded. “As a boy, I get it.”
“But then we rethought things a bit.”
“I figured, since you have a boyfriend.”
“Yes.” I paused before we entered class. “So we have some rules. We hang out on Saturday nights, have meetings at lunch, and do a lot of events together, basic we are girls, hear us roar type things.” I silently cursed myself for speaking so flippantly about the Club to him. We were much more than that. I shouldn’t have felt the need to downplay it.
“Sounds cool,” he said. “It’s for girls only, then?”
“Yeah, afraid so.”
He looked thoughtful. “You know, girls aren’t the only ones who’ve had their hearts broken.”
I didn’t have a response. I knew that was true, but I also wasn’t prepared to open up the Club further. Adding boys to anything always brought on trouble.
I motioned for him to enter the classroom. Before I even had a chance to introduce him to our teacher, Todd came barreling in.
“Well, well.” His arrogant smirk instantly infuriated me. “Are you going to introduce me to your new member, Penny? Who’s the fellow lesbo?”
Standard Todd. Anytime a girl joined the Club or turned him down for a date, he automatically assumed that she was a lesbian. Because why else would a girl not want to deal with his crap? Further proof that he was a complete and total moron.
“Just ignore him,” I said to Bruce.
But Bruce refused to let Todd get the better of him. “Hey, mate, I’m Bruce — the guy who managed to sit with loads of amazing ladies at lunch today. See ya around.” He walked away, leaving Todd without a proper comeback. Bruce went to introduce himself to our teacher while I made my way to my seat, which was unfortunately still next to Todd. The alphabetical system could be as much a curse as a blessing.
Todd sat down and turned his back to me, which was what we did now. Still, he made no effort to keep his voice down when he said to another jock, “I guess British dudes would rather hang out with lesbians than real men. Loser.”
Todd never inconvenienced himself with facts.
I knew that Ryan and Todd had been friends since they’d played in Little League. We were from a small town, and you kind of become friends with whoever was on your team or on your block. Still, listening to the crap spewing from Todd’s mouth, I was thinking that maybe it was time for Ryan to be given a reminder that, unlike family, you can choose your friends.
ELIZABETH EULBERG is the author of The Lonely Hearts Club, Prom & Prejudice, Take a Bow, Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality, and Better Off Friends. You can find her on the web at www.elizabetheulberg.com
Copyright © 2014 by Elizabeth Eulberg
Published by Point, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, POINT, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First edition, November 2014
e-ISBN 978-0-545-79971-3
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
Elizabeth Eulberg, Two of Us
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