“You’re wet.” She smiled at me. “A bus splashed me last week. It was terrible. I was soaked and muddy for hours.”
“Wilma . . .” Suzanne began.
She was going to ask if a hydrant had opened on me. Or something nastier.
“. . . I never noticed your eyelashes before. They’re gorgeous.” Suzanne looked around at everybody. “Aren’t they?”
They all nodded and looked friendly.
Huh?
Chapter Three
“I have to dry off,” I said.
Ardis and Suzanne followed me into the bathroom. I pulled a wad of paper towels out of the dispenser and dabbed at my wet skirt. Suzanne took some paper towels too and tried to help me.
Ardis leaned against a sink. “Suzanne says you’re her best friend.”
Was something wrong with my hearing?
“She is,” Suzanne said. “We live in the same building. We’ve been friends practically since we were born.”
“We’re just neighbors.”
“Where do you live?” Ardis asked.
“On Sixty-sixth. The big building on—”
“You know where we live,” Suzanne said. “I invited you to my birthday party. Remember? The address was on the invitation. Only you couldn’t make it.”
Her best friend—me—hadn’t even known there was a party.
“Where do you live?” I asked Ardis.
“On Irving Place.” She paused. “Look, if you meant it before, I could use some help with history. Maybe you can come over sometime and we can study together.”
The truck had run me over instead of just splashing me. I was dead and this was Hell and Heaven rolled into one. Suzanne and Ardis for friends.
“How come you’re talking to me? What’s going on?” Since I was dead, it was safe to say whatever I wanted.
Ardis looked puzzled. “I like you.” Her face went blank for a second. “I don’t know why.”
“Why shouldn’t we talk to you?” Suzanne asked. “You’re the most popular kid at Claverford.”
The old lady! The old lady?
The hallucination continued. I left Ardis to go to language arts, where my humiliation by Ms. Hannah had taken place.
When I got there, Erica was trying to yank Daphne out of the seat to the left of mine. I usually sat between Jared and Daphne, the other two loners. But today Carlos was in the chair to the right of mine. Timothy was in my chair. Everybody else was standing.
As soon as he saw me, Timothy patted his legs. “Special cushion, Wilma. Park it here.”
This wasn’t happening.
BeeBee said, “You’re too bony. She’ll be disabled for life.”
Timothy didn’t get up, so I sat near the back, next to the windows. As soon as I did, there was a scramble, like in musical chairs. Evadney Jones, president of SGO, wound up sprawled on the floor at my feet. Suzanne got the chair next to me. Trust her to get what she wanted. BeeBee was in front of me, and Jared was behind. Timothy hopped around, yowling, “Who stepped on me?”
Ms. Hannah arrived. “What on earth? I want all of you to go to your seats.”
Evadney stood and dusted herself off. Timothy limped away. “Offer stands, Wilma. Anytime.”
I went to my regular seat. Jared sat down next to me, grinning like he’d won the lottery.
“Now before you pass in your reports,” Ms. Hannah said, “I should like some of you to tell us about the marvelous books you read.”
No hands went up.
“Daphne, you may start.”
Daphne, Brain and class valedictorian, was Ms. Hannah’s favorite.
“I enjoyed The Joy Luck Club because it has folk stories, which were new to me since they’re Chinese—”
“And you’re Martian.”
“That’s sufficient, Timothy. You may take a turn, after Daphne, since you’re in a talkative frame of mind.”
I didn’t hear either of their reports. Camilla, who sat behind me, passed me a note. It had my name on the outside. Daphne passed me a note. Jared handed me two more. I looked around the room. Everybody was writing or folding pieces of paper.
If Ms. Hannah had seen the notes, she might have been happy, because a lot of creative writing was going on. But she had started talking about “Hamlet by the bard,” and she didn’t notice anything.
Some of the notes were signed and some weren’t. Daphne, Evadney, and Nina each asked me to sit with them at lunch. Daphne promised me her slice of chocolate mousse cake if I did. Evadney wrote that she’d tell me something she’d never told anyone else before. Nina offered to share food and tales of love and life at Claverford.
Somebody (unsigned note) asked if I wanted to go to the Central Park Zoo on Sunday. The zoo was my favorite place, but how was I supposed to answer if I didn’t know who was asking me?
Two notes were poems. One said,
Wilma’s sweet.
She’s a treat.
Let’s make a date.
We’ll call it fate.
Boo hoo.
I love you.
Definitely a Wallet.
The other one was from a Brain.
My barking siren
My short-necked beauty
My long-toothed divine
Tie me to a tall mast
So I may not come at you
Stop my mouth with a silk bandanna
That I may not tell my hope
I think and dream and drink of you
If this was death, who needed life?
Chapter Four
By the end of last period, I had collected over a hundred notes. Forty were from boys who wanted me to go to Grad Night with them—but only eighteen were signed. Grad Night was Claverford’s version of a senior prom, except Grad Night happened the Friday before graduation, which was just three weeks away.
Forty boys! Half the boys in our grade wanted me—me!—for their Grad Night date. Four of the signed notes were from boys who already had girlfriends, including my secret love, Carlos, who was going with BeeBee.
Carlos kept trying to catch my eye during language arts. He’d never paid any attention to me before. This had been quite a feat for him one time last year, when we had been stuck alone together in the school elevator for ten minutes. I had talked to him, of course, since it was my big chance to make him know me, care for me. But he had managed not even to glance my way, and not to say more than, “Uhhh . . .”
I wondered if Carlos was the one who’d asked me to go to the zoo.
If my wish had really come true, it was almost worth the last nine months of misery. I wasn’t ignored or teased once all day. The word “anus” wasn’t ever mentioned. If I died, almost five hundred kids would go to my funeral, and the school would have to bring in extra grief counselors to comfort everybody.
But how could my wish have come true? It didn’t seem reasonable that all my problems could be over simply because I had given an old lady my seat, especially since I’d done it partly so I wouldn’t be late for school.
And if it had come true, if it was a spell, how was I different from before? I didn’t feel different. When I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, I didn’t look different. I was acting like myself. But nobody was seeing the same Wilma they had seen yesterday.
So assuming it was a spell, how long would the old lady’s gratitude last? Would I still be popular tomorrow, and if I was, for how long after that? Would it still be with me next year at Elliot, the high school most Claverford kids went to? Would it last me through college? For the rest of my life? Or would it end in the next five minutes?
And if it ended, how would I stand it?
Ardis and Suzanne were waiting for me in the lobby when school was over. Let me repeat that—Ardis was waiting for me. Suzanne saw me first. Her popularity radar was infallible.
“Wilma. Over here.”
I threaded my way through the crowd, smiling and saying “hi” to everybody. I reached Ardis. “Hi,” I said to her. I ignored Suzanne.
/> “What’s happening, Wilma?” Ardis asked.
I don’t think I’d ever grinned before the way I did then. Ardis got the full power of the day I’d had. “I don’t know what’s happening. But whatever it is, it’s fabulous.”
She smiled back at me. “Way to go.”
She walked me to the subway, along with Suzanne and at least twenty other kids. Ardis didn’t say anything, just walked next to me.
“Do you have any pets?” I asked. It was the first thing I wanted to know about anybody, though, given my reputation, maybe I shouldn’t have brought up the subject.
She shook her head.
Oh. That was a disappointment.
“Me neither,” Suzanne said.
“I have Shanara, my little sister.” Ardis laughed. She had the best laugh—genuine and shoulder shaking. A whole body laugh, not a brain laugh, and nothing mean about it. “Shanara follows me around like a dog. She’s eight, and she’s sweet.”
Suzanne said, “I’m an only ch—”
“My sister Maud is four years older than me,” I said. “If she ever called me sweet, I’d faint.”
I didn’t know what to say next, but Ardis asked which teachers I had. We compared while Suzanne kept interrupting with the teachers she had. Ardis had Mr. Pike for science, and I’d had him in seventh grade. He was good for months of conversation—how he picked his ears with a bent paper clip; how his Adam’s apple was so big, it looked like he’d swallowed a golf ball; how he rocked back and forth till you almost got seasick.
I told her about the time last year when he gave us a test, and he started rocking, and he rocked so hard, he fell off his chair.
She laughed again. I had made Ardis Lundy laugh. Twice. Me.
Mr. Pike lasted us to the subway. Ardis didn’t take the subway to get home, so we said good-bye, and I was left with Suzanne. I wished she had gone too.
“I always wanted a dog,” Suzanne told me while we waited for our train.
“So you could write a secret-life essay like I did?”
“Yeah. That was a super essay. So imaginative.”
I pinched myself. It hurt.
Our train came. “I thought I’d look cute walking a tiny poodle,” Suzanne continued as we got on, “but Daddy said I’d have to pick up after it, and that’s disgusting.”
If you love an animal, you don’t mind what goes along with it.
“Guess what.” Suzanne smiled. Smirked, really.
“What?”
“I have history with Ardis. I saw the last test Bluestein gave back to her. She got a fifty-seven.”
Suzanne being friendly was as mean as Suzanne being mean.
“So she failed one test,” I said.
The train stopped at our station, Sixty-sixth Street. Suzanne gossiped all the way home. She told me that Evadney Jones’s friends had cheated when they had counted the votes for SGO president. She said that Erica couldn’t afford to go to Elliot next year because her mother had lost her job.
We went into our building. My apartment was on the third floor, and Suzanne’s was on eighteen. She rang for the elevator and I headed for the stairs. I just couldn’t stand to spend another second with her.
“Want to come up and hang out?” she asked.
“No.” I knew I was being rude, but I didn’t care.
“Okay.” She punched the elevator button again. “I ought to study too.”
Now I felt guilty. Guilty enough to say, “See you tomorrow.” But not guilty enough to change my mind.
The phone was ringing as I unlocked our door. While Reggie jumped all over me, Maud yelled, “It’s for you, Wilma.”
How could she tell the phone was for me when it was still ringing? We didn’t have caller ID. We didn’t even have an answering machine.
It was BeeBee. I could hardly hear her over Reggie’s enthusiastic barking.
“What?” I shouted.
I clamped the phone between my head and my shoulder and stroked Reggie with both hands, which got him quiet enough for me to hear that she was inviting me to her house for a sleepover Friday night. I thought of turning her down because of the way she had acted when we were working on the debate. But then she said Ardis and Nina Draper were coming too, and I decided to forgive her.
The three most popular kids at school.
And me.
Wow.
Chapter Five
After I hung up, I went on petting Reggie. The sleepover would be incredible. I’d have fun. I’d be on the inside for a change. Anything could happen.
The phone rang again. It was Jared Fein. One-eyebrow Jared.
“I only have a minute,” I said. “I have to walk my dog.” A lie. Maud did the afternoon walk.
Silence on the line.
“Look, I have to go,” I said.
“Wait. Uh, I wrote the note about going to the zoo.”
Just my luck.
“Wilma? Are you there?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you want to go?”
Not with him. “I can’t.” Why not? I had to say a reason. “I have to study for the language arts final.”
“Oh.” He sounded disappointed. Which was nice. “What are you working on?”
“Hamlet.” I imitated Ms. Hannah’s deep, overdramatic voice. “‘By the bard.’”
“I like Hamlet. ‘This above all—to thine own self be true. . . .’ What if we study together at the zoo?”
I was trapped. It was too late to say I was having brain surgery to make me think up better excuses.
“Okay,” I said. Anyway, it would be my first date. That was something. “I’ll come. I love the zoo.”
After I hung up, Maud came out of our room, holding a notebook.
We share a bedroom. She complains that it’s not fair for a person of her maturity, which she says is far beyond mine, to have to room with a child veterinarian. I point out that it’s not fair to me either. If I had my own room, I’d have more than just a dog. I’d have hamsters and a rabbit. For starters. Mom says life isn’t fair, and if she ever gets rich, she’ll buy a mansion with a wing for each of us.
“Are you okay? Did something bad happen today?” Maud actually sounded pleasant. Was I popular with her now too?
“I’m all right. Why?”
“You’re sure? The phone hasn’t stopped ringing since I got back from walking the dog.” She always called Reggie “the dog.” “All these kids phoned.” She tore the back page out of her notebook. “There were more, but they didn’t leave their names.”
I took the page. Kids I’d never talked to had called me. “I’m fine. Really.”
“Oh. Good. Then I’m telling Mom that I’m not your answering service. I have a pa—”
The phone rang. I answered it, and Maud went back into our room and slammed the door.
It was Ardis. “BeeBee says you’re coming Friday. That’s great.”
“I can’t wait.”
Silence. If she had nothing to say, she said nothing.
But I wanted to keep the conversation going. “Um,” I said. I didn’t want to talk about my subway ride home with Suzanne, and going to the zoo with Jared was nothing to boast about. “Are you studying?”
“Yeah. I have a Russian test tomorrow.”
Suzanne had to be wrong. They didn’t let you take Russian unless your grades were good.
“Can you read the alphabet?”
“Cyrillic? Sure. It’s not as bad as Chinese.”
“Are you studying Chinese?” They didn’t give it at Claverford.
“No. Someday maybe.”
“Oh. I’m taking French.”
“Ooh la la.”
“Ms. Osnoe says that all the time. She says . . .”
We were talking about teachers again, but I couldn’t think of another topic.
After we hung up, there were six more calls before Mom got home. Except for a telemarketer, they were all for me. One was from Carlos.
“You looked good today,” he said. br />
“Thanks. You looked handsome.” Did I really say that?
“Uhhhh. Uhhh. Thanks. Uhhh. Do you want to hang out together after school tomorrow?”
“What about BeeBee?”
“What about her?”
I had just accepted an invitation to BeeBee’s sleepover. I couldn’t take her boyfriend away from her. Even though I could. But maybe that wasn’t what he had in mind.
“Will she be there?”
“I doubt it.”
“I can’t make it. I have to go home.”
“That’s cool,” he said. “Well, ’bye.”
Reggie rushed to the door, wagging his tail wildly. It had to be Mom. Then I heard her key in the lock.
We always ate right after Mom came home. She was the dietitian at a school for developmentally disabled children. Most nights she brought our dinner home with her, whatever the residents had eaten. It was a perk. We’d never starve, even though she didn’t make much money and Dad didn’t have much to send either.
As I was putting our plates on the table, the phone rang again. Maud, who was waiting for food to be dropped in front of her, told Mom it was for me.
“How do you know . . .” Mom answered it. “I’m sorry. You’ll have to call Wilma back. We’re having dinner.”
As soon as she hung up, the phone rang again. Mom looked at me. Before today, almost nobody had called me for nine long months.
“This has been going on all afternoon,” Maud said.
“What’s up, Wilma?” Mom asked after she turned off the phone without answering it.
I shrugged, but she just waited.
“Well . . .” What could I say? “Um . . . one of the most popular girls decided she likes me, and now everybody does. I guess I’m a fad.”
“Eighth grade!” Maud snorted. “I’d die if I had to do it over.”
The next morning everybody was glad to see me again. When I got on my train, two Claverford kids were already there, and they called me over. When we got out of the subway, more and more kids kept joining us, all of them maneuvering to be close to me.