Can True Love Survive High School?

  “What about you, Lina?” Holly said. “You won't even date anyone, you're so crazy about Dan.”

  “That's not true,” Lina said. “I just haven't found the right guy yet. And anyway, Dan is a perfect example. My love for him may be true, but it can't last, because he's leaving.”

  “Oh, yeah, I heard that,” Mads said. “What life form are they going to dig up to teach IHD next year?”

  “Luckily we won't be sophomores anymore and it won't matter to us by then,” Holly said. Needless to say, Holly and Mads had nowhere near the same feelings for Dan that Lina did.

  “Thanks for the sympathy,” Lina said.

  “I feel bad for you, I really do,” Mads said.

  “It's just that we think it will be good for you to finally forget about him,” Holly said. “And move on with your life.”

  “Yeah, like join us here in the real world,” Mads said.

  “So much happens in high school,” Lina said. “People moving and changing…. It's rough on love. Especially true love.”

  “Define true love,” Holly said.

  “Soul mates,” Lina said. “A meeting of the minds.”

  “The perfect match,” Mads added. “Stars in alignment, all systems go.”

  “Ed and Britta could have that,” Holly said.

  “They could,” Mads said. “But you don't know for sure yet.”

  “Too early to tell,” Lina said.

  “If you talked to her, you'd know,” Holly said.

  “True love has to be proven,” Lina said. “Maybe love can strike you in a second, but only time will tell if the love is really true.”

  “There are too many fakeouts,” Mads said. “You can't just assume. Look at Autumn and that guy Trent. She thought it was true love and it lasted a week tops.” Autumn was notoriously high-maintenance.

  “Yeah, but look at Autumn and Vince,” Holly said. “They've lasted two whole months!” Holly had matched Autumn with Vince Overbeck herself. Everyone said Autumn would eat him alive, but instead they fell into a sloppy, drooly, disgustingly public love. Chalk up another success for Holly, though, to be honest, she sort of regretted setting up that match.

  “That can't be true love,” Mads said. “Autumn doesn't have it in her. And it's too gross.”

  “Mads is right,” Lina said. “Autumn doesn't have the soul. Anyway, high school puts a lot of wear and tear on a relationship. Sure, maybe it can last a month. But can it last all the way to graduation, and beyond? It has to be very special.”

  “There are so many temptations in high school,” Mads said. “Other guys. Hormones. Interfering friends. Mood swings. Look how much Britta changed in one weekend! Suppose she'd already had a boyfriend before. He'd be history now.”

  “Yeah, but she didn't have a boyfriend before,” Holly said. “That's the whole point.”

  “Exactly,” Mads said.

  “What?” Holly said.

  “I'm getting confused,” Lina said.

  “Stop ganging up on me, you guys,” Holly said. “Let's see what everybody else at school thinks. Can true love survive high school? And what is true love anyway?”

  QUIZ: IS IT TRUE LOVE?

  It was love at first sight—or was it?

  How can you tell the real thing from a fleeting attraction?

  1. When you think of him, you think of:

  a his face

  b his voice

  c his body

  d the fact that he still owes you five dollars for pizza from the other night

  2. To you he smells like:

  a fresh bread

  b soap

  c wet dog

  d sauerkraut (and you don't like sauerkraut)

  3. When you see him you hear:

  a a heavenly choir

  b violins

  c a talk radio station

  d fingernails on a chalkboard

  4. On your first date he gave you:

  a a love poem

  b flowers

  c nothing

  d the flu

  5. Your first words to him were:

  a “I think I'm in love.”

  b “Nice shirt.”

  c “Is this the line for the bathroom?”

  d “Move it, Tubby!”

  6. He's like his father because:

  a he's honest

  b he works hard

  c he snores

  d he has a pot belly

  7. Your favorite thing about him is:

  a the way he respects you

  b the way he listens to you

  c the way you look together

  d the way he fades into the woodwork when you don't need him

  8. Your favorite time with him is:

  a alone together, kissing

  b on the phone, talking late at night

  c those funny little silences that prove you don't have to talk to be close

  d watching him drive away

  9. If you had to describe him in one phrase, you'd call him:

  a king of men

  b nice

  c adequate

  d scum

  Scoring:

  If you chose mostly a's, you've found bliss. True love! Just keep an eye on it so it won't go sour.

  If you chose mostly b's, you have a perfectly good relationship. Maybe it will blossom into true love later—you never know.

  If you chose mostly c's, you're biding your time with someone who doesn't really grab you. Let go and find someone who makes your heart race.

  If you chose mostly d's, nuff said. You're either cynically using your honey or else you think this is how love should be. Don't settle! And get out of this trap before you turn bitter!

  “Even if we settle on the definition of true love, that doesn't answer the question,” Lina said. “Which is: Can true love survive the pressures and changes of high school?” “I think it could,” Holly said. “Maybe,” Mads said.

  A Dating Game Poll: Can True Love Survive High School? What Is True Love Anyway? Tell us your opinion.

  smartee: True love is when you meet the one person in the whole world who's meant for you. And what are the chances of that? They must be a zillion to one! So forget about high school, true love hardly exists anywhere.

  dandylyon: High school boys aren't capable of true love. They're too selfish. There, I said it.

  grit55: What about girls? All they care about is who's popular and what presents you buy them. They're too shallow for true love.

  paco: Can true love be one-way? Because I love a girl and she doesn't love me back. But still, on my end, it feels like true love. She just doesn't know it yet.

  smartee: No, true love definitely has to be two-way. That's why it's so rare.

  martianboy: My mother says my dad is her true love, and they fight all the time. Plus he burps at the dinner table. If that's true love, who needs it?

  bubba27: True love is a football game on the tube, a hot pizza, a liter of Coke and my mom's fudge brownies— end of story. And yes, it will last the rest of my life, thank you very much.

  “You watch,” Mads said. “Britta and Ed will be in love till he has to leave, and then they'll e-mail for a while, and then she'll meet another guy, and that will be that. The whole thing will last two months.”

  “We'll see,” Holly said. “I still say this is the real thing.”

  7

  Close Encounter

  To: linaonme

  From: your daily horoscope

  HERE IS TODAY'S HOROSCOPE: CANCER: You're totally clueless today. What's the problem? Tired? Iron-poor blood? Wax in your ears?

  * * *

  Varsity Lax Squad Foiled by Streaker by Lina Ozu

  A streaker brought chaos to the boys' varsity lacrosse game against Draper High today, distracting forward Barton Mitchell and possibly causing him to miss a shot to the goal and lose the game for the Rosewood Thorns. The tubby streaker, later identified as a Draper junior, was accused of purposely trying to distract the Thorns at a crucial
moment in the game. The score was tied 2-2 when the Thorns advanced on Draper's goal …

  “Hey, Lina.” Lina stopped typing and looked up from the sports article she was writing. The office of the Seer, Rosewood's school newspaper, was quiet and empty in the late afternoon. Or it had been, until Walker Moore came in. Lina was glad for the company.

  “Hey, Walker. Did you cover the swim meet this afternoon?” Lina asked.

  “Yeah. We lost,” Walker said. “I hate writing up the losses.”

  “Me, too,” Lina said.

  “How did the lax team do?”

  “Lost,” Lina said. “But I got a good story out of it.”

  Walker stood behind her and read what she'd typed on the computer monitor. He laughed.

  “I heard about that streaker guy,” Walker said. “You get all the good stories. Did anyone get a photo of him?”

  “I got one, from the back,” Lina said. “But Kate vetoed it. No nudity in the school paper.” Kate Bryson was the Seer's editor-in-chief.

  “Another Ozu classic. Right place, right time— you've got the knack.” Walker sat down at a computer terminal and started typing. He was long-legged and thin with a loose-limbed, relaxed way about him. Lina knew he was handsome, with pale brown skin, green eyes, and short, spiky hair. The problem was she didn't really care. Nobody looked really handsome to her except for Dan.

  “I've got to change the spelling of a name in one of my stories,” Walker said. “Did you know Jim Krcic spells his name K-R-C—“

  Lina tuned out. She liked Walker but she had other things on her mind just then. Like finishing this lacrosse article before five, when she had to meet Ramona at the marina to make plans. Extra-important Dan plans. They had to find a way to get to him before he moved away, and time was running out.

  “Anyway, I'm having a few friends over to my house tonight if you feel like dropping by,” Walker was saying when she finally logged off and started gathering up her things. “Nothing big, just a casual hang. We might watch a movie or something.”

  “That sounds like fun,” Lina said, without being completely sure what he was talking about. It was almost five; she was going to be late. The marina was a good fifteen-minute bike ride from school. Not that she cared about keeping Ramona waiting, but sometimes Ramona lashed out about things like that, and Lina just didn't want to hear about it.

  Lina started for the door. “So I'll see you later?” Walker said.

  “Yep. See you later,” Lina said. “Bye.”

  She hurried outside, jumped on her bike, and pedaled toward the water. Carlton Bay was full of boat piers and seafood restaurants and a weathered boardwalk that ran along the Marina.

  Ramona was waiting for her on a bench—her own bike leaning against a rail—licking an ice-cream cone. The pink ice cream clashed with her raven hair, ragged black dress and tights, green nails, and elaborate mask of Goth makeup. Around her neck she wore a thin orange tie, a symbol of her love for Dan, who always wore skinny ties. Lina was used to Ramona's style by now, but it had taken a while.

  “Sit down, we've got to talk fast,” Ramona said. “I don't have that much time. My mom's having trouble unloading a house and she wants me to do my voodoo thing on the buyers.”

  Ramona was into spells and love potions and stuff. Her mother was a real estate agent and seemed down-to-earth, but it looked as if Ramona was drawing her into her web. Lina would have thought real estate was immune to the forces of the supernatural, but obviously she was wrong.

  “First of all,” Ramona said, “I surrender him to you.”

  “What?” Ramona was nearly as in love with Dan as Lina was, and very competitive. It wasn't like her to surrender anything to anyone.

  “Look, there's no time to fool around,” Ramona said. “Only one of us can have him, right? I mean, if you look at it realistically. And that's what we've got to do—be realistic. So, you're the one who's been secretly e-mailing him and all. Once we get him, he's yours. I just want to live vicariously through you. But you have to promise to tell me every detail, no matter how personal or gross. Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  “Really? Do you swear? Do I have to extract some kind of elaborate vow from you?”

  “No, you can trust me, Ramona. You know that.”

  “I do not know that, but I don't have much choice. Now. How are we going to get him?”

  Lina thought a minute. “Um, what are we talking about, exactly? What do you mean, ‘get him’?”

  “Well, you know … ” Ramona trailed off. That was the thing about loving a teacher. You longed, you yearned, but for what exactly? It was so unlikely you'd get anywhere with him that you didn't have to think that far ahead.

  “You're going to be his girlfriend,” Ramona finally announced.

  And that was what Lina wanted. But somehow she found it hard to picture.

  “We'll start slow,” Ramona said. “What we want, by, say, the end of the month, is for him to think of you as different from the other students. Special.”

  Secretly, Lina hoped he already felt this way. “That's not enough.”

  “Okay. The two of you have to be somewhere alone together. Not school-related. And it has to be understood that what you're doing is not a student-teacher thing, but a guy-girl thing.”

  “It's kind of vague—”

  “I've got it. We'll send him a note from ‘a secret admirer’ and get him to meet us somewhere. You'll go up to him with a black veil over your face, so he can't see who you are, and then—”

  “Ramona—” Lina elbowed her in the ribs. A familiar figure was walking toward them down the boardwalk.

  “What? I'm on a roll here. Then, when the moment is right, you rip off the veil—”

  “Ramona! Look!” Lina nodded at the man, who was coming closer. It was him. Dan.

  Ramona clutched Lina's arm. “Oh my god! It's him!

  I conjured him with my psychic brain waves! I knew I had powers!”

  “Ow—Ramona, your claws are digging into my skin.” Lina peeled Ramona's hand off her arm.

  “This is a sign,” Ramona whispered. “This is our moment. We've got to act NOW!”

  “How? What are we going to do?”

  “Just go!” Ramona yanked Lina to her feet. Dan had nearly reached them.

  “Ramona, stop it!” Lina whispered. “I thought you had to go home and cast a spell on some real estate.”

  “That can wait.”

  “At least tell me what the plan is!”

  Ramona said nothing. She pushed Lina into Dan's path. He couldn't help but notice her—she was blocking his way.

  “Hi, girls,” he said mildly.

  Lina stared at his thin frame, clad as usual in a vintage suit. That day he wore a particularly cool skinny tie, gray-green with a single horizontal red stripe across the middle. It was amazing that after all she'd been through with him—the pseudonymous e-mails, the aborted secret lunch in the city, months of sitting in class listening to him stammer out educational information about sex and relationships, even the occasional private student-teacher conference—in spite of all that, she still melted at the sight of him, still got tongue-tied. At that moment, her tongue felt as if it had swollen to the size of a Mallomar. It filled her mouth uncomfortably and refused to move.

  “Hi, Dan,” Ramona said. RSAGE was the kind of school where you could call your teachers by their first names. “It's disgustingly sunny out, isn't it? I wish it would rain again. Where are you off to?”

  “The Marina Café,” Dan said. “What are you two doing?”

  Lina had stepped out of his direct path, so he started walking again, slowly. Ramona and Lina walked along with him.

  “Just sitting on a bench discussing what a downer life is,” Ramona said.

  “Come on, Ramona,” Dan said. “Is life really so bad?”

  “If you look at it straight, without all the filters our society imposes on it—yes,” Ramona said. “Life sucks. But I don't have to tell you
that. You're a man of the world, intelligent and all. You know the score.”

  Lina watched Dan's face. His pale eyebrows twitched slightly. He was trying not to roll his eyes at Ramona's ridiculousness. Lina was sure of it.

  “Anyway, until we're ready to slough off our mortal coils, we still have to eat,” Ramona said. “We were just saying we wanted to stop somewhere for a snack. Weren't we, Lina?”

  Lina nodded. “Um, yes.” They were getting closer to the Marina Café. Lina could see that most of the outside tables were full. A group of six or so was just settling down at a large round table on the deck.

  “Well, there are plenty of good places to eat around here,” Dan said.

  “But the Marina Café is one of my favorites,” Ramona said. “Always has been. It's a little pricey, but worth it.”

  They had almost reached the café. Something about that group of six was starting to look familiar. That tall, balding guy in the brown suit, for example—he looked an awful lot like John Alvarado, the principal of RSAGE. And that round lady with curly gray hair … Was that—? It was. Mildred Weymouth, the geometry teacher. Known to the students as Mildew.

  “Well,” Ramona was saying, “since we're all hungry and we're all headed in the same direction, why don't we all eat together?”

  No! Lina elbowed Ramona. Didn't she see? Dan was going to some kind of teacher get-together—and Ramona was trying to get them invited.

  “Well, I guess you can join me, if you really want to,” Dan said.

  “Great!” Ramona said.

  They had reached the café. Camille Barker, the pretty young French teacher, sat beside Alvarado, with Frank Welling, the art teacher, on her other side. Lina wanted to grab Ramona's head and force her to look at where they were going. Dan stopped, and Ramona finally tore her eyes away from him and saw the table full of teachers. She stopped dead in her tracks.

  “I'm sure we can fit you girls in somewhere,” Dan said.

  “Thanks, Dan, but we were in more of a milkshake mood,” Lina said. Finally her tongue loosened up. “Right, Ramona?”

  “Yes, milkshake, definitely.” Ramona started to back away from the café as if it were a hangout for the undead. Actually, the undead would probably have appealed to her. Nothing was worse than off-duty teachers. Dan excepted, of course.