My Life With the Walter Boys (5 page)

Glancing around the room, I failed to spot the bright blond of any of the Walter boys, so I found an empty table near the back. As I sat down, a girl with red hair smiled at me before returning to her project. Maybe the people here won’t be so bad, I thought to myself and pulled out
The
Lord
of
the
Rings
. Alex had lent it to me when our class finished, and I told him I would read it on the condition that he brush up on his Shakespeare. The thick book was daunting, but after only a few pages I was so absorbed that I jumped in my seat when the bell rang signaling the end of class.

The rest of the morning flew by until I only had one period left before lunch. When I walked into the math room, I noticed that many of the students looked older than me. My private school education put me ahead of most of the public school kids, so I was enrolled in advanced calculus, which was a senior class.

About ten minutes into class, Cole came strolling in with a grin on his face.

“Hey, teach, sorry I’m late,” he said like it was no big problem. Then he spotted me. “Hey, Jackie! I didn’t know you were in any of my classes!”

Everyone turned to look at me. Glancing down, I kept my eyes on my notes and hid behind a curtain of hair.

“Mr. Walter! Will you please take a seat and stop interrupting my class?” the teacher asked.

Cole saluted him before taking the only seat left, right in the front row.

When we were finally dismissed, I began packing up my stuff. I was shoving my new textbook into my bag when Cole came up and sat right on top of my desk.

“’Sup, Jackie?” he asked, grabbing one of my notebooks and flipping through it. “Whoa, you actually use this thing?” he asked when he spotted the notes I took.

“Um, yes, that’s what it’s for,” I responded with a
duh
tone.

“Who takes notes these days?” he questioned. I took my notebook from him, tucked it away, and zipped up my satchel.

“Me.” I threw my bag over my shoulder and headed toward the door.

“Yeah,” he pestered, following me out of the room, “losers like you.”

“I am
not
a loser,” I opposed, stopping to frown up at him.

“Are too,” he teased.

“Am not,” I argued, starting to get angry. “There’s a big difference between being a loser and a good student.” I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t stand his teasing. Maybe it was because I was still upset about what Nathan had said about him this morning.

“Relax, Jackie. I’m just joking,” Cole told me.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, still frowning.

“You get really red when you’re angry,” he said and poked my cheek.

“Where’s the lunchroom?” I snapped and brushed his hand away. I was fed up with Cole.

He laughed and pulled me to his side. “Chill out, Jackie.” I inhaled sharply as his hand touched my bare arm. Cole continued to talk as if he didn’t notice. “I’ll walk you down there and even show you the best table to sit at.”

Since I didn’t know where I was going, my only choice was to let him lead me toward the cafeteria. I planned on ditching Cole when we arrived, but as we stepped into the loud room, I felt my stomach drop. There were so many people, and I knew nobody. The thought of sitting by myself was terrifying, so I followed him without complaining. He pulled me through the crowds toward the front of the lunch line, and as we went, I could feel the stares of curious students. Instead of looking back, I kept my gaze glued to the back of Cole’s head.

After grabbing a tray, he scooped up two bags of pretzels.

“You like turkey?” he asked. I nodded, and he dropped two sandwiches on the tray. “An apple to keep the doctor away,” he muttered to himself as he picked up two pieces of fruit. “And milk for strong bones. There you go, a Cole Walter certified lunch. Hold the tray while I pay for this.”

“I have money,” I told him as he dumped the tray into my hands.

Ignoring me, Cole dug out his wallet and handed the lunch lady a bill. He pocketed the change and put his hand on the small of my back. “This way,” he said and guided me toward the middle of the lunchroom.

The table we arrived at was mostly full—guys wearing letter jackets and girls in cheerleading uniforms—and I immediately felt out of place. Cole sat down next to a tall girl with long auburn hair. Her lips were rosy pink, and they parted into a smile when she saw him.

“Where have you been all day, Walter?” she asked, running her manicured nails through Cole’s hair. “Not off with that floozy Olivia, were you?”

“Nice to see you too, Erin,” Cole said. “For your information, I was getting lunch with Jackie.”

“Jackie? Who’s she?”

“My friend,” Cole said and gestured to me, “so scoot over and give her some room.”

“It’s a little cramped at the table for an extra person, don’t you think?” Erin asked as she looked me over.

“Then leave,” Cole suggested.

Erin mouth’s dropped open in shocked surprise. “Are you serious?” she demanded. Cole stared back at her with cold eyes, so she pressed her lips together in a tight line and moved over without another complaint.

When I set the lunch tray down on the table, the look of loathing on Erin’s face nearly made me leave. Cole, however, patted the now empty space next to him. “What are you waiting for?” he asked, the warmth returning to his face with a beam. Swallowing my nerves, I forced myself to sit down.

The rest of the day passed in a whirlwind of new classes and unfamiliar faces. It was actually a relief to see the Walters’ rickety house when the truck pulled into the driveway after school.

“We’re home, Aunt Kathy!” Lee shouted as soon as he walked through the door. “What’s for dinner?”

Danny, Lee, and I had to step over a pile of boxes in the front hall. We were the only ones who actually left school at three o’clock. Alex had baseball practice; Cole caught a bus to his job at a local auto-repair shop; Nathan stayed in the music room; and Isaac never showed, which apparently was normal because we left after only a five-minute wait. I planned to join a few after-school clubs, but I decided it could wait until next week when, hopefully, I didn’t feel so weary.

“Hello to you too,” I heard Katherine call from the kitchen. The smell of something amazing was drifting down the hall. We found her standing at the counter cutting open a huge pile of buns.

“Hell, yeah,” Lee said when he lifted the top of the slow cooker. “I love me some sloppy joe.”

“What’s sloppy joe?” Whatever it was, it sounded disgusting.

Katherine, Lee, and Danny all stared at me like I was speaking an alien language.

“You’re never had a sloppy joe before? What kind of crazy planet are you from?” Lee asked.

“Lee, be nice,” Katherine scolded, pointing the serrated knife she was using to cut buns in Lee’s direction. “A sloppy joe is a ground-beef sandwich,” she explained to me. “We’re having them for dinner and you can try one then. The rest of your things arrived today, so in the meantime, why don’t you work on moving into your room? I cleared out all of the art supplies, and Danny can help you bring the boxes up and unpack.”

“Why can’t Lee help?” Danny asked.

“Because he’s going to help Parker with her math homework.”

“I am?”

“Would you rather carry boxes up to Jackie’s room?”

“Right. Two plus two. I’m all over that shit,” Lee said and left the kitchen before Katherine could change her mind.

“All right, you two,” Katherine said, picking up another bun. “Why don’t you get started? I want those boxes out of the front hall by the time everyone else gets home.”

Twenty minutes of tense silence passed as we moved my things to my room. While we worked, we hurried by each other on the stairs, trying to avoid bumping into one another or making awkward eye contact. Finally, I collapsed on my bed feeling sore and sweaty as Danny set the last box on the floor.

“Thanks a bunch for your help. This would have taken forever without you.”

Danny nodded his head and quickly turned to leave without a word, but my room was now a maze of cardboard towers. His foot connected with one of the piles, and the box teetering on the top crashed to the floor. My Shakespeare collection spilled out, and Danny dropped down to pick it up.

“Sorry,” he mumbled and scooped the books back into the box.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, jumping off my bed. “I can take care of it.” I spotted
A
Midsummer
Night’s Dream
and wanted to grab it for Alex. By knocking over the books, Danny actually did me a favor because I wouldn’t have to search through all the boxes to find them. I plucked the play off the floor, and Danny stopped to examine what was in his hands.

“
Romeo
and
Juliet
?” he asked, reading out the title. The rise in his voice revealed his surprise. “You like drama?”

“Of course, I’m a New Yorker! I’ve been attending all types of different performances since I was little. I have a personal soft spot for Shakespeare, but I also admire Shaw and Miller’s work.” When I responded, Danny clamped his mouth shut as if he just realized that he had spoken to me.

“Oh, cool.” He shoved one last book back into the box and shot to his feet. “I’ll see you later.” He was out the door before I could mutter a good-bye.

Running my hand over the cover of my favorite play, I grinned to myself. My encounter with Danny could have gone a little better, but at least now I knew we shared a similar interest. Maybe I would make more friends in the Walter house than I had originally thought. Apparently I just needed to tackle the boys one at time.

***

At dinner I tried my first sloppy joe ever, and I immediately understood the reason behind the name. It was impossible to keep the meat on the bun. It oozed out every time I took a bite and splattered against my plate. My fingers and face were disgusting by the time I finished. I thought it made more sense to put the slop in a bowl and dip the bun in, but the Walters seemed to enjoy diving in face-first.

When everyone was full, we all had to help clean up the table, but afterward we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. Parker and the little twins rushed to the living room and battled over the remote. Jack and Jordan went to edit the footage they got of me eating my first sloppy joe. Isaac challenged Alex to a pickup game of hoops, while Lee and Nathan disappeared into their rooms. The freedom felt strange. At boarding school I was used to a strict schedule of dinnertime, homework, and lights out at nine.

Trying to keep some normalcy in my life, I climbed the stairs toward my room to do schoolwork. Although I wasn’t assigned anything in particular, I knew I was behind in English. The class was already halfway through reading
Moby
Dick
, which was thicker than any of the textbooks I’d received throughout the day. Five pages in, I shut the book in irritation and pulled out Alex’s copy of
The
Fellowship
of
the
Ring
.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Jackie?” Cole asked, poking his head inside. He hadn’t been at dinner, and judging by the Tony’s Auto Repair jumpsuit he was wearing with his name stitched onto the breast, he’d just gotten back from work.

“Mmm-hmm?” I sat up in bed. Glancing at my clock, I realized that two hours had vanished since I started reading.

“Everyone’s out in the backyard. We’re going to play some night games. You want in?” He was wearing a baseball cap backward to hide the fact that his bangs were plastered to his forehead and there was a smear of grease across his nose, but somehow just one glance at him made my pulse surge.

“What’s a night game?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even.

“Games you play outside in the dark. You know, like kick the can, cops and robbers, ghost in the graveyard…” Cole trailed off as he waited for me to catch on.

“Sorry, but I’ve never heard of those.”

“What the heck did you do for fun when you were growing up?”

“I’ve been to my fair share of Broadway shows, and my family has memberships to most of the museums.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized my mistake. My family
had
memberships to most of the museums.

“Sounds awful,” Cole said. “How about we show you what real fun looks like?”

As nice as it was that Cole was inviting me to do something with the rest of the guys, I couldn’t bring myself to accept. The thought of hanging out with all the Walter boys was intimidating. Besides, thoughts of my family were now swirling around in my head, and I knew I would only be able to hold back the tears until Cole left. I didn’t want him to see me crying.

“I’ve got some catching up to do in most of my classes. Maybe another time?”

“Come on, Jackie. It’s not like your teachers expect you to know everything you’ve missed by tomorrow.”

Pulling my knees up to my chest, I blinked my eyes, trying to keep them from watering up and my feelings from spilling out. “Sorry, Cole, but it’s been a long first day.”

I thought he was going to continue arguing, but he must have sensed that something was wrong. “Okay. In any case, you know where to find us if you change your mind.”

Cole shut the door. I sat unmoving, staring at the swirling blue of the ocean waves that Katherine had painted on the wall. It reminded me of my childhood summers—warm, sunny days spent at the beach house in the Hamptons, where Lucy and I would munch on fresh picnics spread out on our beach towels and suntan on the seashore, occasionally dipping our toes into the cold water to cool off.

I needed to hear a familiar voice, someone who could comfort me. Grabbing my cell phone off the desk, I dialed a number I knew by heart.

Sammy picked up on the first ring. “
Hola, chica
, what’s up?”

At the sound of my best friend’s voice, my lips started to tremble, and I could only manage a measly greeting without bursting into tears.

“Oh my God, Jackie. What’s wrong? Is Colorado, like, horrible or something?” she asked.

“Sammy, it’s worse than horrible. I’m on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. Katherine Walter has twelve kids, and I haven’t seen a Starbucks since leaving New York.”

“Holy cupcakes! That string bean of a woman pushed twelve people out her who-ha?”

I managed a half smile. “Only ten of the boys are hers. Two of them are nephews.”

Sammy gasped. “Did you just say boys plural, as in
all
twelve kids have a Y chromosome?”

“Parker’s a girl, but she doesn’t act like it.”

“That’s still pretty good odds, if you ask me. Any hotties?”

“Sammy,” I groaned. The Walters were the last thing I wanted to talk about.

“What? That’s a completely reasonable question. My best friend is completely isolated from civilization, so it’d be nice to know if she at least has some eye candy to cheer her up.”

There
might
be
one
or
two
drool-worthy guys.
As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I felt the guilt twisting in my stomach. How could I be thinking about cute boys when my family was gone? “Can we please talk about something else?” I muttered into the phone.

“Talking about delicious boys is my version of therapy.”

“You’re not cheering me up.”

“That’s totally what I’m doing. Now spill! What’s his name?”

I paused, not sure if I should tell her. One little name won’t hurt, I decided. After all, it didn’t mean anything. A sigh escaped my lips. “It’s Cole.” His name came out in a whisper, as if I was giving away a secret.

“Hmm. I guess that’s hot. I mean it’s no Blake or Declan, but Cole has a nice ring to it. Okay, now give me details. What does he look like?”

I buried my face in my pillow. “This is not how I envisioned our conversation going.”

“You’re making the whole process difficult with all the stalling.”

“Fine,” I said quickly. “He’s tall, blond, and from the sound of things, a complete pig. Besides, I can’t even think about boys right now. I just want to come home, okay?”

“Oh, Jackie,” Sammy said, her voice soft. “I wasn’t trying to upset you. I just wanted to take your mind off the bad things.”

“I know,” I responded, feeling bad that I’d snapped. “It’s just, all my stuff arrived today, and I can’t bring myself to unpack it. It would make everything feel so permanent.”

“I totally feel you, sister. My new roommate moved in last night. It was so weird seeing someone else’s stuff on your side of the room. And don’t even get me started about French class. Like, I had to sit by myself.”

The cord around my heart tightened as I thought about my old school, old dorm room, and old classes. The move to Colorado had cut me off from my old life and everything that was familiar to me, and the only remaining link to that world was my best friend. “Sammy, you don’t know how good it is to hear your voice. I miss you so much. I wish—I wish…”

“Jackie,” Sammy said slowly and deliberately. “Everything is going to get better, okay? Just promise me you’ll make an effort to settle in. It will help. I know it.”

“Okay,” I told her even though I didn’t want to.

We stayed on the phone for the next hour. Talking to Sammy made me feel a little better, but as I curled up under the covers of my bed, a feeling of complete and utter loneliness kept me wide awake.

***

The next morning, getting up to run with Nathan was nothing short of torture. No matter how many times I rubbed my eyes, I couldn’t shake off the blanket of drowsiness that was draped over my entire body. Then I caught Olivia sneaking out of Cole’s room. It was such a shock, seeing her standing in the hallway with rumpled hair and wearing one of his shirts, that I was instantly snapped awake. We both stared at each other with the same deer-in-the-headlights look, and then Nathan stepped out of his room, making the situation even more awkward. Even worse, we all had to walk down the stairs together.

“So…” I said once Olivia’s car had pulled out the driveway. We were sitting on the front porch, stretching before our run. “Does Cole normally have
friends
stay over?”

Nathan pulled his ankle back behind him, focusing on his hamstring. “Occasionally, but not too often. I suppose he doesn’t want to get caught.”

“Why?”

“Because,” he said, looking at me as if I was acting stupid, “our dad would kill him.”

“I get that,” I said, pulling my hair back into a ponytail. “I mean, why is he such a—”

“A guy?”

I must have tugged my hair tie too tight, because it snapped and my bangs tumbled down into my face. “You know that’s not what I meant,” I said, sighing in frustration. “You’re a guy. I don’t see you sleeping around.”

“I guess he wasn’t always this way,” he said with a shrug. “But Cole’s never been one to share his feelings.”

“So what changed?”

Nathan paused and gave me a wary look. “If I tell you, you can’t repeat any of this to Cole, all right? He’s kind of touchy about the subject.”

“Okay.”

“He lost his football scholarship last year.”

“How did he manage that?” My mind immediately jumped to negatives—drugs, drinking, horrible grades—so I was surprised by Nathan’s response.

“During a game. He was the best receiver in the state until he got tackled wrong and broke his leg,” Nathan said. “Obviously his leg got better, but I don’t think he was the same after that. Didn’t even go to tryouts this year.”