The Bookworm Next Door: The Expanded and Revised Edition (20 page)

              They had always been so careful, Hannah moaned while staring at the test in her hands.  She knew that her mother was going to be concerned, but she was more worried about how her father was going to react. 

              Brady thought nothing about her worries, but he was not a high school senior anymore either.  His friends were staring their ‘after high school’ lives by getting married and starting the expansion of their families.  Being a father was one of those things he always knew he wanted. 

              Hannah just never wanted to be one of those statistics. 

              “It’ll be fine,” Brady reasoned with her.  “You will be eighteen soon and we can get married with or without your parents’ permission.  We can move into the apartment that I have been looking for.  My parents have already agreed to co-sign for the apartment and I doubt they will change their minds because our circumstances have changed.  It will be fine.” 

              Smiling weakly, she leaned against him.  “Can we keep quiet until you get the apartment?  We don’t know how my father is going to react.” 

              They didn’t think about Aimee while they made their plans.

              When his alarm sounded on Wednesday morning Kyle found himself asleep on his desk with the math book open and homework incomplete.  The finishing touches - mostly formatting issues - on his part of the history project also called to him; “I’ll work on it at lunch,” he told himself, sliding the laptop into his bag.

The only good part about his day so far was that it was raining and he wouldn’t have to run with his father before school.  “Hopefully it’ll be over in time for practice.” 

              Spreading his homework around him as he ate his breakfast, he assured his mom that everything was fine and that he wasn’t behind on anything.  “Seriously, Mom, it’s just a few problems.  I decided to go to bed and worry about them before school instead of not getting enough sleep.  Everything is fine.”

He tried his hardest to believe the lie.  He told himself that lie again when his truck refused to start and he had to get a ride from his neighbor.  She was a junior who clung to his every word and look; normally he tried to avoid her.

              “Everything is okay,” he repeated aloud, at least until he caught a glimpse of his grade from the pop quiz that Mr. Wallace had given out the day before.  The bright red C glared at him.  “I am extremely disappointed in this class,” Mr. Wallace said while passing the papers out.  “The highest grade was a C.” 

              The bright red C taunted Kyle even as Mr. Wallace’s words sounded around him.  The few B’s he had gotten on a handful homework assignments meant nothing; he could still be valedictorian with a few B’s he had reasoned with himself.  It wasn’t as if the homework assignments counted as much as the test grades.  He couldn’t get top honors with a quiz grade of a C. 

              He couldn’t even go to the teacher for help in improving his grade.  Mr. Wallace had already stated that he didn’t give extra credit assignments and that he would help students after school until 3:30, right when football practice was taking place. 

              Because of his jumbled thoughts, Kyle missed Mr. Wallace telling the class that because of all the poor scores - over half of the class had failed or nearly failed - that he would be dismissing the quiz grade.  All Kyle could hear was his brain roaring that maybe everything was not okay after all. 

              Even the scene in the middle of the hallway between first and second period couldn’t distract him.  It was normally one of those moments he would have paid to witness and it was happening right next to his locker. 

              Aimee’s pleas of, “You have to talk to me,” didn’t register in Kyle’s distracted mind.

Nope.  The biggest dramatic moment of the month was happening right in front of him and he didn’t even notice.  Aimee’s current attempt at keeping David in what she considered to be his rightful place was going right over Kyle’s distracted head. 

              He didn’t notice when David stopped cold in the middle of the hallway, “I have no reason to talk to you.  We broke up freshmen year.  You’ve been a leech that I haven’t been able to detach.  You can be mean and spiteful and childish sometimes.”

Right then Will happened to be walking in on the scene, also groaned, “Oh shit.” 

              A C!  How could he, Kyle Goldman, get a C on a pop quiz?

              “Will?” David calmly asked, deciding to not play into Aimee’s hands. 

              “Sorry, man,” Will answered while waiting for David’s reaction.  “I knew you weren’t into her, but what could I do when she said she had a plan to get you back and needed my help?”

              “I don’t know,” he started.  “How about not helping her?”  David wanted to punch Will in the jaw.  Instead he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and walked towards Kyle.  “You were right, Kyle.  You were right when you warned me three years ago,” was all that he said before storming off.

              Kyle looked up, finally aware that David had been talking to him.  His, “What?” went unheard.  Spotting Grace and Delilah standing five feet away, “Grace, what just happened?” 

              Snapping her face away from Aimee, “What?” she whispered, stunned that he was asking her a question. 

              “What just happened?” He walked over to where she was standing. 

              “How did you miss that?” Delilah exclaimed, still a little shocked at the unexpected drama.  “Aimee announced that she’s pregnant with David’s baby to the school.  Then Will basically informed everybody that she was plotting with him in an attempt to get David back into their fold.” 

              “Kyle?” Grace asked, her voice still a whisper.  Did she ever talk above a whisper?  Could he ever remember hearing her speaking up?  Did she ever speak up in class during their group meetings?  “What’s wrong?”

              “Nothing,” Kyle lied.  A second later, “Everything,” he mumbled.   “See you in class.” 

Joining Grace where she was standing, Wesley and Grace watched him walking down the hall.  The concerned look on his face told her all that he needed to know.  Something was wrong with Kyle.  “What just happened?  What did I miss?”

A moment later Penny had joined them, standing next to Grace and Delilah at the lockers. 

              “Aimee embarrassing herself,” Delilah answered while watching Aimee and Will discussing something.  She was still staring down the hallway where David had disappeared.

              “I meant with Kyle,” Wesley said, looking at Delilah. 

              “Oh.”  She wasn’t exactly in the same conversational sphere as the rest of her friends. 

              “I’m not exactly sure,” Grace answered Wesley, still looking down the hallway in Kyle’s direction even though he was no longer visible.  “I think he’s so tired and stressed out that he even missed Aimee’s scene.”

              Penny turned to Grace.  “Who could miss that?  They were right next to him.”  This time she looked down the hallway.  “Should we be concerned?” 

              “Yes,” Wesley bluntly answered.  “The quarterback, class valedictorian, and son of Ethan Goldman is exhausted three weeks into the school year.  This is very bad.”  Turning towards Grace, “At least the presentation is today.  It’s one less thing for him to stress about.”

              “What shit storm did I just miss?” Jennifer bounded up next to the group.  “Ms. Bell held us back as she passed out our quiz papers.” 

              David couldn’t recall ever feeling as frustrated as he did right then.  Several sophomore boys scurried out of the restroom as he paced back and forth as Will tried to explain what had happened in the hallway. 

              Will started pleading with David.  “The other week she told me that we needed to do whatever it took to keep you two together.  She claimed that all I had to do was whatever she needed to me to do.” 

              Looking at his former best friend, David saw somebody who would do whatever it took to keep the status quo.  “Why?”

              “Without you at the lunch table the other guys leave me alone.   I can’t leave because Aimee promised me that she’d set me up with Hannah if I could get you to rejoin the group.”  Running his hands through his hair, “I’ve had a thing for her ever since last year when she helped me with my speech for English class.” 

              Taking a deep breath, “Aimee can’t help you with Hannah,” David explained.  “She’s been dating Kelly’s older brother for six months now and I’ve heard they are serious.  They could actually make it.”  Shaking his head, “Hannah is going along with Aimee so that the girls don’t try to ruin her relationship like Kelly and Aimee have done with several of Brady’s exes that Kelly didn’t like.  Everybody knows or at least suspects this except for Aimee and Kelly.”    

“Aimee’s not like that,” Will mumbled, recognizing the lie as he told it.

              “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” David said, pausing when he remembered just why that advice sounded familiar.  Kyle had warned him about Aimee and Will their freshman year.

              Fuming, Aimee walked back and forth across her bedroom floor.  Kelly, stretched diagonally on the bed, flipped through a magazine while watching her best friend with a wary eye.  Hannah ignored the two as she tried working on some homework. 

              “Why wouldn’t he talk to me?” Aimee stormed.  “David hates confrontation.”  More pacing, “Instead he warns Will against me.  How dare he?”

              Rolling her eyes, Hannah went back to paying half of her attention to the homework in front of her.  She was mostly thrilled that the U.S. Government presentation was over and had gone smoothly; for a moment she was concerned that Kyle was going to forget which class he was in. 

              Asking a question she didn’t actually want answered, Aimee turned to look at her friends, “What does anybody see in that bookworm?  What does David see in her?”

              “People like her,” Kelly pointed out. 

              Hannah closed her eyes, not wanting to see what might happen next.  “People liked her sisters.”  Maybe that would be enough to defuse Aimee’s temper. 

              Without blinking, Aimee threw a pillow at the wall on the other side of Hannah’s head.  “Her sisters graduated years ago.  Very few people actually remember Charlotte.  Try again.” 

              Hannah sat there, stunned, staring at the pillow that had landed on top of her book.  She knew that Aimee kept her around to help them with their homework.  She knew that Kelly kept her around because she wanted her brother’s girlfriend nearby in case Hannah accidently dropped a piece of information that could be used against her later.

              It wasn’t the first time that Aimee had thrown something at a wall.  It was the first time that Aimee had thrown something in Hannah’s direction.  Was it worth it to keep your enemies closer if it seemed likely that you were going to get hurt in the process? 

              Tossing the pillow to Kelly, who promptly held it under her chin, Hannah slid her things into her bag; she wasn’t about to stay in a situation where she could get hurt.  “Well…” she started.

              “Well what?”

              Standing up and edging towards the door, “People like Delilah.  She isn’t childish and vindictive.  She doesn’t threaten them.  She doesn’t throw things at them.  She doesn’t start rumors or damage their property.  She doesn’t steal homework or projects and then destroy them.  Delilah leaves people alone and is nice to them.  They like her because they don’t fear her.”  Leaving the room, Hannah ended her speech by slamming the bedroom door and running down the stairs.  She had to get out of that house. 

              “Get back here!” was heard as she slipped out of Aimee’s house. 

              Dialing a number on her phone, “Hey, Brady, can you come pick me up from that little park near Aimee’s house.  No, Kelly isn’t with me.”  Looking at the house behind her, “Thanks.  I’ll see you in five minutes near the swings.”

              Seething, “How dare she say that and just leave.”  A unicorn figurine her grandmother had given Aimee when she was five went flying through the air.  It left a small dent in the wall over the desk where Hannah had been sitting. 

              Pacing back and forth across the room, Aimee wondered which girl she needed to go after more: the girl trying to steal her man or the former friend. 

              It was the last place she wanted to go, but Hannah knew that if she didn’t go to bible study then everybody would know that something was wrong. 

              And she wasn’t certain just how right or wrong things currently were. 

              She knew that she could get some comfort from the Teen Bible Study class.  Brady would be there with her; he had decided to stick with the Teen class instead of moving up to the College Bible Study class.  He reasoned that he knew more people in the Teen class than in the College class. 

              Hannah knew that she needed to go even though she didn’t feel like it.  Her mind was too jumbled to pay attention or add to the conversations. 

              She felt like a fraud, like the last person who needed to be in that class talking about virtue and chastity and everything else they talked about after the Bible Study session. 

              Who she could talk to was limited.  She wanted to go to her mother, but if her father walked into the room when she was telling her mother the news then everything would start going downhill quickly.  There was no guarantee that her father would allow them mother-daughter time.

              There was no guarantee that her father wouldn’t wheedle their conversation out of her mother. 

              The people in the room around her created a buzzing sound in her head.  She felt the overwhelming urge to cry and couldn’t understand why.  All it took was Brady giving her hand a squeeze to set off the waterworks.  

              Bolting to the nearest restroom, she didn’t notice that there was somebody already in there.  She hadn’t noticed that somebody had already disappeared from a class that her mother had insisted she start attending because her friends would attend.  How would Hannah know that a mean-spirited gossip’s parents hoped that Bible Study sessions would be a good influence?  

              “Baby,” Brady questioned, looking at her carefully.  “It’ll be okay.”

              “I feel like a fraud.  I’m sitting in that room and some of them are acting all righteous and virtuous, and some of them actually are.  Some of them look at me for advice because of my faith.  How can I help them when I’ve been advising them against the one thing that I did?”  Hannah leaned against the sinks and started to hiccup.  “I’m a fraud.  I’m a big, pregnant fraud.”

              Wrapping his arms around his girlfriend, Brady kissed the side of her head, “It will be fine.”

              “Nobody is going to believe that it only happened once.  I must be like Aimee or some of the other ‘bad’ girls at school all because I had sex and ended up pregnant.”  She let out a self-deprecating laugh, “Even worse, I couldn’t even be a good ‘bad’ girl.” 

              Turning her to look at him, “Hannah, I love you and you love me.  That’s all this baby represents.  Not some old-fashioned ideals about sex after marriage.  We were already talking about marriage anyway.”

              Glaring at him, “It isn’t an old-fashioned ideal.  I never wanted to be one of those girls who slept around.  I never wanted to deal with the emotional backlash of giving up my virginity and then having the guy breaking up with me.” 

              “I’m not going to break up with you!”

              “I know that!” Taking a deep breath, “I know that,” she repeated, calmer.  “I just never thought I’d get carried away like we did.”

              Brady was rubbing her back as she started wiping away her tears.  Neither of them noticed the head that was watching them through a stall door that was cracked open. 

              “We can always talk to Pastor Samuel if it’ll make you feel better.  I know you aren’t ready to talk to our parents until we have a game plan.”  Brady made his suggestion as they walked out of the restroom. 

              Barely a minute later Aimee Kirkland emerged from the stall where she had hidden.