The Bookworm Next Door: The Expanded and Revised Edition (25 page)

              Grace felt exactly the way she did on the first day of school.  Instead of waiting inside for Delilah this time Delilah was waiting inside for her.  The way Delilah had explained the makeover to her was that they were matching Grace’s outer beauty to her inner beauty.  It didn’t take much, just some eyeliner, mascara, and lip gloss; they took into consideration that Grace still had to help get some of her younger siblings ready for school in the mornings. 

              When she entered the school on Wednesday morning and Will Cooper managed to drop his books at the sight of her, Grace laughed.  She remembered David doing the exact same thing when he first saw Delilah.  Then she hoped it wasn’t a parallel of past events because Will Cooper annoyed her and she really didn’t want to attract his attention. 

              “How did you..?” David tried to ask.  “Why did you change her?”

              “She needed it.  Being the girl next door sucks,” Delilah whispered as Grace approached them.  “And I didn’t change her; Grace is still Grace, but with a bit of war paint to prepare her for battle.”

              “War paint?”

              Remembering what her sisters had told her that summer, Delilah answered him.  “Boys are visual creatures; Kyle doesn’t mean to be, but appearances are ingrained into him by his father.  Grace has the nurturing and caring package that Kyle needs; we only need her to match up to what his father wants in Kyle’s girlfriends: good looks.”

              Tilting his head, David carefully asked, “How do you know all of this stuff?”

              “I read a lot and last year I took psychology and sociology classes.”  Delilah smiled, “Plus Samantha studied psychology in college and she told me most of that before school started.” 

              That final comment made David laugh.  He also wondered who Delilah’s sisters had in mind when they made the speech about boys being visual creatures. 

              “Hello, David,” Grace smiled, fighting the urge to push the untamed brown curl that kept falling in her face behind an ear.  She normally used a comb and hairdryer to tame her waves before pulling the mess into a ponytail.   “How was my entrance?” she asked Delilah, trying to stop thinking about her new hairstyle.

              “Will dropped his books,” Delilah smiled.  “It takes a lot to make that happen.  I didn’t even get that from him,” she nudged her head in David’s direction.

              “I dropped my notebook,” David protested. 

              Delilah took his arm, “That was my intent, but if Will had dropped more than his jaw it would have been an added bonus.  He rarely ever drops things.”  Turning back to Grace, “And to think we didn’t really change that much.” 

              “And I can drop using the blow dryer from my morning routine; that definitely will save me some time,” Grace grinned, imagined being able to sleep in ten more minutes every day.

              David was about to give Delilah a retort about Will dropping things being an ‘added bonus’ before Aimee appeared, holding another book they all doubted she had truly read. 

“Hello, David,” she smiled, turning him away from the other girls.  “Are you going to the game Friday?”

             
What was she up to this time?
he thought.

              “Um, I was planning on going with some friends.”  David looked at his phone, “Um, I have to go talk to Mrs. Williams about something.”  Moments later he was gone, leaving Aimee standing there with Delilah and Grace.  That was until the other girls disappeared while Aimee was looking down the hall towards where David had gone.

Aimee had watched Grace enter the school and Will dropping his books.  He never dropped his books for her and they hooked up!  What was with these insignificant upstarts coming into the school with makeovers and getting all the guys’ attention? 

First it was Delilah with that grand entrance where she managed to steal David’s heart, again.  Aimee had been so close to getting David to look at her as girlfriend material again; she even knew that her older sister had lied about having sex with him as a way to get back at Aimee for some minor thing like wrecking her car when Aimee was learning how to drive. 

Then Delilah decided to waltz into the school and shake up the social order.  It still smarted from that bookworm’s rejection on the first day of school in the cafeteria.  Nobody, repeat nobody, rejects Aimee Kirkland like that! 

But ever since Delilah became the unofficial hottest girl in the Senior class Aimee had been turned down, ignored, and laughed at more than she cared to think about.  This was supposed to be her year, not Delilah’s!  David was supposed to get over the dowdy bookworm of a neighbor and start dating her!  Instead Delilah and her friends had to decide to take the social ladder by storm and come in looking above their ranks.  Nobody was supposed to take away her crown!

              Now Will was staring at Grace as if she was a pizza!  What happened to his crush on Hannah?  Or did that really matter now that it was impossible for Aimee to hand over the girl of his dreams on a silver platter?  Kelly had told her about the announcement that Hannah and Brady had made to their parents that weekend; that’s one way to trap a boyfriend.

“Hello, Grace,” Will smirked as Aimee watched him corner Grace by her locker.  Who knew where David and Delilah had disappeared to; they always were close, even in elementary school, but the past three years had proven that it didn’t mean that they were inseparable. 

              “Will,” Grace smiled back. 

Apparently the shy girl had gotten some confidence along with her hair product and eye shadow!  There was no possible way that she wasn’t loaded down with make-up.

              “What are you doing Friday night?”  Will asked Grace while leaning against the locker next to hers.  He didn’t notice the impatient Senior standing behind him.

              “I’m going to the game with my friends,” she answered him, looking at the books in her locker and not at him.

              Will didn’t catch her hint.  “What about after that?”

              “Grace!” Kyle shouted down the hallway, glaring at Will. 

Not Kyle too! Aimee groaned.  The upstart didn’t even apply enough eyeliner to make a major difference in her appearance and the boys were falling all over her.  She could feel her head beginning to spin with her contradictory thoughts.

“Hello, Will.  I need to talk to Grace.”  Kyle didn’t waste a moment before pulling Grace away from her locker and Will. 

              Grace smiled but didn’t make eye contact with the golden boy.  Aimee found this interesting, but a crush on Kyle Goldman wasn’t enough to bring the girl down.  She wasn’t even certain if she wanted to potentially alienate her half-brother, even if he wasn’t aware of their familial relationship.  Besides, it wasn’t Grace that Aimee disliked, only her best friend. 

              Aimee watched disinterested as Grace and Kyle seemed to argue about something in low tones, until Grace said loudly, “I’m not interested in Will Cooper so will you drop it!”

              The entire hallway turned to look as she slammed her locker door shut and stormed down the hallway.  Several people watched Kyle’s stunned expression and tried to figure out what they had argued about.  Nobody could ever recall Grace saying anything loudly or Kyle ever being close friends with Will. 

Still stunned by Grace’s outburst that morning, Kyle studied her.  The bad mood didn’t seem to have stuck around, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t still on his guard.  How had he missed that she could be a spitfire when she needed be instead of the introverted quiet mouse he had always assumed?

              Grinning, he looked over to where Grace was picking at her salad, her eyes animated as she discussed one of her favorite movies with Wesley.  It was older, but Kyle had watched it with his mother one weekend and had, surprisingly, liked it.

              The rest of the table was a blur for the two of them; even Wesley knew that Kyle and Grace were silently watching the other as he talked about movies with Grace.  Jennifer was pouting because she wasn’t the center of their attention; living in a house full of boys she grew up having to fight for some attention and had difficulty with being ignored.  David and Delilah were discussing whatever book they were in the middle of reading; nobody else knew that he had admitted to Delilah about being her Secret Admirer.  Penny was sitting with the other newspaper reporters for an impromptu meeting; they needed to decide who was going to go to the first Home Game of the season or to see the new movie that was coming out. 

              “I hated the remake,” Grace stated.  “They left out so many critical elements of the first movie and made the story into a complete, unrecognizable, unintelligible mess.” 

              Jennifer started to make a comment until Delilah nudged her.  “What?” she hissed. 

              “Let them get to know each other,” Delilah whispered back.  “If you are that much of an attention-seeker then go steal Wesley’s attention.  Talk to him.  Don’t get in the middle of what is about to happen between Grace and Kyle.  Wesley won’t mind the dirty mouth that you have and he might even be able to dish some of it back at you.” 

              Her eyes widened, “Dirty mouth?”

              “Your language,” David pointed out.  “He comes from a family where appearances are important, at least to his dad,” he nodded his head in Kyle’s direction.  “He comes from a family where anything goes,” he nodded over at Wesley.  “That mouth of yours is going to repel a lot of guys, if it hasn’t already.”  David went back to his book.  “You know, I’m finding reading very entertaining,” he grinned at Delilah.  She rolled her eyes.  “I’m being honest!”

              “I don’t know,” Kyle smiled, “I found the soundtrack interesting.”

              “Of course the soundtrack was interesting,” Grace conceded.  “It was the only part of the whole movie that made any sense.”  Kyle laughed. 

              Everybody thought that he was stretching himself too thin already with the football team, his grades, and now the newspaper.  They wondered when he made time to have a social life.  His parents certainly never noticed if he was wearing himself thin.  It wasn’t likely that his father would even care and Kyle took great pains to keep his mother from noticing that anything was wrong.

              Kyle was aware of far more being wrong than his parents, especially his father, knew.

              He looked up into the stands to where his father normally sat talking with the other football dads.  He was probably talking about how great this season was promising to be for the team and bragging about his star athlete son.  They’d already gone 3-0 and those were all away games.

Kyle didn’t dare mention the growing thoughts in his head to his dad.   He had no interest in playing baseball in the spring.  It wasn’t like he was very good at the game; he only played because his dad wanted him to play. 

              If his father knew that he wanted to be a sports reporter instead of a businessman, a doctor, or a lawyer then he would never hear the end of it.  As things already stood he avoided mentioning that he was writing for the school newspaper in his spare time as a ‘freelance’ reporter since it was nearly impossible for him to make the after school meetings. 

              That was why, during the first home game of the season, Kyle found himself distracted and already exhausted in the middle of the game.  It was more than just the grades and the newspaper and the rest of his life that was weighing him down.   There was also all of the pressure on appearances and doing things exactly the way his father wanted things to be done.

It was a huge amount of pressure on this stressed out high schooler.

              Grace gasped when she saw the impact.  Standing up with the rest of the crowd, she grabbed for Delilah’s hand. 

“Is he okay?” she asked her friend even though it was impossible for Delilah to have any answers for her.  “What happened?” she asked without leaving anybody enough time to answer her as she pushed her brown hair away from her face and tried to walk down the bleachers to get closer to the fence.

Delilah and Jennifer silently followed. 

              Somebody who could only be Kyle’s father, if the resemblance was any indication, rushed passed the girls and onto the field.  Everybody was starting to worry because Kyle had barely moved and then nothing could be seen past the line of football players and cheerleaders lining the sidelines, worried. 

“We should have stayed up in the bleachers,” Jennifer groaned.  “At least we could have seen what was happening up there.”

              Delilah looked at Jennifer and then at Grace.  “Aren’t you worried?” she asked the tomboy. 

              “Yes, but not as much as Grace is…” Jennifer trailed off.  “Oh.”  She seemed to hit on the same thought that Delilah had formed.  “Well, now I don’t feel so badly about also flirting with Wesley.” 

              David stood back, slightly amused.  “Kyle is okay, mostly,” he told Grace and the others.  “He started to move while Grace was having her panic attack and Jennifer was having her revelation.”  He had waited a few minutes before leaving the girls at the fence.

              Kyle looked at his coach then towards his busted knee.  “You did warn me that this might happen unless I took some time off to rest,” Kyle stated, mostly because his father was standing nearby.  He refused to look at his father, knowing that the man wouldn’t fully grasp the barb that his son had just passive-aggressively thrown at him.  “Too bad I couldn’t say ‘no’ to my dad whenever he wanted me to run in the mornings or throw the ball after dinner.” 

              The coach turned to look at Mr. Goldman, glaring as the man started to bluster about wanting his son to be the best.  Neither saw Kyle wince as they lifted him up onto the stretcher, much as he had intended when he redirected his coach’s attention. 

              “Hey, Russell,” Kyle called out to the second-string quarterback.  “You’ve got this and the team will stand behind you.  Make sure number Seventy-Six doesn’t get past the defensive line.”

              When nobody was looking, Kyle held back his groan.  The crack of his kneecap still echoed in his ears and it was nearly impossible to hide the excruciating pain he was feeling.  He stoically refused to let his team know how just bad it felt until he was off of the field and in the ambulance. 

              He really didn’t want Grace to hear him in pain. 

              Maybe he could try to think about that instead of the fact that an injury was the unexpected answer to his prayers.

              They moved away as a stretcher took Kyle to the waiting ambulance; it was standard procedure to have one on site in case of injuries during football games.  Several onlookers had no problem expressing their relief that it was there when Kyle needed it the most.

His father was heard worrying about his son as they climbed into the ambulance.  “Wait!” Mr. Goldman exclaimed.  “David!”  The older man tossed David the keys to his car.  “Meet us at the hospital and bring my car will you?”  He was the only friend nearby that Brent Goldman recognized.

              “Yes sir,” David answered to the doors being closed.  “Delilah, how do you feel about driving my car?” 

              Delilah smiled as he handed over the keys to the fire engine red convertible.  “Can we put the top down?”  The fact that Kyle could be heard talking filled her with relief, even as Grace continued pacing back and forth.  She had hoped the levity would help calm her best friend. 

“No,” David flatly answered her. 

              “Oh.”  The disappointment was clear in her voice until Jennifer pointed out, “This way the cops won’t know that you are a seventeen-year old driving another seventeen-year old around.” 

              “Who else; oh right.  Are you coming Grace?”  Delilah barely looked away from the keys in her hands. 

              “Of course.”   The girl sounded shaken and it caught all of their attentions. 

              Jennifer let out a weak laugh.  When the others looked at her, she explained, “Penny is going to regret deciding to go to the movies instead of coming here.” 

              Their tones changed once David found the car Mr. Goldman had left the parking lot.  Most of all, David was shocked when he saw the Mercedes that flashed its lights when he hit the unlock button. 

              That was when they all heard the shouting from inside of the ambulance as it went over a speed bump as it passed them. 

              Maybe Kyle was not as okay as he had stoically led them to believe.

              Aimee glowered from where she was taking a break with the other cheerleaders. 

She had difficulty focusing on where her attention should be directed.  On one hand her half-brother was being driven away in an ambulance, not that anybody was aware of their connection. 

She was also aware of the car key exchange that had happened between Mr. Goldman, David, and Delilah.  David never let anybody drive his car. 

“Kelly,” she smiled.  “I have a plan.”  Getting her best friend to join in was easy.  Will would also be willing to have his part in the plan since he was still annoyed about David’s warnings.  Not that she would have given him any other choice in the matter.

              Kyle was looking at his various bandages when he saw the door to his hospital room crack open Saturday afternoon after his surgery.  After a few moments he started to wonder if it was another nurse until he heard her voice. 

“Kyle?” Grace slowly entered the room.  “How are you?”

She briefly considered letting him know that she’d waited until she saw his father leave, but decided against it; it wasn’t necessary for him to know how long Grace had been waiting in the waiting room near the elevators.

              “Physically or mentally?” he asked, already sick of the question he expected to get asked over and over again on Monday.

              “Both,” Grace smiled, sitting next to him on the bed without asking. 

              “If I ever decide to play again it could be painful,” he answered, gesturing to his wrapped knee.  In addition to the patellar fracture some of the ligaments had also been torn.  “Right now it is hard to breathe so please don’t make me laugh.”  He had also landed badly on his ribs and some of them were bruised. 

Kyle looked at his knee for five minutes.  “Mentally is harder,” he finally stated.  Looking Grace in the eyes, “I told my Dad that I wasn’t going to be playing any more sports, at least competitively.  He didn’t take it too well. He liked being able to brag that his son was a high school football star.  Honestly, I’m glad it’s over.”