The Crazy Things Girls Do for Love

Maya gives her an uncertain smile. “What do you mean, again?”

“I mean, again – you know, like, after last time? When the dreaded Clemens talked for about ten hours and you said that you figured the only thing the planet needed to be saved from was him? Because of all the hot air?”

“Are you sure?” Maya squidges up her face and squints, trying to remember. “We went to a meeting?”

“Uh huh. You made me go with you.”

“I did?”

“Uh huh. You fell asleep.”

“Well, I’m not going to fall asleep this time,” says Maya. “You’ll see. It’ll be totally different.”

“I’ll see?” Alice automatically takes a step backwards. “You’re right – it will be totally different. Because I’m not going with you.”

“What do you mean, you’re not going with me?” Maya certainly wasn’t planning on going alone. Alone among the geeks. “Why not?”

“Why not?” Alice’s is an expressive face, and right now what it’s expressing is indignant disbelief. “I’ll tell you why not. You may not remember all the way back to last Thursday, Maya, but I was the one who nearly got pneumonia because you thought it was a great idea to play Follow That Boy in a monsoon.”

“I said that I was sorry. Gott im Himmel, how was I supposed to know he wasn’t going home?”

“I was almost bitten by an insane dog.”

“You weren’t almost bitten. He was just barking to protect his house.”

“He came after us.”

“Alice, it was a dachshund, not the Hound of the Baskervilles.”

“And my shoes were totalled by the time I got home.”

“But nothing like that’s going to happen today. I’ll call my mom. She’ll come and get us.”

“No. If you ask me, hugging trees is even more humiliating than climbing them.”

“Please, Alice? It’s just one meeting. And then me and Cody will be friends and I’ll never ask another favour from you as long as I live.”

“No. I’d rather go over Niagara Falls on a surfboard.”

“Pleasepleaseplease!” Maya clasps her hands in supplication. “I don’t want to be all by myself with Clemens and the geeks.”

“You don’t have to be.” Alice nods behind her. “I bet that’s where they’re going. You can sit with them.”

Maya follows Alice’s gaze. She sees Joy Marie and Waneeda all the time, but she hardly ever looks at them. They don’t seem real to Maya – Joy Marie with her intense expression and nervous movements and Waneeda, slow and ungainly, shuffling beside her. They look like cartoon characters. A mouse and a bear. Joy Marie and Waneeda come to a stop at the stairs. A mouse and a bear who are bickering. Maya has gone to school with Joy Marie Lutz and Waneeda Huddlesfield her whole life, and yet she has probably never said a word to either of them. She probably wouldn’t even recognize their voices in the dark. Maya sighs. “Oh, goody.”

Chapter Thirteen Waneeda and Joy Marie discuss motivation

“I’m not saying that it’s not great you decided to come to the meeting, Waneeda,” Joy Marie is saying as they make their way to Room 111. “I just don’t understand why all of a sudden you changed your mind, that’s all. I’ve been trying to get you to join since we started the club and you’ve always been dead set against it.”

Waneeda sighs. As soon as Cody said he was joining the Environmental Club, Waneeda knew that she was going to join, too. How could she not? She may be lazy, but she’s not stupid. But, not wanting Joy Marie to jump to the obvious conclusion, she waited till five minutes ago to tell her. She should have known that Joy Marie would jump to the obvious conclusion anyway. As soon as Waneeda said that she thought she’d come along to the meeting after all, Joy Marie got that I-think-someone’s-been-smoking-in-the-toilet look on her face.

“I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal about it.” Waneeda slows her already slow pace, hoping that Joy Marie will keep steaming ahead and finish the argument without her. “A person is allowed to change her mind, you know, Joy Marie.”

Joy Marie, of course, stays in stride. “You said you’d rather be run over than join. You said your image was bad enough without being in the club. You said—”

Sometimes being friends with someone like Joy Marie is something of a trial for someone like Waneeda. “What’ve you got? A photographic memory?” Waneeda’s book bag bangs against her thigh. “I was just joking when I said that stuff. Can’t you tell when someone’s joking?”

“Yes, I can.” When irked, Joy Marie has a habit of sucking in her cheeks as if she wants to make them disappear. “That’s why I’m asking why? Did you have a vision? An epiphany? Did you suddenly realize how lonely it’s going to be when there aren’t any other species left on the planet?”

Waneeda’s whole body harrumphs. “Does it matter?”

It does to Joy Marie. “You know how I feel. The club and what it’s trying to do are really important.”

“I know they’re important.” Waneeda has a vague idea. “Obviously, I think so, too.” She couldn’t care less.

“I’d just hate to think that you aren’t taking it seriously.”

God help me, thinks Waneeda. She’s like a pit bull terrier. Once she gets her teeth into something, you have to call the fire department to get her off.

“Of course I’m taking it seriously. That’s why I’m coming with you!”

Joy Marie’s jaw sets in a way that means she knows she is about to say something Waneeda probably doesn’t want to hear. “I’d just like to know that you’re not just coming because of Cody Lightfoot, that’s all.” They cross the main hall to the west-wing staircase. “It’d be nice if you actually cared a little about the environment, too.”

All Waneeda cares about, of course, is being in the same room as Cody. Breathing the same air. Hearing him speak. Being close enough to touch him, should she ever dare. Seeing that smile again and again.

“I’m not saying that Cody didn’t influence me,” says Waneeda. After all, if someone like him wants to join, then the club must be better than Joy Marie has always made it sound. “But mainly I thought that I was doing you a favour.” Waneeda comes to a mulish stop at the bottom of the stairs. “You’re the one who needs new members, remember? You’re the one who was begging me to join.” She scrunches up her face and puts on a thin, baby voice. “Oh, Waneeda, it’s so important… Oh, Waneeda, it’ll be fun…”

“Well, yeah…”

“Because if you’ve changed your mind, just say so, Joy Marie,” snaps Waneeda. “Personally, I’d just as soon go home. I do have other things to do.”

Joy Marie, of course, is unaware that the membership of the Clifton Springs Environmental Club is about to rise, if not quite as sharply in the next twenty minutes as sea levels are predicted to rise in the next ten years, then significantly nonetheless. As far as she knows, they can’t afford to lose a potential member – even if it is Waneeda and she’s joining for the wrong reason.

“Forget it,” says Joy Marie. “I’m sorry I said anything. I’m happy you’re coming.” And she charges up the stairs to stop any further argument.

Waneeda smiles to herself as she lumbers after her.

Chapter Fourteen Ms Kimodo can be forgiven for thinking she’s gone to the wrong room