The seagulls enjoyed that one. Later in the hall outside of class she’d shielded her eyes and complained that the sun was so bright today. Portia used to like that one too.
This was definitely an unfortunate change, but I was taking it pretty well. When you have seven years of practice, those jokes just bounce off of you. Portia had spent entire days commenting on my wardrobe and size. And here I had Shal and Mia to talk to, so I was actually starting to think that I was going to get off easy. I was wrong. Geography was last period, and I spent most of it admiring Liam as he answered every single question while the other students snickered. Maybe he didn’t have Lee’s muscles or tanned skin or gentle brown eyes, but he still had…well, I don’t know what it was. His hair was parted today, just off the middle, and held down with what smelled like hair spray. I just sniffed it when I walked by…that’s all. Combined with those awkwardly perched glasses and a T-shirt that said Science Is Cool, he was pretty much a walking public service announcement for what nerds looked like. But I couldn’t help it. I just smiled whenever I looked at him.
I was in love with a spectacled ocean plant.
Ms. Haddock was currently discussing European countries. She seemed fascinated with the subject and tried to sneak it in wherever possible, though I’m pretty sure it wasn’t in the curriculum.
“Let’s have a little competition,” Ms. Haddock said, as if this would be greeted by raucous applause. The whole class just stared at her. “Everyone line up at the front,” she continued eagerly, rolling up the world map. “It’ll be like a spelling bee. If you get your question wrong, you sit down and cheer for everyone else.”
Dead silence.
“The winner,” she said meaningfully, “will get a gift certificate for two to the movies.”
Well, it wasn’t much, but provide a prize of any sort and people tend to get more excited. There were a few movies I wanted to see. The only problem was that I would have to stand in front of the class after being called a filthy hobo all day. Super.
So we all lined up at the front—Shal and Mia on either side of me—and the competition began. They started dropping like flies.
“What’s the capital of Germany?” Ms. Haddock asked Tim.
He paused. “Europe?”
Oh boy. This was going to be a short competition.
“What language do they speak in the Netherlands?”
Ashley frowned. “Netherlandish?”
I really wanted to groan. Shal went out on the capital of Norway—she declined to try—while Mia got by on the language of Portugal.
“Name a country on Germany’s eastern border,” Ms. Haddock asked me.
I’m actually kind of a geography buff. I always wanted to travel, so I spent a lot of time looking at maps. A by-product of hating where you live, I guess. Same reason I like space so much. They both sounded a lot better than Newcastle. Everywhere did.
“Poland,” I said confidently.
She smiled and rolled on.
Soon it was the fifth round, and there were only four of us left: Mia, a guy named Blake, Liam, and myself. Liam was currently standing only one boy away from me. I think I was sweating. I definitely felt flushed. Mia was up.
“What country contains the city of Budapest?”
Mia fidgeted. I could tell she was not comfortable standing in front of the class. Way too much attention for Mia Mouse. “Romania?” she guessed.
“Sorry,” Ms. Haddock said, “Hungary.”
The words were barely out of her mouth before Mia was sitting again.
“Okay, Laura,” Ms. Haddock said, turning to me. “This is a tricky one. Name one of the two official languages they speak in Belgium.”
Crap. That was a tricky one. I could see Allison whispering something to Ashley about me. They were both quietly giggling. Focus.
“French,” I said.
“Excellent,” Ms. Haddock said. “Very impressive, Laura.”
I beamed. Hey, it was the first compliment I’d gotten all day.
Blake went out, and all of a sudden I was standing right next to Liam. Well, there was like a half-metre gap, but it was close. I could smell that hair spray again. It was like a spring meadow mixed with chemicals. I felt my skin tingling. What was wrong with me?
He nailed his question—big surprise—and so the finals were set.
Ms. Haddock stood up in excitement. “Okay, if Laura gets it wrong, Liam still has to answer his correctly. If she gets it right, and he’s wrong, Laura wins.”
I shot just the tiniest glance at Liam. His eyes were really blue up close. Focus!
“Laura, what is the northernmost country in Europe?”
By a stroke of luck, I had a thing for the Scandinavian countries. They always seemed really beautiful and empty, which was good for avoiding bullies. “Norway.”
“Correct!”
Liam looked at me in surprise, and I felt my cheeks burning. Thankfully Allison was looking away, whispering with Carl. Ms. Haddock turned to Liam.
“What is the newest country in Europe?”
Hmm. Even I wasn’t sure about that one. I had a guess, but I could see Liam was completely stumped. He shifted from foot to foot and frowned and rubbed his forehead.
“Liam?” Ms. Haddock asked politely.
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Kosovo,” she said. “Very tough. Great competition. But of course we can only have one winner, and that is Laura. Give her a round of applause.”
There were some smattered claps, and I smiled shyly. And then Liam shook my hand and said congratulations. Why was my hand so clammy? I really blushed this time and muttered “thanks” and barely managed to take the movie certificate from Ms. Haddock without floating out of the classroom. I sat down feeling pretty great.
“Someone has a crush,” Allison whispered behind me.
Uh-oh.
—
“I’m sure she’ll forget about it soon,” Shal said on the way home from school.
I wasn’t that keen to walk home from school again after yesterday, but Eldon had assured me
