"What's wrong with everyone today? Am I missing something?"
Maria looked down quickly and pocked a hole through the sandwich with a knife. I wondered what she was thinking , because it looked a little like she wanted to stab someone. Me?
"Dude, you're acting weird."
"You're the one that's acting weird." She sounded pissed with me. Properly pissed.
"I just can't believe you're making such a big thing of this, that's all. I mean you've practically got me riffling through everyone's stuff looking for a pack of gum and..."
"Look." I stopped her mid-sentence because I needed her to understand. "You weren't there. Trust me. If you'd experienced what I had, you'd also be looking for her, him, whatever."
Maria shoot another pissed stink-eye look just in case I hadn't picked up on her "unsubtle" signals yet... she was pissed with me.
"Fine. I will riffle through their gym bags and pat them down and pick their lockers and walk around asking to borrow gum."
The relied that washed over me as she said that was instant. So I hung my arm over her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "And that's why I love you."
**
The week progressed in just about the same way, with daily updates from Maria, boring homework assignments that I couldn't focus on even more than usual and tennis practice in the afternoons. We'd ramped practice up. We're all training for the school championships. This time we're competing against each other so there's a less than social atmosphere on the courts.
The week also felt like it dragged and by Thursday, when she still had nothing to report, I was starting to worry. I knew there had been some girls from another school there, a Catholic convent that Maria's mother is always threatening to send her to. St. Benedictines, I wondered if I should try and get a list of the girls that were there from Brett. It was his sister, Brenna, who had invited them. His sister got caught smoking pot a year ago and her parents were convinced it was because of the male peer pressure here, so they whipped her out and sent her to an all girls school where she has to wear regulation underwear and her skirt has to hang exactly one palm's width above her knee. Any more and you get sent to the Home Economics teacher who lets out your hem right there and then. As the story goes.
And the ones that I'd met are were pretty hot. I just never pegged any of them to be the forward type that walked up to guys and spontaneously kissed them. But if it was one of them, I wasn't sure how I'd find out, unless I loitered outside the school, which wouldn't look good. That plan may get me arrested for suspicion of being some kind of perv, stalker. Not a great idea. Maybe I could have a casual thing at my house on Saturday night, invite Brett and Brenna and ask her to bring her friends. Suddenly a thought hits me... Maybe it was Brenna? God that would be awkward.
Tennis practice ended late that day and because I'm training, I decided to jog home. Speed, you've got to have speed on the court, that's my theory anyway. Winning tennis is about consistency sometimes, not fancy shots. If you're the guy that always gets the ball back, you'll win. If you're always consistent, you will eventually force your opponent to make a mistake. I have speed on my side, that's usually how I win. And this tournament is so important to me, as there are going to be scouts there.
And scouts mean the potential to get out of here and go to an out of state varsity. Although, I can't imagine Maria not coming with me. That would be a major downside.
As I jogged and my mind started to clear for the first time that week, it became more and more clear to me that I must have something at my house on Saturday, so I decided to take a detour and pop past Maria's house to inform her of my genius plan .
Chapter 9 - Maria
This was a mess. No, mess was an understatement. Mess is the kind of word you use to describe your bedroom or the kitchen sink before washing up. Mess was not the right word for the situation I currently found myself in. This was like my worst nightmare, amplified by infinity and beyon come to life and slap be though the face.
I'm not stupid either-someone was bound to get hurt. And I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be Mike, no, those honors were going to be bestowed apon me. He'd probably walk away from this with a spot of disappointment when he didn't find the girl of his so-called dreams. Me? I was probably going to need a heart transplant once mine was adequetly shattered into a million pieces.
I sighed loudly because it felt like something was crushing down on my ribcage. I felt nervous. Agitated and I was just about to stick my finger into my mouth and nibble on my cuticle when...
"It's unladylike to bite your fingers, Maria. What are you, a cannibal? Do you know how many calories there are in a cuticle? Wait... is a cuticle a carbohydrate? I must remember to ask my nutritionist. " It was Mike (massive internal sigh) and he was climbing through my window. I wanted to be mad at him. I wanted to hate him and push him out the window. But instead... I laughed. I couldn't help it; he was doing such a good impersonation of my mother.
"Didn't you know
