“And by we, she means us,” Lora mutters under her breath.
Coach Milton begins to call out directions for the stretches that she wants us to do, and I make sure to follow along with the rest of the class. It’s basic stuff: touch your toes, reach above your head, balance on one foot while holding your other leg in a bent position behind your back.
Nothing too crazy.
But Lora is acting like this is the end of the world for her, which means she probably doesn’t notice that Holt keeps glancing in her direction. The dude has it soooooo bad…
She might actually take him back though. Since the “mutual” (but not-so-mutual according to Holt) breakup happened almost a month ago, and Lora hasn’t been on a single date, I have a pretty strong feeling that they’ll end up being a couple again. Still, I’m not getting in the middle of it.
“Okay, let’s have two groups!” Coach Milton claps her hands together as she looks over the class. “The first group will run laps while the second group does some rounds of jumping jacks and high knees. Let’s go, people!”
She begins to divide us up, and I force myself not to laugh when Lora gets put in the first group with Holt. It’s only funny though because Lora looks like she’s ready to let everyone feel her wrath, and her angry face is just plain hilarious.
Coach puts me in the second group, so I go ahead and start doing sets of jumping jacks. However, I also start to remember a very specific gym class back in middle school…
We were getting ready to play kickball, and the next thing I knew, Brayden Knight was picking me to be on his team. BAM! Insta-crush. That’s all it took. I was a total goner. And because Lora was happily dating Connor O'Donnell (one of Brayden’s many friends) at the time, she took it upon herself to set me and Brayden up. So, we all had lunch together that Fajita Friday, and I managed to make some small talk with Brayden. Then on Monday, he asked me to be his hiking partner for gym class, and we got to talk some more. Then, after a week and two days of hanging out and spending time together…he asked me to be his girlfriend.
I was the happiest sixth grader at North Ridge Middle School.
Too bad I didn’t know then what I do now.
Chapter 7: It’s Not a Big Deal
“How was your day, Ky-Ky?” Mom asks with an expectant smile.
Every night, every dinner, it’s the same thing. Kyle gets asked first, then Hailee, and then yours truly.
“It was good,” he says, pushing his carrots around with his fork. “Ethan peed his pants.”
Hailee lets out a snort, and Mom proceeds to sigh. “Not at the table, please.”
“Sorry,” he apologizes, not sounding sorry at all, “and Quinn got bit by a bee.”
“It’s stung, you dweeb,” Hailee corrects him with an eye-roll.
“Mommy!” Kyle yells as if Mom isn’t sitting at the table with us. “Hailee called me a dweeb!”
I honestly don’t blame Dad for being cooped up in his study to finish extra work, Kyle and Hailee’s constant whining is beyond obnoxious…
“Hailee,” Mom says, using a disapproving tone, “apologize to your brother.”
Her overly glossed lips start to form a pout. “But, Mom!”
At that, Mom’s eyebrows go up. “Apologize.”
“Fine!” Hailee huffs, turning to glare at Kyle. “I’m sorry that you’re so oversen—”
“Hailee,” Mom warns, her eyebrows still raised high.
“Okay, okay!” Hailee exclaims with a wave of her hand. “I’m sorry. There, better?”
“Lose the attitude or you’ll be losing phone privileges,” Mom threatens, stabbing a piece of her chicken. “Understood?”
“Understood,” Hailee echoes, suddenly interested in the ends of her hair.
“So, anyway,” Kyle continues, oblivious to the brewing tension, “Peter wasn’t at school because he’s sick, Callie got in trouble for cutting Darcy’s hair, and Luna wouldn’t stop talking during quiet time.”
Mom offers a tight smile. “Well, as long as you were behaved.”
Kyle gives her a thumbs-up, then wrinkles his nose at his food. “Mommy, do I have to eat the carrots?”
“Two more,” Mom says, taking a glance at his plate, “okay, honey?”
It’s obvious that he wants to whine, but he just nods instead. Smart kid.
“How about you, Megan? How was your day?”
Say what now?
I stare at my mother in disbelief. “Me?”
Why the heck is she asking about my day? It’s supposed to be youngest to oldest.
“Yes, Megan,” Mom replies with a half-laugh, “how was your day?”
Weird.
“Uh…” I trail off, barely lifting a shoulder. “It was fine?”
“Yeah?” she asks, looking at me expectantly. “So, everything went okay with Brayden? You showed him around?”
She can’t possibly know that I bailed on his “tour” and tried to avoid him as much as I could. Right?
“Mm-hmm,” I hum, brushing invisible crumbs off my napkin, “I mean…I think it went pretty well.”
I did help him get his schedule, after all. Plus, I showed him the nearest bathroom. And I shared my tablet with him.
Such. A. Giver.
“Well, that’s good,” she says with a content smile. “I’m glad. He seems like a really nice guy.”
As if.
“And how was your day, Hailee?” Mom asks her in an even tone.
Ohhhhh, that’s why she asked me first.
“Well, Ricky Vero is single again,” Hailee states in a matter-of-fact way, “and he has a sign-up sheet for any of the girls that want to be his new girlfriend…but guess who couldn’t put their name on the list because of some stupid no-dating-until-high school-rule?”
Here we go…
Mom sets her fork down, and calmly looks at Hailee. “First of all, having a sign-up sheet to find a girlfriend is absolutely ridiculous. And furthermore,
