Back then, Jake was the new guy in town. He showed up for the first day of
eighth grade and practically made girls swoon all the way down the hall. In Pre-Algebra,
second period, Mr. Stone split Colin and Lexie up and sat Jake right in between them.
Lexie kept looking over at Colin, thinking of things she wanted to tell him, but
figuring it was too risky to pass a note through a stranger. The third time she looked over,
hoping he’d noticed that Mr. Stone’s bald spot was shaped exactly like a pineapple, she
saw him watching Jake’s hands. Jake was folding a piece of paper, over and over, and
twisting it around. The twins both stared at him until suddenly, sitting on Jake’s desk,
there was a small origami whale that could fit in the palm of your hand.
With a studious expression, Jake drew eyes and a smiley face on the whale. Then
he looked up and caught Lexie smiling at it. She looked away quickly, embarrassed.
When she glanced down again, the whale was sitting on the corner of her desk,
beaming at her.
After class, as she was gathering her books, Colin leaned over to Jake.
“Hey,” he said, “that was cool. It’s origami, right? Can you make other stuff,
too?” Lexie knew that Colin must be really interested, because he hardly ever talked to
strangers. But once he started talking, it was pretty hard to make him stop.
“A few other things,” Jake said. “My dad taught me. I can show you, if you
want.”
“Sure!” Colin said. “How about Saturday? You could come over for lunch.”
“Don’t you want to know my name before inviting me over?” Jake said with a
cute smile.
“That dork is Colin,” Lexie said. “My brother. I’m Lexie.”
“Short for Alexandra,” Colin said. “like Alexander the Great. Or Alexander
Helios, son of Cleopatra. Did you know Cleopatra had twins? A boy and a girl, like us.
Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene.” Colin’s only lasting obsession was with random
twin facts. He could list a ton of famous twins.
“I did not know that. I’m Jake,” the new kid said, shaking Colin’s hand solemnly.
“Will you be there on Saturday?” he said to Lexie.
“Probably,” she said. Meaning definitely, if there’s a chance you’ll be there. She
knew Karina would be more than happy to come over and meet the cute new guy.
“Okay, Saturday would be great. Thanks, Colin.”
The next day, Lexie saw Jake carrying around a library book about Cleopatra. He
was the only guy she knew who read books for fun. But what he read was random
nonfiction about things that caught his interest, like the Salem witchcraft trials or Aztec
mythology or the life of Harry Houdini.
That was why he got along so well with Colin. Jake could probably have ditched
them for a more popular crowd if he’d joined a sports team or auditioned for theater, but
he liked Colin’s strange interests. Whenever Colin found a new hobby, Jake read up on it.
And then Lexie and Karina hung out with them while Colin built a replica of the HMS
Bounty from a model shipbuilding kit and Jake told them strange facts about the famous
mutiny.
So she knew the real Jake, just like she knew the real Colin, when nobody else
did. Lexie thought of her front door as an enchanted mirror, like the looking glass Alice
climbed through in the book. When she and Jake and Colin walked through it, they
became their real selves. Here Colin talked as much as he wanted to. Here Jake thought
she was funny.
Here she could imagine that maybe one day Jake would look at her and see Lexie,
girl of his dreams, instead of Lexie, his best friend’s sister.
She still had the whale. It was hidden in a shoebox in her room, next to other
secret Jake things.
And nobody knew how she felt, not even Colin, who knew every dingle other
detail of her life and every thought that ever crossed her mind.
“Jake?” Lexie said, picking up the tennis racket and trying to flip it again. She
hoped the nervous shake in her voice would be hidden by the clatter of the falling racket.
“He’s going to tennis camp?”
Colin nodded. “He’ll be in the advanced class, of course.”
“Of course,” Lexie said, losing hope again. Jake was one of the best tennis players
in the school. And she was sure to be terrible, which probably wasn’t the best way to
impress him.
“Why can’t you come with me?” Lexie said plaintively.
“Because I said so,” Mrs. Willis interjected. “Remember me? Still in the room?”
“Mooooooooom,” Lexie said, flopping onto her mattress and trying to look as
woebegone as possible.
“It’s all decided,” Mrs. Willis said. “Camp starts tomorrow.” She smoothed the
bikini on the comforter again with a pleased expression. Lexie wished she would just take the darn bikini and wear it herself if she was so excited about it. If Lexie had to go
swimming—in front of Jake, no less—she would be wearing the same simple black one-
piece she’d had for two years.
The doorbell rang. Be booop be booop . . . bee booop beeeeee boooooooop. Lexie
liked the weird chimes it played. Besides, it was the sound that usually meant Jake was
there.
“That’s Jake,” Colin said. “He called and said he has some major problems and
needs our advice. Although why he’d want to ask a moron like me is the real question.”
“Oh, Colin,” Mrs. Willis said, “Don’t talk about yourself like that.”
“It’s probably another girl crisis,” Lexie said. Jake was always having girl
crises—either someone wanted to date him, or there was someone he wanted to date, or
his current girlfriend was acting weird because he wasn’t the 100 percent perfect
boyfriend that she’d been expecting.
“I’ll be down in a minute,” Lexie called as Colin thumped down the stairs. She sat
up and saw that her mom was still hovering.
“Don’t you want to try it on?” Mrs. Willis said, gesturing at the bathing suit.
“Um,” Lexie said. With Jake in the house? I’d rather eat lizards. “Maybe later.”
Like in my next life, when I come back as a ditzy supermodel.
“All right,” Lexie’s mom said with another sigh, and finally left the room.
Lexie ran over to the mirror and
