“Nice fit,” I said, giving him a slow clap. Ruth grinned—she’d helped rip the jeans he was wearing. Today was finally the day for him to show it off. Too bad I had been too useless to help Fabián with his outfit over the weekend.
Fabián bowed low. “Thank you. It’s not easy looking like such a snack all the time.”
I cackled, the sound echoing across the courtyard. A girl at the other end shot me a dirty look, and the laugh died in my throat as I remembered that cackling was a decidedly not-quiet way to laugh. Fabián ran a comb through his hair.
“Now that I’ve bestowed you with praise, can you please tell Ruth to share?” I whined. She kept batting my hand away with a chopstick every time I tried to steal a piece of food.
Fabián took one look at the kimchi Ruth had brought and put his hand on mine, gazing sadly into my eyes.
“As your friend, I feel like this is for the best.” He wrinkled his nose.
“Hey!” Ruth shouted, offended.
“See? I’m the only one who appreciates Korean food here. Better to let me have some,” I pointed out.
“You could always pack your own lunch this year, you know,” Ruth said.
I pouted.
Ruth grudgingly pushed the metal container of kimchi toward me, and I ate a couple more pieces, amazed I was a High Schooler now, Eating Lunch, in my High School. Fabián dipped his French fries into enough ketchup to fake an accident.
I could see his eyes wander, scoping out everyone in the courtyard, taking it all in. I caught him staring at a senior boy by the water fountain, and he grinned.
“Homecoming is the first weekend of October,” I said, pointing at Ruth with a metal chopstick, focusing us back to my mission. “Maybe you could find a cute girl and you, Fabián, could seduce some hot jock. Meanwhile we still need to find a date for moi.”
“How are you going to get a date in a month?” she asked.
“I have a plan.” I clutched the crumpled list I’d made at our sleepover, the one I’d been carrying in my jeans pocket all day. “Oh, I have a plan!” And then I started my evil laugh, the one that Ruth and Fabián said was legitimately scary. Ruth looked terrified.
Just then, a passing junior looked at me like I was crazy. I choked to a halt. I’d seriously underestimated this whole being-quiet thing. How did quiet people explain their plans without laughing like an evil genius? Maybe they just passed polite notes back and forth.
“Hey, how’s your first day coming along?” a voice interrupted. I looked up—it was Matty, our tour guide from orientation. Fabián swooned again.
“It’s going,” Fabián replied, his voice cracking. Was Fabián nervous? I couldn’t wait to make fun of him for this later.
“And how about you—Parvin, right? You feeling better?” Matty turned his gaze to me, and I found myself gaping like a fish, just like Fabián. I was close enough to see his thick eyelashes, and how his brown hair curled a bit at the ends. His eyes were an intense green, and his forearms were all corded muscle. He was nothing like the guys in our year who had chicken legs for limbs, Wesley included.
“Parvin?” Ruth poked me.
“Oh yeah, much better.” I laughed. Why was I laughing? What was so funny?
“Glad to hear it,” Matty said, rapping his knuckles on the table. He flashed Ruth a smile and asked how she was doing, too, but I didn’t hear her answer. Matty was so cool. He smelled good, and I was pretty sure he had his learner’s permit. Plus, he wore the shirt of a hip band no one had ever heard of—a true sign of status.
What if I got Matty to take me to Homecoming? That would show Wesley, for sure.
“Jeez Louise,” Ruth said out loud, as soon as Matty walked away. “Parvin . . . I can tell you’re planning something. And please don’t say it’s another prank.”
Fabián gave me a cold look. He hadn’t brought up the warm water from the sleepover, but I knew it had worked when he’d gotten up suddenly that night to use the bathroom, muttering, “Damn it, Parvin.”
“No, no, it’s not that,” I said, taking one of Fabián’s fries, deep in thought. I could feel the maniacal gleam in my eye flicker on, the one that Wesley had seemed to love so much until he’d learned what slacks were. But this time, I’d plot against him, and not by his side.
“What if I went to Homecoming with Matty?” I said, laying out my plan.
Fabián guffawed. “He’s a sophomore. And I’m pretty sure he’s gay.”
Ruth coughed. “Actually, he’s bi.”
Fabián and I snapped our heads back to Ruth so quickly they almost fell off our necks.
“Didn’t you see his pin?” Ruth continued. “On his bag? It’s the bisexual flag. He said he was a GSA member, right? So . . . there you go.”
“But you have a lot of pins on your bag, Ruth,” I said. “I don’t see the pansexual one.”
Ruth shuddered. “I can’t just put my pin on there. What if my mom googled my flag’s colors?”
“Okay, okay, back to Parvin’s wild idea—” Fabián started. “How are you gonna get Matty to ask you to Homecoming? Or get him to say yes if you asked him?”
“I can’t get him to go with me . . . but New Parvin can,” I replied. “I’ll be quiet and restrained, and the things holding me back from a boyfriend will disappear. I’ll be like those women in the movies we watched and fix it all. And then I bet someone as cool as Matty will want to date me.”
Luckily, I hadn’t embarrassed myself in front of Matty too much, other than hiding under a water fountain after Wesley dumped me. In fact, Matty had barely heard me speak at all,
