“There’s my ride, gotta go!” I said, practically sprinting toward the car so she couldn’t humiliate me further.
“Oh, okay, bye,” Matty said. I waved to him from the passenger seat.
“What’s he wearing?” Mom asked, pulling out of the parking lot. “Is that what all the cool people wear these days?”
“Yes, Mom.” I was too tired to explain.
She got excited. “Should I get you something like that for Homecoming? With the high collar and everything? Won’t you need a corset?”
I thunked my head against the window. To sleep, perchance, to scream. Or however it went.
Tuesday BAND 2:00 P.M.
Matty came in late to band today. Ms. Kaiser raised an eyebrow and said, “So nice of you to join us, Mr. Fumero.”
I felt butterflies go crazy in my stomach, almost making it ache. Matty walked toward us as if there were a fan machine blasting his perfect hair in slow motion. That’s how a true Homecoming date was supposed to feel. Even Wesley had never given me butterflies like that.
To top it off, Matty caught me looking at him and smiled. Somebody hold my bassoon—I think I might faint.
My reputation for pranks must have preceded me, because when we went through arpeggios, Amanda was giving me the stink-eye. But I just played on, my cheeks puffing with each note. Amanda had zero proof; I was already in the getaway car, on the other side of the country. Good luck trying to pin your gross Cheeto habits on me, Amanda.
I’d been trying to talk to Ruth all day, but it was like I was invisible. She’d switched seats in homeroom and eaten lunch with Naomi and the sophomores instead. As soon as band finished, she rushed home, even though we had to play at the football game later tonight. Her mom had signed her up for something called “cram school,” and it sounded worse than Farsi school, to be honest.
I still hadn’t patched up things with either her or Fabián since our fight yesterday. Besides, Fabián had clubs and rehearsals every day after school from now on. I had no idea how I’d even get them alone to apologize, they were both so busy. And I didn’t think a text message was going to cut it this time.
I took a while to put my bassoon away. I wasn’t looking forward to walking home alone with my thoughts.
Just then, I felt someone hover over me as I put the pieces in their case. It honestly seemed like I was dismantling a gun, the bassoon was so big. I looked up.
Matty Fumero was standing right next to me. “Hey,” he said.
I smiled back, remembering that opening my mouth to speak was probably not the best idea when butterflies were in there.
“How’s it going?” he asked, nodding to me. Gosh, his eyes were so beautiful. It was like staring at a closeup of an actor on TV, and not a real person. What was he saying?
“Oh, good. Just packing up.” I smiled again. I could see Yessenia staring at us as she put her flute away. Why was she taking so long? A flute was, like, three pieces, tops. Amanda was right next to her, glaring harshly at us.
“So,” Matty said.
I gave another smile, just standing there, waiting for him to continue. It isn’t your job to fill the silence, Parvin, I reminded myself. He’s the one who wanted to talk.
“I was wondering . . . do you want to go out this weekend?” he asked. My hammering heart went quiet all of a sudden, as if it had forgotten to beat at all. I swear you could hear a pin drop in the band room at that moment—that’s how many people were listening in on our conversation.
“Sure,” I replied, in a very chill way. OH MY GOD, MATTY FUMERO JUST ASKED ME OUT!
“Cool,” he said, and smiled. Ah, he had the cutest teeth! They weren’t as white as Amir’s, though. Probably because Amir’s dad was a dentist. Shut up, Parvin. Shut up!
“What’s your number?” he asked, handing me his phone. “I’ll text you, and we can figure out what we want to do.”
I entered my phone number, floating above myself as I watched the whole scene unfold. It felt surreal. Was it really that easy? Just smile and laugh and nod? I couldn’t believe it. I needed to write a book or something to enlighten all girl-kind.
“Cool, I’ll text you soon.” Matty grinned, taking his phone back. I watched him walk away, ignoring Yessenia’s raised eyebrows.
I had said two full sentences to Matty Fumero today.
And it worked.
■ ■ ■ FOOTBALL GAME 7:00 P.M.
Brr. It was actually chilly tonight on the football field. The entire band had taken over a section of the bleachers where we’d play fight songs whenever something happened, which was tough to know, as I had no clue how football worked. Our team just scored something called a safety, but it didn’t look very safe. The worst part was that my bassoon was so fragile I couldn’t play it outside, so Ms. Kaiser gave me some cymbals and told me to hit them “whenever felt best.” I accidentally clanged them before the team arrived, and they were so loud my ears hadn’t stopped ringing.
I stared longingly at Ruth in her section of clarinets, but she was still kind of ignoring me. At least when a clarinet messed up, you didn’t hear it ricochet across the bleachers.
Matty sat with the rest of the trumpets in the last row. He smiled and gave me a small wave. I gave him a tiny wave back, trying hard not to upset the cymbals.
I still couldn’t believe he had asked me out this afternoon. Probably because most things didn’t feel real until I told Ruth or Fabián about them. Homecoming was already next weekend. I needed my date with Matty to go really well, or I doubted he’d ask me to the dance. Good thing Mom helped
