The next morning found Morgan in the senior lot at ABC.
In her sophomore year, Morgan was placed in the Journalism and Yearbook class. It was a mistake with her schedule: Morgan never signed up for it, was not interested in the class at all. However, before she was able to go through with a schedule change request, she was won over by the course’s teacher, Mr. Kment. He offered to let Morgan write horoscopes for the paper, and since then, JY had been Morgan’s favorite class.
Therefore, the fact that the JY staff had to come in to school three weeks before the school year was to begin didn’t bother Morgan at all. Instead, she was rather excited to see some of her fellow staff members—McKenna Orlowski and Stew Lackowski among them. And, of course, it would be nice to see Mr. K.
Taking care to leave her cell phone in the cup holder—Mr. K frowned upon them using cells during meetings—she headed into the building and up to the JY room. The room was actually two rooms combined. It had large windows all along the outside wall and a great many tables arranged haphazardly with mismatched chairs surrounding them. In addition to a half dozen or so computers lining the non-windowed walls, there was a laptop cart nestled in a corner.
When she walked into the room, she saw Mr. K immediately. He wore his usual summer-and-Fridays uniform of blue jeans and a solid-color T-shirt (dark blue today). His light brown hair was especially short—he must have just gotten it cut—and on his face was its characteristic stubble, like he shaved yesterday. He was attempting to hook up the data projector. Morgan smiled; he was forever having difficulty with this particular task.
“Hey, Mr. K,” she said, walking toward him. “Need some help?”
Mr. K turned to her and smiled. “Gypsy,” he greeted casually. “It’s good to see you.”
“Good to see you, too,” Morgan said. And she meant it. Ris wasn’t lying when she told Morgan’s dad about Morgan’s crush on Mr. K. Not that it was a real crush. Not really. It wasn’t like Morgan wanted to date Mr. K or have some sort of elicit relationship with him—she had what Ris liked to call a nonsexual crush on him. She found him very easy on the eyes. She liked to look at him. And he made the long hours the JY staff pulled much, much more tolerable.
“How’s your summer been?” Mr. K asked. He pushed a button on the projector and it beeped angrily.
Morgan shrugged. “Busy.”
“Business as usual?” Mr. K asked. He, of course, knew of Morgan’s fortune-telling.
She smiled. “You know it. How was your summer?”
Mr. K looked at Morgan for a moment then shrugged. “Busy, too,” he said. Then he glanced over Morgan’s shoulder as someone else entered the room. “Maybe I’ll be able to tell you about it sometime.”
Morgan heard yet another person enter the JY room. “Gypsy?” asked McKenna Orlowski.
Morgan turned and smiled. She walked over to McKenna and engaged in the usual how-have-you-been conversation. As she did so, the person who entered the room just before McKenna walked over to Mr. K. She had blond hair pulled into a bun on the top of her head and wore knee-length linen cargo shorts and a light button-up blouse. Morgan didn’t recognize her, but she seemed to know Mr. K. She called him Greg and nudged him out of the way so she could hook up the projector. Though she looked almost as though she could be a student, Morgan wondered if she was a new teacher.
She also wondered what Mr. K’s last statement to her had meant. He said he might be able to tell Morgan about his summer sometime. It seemed like an odd turn of phrase. But she couldn’t reflect on it too much because the room was filling up. McKenna snagged a table for her and Morgan to sit at, and they were soon joined by Stew Lackowski, a thickset senior with a buzz-cut and a perpetual kind streak.
The room filled, and within five minutes, Mr. Kment called for the staff’s attention and started talking about last year’s yearbook and the theme they chose for this year’s book. Morgan didn’t pay much attention. She worked primarily on the newspaper. She didn’t mind coming to yearbook meetings, though, as they were an excuse to stare at Mr. K. But today she found she couldn’t lose herself in watching him because she had the uneasy feeling that someone was watching her. Surreptitiously, she glanced around the room, but she didn’t notice anyone whose attention seemed to be focused on her; instead, everyone was watching Mr. K. Still, Morgan couldn’t shake the feeling.
By the time Mr. Kment was ready to show the staff a slide presentation of excellent spread designs, Morgan felt physically agitated. She was tapping her fingernails on the tabletop so loudly that people from neighboring tables were shooting her dirty looks. Even Stew, who was rather easygoing, went so far as to cover Morgan’s hands with his.
“Morgan, what’s wrong?” he asked.
Morgan just shook her head. “Too much caffeine this morning, I think,” she lied. “I’m gonna go get a drink of water.”
Stew eyed her dubiously but nodded.
Trying not to draw any more attention to herself, Morgan got out of her seat and walked quietly to the hallway. When she was about halfway down the hall, she realized someone was following her. When she turned, she expected to see McKenna or maybe Stew, so she was surprised when she saw the woman who called Mr. K by his first name earlier.
“Are you okay?” she asked, walking toward Morgan.
“Um… yeah,” Morgan replied. “I just… I needed a drink of water.”
She waited for the woman to say something, feeling it would be rude to just turn her back and continue down the hall. However, the woman didn’t say anything, so Morgan asked the question that had been on her mind since she’d first seen her. “So… who are you?”
The woman seemed slightly surprised by the question, but she smiled. “New English teacher. Ellie—Miss Scotford.” She smiled again, apologetically. “I worked at a small school for the last couple years and the students all called the teachers by their first names. It’s taking some getting used to.”
Morgan nodded. “So—and I don’t mean to be rude—but what are you doing here?”
“Fair question.” She smiled. “I worked on the newspaper and yearbook at my last school and when I got hired here, I volunteered my services. And Greg—Mr. Kment—was really happy to have some assistance.”
Morgan didn’t know what to say to that, so she just smiled. For a few moments, she and Miss Ellie Scotford just stared at each other. Then Miss Scotford motioned to the JY door. “I’d better get back in there. Nice talking to you, Morgan.”
Miss Scotford walked back into the room, and Morgan started back down the hall toward the drinking fountain. It wasn’t until she was almost back to the JY door that she realized something: She hadn’t told Miss Scotford her name.
She wasn’t able to reflect on this discovery for long, however, because when she got back to the room, she saw that Mr. K’s presentation was over and the staff was already at work. Morgan smiled. She loved the look of the JY room when everyone was working. It made her feel like she was part of something important.
Apparently she took just a little too long in her appreciation, however, because Lia Roderick, this year’s editor-in-chief, approached Morgan, hands on hips. She was already wearing her not amused face.
“Are you just going to stand there?” Lia asked, eyebrows arched in irritation.
Morgan could see something controlled in Lia’s face: She was pretending that the reading the other night didn’t happen. Morgan grinned. “I was considering it,” she said, just because she knew it would irk Lia.
It seemed to work. Lia crossed her arms over her chest and took a step closer to Morgan. “Look here, Gypsy. I know Mr. Kment’s always gone kind of easy on you, but I’m your editor this year, and I don’t want your sass. Do I make myself clear?”
“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” Morgan asked.
This comment elicited an exasperated sigh from Lia, who stalked off to terrorize a couple of first -year members of the staff.
Morgan shrugged and walked back to the table where McKenna and Ste
w were working.
McKenna looked up as Morgan approached the table. “How was your run-in with the fuehrer?”
“Ouch. That’s a bit rough, isn’t it?” asked Stew.
McKenna shrugged. “Now that her name’s listed as editor-in-chief, I’m sure she’s going to do more micro-managing than ever. And it looks like the micro-managing has already begun. Morgan?”
Morgan nodded. “She seemed very concerned that I wasn’t working already.” She sighed. “What’re we doing, anyway?”
McKenna explained their task and Morgan set to helping. During the remainder of the meeting, Morgan noticed that Lia didn’t stop circulating once. She stopped by Morgan’s table not less than a half dozen times. Morgan found it a bit disconcerting. She also noticed Mr. K and Miss Scotford spending a lot of time off to the side of the room, talking quietly to each other. Morgan found this disconcerting, too.
The meeting went on for another hour. Before everyone was dismissed, Mr. K reminded them that they were meeting again later that week to sell ad space in the community.
At the end of the meeting, Morgan bid farewell to Stew and McKenna. She wanted to swing by and say goodbye to Mr. K, but Miss Scotford was still beside him. Deciding she’d catch Mr. K some other day, Morgan just left. When she got back out to her car, she noticed her cell phone in the cup holder. She had received three text messages, all from Ris.
Hey, what time are you done?
We should go out for coffee.
Are you done yet???
Morgan typed out a quick reply—Done now. Coming to get you—and headed toward Ris’s house. Fifteen minutes later, the two were pushing past the tinny bell that guarded the entrance to the Daily Grind. As they approached the counter to order, Morgan was pleasantly surprised to see that Lucas was working as barista again today.
“Hey,” Lucas greeted, smiling when he saw them. “What can I get for you?”
“Gentleman’s choice,” Morgan replied. “Cold.”
Lucas smiled. “Excellent.” He looked at Ris. “You?”
“Oh, same,” she said. “That last drink was perfect; I want to see what you come up with this time.”
Lucas looked somewhat gratified. With another smile, he went to the espresso machine.
Morgan half-watched as Lucas prepared their drinks, becoming increasingly uncomfortable as she did so. Then she realized what was making her uneasy: she had that feeling again, the feeling she was being watched.
“Psst.” Morgan gently elbowed Ris.
“What?” Ris asked grumpily.
“Do me a favor? Look around and see if anyone’s looking at me.”
Ris snorted. “Paranoid much?” But then she casually turned so she was leaning up against the counter, looking out into the coffee house instead of back at the barista’s area. Then she gasped. “Oh, my god,” she said quietly. “Everyone is looking at you.”
“What?” Morgan demanded. Not caring how she looked, Morgan spun around and scanned the room.
Ris started laughing and turned back toward the counter. “I totally had you.”
Morgan jammed her shoulder into Ris’s, nearly knocking Ris over. Ris just continued to laugh.
Lucas brought two glasses to the counter and eyed the pair suspiciously. “Do I even wanna know?”
Morgan shook her head. Pointing a thumb at Ris, she said, “Crack.”
Lucas laughed. “Okay, what we’ve got here: for Morgan, an iced chai latte; for Ris, an iced vanilla latte. Now, Ris, I know that sounds boring, but I added a bit of Irish cream and a touch of caramel. And that might sound gross, but—”
“I trust you,” Ris said. Having finally recovered from her giggling fit, she reached out and took her glass. She took a sip and smiled. “You’re magical.”
Lucas chuckled and bowed.
Morgan and Ris paid for their drinks and sat in the same spot they’d sat in before. Ris found a checkerboard on a nearby shelf and the two played a few rounds of checkers. In the middle of the third round, Ris’s cell phone rang. She checked the caller ID and sighed. “My mom,” she muttered. She stood as she answered the phone and walked toward the coffee house’s door; Ris avoided talking on cell phones while inside businesses.
Morgan sipped her chai. She’d never had one before and found this one to be delicious. She turned her attention to the checkerboard. Ris was winning this round. Eying the door, she stole one of Ris’s checkers off the board and added it to her pile.
“That’s cheating.”
The words came from someone standing behind Morgan. The voice was familiar, so she immediately thought of Lucas. However, when she turned around to comment, it was not Lucas her eyes landed on.
“Kellen?” Morgan asked. “Where’d you come from?”
Kellen smiled and nodded in the direction of a hallway behind Morgan. Then, without another word, he walked to the armchair Ris had been occupying and sat.
When it was clear he wasn’t going to begin a conversation, Morgan took it upon herself to speak. “What are you doing here?”
“Having a coffee,” he responded easily.
Morgan rolled her eyes. “Right. Like you just happen to be here.”
Kellen looked at her quizzically and then laughed. “What? You think I followed you here?” he asked. “That’s ridiculous. I’ve been coming here for years.” He smiled. “For all I know, you followed me here.”
“Why would I follow you here?” Morgan demanded.
Kellen smiled. “Because I’m fascinating.”
“Of all the adjectives that come to mind when I think of you, fascinating wouldn’t be the first one I’d pick.”
Kellen’s brow furrowed. “Really? Which one would you pick?”
Morgan considered this for a moment. “Maddening?”
“Maddening?” Kellen allowed himself to pout for a moment. “Why?”
“Um, let me think,” Morgan began, casting a quick glance toward the front door to be sure Ris was still outside. “You keep dropping this hint like you know things about me and about my mom, but you don’t ever actually deliver with any kind of information. I mean, maybe that might be why I’d think you were maddening.”
“Well, as you might remember, our last meeting was cut short,” Kellen said.
“You’re the one who left,” Morgan reminded him. “I was trying to convince Chante to give us a minute.”
Kellen picked up one of Ris’s game pieces and began flipping it easily over his fingers. “Sorry about that—I just thought you might want to attend to a paying customer.”
Morgan felt a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “That’s right. You have stiffed me twice now.”
Kellen stopped playing with the checker and set it back down. “Oh, twice, huh?” He smiled. “I’ll have to make that up to you somehow.”
Morgan opened her mouth but realized she didn’t know how to respond to him. She didn’t know whether she wanted to accept or decline his offer. Though she wouldn’t admit it to him, he was right: he was fascinating. And it didn’t hurt that he was rather good-looking, too.
Kellen leaned in toward Morgan again, and she automatically did the same. “Look,” he said quietly, “meet me back here at about seven. There’s a live band tonight—and they’re pretty good. I’ll buy you another chai tea and we can… talk.”
“Talk?” she asked.
He grinned. “Yeah. Talk.” He glanced up toward the door. “Come alone.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“Or romantic.”
She raised an eyebrow. “So… this is, like, a… date?”
He winked. “See you tonight.”
Before Morgan had a chance to respond, Kellen stood up and disappeared down the hallway he’d motioned to earlier. Morgan shifted in her seat—half her body wanted to follow him. But at that moment, she noticed that the front door was opening and Ris was walking back toward her. When Ris sat down, Morgan could tell she was slightly exasperated.
“Mom drama?” Mor
gan asked.
Ris clenched and unclenched her fists a few times. “She’s just being… You’d think I was going into kindergarten, not my senior year of high school. She’s out school supply shopping. Like I’m completely incapable of buying my own—folders.” Ris sighed noisily. She grabbed her glass off the table and took a sip out of the straw. After a moment, she was met with a sucking sound and she sighed. “I’m out.”
Morgan reached for the glass. “Want another? I’ll go get it.”
Ris handed the glass over. “Okay. That’ll give me time to figure out what you did to the board while I was gone.”
Morgan held a hand to her chest and gave an innocent look. “Moi, cheat?” She smiled and picked up her glass, too, before heading up to the counter.
Lucas smiled when she approached. “Refills?” he asked.
“For Ris, yes, but just water for me.”
Lucas looked slightly disappointed. “You didn’t like the chai?”
Morgan shook her head. “No, loved it… I just… I need some water.”
Lucas shrugged. “Fair enough.” He grabbed the glasses off the counter. Morgan watched as he put them in the dish washer and grabbed two fresh glasses. When he came back to the espresso machine, Morgan positioned herself so she was directly across from him.
“Did you see that guy I was talking to a minute ago?”
Lucas looked up from the machine. Morgan noticed his eyes—very light, light blue. Very pretty. She couldn’t believe she had never noticed them before.
“Yeah, I saw him. Why?”
“Does he come in here a lot?”
Lucas gave her a quizzical look. “Fairly regularly. Why?”
“Is there a live band here tonight?”
Lucas disappeared behind the machine for a moment, but when he returned he said, “Yeah. Why?”
“I’m not sure yet,” Morgan replied.
Lucas raised an eyebrow at her but asked no more questions. He finished making Ris’s drink and got Morgan her water. Morgan paid for the drink and went back over to her table. She immediately noticed that there were more of Ris’s pieces on the checkerboard now than there had been when she’d left.
“What the hell?” Morgan asked as she sat.
“Turn about’s fair play,” Ris said as she took a sip of her latte.