and like he's trying to get up his nerve now that he's started something,
before we've ever gone to the dumplings and the movies—
he leans in and kisses me.
His lips are cold. The kiss is soft. He has gum in his mouth, and he stops, and giggles nervously, and takes it out and throws it in the trash can,
and looks like he feels embarrassed to have kissed me with the gum,
but I don't care,
and so now I kiss him,
and he's tall enough that he has to bend down to get to me,
and I put my hand on his neck, which is smooth and warm,
and we kiss for a minute in the storage room,
and I want to run my hands up his shirt suddenly—
but I don't.
He pulls away for a second and touches my cheek.
“I thought you'd never ask,” he whispers.
“I thought I never would either,” I say, “but I did.”
“Good job,” he says, and kisses me again.
And I feel lit up inside, I know it's a cliché, but that's the only way I can say it,
and the bell rings, which means we're late,
and we run, laughing, down the hall,
and I get to math and stand in the doorway a second, watching his scrawny body
tearing down the hall
to whatever he's got next.
acknowledgments
Many, many thanks to Marissa,
who believed in this book when it was just a sketch and then edited it
with her enormous brain;
and to Elizabeth,
who always knows just what to do and stands by me when the going is rough.
In addition, thanks
to Zoe for help with naming my characters and for taking me to Kid Robot (where Gretchen gets all her little plastic toys);
to the proprietors of www.spiderfan.org for their excellent site, which I used a lot;
to my drawing teacher at SVA in New York City and to Catherine and Aaron for taking class with me;
to Daniel for a good edit,
and to Ivy for existing.
e. lockhart is the author of The Boyfriend List and its sequel, The Boy Book. She first met Spider-Man when watching the Electric Company television show at the age of three, and subscribed to Spider-Mancomics in her early twenties. She has never turned into an animal of any sort and her knowledge of the boys' locker room is purely imaginary.
Visit her on the Web at www.theboyfriendlist.com.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
Delacorte Press and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
www.randomhouse.com/teens
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at www.randomhouse.com/teachers
Lockhart, E.
Fly on the wall : how one girl saw everything / E. Lockhart.
p. cm.
Summary: When Gretchen Yee, a student at the Manhattan School for Art and Music, wishes she were a fly on the wall of the boys' locker room, she never expects her wish to come true in such a dramatic way.
eISBN: 978-0-307-49553-2 [1. Artists—Fiction. 2. Interpersonal relations— Fiction. 3. Metamorphosis—Fiction. 4. Flies—Fiction. 5. High schools—Fiction. 6. Schools—Fiction. 7. New York (N.Y.)—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.L79757Fly 2006
[Fic]—dc22
2005005702
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
v3.0
E. Lockhart, Fly on the Wall: How One Girl Saw Everything
(Series: # )
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