The next day at school she and Jonah walked together to and from the classes they shared. It seemed for now he would allow their tenuous friendship, but at lunch he went to sit at his table alone as usual. Lyra sat with Aimee, Katie, Trevor, and the gang, but kept casting guilty glances at Jonah. Finally, Aimee, trying to talk to her about Algebra, asked exasperatedly, “What do you keep looking at, Lyra?” She craned her neck around.
Lyra blushed. “Jonah. I hate seeing him over there all alone. I think I’ll go sit with him for a while.” She picked up her tray and walked over to Jonah’s table while everyone at hers watched with mouths agape.
He looked up, surprised, when she pulled the chair out and sat down across from him. He had a book open beside his tray. She smiled self-consciously. “Hi again. What’cha reading—The Alchemist?”
He frowned, looking from her, to the table she’d just left, and back at her. “No. I decided to put it aside to read Dean Koontz’s newest release. I’ll pick it back up when I’m finished with this. What are you doing? You should go back to sit with your friends.” He glanced over to them; then, smiling mischievously, back at her. “They’re all staring. Shall I do something shocking?”
Lyra laughed. She turned around and waved. They ducked their heads quickly and pretended they hadn’t been gawking.
She swiveled to face Jonah once more. “So is it any good?” Lyra asked, nodding toward the book.
“Yeah, it’s really suspenseful. Do you like Koontz?”
“I’ve read a couple of his books, but he’s a bit too scary for me,” Lyra admitted. She picked up her sandwich and took a bite, watching him as he snuck peeks at the open book. It really must be good.
“So, the harvest dance is next weekend. Do you want to go?” she asked, surprising him again.
He looked up blankly. “Huh?”
“The dance. Do you want to go?” she repeated.
Jonah’s eyes narrowed. “Isn’t it normal for the guy to ask the girl?”
“I’m a liberated woman.”
He looked like he wanted to smile, but managed to keep a straight face.
“Oh, all right. Have it your way,” she said. “Yes Jonah, I’d be delighted to go to the dance with you.”
Jonah couldn’t help himself from laughing. “I didn’t ask you!”
“Well, get on with it then. I haven’t got all day,” she rejoined, picking up her apple juice and taking a sip.
Jonah chuckled again in spite of himself. “You’re incorrigible.” His smiled faded a little. “But, honestly, Lyra, I don’t do dances.” He saw her pout and quickly added, “If I were going to go, I’d want to go with you, but…I don’t like crowds.”
Lyra rolled her eyes. “Jonah, you’re in a crowd now. The only difference will be that at the dance the tables will be gone, the lights will be dim, and everyone will be dancing instead of eating. Even the people will be the same.”
Trying to find a hole in her logic, Jonah’s brow wrinkled in concentration. He couldn’t.
“So, you’ll go?”
“I guess so,” he sighed morosely.
It was Lyra’s turn to laugh. “Brilliant. You’ll have fun, I promise.”