“Hello?”
“So are you proud of yourself?”
It was Nina, and she was on the attack, her voice harsh and flat.
“Proud? What do you—”
She didn’t let him finish. “Today, at the club table,” she said, biting off each syllable. “You made that kid feel rotten—why would you do that?”
“Um, well, I—”
Nina cut him off again. “I talked to him, you know, after you left for home, and he’s nice—which you would have figured out if you hadn’t been such a jerk. But no—‘This is my table, and everybody has to be all quiet and serious, and you’re just some dumb little fourth grader, so shut up and leave me alone!’ That’s exactly what you were like, and it was just…just ugly!”
She was quiet a second, and Alec said, “Well…”
“Well, what?” she snapped. “Is this where you start making all kinds of excuses? Is this where you go ‘boo-hoo,’ and whine about what a bad day you were having?”
Alec had had enough.
He snarled, “No, this is where you just keep yelling and yelling until you start to hear how awful and stupid you sound, and this might be when you realize you don’t even know what you’re talking about—that’s what this is!”
Nina pushed right back. “And that mean wisecrack you made about how Kent sent Jason over to keep you company? What was that? Another big ‘boo-hoo’? Is that what that was?”
Alec’s hands weren’t clammy, and he didn’t feel shy. It didn’t seem like he was even talking to a girl right then—just this angry noise blasting out of the phone.
So he said, “If you could maybe shut up for half a second I could tell you!”
“Well, I wish you would!” Then she added sarcastically, “Please.”
Alec said, “Kent dumped Jason from his kickball team because he played lousy on Friday, and then he made Jason come and join the Losers Club for two weeks—as a punishment! And Kent told Jason that he wanted him in the Losers Club so that he could keep an eye on his girlfriend for him.” Alec gulped and kept going. “Plus, last week, when Kent said you were like a warrior princess? Wednesday morning, I told him that’s what you were like, and then on Wednesday afternoon, he said it to you like he was the one who’d thought it up!”
It was quiet, just the hum of the phone line between them.
Calmer, Alec said, “So, yeah. I was having a bad day. But you’re still right. I shouldn’t have been mean to Jason. And…and I’ll apologize to him.”
Nina said, “I already did—I apologized for you. I told him how you’re actually nice, and how you’re smart and funny, and that there must have been some reason for the way you were acting…and there was a reason.” She paused for a long beat, then said, “Sorry I yelled at you.”
Alec’s hands were sweaty now. “Um, it’s okay.”
After a moment, Nina said, “You know another thing Jason told me?”
“What?”
“He said that even if Kent begged him to come back and play on his team now, he wouldn’t. He says he likes to read more than just about anything—even with a grumphead yelling at him.”
They both laughed a little, and Nina said, “But I’m not kidding—Jason’s staying, and he’ll see how hanging out with you is lots better than getting bossed around all the time by Kent. Anybody could figure that out…even me.”
Alec gulped. “Wait, what?”
Now there was a smile in Nina’s voice. “You heard me,” she said. “I’m not stupid, you know. I can see what’s going on.”
“You can?” Alec said.
“Of course I can.”
Alec made a face, and he was glad Nina couldn’t see it.
“Wait,” he said again. “What are we talking about here?”
“Simple,” Nina said. “We’re talking about how you don’t like it when I hang around with Kent. And how Kent is so jealous that you and I are friends that he had to send that kid over to our table to keep track of what we say to each other.”
Alec snorted. “Kent? Jealous of me? No way!”
Nina spoke calmly. “I’m just telling you what I see, that’s all.”
Alec was having trouble thinking. “So, are you saying that you still like being at the table…reading?”
“Not quite,” Nina said. “I’m saying I still like being there reading with you.”
“Oh.”
Alec had to let that sink in. It started to, and then he had to ask something else. “But how come you hang out with Kent so much?”
Nina said, “Well, partly it’s because I like sports, plus I have math and science for my last two classes, and I like running around a little before I sit down and read. But it’s also…well, when Kent started paying attention to me? I started meeting other kids, especially other girls—like, right away. And I liked that. But all the girls? They’ve got Kent totally figured out, you know. But that doesn’t mean they don’t like it when he flirts around with them—because they definitely do, you know?”
Alec said, “Oh, right,” as if he did somehow know what Nina meant.
But Alec didn’t know—he was barely getting any of this. He felt like he was suddenly swimming at the deep end of a big pool, and he hadn’t really known that the pool itself was even there. He was in way over his head. But not Nina. She was perfectly at ease in these waters, paddling big circles around him.
“Well,” she went on, “like I said, I’m sorry I yelled at you. And I’m glad we got to talk. So, see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Sure…okay,” Alec said, “tomorrow—bye.”
“Bye,” she said.
Alec pushed the OFF button.
Then he sat perfectly still for almost a minute, staring at the phone.
His mind was racing, but not randomly. Alec was sifting through the library he had in his mind, flipping through books that he had read, scanning all the plots and characters he could remember. He was trying to recall a story that might be sort of like what he was going through…or some scene where a guy felt totally confused by what a girl said, or any character who was even a little bit like him.
His mind slammed to a full stop.
This stuff, right now? Is this kind of like what was happening to Percy and Annabeth in The Lightning Thief…and then in the rest of the series?
But that thought made Alec shake his head and smile. He knew he didn’t know much, but he did know that perfect little endings happened in books, not in real life—at least, not in his life…or not yet, anyway.
But he pushed that out of his head, too. For now, he needed to try to understand just enough so that he wouldn’t make himself look like a total fool tomorrow at school. It could be a very bad Tuesday.
He needed help.
And one minute later, help actually arrived…like a plot twist in a novel.
“Luke, I’m serious! It’s none of your business—leave!”
Luke pushed past him. He went and sat on the end of Alec’s bed and folded his arms—very calm, very stubborn.
“I heard how that girl yelled at you before I could hang up the phone, and I heard a little of what she said, and I’m your brother, and I want to help.”
“Get out!”
“No.”
Luke sat perfectly still, staring at Alec with large blue eyes.
Alec groaned, then closed his bedroom door.
“Look,” he said, “it’s complicated, okay? It’s nice that you want to help, but you wouldn’t understand any of this.”
Luke looked at him, and with his best Yoda voice, he said, “Worried you are.”
“That’s it—OUT!”
“Sorry, sorry,” Luke said quickly, “I won’t do that again, I promise.” He took a breath, then said, “That girl’s mad at you—why?”
“Because I was mean to a kid who showed up at our reading table.”
Luke said, “You mean, the Losers Club?”
“Right…wait—how did you know that?”
Luke stared at him. “E
veryone in the whole school knows about the Losers Club. It’s a very catchy name. Almost every day, two or three caveman types come up to me and say, ‘Hi, Little Loser’—which means that you’re ‘Big Loser.’ ”
“Oh…wow,” Alec said. “Sorry you’re getting teased because of me.”
Luke shrugged. “Neanderthals—you have to learn to ignore them.” Shifting back, Luke said, “Okay, you were mean to this kid. Then what?”
“Well,” Alec said, “this girl, she got all—”
Luke interrupted, “Is this that girl you like—Nina?”
“What?!” Alec stared at his little brother, who was looking more like Yoda every second.
Alec was suddenly terrified. Because if his geeky little third-grade brother knew he liked Nina…and Kent sort of knew…and Nina herself sort of knew—did this mean that everybody knew?
Alec spoke slowly. “So, like, do you think Mom knows about Nina?”
Luke nodded. “We’ve talked about it. She’s concerned, but she says it’s a very normal thing.”
Alec stumbled over and sat on the bed next to Luke. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, covering his face with both hands. “This is awful!”
Luke tilted his head. “Because of how you feel, or because everybody knows how you feel?”
“Both,” he moaned, his voice muffled by his hands.
“Well,” Luke said, “it could be worse.”
Alec turned his head sideways and sneered, “Oh, great. So tell me, Yoda—how could that even be possible?”
Luke slid right into character. “Simple it is, young master. Worse would it be if care for you she did not. Yet, call she did, so care she does.”
Alec couldn’t help grinning—for at least three reasons.
First, Luke’s owly blue eyes looked so much like Yoda’s that it was freaky.
Second, his performance had been flawless, a perfect impersonation.
But most of all, his strange little brother was right. Nina wouldn’t have called and yelled at him unless she really did care.
Luke stood up abruptly. “You’re better, and I’ve got stuff to do.”
Alec was still smiling. “Thanks.”
Luke gave him a slow-blinking Yoda nod. “Welcome you are.”
As Alec walked into first-period music class on Tuesday morning, Kent grabbed his arm and pulled him over next to the instruments cabinet.
Kent said, “How come you told Nina I got that warrior princess thing from you?”
Alec recalled how his little brother had mentioned Neanderthals—this seemed like a totally Stone Age question. So Alec said, “Because you did. And just in case you haven’t heard yet, taking someone else’s idea and pretending it’s your own? Here in the twenty-first century, we call that stealing.”
Luke had forgotten to remind Alec that Neanderthals are not famous for having a sense of humor. Plus, their descendants are sometimes taller. With big muscles.
Suddenly remembering exactly what Luke had said to him, Alec realized that looking a Neanderthal in the eye and calling him a thief is not the same as ignoring him.
Kent’s upper lip curled back from his teeth, and he leaned in so close that Alec was pretty sure he smelled Froot Loops.
Still holding Alec’s arm, Kent snarled, “Starting right now, I don’t want you to think about Nina, or talk to Nina, or look at Nina, even if she’s sitting right across from you at that stupid club table—you got that, loser?”
It was the way Kent’s lip curled back from his teeth—Alec instantly thought of Spitz from The Call of the Wild. Spitz was a sled dog—half wolf, half husky. And in the story, Spitz battled Buck, the other big dog, and blood spattered the snow.
But this wasn’t the Klondike in the 1890s. This was the music room on a Tuesday morning.
Alec yanked his arm free, and instead of snarling back, he spoke calmly. “You’re not the boss of me—and you’re not the boss of Nina either!”
Kent glowered, but at that split second when glares could have turned into punches, Ms. Dunbridge clapped her hands and silenced the room.
“Places, everyone, places! Sopranos and altos to the left, tenors and baritones spread out on the right. Quickly now, quickly!”
Alec was in no mood to sing, but he went to his assigned spot on the risers. With him being a tenor and Kent being a baritone, the distance between them was a help.
Fifty-five minutes of happy little songs? Also a help.
As the period ended, Alec was feeling pretty good about how he’d shaken off Kent’s grip, how he’d stood up to the bullying.
However, as he left the music room to head for math, Alec glanced over his shoulder to check the hallway.
Kent was standing there, just outside the music room, staring straight at him. And the look on Kent’s face?
It was still Spitz, the wolf-dog.
When Alec got to the club table Tuesday afternoon, Lily was already there, and so was the new kid, Jason. Nina was across the gym, talking with Kent—but after what she’d said about him on the phone last night, that didn’t bother Alec at all.
Jason was working hard at reading, eyes glued to his book. The scared look on his face made Alec feel ashamed and very stupid. Because this kid? Him showing up like that yesterday wasn’t his fault. He was just a weapon, an anger grenade that Kent had tossed across the gym. And Alec saw how he had totally fallen for the trick—he had grabbed the grenade and blown himself up.
“Hey…Jason?” he said, trying to use his friendliest voice.
The kid looked like he thought Alec might jump up and come rip his arms off.
“Listen,” Alec said, “I was acting like a jerk yesterday. I don’t care who sent you or why—I’m glad you’re here.”
Jason smiled cautiously and whispered, “Um, good—me too.”
Alec smiled back. “And you don’t have to whisper.”
The boy still seemed uncomfortable, so Alec asked him the question he had wanted to yesterday. “You said you’re in fourth grade—so, have you read Because of Winn-Dixie?”
Jason’s face opened up into a broad smile. “Yeah, I loved that book!”
“And have you gotten into the Big Nate series?”
Jason nodded. “Yup, I’ve read just about all of them—so funny!”
For the next few minutes, the two of them talked about the books they liked, about the ones they kept reading again and again, and also about the books that they’d finished only because they’d had to—and Alec remembered to ask him if he could borrow his copy of A Long Walk to Water.
It turned out they had a lot in common as readers—especially in the action-and-adventure books department. Jason was crazy about The Call of the Wild, just like he was. Plus, he talked about another book Alec had never heard of, Under the Blood-Red Sun, and now he couldn’t wait to read it.
Jason said, “That book you had yesterday, Hatchet? I’ve seen it around school a lot, but I haven’t read it yet. Is it any good?”
“Is it good?” Alec said. “It’s one of the best—really, you have to read it! In fact…here.” He pulled the book out of his backpack and slid it down the table. “You should start it now.”
Jason was startled. “Really? Like, right now?”
“Really,” Alec said, and then he smiled. “It’ll be your initiation into the club. And if you don’t completely love it? Then I’ll owe you an ice cream sandwich!”
“Awesome!” Jason smiled and opened the book.
Lily had been carefully minding her own business, but now she looked across the table at Jason and said, “See? I told you he was nice!”
And with a happy last look at Alec, Lily went back to reading.
Alec glanced toward the kickball corner again, and Nina was still there, still with Kent—but it wasn’t friendly now. They were almost nose to nose, and it looked tense. Then Nina turned her back on Kent and headed straight across the gym toward the Losers Club.
Alec quickly looked away and reached for his bag o
f Cheetos. He didn’t want Nina to think he’d been spying on her.
She sat down and pressed both her hands flat on the table, staring straight ahead at the wall. Alec could tell she was breathing hard, upset.
It took her a few minutes to calm down. Then she shrugged off her backpack, pulled out a juice box, and drained it in about five seconds.
She looked at Jason, then gave Alec a puzzled look.
Alec whispered, “I apologized. And now he’s reading Hatchet—for the first time.”
As he said that, he had a quick moment like the one he’d had after Lily had come, feeling proud of the way he had stepped up and acted like a big brother for Jason, too—even though he had done it one day late.
Nina whispered, “I’ll keep quiet!”
She started to read, but Alec could tell she was still angry. He ripped half a sheet of paper from a notebook and wrote, You want to talk, maybe walk over to the drinking fountain or something?
He felt scared and almost tore it up…but he wanted to find out what had happened.
He folded the paper twice and tossed it down the table so it hit Nina’s arm. She jumped a little, looked his way, then opened the note. She nodded at him, and they both got up and headed in the direction of the storage closet.
They walked past the other club tables, turned the corner by the closet, and went on toward the water fountain. Nina didn’t say anything.
Asking if she wanted to talk had seemed like a good idea, but now Alec’s hands began to sweat. He felt like he had to say something, so he said, “Look, I…I’m not trying to butt in or anything…and if you don’t want—”
“No,” she said, “this is good…and it’s not much, really. On the way into the gym, I stopped to tell Kent that I didn’t want to hang out with him every single day—’cause now it’s like he expects me to stop and talk, and he still comes over a lot to play basketball, too. So after I said that, he got mad and said, ‘Well, guess what—I’m all done with you anyway, you and your stupid bookworm friends!’ And then he said he was glad he didn’t have to pretend that I was good at sports anymore, because I’m not, and he didn’t know why he ever thought I was cool in the first place.”