"C'mon, Jordan," Alanis urged, poking me. "We don't want to miss our bus."
"Oh. I just remembered." Great-aunt Frances said, dipping into her housecoat pocket. "Here's your lunch money again. I hope this is enough for the both of you." She handed me a twenty- dollar bill.
"Oh, it's perfect," Alanis said.
I hesitated to take it but saw if I didn't. Alanis would, Once I had, she practically tugged me to the door.
"Bye. See you later. Miss Wilkens."
"Have a nice day. girls," Great-aunt Frances called back.
"You almost gave us away in there." Alanis complained. "Stop looking so guilty all the time. We're not doing anything so terrible. This money and what we have is important. We'll have to give Chad some for gas,"
"What if she asks your grandfather if he said yes to your going tomorrow?"
"She won't, and even if she does. I'll tell him she got confused over something else we're doing. You're just a bundle of worry." she said.
Your're just a bundle of lies, I thought.
When the bus pulled up and we stepped on. I saw immediately that Stuart Gavin was nowhere in sight. Alanis was curious about it as well and found out from another student, one who lived next to him, that his uncle had died and Stuart and his family had gone to be with the uncle's family for the funeral.
"And I was so prepared to pick on him again." Alanis said.
We parted as soon as we e
ntered the school building because she saw Chad down the hall and went after him.
"Worry not." she threw back at me as she walked off. "He's wrapped around my finger.'
She stepped right beside him and put her arm through his. He paused, smiled and walked on. She glanced back once with an "I told you so" expression.
Alanis sure does know a of about boys, I thought. In her way she was as smart as Ian when it came to sex. I hurried on to my classroom. Maybe it was because I had begun hanging around in school with Alanis and her girlfriends, or maybe it was just because of what I looked like, but still none of the other girls in my class showed any interest in becoming my friend. Would I always feel like so much of an outsider?
Mrs. Morgan didn't collect the homework this time, but she called on us to read our answers aloud, and it seemed to me that she called on me more than anyone else in the class. Some of my answers were very good, but she poked holes in others. Then she announced grades on yesterday's work. She didn't care about everyone knowing everyone else's marks. I wasn't the lowest she gave. but I was barely
acceptable. Although I knew she knew I had not been left back Or was too old for my class, she treated me as if I had been. I could see it in the satisfied faces of the other students who looked at me.
Later, at lunch. Alanis sat with Chad. Nikki and Raspberry were annoyed.
"I thought she was giving him his walking papers," Nikki told inc. "Why is she back with him?"
I closed my eyes for a moment and tried to do what Alanis taught me, pretend I believed what I was about to say.
"I don't know," I said.
I still wasn't good at it. They both looked at me suspiciously.
"I called her house last night and her grandfather said she was still staying over at your great-aunt's house with vou. You two have a party in the basement with Chad and someone else?" Raspberry asked me. "I bet you kept all the alcopops and didn't throw any of it out. huh?"
"No."
"Don't go lying to us. girl," Nikki said.
"I'm not. We didn't have a party. Didn't you ask her?"
"Yeah, we asked her," Raspberry said, glaring at Alanis. "We know enough to know you can't believe Alanis or trust her. She's acting pretty secretive. too. She got something planned and we bet you know what it is."
"I thought she was your best friend," I said.