As usual, Karyn’s sharp mind started firing off questions. “The new kid with the dreamy blue eyes? Everyone’s been trying to flirt with him, but he always acts like they don’t exist.”
“He’s not stuck up. He’s shy. But anyway, the two of us were alone in the hall and talked for at least five minutes.”
“No way.”
“Way.” And, for the record, Jeremy absolutely did have dreamy blue eyes. Not that she’d ever admit it to him.
“Well, tell me everything. Who spoke first? What did he say? What did you say back? How was talking to him? Was it awkward? Easy?”
She glanced at Mr. Hernandez again. He was still talking to the same students. As the clock ticked away, everyone else started talking quietly too. Satisfied that nobody was eavesdropping, Bethany continued. “Jeremy was walking out of the office and I was walking toward the bathroom. We met in the hall . . .”
“Well . . . what happened?”
“He said hey and I said hi and then we just kind of stood there for a minute. And then, at last, we started talking.”
“About what?” Karyn’s voice was impatient and it had risen a tiny bit.
Bethany knew right then and there that she wasn’t going to reveal Jeremy’s secret. She didn’t think it was bad to be a foster kid, but she realized that he kind of did. She didn’t want him to think she was gossiping about him either. “Nothing special,” she said at last. “We just kind of started talking about stuff.”
Karyn looked unimpressed. “Did he ask for your number?”
“No.”
“So even though you got to talk to him, it wasn’t about anything special.”
No, she kind of thought it was. Still determined not to actually come out and share Jeremy’s secret, Bethany lifted her chin. “What did you expect? We hardly know each other.”
“I guess that’s true. Too bad he didn’t want your number though.”
Bethany was kind of starting to think that too. But pushing that disappointment to one side, she added, “I promise, it was a good conversation. Really good. I understand him a little better now. I actually think he’s kind of shy.”
Karyn still looked unimpressed. “He better ask you to the Christmas dance soon or someone else is going to.”
“I don’t know about that.” It wasn’t like she was the most popular girl around or anything.
“Bethany, give yourself some credit. You’re going to get asked by someone in our group.”
Put that way, Karyn was probably right. They were part of a pretty big group of friends. Though some of the guys and girls were paired off, most of them weren’t. That meant that even though she wasn’t tight with any particular guy, there was a good chance one of them would ask her to the dance. In fact, she’d overheard some of the guys talking about that during their lunch the other day. One of them had pretty much said that he’d rather take a girl in their group to the Christmas dance than someone out of it.
Until she’d met Jeremy, she’d thought the same thing.
“The dance isn’t until right before Christmas. Jeremy has time to ask me.” That is if he wanted to ask her.
“Not that much time.”
Karyn had a point. Pretty soon, all the guys were going to start choosing their dates. And once that began, the girls would start freaking out if they hadn’t been asked.
Things would get weird as gossip and rumors went crazy.
Eventually, even the more reluctant boys would start asking someone so they wouldn’t have to deal with the pressure anymore.
Days later, the rest of the popular, more vocal girls would get snapped up, and girls like her would be left to either go with friends or stay home and pretend they were glad they weren’t spending hundreds of dollars on a dress, shoes, and a mani-pedi.
None of that had started yet, but that didn’t mean she had much to entice Jeremy to ask her. “He might have someone else in mind. Or, he might not even want to go.”
“Of course he will.” Looking alarmed, Karyn leaned closer. “Hey, you kind of look like you’re gonna cry if he doesn’t ask you. He will. And, like I said, someone is going to.”
When she noticed that the girls in front of them were looking at her again, Bethany shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s just drop it, okay?”
Karyn raised her eyebrows. “Okay, if that’s what you want.”
“It is.” After opening up her textbook, she leaned back in her chair. When Mr. Hernandez started talking, she even tried to care about what he was teaching.
But as the minutes passed, she knew conjugating verbs in Spanish was a lost cause. Her mind drifted back to Jeremy’s secret.
Bethany made a mental note to try to figure out what it meant if someone was a foster kid. Did they even get to stay in the same house for very long?
Or did they even get to do things like date and go to dances? She might be preparing for disappointment no matter what.
She was still thinking about him when she got out of class and headed to her locker. And after lunch, when she was walking toward choir, there he was. Jeremy was standing with about five other people near the front door.
Even though she knew it was stupid, she was pretty sure her heart started to race.
When he saw her, he smiled.
Pulling herself together, she strode forward. “Hi, Jeremy. What are you doing?”
“Waiting for Mr. Glover. He drives us to the elementary school today. I help out in their library a couple of times a month.”
“I almost signed up to do that. Do you like it?”
“Yeah. It’s easy. All the librarian usually makes me do is shelve books. Plus, the kids are kind of cute.”
“I bet they are.”
Adjusting his backpack on his shoulders, he spoke again. “It’s too bad you didn’t end up doing your hours there. We could have gone together.”
“I wish.” When his eyebrows rose, she hastened to explain. “I mean that would have been fun, but I didn’t have room in my schedule this semester. I’m on my way to choir now.”
He grimaced. “I’d rather shelve books than do that. I can’t sing a note.”
“I can sing, but my voice isn’t anything special. I’d rather dance.”
“Dance?”
“Yeah. I’ve been taking ballet forever.”
“That’s cool. Can you get on your toes and everything?”