THIRTEEN
Poppy
Another week passes and I enter the newspaper room where The Gazette is basically run. It’s a large room in one of the buildings on campus that’s filled with desks. Elijah is sitting at his desk when I walk in.
“How goes it, freshman?” he asks me as I pass his desk.
I pause and back track. “Well. Thank you.”
“Okay, Buttercup, tell me how the story on the hockey player is going. You got some interesting goods?” he asks, twiddling a pen between his fingers. Elijah is an interesting character, that’s for sure. I don’t know what his career goals are but I don’t see him as an anchor or reporter.
I’m about to lie through my teeth when Bonnie enters the newsroom. Just great. She had competed for a spot on The Gazette as a sophomore. There was another girl named Kristen who got the spot while Vi and I got the only two freshmen spots. At least I wasn’t Bonnie’s competition because that would have been awkward since we are roommates.
“Hi there,” she says to me. She has a satchel slung over her shoulder. Her blonde hair is blown perfectly straight. She has on a pair of tight jeans and a sweater but she looks like she just stepped out of a catalog. “I thought we could get lunch.”
“Oh good. Because I thought you may have been confused about having a position here,” Elijah says, even though she wasn’t talking to him.
Bonnie flinches and so do I. Elijah is a class A jerk, but I keep my mouth shut.
“I actually need to get some work done,” I say to Bonnie, feeling my lips turn down. I feel terrible for her. “Rain check?”
“Definitely,” she says clearly forcing a smile. She swallows hard and her gaze casts to the floor.
Elijah clears his throat. “Are you going to update me on the hockey player?” Crap. Why does he have to ask me about him in front of Bonnie? This is so awkward.
“Oh yeah. . .um. . . I’ve been to a game, getting to know him,” I mutter because things are going crappy on the collecting information front with Declan.
“She kis. . .” Bonnie blurts but mid-word I step on her foot and stare at her wide eyed.
“You what?” Elijah asks eyes round and intrigued. “You kissed the hockey player?”
I grind my jaw and rack my brain for a good comeback. “I didn’t kiss him, I k-kicked a ball around with him,” I mutter because it’s the closest word to kiss I can come up with. “It was nothing, we were hanging out and we just played soccer on his front lawn,” I say. Holy shit, that sounded bad. He’s a hockey player not a soccer player.
Elijah’s lips curve and press together. He doesn’t look impressed in the least.
“Look, freshie,” he says and I don’t know why he doesn’t call me by my name. “This is a huge story and a big responsibility for you. Don’t let me down. I expect to see some notes by next week.”
“Yes, of course,” I mumble. “I’ll have some awesome notes for you by then.” I cringe at my use of the word awesome for collecting information on a subject. Then I cringe again for thinking of Declan as a subject because he has become so much more. I haven’t really bonded with anyone at school, except for Bonnie, and it feels different than with Declan.
I look over at Bonnie, who is witnessing this embarrassing scene. She just stands there quietly and smiles sweetly. “It was nice to see you again, Elijah,” she says with a saccharine tone before turning to me. “I guess we’ll catch up later?”
“Yes,” I answer, and Elijah just waves at her weirdly and scrunches his face. I really don’t understand him, but he is the editor so that explains it all. I have to be on his good side because one day I’m hoping it will be me at his desk.
Bonnie leaves and I head over to my desk and crack open my laptop. I can’t believe she was about to blurt the fact that I kissed Declan to Elijah. She knows I’m writing the Spotlight. That could have compromised my ability to write the story. As a journalism major she knows that, so what was her angle? Did I somehow upset her? Get on her bad side? I shake it off figuring I’ll catch up with her later.
I refocus on the job at hand. What can I write about you, Declan? You’ve basically blocked me from talking about anything of interest to the student population here. Instead of working on Declan’s story, I move on to the food options on campus story. I begin by talking about Cinnaholic, a fresh cinnamon bun stand in the main hall of the Student Center. I begin with sometimes great things come in small packages. When I look up from my laptop to take a break, Vi is watching me. Her right brow is cocked as if she’s challenging me. I’ve heard The Gazette is a cutthroat environment with all the journalism students fighting for a spot on the paper, and eventually the role of editor. I just didn’t think it would be this competitive. Since I don’t know how to respond to her I just smile sweetly, and this seems to tick her off more because her eyes narrow on me and she glares at me before returning to her own work.
I don’t want to show her she’s frazzled me so I shrug and get back to work, but inside I have an icky feeling in my stomach. I don’t know what I thought would happen when I came to Westfall. A part of me hoped I’d finally make some good friends who are genuine, but that clearly hasn’t happened. I mean I met Declan, who is as real as it gets, but he gives me major butterflies and I’ve met Bonnie, who can be sweet, but something isn’t clicking between us. I feel let down but maybe I set my expectations too high. There’s only been a few weeks of classes. Patience is what I need.
I finish writing the food story and email it to Elijah. I watch him as he receives my email and opens it. As he reads my story his head moves from side to side. His eyebrows raise and lower and his lips turn down in an arch that doesn’t necessarily look like a frown but more like he is impressed.
“Good work, McGuire,” he calls across the room.
That little compliment boosts my mood. “Thanks, Elijah.” I smile.
Across from me Vi coughs into her hand and I swear I think she said suck-up into her hand. I try to brush it off. This is what I need to get used to. I’ve heard real newsrooms can be a highly competitive environment so I need to grow a tough shell.
After my classes, I’m about to leave Mackee Hall to walk to my dorm when a tall girl with brown hair waves at me. I’m walking toward her and it takes me a minute to realize it’s Holland, Declan’s friend from the other night. Showing up at her house was super awkward. I don’t know what Declan was thinking when he gave me someone else’s address but I couldn’t not show up. Not with the Spotlight on the line.
I wave back and as I get closer she says, “Hi.”
“Hi,” I greet back.
“How are your classes going?” she asks. She’s a really pretty girl and she seems so down-to-earth.
“They’re pretty good. I can’t complain.” I shrug.
“Cool.” She nods. “So the funniest thing happened. Ryse came over and he mentioned his sister being at Westfall, only he didn’t say his sister at first, he just said that he needed to leave our house because he had to go meet Poppy,” she begins and my heart sinks. “So I said to Ryse, ‘Oh nice, you’re seeing a girl named Poppy.’ and he says noooo like he just got a bad case of the runs or something,” she laughs. “He really put a big emphasis on the letter O, too.” I try not to stop my eyes from making a deer in the headlights look. “Then he was like, ‘Poppy’s my sister’ and I was like, ‘Oh wow, that makes sense, and what a small world because she was just over the other night with Declan.’”