Gimme a Call (25 page)

I call Maya as I’m walking through the mall. I want to make sure she knows I got into Harvard. Can’t criticize me when I’m at the number one school, can she?

“Hello there, brainiac,” she says as soon as she picks up.

I guess she knows. “Hi,” I say smugly. “How are you?”

“Great! Packing. I can’t believe I’m off to Europe in two weeks!”

“I’m sure you’ll have a terrific time,” I tell her.

“Sure you don’t want to come with me? I don’t know why you have to take summer courses to get ahead. Wouldn’t you rather take some time off?”

First of all, summer courses? Seriously? And second, she’s still criticizing me? I got into the top school and now she’s telling me I work too hard? “I don’t need time off,” I snap.

“You sure? You sound like you do. We’d have so much fun! Lots of pizza in Italy you could eat upside down.”

“I can’t. I have too much to do.”

“A little fun wouldn’t kill you,” she says. “A European boyfriend maybe … You’ve worked your butt off for four years and you deserve a break! A little romance! Balance in your life is healthy.”

I’m starting to regret having called her in the first place. This is why I stopped wanting to talk to her when she went away to school. Back then she kept telling me that I spent too much time with Bryan. I didn’t want to hear it, so I stopped calling her back. I stopped telling her everything. I told Bryan my secrets instead. He took me under his wing. Why did I always need to be under someone’s wing?

I shake my head. I can’t believe now she’s telling me I spend too much time working. She should make up her mind already.

“I have to go,” I tell her when I reach MediaZone.

“Devi—”

“I’ll speak to you next week, okay? Bye.” I hang up before she can say anything else. A European boyfriend! I can’t believe Maya is telling me I need to find a boyfriend! When have I ever had a problem dating guys?

Although I am going stag to prom.

Whatever. I walk over to the clerk at the front desk, put my phone on the counter, and explain my charging problem.

He nods for a while, then opens a new lithium battery and puts it in. “Hmmm. This doesn’t seem to work,” he says. “That’s odd.”

“Tell me about it.”

He picks up the phone and studies it from different angles. “I’ll be right back.” Five minutes later, he returns with a rectangular box. “Here you go,” he says with a big grin.

“You fixed it?” I ask hopefully.

“Even better,” he says. “Since you’ve had the phone for over two years, you’re eligible for a new one.”

I throw the box back across the counter. “I don’t want a new phone! I want my old one.”

He blinks repeatedly and hands me back the box. “But this one has Bluetooth. And a navigator.”

“I don’t care.” I shove the box back over to him. “I need
my
phone.”

“But it doesn’t work.”

“So make it work!”

“I can’t.” He shrugs. “Sorry.”

He returns my original, Bluetoothless, navigationless, battery-deficient phone. There’s only a half bar left. Now what?

chapter thirty-eight
Wednesday, September 21
Freshman Year

I stop by the peer tutoring office before leaving school.

“Ms. Fungas sent me,” I tell the guidance counselor. I feel ridiculous saying her name out loud. “I’m supposed to sign up to tutor American history.”

She waves me in. “Outstanding! You can start right now. A student popped by at lunch asking for help. I told him to check back after class in case we could accommodate him.”

What? “Today?” I wasn’t expecting to have to start
now
. Sure, I paid extra attention when Fungas reviewed and explained the answers today, but it’s not like I know them by heart.

She gives me a thumbs-up. “Isn’t that great?”

The back of my neck starts to tingle. “But, um, I don’t even know what I’m doing.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine, dear, or Ms. Fungas wouldn’t have sent you. It’s just another freshman. He’s in Ms. Fungas’s other class and wants to review his last quiz.”

“Oh, I don’t think I can do it. I’m so sorry, but—”

“Here he is,” the guidance counselor says.

I turn around.

Bryan.

He smiles at me. My entire body flushes.

“So, Devi, what do you think?” the counselor asks. “Are you up for it?”

“Yes,” I say without missing a beat. “I’m up for it.” Maybe Ivy doesn’t have to know.

“Hello?”

“Oh. My. God!” she screams.

“Omigod what?” I ask, glancing at Bryan. Oh, no. She’s going to kill me. I push back my chair. “He was just—”

“We did it! We’re going to Harvard with a full scholarship!”

“We what?”

“It worked! The peer tutoring! Full scholarship! To Harvard!”

“Really?” I squeak.

“Yes! That peer tutoring totally worked! Wahoo!”

“Awesome! But I have to go. I’m here right now. Tutoring.” I hesitate. “Nothing else has changed, right?”

“No. Why would it have? The letters from Harvard are here. Pictures of my friends are here. Nothing’s changed. Besides the scholarship. Wait, who were you talking about before? ‘He’ who?”

“No one,” I say quickly. “The head of peer tutoring. He wasn’t sure if I’d be good at this.”

“Obviously you are. ’Cause we are in! And—”

Ivy continues rambling about Harvard this, Harvard that, but instead of listening, I’m staring at Bryan.

Sweet Bryan. Funny Bryan. Dimpled Bryan. “I really have to go,” I tell her again.

“Right,” she says. “Have fun. Sorry for interrupting. I’ll call you later.”

I hang up and turn the phone off. “Sorry about that,” I tell him.

Bryan is sitting across from me in one of the tutoring rooms, looking as adorable as always. I know I should have told Ivy who I was helping, but if it doesn’t change anything in the future, then it doesn’t really matter, right? If I had somehow gotten us back together, she would have noticed. Yeah. She definitely would have. The pictures would be all about Bryan again.

It’s not like we’re making out or anything. Not yet. Ha. Kidding. I’ve been helping him with the quiz. He forgot his, so I’ve been using mine as a springboard to explain the concepts. It’s kind of fun, actually. Who knew? I can teach! You don’t really have to remember all the details when you’re explaining it. It’s mostly about understanding what happened and why. Cause and effect, something I’m an expert on these days.

Cause: I didn’t say no to tutoring Bryan, and now he’s only a foot away from me. Smelling very yummy, like buttery popcorn.

Effect: every time I inhale, it feels like kernels are popping throughout my entire body, from my stomach to my toes. In a good way.

“So, how is Ivan?” he asks.

The name startles me, but then I remember that I told him that was my boyfriend’s name. “He’s good.”

“So what else have you been up to?” he asks. “Besides continuing to have a boyfriend.”

“Oh, you know.” I shrug. “This and that.”

“You seem really busy all the time. Stressed.”

“I am,” I admit.

“So spill,” he says, reaching across the table and putting his hand on my elbow. “What’s weighing you down?”

Pop, pop, pop!
His hand is on my arm! He’s touching me! Must remain calm. It’s not like it matters. It doesn’t matter. I can’t like him. I’m not allowed. He’s no good for me. I pull back so his fingers fall to the table. “I’m under a lot of pressure,” I say.

“What pressure?” He clasps his hands together above the table.

I wish he were still touching me. “Well, for one, the pressure to get into a good college.”

He tilts his head to the side. “College? You’re worried about college already? In the first month of high school?”

I bite my lip. “When you say it like that, it does seem kind of early.”

“Are you planning your college courses too? What about your job after college? Are you putting money into your retirement fund?”

I laugh. “What, you don’t worry about the future?” He shrugs. “I worry about the present. I try to enjoy, you know? The day. The sun. My bench.”

I giggle. “You love that bench of yours, huh?”

“Why, yes, I do. I’d be happy to share it with you, if you’d like to check it out.” “Why, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. It encourages relaxation.”

“I could use some relaxation,” I say. “I’m just so nervous about messing anything up.”

“You just need to chill,” he says. “And maybe more sleep?”

I twist a lock of my hair. “Am I looking tired?”

He flushes. “I didn’t mean that you don’t look good. You look great. You always do.”

Pop, pop, pop!

“You just seem overburdened,” he adds.

I am overburdened! “It’s all the extracurriculars. I’m taking on too many.”

He shrugs. “So drop some. Which do you hate?”

“All of them. No, that’s not true. I like organizing the memories and photos in yearbook. But being in
Beauty and the Beast
kind of sucks. It takes a lot of time and I don’t even have any lines.”

He laughs. “I think you’ll make a very cute tree.”

“Thanks. But I’m actually a chair in the Beast’s mansion. Mostly I just sit there and … well, act like furniture.”

“I’m sure you’ll make a cute chair. Though I hope no one sits on you. But I’m also sure they could find a replacement chair if they needed to.”

“I know, but if I drop the play, then Tash will drop it, and it’s really good for her, so I can’t. Plus, I signed up for Interact, which I can’t drop, because who drops their volunteer work? That would just make me a bad person. Oh, and there’s golf.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You play golf?”

“No. But I’m starting a girls’ team.”

“Why do you want to start a team when you don’t even play?”

“My dad plays. Kind of …” I stop talking before it gets too confusing. “So you see, there’s nothing I can drop. Besides, all the activities will help my college applications.” I press my lips together. Enough about me and my boring college obsessions.

When did I get so boring? When did I forget to enjoy the bench? And those who sit on it.

“What about you? Are you doing any activities? I saw you trying out for baseball.”

“You did, did you?”

I blush.

“Then you saw my spectacularly awful performance. I didn’t make it. But I’ve been playing with some friends in town, so it’s no big deal. Oh, and I’ve been thinking of taking up the drums. I kind of suck at the moment, but I’m having fun.”

“Good for you. You’re very well rounded. Colleges will love you.” Great, there I go again.

“I haven’t given college quite as much thought as you have,” he says with a smile. “Although my dad would love it if I went to school in Montreal. That’s where he lives.”

“Does Montreal have good schools?”

“Definitely. McGill and Concordia are there. And I always have fun when I go back. That’s where I was born.”

I lean my chin into my palm. “Really? So now you live here with just your mom? Or is she remarried?”

“Just my mom.”

“When did you move here?” I suddenly have a lot of questions for adorable Bryan. I want to know all about him.

“After I finished grade six—or sixth grade, as they say here. When my mom and dad split, my mom decided to come here with me.”

“I bet with a name like Florence, you expected this place to be a little more glamorous. Like they’d serve gelato and fresh mozzarella in the cafeteria.”

He laughs. “I guess.”

“Do you get to see your dad?”

He shrugs. “He’s remarried now, has a new baby.”

“So that’s a no?”

“I go up about once a year.”

I shake my head. “I can’t imagine only seeing my dad once a year.”

“Long distance sucks, no?”

“No?”

He laughs. “It’s a Montreal thing.”

Ivy does it too. I guess she got it from Bryan. I wonder what else she learned from him.

“So, do you find the long distance with Ivan tough?” he asks. “I don’t think I could ever do a long-distance relationship.”

“It can be difficult,” I say. I don’t want to talk about my imaginary boyfriend. “But I do know how it feels to miss your dad. My dad’s a workaholic, so we don’t spend too much time together.”