A Girl Between (6 page)

Before I knew it, the weekend was over and we were on our
way to school on Monday.  I wasn’t looking forward to being gaped at today.  Annie
and Eve weren't doing too badly because they spent some time with Rainy on the
weekend and met some other kids at the game.  That probably would have been a more
productive use of my time, but what are you gonna do?

Rainy and another girl met us as we got off the bus in front
of the school.  She walked right up to me and announced, "Hi, I'm Karen.
You must be Annie and Eve’s cousin."  I started to respond when she got a
second look at my face.  Her mouth flew open and she blurted out, "You're
the one that got Tonya!"

OK, here we go again.  "Yep, that's me,
unfortunately."

"Why would you say that?  You were great!  I was just
coming out of class when the action started.  You know, Tonya's always
bothering Mercy, and Mercy just isn't the fighting type.  I don't know why she
hates her so much.  I felt like doing something but I'm a big fat chicken, plus,
Tonya scares the wits out of me."

Oh, great.  Tonya scares her, too.  "Yeah, I'm
beginning to wonder if I didn't make a big mistake," I remarked with a
rueful smile.

"Just stay away from Tonya and her friends and you'll
be fine," she asserted with a friendly grin.  Oh great, I was thinking,
just stay away from her.  That sounds easy, considering I didn’t know the
school or who any of her friends are, nor do I have any friends that can help
me.

We turned the corner and entered the walkway when, lo and
behold, there was Tonya just a few feet away with a group of people.  My heart
skipped a beat.  Rainy said under her breath, "Don't look now, but speak
of the devil."  So, of course, I had to look.  There were two guys and
three girls with Tonya.  They didn't look like nasty aliens or anything, but I
felt bad vibes just being near them.  I couldn't put my finger on it.  It
wasn’t like they were giving me the evil eye.  They didn’t even notice me.  I
couldn’t see any sign of their auras at all.  I would venture a guess that it
was because I couldn’t see enough of them.  That’s probably a good thing.  Even
though Tonya's face was turned away from me, I could tell she was animated
about something.  She’s the type to broadcast her feelings to everyone within
earshot.  We slunk past before she had a chance to notice us.

Once we got into the building I said to Annie and Eve,
"By the way, don't wait for me after school.  I decided that I'll be going
to the Robotics club meeting today."

Eve looked surprised.  "Robotics!  What are you doing
that for?  Talk about meeting a bunch of geeks. "

I coolly responded, "Actually, I did learn something
from working on all those cars with Frank.  I learned that I really like
putting mechanical things together.  Plus, I don't mind geeks."

“Suite yourself, Tessie.  You always were one to go your own
way.  Bet you’ll be the only girl there," Annie remarked as she waved me
away.

Everything went pretty smoothly for most of the day.  I
noticed people looking at me out of the corner of my eye, but I just ignored
them.  A number of people actually smiled at me.  Maybe they were enemies of “you
know who”.  I was friendly with someone in my Algebra II class so I had lunch
with her and her friends.

All of a sudden, Tonya was in front of me.  I could feel the
blood rush to my face because I was so nervous, but I just stayed behind her until
I got into class and she never saw me.  You can’t miss Tonya because she’s a
loud, tight dresser with major blond hair.  I was thinking that if enough time
goes by before I bump into her again, she may forget about me.  After all, I’m
not loud, or tight.

Last period was my gym class; not my favorite.  We were
playing volleyball today and because I’m a short person I’ve always hated
volleyball.  Short people are at a distinct disadvantage.  Tall people always
have to lord it over us in volleyball.  It makes me feel so ineffectual.  What’s
their point?  We know they’re tall.  I try to just let it go, but sometimes it
really pisses me off.  My game doesn't improve when I get pissed off.

Here we go.  One of Tonya's male friends was in this class.  I
saw him this morning hanging around her.  He wasn’t a bad looking guy but
something about him exudes creep.  The creep, Jimmy, turned out to be a pretty
good player.  He was tall and aggressive, basically smashing back any ball
within a six foot radius.  Unfortunately, he was opposite a skinny, geeky
looking guy so, you can picture the scenario.  Jimmy kept on smashing the ball
right on the little guy's head.  You could tell he was whamming it with all of
his might for kicks.  Then, he would let out a loud guffaw like it was a big
joke.  I didn't care about the score, but did he have to be such a jerk?  He was
even making the other tall kids uncomfortable.

Finally, a guy from the back pushed the skinny kid aside and
got the ball back over and we got to serve.  Everyone took a turn and the team
gradually shifted around, so here we were again at the same deadly lineup!  Bully
Boy started hammering on the geek again.  Where was that guy with the fat head,
the teacher?  Couldn’t he blow his whistle or something?

By now, I knew the poor kid's name was Nathan.  Someone
yelled, "Come on, Nathan. Don't just stand there.  What's wrong with you?  Hit
the ball."  Nathan couldn’t help it.  He just wasn't too coordinated.  He
was trying but when there was a big dope that's twice your size hammering at
you it's tough.  It wasn’t exactly a confidence builder.  

FINALLY, the teacher, Fat Head, came out of his office and
blew his whistle.  Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and took off to the
locker rooms.

I almost changed my mind about going to the Robotics meeting
at the end of the day.  Surviving my classes today zapped me of energy.  It was
hard to relax when people viewed you as “the one who fought Tonya and lived”.  As
a new person, there’s not a lot of room for error, so the pressure was on.  Everyone
was watching me, waiting for it to happen.  It was exhausting.  I was looking
forward to Robotics by the end of school so I figured, why not?  Maybe I’ll
make some friends.

I found myself in room E-4 after school.  The first person I
saw was the volleyball failure, Nathan.  And Annie was right.  I was the only
girl in here, but that was OK.  I'd always had plenty of guy friends.  Everyone
was working on a big contraption that was connected to a pulley and wench.  It
took a minute for them to realize that I was standing there, watching them.  All
action stopped and they just looked at me.  I knew what they were thinking.  They
couldn’t figure out why a girl was standing there.

A short dumpy man abruptly cleared his throat and approached
me.  “Can I help you?"

 I lifted my chin up and smiled broadly at him.  "Oh,
hi, my name is Tess.  I just started school here a couple days ago.  Thought
I'd come by and check out what’s going on here.”

"Oh, REALLY?”  His eyes lit up.  What am I getting
myself into?  “We LOVE having new members.  Please join us.  I'm Mr. Kenney,
the advisor to the Robotics Club.”

The boys weren’t as thrilled to see me.  They looked at me
like I was an alien invader.  I knew I'd have to prove myself to them.  That was
fine.  (Although why else would I be here?  It's certainly not just for the
GUYS.) One boy in particular looked at me suspiciously.  He was the first one
to speak. "So do you have any idea what we're putting together here?"

I did a cursory exam before answering, "I think so.  It
looks to me like you've built a mechanism for lifting and moving objects.  Is
it working OK?"

Mr. Skeptic loudly explained (like I have bad hearing!), "We're
having some problems with it.  It's just moving too slowly.  We plan on
entering it in the State Robotics Competition but it'll have to speed up.”

Mr. Kenney looked at me, smiling.  I knew he was trying to
be inclusive.  “What do you think?  Have any ideas?"

Thirteen pairs of eyes watched me while I studied the
structure up and down.  Actually, it wasn't too bad.  Mr. Skeptic turned it on
and I watched it pick up a book and carry it across the room.  I finally
answered while pointing at the back of the contraption, "Could it have
anything to do with the mechanism down here?  Are the gears the right size?  It
looks like it’s working too hard."

"Will, I think she has a good point." Mr. Kenney
directed at Mr. Skeptic.

Mr. Skeptic/Will responded with a twinge of irritation in
his voice, "She doesn't know what she's talking about.  We've already
tried a different gear ratio there."

"Yes, but we haven't tried two sizes up," said Mr.
Kenney.  "Let's do it.  After all, nothing else has worked."

"Uh . . . I guess so."  Will didn’t look too happy,
being upstaged by a girl.  "We'll have to take apart the whole thing
though.  What a pain."

They worked on disassembling for the next hour.  The boys
and Mr. Kenney were OK with me.  I worked on part of it with Nathan and Pete, a
major geek, but an OK guy once you got over the dumb jokes.  I’ve always liked
these kinds of guys.  They’re very smart.  They’re just not people smart.  That
means they’ll be straight up with you.

After the meeting was over, Will made a point to walk with
me out of school.  I wondered why.  Did he just want to see if I had a brain in
my head or was he actually being nice?  I had to admit that he was a pretty
cute guy in a brainy glasses kinda way.  Will was obviously confident.  I could
see a clear blue aura with yellow flares around him.  I see honesty, intelligence,
independence, and a big stubborn streak.  I still don’t have any idea if my
assessments of the auras are true, but it is what I sense.

He finally asked the question I was waiting for.  "So,
Tess, how do you know so much about mechanics?  We've never had a girl so much
as stick her head into the door during our meetings."

"My uncle had me working on old cars from the time I
was young.  I didn't really like it at the time, but I've come to realize that
I’ve learned something from him.  It interests me now,” I answered with a wry
smile.

"Are you still working on cars with your uncle?"
He asked.

"No, my uncle died since then," I answered.

Will looked over at me.  Was that concern on his face?  "That
must’ve been rough.  Was that why you moved here?”

"Yeah, I was living with my aunt, uncle and cousins in
Colorado.  We couldn't stay there for financial reasons after he died, so we moved
here to my grandmother's house."  I shrugged.  I’m uncomfortable with shows
of sympathy.

Will suddenly stopped walking. "Hey, are you the new
student who gave it to Tonya?"

I answered, feeling irate, "How did that dumb rumor get
around the whole school?  God, I'm sick of hearing about it.  And, by the way,
I didn't ‘give it’ to Tonya.  I just stopped her from hurting that other
girl." 

"Not a smart move, if you ask me," he answered.  He
was smiling, like he knew he got under my skin.

"Well, maybe you didn't notice that you weren't asked."
 I glared at him.

"Sorry, just trying to help a new girl get along here,"
he countered, still smiling.

"It's not too helpful. It already happened!” I
exhorted.

"I was just saying that you might want to keep your
nose out of those situations in the future so you don't end up asking for
trouble,” he replied.

I guess I was right when I saw that stubborn streak in his
aura.  I answered back, "Well, thanks for the advice but I think I’ll pass.
 I guess I don't like to see someone who's smaller get the crap beat out of
them."

"You're not exactly what I'd call a giant.  And you're
not that tough looking either,” he argued.

Man, he was starting to piss me off.  "Like I said:  You
can just butt out, Will."

I was so absorbed in my own self-righteous rant that I
wasn't looking at his face.  Was he pulling my leg?  I narrowed my eyes at him.
 He was fooling with me!  I felt like tripping him so I could watch him lose
that smile as he fell flat on his face!

We stopped at the bench in front of the school where my
grandma was picking me up.  Will questioned, "So, how long has your
grandma lived here?"

"I think Grandma Edwina has lived here for most of her
life.  I’d never been here myself until last week.  I really like this town,
though.  The old homes are so cool.  Where I come from the oldest houses are
around 150 years old, at the most, but around here they can be at least twice
as old.”

“Huh, I never thought about it.  Living in New England, you
just get used to it.  Anyway, I gotta go.  See you at Robotics Club meeting next
week.  That is, if you decide to come again.  Meanwhile, try and stay out of
trouble, OK?"  He grinned at me.

"Don't worry, I'll be at Robotics.  There are a few
things I think can teach you guys.  And as for trouble, don’t you worry; I can
take care of myself," I shot back.

I watched Will make his way down the sidewalk.  He definitely
is a cute guy, but I don't know if he's my type.  He has an irritating streak.  He
might make an OK friend, though.