Being Jamie Baker (9 page)

“Was he all right?”

Was Ryan all right? I actually managed to smirk at that one. “If I hurt him at all, he didn’t seem to mind.”

“Thank heavens!”

I wished I could feel as relieved about that as my mom did. “I got lucky,” I said grimly, “but the other night I was so nervous that I zapped him pretty good when he tried to touch me.” Just thinking about that wonderful moment brought my tears back. “He keeps asking me out,” I said, sniffling, “and the last thing I want to do is hurt him, but how else do I make him stop? I said some awful things to him today. I’m always going to have to be alone.”

“No you won’t,” my mom insisted. “We’ll talk to your dad when he gets home. I’m sure he’ll have some ideas to get this all worked out.”

Oh, he did all right. My father was full of answers when I told him the story that evening. He’s always been the more practical of my parents, leaving the romantic notions of happy endings and trustworthy people to my mom. After drilling me for every single detail about the accident, and asking over and over again if I thought Ryan knew I was really involved, he came to the conclusion that I was never to interfere like that again.

He wasn’t angry with me any more than I was mad at Ryan, but he was most definitely putting his foot down when it came to pretending I’m Wonder Woman, and honestly, that was more than fine with me. This accident was my first, and I would happily make it my last attempt to save the day.

The only thing I didn’t like about our conversation was just how much my dad agreed with me about Ryan. I know it wasn’t personal because he’d spent the weekend trying to convince me how being friends with Ryan could be a good thing, but now Ryan knew too much. Now he was a threat. “It may not seem like it,” he said, “but you did the right thing by pushing Ryan away.” I knew I’d said those same exact words just a couple of hours ago, but when they came out of my dad’s mouth they really made me mad. Then, to make matters worse, he basically forbade me to talk to Ryan anymore. He did it in a nice way, but still, the irrational teenager in me wanted to go to school tomorrow and tell Ryan everything, just because.

“It’s best if you just leave things the way they are,” my dad said when I told him it didn’t matter because Ryan hated me now anyway.

“What happened to ‘be a normal teenager, go out, and have friends’?”

“He’s a good kid, but we just don’t know what he would do if he found out about you.” I wanted to argue, but I knew there was no point. “Jamie, you hate having this secret. It’s not fair to make him share that responsibility. And it’s not safe either, for you or him.” Guilt trip and a half. Not that I was considering the possibility before, but now I was really never going to talk to Ryan again. Of course, it is
Ryan
, so I can’t be held responsible if he talks to me first and I give in to whatever he wants. Deep, deep down I hoped that would be the case, but it wasn’t. I guess I should say it was lucky for me that Ryan kept his promise to surrender, because I woke up in so much pain the next day that if he even tried to say hello he would have known something was up.

You know how if you forget to stretch before a workout and then you go to sleep, you wake up stiff as a board? Well, apparently, getting squashed by a ton of steel has the same effect, and I guess with supermuscles comes superstiffness. What I needed were some superpainkillers. But how can you go to a doctor for medicine to treat injuries from an accident that you weren’t in?

I woke up so sore I could hardly move and could have easily asked my parents for a “get out of jail free” pass, except that it might look suspicious if I didn’t go to school the day after half my classmates watched me get flattened, so I ignored the pain and went. Yup, sucked to be me.

I didn’t talk to or even look at anyone that day, but I listened to everyone. They were all saying the same things. Someone would say the sign fell on me, and then someone else would dispute it, saying I was with Ryan when it happened. Then of course the first person would ask if Ryan and I were together.

The rumors of Ryan’s and my secret love affair spread like wildfire, and by lunch it was all everyone was talking about—everyone except Ryan. He hadn’t so much as said my name all day. Not even when Amy Jones had the guts to ask him to his face if the rumors about us were true. He simply said, “Nope.”

Then in true Ryan fashion, he smiled at her and said, “Why? You weren’t worried that I was off the market, were you?” Poor Amy blushed and Ryan laughed. “I’m afraid I’m still single. In fact, I’m dateless for Friday night. You want to go see a movie or something?” I had to laugh at the way Amy’s eyes lit up at the spontaneous offer. She was literally trying not to squeal as she accepted the date. The way she swooned was almost pathetic, and if I weren’t too busy being a normal, jealous, emotional teenage girl, I would have given him a little credit. The boy truly does have a gift with the ladies. Instead, I just wanted to zap them both.

The way Ryan was acting made me so angry. Maybe I really was just a challenge for him. It made sense, I suppose, but he was acting as if yesterday never happened and we didn’t fight at all—almost like I never even existed. I kept telling myself that’s what I asked him to do and that he was just faithfully keeping a promise, but it didn’t help. That day was lousy for me, and the worst of it hadn’t happened yet.

I was on my way to English and dreading having to spend the next hour in the same room as Ryan, but when I got to my classroom Principal Huang and two police officers were standing there with Mr.

Edwards. As wonderful as this day had been so far, I was sure they were there to talk to me. I didn’t even get inside before Mr. Edwards motioned for me to join them.

Principal Huang pointed at me. “That’s her.”

“Jamielynn Baker?” one of the cops asked.

“I prefer Jamie, actually.”

“Ms. Baker, there was an accident in front of the school yesterday afternoon, and everyone involved spoke of a girl matching your physical description.”

“That’s nice.”

I didn’t think either of the cops appreciated my response, but I couldn’t help giving them a little attitude. Ever since my accident—with the cops and the doctors and the paparazzi all hounding me for information—I don’t really respond well to any form of interrogation.

“We also have several eyewitnesses that identified you specifically.”

“Well, I’m sorry to squash the lead, but it wasn’t me.”

The older of the two cops, the one who’d asked all the questions up to this point, huffed in annoyance, and the second guy took over. “You’re not in trouble or anything, we’re just hoping for a statement to shed some light on a few unanswered questions.”

“Yes, we need answers!” Principal Huang interrupted, already on the cops’ last nerves. “Mr.

Warren clearly ran into my marquee, but the insurance is threatening not to pay because they say the damage doesn’t match the description of what happened. Can you believe that!” Actually, I could believe that. I’m sure the insurance company was very curious about the nice little dent I’d put in his precious sign. I didn’t exactly feel bad about damaging the stupid thing. After all,
it
totally attacked
me
.

“And of course we want to make sure that you’re okay,” the younger cop added, still trying to butter me up.

Unfortunately for him, I hate kiss-ups almost as much as I hate cops. I glanced from him back to the first cop, who was still frowning at me, and smirked. “Good cop, bad cop, huh? I thought that only happened in the movies.”

I’m not always a lot of trouble, but I was really nervous, and I was afraid that if they saw that at all, they might figure out I really was involved. I figured being a rebellious teenager would keep them frustrated enough not to see how scared I was.

It seemed to be working with Principal Huang. “This school doesn’t have thousands of dollars to replace that marquee,” he said, “so if you know something about it, you have to tell us.”

“Sorry, Mr. Huang. Don’t know what to tell you. Maybe you should think about a wooden one next time.”

Mr. Bad Cop was starting to lose his patience. “Ms. Baker,” he said, nearly yelling now, “if you’re not willing to cooperate, I’m afraid we’ll have to arrest you and continue this discussion at the station.”

“Arrest me?” I repeated incredulously. Unfortunately, I said that a little loudly, and we instantly started to gather a crowd. I didn’t mean to lose my temper, but they were going on some pretty thin evidence, and trying to strong-arm a kid in front of her classmates was pretty low. “Arrest me for what?”

“You are aware that it’s against the law to walk away from the scene of an accident, right?”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize that seeing an accident from across a parking lot makes me a material witness.”

“Young lady, several of your classmates said they saw you get hit by the sign that fell.”

“Well, that would be kind of impossible, considering I hadn’t even reached the parking lot when it happened. Ask Mr. Edwards—I was late getting out of class yesterday.” Both men glanced to my teacher, and he shrugged. “It’s true. She stayed almost ten minutes after the bell yesterday.”

The cops frowned, and when the grumpy one began scribbling on his notepad, Mr. Edwards broke the silence again, addressing the group of students watching us. “And speaking of the bell, everyone get to your classes before I start handing out detention.”

The students started to scatter, but Mr. Edwards didn’t follow his own advice. As he watched on curiously, the younger cop—Mr. Good Cop—took me by surprise when he asked me if I would take off my sunglasses. I knew exactly where he was going with this, and I wasn’t worried about that in the least, so I took off the glasses without hesitation and showed him my eyes. “Maybe she’s telling the truth, Vic,” he said to his partner. “Both eyes are the same color, and not green or yellow. They’re brown.” I hadn’t realized that Ryan was also still watching my interrogation until he walked up next to the cop with wide eyes. When I saw him, my heart jumped into overdrive. “Green and yellow?” Ryan said, gazing at me with wonder.

The officer mistook the astonishment in Ryan’s voice for confusion. “All three of the landscapers present at the accident described the girl involved as having had one green eye and one yellow,” he explained. “They were quite certain.”

Ryan looked at me again, and I could see it in his eyes. He knew. And he knew that I knew he knew. We stared each other down—or rather, he stared me down while I panicked like a deer caught in his headlights—until the cop questioned the two of us.

Ryan was much better at shaking it off than I was. He flashed the cop that boyish smile of his and covered for me like a pro. “I was with Jamie yesterday after class. We had just walked out the front door when the accident happened. I’d be happy to give you a statement too, but I doubt it’d be much help. We couldn’t really see anything.”

“So you were with her at the time of the accident?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Lying to the cops is a criminal act, young man,” Mr. Bad Cop interrupted. “You’re not just covering for this young lady, are you?”

Ryan gave me another knowing glance. “No, sir. I swear she was with me the entire time.” The older cop looked Ryan up and down skeptically and sighed as he began scribbling again.

“Your name?”

“That would be Ryan Miller,” Principal Huang said, stealing the words out of Ryan’s mouth.

“And I suppose you’re her boyfriend or something?” the cop asked.

“Um, no sir, we’re just doing a project together. She was interviewing me before football practice for her paper.”

The grumpy cop seemed disappointed by that answer, and sadly, he wasn’t the only one. It reminded me of blowing Ryan off the day before. I felt bad that Ryan had to help me like this after I’d told him to stay out of my life, but I was grateful he did, even if I knew my problem with him was only going to be worse now.

“Was anyone else with you?”

“Yeah, Mike Driscoll and Justin Reader talked to us right after it happened. They can tell you it wasn’t Jamie. That’s what they’ve been telling the whole school all day. It had to be just somebody that looked like Jamie.”

“All right,” the cop said with one last dramatic sigh, “but if these boys’ stories don’t match up, we’ll be in touch, Ms. Baker.”

“Can’t wait.”

Once the cops walked away, taking a highly annoyed Principal Huang with them, I made a mad dash for the classroom. I was safely inside before Ryan could catch me, but I knew he wasn’t going to drop the issue this time. I doubt Ryan heard a single word that anyone said in class that day either, because he stared at me from the time we took our seats to the time the bell rang.

I was out the door as quickly as possible, but Ryan actually followed me all the way home. By the time we got out of our cars, I’d convinced myself that I was mad at him. “Don’t you have a practice to be at?”

“Yup,” Ryan replied with every bit the amount of anger I had just shown. “Coach is gonna ride me pretty hard for missing it too, but I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what is going on!” I didn’t think playing dumb would work, but I had to give it a try. “What? I lost one of my blue contacts and haven’t had a chance to get more, so I wore my brown ones. Why do you think I’ve been wearing your sunglasses all day?” I handed Ryan the glasses. “Here, you can have them back now, thanks.”

Ryan took his glasses and I started to walk away again, but he pulled me back. “You were in that accident!”

“Don’t be stupid, that’s impossible.”

“And yet half the school saw you, and the cops are looking for a girl with one green eye and one yellow eye.”

I didn’t know what to say. I stood there, slowly letting my emotions spin out of control, and Ryan finally cracked. “You have to explain it to me, Jamie. I’m going out of my mind right now! I just lied to the cops for you, and I don’t even understand what I lied about. You owe me!” He looked absolutely desperate, and he basically knew something weird was up anyway. We were past the point of pretending, so I figured at this point it was probably better just to tell him everything rather than let him try to figure it out on his own. I glanced back at my house and listened for my mother. When I heard her inside, doing what sounded like aerobics, I figured she hadn’t heard us, and I looked back at Ryan.