Crushing On The Geek (Crushing On You) (11 page)

      “Sounds good. Am I taking you to school today?”

      “What time did Mom get home?”

      “Dunno,” he shrugged, “Guess I am then. Hopefully, she rises from the dead in time to take the girls to their checkup.

      “Good luck with that.”

      “Let's get going, kiddo,” Mr. Page said.

      “Don't you need to get dressed first? I don't think Mr. Herold would like it if you showed up to work in your pajamas, not to mention the five o'clock shadow.”

      “He gave us the day off to recover from the catastrophe last night. If you want I'll let you play hooky too,” he laughed.

      “No thanks,” Tamara shook her head, “School is the only time I escape the insanity around here.”

      “Then let's go,” Mr. Page yawned, stepping into his slippers.

      Tamara sighed in relief upon seeing Amber and Josh standing at their morning meetup.

      “I need to talk to you!” Tamara tugged on the sleeve of Amber's hoodie.

      “We're okay now,” Amber laughed, “but I think you should go find Hayden.”

      “Is he okay?” she asked too quick, her words slurred together.

      “He was looking for you,” Amber giggled, “but I think it's something you need to see for yourself.”

      “Okay,” Tamara sighed, “Which way did he head?”

      “That way!” Amber and Josh laughed, pointing to the left.

      Tamara turned, nearly running into Hayden.

      “Why didn't you guys tell me he was right behind...” her words failed her and she bit her tongue hard trying not to laugh.

      “Is that why you said you believed me now?” she managed to say.

      She ran her fingers through Hayden's hair. Yesterday it had been a dark chestnut brown with natural highlights of lighter browns. Today it was splotched with bright pink patches. Hayden didn't speak while Tamara examined the damage.

      “Your little brother did this too?” she said, biting back a grin. me

      “No, I think this was the work of our little friends,” Hayden said, looking rather miserable.

      Tamara frowned up at him, “Sorry.”

      “So what do we do?” he asked.

      “I only have one more idea. Let's go somewhere to talk,” she said, tugging on his coat sleeve, “Don't you have a cap or something you could wear?”

      “No, I don't even own a ball cap,” he said, walking beside her.

      “Well, I think I have a black beanie in my locker. It'll have to do.”

      “Thanks,” he said.

      “So how did they?” she pointed to his hair.

      “Don't point at it!” he snapped.

      “Sorry.”

      “They put something in my shampoo.”

      “Well, at least it only took in some spots.”

      “I look like I'm wearing the hide of a cross dressing cow on my head,” Hayden said.

      “One second and we'll have a short term fix, anyway,” Tamara said, turning the combination lock to her locker.

      Tamara dug through the bottom of her locker until she found the beanie she had put there at the beginning of the school year, in case of a bad hair day, and offered it to Hayden.

      “Thanks,” he said, putting it on.

      Tamara rose to her tiptoes and pulled it down over a patch of pink that was still showing. Her hand brushed against his cheek and he grinned at her.

      “Thanks,” he said again.

      “So I didn't sleep last night,” Tamara leaned back against the lockers, “and I had a lot of time on my hands and I think I put it to good use.”

      “What do we now have a few faerie trap?” he asked, “Because I wouldn't mind catching the little..”

      “No,” she cut him off, “Nothing like that. I doubt we could catch them even if we tried and if we did manage to catch just one of them it would just make them angier.”

      “So what did you do all night?”

      “I remembered what I read before the crow stole the book,” she grinned, “It said to leave them milk and honey.”

      “We can get milk in the lunch room, but where the hell are we supposed to get honey?”

      “At the store. We'll just have to survive another night and leave it in the morning.”

      “I don't know if I want to risk another night of faerie wrath,” Hayden said.

      “Well, you'll have to. Besides you didn't even believe they were real until last night.”

      “Seeing is believing.”

      “If you would have believed me to begin with maybe you wouldn't be wearing pink polka dots on your head.”

      “Fair enough.”

      “Bring some bowls tomorrow, okay?”

      “Sure,” he frowned, tugging the beanie down as far as it would go when the bell rang.

Chapter Ten

      Tamara examined the bowls carefully before placing them before Sir Bedivere. The statue's black eyes stared her down when her hand brushed against his wooden bust. She took a deep breath and coughed. The classroom smelled of sour grape lip gloss.

      What, she thought, do the faeries live here?

      “You don't even trust me to buy bowls that won't leak?” Hayden laughed. His forehead creased giving away his anxiety.

      “I'm not leaving anything up to chance. I want this to be over with, for good,” Tamara said turning to her bag, “I had dad stop at the gas station this morning. The guy thought I was crazy when I asked where the honey was. He didn't even know they sold the stuff, but thankfully they did. At least in that luck was on our side.”

      She handed the honey to Hayden and pulled out the milk, “Dump it all in there. I don't want them to say we cheated them.”

      “Got it,” Hayden said, twisting off the top and pulling off the safety seal.

      “And I'll pour the milk.”

      “Of course you would take the easy job.”

      “Yeah, I did,” she laughed, “but that's because I already gave up a lip gloss and had a dress ruined. Well, it might not be ruined, but still.”

      “Fair enough,” he shrugged, “If you forget about my hair.”

      “I haven't forgotten about your hair,” she said, stifling a giggle.

      After she filled the bowl with milk she watched as the honey drizzled from the bear shaped bottle. This is going to take forever, she thought.

      “We should have heated it up first,” Hayden laughed.

      “Where would we have done that?”

      “Maybe in the teacher's lounge.”

      “Um. No,” Tamara shook her head, “I think we've broken enough rules for one school year and I'm not sure that I can breathe without pissing off the faeries.”

      “I'm sure, it's okay to breathe,” he chuckled.

      “I hope so,” she said, bumping into him.

      “Hey, don't make me spill it.”

      “I don't think it would be possible to spill that stuff. It's moving so slow you'd have time to juggle it in between drops. Maybe you could like lean it against the side of the bowl until it starts coming out.”

      “It's worth a shot,” Hayden nodded, “Do you think this is going to work?”

      “I don't know for sure. I only had time to read like one paragraph of the book before the crow stole it,” Tamara admitted, “but I hope it works. If it doesn't I don't know what else we can do, besides moving to a different state and changing our names.”

      “I don't know if that would work. Don't faeries have wings?”

      “I was being sarcastic, but if it comes down to it, I might follow through.”

      “Nah,” Hayden shook his head, “We'll figure something out.”

      “If you want, today after school, I'm pretty sure I can fix your hair,” Tamara said, reaching out and touching a bright pink patch of Hayden's hair.

      “As long as you promise not to turn it all pink,” Hayden laughed.

      “I think it looks good on you, though,” she grinned.

      Tamara felt a pair of tiny hands pressing against her shoulder blades. She dug in her heels and tried to reach the spot.

      “You okay?”

      Tamara couldn't answer, because it was taking all of her concentration not to be pushed forward, straight into Hayden. How the hell was a creature the size of a moth so damn strong? Tamara's foot slipped and she slammed forward into Hayden. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips against hers.

      When the kiss broke Tamara turned away from him and mumbled, “Sorry.”

      “You don't have to apologize for kissing a guy,” Hayden laughed.

      “I know,” she nodded, “So where do you want to meet up to fix your hair? We can't do it at my place. It's my dad's day off.”

      “It's my dad's day off too,” he laughed, “but he won't mind. Actually, he'll be thankful not to have to keep looking away every time I walk into the room, so he doesn't laugh.”

      “What did you tell him happened?”

      “I told him I thought my shampoo interacted badly with the new conditioner he bought.”

      “He believed you?”

      “He's a lawyer, not a scientist, so he's not sure it could happen, but he's also not sure it's impossible either,” Hayden laughed.

      The bell sounded, but Tamara didn't move.

      “We should get going, before people show up and ask us why we're leaving bowls of milk and honey,” he chuckled.

      “Yeah, you're right,” Tamara grinned despite the uneasy feeling that someone or something was spying on them. She grinned when Hayden took her hand and led her from the classroom. Tamara drew small circles with her thumb on the back of his hand, trying to calm her nerves.

      The hallway was filled with the clattering and whooping of wings. Tamara bit her tongue and braced for another attack.

      “You guys, knock it off!” a freshman girl yelled from the other end of the hall, “You leave that damn June bug alone!”

      “We're just goofing around,” a guy ginned at her, holding up a June bug attached to a long piece of string.

      “Come on,” Tamara said, tugging on Hayden's hand, “Let's go.”

      Tamara dropped Hayden's hand and sprinted to the stairs. She shoved her way through the crowd of fellow students with practiced ease. Tamara could hear Hayden following on her heels.

      “I'll see you at lunch,” she said when they arrived at the bottom of the staircase.

      “See ya,” Hayden said before they parted in opposite directions.

      Tamara peeked around every corner before rounding it on the way to her first period English class. When the final bell rang and the morning announcements began she was only half way there. Mrs. Kelly was so going to have her head on a silver platter surrounded by famous poetry written by dead guys.

      “You're late,” Mrs. Kelly said.

     
Stating the obvious, isn't she
, Tamara thought.

      Aloud she muttered a simple sorry and slunk to her desk. If Tamara had known her first period English was only the first of eight classes she would be late to, she might have stayed home.

      Three-fifteen found Tamara waiting outside of the school for Hayden and the others, gnawing on her already ruined manicure. Her eyes shifted every few seconds and laughter sounded in the distance. Tamara could no longer tell whether the laughter was just that of her fellow students or if the wee folk were having fun at her expense. Fortunately, Hayden didn't keep her waiting long. He arrived for before Amber, who usually rushed out, like she was breaking out of prison.

      “You all right?”

      “Yeah,” she said, shifting her weight from foot to foot.

      “You remembered to call your parents, right?”

      “Yeah, I called Mom at lunch. She's cool as long as she doesn't have to come pick me up.”

      “Are you sure you're all right?” he asked again, this time entwining his fingers through hers.

      “Yes,” she said as they headed toward the parking lot, “I just….”

      “Feel like we're being watched?”

      “Yeah. It's been like this all day.”

      “Maybe, they're trying to figure out whether or not we're really sorry,” he shrugged.

      “Well, we left the milk and honey, they should be happy.”

      “We'll see,” he said, opening the car door for Tamara.

      She bit her lip and slid into the passenger seat. Hayden shut the door behind her and she fastened her seat belt. Tamara quickly checked her makeup in the rear-view mirror as Hayden rounded the car before getting in.

      “Does your dad know I'm coming over?” she asked.

      “Yeah. I called him at morning break. He doesn't really care who I have over as long as we don't trash the house,” he shrugged, “He's working on finishing his novel’s second draft today, so he'll be locked away in the basement anyway.”

      “Your dad's a writer?”

      “Not published,” Hayden laughed, “It's more of a hobby.”

      “That's cool.”

      “So where do we need to go to get the stuff to get the cross dressing cow off my head?” Hayden asked.

      “Stop at the drug store,” Tamara said, “I'll run in. It'll just take a minute, I know where it's at. You're wanting something close to your natural color right?”

      “As close as possible,” he said handing her a twenty.

      “I'll have to go a few shades darker so it evens out,” Tamara darted out of the car.

      Twenty minutes later they were in Hayden's kitchen and Tamara was attempting to explain the dying process.

      “So I don't wet my hair first? Will it work that way?”

      “You've read the directions. It says on clean, dry hair, Hayden,” Tamara said, throwing her hands in the air.

      “I just don't want to screw this up. Sorry, if I'm not familiar with the art of putting chemicals on my head to make it a different color.”

      “Do you want me to fix it or not?” Tamara asked, standing arms akimbo.

      “Yes!” Hayden said, sinking down into one of the kitchen chairs.

      “Then let me fix it. I've done this a hundred times and watched my mom do it at least a thousand times,” she said, draping an old towel around his shoulders, “You don't want to get any of this on your clothes. It doesn't wash out. So make sure the towel stays on your shoulders.”