Eleanor & Park (9 page)

de-dah-dah, de-dahh, de dahhh.’

He nodded.

‘And his voice at the end,’ she

said, ‘when he goes just a little bit

too high … And then the
very
end,

where it sounds like the drums are

fighting it, like they don’t want the

song to be over …’

Park made drum noises with

his mouth: ‘ch-ch-ch, ch-ch-ch.’

‘I just want to break that song

into pieces,’ she said, ‘and love

them all to death.’

That made him laugh.

‘What about the Smiths?’ he

asked.

‘I didn’t know who was who,’

she said.

‘I’ll write it down for you.’

‘I liked it all.’

‘Good,’ he said.

‘I loved it.’

He smiled, but turned away to

look out the window. She looked

down.

They were pulling into the

parking lot. Eleanor didn’t want

this new talking thing – like,

really
talking, back and forth and

smiling at each other – to stop.

‘And …’ she said quickly, ‘I

love the X-Men. But I hate

Cyclops.’

He whipped his head back.

‘You can’t hate Cyclops. He’s

team captain.’

‘He’s boring. He’s worse than

Batman.’

‘What? You hate Batman?’

‘God. So boring. I can’t even

make myself read it. Whenever

you bring Batman, I catch myself

listening to Steve, or staring out

the window, wishing I was in

hypersleep.’ The bus came to a

stop.

‘Huh,’ Park said, standing up.

He said it really judgmentally.

‘What?’

‘Now I know what you’re

thinking when you stare out the

window.’

‘No, you don’t,’ she said. ‘I

mix it up.’

Everybody else was pushing

down the aisle past them. Eleanor

stood up, too.

‘I’m bringing you
The Dark

Knight Returns
,’ he said.

‘What’s that?’

‘Only the least boring Batman

story ever.’

‘The least boring Batman story

ever, huh? Does Batman raise

both
eyebrows?’

He laughed again. His face

completely changed when he

laughed. He didn’t have dimples,

exactly, but the sides of his face

folded in on themselves, and his

eyes almost disappeared.

‘Just wait,’ he said.

Park

That morning, in English, Park

noticed that Eleanor’s hair came to

a soft red point on the back of her

neck.

Eleanor

That afternoon, in history, Eleanor

noticed that Park chewed on his

pencil when he was thinking. And

that the girl sitting behind him –

what’s her name, Kim, with the

giant breasts and the orange Esprit

bag – obviously had a crush on

him.

Park

That night, Park made a tape with

the Joy Division song on it, over

and over again.

He emptied all his handheld

video games and Josh’s remote-

control cars, and called his

grandma to tell her that all he

wanted for his birthday in

November was double-A batteries.

CHAPTER 14

Eleanor

‘I know she doesn’t think I’m

going to jump over that thing,’

DeNice said.

DeNice and the other girl, the

big girl, Beebi, talked to Eleanor

now in gym. (Because being

assaulted with maxi pads is a great

way to win friends and influence

people.) Today in class, their gym

teacher, Mrs Burt, had shown

them how to swing over a

thousand-year-old

gymnastics

horse. She said that next time

everybody had to try.

‘She has got another thing

coming,’ DeNice said after class,

in the locker room. ‘Do I look like

Mary Lou Retton?’

Beebi giggled. ‘Better tell her

you didn’t eat your Wheaties.’

Actually,

Eleanor

thought,

DeNice did kind of look like a

gymnast. With her little-girl bangs

and braids. She looked way too

young to be in high school, and

her clothes just made it worse.

Puffed-sleeve

shirts,

overalls,

matching ponytail balls … She

wore her gymsuit baggy, like a

romper.

Eleanor wasn’t scared of the

horse, but she didn’t want to have

to run down the mats with the

whole class watching her. She

didn’t want to run, period. It made

her breasts feel like they were

going to detach from her body.

‘I’m going to tell Mrs Burt that

my mom doesn’t want me to do

anything that might rupture my

hymen,’

Eleanor

said.

‘For

religious reasons.’

‘For real?’ Beebi asked.

‘No,’ Eleanor said, giggling.

‘Well. Actually …’

‘You’re nasty,’ DeNice said,

hitching up her overalls.

Eleanor put her T-shirt on

over her head then wriggled out of

her gymsuit, using the shirt as

cover.

‘Are you coming?’ DeNice

asked.

‘Well, I’m probably not going

to start skipping class now just

because of gymnastics,’ Eleanor

said, hopping to pull up her jeans.

‘No, are you coming to

lunch?’

‘Oh,’ Eleanor said, looking up.

They were waiting for her at the

end of the lockers. ‘Yeah.’

‘Then

hurry

up,

Miss

Jackson.’

She sat with DeNice and Beebi

at their usual table by the

windows. During passing period,

Eleanor saw Park walk by.

Park

‘Why can’t you get your driver’s

license by homecoming?’ Cal

asked.

Mr Stessman had them in

small groups. They were supposed

to be comparing Juliet to Ophelia.

‘Because I can’t bend time and

space,’ Park said. Eleanor was

sitting across the room by the

windows. She was paired up with

a guy named Eric, a basketball

player. He was talking, and

Eleanor was frowning at him.

‘If you had your car,’ Cal said,

‘we could ask Kim.’

‘You can ask Kim,’ Park said.

Eric was one of those tall guys

who always walked with his

shoulders about a foot behind his

hips. Constantly doing the limbo.

Like he was afraid to hit his head

on every door jamb.

‘She wants to go with a

group,’ Cal said. ‘Plus I think she

likes you.’

‘What? I don’t want to go to

homecoming with Kim. I don’t

even like her. I mean, you know

…
You
like her.’

‘I know. That’s why the plan

works. We all go to homecoming

together. She figures out you

don’t like her, she’s miserable,

and guess who’s standing right

there, asking her to slow dance?’

‘I don’t want to make Kim

miserable.’

‘It’s her or me, man.’

Eric said something else, and

Eleanor frowned again. Then she

looked over at Park – and stopped

frowning. Park smiled.

‘One minute,’ Mr Stessman

said.

‘Crap,’ Cal said. ‘What have

we got … Ophelia was bonkers,

right? And Juliet was what, a

sixth-grader?’

Eleanor

‘So Psylocke is another girl

telepath?’

‘Uh-huh,’ Park said.

Every morning when Eleanor

got on the bus, she worried that

Park wouldn’t take off his

headphones. That he would stop

talking to her as suddenly as he’d

started … And if that happened –

if she got on the bus one day and

he didn’t look up – she didn’t

want him to see how devastated it

would make her.

So far, it hadn’t happened.

So far, they hadn’t
stopped

talking. Like, literally. They talked

every second they were sitting

next to each other. And almost

every conversation started with

the words ‘what do you think …’

What did Eleanor think about

that U2 album? She loved it.

What did Park think of
Miami

Vice
? He thought it was boring.

‘Yes,’ they said when they

agreed with each other. Back and

forth – ‘Yes,’ ‘
Yes
,’ ‘
Yes
!’

‘I
know
.’

‘
Exactly
.’

‘
Right?
’

They agreed about everything

important

and

argued

about

everything else. And that was

good, too, because whenever they

argued, Eleanor could always

crack Park up.

‘Why do the X-Men need

another girl telepath?’ she asked.

‘This one has purple hair.’

‘It’s all so sexist.’

Park’s eyes got wide. Well,

sort of wide. Sometimes she

wondered if the shape of his eyes

affected how he saw things. That

was probably the most racist

question of all time.

‘The X-Men aren’t sexist,’ he

said, shaking his head. ‘They’re a

metaphor for acceptance; they’ve

sworn to protect a world that hates

and fears them.’

‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘but …’

‘There’s no but,’ he said,

laughing.

‘
But
,’ Eleanor insisted, ‘the

girls are all so stereotypically girly

and passive. Half of them just

think really hard. Like
that
’s their

s u p e r p o w e r ,
thinking
.

And

Shadowcat’s power is even worse

– she disappears.’

‘She becomes intangible,’ Park

said. ‘That’s different.’

‘It’s still something you could

do in the middle of a tea party,’

Eleanor said.

‘Not if you were holding hot

tea. Plus, you’re forgetting Storm.’

‘I’m not forgetting Storm. She

controls the weather with her

head; it’s still just thinking. Which

is about all she
could
do in those

boots.’

‘She has a cool Mohawk …’

Park said.

‘Irrelevant,’ Eleanor answered.

Park leaned his head back

against the seat, smiling, and

looked at the ceiling. ‘The X-Men

aren’t sexist.’

‘Are you trying to think of an

empowered X-woman?’ Eleanor

asked. ‘How about Dazzler? She’s

a living disco ball. Or the White

Queen? She thinks really hard

while wearing spotless white

lingerie.’

‘What kind of power would

you
want?’ he asked, changing the

subject. He turned his face toward

her, laying his cheek against the

top of the seat. Smiling.

‘I’d want to fly,’ Eleanor said,

looking away from him. ‘I know

it’s not very useful, but … it’s

flying
.’

‘
Yes
,’ he said.

Park

‘Damn, Park, are you going on a

Ninja mission?’

‘Ninjas wear black, Steve.’

‘What?’

Park should have gone inside

to change after taekwando, but his

dad said he had to be back by

9:00, and that gave him less than

an hour to show Eleanor.

Steve was outside working on

his Camaro. He didn’t have his

license yet either, but he was

getting ready.

‘Going to see your girlfriend?’

he called to Park.

‘What?’

‘Sneaking out to see your

girlfriend? Bloody Mary?’

‘She’s not my girlfriend,’ Park

said, then swallowed.

‘Sneaking out Ninja-style,’

Steve said.

Park shook his head and broke

into a run. Well, she wasn’t, he

thought

to

himself,

cutting

through the alley.

He didn’t know where Eleanor

lived, exactly. He knew where she

got on the bus, and he knew that

she lived next to the school …

It must be this one, he thought.

He stopped at a small white house.

There were a few broken toys in

the yard, and a giant Rottweiler

was asleep on the porch.

Park walked toward the house

slowly. The dog lifted its head and

watched him for a second, then

settled back to sleep. It didn’t

move, even when Park climbed

the steps and knocked on the

door.

The guy who answered looked

too young to be Eleanor’s dad.

Park was pretty sure he’d seen this

guy around the neighborhood. He

didn’t know who he’d expected to