Gilbert and Louis Rule the Universe: First Impressions (7 page)

“Ralph’s sister is in my English class.
She actually seems cool.”
Gilbert is only half listening to me. Dylan is in this class and she is staring at him as he walks in and sits down right in front of her.
“Hi,” he says.
“Hi,” she whispers back.

Oh boy.

The bell rings and Mr. Jeffries assigns our new project.
We have to partner up and write a report on the contributions of Babylonian culture.
Really?
I assume Gilbert and I will be partners but Dylan turns around and asks her if they can partner up.
Gilb
gladly accepts.
What am I supposed to do? I shoot her a nasty glare, but know that I would have done exactly the same thing to her.
Someone is tapping my shoulder.
I turned around and there is Jimmy, right in my face.
Ew
.

“Would you like to be partners?”

Spending the next few weeks on a project with Jimmy sounds like torture, but as I look around the room it seems like everyone else has already been picked.
The brief thought of having him do the whole project for me crosses my mind.
After all, he is a straight “A” student.

“Fine,” I agree.
Jimmy sits back looking satisfied.
I glare at Gilbert one more time before I take out my spiral and start taking down the notes off the board.

“I can’t believe you did that to me!
Now I have to work with Jimmy.” I fume at Gilbert after class.

“I am so sorry.
I promise to make it up to you.”
I squint my eyes at her wondering what she could possibly do for forgiveness.
“I will buy you your vanilla blended this week,” she suggests.
Well that seems fair.
I love vanilla
blendeds
.

By lunchtime it seems that Kate had already made more than enough friends.
She is already sitting with the Fabulous Five.
Individually, I am friends with them, but as a group they are intimidating.
Whenever I hang out with them they are always talking about how little they ate that day or what new item of clothing they are going to buy.
I don’t know why any
seventh
grader thinks they need to be on a diet, but these girls are kind of obsessed with the way they look.
Their mothers let them wear make-up to school and on the weekends they get
mani-pedis
.
Every day is like a fashion show with them.
Last month they didn’t talk to Chloe for a week because one day she wore a sweater from last season.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I am all for being
au courant
, but seriously.
I can really take them or leave them, but Sophie is in the group, and I need scoop on Winston.
I wait until she gets up to throw away her lunch of Diet Coke and fat-free cheese puffs (total calories: 100).
I meet her by the trash cans.

“Hey Sophie, I ran into that guy Winston this weekend.
You know him, right?”

Sophie adjusts her designer shoe.
It looks like she is getting a blister.
“Winston?
Yeah, our families have been friends forever.”

“Really, that’s cool.
So, what’s his story?”

“He’s alright, I guess, but I think he’s kind of a player.”

“Yeah, I figured.”
A player?
Meaning he goes after lots of girls?
I am bummed.
Bill, the janitor, who is busy changing the trash bags, overhears.

“Girls, don’t play games with boys until you know the rules,” Bill advises.

What a weirdo.

I ignore him and quickly change the subject with Sophie so that I am not totally obvious. “So, what did you do this weekend?”

I barely listen to her answer.
Something about a slumber party with the FF.

Should I trust Sophie about Winston?
Maybe she has her own motives.
Maybe she likes him.
I needed to discuss this with Gilbert, but the five minute bell rings and I have to get to science class.

After school lets out, I wait out front for Gilbert so we can complete our daily walk home together.
I want to talk to her about what Sophie told me about Winston.
Five minutes pass and she still hasn’t showed.
I pull out my phone.

Louis:
Where are you???????

Gilbert:
D asked me to study in library w/ him.

Gilbert:
Cool?

Is she kidding me?
I need advice, counseling, guidance, and here she is ditching me to study with Dylan in the library.

Louis:
Fine.

Gilbert:
r u sure?

I couldn’t even be bothered to text her back.
What am I going to say?
The other girls have already headed home or been picked up.
I bend down to pick up my bag, ready to face the walk solo, when out of the corner of my eye I see Melinda.
She lives on my block, and anything is better than walking home alone.

“Hey, Melinda,” I say.
She looks around, making sure I am talking to her.

“Hey,”
she says back, once she finally convinced herself.

“Are you walking home?” I ask.

“Actually, I am headed over to
Crissy’s
to study.”

Oh my God, even Melinda isn’t going to walk home with me.

“But I can walk you home first if you want?”
Melinda suggests.

Shoot me now.

I gave a half-hearted laugh, “Thanks, but no.
Well, have a good one.” I wave and head off.

“Maybe we can walk home tomorrow?” she calls after me.

I don’t even turn around.

*
   *  
*

Later that night I am doing homework at my computer.
Gilbert IMs me.

Alex_aka_Gilbert
:
hi

Alex_aka_Gilbert
:
sorry about today.

I don’t respond.
I just am not in the mood. I know I don’t have any right to be pissed, but I am and I just want to stay in a bad mood for a while.
My cell phone rings.
I am sure it is Gilbert trying to talk to me.
I look down but the number isn’t hers.
The fact that I don’t recognize it makes me think it might be Winston.

“Hello.”

“Leah?
It’s Jimmy.”

Great.

“Hey Jimmy, what do you want?”

“I was thinking we should put together a calendar of when we can get together to meet on our project.”

Are you kidding me?

“Whenever, Jimmy, just let me know what’s good.”

“Okay, I will email you with a proposed schedule.”

“Great, thanks.
Well,
gotta
run.
Bye.”

I hang up before Jimmy has a chance to say good-bye.

Later that night I get an email with an Excel attachment of our schedule.

Chapter 7

Tuesday, November 10

Today’s horoscope:
A friend in need is a friend indeed.

Gilbert and her mom pick me up the next morning.
I pretend I need to finish my math homework in the car so I don’t have to speak to them.

In English class that day we get back our essays on
Of Mice and Men
.
Ms. Sanders hands them out face down.
“Good job” she whispers to Melinda who is sitting in front of me. I watch her turn hers over; there is a big red “A
.”
“See me after class,” the teacher whispers to me.
I flipped my paper over and see I have received a “D.”
Argh
.

While the teacher drones on about our next reading, I doodle on my paper.
I write Leah plus Winston and Leah Geller (Winston’s last name) as if we were married.
Hey, a girl can dream. I am so involved in my doodling, I don’t even take the notes off the board.

At the end of class I walk up to the teacher’s desk.

“Leah, what in the world is going on with you?
Your essay was a rough draft at best,”
Ms. Sanders says.

It was true I hadn’t spent much time on it.
I liked the book okay, but I wrote the essay while I was watching a
Gilmore Girls
marathon.
I shrug and don't say anything since I figure that last piece of information is not the kind of thing a teacher wants to hear.

“I expect you to work harder on this next section.
We will be studying poetry.
I think you will really like it.”

I nod, “I have to get to my next class,” is all I can think to say.

“Alright, see you tomorrow.” The teacher says as I hurry out the door.

I run to my locker and find Gilbert there.
“Gilbert, you’ll never believe, Ms. Sanders just made me stay after class because I got a D…” I paused mid-sentence.
Gilbert isn’t even looking at me.
I turn to see what is going on and see Dylan walk up behind me.

“Hi,” Gilbert says to Dylan.