Three Times the Charm Read online

  We made it to homeroom where we got three desks together and received our schedules. I was lucky, all but one of my classes had one or both of my new friends in them—at least I hoped they were my new friends. We even had lunch together. I felt like it was going to be a good year.

  Chapter Four

  Raine

  FIRST DAYS of school were as tedious as they are exciting. Everything was all hurry up and wait, listening to teachers drone on about what the year will be like, hearing a lot of the same stuff you’ve heard every year since kindergarten. I learned how to tune out the boring stuff a long time ago, but I still had to sit through it. The first-day-of-school assembly was usually one of those things. I don’t know how teachers do it year after year. Well, I sort of knew, since my dad was a teacher. He felt the same way. Although he tried to think of new and original ways to say, “This is going to be the greatest year ever!” But you could tell some of the other teachers just went through the motions. You could look at them and tell they didn’t mean it. The one highlight of the assembly was watching Amelia and the rest of the cheer squad open the presentation.

  The squad was really good. Phenomenally good. They’d taken second at Nationals the year before, outperforming squads who had way more funding and actively recruited for talent. In high school, that blew my mind. People actually chose high schools based on the quality of the cheer squad. Families moved to be near them. I totally didn’t get that whole thing, but I did appreciate the hard work and dedication the members and support staff put into it. And all that effort showed. Since Amelia was one of the cocaptains, along with Kait, and I was Amelia’s best friend, I had a good view into what it took to be as good as this squad was.

  Normally, I wouldn’t give one single thought to cheerleading. It wasn’t my bag. I wasn’t even athletic. Plus there’s all the social politicking that can be super off-putting. The guys and girls on the squad could get so full of themselves. That kind of stuff bugged the hell out of me. Even if they did have talent and work hard, the snobby attitude was definitely a turnoff. They weren’t usually that way with me since I was Amelia’s best friend, but I saw it all the time with other people. Amelia wasn’t like that at all despite being around it all the time and how her own mother seemed to encourage it.

  “So do you hang out with all of them?” asked Mel, speaking loudly and close to my ear to be heard over the music coming from the sound system. Her breath was warm against my skin, leaving tingles in its wake. I was sitting between Mel and a couple of my other friends, Nick and Simone, who I’d known since starting at Dove Valley High. We’d all been in our literature class before being excused to attend the assembly. Amelia had been in another class, and now she was down with the cheerleading squad waiting to perform.

  The bleachers around us were filling up. We were sitting about halfway up the bleachers with some of my friends I’d introduced Mel to. Mel tipped her chin toward the group of kids dressed in green-and-white uniforms down near the doors that led into the gymnasium. The group was highly animated, and I smirked as I watched their posturing. They pretended to not care that people were watching them, but I could tell they expected it, betraying their thoughts with a flip of carefully done hair or a sassy hand on a jutted-out hip. I knew them all, and I could definitely tell when they were “on.” Amelia seemed to be the only one who wasn’t concerned with the audience trickling into the huge building. She was ready to perform, though she still seemed a little tired, I knew she’d muster the energy once the show started. She must have seen me watching because she waved in our direction. I couldn’t help but smile. She always seemed to find me in the crowd, and I was always there to watch her do her thing.

  “Yeah,” I said, waving back. “It sort of comes with being friends with Amelia.”

  “Did you ever think about joining up?”

  I laughed. “Me? A cheerleader? That’s hilarious.”

  “Why’s that? You have the body for it,” replied Mel. Her appraising look felt intimate. I wasn’t prepared for how that made me feel, but it wasn’t a bad sensation. Added to the feeling of her breath on my skin, it left me warm and happy.

  “I don’t have a single muscle in my body,” I said, giggling. Interesting. I never giggled. I didn’t disparage my body. My mother didn’t raise me that way. I cleared my throat. “Besides, they’re always practicing and doing events and stuff. It takes a lot of time, and I need that time to do my art. I’d die if I didn’t have time to draw.”

  “So that artist vibe I get from you is the real deal.” Mel grinned. “That’s cool. Are you good?”

  “Art is subjective,” I said, tossing my head a little and gazing into the distance before looking back at her and smiling to let her know I was joking around. It was my standard answer to a question everybody seemed to ask when they find out you’re an artist. I thought I was good. I’d been told most of my life that I had talent. But like most artists, I had my doubts. I had met few artists my age with real self-confidence, no matter how good they were. It seemed to be something that came with experience. I couldn’t wait until I knew I was that good.

  “What kind of art do you do?”

  “Mostly drawing and painting,” I said. “I like all kinds of mediums, acrylic, watercolor, charcoal. I got into spray paints on canvas this summer. You know, it’s kind of a graffiti-type thing? I saw this guy on YouTube who does it on street corners in New York. It’s way harder than it looks. You have to have this whole idea of how the layers work, what they will look like when you’re done. It’s like reverse excavating.”

  “That sounds cool.”

  “Are you an artist?”

  “Not even close. I like to look at art, and I think I can tell if something is good or not, but I can barely draw stick figures.”

  “It just takes practice,” I said, even though I knew the difference between an artist and a person who enjoys art was the overpowering need living inside an artist’s soul to create. There were times when I could feel the energy stinging my fingertips, itching to be expressed. When that happened, I couldn’t sleep or concentrate on anything else until I let it out.

  “I’m not sure that’s the case with me,” Mel chuckled. “You should show me some of your stuff.”

  “Okay. Maybe you can come over to my house sometime.”

  “That sounds cool.”

  There was a squeal of feedback over the rock song blaring from the overhead speakers, and I watched the principal, Ms. Kay, mess with the microphone. She was surrounded by most of the teaching staff, including my dad, who was laughing and talking to Sergio, or Mr. Donatello, as I’m supposed to call him when I’m at school. He was the chemistry teacher, and he and my dad were good friends. My dad was friends with several of the teachers at the school. I had Sergio’s, I mean, Mr. Donatello’s, class back in sophomore year. It was always a trial to remember to call the teachers I knew away from school by their last names when I was at school.

  Even though some of the teachers were definitely going through the motions, all of them seemed fresh and relaxed after summer vacation. That would change soon enough, I knew. Dealing with all of us kids would exhaust anyone. I always watched my dad go from energized to wiped out by the end of the school year.

  Ms. Kay signaled to Ms. Cavenaugh, the director of the cheer squad, who leaned toward Amelia and Kait and said something they both nodded at. Amelia and Kait moved closer to the edge of the basketball court. The hoops had been hoisted toward the ceiling, and the huge cube-shaped electronic scoreboard that hung in the middle of the ceiling had also been raised. The rest of the squad followed Amelia and Kait, and they formed a couple of lines in preparation for their entrance. All of the hours of practice really showed in how the team suddenly morphed from a cluster of similarly dressed kids to a synchronized unit.

  The assembly was about to get started.

  “What are you into?” I asked Mel. “Aside from Doctor Who?”

  The music stopped, and the school band started to play
some sort of fast-paced marching song. The cheer squad ran out into the center of the basketball court. I watched Amelia take her spot in the middle of the formation. They all stood at precise distances from one another with feet spread apart, hands on hips, and heads bent down. The lights went low, and the band stopped. Music started to play from the overhead system again as spotlights were clicked on one by one, illuminating the cheerleaders in the center of the group, Amelia taking center stage. She lifted her head and started to dance. God, I loved to watch her dance.

  “Besides cheerleaders?” asked Mel. I turned to look at her, and her eyes were riveted on the performers. All the guys were in the back of the squad and in the shadows, so she was watching the girls. Watching Amelia. Her eyes held a certain look, and between that and the comment she made about my body, I wondered if our new friend Mel was a lesbian. I turned to watch Amelia again. I couldn’t not watch.

  It wouldn’t matter to me if Mel were a lesbian. As a matter of fact, it would be sort of cool, like her sweet Texas accent. I was fairly open-minded about that kind of thing, and it would be refreshing to have a different point of view after being subjected to all of the girl-boy drama that seemed to go on all around us all the time. So far neither Amelia nor I had gotten swept into that, probably because we were too busy to have boyfriends—not to say that guys weren’t always trying, especially for Amelia. I mean, hello, she’s gorgeous. But aside from a few dates to dances, neither of us thought any of the guys at school were all that interesting. As far as Mel being a lesbian went, I knew a few of the guys on the squad were gay. They didn’t hide it. And there were girls around school who were out lesbians. Mostly they were just there. They did their thing, like everyone else. But sometimes stupid things happened. Someone would make a homophobic comment, and once in a while some kid would get harassed or worse. Maybe it was a little harsher than the normal shitty things kids did to each other all the time, but mostly, it simply was. It pissed me off. But I wasn’t friends with any of them. Having Mel as a friend would be cool. I watched the routine, and I glanced again at Mel. I wondered if that was how I looked when I watched Amelia perform. She seemed so enraptured with them.

  After the routine ended, Ms. Kay and the teachers did their ooo-rah thing. There was all the school spirit stuff, the encouragement for students to get involved in different activities, the sports team sign-ups, and the goofing around of the school mascot, Danger Dove. Danger Dove, a muscular and fierce-looking snow white dove, was saved from being ridiculous by the talented guy who wore the huge felt costume. Gene, the guy under the bird suit, and I had known each other since grade school. We’d spent countless days bouncing on the trampoline in his backyard, and when Amelia and I had become friends, she’d joined us. All that jumping had resulted in one amazing cheerleader, one fierce gymnast who could do phenomenal stunts while wearing a bulky mascot suit, and an admiring onlooker and friend with fairly toned leg muscles. Gene outdid himself today with his flips and tumbling. At times he almost looked like he was flying.

  When the assembly was over, Mel and I climbed down from the bleachers. It was lunch period, and we angled toward the cheerleaders gathered near the exit. Amelia was mopping her brow with a small white towel as she talked to Kait. She glowed from the exercise and I was excited to talk to her again, even though it had only been a couple hours since homeroom. I lost sight of her when we hit the floor and all of the tall and lanky kids swallowed us up.

  “Amelia is the best one on the squad,” Mel said as we waded among the crowd of loud and rowdy kids.

  “I think so too,” I agreed.

  “I was sort of surprised. She’s so skinny. But she can move, and she’s so strong. That last part of their dance where she did all those flips and then catapulted up to the top of the pyramid was amazing!”

  I puffed up with pride for my friend. I’d watched her learn to do a cartwheel when we were kids, and now she was one of the leaders of the cheer team.

  “She works hard. She goes to cheer camp during the summer too. I thought it was some sort of extended slumber party kind of thing, but apparently it’s intense. Some of the stuff she did today was new to me too.” The routines were the hardest I’d ever seen them do, but the squad had performed as a well-practiced team.

  When we finally got to where Amelia was, Amelia ran up to me and gave me a hug. It never failed to make me happy that it was me she always ran to like that. I was always the one she hugged first. Her hugs were awesome.

  “How’d you like it?” she asked breathlessly.

  “It was glorious,” I said. “I expected nothing different.”

  She slapped me on the shoulder. “I screwed up the last tumble. I didn’t make the fifth backflip. Could you tell?”

  “Totally! I almost stood up and shouted, ‘You missed the last one! What’s wrong with you?’” I joked since I hadn’t noticed at all. Then I saw the look on her face. It reminded me of when her mother started harping on her for wearing the wrong thing or warned her to not eat any carbs when we left to go the movies or something. It made my heart hurt to see her face fall like that. I hugged her again. “I’m just messing with you. It was awesome! You were awesome. I had no clue you were supposed to do another backflip. You flung yourself fifteen feet into the air to land on the stack! And the dance was brilliant. You had the entire gym on their feet.”

  The shadow that had crossed Amelia’s face cleared, and I was relieved. I never wanted to be the cause of her pain. Her mother did enough of that.

  “Thanks, Ray. I’m so glad you liked it. Let’s get some lunch,” she said, looping her arm in mine and smiling at Mel, who was watching her with a new expression on her face. Something that looked a little like she might be crushing on my bestie. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Jealousy? Pride? A mix of both? It didn’t matter. Amelia was happy, and I was with friends, so those were great things.

  Chapter Five

  Amelia

  I STOOD in line with Mel and Raine as they got their lunches. Going off-campus for lunch had sounded great, up until it started raining. We’d leave another day.

  I still had my carrots, and I munched on them as slowly as possible while eyeing the special of the day enviously. Nachos. With all the works. Shit. My stomach tightened, and I focused harder on the carrots.

  “Amelia, aren’t you going to get some?” Mel asked. Raine was looking at me as well. Her little blue plastic tray had chocolate milk and a huge plate of nachos on it.

  I shook my head. “I’m good.” I held up my baggie of carrots to show them that yep, I did have food. Such that it was. I tried not to be jealous of their lunches, or how they got to eat whatever they wanted. Inside I hated enduring what I had to. It didn’t seem fair, and at times I wondered if it was worth it.

  Mel frowned. “If you need to borrow some cash or something for lunch, I’ve got some.”

  I hadn’t realized that me not eating much for lunch would make it seem like I couldn’t afford to if I’d wanted to. I shared a look with Raine. She’d never offered to buy my lunch when I wasn’t eating a lot. I shrank back a little. “I’m not that hungry. I must have a tiny stomach or something. I’ll go find us a table while you two get through the line.” I didn’t wait for them to agree with me. I just needed to stop having them focus on what I was eating, or how much of it I had, or whatever.

  That was why I never really brought Raine over to my house. Besides how cool her family was, they didn’t really care about my eating habits. My mom was never like that, and I didn’t want her getting on Raine about what she ate either. She hadn’t yet, but I didn’t put it past her.

  There was a table in the middle open, and I quickly claimed it by putting my backpack in the middle and plopping down in a chair. Normally we ate near the squad, but all the spaces over there were taken. Some people waved at me. I felt plenty of guys looking me over. It wasn’t a new thing. After an assembly we had to stay in our uniforms for the rest of the day to show school spirit. I was practically on dis
play for anyone who wanted to take a look at me. It didn’t feel good. I wanted to take my carrots and blend into the floor.

  A few of the football guys catcalled to me. They were like that with all of the cheerleaders, or anyone who caught their eye to be honest. Most of them were pigs. Sometimes the decent ones would school the dirtbags if they got too out of line, but that didn’t happen often. Maybe all the media attention on sexual harassment these days would change some of that. I wasn’t going to hold my breath. I ate my carrots and pretended not to notice them. Other girls, those who weren’t cheerleaders, could have flipped them off. But we were supposed to make nice with them. Football players and cheerleaders hanging out, smiling, showing school spirit. It was supposed to be all the things movies and stories said it was. And sometimes it was. But for the most part, they were self-important jerks with some vague idea of how to get girls. I couldn’t believe some girls actually fell for that kind of crap where a muscley guy in a jersey simply had to smile at them for her to get all giggly.

  I was rolling my eyes at a few girls from the drama department getting all stupid for the quarterback when Mel and Raine walked up with their trays. I pulled my backpack down and tossed it onto the floor by my feet. The table had six chairs, but they crowded in beside me. I was sure I stank from the assembly, but I liked having them so close. Raine, I’d always liked having near me, and it was cool that I was starting to feel the same way about Mel too. Like she was just instantly part of us and things were cool right from the start. When I thought back, I’d taken instantly to most of my friends. Raine had been perfect from the moment we met.

  They ate their nachos, and I took my time on the carrots. I only had seven left. I pulled my water bottle from my bag and sipped that as well. The water would fill up my stomach, and then I wouldn’t be so hungry the rest of the day. Too bad it didn’t give me any energy.