Adventures in Funeral Crashing (14 page)

I looked up from the schedule I had just been
analyzing. Troy was not the brightest peach in the pie, if you get
my meaning. He had a remedial math class, in addition to a remedial
English class, although the rest of his classes seemed normal
enough, if you counted Metal Shop I and Art 103, which rounded out
his class schedule.

“Why would we ditch?” I asked. It wasn’t that
big a deal to me, actually. I had ditched three times before. Twice
to go to actual funerals and once right after my mom died just
because I felt like spending the whole day reading
Harry
Potter
. I could have ditched the whole week and just sat and
read the entire series, but I didn’t. I thought I might have gotten
caught if I had done that.

“I want to follow Troy,” Ethan was getting
his lunch out of his customary paper bag. “See what he’s like and
take it from there.”

“Are we going to try talking to him?” I
asked, taking a bite out of the slice of pizza I had bought from
the cafeteria. I knew I wasn’t eating well lately, but hey, I
hadn’t gained any weight yet. And, the salads in a high school
cafeteria….ew. At least I was eating real pizza, Pizza Hut Pizza.
The school had switched to it last year. Yum.

“Is it safe to talk to him? I don’t know, but
I do want to see if we can find out anything. Maybe I’ll just
know,” Ethan shrugged. “If you don’t want to go with me, it’s okay.
I just wanted to ask you.”

“No, I’ll go!” I said quickly. I didn’t want
him to think I wasn’t interested in spending another whole day with
him because I was. I was getting used to having him around all the
time. It was like it almost wasn’t a novelty to have Ethan Ripley
sitting in the high school cafeteria having lunch with me now.
Almost, but not quite.

Ethan took the schedule back from me, “So, it
says that Troy has a 10 am class - Metal Shop I. It gets out at 12
noon. Want to meet at my house at ten thirty and then we can head
over to Palos Community College together?”

I felt myself nodding and I was going to say
something, but I forgot when the worst thing ever happened. Ariel
Walker walked into the cafeteria, even though it wasn’t her lunch
period.

I saw her walking toward us and froze. Ethan
must have thought my expression was odd because he turned to look
too. I wish I had taken the time to notice the expression on
Ethan’s face as his maybe date to Homecoming was stalking toward
us, but I was too busy staring at her in surprise and wondering
what mortification I had in store for me now. It was going to be
bad, if only because it was going to happen in front of Ethan. The
cafeteria, which I was sure was still gossiping about us anyway,
was going to be in for a real treat if Ariel had anything to do
with it.

Ariel stopped in front of our table. I held
my breath waiting for Ariel to make me look like a freak in front
of Ethan. It figured that she would do this right at the time when
it felt like Ethan was accepting me and maybe, thinking I was an
okay girl. I mean, maybe I hoped for more than that, but a week ago
he knew me as the weird girl, so it was progress. Now, Ariel was
going to ruin everything for me again.

Ethan looked up at her, like this was no big
deal. “Hey, Ariel. What’s up?”

Ariel looked down at him, smiling brightly.
It was like I didn’t even exist. I was surprised the insults hadn’t
started flying from her mouth yet.

“Well, do you have a date for Homecoming
yet?” Ariel asked in her sweetest voice.

I hadn’t heard her use that tone of voice
since we were bffs in junior high and she was trying to get her mom
to let her go with my family to Wisconsin Dells for the weekend,
even though she was getting a D in math and was grounded. It worked
then too. She had the voice down.

Wait a minute. Wait just one minute. Ariel
told me that she and Ethan were already going to the Homecoming
Dance together, so what was she doing? She had suggested that he
had already asked her.

“No, not yet,” Ethan said.

I looked at him. Ethan Ripley didn’t have a
date for Homecoming. I was incredulous. It was less than two weeks
away and he was the most popular guy in school. How could he not
have a Homecoming date yet? I mean, unless he hadn’t asked anyone.
Had Ariel lied to me? Why?

“Would you want to go to the dance with me?”
Ariel sang it, like she was really
The Little Mermaid
.

I wanted to put my hands over my ears so I
could block out the sound of Ethan’s obvious answer. Instead, I
just waited to hear Ethan agree. I couldn’t give Ariel the
satisfaction. She would already enjoy this whole scenario far too
much without me reacting negatively to it.

Ethan was silent for a moment. “Actually,
Ariel, I can’t go with you.”

Did I hear that correctly? Did Ethan just
turn Ariel down, even though she was using her do my bidding voice
and everything?

“Why not?” Ariel whined.

Ethan shook his head, “I just can’t.”

And, with that Ariel stormed out of the
cafeteria, leaving Ethan staring after her and me staring open
mouthed at Ethan. Why couldn’t he go with her to the dance? I mean,
she was pretty and popular and totally going along with the whole
popularity track he was on.

“Why couldn’t you go with Ariel?” I asked
before I could think about it.

Ethan turned back to face me and shrugged,
“My mind is on other things besides dances right now. And, anyway,
I just didn’t want to, but I didn’t want to hurt her feelings
either.”

Okay, I thought. Boys are dumb because Ethan
totally hurt Ariel’s feelings. Especially the part where he said no
to her in front of me, which I knew had to be the ultimate in
humiliation for her.

“Oh,” I said, like it was no big deal, when
inside I was doing cartwheels. Ariel had just tried to humiliate me
and it had totally backfired on her. It was awesome.

My brain was spinning and already two steps
ahead of me. If Ethan didn’t want to go to Homecoming with Ariel,
who did he want to go with? Did I have an inkling of a chance? I’d
be okay with going as friends, even. It was a good day!

I thought about
pressing Ethan for more Homecoming details when I met him at his
house at ten-thirty the next morning, but I totally forgot when I
saw that he was carrying his guitar to the car.

“You’re bringing your guitar?” I asked
hopefully.

“I thought I’d mess with a tune, while we
waited. I hope you brought a book or something,” Ethan asked as he
placed his guitar delicately in the back seat.

I slid into the passenger side, as Ethan got
into the car and started it. I was excited. We were on a stake out.
It hadn’t even been hard to ditch this morning. I faked sick, my
dad bought it, called into school for me, and went to work. It was
a cake walk so far.

“Ready for today?” I asked as Ethan pulled
away from the curb. We were only minutes away from Laurel Community
College.

“Most definitely,” Ethan said.

We got there with over an hour to spare
before Troy’s Metal Shop I class let out. We took the time to get
the lay of the land. Laurel Community College wasn’t a big campus,
but it was big enough that if you didn’t know where you were going
you could get lost. We found Troy’s Metal Shop I building first. We
were in luck. It opened up into a courtyard and there was an empty
picnic table where we could hang out and wait for the class to let
out. Since we had a lot of extra time, we also took a walk to the
Art 103 class Troy had after Metal Shop I. This was just in case we
somehow missed seeing him.

Ethan was convinced that he’d know if Troy
had killed his sister in a glance. I didn’t think so. Even if he
did, it wasn’t exactly proof. Truthfully, either Ethan would be
biased and make a snap judgment about Troy’s guilt or he simply
would feel torn and not know. I didn’t think Troy was going to get
away with Ethan feeling nothing. Ethan felt too much about his
sister to let a guy who looked pretty suspicious go. And, although
I thought Troy better have a great alibi for where he was the
nights those girls’ overdosed, I wasn’t ready to convict him yet.
He could just be a total player. There are guys who know all the
girls because they just want to date them. I wanted to talk to Troy
first. Ethan seemed adamant against me talking to him, though. He
didn’t want to go near the guy claiming the excuse – if he’s
already killed four people, do we really want to be next?

Ethan and I spent the hour mostly not
speaking, waiting. I was trying to read my copy of
Anne of Green
Gables
. I was going to bring
Eclipse
, the third
Twilight
book, but it was just too big. I settled for the
adventures of Anne Shirley instead. It was like comfort food, but
in reading. Ethan was strumming on his guitar while I tried to
focus on my book. Secretly, I was listening to the tune he seemed
to be trying to perfect. I thought it sounded pretty catchy. He
might want to consider pursuing music, eventually. He definitely
had rock star good looks going for him, in addition to the catchy
tune.

I was starting to hum along with the tune
Ethan was strumming when I noticed people streaming out of the
Metal Shop I class. They were ten minutes early.

“Ethan,” I hissed and he looked up, setting
his guitar down next to him.

We both scanned the students leaving Metal
Shop I and suddenly there he was, Troy Matthews, in the flesh.

Troy was pretty good looking, actually. I was
slightly disconcerted to find that I was thinking that about a
murder suspect. His hair was blonde and longish, almost shaggy
looking, and he had a golden, fading summer tan. He looked like a
surfer, except we weren’t in California. Troy definitely worked out
too, you could tell even though his forearms were covered by the
hoodie he was wearing. He was probably nineteen or twenty, if I had
to guess. And, a totally hottie. I know I couldn’t tell if he was
innocent or guilty just by looking at him. He did not have a creepy
vibe, as far as I could tell. That was something going for him.

I glanced at Ethan, who looked like he was
focusing all his energy on discerning if Troy had killed his
sister. It was an intense glare too. I knew Ethan had forgotten all
about me. I was glad. I had already decided what I was going to do
and I knew Ethan wouldn’t like it. So before Ethan could stop me, I
flung myself full force in Troy’s direction.

I ran at Troy and by the time Ethan noticed
what I was doing, it was too late to stop me because I was busy
smashing myself with full force into Troy Matthews.

Amazingly, I was the one who fell to the
ground. Troy Matthews was built like a linebacker. I wondered if he
felt the impact at all. I knew I was going to have a couple of nice
and large black and blue bruises in multiple places. I felt
dazed.

“Are you okay?” Troy was staring down at me
with concern.

It took me a second to realize that he was
talking to me. Troy reached down to help me up and it was totally
real when I practically fell into his arms. That impact, even
though I’d planned for it, had knocked the wind out of me.

“I’m fine,” I said breathlessly, a moment
later, pulling out of his arms. “Just catching my breath.”

I smiled up at Troy and took a moment to
glance at Ethan, who was frozen to the spot, but looked absolutely
livid. I was going to have to deal with that later. I focused back
on Troy.

“Where are you going in such a hurry?” Troy
picked up my purse from the ground and handed it to me.

I wanted him to keep talking to me and I had
to think fast, “Art 101.”

Troy looked interested, “Really? I’m going to
103. Who’s your teacher?”

I had painted myself into a corner. I didn’t
know any teachers’ names, “It’s a guy. Uh. I’m bad at names.”

“Plumber? Kelson? Abbott?” Troy seemed to
know all the art teachers’ names.

I didn’t want him to catch me in a lie, so it
was time to change the subject, “Wanna walk together?”

Troy smiled, “Sure.”

I wondered if Ethan would follow us, but I
didn’t look back because I was focusing all of my attention on
Troy, “How is 103?”

Troy thought for a moment, “I like it. It’s
sculpture, so I definitely like it better than 101. 101 was too
general. A lot of drawing and painting, which is fine, but I’m
definitely more into sculpting and making stuff. I’m actually
getting really into Steampunk art.”

“What’s that?” I interrupted him.

“I’d have to show you for you to really get
it, but to make it simple, they combine a lot of modern things like
a computer, for example with brass and wood and make it art. They
make it look all twenties era and like it runs on steam. It’s
really cool,” Troy sounded passionate about it.

“That sounds neat,” I said and I meant
it.

“It’s really fun. I’m working on an art
project with an old computer. I want to add a wooden façade and
maybe some brass ornamentation. Maybe work an old clock into it.
It’s going to look really great when I’m done. Retro, but
modern.”

As Troy went on about Steampunk art, I felt
like I was getting a Cliff Notes’ version of insight about Troy’s
personality. I had the distinct impression that Troy was an artist
at heart and consequently thought that he was probably in remedial
classes for all the regular subjects simply because he didn’t share
the passion for them, that he did for his art. He didn’t seem like
a meathead at all for sure, despite the biceps. I was also finding
that I liked Troy. His passion for art was catchy. Was that
dangerous?

Troy had continued on, “And, I want to try my
hand at that, so I’m hoping sculpture and things like Metal Shop
will help me. I want to learn the mechanics of things, so I can
make regular objects into art. Are you just taking the intro course
or are you an artist too?”