Bitter End (3 page)

“Oh,” I said. I didn’t even know we had a new student from Pine Gate. But then I stepped into the office and there he was,
standing next to Mrs. Moody’s file cabinet, holding a little ceramic duck. He saw us come in and quickly set the duck back
down on top of the cabinet, as if he was embarrassed to be caught holding it. “Hey,” he said.

“Hey.” There was an awkward pause between us while Mrs. Moody grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door shut. “I guess I’m
your new tutor.”

“Totally unnecessary,” he said. “But Coach Dample disagrees, so…” He shrugged and then added, “Cole,” and he stuck out his
hand to shake mine. When I put my hand in his, it felt warm and strong and comfortable. And kind of weird. Like we were business
partners or something.

Mrs. Moody took a seat behind her desk, and we both fell into place in chairs across from her. I sat on my hands, while Cole
lounged comfortably in the chair next to mine,
one foot tilted sideways and propped up on top of the other, his legs stretched out in front of him.

“Um, what about Zack?” I asked. “He really needs help with his sentence diagramming.”
Plus
, I didn’t add,
we were having fun in there
.

Mrs. Moody spoke up. “I’ve moved Zack over to Amanda for tutoring from here on out. She can handle sentence diagramming just
fine. Cole, I’m sure you’ll find Alex to be just what you need to get caught up and secure that spot you’re looking for on
the basketball team.” She glanced at her watch. “We’ve got a few minutes before the final bell. Why don’t you two go to the
lab and get acquainted? You can start working on assignments tomorrow.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Cole said with a pleasant grin. He had a dimple, just one, on the left side. But the dimple was kind of cute.
I didn’t even notice I was staring.

“Do you have questions, Alex?” Mrs. Moody said, snapping me out of it. I jumped.

“Uh, no. I’ll tell Zack to go with Amanda.”

But Zack had already moved to Amanda’s room when I got back to the lab, leaving my room completely empty for me and Cole.

I sat in the chair I’d been sitting in before, but Cole moved to the window and looked out, his hands on the sill in front
of him. I gazed at the back of his letter jacket, which was so full of patches there was hardly any jacket showing.

“Wow,” I said finally. “Pine Gate must really be missing you.”

He turned. “Why do you say that?”

I pointed at his jacket. “Looks like you’re a sports star.”

He glanced down at the front of his jacket, where there were even more patches and a few medals. “Yeah. I did okay. I thought
maybe you meant they were missing my sparkling personality and unforgettable good looks.”

I blushed, hard, and looked down at my hands. “No, I didn’t mean…” I said, mentally kicking myself for sounding like such
a dork.

He laughed, crossed the room, turned around the chair Zack had been sitting in, and straddled it backward. “I’m kidding! Don’t
worry about it. It was just a joke.”

I peeked up at him, hoping my face wasn’t too red. He was looking right into my eyes, which made me feel more awkward. I missed
Zack.

“So,” he said, “Mrs. Moody says you’re a writer. What do you write?”

I waved his question away. “She exaggerates,” I said. “I’m not great or anything. Some poetry. Some short stories. Nothing
major.”

“If you can do it, I say it’s major. Writing’s a lot harder than dribbling a basketball or catching a football.”

I chuckled. “You haven’t seen me try to catch a football. It’s not pretty. But I get what you’re saying. I won a contest last
year with a poem I wrote for lit class.”

“Really? That’s cool. I’d like to see it sometime,” he said.

I glanced at him. He was still looking directly into my
eyes. How did he do that? I could feel his gaze all the way down to my toes. “Really?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Mrs. Moody says you’re really good. I think you’re her sports star.”

“Well, you know,” I said. “Must be my sparkling personality and unforgettable good looks.”

His eyes widened, and he pointed at me. “Good one!” We both smiled.

We were silent for a few seconds, and I busied my fingers, picking ripped pieces of paper out of my spiral notebook. He leaned
back and started casually drumming against the desk with his thumbs. “It must suck,” I said after a while. “You know, to move
to a new school your senior year. Especially to leave your team. I’d hate it.”

He shrugged. “It’s not really a big deal. My dad got a new job, and we got a bigger house. It’s a chance to start over.” His
eyes drifted back to the window and held for a second, like he was seeing his old school out there. Then he leaned forward
across the desk again. “Plus,” he said, “I get to share my sparkling personality and unforgettable good looks with more of
the world. A humanitarian effort.”

This time I pointed at him, and we both laughed without me saying a word. The bell rang. We stood up, and I began gathering
my books, still spread out from reviewing direct objects with Zack. Cole didn’t have any books, so he reached down and picked
up my backpack off the floor. He held it open for me while I stuffed my homework into it.

“Thanks,” I said. “I can honestly say that’s something
Zack never did.” Zack was much more likely to spend most of our tutoring session trying to bounce cheese balls off my forehead.

“No problem,” he said. “Same time tomorrow?”

I zipped the backpack and shouldered it, nodding, but he was already at the door. He slapped the doorjamb with his palm, looking
out into the sea of students filling the hallway. He waved at someone. Was it possible that he already had friends?

I opened my mouth to tell him good-bye, but he had already plunged out into the hallway and disappeared. Instead, I straightened
the chair he’d been sitting in, then shuffled to the door, hoping I could catch up with Bethany outside the band room.

But just as I was reaching to turn out the light, he popped back in the doorway, almost bumping into me. He was slightly out
of breath, as if he’d run back to the classroom.

“Hey,” he said. “And don’t forget to bring that poem, okay?”

“Okay,” I said, but he was already gone again before I could get the word all the way out.

After I turned off the light, I stood in the shadowy classroom and grinned until the hallway was empty and the sounds of cars
leaving the parking lot filled my ringing ears. He wasn’t Zack, but something about Cole felt kind of nice.

I had a really good feeling about this new arrangement.

I took a sip of my iced tea and hoisted my feet up into the chair across from me. I tipped my head back, turning my face to
the sun, and took a deep breath, then let it out in one big half-gust, half-yawn.

Bethany’s fingers were tapping her laptop keys, stopping every so often while she sipped her Dr Pepper. Intermittently, she
made little “hmmm” noises over what she was reading, as if Colorado was the most fascinating subject on the planet.

“So, check it,” she said, just as I was dozing off. “We could totally pool our money and rent an RV. We’ll get my dad to do
the driving, and we could do stuff like play games, watch movies, eat. It’d be like a party bus.”

“Your dad? No way. No dads. Besides, it sounds expensive,” I said, keeping my eyes closed. I’d rolled up my Bread Bowl uniform
pants as far as they would go, and I could
feel the September sun baking into my shins. After an early Saturday morning shift working the register and filling drink
orders, the sun felt delicious. “I’m not made of money, you know. An RV sounds like a whole lotta early shifts.” I yawned.

“Have you ever driven across Kansas?” she said, her fingers tapping again. She turned the computer around, a photo of a field
pulled up on the screen. “You’d work round the clock to get an RV—it’s that boring. Imagine how annoying Zack can be in an
enclosed backseat, with eight hours of soy fields being his only distraction.”

“Says the girl whose parents are paying for her trip. I’ll be lucky to afford the gas to ride in Zack’s crapmobile. Besides,
never underestimate his ability to be annoying in the back of an RV. Or in a hotel, or on a gigantic mountain for that matter.”

“Okay, okay,” she said, holding her palms up, surrender-style. “The money thing. I get it. But I’m going to check out RVs
anyway. If I find something really cheap, will you at least consider it?”

“No,” I mumbled. The sun felt so good that I didn’t even want to move my lips anymore.

“Thank you,” she said. “Your open-mindedness is staggering. You should work for the UN someday.” We both snorted. “I’ll let
you know what I decide to rent.” That was Beth—she knew exactly when and how hard she could push me and still get her way.

She scooted her chair back, the metal legs making a
scraping noise on the patio. It was the midafternoon lull at The Bread Bowl, and we were the only two outside. She kicked
her legs up onto the chair mine were resting on, and our ankles bumped against each other. I opened one eye and then closed
it again. We rested there for a while, our legs pressed together, the sun on our faces, as Bethany rattled off various bits
of news and gossip she’d heard over the week.

“Omigod,” she said. “There’s this new kid in my government class. Gor-to-the-geous.”

“Really?” I asked. “What’s his name?”

“I just know him as Hot Guy. But I think I heard Mr. Clairfield call him Mr. Cousin or something,” she said. “He’s from Pine
Gate, I think. Let me tell you, girl, if that guy’s any indication, they have some fine men at Pine Gate.”

I opened my eyes and turned to her, fully awake now.

“What?” she said, looking around self-consciously. She pushed her glasses up on her nose, her eyes widening. “Is it a bee?”

I shook my head. “Cozen? Cole Cozen? He’s the new guy I’m tutoring.”

“Get
out
!” she said, a smile spreading across her face. “You’re tutoring Hot Guy?”

I nodded. “Just started, like, two weeks ago. He’s trying to get on the basketball team.”

She leaned across the table conspiratorially. “Is he stupid? I knew it. Someone that hot has to have some flaw.”

I shook my head. “No, he seems smart enough.”

“Then he must have a girlfriend,” she said.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t think so. It didn’t come up. He’s really nice. But kind of old-fashioned or something.
He, like, shook my hand and called Mrs. Moody ‘ma’am,’ and if he’s already in the lab when I get there, he stands up until
I sit down. So different from the other cavemen at our school, you know? When I come into a room that Zack is in, instead
of standing up, he always goes, ‘Thought I smelled you coming.’ ”

Bethany giggled. “At least he doesn’t call you Cowboy Ugly, like he does me. Wear cowboy boots to school one day in sixth
grade, and Zack will never let it go.”

I giggled, too, turning my arms over so my forearms could get some sun. “Well, Cole would never call you Cowboy Ugly. He’s
not a Neanderthal like Zack.”

Bethany narrowed her eyes at me. “You totally have a crush on Hot Guy.”

I felt my face flush. Sometimes I hated the way Bethany and Zack could see through me. “No, I don’t. I was just telling you
how different he is from Zack. And his name is Cole.”

She picked up her Dr Pepper, studying me. She pointed at me while she sucked down some soda, her wooden beaded bracelet clicking,
and then said, “You do too. I can tell. You’re into him.”

My face was practically burning now. “I just met him two weeks ago.”

“Not a denial,” she singsonged. “Alex is in lo-o-ove!”

“Very mature,” I said, kicking at her foot. But I couldn’t help smiling. True, I’d found myself thinking about Cole a couple
times when we weren’t together. About his dimple and the way he joked with me and the way he held my backpack for me and how
I was both nervous and excited at the thought of letting him see my poem, which I still hadn’t shown him. But none of that
meant anything. “I’m just tutoring the guy,” I said, pushing my sunglasses back up onto my face, closing my eyes, and tilting
my head back again. “He’s nice is all.”

“And gorgeous.”

“I thought you wanted to map our route to Colorado.”

“It’s a straight line. There’s no mapping to it,” she said. “I’m done.”

“Well, let’s talk about the hotel some more, then.” I could feel a bead of sweat roll down my back.

“There’s nothing more to talk about,” she said. “I practically have the amenities list memorized by now.” But I could feel
Bethany’s feet lift off the chair and heard the scraping of metal against concrete as she pulled close to the computer again.
“So we arrive on day one, check in, eat somewhere fast, and sit in the lobby looking amazing in our new road trip wardrobe….”

“I can’t afford a new road trip wardrobe,” I intoned for the thousandth time.

“You can borrow,” she said in the same tone, also for the thousandth time.

The door to the patio swished open, and Georgia
plowed outside, holding a plastic tray in one hand and a wet rag in the other.

“Never mind me, sun goddesses,” she said, wiping down a table. “I’m just cleaning up because
somebody
didn’t think to do it before she clocked out.”

I smiled. “Sorry, Gee. Guess you just can’t get good help these days.”

“Don’t I know it,” she said. “Too busy working on their tans so boys like the one inside will notice them.”

I stretched a leg up luxuriously and gazed at it, rotating my foot in the air. “It’s tough being beautiful.” I giggled. “But
so worth it.”

She flicked her towel softly at the top of my head. “Ha-ha-ha. I’m busting a gut over here.” But I could see the amused grin
on her face as she worked. She brushed the crumbs onto the tray in her hand. Georgia acted tough, but she was a pushover on
the inside. After closing, she would turn up the music and we’d sing while we wiped down the kitchen. She called me her older
daughter, and I called her the mom I always wanted. She’d been there for me more times than I could count. But if people were
around, we acted really put out by each other. It was our little game.