Maps (7 page)

While little Stacie might’ve thought he was getting ready for something, he was, in fact, not. He was simply throwing some clothing on before heading next door to see Lane so he could ask Lane if he wanted to go with Maps to a baseball game the following weekend.

With him.

It wasn’t even a big deal if he didn’t, but Maps just so happened to come across some tickets. By come across he meant tripping over a counter, his beloved allowance money tossing itself at a person, and that person taking enough pity on him to gift him some baseball tickets.

It wasn’t like he bought them specifically to ask Lane to go as a ‘thank you’ of sorts for the map that now adorned his wall.

Thinking of that map, Maps glanced over to the only wall in his room that wasn’t covered in his doodles, sketches, and charts. His mother originally insisted on him having at least one unmarked wall, but Maps personally thought that the best and only place for this special map was where nothing else would detract from its awesomeness.

Maps shoved his hands in his pocket and smiled. It was one of the nicest gifts someone had ever given him. The dumb baseball tickets weren’t close to enough of a ‘thank you’, but it was a start.

“Can I do your hair?” Stacie yelled, drawing Maps’ attention back to her.

She looked so sweet and innocent leaning against Lane’s bedroom window. Her hair was curling at the ends and yellow bowtie barrettes made her look like a doll.

But Maps knew the truth.

Maps knew she was pure evil.

“Hey,” Maps yelled. “Where’s your brother?”

“On a date!” Stacie began chucking socks from Lane’s bedroom out the window. Maps watched the bunched-up bundles hurdle to the ground.

“Wait, what?” He felt his face go cold, heard the sound of his voice break when he spoke.

Lane was on a date? With who? And why didn’t Maps know that Lane was dating someone? But that little reminder in the back of Maps’ head kicked him.

Of course Lane was on a date. He was a jock, popular, and had those pear-green eyes and those gapped front teeth. He probably had flocks of people after him.

Yeah, that made sense. And it didn’t bother Maps.

Not. One. Bit.

“Her name is Lacey!” Stacie yelled while tossing a T-shirt of Lane’s out the window. “It rhymes with my name!”

Maps didn’t want to get into an argument with a five-year-old about her insisting that her name was Princess Madame Sprinkle. Well, he kind of did, but now wasn’t the time.

“His name is Lane and he’s dating someone named Lacey? That’s stupid!” Maps yelled. Why he was still there yelling between houses with Miss Sprinkle, he didn’t know. It wasn’t because he wanted more dirt on
Lacey.
Not even a little bit.

“It’s not stupid!” said Stacie. “It’s like from a fairytale book!”

“It is
so
stupid!”

“Is not!”

“Is so!”

Maps swiftly turned to his desk, grabbed the phone, and punched in Benji’s number.

Benji’s brother answered with, “What do you want?”

“For your missing chromosome to continue living happily without you!” Maps snapped, and hung up the phone.

Maps angrily folded his arms over his chest, thinking of all the ways he could make Benji’s brother’s hair fall out.

Not even a minute later, the phone rang and Maps picked up. “Benji, good, you called back,” Maps began babbling into the phone, not even saying hello. “Stupid or not stupid: Lane and Lacey?”

There was silence on the other end of the phone until eventually Benji said, “What?”

“It’s stupid, right? Lane’s out on a date with some girl named
Lacey
, and I was arguing with Stacie that it’s stupid.”

“I, uh, guess it’s stupid,” Benji answered, sounding unsure of himself—that was still good enough for Maps.

“Great, thanks. Talk later, bye!” Maps hung up and then turned back to the window to yell at Stacie. “See? Even Benji thinks it’s stupid!”

“I like her hair. It’s long and pretty!” Stacie yelled back.

“So those are requirements for people dating your brother? You have to like their hair?”

Stacie ignored Maps’ question. “Your hair is stupid!”

Maps gave Stacie the most withering look on the planet, but she was barely paying him any attention. She was too busy looking for more things of Lane’s to toss out the window.

Which was good. Good riddance.

Dumb Lane and his dumb teeth.

“Lacey said she’ll take me shopping to buy a princess dress!” Stacie jumped up and down excitedly, momentarily forgetting about her task at hand.

“Well good for
Lacey
! I hope you all have a wonderful time and Lane and
Lacey
can get married and have a wonderful wedding and a wonderful house and have wonderful little babies that are little monsters just like you!”

“Yay! Monster babies!” Stacie just jumped up and down again, apparently excited for more little terrors like her in the world.

That was it. The last straw.

“Hey, Stacie, guess what?” Maps yelled. “Your brother told me that if you can manage to toss all of his bedding out the window before he gets home, he’ll take you for ice cream!”

“What?” she screamed. “Really?

“Yep. But you’d better hurry.”

It was mean. Petty and mean.

Maps was being an immature child just because he learned the Lane was dating
Lacey
. Maps gnawed at the inside of his cheek as he watched Lane’s pillows sail down into the small flower garden below.

He felt bad. Really bad.

He’d go over and get the bedding, shove it in the washing machine at his house, and then take Stacie out for ice cream himself.

Maps turned to head next door, but Lane’s vehicle pulled up to the driveway. Against his better judgment, Maps watched Lane get out, came around to the passenger door, and open it for
Lacey
, the leggy-blond princess-haired witch.

Lacey laughed at something Lane said, tossed her hair back over her shoulder, then leaned in and kissed Lane somewhere near the cheek.

Okay.

Lane could sleep in the garden tonight for all Maps cared.

Because he didn’t. Care, that is. About Lane. Or
Lacey.

Nope, not one little bit.

Maps closed his window, latched the hook, and pulled back the curtains.

“Benji, can you get that?”

Maps currently had his hands full of spoons, a few petri dishes, two household cleaners from under his kitchen sink, one giant vial, a pack of gum, and the assignment sheet in his mouth.

Maps had asked Benji to come over and work on an experiment and Benji had promised to actually help this time, even though he wasn’t doing much to help at all.

His friend wasn’t being a very good Watson after all, since he’d just watched reruns of
Who Wants to be a Millionaire
on TV and ignored Maps’ pleading for helping with the two-man job of holding, and pouring at the same time, without destroying his mom’s kitchen.

“You’re a slave driver, you know that?” Maps heard Benji yell at him as he stood up from his slumped over position on the sofa and walked to the front door.

Benji had apparently thought it would be funny to come over to Maps’ house in his green lycra bodysuit he’d been wearing for the Bio presentation. He also thought it would be funny to roll up one of the malleable petals and tape it to a very suggestive place on the front of the suit.

Maps worked away in the kitchen, setting up beakers and tubes, but after a few minutes of near silence, he went to the front door to see if Benji had gotten lost on the way.

What Maps walked up to was Benji awkwardly looking down at the petal taped to the front of his suit, along with Lane giving him a slightly dirty look.

“Uh, hi,” Lane said. A crease formed between his eyebrows. He obviously hadn’t been expecting Benji to be opening Maps’ door.

“Hi!” Stacie squeaked, waving her tiny hand up at Benji.

“Oh. Uh, hey,” Benji replied.

“Hey, Lane,” Maps chimed in.

“Well, good thing this isn’t awkward,” Benji said nervously, trying to laugh it off.

Lane didn’t laugh.

“Lane? What are you doing here?” Maps asked.

“Me too!” Stacie said, jumping up and down.

“And Satan’s favorite child, too,” Maps added.

“I thought we changed the tutoring date to today, but I’ve obviously got it mixed up. Sorry to bother you guys,” Lane said.

Crap. Lane was right, and Maps had forgotten all about it. The
Lacey
debacle had taken up most of his thoughts that afternoon, so he’d called his best friend over to cheer him up, and Maps had to admit that the flower outside with the crudely placed petal was pretty funny.

“No, uh, come in. Sorry, it slipped my mind,” Maps said.

“Are you sure you aren’t busy?” Lane asked.

“Yeah, I’m sure. We were just going to watch a movie.” Maps stepped aside and let Lane and Stacie in. He’d also forgotten that Lane said he was babysitting that night and would have to bring Stacie with him. “But we have a test tomorrow, so how about we go over a few problems?”

Maps couldn’t help himself. Those gapped teeth of Lane’s did something to his stomach. He wanted to be madder at Lane, but it wasn’t his fault he had those lady-magnet teeth.

Sometime when they’d been talking, Benji had ripped the petal off of his lycra body suit and tossed it into the kitchen. Maps thought that was a shame, because he really would’ve enjoyed watching Lane sweat when Stacie asked her older brother why Benji had taped a giant petal to his junk.

“How about me and the little dudette start on the movie, then?” Benji said, holding out one of his leaf hands to Stacie.

Stacie giggled and took it. “You’re Mappy’s boyfriend!”

“At your service, madame!” Benji grinned as he leaned forward to kiss the top of her hand. Stacie went hysterical giggling.

Benji was really good with kids. Loved them, in fact. Was probably going to have at least two dozen of them by the time he hit forty.

When Maps looked at Lane, Lane was staring at Benji with a scowl on his face. Now, that was a look Maps knew all too well from experience—the
I-want-to-punch-you-in-the-face
face.

“Hey,” Maps said, poking Lane’s bicep, “don’t worry. Benji is great with kids. He works part-time at a daycare. Not even because he had to, but for
fun
. Can you believe that’s some people’s idea of fun?” Maps shuddered.

But Lane still had the same look on his face. Maps thought he’d better distract Lane before Lane really put the
I-want-to-punch-you-in-the-face
face into action, even if he didn’t understand why Lane was suddenly so grouchy. Benji really was great with kids.

Maps walked over to the kitchen table where his book bag was perched, and had a seat. Within a minute, he and Lane both had their math books out in front of them along with their worksheets.

They began working on a few problems but Lane seemed distracted. Maps unconsciously ground his teeth together, figuring
Lacey
was to blame.

“Okay, do you know how to solve this problem?” Maps said, tapping his pencil on the paper.

“So, is he actually, like, your boyfriend, or whatever?”

Maps’ head shot up. When had Lane moved his chair so close? Not that Maps minded, exactly, because Lane smelled like Irish Spring soap. That just so happened to be Maps’ favorite scent. He decided just then.

Before Maps could answer, Stacie called out from the sofa behind them. “Lane, the girl on TV looks like Lacey! She has pretty hair.” She then pointed to Maps. “And he has stupid hair.”

Maps thought Benji was about to bust a gut laughing, the way he was rolling on the floor holding his stomach.

“Oh, this kid is great,” Benji choked out while cackling like a hyena.

“But Mappy says she’s stupid!” Stacie wailed.

“What?” Lane said.

Maps just held his hands up defensively, but said nothing. Lane sighed.

“Sorry, Stacie’s been weird all day. First, I get home to find all my pillows and sheets in the garden below my window, then she pitches a fit until I take her for ice cream, and now this. I have no idea what’s gotten into her lately.”

“Yeah,” Maps agreed, “strange kid.”

“Hey, listen,” Lane said quietly as he leaned in close. Maps really wished Lane wouldn’t lean so close.

Really.

It was entirely too distracting. Maps could see each and every freckle that peppered Lane’s nose and could see the razor thin shards of brown embedded in Lane’s pale green eyes. Lane’s eyelashes were long and blond, just like his hair, and Maps knew for a fact that sometimes they stuck together went it was cold outside.

“Do you want to come to my next baseball game? It’s here in town. We’re going to be playing over at the diamond near Parker Avenue and Fourth Street.”

Before the thought really even entered his mind, Maps knew whatever it was Lane was asking him to do, he’d agree. “Yes.”

“Really?” Lane perked up. “That’s great! I knew I’d make a baseball fan out of you.”

“More like a Lane fan.”

Oh, no.

Lane blinked.

Maps blinked. Would the ground just open up and swallow him whole?

“Maps—” Lane began, but was cut off.

“I miss Lacey!” Stacie squawked. “Is she still coming over tomorrow, Lane?”

“Uh.” Lane turned awkwardly in his chair to face his little sister. “Yeah, Stacie, but we’ll talk about it later, okay?”

“Okay!” She went back to watching the TV.

“Lacey is your girlfriend, isn’t she?” Maps couldn’t manage to hide the sliver of hurt in his voice, even if he tried.

“Well, kind of, but—”

“What did you get for answer six?”

“What?”

“Answer six, Lane. What did you get?” Maps avoided eye contact, staring down at the paper on the table in front of him and the chewed-up pencil in his hand.

“Maps—”

“I got seven and a quarter.”

Lane reluctantly looked down at his own sheet of paper. “Yeah, me too.”

“Great,” Maps said, quickly snapping his math textbook closed. “Then we’re all set. You should do great on the test tomorrow.”