Pink & Green is the New Black (8 page)

Lucy's tip for surviving eighth grade:

Be polite even when you don't feel like it.

Mrs. Deleccio finds me
as soon as I get to school Monday morning.

“Lucy, the school board tells me they'll have a final decision this afternoon. They'd like all of you to meet with them at 3:45 in the school library. Can you do that?”

I run over my schedule in my head; I don't have anything going on. “Sure. I think so.”

“Okay, great. I'll try to tell the others, but if you see them before I do, please let them know.”

“Okay, thanks.”

She caught me off guard, and I had to think for a minute to figure out what decision she was talking about. But of course this is the big moment for our green cafeteria plan! Now I have to get through the rest of the day wondering what the decision is going to be.

If it was bad news, they probably wouldn't want to meet with us. They'd just e-mail or something. But if it was good news, would they really need a meeting? They could just say that everything looks perfect, and we could move on from there.

I have no idea what the decision will be.

And I won't see Sunny until third period. Today is a gym day, so our regular schedule is different. We're not in the same gym class. And I have band and she has orchestra.

I walk into the band room, and Travis is the first person I see.

I had fun with him Saturday, but Sunny's comment about his crush on me is irking me a bit. I mean, I don't even know if it's true. But if it is true, I don't know what to do about it. I still like Yamir. He drives me totally crazy, but he's Yamir. He's in a class of his own. I can't abandon all hope that things will work out between us.

“Hi, Lucy,” Travis says.

“Hey.” At the mall he seemed cuter and I felt chattier. But now, in the band room on a Monday morning, I wish he wouldn't talk at all. Maybe it's the fluorescent lighting, or the fact that my stomach is already grumbling because I'm hungry for lunch. But I just had a snack on the way to class, so it can't be hunger.

My grumbling stomach must be from nervousness. Talking to Travis is making me nervous. This can't be good.

“Your mall is cool,” he says, and I nod, and then he goes over to his seat in the clarinet section.

I was rude. I know I was. But sometimes it's too early to talk to someone you don't know that well. Making conversation takes energy. And I'm not a morning person.

Mr. Flagg stands up in front of the band and tells us that we need to take things more seriously. “Take time with your instruments. Don't just throw them in your locker or under a pile of laundry,” he says. “Take time to get to know them. Don't consider practicing a chore.”

I look over at Travis as Mr. Flagg is talking. The rest of the band is mumbling to each other and not paying attention, but Travis actually seems to care.

I shouldn't have dismissed him a few minutes ago. He seems to be different from all the other boys at school.

When I get to lunch, everyone's already at the table. Annabelle is picking at her wrap, and Georgina has a steaming plate of cafeteria pasta in front of her. Sunny's eating an Indian dish that her mom must have made for dinner the night before.

“Hey,” I mumble, still tired.

“We have the perfect plan for you,” Eve says, picking all the onions out of her salad. “We heard what happened.”

I start to think back over the weekend, but I'm not sure what
she's talking about. Then I realize—Travis. They've heard he likes me, and they probably think I'm the worst person ever.

“If you and Yamir ever want to hang out alone, you can just go to the spa after hours!” Eve makes this declaration like it's the answer to all the world's problems, like she just came up with the solution for peace in the Middle East.

“Oh, um, right.” I smile and unwrap my sandwich.

“You have a key, right?” Eve asks.

I nod. “I do. Good idea. Thanks, Eve.”

It's clear she's trying to help me. I guess she's worried that Yamir and I don't have enough alone time. And since Eve is so obsessed with boyfriends and high school and basically anything grown-up, I get why she's all revved up about this.

“What do you think he's going to get you for Valentine's Day?” Annabelle asks, getting a tiny dot of mayonnaise in the corner of her mouth.

“Valentine's Day? Isn't that, like, pretty far away?” I ask. It feels like Christmas and Hanukkah were yesterday.

Georgina twirls some pasta around her fork, but it's hard to do with a cheap plastic one. It'll be better when we have the reusable metal forks.
If
we have them, I should say. If the school board says yes tonight. “Lucy, it's the second week of January,” Georgina says. “It's going to be here before you know it. And it's a really big deal when you have a boyfriend. You can't forget about it.”

“Thanks, Georgina. I won't.” I look at Sunny and hope she can read my eyes. What has gotten into these girls? It seems like all they want to do is give me relationship advice.

“We're just jealous,” Annabelle admits. “I know that most people hide their jealousy, but we don't.”

“Be jealous of Sunny!” I say, louder than I'd planned. “She has a boyfriend too, you know.”

“Lucy!” Sunny says. “You just yelled, and now Mr. Davenport is coming over.”

“What's the trouble, girls?” He asks. The ink from his pen has seeped through the pocket of his button-down shirt. He's like the nerdy teacher on every TV show ever made.

“Nothing. Sorry for yelling, Mr. D.” I smile at him. “We'll be quieter.”

“Thank you, Lucy.” He stays for a minute or two just to make sure everything's actually fine, I guess. And then he walks away.

“Sorry I yelled,” I whisper. “I guess all I'm saying is that it's cool to have a boyfriend and stuff. But you'll have boyfriends soon enough, and it's weird when people are jealous of you. Plus, it's not like having a boyfriend is the be-all and end-all of the world.” I heard my mom use that expression once, but I'm not totally sure what it means.

They look at me suspiciously, so I decide to drop the topic. Sunny pats my leg under the table. It's good that she's on my side,
or at least knows what's going on. But I wonder how long she's going to let me keep up the charade that Yamir and I are a model couple.

When I decided I needed to have the most perfect end to middle school, this was definitely not what I had in mind. But when I made that decision, I didn't know that Yamir would disappear on me.

“We also heard about Travis,” Eve adds, clearly not interested in talking about anything other than boys. “The whole thing kind of reminds me of this book I read a few months ago—the girl had to choose between two cute boys, and it was so tragic. But anyway, I guess Travis doesn't know that you're going out with the cutest boy in Old Mill.”

“Eve!” Sunny's the one yelling now. “Stop! My brother. Gross.”

Eve makes eyes at me. “It's true,” she mouths.

I'll never be able to tell Eve the truth. That things aren't so great with Yamir and me. That there barely even is a Yamir and me.

It would be like when your favorite actors break up, or in her case, two characters in a great romance novel. It would break her heart. Maybe as much as it would break mine.

Lucy's tip for surviving eighth grade:

Take deep breaths when you're overwhelmed.

Sunny waits for me
after studio art, my last-period class. Sunny's taking ceramics instead, so we always wait for each other in the art wing on art day.

“Ready for the meeting?” she asks.

“Nervous,” is all I can manage to say.

We walk to the library together, and the closer we get, the more nervous I am. All these adults on the school board left work early for this meeting. I guess they think it's really important.

Mrs. Deleccio is already there with Clint's dad and the other members of the school board. It looks like Mrs. Casale, the new librarian, has broken her “no eating in the library” rule, because there's a plate of cookies on the table and a pitcher of cucumber-flavored water.

“This seems fancy, doesn't it?” Sunny whispers to me.

“Yeah, Mrs. Deleccio usually buys the generic brand, but those look like they're from One Girl Cookies, down by the water. It's almost too fancy.”

“I know.” Sunny clenches my hand. “Now I'm nervous.”

“Welcome, girls. Come have a seat.” Mrs. Deleccio smiles, and I take that to mean good news is coming. I'm the kind of person who always reads into things, even when I probably shouldn't. I convince myself of signs when they're probably just coincidences.

Evan and Annabelle arrive a few minutes later. We all find seats around the library table.

“Dig in, please,” Mrs. Deleccio insists, passing the plate of cookies around.

“We're thrilled with all the work you've done,” Clint's dad starts. “We all met and discussed it, and then we realized something.”

Oh God. Did they realize that it costs too much to make the cafeteria green? That they actually don't care about the environment? That we missed something huge in our report?

My heart is thumping in my chest, louder than when Russell Chapman plays the bass drum in band.

“We realized it's not enough to make only the Old Mill Middle School cafeteria green. We need to make
all
the schools green—the elementary school and the high school too. The
faculty rooms, the catered events, the conferences.” He picks up a cookie from the plate and takes a bite. “Delicious,” he says to Mrs. Deleccio.

“Oh, I didn't bake them.” She gets nervous all of a sudden, and I want Clint's dad to go back to discussing the stuff about going green. Who cares about the cookies?

“It's a huge undertaking,” he continues. “But we can do it. It will end up being more cost-effective too, if we're ordering for a whole district. And we don't want your work to end here. You'll all be at the high school in the fall, and we're going to need lots more help.”

“I'm in!” Annabelle says in her enthusiastic, kiss-up Annabelle voice. But right now, I don't even mind. I feel the same way.

“Me too,” I tell everyone. “Thanks so much for being excited about this, and for taking us seriously.”

“Taking you seriously? Of course! You're making a huge difference,” Clint's dad says.

“Thanks,” I reply.

Annabelle starts, “And Lucy knows a lot about the high school because—”

I cut her off. “Because my sister Claudia went there!” Annabelle raises her eyebrows at me like she's shocked. But I know where she was going with that, and I don't see any
reason why Clint's dad needs to know about Yamir and me. Clint and Yamir are best friends, so maybe Clint's dad already knows. Or maybe he doesn't know anything. Either way, we don't need to bring it up. “So, what are the next steps?”

“E-mail your list of vendors to me.” He hands me his card, and I feel so official. I'm not sure anyone has ever given me a business card before. “As soon as the vendors can get everything in order, we'll transform the cafeterias!”

Mrs. Deleccio jumps in next. “Mr. Titone, the head of cafeteria services for the district, will be taking this over, for the most part. He already knows this is in the works, and I'm sure he'll hear from his boss, but it would be nice if someone from Earth Club also fills him in.”

“I can do that,” Evan says. “He lives around the corner from me. I used to play baseball with his son.”

“That sounds great, Evan.”

It seems like our work is mostly done—at least until we get to be in the high school Earth Club. I can't tell if I'm happy or sad. Maybe a little of both.

This must be how runners feel after a marathon—so happy to have completed it, but unsure what to do next.

How will I spend my time? What will I work on? I think I need to come up with another Earth Club project, or my life will seem really incomplete.

We chat for a little while longer about average Old Mill stuff—the traveling soccer team and the community pool that's being remodeled for next summer. I love to talk about improvements in Old Mill, but right now I can't focus. I'm too excited that this cafeteria thing is really happening, and too sad that my work on it is mostly done.

I want to go home and talk to Mom, Dad, and Grandma. I want to call Claudia.

Most of all, I want to talk to Yamir.