The Taming (12 page)

“
And that which spites me
,” I said, prompting the next line.

“I know the line,” she said, suddenly becoming Katie again. “It’s just I was thinking about what this is all about. Petruchio won’t let her eat or sleep.”

“That’s how he’s breaking her,” I said. “Taming the shrew.”

“But in world politics class we were hearing about the way that political prisoners are broken down using techniques like starvation and sleep deprivation. It’s more like she’s his prisoner than his wife.”

“In those days the two weren’t that different,” I said. “A woman belonged to the husband, and before that the father. She was simply chattel.”

“Sorry? I don’t …” She looked down at the table.

“It’s not your fault.” I reached over to touch her cheek. “Blame the public education system. Chattel means property, really anything owned by the man, like his cows or wagons or wife. Wife, kids, lock, stock and barrel! Women and children weren’t people, they were human property, basically his slaves.”

“That’s awful!”

“That’s why they call them the good old days, I guess.”

“That’s even more awful!” she said while punching me in the arm.

“You know I’m just kidding around.” Sort of. It sure would have been easier back then—for the man. Divorce didn’t mean losing half of all you’d worked for; it was simply turning in one model for another. I was pretty sure that was what was keeping my father around—fear of losing half of everything that he loved … and that wasn’t me or my mother.

“I just can’t get over you,” Katie said. “I used to think I was pretty smart until I met you.”

I gave her my best indulgent smile.

“Sometimes I feel a bit stupid compared to you.”

“Just compared to me?” I questioned.

She looked shocked, but then she said, “Well, you and Lisa. She’s scary-smart too.”

I clenched my teeth. Clearly it was too early to separate her completely.

“But really, there’s nobody like you, nobody knows the things you do!” she said.

I reached over and took her hand. “Thanks, but there’s lots of things I don’t know. For example, why Cooper picked
Taming of the Shrew
as the play.”

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it. She’s a raving feminist who’s always talking about equality and women’s rights and she picks a play in which Shakespeare presents women as possessions of their fathers and husbands. That doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe that’s why she did it,” Katie said, “to show us how far we’ve come and to show us women not to take our freedom and rights for granted.”

I shrugged. “Maybe, it’s just that I can’t figure her out.”

“What’s to figure out? She’s a great teacher.”

“No, she’s a
good
teacher. I just can’t figure out why she doesn’t like me.”

“What? She likes you! Of course she likes you!”

“I think she likes me about as much as Lisa likes me,” I said.

“That’s crazy talk. Lisa adores you!” She was shocked, but also a bit uncertain. It had worked. “And Ms. Cooper likes you too. In fact, everybody likes you! I’ve never seen anything like it. You’ve been here a minute and the whole school loves you, so of course Lisa and Ms. Cooper do too. How can you even think that they don’t?”

I almost blurted out my reasons: at least one of them had me figured out, and one was maybe jealous. “Nothing I can put my finger on … just a feeling,” I said.

“Well, I just know that her putting me in the lead role means so much to me. I don’t know why she did that.”

“Who else would she put in that role? You are a
spectacular
Kate.”

She started to blush. I didn’t know girls still actually did that.

“You’re just saying that because …” I could tell she was going to say one thing and then she switched up to another. “Because you’re so sweet.”

“I’m saying it because everybody is saying it, because it’s true.”

She gripped my copy of
The Taming of the Shrew
with both hands.

“I never lie,” I said—which of course was a lie. “And I’ll never lie to
you
.” Which was an even bigger lie. She melted before my eyes.

“I’m going to tell you something that I’ve never told anybody.”

I had this sinking feeling that she was going to tell me that she loved me, and then I’d have to either lie to her and tell her that I felt the same thing or—

“I want to be an actor,” she said.

“Really?”

“You don’t think I’m good enough to be one?” She sounded devastated.

“No, I don’t think that at all. You are an incredible actress!” At least that wasn’t a lie.

She blushed again. It was kind of a rush being able to do that.

“It’s just that before being in this play I would never have thought anything like that,” she said. “I was always too nervous to even answer questions in class … but now … up there on stage … it, I feel
so
right.”

“It
is
right. I don’t think you
could
be an actress. You
are
an actress.”

She leaned in close. “If I tell you something else, will you promise not to tell anybody?” Her voice was just above a whisper.

“You know you can count on me.” The lies were adding up.

“Ms. Cooper has arranged for some people from the National Academy to come to the opening night performance. She thinks they might offer me a summer internship with a real possibility of a scholarship after graduation next year.”

“That’s wonderful!” I kissed her hair.

“Please, Evan, don’t, not here,” she whispered.

I bit back a rush of anger—who was she to tell me what to do?—but I held it inside. “I’m sure once they see you they’ll offer you a full ride.”

“Oh, Evan, it means so much that you believe in me.”

And right at that moment, even
I
wanted to believe I wasn’t lying.

Chapter Nineteen

E
van and Katie, Katie and Evan, Evan, Evan, Evan!
It was a prayer when I was happy, and a mantra when I was scared, like every single time we walked down the halls together. I think it was that whole
Carrie
/pig’s blood thing again. Something bad was bound to happen. It always did—both in those horror movies and in my life. But then again, it was a major miracle we were together to begin with. It had been twenty-six, no, twenty-seven days so far, so why shouldn’t it last?

I think Lisa had already made a decision that not only
wouldn’t
it last, it
shouldn’t
last. I couldn’t figure that out. Lisa had started out so supportive—well, for Lisa, that is. She’d loaned me a ton of stuff and tried to get me up to speed on the dating rules. But more and more, Lisa had less and less of anything to say about Evan. It wasn’t that she said anything bad about him, she just didn’t say anything at all. She’d change the topic whenever I said his name, which also was less and less, because I didn’t have much free time to see her or Travis, outside of school or rehearsals.

Evan knew she didn’t like him. I kept telling him he was way wrong, but he knew. He knew before I knew. He was
so
smart.

Evan was, hands down, the
best
thing that had ever happened to me in my whole life, ever. You’d think my so-called best friend would have been over the moon for me. Instead she moaned about me never being anywhere I should have been—which meant being with her.

But what could I do? I had Evan.

I had to admit that I loved to see the looks on the faces of the school
royalty
when we walked by. Lisa said that every school in the universe has them. Girls with more money than brains. Most of that money went into clothes, weekly blow-outs and regular visits to the Tanning Salon, hence the
Orange crowd
. They used to make me glad I was invisible.

But they didn’t have Evan. I did. And
my
Evan just kept coming up with unbelievable little surprises for me. Like last Friday. First we met for gourmet hamburgers, and who else would have known there even was such a thing? And then, for the surprise, we drove to a movie revue house for a single-night showing of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in 1967’s
The Taming of the Shrew!
Apparently, Evan had scoured the city for something that would be special for me! I couldn’t even speak afterwards.

How could I not love him? And I did. Let’s face it, I’d been gone on Evan Campbell from the minute he’d walked into drama class almost a month ago, and that was before he’d become my Prince Charming and my Knight in Shining Armour all rolled into one. The way he smiled just for me, touched my hand and explained things to me. I felt so safe when I was with him, protected, like nothing and no one could hurt me. I loved him, but I couldn’t think it, write it or say it. Especially not to him. My mother—and God knows, she had more experience than most—had told me, at least a million times, that the best way to drive a man away was to talk about commitment or feelings. “Open your mouth and jinx the whole thing.”

She should know.

Still, the words were desperate to erupt and free themselves. He did so many adorable things. Like on Tuesday, we were walking down the hall together, towards Ms. Cooper’s class. There they were right outside the biology lab, the best of this year’s
Orange
crop. Brittney, Tiffany, Jessie and Melody. I saw Brittney elbow Melody, who then promptly bounced over to Evan, leading with her chest. She used her breasts like they were weapons.

“Hey, Evan, what’s up?” Melody threw back her shoulders and flashed her best bleached pearlies at him. They just weren’t going to give up. Evan thinks I don’t notice. They barely acknowledge me. I notice. Just because I was invisible all those years doesn’t mean I didn’t
see
everything. And that day they
saw
me, all right. How could they not with Evan holding my hand? Besides, I happened to be wearing a fabulous peach Juicy Couture outfit. Lisa had hauled it out of the back of her little sister’s closet for me. Even though it was almost practically new, it was either for me or the Goodwill, she said. I’d never owned anything so designer classy in my life. There was no way Melody didn’t see, no matter how hard she was concentrating on disappearing me. Hey, the only person who was allowed to make me invisible was me.

I see it all in slow motion. Melody bats her breasts at Evan and says, “There’s a little ‘do’ at Brittney’s on Friday. We would
love
it if you came, Evan.”

Then nothing. It’s like he’s gathering himself. Evan puts his arm around me really tight. It almost hurts. He’s just so incredibly powerful. Evan has no idea how strong he is. “Sorry, Melody,” he says, “but my girl and I already have plans for Friday night. I’m taking her home for dinner.”

Melody didn’t know whether to spit or swoon. I hit pause and replay on the “
my girl
” part and kept hitting it until she huffed away. We walked by them with Evan’s arm still around me.

When we got just past Brittney, he leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Are you okay with that, Katie? I should have asked you first, of course. If you’d rather go to the party …”

“I don’t think it was me that they were inviting,” I said.

“Hey.” He brushed a strand of hair off of my face. “Even those airheads wouldn’t be stupid enough to think that I’d go anywhere without you. So, is it okay that we skip it? I do want you to come over to my house.”

I just nodded. A word would have not been possible, a full sentence was completely out of the question. Evan kissed my hair. They were looking, of course. I could feel the heat of their eyes on my back. He’d done all that for me. That whole thing had been a performance for the
Oranges
. Never mind Petruchio, even Romeo could have taken lessons from Evan.
My Evan
.

Putting the
Oranges
in their place was like scaling a mountain just for me. I got carried away and told him so when we met for frappuccinos after rehearsal. It wasn’t like telling him that I loved him or anything, so that was okay. Right?

“… and I’m so, so glad that I wore my new outfit. You always say how image is important.”

He got busy examining the dregs of his drink.

“It’s brand new. Well, for me. You haven’t said anything. Do you like it?”

“The thing is, Katie …” He leaned over and placed both his hands over mine. “The thing is, you’re a thoroughbred and, uh,
velour
, well, it’s a bit barnyard.”

Was that a no?

“You’re classier than,” he fingered the material with distaste, “than Juicy Couture.”

“But it’s a designer and everything!” I was confused. Lisa should have warned me. Instead, she’d said that it really showed off my body. Clearly, I couldn’t trust her judgment. Maybe Evan was right about her. Was she trying to sabotage us? Was she jealous of me?

“You’re my girl now, right?” He winked. “You’ve got to dress the part.”

So it
was
true! I had heard that right! I was his girl!