How to Be Brave(13)

We park ourselves right near the west entrance at the sea lions, which might be one of my most favorite spots in the entire world. They have these wooden benches stacked like bleachers that rise up and look out over the blue pool of water where the sea lions just swim and swim and swim. Their sleek bullet bodies speed underwater in smooth circles around the perimeter of the pool. And then, once they’ve had enough, they hoist themselves onto a rock, and suddenly they’re heavy and solid, a thick mass of blubber and muscle baking in the sun. They wiggle and writhe awkwardly. In those moments, they’re almost human. And then, when they’ve had enough, they’re underwater again, all grace and beauty. I could watch them for hours. It’s what my mom called meditative.

“You can cross something off your list now.” Liss takes a sip of the Frappuccino and then hands it to me. “Like for real.”

“But we’re going to do this again, right?” I open the lid and lick off some whipped cream. “I mean, if we don’t get caught.”

“We’re not going to get caught. And yes, we’ll do this again.”

“Okay, cool.” I hand the Frappuccino back to Liss, take out the list, and cross out #11. Cut class. “But why do I feel like I haven’t actually accomplished something? All we did was walk down the street. And even if we get caught, so what? I want to do something.”

“Well, let’s look at that list again.”

I hand it to Liss and she rereads it and then bites her nails while she tries to devise a plan for our next step.

I stare out at the sea lions. One is rubbing his back against the rocks like a giant cat. He rolls over and exhales onto his belly. He blows a big sigh out his nose. What a life. Not a care in the world. Oh, to be so lucky.

And then, I feel someone staring at me. You know that feeling, like a tiny little spider is crawling up your neck? I look behind me, and lo and behold, someone is staring at me. A girl my age with long, black dreads, ripped tights, and big ol’ combat boots. Her big brown eyes are locked on me, and even though I sort of frown at her to make her stop staring, she doesn’t stop. Instead, she smiles.

I turn my gaze back to the sea lions. “Freakazoid warning,” I mutter to Liss. “Upper bleachers, three o’clock.”

Liss snaps her neck to look at her. Then she hurtles back around and pretends to point at the sea lion, who has now made his way back into the water. “I know her,” she whispers. “That’s Baseline Evelyn. She just moved here. She goes to Webster.”

“Wait. How do you know her?” I whisper back. “And what does that mean? Why ‘baseline’?”

“We have PE together. And ‘baseline’ because she has to take drug tests every month to prove to her parents that she hasn’t used.”

“Shit.” I take a bite of my croissant. “And I thought I had problems.”

“Could be your entry into item number twelve.” Liss shrugs, slurping up some more Frappuccino.

“Hm. Indeed.”

I look back over my shoulder. Evelyn’s still staring, but now she’s also pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and she’s pounding them rhythmically into her fist, waiting for me to do something.

So I do something. I wave.

“What are you doing?” Liss asks.

Before I can answer, Evelyn has dropped her cigarettes in her bag and is stepping down across the benches toward us and sits down next to me. “The sea lions are nice, right?”

“Um, yeah,” I agree, not knowing what else to say.

“You’re Evelyn, right?” Liss puts her hand out. “We have gym together. This is Georgia.”

Evelyn takes her hand and shakes it and then nods at me. “I followed you here, you know.”

I laugh and Liss laughs and Evelyn laughs, but I’m not sure she knows what she’s laughing about. I know that I’m laughing because that’s just f*cking weird.

“Um, okay,” I say. “All the way from Webster?”

“No. I spotted you at CVS. Then I followed you to Starbucks. Then I followed you here.”

“Why’d you follow us?”

“Why not? Had nothing else to do. I mean, you two look cool, I guess. And it was obvious you weren’t going to school today. But it was a little too obvious.” Whoa, this one’s honest. “You look like a couple of convicted outlaws, looking over your shoulders every two minutes.”

“What? Us?” Liss pretends she’s offended. “No way!”

“Really?” I am actually offended. “It’s that obvious?”

“Yes, it is that obvious.” She puts her hand into her bag and pulls out a pair of brand-new sunglasses. “Oh, and I got you these.” She hands them to Liss.

They’re bright red and the tag is still on. “Hey, are these the ones I was trying on at CVS?”

“Yeah, you looked good in them.”

“Awesome.” Liss rips off the tag. “Thanks!”

“Wait,” I say. “Did you steal those?”

“I admit to nothing.” She reaches back into her bag, and this time she pulls out a cigarette. “Here, do you want a smoke?”

Liss reaches out to take one even though she doesn’t smoke, and the teacher’s pet in me yells, Red light, red light!