Signal to Noise(41)

“Maybe I should just ignore it. I don’t have to apologize. Do I?” Meche asked.

Daniela sighed. Meche had been going on about Sebastian all morning. She did not like it when they fought because Daniela often ended up in the middle, a courier between two upset parties. But she was not willing to play mediator this time. Besides, Meche was cutting into her daydreaming.

“I don’t know,” she said.

The bell rang. Meche grabbed her books. Mr. Rodriguez raised his voice, trying to be heard over the drone of teenage voices and the shuffling of feet.

“Remember. I have two tutoring spots left in the afternoons,” he said.

Daniela and Meche hurried to the bathroom. They had chemistry lab next and that meant they had to change into their lab coats before climbing the narrow steps to the classroom. If the coat was not spotless Miss Costa would deduct points from their lab work. Meche, as usual, had neither washed nor ironed her coat, and was trying to quickly clean a ketchup stain which had landed smack on the front of the coat.

“I was thinking of taking some tutoring sessions with Rodriguez,” Daniela said, checking her hair in the mirror to make sure her bangs were still stiff with hair spray.

“Man, I hate Rodriguez. He smiles too much.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being friendly.”

“It’s annoying. Okay, what’s good for cleaning ketchup stains?”

“I don’t know. Bleach?”

“Ugh!”

“You asked.”

Meche tossed the coat in the sink and pressed both hands on each side of it, staring into the mirror.

“I hate Sebastian.”

“Meche...”

“He’s being unfair!”

“He’s hurt. The girl he likes doesn’t give a crap about him and then you are all mean to him.”

“I didn’t think he really wanted to dance,” Meche protested.

“Oh, I don’t think it’s the dance that’s bothering him... he told me you went to see him and called him a loser.”

“What a tattletale! That’s why he can’t get a girlfriend.”

Meche opened the faucet, pumped some soap onto the coat, and began scrubbing it vigorously.

“I’m not apologizing,” Meche said firmly.

That was the thing about Meche and Sebastian. Both were too proud and too damn stubborn to simply make up.

Meche put on the coat, which was soaking wet. Instead of a red stain she now had a pink stain. It still looked terrible.

“I wonder if I can turn it inside out?” she muttered.

“I think Costa’s going to deduct points no matter what you do. We’ve got to go or we’ll be late.”

“Fine. Worst day ever,” Meche muttered. “Constantino didn’t even look at me today. It’s like he noticed me once and now I’m back to being invisible.”

“You’re not invisible,” Daniela said.

Meche said something about boys, but Daniela was already flying away into her daydream. Pirates and South Seas and a dashing admiral saving her life.





THREE KNOCKS. MECHE, of course. Sebastian could ignore her. But he knew how persistent she could be. If she was back after what happened two days before, that meant she was back with a vengeance. He opened the door a crack.

“We need to talk,” Meche said. “And spare me the dirty look.”

“We do?” Sebastian said, raising an arm and resting it against the door frame.

“Don’t...”

“No, you don’t,” he replied.

“You are such a baby,” Meche whispered and held out a piece of paper. “Here. Take it.”

Sebastian looked at the paper warily. She kept waving it in front of his face so he grabbed and unfolded it. It was a rail map of Europe. He looked carefully at the jumble of colours, the red and yellow and blue lines, and back at Meche.

“It’s for the wall. For your collection,” she said.

Sebastian was quiet. Meche sighed.

“I’m trying to apologize to you,” she whispered.

He did not budge. It had come to this. She had to use her trump card. Meche didn’t want to. He could tell.

She gave in.

“My object of power is the Duncan Dhu record,” she told him. “The one we played that time in the factory. I selected it after we were done. I keep it my room in a box with some toys.”

“You’re not lying?”

“What do you think?”

Sebastian opened the door wider, letting her in. Meche walked in and they looked at each other.

“Um... I’m sorry too,” he admitted. “I made a big deal out of nothing. Do you want... I can put the map up right now and we can go for a ride afterwards.”

“Sure.”

Sebastian made his way around a mound of dirty clothes Romualdo had piled up near the entrance to their room. He found the box with the thumbtacks and put the map right above the one of France, where he could look at them before going to sleep at night.

“It’s really awesome. Thanks,” he told her.

“Sure.”

“I’m going to spend a whole year in Europe after high school. I’ll travel all the countries and see all the major cities. All the way up north, so I can see the midnight sun.”