The Mother's Promise(51)

Alice could actually feel her daughter’s sense of accomplishment radiating from her.

“Cool,” Alice said, giving her a high five. At the same time, she conjured up an image of Kate’s pretty face in her mind and then imagined slapping it.





36

Zoe was going to debate practice. Or maybe she wasn’t. She hadn’t decided yet. The debate was in a week. Their team had organized an after-school meeting to “practice” their debate, but from what Zoe could tell, it was actually to “write” the debate, because except for her and Harry, no one had actually done it.

Apart from in class, she hadn’t seen Harry all week. For some reason, she found herself avoiding him. At lunchtime she sat outside, alone. In class she kept her head down. Once she’d even ducked into the restroom when she’d noticed him coming down the corridor toward her. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see him. The problem was, she had absolutely no idea what to say when she did see him. She couldn’t flirt, that was for sure. She could barely be around him without blushing. And so, she decided, it was better not to see him at all.

Now she stood at her locker, clutching her index cards. The meeting had started twenty-four minutes ago, and for the past twenty-four minutes Zoe had stood with her head in her locker, frozen with indecision. The stupid thing was, she wanted to go to the meeting. She wanted to be part of the debate. She just wanted to go as an invisible person.

She took her bag out of her locker and walked toward the gates. This was ridiculous. She was going home. But at the last minute, as if tricking herself, she took a sharp left into the classroom where the meeting was being held.

Eric stood at a laptop while people talked over one another. A few people looked up when she walked in, then quickly down again. Harry stood at the back. Just like that, Zoe’s breath disappeared. She turned, ready to duck out again, pretend she’d taken a wrong turn.

“Hey, Zoe.”

She froze in the doorway, then turned back. It was Ella Brennan. Zoe didn’t even know that Ella knew her name.

“Hey,” she said, so quietly that even she couldn’t hear it. She walked a little closer to the group, feeling Harry’s eyes. Being in the same room with him sent tingles up and down her body. Not the tingles of discomfort she usually had around people. A different kind.

“So,” Eric said to the group. “What are we going to close with?”

A few people called out ideas, most of them juvenile. The rest talked among themselves or thumbed their iPhones. Clearly the group had lost their mojo.

Eric struggled to get the group’s attention. “Guys? Come on! We need a closing!”

Jim yawned. Ella put her phone away, but looked unenthused. Everyone else shuffled uncomfortably. Zoe stood on tiptoe, trying to get a look at the laptop. She scanned the notes that had already been taken. When no one else offered anything else, she took a deep breath.

“We could close by appealing to the teachers,” she said in a small voice. “Focus on how they must feel, being the ‘Mr.’ and ‘Mrs.’ all the time. I mean … surely they’d prefer to be humanized by being called by their first name?”

A few people turned to see who was talking. Zoe tried to shrink down, make herself smaller.

“Good idea,” Eric said. “The other team won’t think of getting the teachers on their side. And Mrs. Patterson is choosing the winner. We want to get her on our side.”

Zoe felt so pleased she forgot not to look at Harry. He was already looking at her, smiling a little. Any breath she had left was suddenly gone.

“Anything else, Zoe?”

She jumped at her name. Her hands were shaking so much she had to clasp them together. “Um … well, we can talk about how teachers are people,” she suggested. “You know … their parents took the time to give them a name and stuff. So we should use it.”

“Wait,” Jim exclaimed. “Teachers are people?”

A few people laughed but Eric rolled his eyes and kept typing furiously. Zoe could feel the heat in her face, the sweat beading on her forehead. But it occurred to her that, in this instance, it might just be worth it.

When Eric finished typing he turned to Zoe, his palm in the air. It took Zoe a moment to realize he was looking for a high five. She obliged, seconds after she should have, feeling ridiculous.

Afterward, out in the hallway, Harry fell into step beside her. Zoe tried to speed up, but there was no getting away from him. Finally she focused on walking in a straight line, which as it turned out, did require her concentration.

“So where’ve you been these last few days?” he asked, halfway down the corridor.

“Why?” Zoe said. “Were you looking for me?”

She didn’t mean it to be cute or sassy (when had she ever been either?) but, by some miracle, it came out that way. Harry responded with a satisfying burst of laughter. Then he flicked her a sideways glance. “I was looking for you,” he said. “Just so you know.”

Zoe’s heart was racing even before the double doors swung open, and giant bodies filled the room. The football team. They seemed to fill the entire corridor, many of them high-fiving Harry as they went. Zoe shrank down and moved as far as she could toward one wall. In an instant she wanted to be invisible again.

“Hey, Harry.”