The Fragile Ordinary(87)
Tobias and I shot each other a look, mine knowing, his heated, and I squirmed at the reminder of our times together. I thought we’d been discreet, but I heard a choked noise behind me and turned to see Steph and Vicki staring at me wide-eyed. Steph’s mouth dropped open but before she could say a word, Vicki nudged her. As for me...well my face must have been the color of a tomato by the time we got to the boys’ table, knowing the girls would reenact the Spanish Inquisition as soon as they had me alone.
I willed my embarrassment away as Tobias introduced us to the three sixth years we didn’t know—Michael Haddow, David Okonkwo and Mike Green. They were friendly enough, welcoming us to the table, seeming happy to have us join them.
“So you guys are in King and Andy’s year?” Mike asked.
Steph nodded. “Yeah. We’re the cream of the fifth year crop.”
“I believe it.” Michael winked at her.
My friend blossomed under the attention, taking turns flirting with all three plus Andy. Tobias joined in on the banter with the boys while I tried to overcome my boy shyness by joking back and forth with Steph. But my ears were also on Vicki and Luke’s conversation. As soon as we’d approached the table, Luke had touched Vicki’s wrist and gestured for her to take a seat next to him.
“Fashion design?” I heard him ask her. His eyes never left her face as she answered.
“Yeah.”
“So ye could make a pair of trousers, shirt, dress, anything?”
She nodded, smiling at his seeming awe. “I made a lot of the costumes for the school show at Christmas. Chicago.”
His eyes widened. “No way. I saw it. My wee sister was in the chorus. Ye made all those costumes, really?”
Vicki grinned harder. “Really.”
“That’s amazing. I couldnae even work the sewing machine in home ecies in first year. Baked an epic Victoria Sponge, but dinnae ask me to thread a sewing machine.”
My friend chuckled. “Well, I can’t tackle a six-foot-two guy and live to tell the tale so I guess we all have our talents.”
Luke smiled, his gaze moving over her face and then her hair. He stared at it. “You have really cool hair.”
“I know,” she said with attitude as if to say, I don’t need you to tell me I have cool hair.
Instead of being offended he laughed. Hard. Drawing his teammates’ attention from conversation with each other.
Luke’s answer to their questioning stares? “She’s funny.”
They nodded, throwing Vicki curious looks, and just like that she and Luke were pulled into talking with the rest of the table. It surprised me how easy it was. How comfortable. The boys were laid-back and funny without being mean-funny like so many teenage boys I’d encountered. I could see why Tobias liked them all. And it seemed they liked us, too. We laughed a lot that lunchtime, and I wondered how it was possible that the new school term could be starting out so different from the term before.
I’d been alone and mostly content with my isolation.
Now the thought of sitting in this cafeteria by myself reading a book made me feel anxious.
“Don’t you have a free period next, Comet?” Steph asked, jolting me from my musings.
“Hmm?”
“Free period, next?”
“Uh yeah. I have two actually.”
“Andy and I do, too. We were going to study together in the library. You’ll join us, right?”
“I.e. help us?” Andy joked. And then he explained to the rest of the table, “Comet is wicked smart. She’s on the road to being Dux of our year.”
I blushed at the acknowledgment. Dux was Latin for leader and the title given to the student who held the highest academic ranking. To be honest there were a few of us in our year good enough to be Dux. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
Michael nudged David. “Okonkwo is most definitely going to be the Dux this year.”
David nodded confidently. “Probably.” He smiled at me appreciatively. “No need to be embarrassed, Comet. Smart girls are hot.”
While everyone chuckled, I glanced at Tobias, who turned to David and just stared at him, a detectable warning in his expression that made the guys hoot with laughter. David held up his hands in surrender. “I didn’t mean anything by it, King. Cool your jets.”
Tobias threw his arm around my shoulders and grinned wolfishly at David. “All good.”
I rolled my eyes, blushing harder at his public claiming.
After lunch Tobias kissed me goodbye and me, Steph, Vicki and Andy walked toward the library. Vicki’s home economics class was in the same direction.
Steph groaned as we walked. “Com, you are so lucky to have Tobias be so into you.”
“Lucky?” Vicki huffed. “She’s not a dog. He doesn’t have ownership papers for her.”
“Oh don’t make this about feminism.” Steph pulled a face. “Next you’ll stop shaving under your arms and claiming equal rights for women when what you actually mean is better rights for women than what men have.”
Vicki looked murderous. “It’s misconceptions like that about feminism that give feminists a bad name. It’s bad enough guys are making those kind of comments, Steph, we don’t need girls saying them, too.”
“Oh really. Well...the glass ceiling is made up.” She stuck out her tongue, obviously purposely riling Vicki.