(C) 2010 by rmsl

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrival system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine or journal.

Intentions

The phone rang. Cory waited for Kym to answer. He felt light headed and excited as if he was nine again waiting to open presents on his birthday.

Cory realized failing to get his name on the plaque above the English Department didn’t end his career as a poet. He did come in second. To Leigh? But he didn’t feel the need to write just then. It was the middle of October and he only had a little over three months to get ready for baseball tryouts.   godandflndnff

He switched the phone over to his other ear. He hated it when nobody answered at Kym’s house. Were they just not home or was there another reason?

“What?” The man on the other line said the word so quickly Cory wasn’t sure if he pronounced all the letters.

“Er…Hi…is Kym there, please?”

Cory guessed it was her older brother, Johny, or it could’ve been Jimmy, her oldest brother. He wasn’t sure.

“Hello?” Seconds later she answered. Kym seemed agitated that Cory called. She spoke softly and monotone.

They talked for a few minutes before Cory said, “I’ll let you go. You sound tired.”

“No…no. It’s okay.” Her tone sweetened. “Johny’s just being a jerk.”

As if a different person took the phone from Kym and kept talking to him, she continued to perk up.

Cory asked himself, what’s the difference? Ask her. “Wanna go for a walk?”

“Sure. I’ll leave right now.”

Cory couldn’t explain how he felt walking down his street to meet Kym every time they took a walk. She always insisted on meeting him half way, so he stopped making it a big deal. Walking to meet her made him nervous, as if he was going to meet a famous celebrity, but at the same time it felt like a meeting with the Glass Queen—one wrong movement and she would shatter. He knew Kym’s moods well but when she warmed to him, she looked more beautiful than any other girl Cory knew real or imagined.

Kym had on the same outfit she wore to school that day. She walked with her head down, rubbing her chubby arms. Kym was about five feet six inches tall, but in no way was she a large girl. Cory liked to call her “healthy.”

Kym was distant at first. Small talk controlled their conversation. Then suddenly, “Why do people make you feel like crap and then wonder why you don’t want to be around them?” She gave a sarcastic laugh and looked up at him.

Great. This was her warm mood. Cory could feel their closeness growing. His nervousness vanished by now and his arms quivered. A feeling of comfort flooded his body and he had a hard time not staring at her lips.

“What happened? Tell me,” he said.

Kym talked for a while. She said her parents asked her to go on trip next weekend to her aunt’s house, someone’s birthday. She had agreed at first, but then she realized she already promised Gwen to help at the cheerleaders’ car wash that Saturday. She couldn’t go on the trip now. But they didn’t understand. She promised Gwen.

Even though Kym talked and talked, Cory sensed she really had said nothing at all about what bothered her. She could never open herself up to him. Cory thought he was an open book and he was willing to read her pages over and over. Except for the fact he had feelings for her. But she kept her cover completely closed.

“He thinks I’m good for nothing.”

“No he doesn’t, Kym.” Cory just loved the sound of her name. Whenever he heard it, it brought romantic sensations of nostalgia and warmth.

“He coulda fooled me. He hasn’t spoke to me since yesterday and when he does, it’s just because he has to.”

“I don’t think you’re worthless. Kym, you know you’re not.”

“Yeah, well…”

“Why can’t you ever just accept a compliment from me, huh?”

She laughed artificially. “When you’re told your whole life that you don’t matter or you’re a piece of crap…it’s a little hard to think otherwise.”

Sometimes Cory thought she exaggerated her home life. He noticed her dad was a little distant on visits, but her mom was a bubbly, loving older version of Kym.

“What do ya think you’ll get on your report card this quarter?” she asked after a few minutes of silent walking.

“I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it.”

She smiled like she smiled at him after school when she congratulated him on his poem. He loved her like this.

“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

“Nope,” he said.

If she knew about it, Kym never mentioned what he said to Gwen earlier in study hall.

 

The hallway felt cold. The shirt under his sweatshirt felt damp, but the air on his face was brisk.

He hadn’t written anything for two weeks since the poetry contest. His workouts grew in intensity and he shed eight pounds since the beginning of school. Mr. Foster watched as he zipped up and down the L-shaped halls.

“You better watch out,” he said quietly.

“Huh?”

Mr. Foster’s words registered too late and he smacked right into Leigh Reynolds. Her books went flying in the air, but she caught herself on the edge of a wall. She looked embarrassed.

Cory immediately went to the floor and helped her pick up her things. When he handed her the last notebook, and their eyes met, he smiled at her. She smiled back. He couldn’t understand why his feelings of annoyance for her left him or when they did. He just knew he wanted to smile at her. Maybe it was because he called Kym last night and she was in a really good mood; or maybe all his running that morning left him dizzy.

“Thanks,” she said.

He started to run again. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught her going into a room on the right of the hallway.

 

Cory wondered all day why Leigh was at school so early. He had never seen a student any earlier than 8:15 before. He didn’t get a chance to talk to her during English class so he waited for ninth period study hall. He felt anxious all day.

When he walked into study hall, Leigh was already sitting at a desk. She saw him walk in, got up, and sat right next to him.

He never apologized to her for how he treated her the first couple months of school, but he could tell she somehow sensed he was sorry.

She spoke first, “About the contest…I want…I didn’t—”

He cut her off. “Forget about it. Your poem was beautiful.”

“But I want you to know—”

“Look, I said to forget about it.”

She smiled with relief. It looked like a giant weight floated away from her shoulders. Her expression seemed to show she understood that Cory wasn’t mad about her winning and that it was really old news.

“Hey, why were you here so early?”

This question interested her because she turned in her seat, placing her long right leg under her other long leg. Her cheeks came to life and her large eyes glowed.

“I’m practicing. For the play in April. I want to be Juliet.”

“For the play? In the basement?”

“Yeah, in the alumni room. Mr. Maragelloto told me about it and he leaves it unlocked for me.”

She was unstoppable now. She told Cory how one day Mr. Maragelloto caught her reciting lines outside of his classroom. He told her that this school has not had a decent Juliet in years.

“So he told me about the alumni room. It has tapes of all the past plays the school’s put on. He also gave me other tapes of Romeo and Juliet so I can study the Juliets’ movements and tone. The morning is the only time I can go there because…”

Cory wasn’t sure he was glad he decided to talk to her. She told him about her father and how she tried to look after him as much as she could. They had moved here a little over a year ago before junior year because of her dad’s job. She told him how spending time with her dad and not going out for the basketball team made it hard for her to make friends here.

“But you’re so tall.”

“Yeah,” she smirked, “But I suck. Too clumsy.”

Cory laughed. It was easy to talk to her. She was so involved in what Cory said or asked.

“Is your dad sick or something?”

Her lively expression faded. Cory wished he had never asked her.

“My mother died.”

Cory realized talking about her mother dying was tough on Leigh, but that she sort of enjoyed telling him. She said she and her dad moved here after it happened. His job transferred him into an easier and less stressful position. But he has never been the same. She worried about him but he was getting better.

“Before my mom died…I was scared of everything. I always wanted to be in a play but I couldn’t even bring myself to sign up for set crew. But I promised myself I wouldn’t be afraid of anything anymore. That’s why I’m writing my own play. I’m determined to be Juliet too and the poetry contest…”

At that moment, Cory felt closer to Leigh than any person in his entire life. They barely knew each other but she was telling him these things like they were friends since birth. He envied her openness.

The bell rang. Boy, that was quick! Usually study hall seemed to go on forever, listening to the drivel of the cheerleaders or the macho-ranting of the football players.

 

Cory made his way through the students mobbing the gym floor. He forgot there was a basketball game later. The cheerleaders were practicing and most of the male student body stood around and watched.

Why hadn’t he just waited for Bobby and Kevin in the car like he usually did?

Leigh was standing in a group of students by the stage. Probably the set crew. When she spotted him, she ran over.

“What’s up?”

“I dunno. Do you need a ride a home?” Cory didn’t know where the question came from. He was tired of being a taxi service for the brothers and Kelly and now he was adding one more to his list of passengers.

Leigh’s face lit up. She smiled so largely that Cory could’ve counted each one of her teeth. He also noticed her button nose redden at the tip. She was so excited.

“Sure! We don’t have crew today because of the game. Let me get my things.”

Cory saw it all unfold before it actually happened.

Gwen was standing over by the door to the girls’ locker room with the other cheerleaders. Kym and Joey were there too. Just next to the door was a blue Goodwill bin.

It all happened in slow motion.

He saw Kym start to walk over to him with her back to Gwen. He saw Gwen’s leg rise. He saw her foot against the blue Goodwill bin. He saw her slide it along the floor, right in Leigh’s path to the stage.

Leigh must not have been paying attention to where she was going or maybe she was so excited to get a ride from Cory that she didn’t see the bin cross her path. She had ran to the stage so when her legs hit the bin, she tumbled face first over it. Her legs flailed in the air and she landed on her back.

“Maybe you can find an outfit for tomorrow?” Gwen taunted.

Everybody laughed.

Kym didn’t see what happened and looked confused when Cory passed her to go to Leigh.

She was okay. He helped her to her feet. She wasn’t even mad. This girl is so strange. He would’ve been furious. She went to get her things.

“You know, Gwen, what’s wrong with you?”

All the cheerleaders were still laughing.

Joey looked a little embarrassed to be there, though. He wasn’t smiling in the slightest.

“What’s wrong with me?” she said sarcastically.

Cory could’ve threw her across the gym. Why was he so upset? Leigh was handling it better than him.

“Gwen, why don’t you go take a shower. You look dirtier than ever today.”

As Leigh and him walked away, Kym stopped them. She hadn’t seen what Gwen did but she had a frightful expression on her face.

“Call me tonight, okay? I need to talk.”

Cory was so mad at what happened to Leigh that he transferred his anger to Kym. Her smile and pleading blue eyes didn’t affect him this time.

“Yeah, well…why don’t you go talk to Gwen? She’s your best friend isn’t she?”

 

Leigh lived closer to Cory than he expected. He dropped off the brothers and then drove her home.

“Thanks for back at the gym. But I’m really okay. You didn’t have to treat Kym like that either. I know how much you like her.”

“That girl just gets me. Who cares how you dress? I don’t know how Kym can be friends with her. They’re so different.”

‘Cory, it’s actually what I wanted.”

“What? You wanted to fall on your face in front of everybody?”

She laughed like she knew something that Cory didn’t.

“Well…no…but I’ve been dressing like this for research. For my play. I needed to see how people really treated someone like this. For a character.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, the character’s coming along great. That girl has actually helped me a lot. So have you.”

Leigh looked at her hands in her waist. She seemed to be thinking something over in her head.

She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

“Thanks again,” she said as she got out of the car.

Cory sat in the driveway for a few seconds before he pulled away. That girl was definitely strange.