(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.

Not Yet

Basketball season was in full swing. The girls’ varsity team was in second place in their division. Hamilton was in first. The boys’ varsity team had first place already wrapped up with a month left to play before the state tournament because of their remaining weak schedule. The Trenton High boys’ team had to settle for second place, again.

Two days after Joey and Gwen found out their scholarships were fake, holiday break started. Two weeks of no homework. Cory would write anyway. And his dad would definitely keep him busy with shoveling the driveway every three hours and odd chores inside the house.

On the last day before break two things happened that surprised Cory.

Most teachers at his school did not prepare a seating chart, Mr. Maragelloto included. So Cory always tried to get to class before everyone. He never wanted to choose who to sit next to—Kym or Leigh.

He figured Leigh would understand if he walked in and chose a seat next to Kym, but lately Kym was becoming more emotional and almost possessive. He wasn’t even her boyfriend! She called him almost every night now. Usually the conversations only lasted about five or ten minutes, but he still loved the fact she was calling him. He also caught her a couple of times glaring at any other girl who talked to him. It creeped him out a bit.

But Kym was paying more attention to him, his workouts (even though they had been cut shorter because of Leigh’s Stage) were continuing to improve his skills and drop weight, and baseball tryouts were only seventy-two days away. He never guessed his senior year would turn out so good.

He was late getting to first period the day before break, though. Actually, he was late to school. He missed his workout and Leigh’s Stage because his mom needed a ride to work. Her normal driver called off that day and his mother was afraid to drive the freeway. So he took her in and got caught in rush hour.

He had walked all the way to the class before he realized he’d forgotten his literature anthology. By the time he hustled to his locker and back to class, Leigh and Kym were both already there.

But they were sitting together, sort of. Jason was in his usual seat. Leigh was two seats over from his left, leaving a seat for Cory. Kym sat in front of Cory’s intended seat. Wow, did he luck out.

“Did you read the act last night?” asked Jason. Cory sat down.

Kym turned around and smiled. “Yeah, teach, what happened between Petruchio and Katharina? I thought he was supposed to woo her or something.”

“I know, right? But all they talked about were crabs and needing glasses. I didn’t get any of it. I wish I could.” Jason fanned the pages of his copy of The Taming of the Shrew as if he was trying to cool himself down.

Cory realized he was staring at Kym’s lips and not answering. He regrouped. “I don’t quite get it either. I think he is playing with her. I don’t know.” Cory glanced over at Leigh.

“Your mom’s driver couldn’t take her again?” Leigh asked.

Cory nodded his head and whispered he was sorry for not showing up at Leigh’s Stage. Mr. Maragelloto started class and Kym turned back around.

Later in the class, Mr. Maragelloto gave them time to discuss their papers on Romeo and Juliet that were due when they came back from holiday break. They had to finish reading The Taming of the Shrew as well. So much for no homework. But at least his other classes weren’t honors classes and he didn’t expect much of any homework from them.

Joey never cared when Kym sat next to Cory in class. He always sat with his friends. But when they did group work, she would usually go sit by him. This time she made him come to her. By the look on his face it didn’t make him happy.

Leigh leaned in to Cory and whispered, “Hey, why don’t you ask Jason to join us at The Stage sometime. You know he’s dying to come. You talk to him so much about it.”

Cory didn’t know what to say. He had never thought about asking anyone else to join them in the alumni room. It was their place. A place they could be themselves. He didn’t want anyone ruining it. He couldn’t believe Leigh would take that chance.

“I…I don’t think so. He always acts like that.”

Still whispering, “That’s because he thinks you’re his friend. I mean you’re nice to him and all, but how many times have you called him to hang out?”

Where did this come from? He felt like his mother was scolding him about not being nice to one of the brothers. "So you want me to ask Jason to Leigh’s Stage?” he asked sarcastically. Cory didn’t realize he gave her a disgusted look too.

And she reacted to it. Her voice rose. “It’s not just mine…or yours or ours for that matter. Who says who we can or can’t ask?” She backed away in her seat, as if she recognized she said something she really didn’t want to say.

His voice rose. “Well, fine. Then I’m going to ask—”

He had never thought of asking Kym to join them. It was just understood. But if she wanted to get this way then why not?

Leigh spun towards him. “If you don’t want to ask him that’s fine. You don’t have to get all Montague and Capulet on me.”

“I just don’t wanna—”

Cory didn’t realize Kym could hear them.

The bell rang.

“Listen, he looks up to you. If you don’t want to see it fine.” She started to walk away and then stopped. “You really should work on hearing what other people say…and not just what’s in that head of yours.”

Did that just happen? Was it a fight?

He collected his books and walked out the door. When he passed Kym’s locker, she was wiping her eyes like she had been crying. What was going on with the world?

The rest of the day he couldn’t figure out what had happened in English class. One minute they’re talking about The Taming of the Shrew and then Leigh is chipping away at him like he was an unsharpened pencil.

By the time Leigh walked into study hall, Cory was already helping a few football players with their physics homework. It took all period for them to grasp the concept of momentum versus friction. The only desk open was three over from Cory, so Leigh didn’t have a choice.

He knew Leigh had set crew at the end of the day, but he went to the gym anyway. He couldn’t find her so he asked one of the other students he knew was in the group where she was. The student pointed to the balcony.

Right above the foyer that led to the outside of the school was a balcony. It ran the entire length of the gym. Mostly, it was cluttered with spotlights and microphone stands and other Drama Club equipment that Mr. Jurgenson stored there.

Leigh was moving one spotlight up and down. It looked like she was judging where the light would end up when she pointed it this way and that. She never looked down.

Cory called up to her a few times, but she didn’t hear him. Or she pretended not to hear him. Could she really be that mad?

On his way out of the gym Cory bumped into Mr. Jurgenson. He had a clipboard in his hand and his breath smelled of burnt tea. He gave Cory a nasty look like he was a groundling at The Globe who sneaked in through a hole in a fence and didn’t pay for his ticket to Hamlet.

“Watch where you are going. People have shed-u-als to keep, you know.”

What a day!

 

Cory had had fights with Kym before. He always thought they made him feel pretty bad and kind of sick to his stomach. But Leigh not talking to him after school in the gym the day before holiday break made him mad.

With all the time in the world on the first day off from school, Cory couldn’t write. He wanted to. But nothing. He was upset because of the way Leigh talked to him in English class, but also because he knew she was right about Jason. The guy was nothing but nice to him. And he never even said as much as “thank you” to the boy when he lent him a pencil. Maybe he should ask him over for dinner or something?

As he lay on his bed throwing a baseball up in the air and catching it, all he could think about was Leigh. It could be two weeks before he talked to her again and his Romeo and Juliet paper was due when they got back and the reading of The Taming of the Shrew as well. How would he understand it without her?

Cory remembered Kym and his first big fight. It was her sixteenth birthday and he didn’t wish her happy birthday all day in school. By lunch she was crying and everybody was mad at him. They almost had it out in math class. She even came up to him after school and said: “Out of everybody I only cared if you wished me happy birthday. How could you forget?”

But Cory didn’t forget. He purchased a dozen roses a few days earlier and had them delivered to her house while they were at school. When she called him later that night she was so happy. She couldn’t believe she ever doubted him. She said it was her best birthday ever. The guy she was dating at the time only brought in to school a card and a stuffed elephant. Kym hated elephants.

Kym’s sixteenth birthday had her mad at him for a day and Cory had always known she would love the flowers. But her seventeenth birthday was all together different.

That year Kym bummed a piece of gum off Cory everyday. Nothing too exciting, but he made it into his gift for her seventeenth birthday. He went out and bought her about sixty dollars worth of all different types of gum: Wrigley’s, Double Bubble, Bazooka, Double Mint, Big League Chew, and so on. He even made sure to spend at least twenty dollars on Big Red. It was her favorite.

He wrapped it all in a big shoebox and attached a card. The gum wasn’t the problem; it was the card. He wrote how much their friendship meant to him but it was how he wrote it that got her upset. He listed the most important things in his life: 1. baseball 2. writing. He thought he was only listing her last for emphasis. But when Kym read: and 3. You, she thought he was actually listing the number of importance.

Cory never thought she would take it that way. Who would? It was just for emphasis. But she stopped talking to him and wouldn’t tell him why. It wasn’t until after three weeks that she finally told him. How could she think that?

He remembered how horrible those three weeks were and how he went crazy trying to talk to Kym. And when she finally told him, it made him sick to his stomach every time he thought about it for a while after that.

But now he was mad at Leigh for being right.

He could call her. But it still bothered him that she would risk ruining Leigh’s Stage for Jason. She was right, though.

It wasn’t until the third day of holiday break that Leigh called him. Everything was right again in Cory’s world. He even wrote again the night of her call. She told him she wasn’t ever mad at him and that The Stage was something they created together and it was up to him to include Jason or not. She hadn’t heard him when she was on the balcony and, as for the first two days of break, she had doctor appointments that her dad had made weeks ago. “Nothing important,” she had said, “Just routine check-ups.”

She invited him over for dinner the next day and after they would read The Taming of the Shrew and work on their papers. Leigh’s Stage would take place in her basement. All was set.

The dinner was pleasant. They had spaghetti and meatballs with homemade garlic bread. Cory had two plates but Leigh and Mr. Reynolds barely finished their first helping. Maybe that was why Leigh remained so thin. It made Cory feel as if he cooked specifically for him.

Mr. Reynolds talked to both of them like they were adults. Cory liked it but for some reason it made him uncomfortable at times. His house was so structured. His family even had names under their seats at the dinner table. And nobody, nobody could sit in his dad’s seat at any time even if it was to look for a pen or use the phone. But Cory figured that after a family lost their mom, the dynamics changed. Leigh did tell him that she looked after him ever since her mom died and her actions towards him almost seemed motherly. But they were best friends.

And he could never bring himself to call her dad “Paul” either.

In the basement after dinner, Leigh’s Stage was a disappointment. Maybe it was because they weren’t in the alumni room, but Leigh felt distant like she was thinking about other things. Questions lingered and laughter was rare. They wrote their papers silently and barely discussed The Taming of the Shrew.

Cory came over everyday of holiday break when he was finished with the list of choirs his dad wrote for him. Mr. Reynolds would always whip up something good to eat and they would head downstairs in the basement for Leigh’s Stage. But it felt funny every time. Even when Leigh talked about new characters in her play or something funny that would happen in a scene, her face was blank. She appeared tired and listless. Her happy expressions were tight and forced. Cory even thought her acting was affected. She was just reading Juliet’s lines; she wasn’t feeling them.

On the Thursday before they had to go back to school, Cory had an idea. He brought Jason with him. He was so thrilled when Cory called he tripped on his garbage can in the kitchen and had to wash the floor before he could leave. Maybe the Jason issue bothered Leigh more than she let on. Or maybe it was the end of Leigh’s Stage.

“I read most of the play already, but I still don’t get their conversation in Act II. It doesn’t fit,” Jason said.

Mr. Reynolds didn’t seem bothered that Cory brought Jason. He made them grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato and onion. Cory burned the top of his mouth because he ate so fast. He wanted to go to Leigh’s Stage. Leigh’s attitude seemed to perk up when she saw Jason at the door. She was smiling freely and they all laughed through dinner. Even though Cory loved dessert time, when Mr. Reynolds brought out a homemade ice cream cake made out of ice cream sandwiches and caramel he cringed. He couldn’t wait to get down to Leigh’s Stage. Jason fit in perfectly and he wanted to test him out in their discussions.

“I think he’s messing with her. Testing her intelligence or something. Seeing what approach he should take to get her to marry him.”

Leigh beamed at Cory. She rubbed his arm gently. “I think you got it, but I think more’s going on.”

“Like what?” Jason asked.

“Listen to these lines. Cory read Petruchio’s part, okay?”

Cory read the line. “Nay, come, Kate, come. You must not look so sour.”

Leigh’s expression changed. He eyebrows went in towards her eyes like she was angry but her mouth still smiled. “It is my fashion, when I see a crab.”

“Why, here’s no crab. And therefore look not sour.”

Leigh wagged her finger at Cory slowly. “There is, there is.”

“Then show it me.”

This time Leigh put her hand in Cory’s face and turned away.

“If I had a glass I would.” Her face looked angry but her words sounded sweet and playful.

“They’re flirting with each other, oh…” Cory got it now. But Jason didn’t.

“They’re flirting? Why does she need a glass to flirt?”

Cory laughed. “No, listen. Not a glass like for water. Like a mirror to show Petruchio’s face…as the crab. She does like him.”

Jason nodded but Cory sensed he was not too sure of himself yet.

“Oh definitely…but she doesn’t know it yet. And Shakespeare uses this conversation to show just how much. Why would you spend your time arguing with someone you didn’t find interesting? She tries to push him away but her words tell a different story.”

Jason stared at Leigh and Cory as if he was a two-year-old child and they were trying to explain how the toilet worked.

They went on like this for a few hours. By the end, Cory had Jason understanding it and even giving his opinion on the characters’ motives. He used simple analogies and taught him to think like he were in Shakespeare’s time when reading certain words. Jason responded to him.

Cory was glad he gave into Leigh. He enjoyed having someone to teach instead of always being taught by Leigh. And Jason’s view of each scene added to their interpretations as well. Leigh let him take charge and didn’t interrupt. At times, she sat back and watched Cory work. That night their meeting should have been called Cory’s Stage.

Cory felt great. Until they were leaving. After saying his goodbyes to Mr. Reynolds, Jason bolted out of the door with Cory keys to brush off and warm up the car. Cory waited inside for Mr. Reynolds to wrap up a grilled cheese sandwich and another piece of the ice cream cake for him to take home. Jason said his mom would have been mad if she knew he even ate dinner already, so Mr. Reynolds let him off the hook.

He hugged Leigh goodbye and walked outside into the freezing night air. When he shut the door it buckled and didn’t completely shut. He went back up to the door to make sure it was closed and he heard Mr. Reynolds say, “Did you tell him about Monday?”

Leigh answered, “Not yet.”

That was all he heard as the door shut into place.