Chapter 17
Mina bit a lip in concentration as she used an elbow to hold the heavy front door of the school open, carefully carrying the hot casserole, oven mitts underneath it, as she struggled to get into the school.
She went through the metal detectors balancing the casserole and trying to make sure her book bag didn’t slip off her shoulder.
This was her absolute favorite food ever. Maybe partly because it brought back memories of her family being together, but also because it just tasted so amazingly delicious. How could they not vote this to be the very best food to serve for the school board meeting?
There was no award, no compensation, she wouldn’t even get a ribbon. It was just the idea that her recipe won.
It would make getting up early and doing the extra work worth it. Although, spending time with Aunt Phoebe was fun, and she’d get up and do that even if there wasn’t competition involved.
“Hey there, teacher’s pet,” a sneering voice said, but Mina did not turn.
Phoebe was right. She knew that she just needed to do the right thing, and she couldn’t expect bad things not to happen to her. It was just... She hated being teased and made fun of, especially in front of other people. It made her feel...like she wasn’t as good as everyone else.
She already felt a little bit like that since pretty much everyone else in the school had lived there all their lives, and she was new, even though she’d been there for more than a year.
Small towns were like that. People were new forever.
Even if she lived here for the rest of her life, people would still tell her she was new.
“What? You ignoring me now?” The voice came closer, and Mina tried to take a calming breath, but her steps quickened. She wasn’t far from the home ec room, just around the corner and down at the far end of the last hall, and that hall wasn’t nearly as crowded as this one.
“Goody-goody, what’s the matter? You think you can get away with ignoring me?” Now he stepped into her line of vision, a kid who wasn’t that much taller than she was and who she might have thought was handsome if he hadn’t been making fun of her. He wore a black shirt and black pants that hung low on his hips. Way low.
“Somebody make sure you record this, we’ll put it on social media,” the kid said as he started to lunge forward.
Mina jerked away, but in doing so, she lost her grip on the casserole, and it started to slide out of her hands.
“Hey, Mina,” a different voice said, this one with a low tone of...almost camaraderie in it, like they were good friends, only she didn’t recognize that voice. And she was busy trying to catch her balance, although the arm around her shoulder and the body next to hers made it a lot easier. A hand reached out and grabbed the hot casserole.
“Ouch,” the voice said, but it was a low murmur, not a yelp, and the big hand did not let go.
It had to be burning his fingers, but if it was, she couldn’t tell, and neither could anyone else.
“I didn’t know that was your girl, Nash,” the kid in the black T-shirt said.
“Well, now you do,” Nash said easily, although his eyes were hard when Mina glanced over at him. They narrowed a bit, drilling down into the black T-shirt kid. “I’d hate to hear that you were doing anything except being absolutely courteous to her. Opening doors, giving her your seat, making sure that bullies don’t mess with her. Right, Dylan?” Nash said in that same, low tone. Almost lazy in its slow drawl.
Nash. Nash Olson. He was...one of the most popular kids in school. A three-sport letter winner and also known as one of the smartest kids in his class.
What was he doing with her?
Mina didn’t say anything, and she kept walking, tucked in beside Nash Olson, his big arm around her, everyone else giving them a wide berth, including the black-shirted bully.
“Sorry, Nash, I didn’t know. You’re right, from now on, I’ll make sure she gets everything she needs and that no one else lays a hand on her, that everybody treats her with respect. She’s your girl, that’s what she gets.”
“Thanks. I knew I could depend on you.”
Nash’s eyes flickered a little before they turned the corner, going down the less crowded hallway.
No one followed them, although Mina could practically feel eyes boring into her back.
She waited until they got at least twenty feet down the hall before she whispered in a voice she could hardly hear herself, “What’s going on?”
Nash laughed a little. “I just thought you needed a little help. I’ve been watching for a couple of days now, and I didn’t want to make a big deal, didn’t want to get into a fight—my parents would be pretty jacked at me over that—but... I didn’t want to see you suffer anymore.”
“Wow. I wasn’t expecting anyone to step in and save me. I just talked with my aunt this morning, and she told me I was going to have to do this on my own.”
“On your own with Jesus maybe?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I mean, of course she said that, but Jesus doesn’t always show up in person.”
“No. Sometimes he sends other people to do things that you ask Him to do. And... I don’t know, this morning I just felt a huge push to go over and put my arm around you. It worked. I honestly hadn’t been sure whether or not it would.”
“Well, thank you for listening to the prodding.”
“Thank you for praying that I would be prodded. I’m feeling like I’ve done my good deed for the day.”
“In my eyes, you definitely have,” Mina said, a little disappointed to know that it wasn’t some secret crush Nash had had on her that caused him to come over and put his arm around her, but it made it that much more sweet to know that he was willing to be a hero and risk being ostracized just to save her.
Of course, knowing that he would have done it for anyone made it far less special. And despite herself, she found herself being disappointed. She did want Nash to save anyone, of course, she wanted him to be that kind of person, but she wanted to be special too. To him.
“I might have to get a statement so I can give it to my parents. They don’t always think I’m very hero-ish.”
“They just push you so that you fulfill your potential. It’s great that you have good parents.” She’d seen them in church. Both of his parents were active participants. They were there every Sunday. Nash had several older brothers and sisters who had graduated and moved away, according to the girls in her Sunday school class.
He was two years older than she was, though, so they didn’t really hang out much, even in youth group. They both had their different friends they typically hung with.
“If you say so. Sometimes it seems like they push just to make my life miserable.” He laughed a little. “I’m kidding. I know they don’t. And I wouldn’t have accomplished what I have, not that it’s that much, if my parents hadn’t been pushing me and making sure that I do what I know I’m supposed to. So I do appreciate them. Even though it might sound like I didn’t just then.”
“Not really. You just sounded like a teenager.”
A special teenager. One who would take the time to rescue a girl being bullied in the hall.
Then she remembered about his hand. She had the oven mitts back underneath the casserole, and somehow he had taken it from her without her even noticing, but she said, “What about your hand? You grabbed the casserole dish, and I heard you say ouch, and I know it’s really hot. Are you okay?”
“I think so. I’ll run some cold water over it in the bathroom after I get you to...home ec, is that right?”
“Yeah. Are you sure that’s all it’s going to take?”
“Yeah. It’s not like it just came out of the oven or anything. You must have been in the car for twenty minutes or so. It was just hotter than I expected, and hotter than I would have chosen to touch if I had a choice.”
He was tough and strong, and that made her heart twitter. She tried to get it to stop, but it just wouldn’t. So she ignored it and focused on keeping her stride steady, pretending that it wasn’t a big deal to have Nash Olson beside her.
And for the record, his arm was still around her.
She wanted to fan her face. No, she wanted to run to her girlfriends and tell them all about it. Except, she didn’t want to leave Nash’s side.
“So, since I saved you from the bullies, and you called me a hero, would it be too much for me to ask if we could be friends?”
Her eyes opened wide, and then they fluttered like the wings of a butterfly stuck in a net. She tried to get a hold of herself and make sure that her voice didn’t come out in a shrill squeak.
“Yeah. I want to be your friend. I... I don’t think I’ll ever need to save you from a pack of bullies in the hall, and I doubt I’ll ever be able to help you with your homework, but maybe you’ll find something good for me to do.”
There, that sounded reasonable, plus, the words came out and she didn’t really think about them. But they were true. He didn’t need her, not like she needed him. Not needed exactly, but their friend relationship definitely didn’t feel very equal to her.
“Maybe I just think you’re fun and funny. I’ve been watching you in Sunday school and in youth group, and you always look cheerful. Even though I know that your life hasn’t exactly been a bowl of cherries.”
“You can say that again.” He noticed that she always tried to put on a happy face? “Thanks for noticing. I... I guess I just decided I’d rather be happy than miserable.”
“I think it takes some people a really long time to learn that, so I’m impressed that someone as young as you are didn’t just learn it but put it into practice.”
His compliment made her feel good from her head the whole way to her toes, and her heart seemed to expand and fill her chest.
They’d made it to the home ec door, which meant that he took his arm from around her shoulders and opened the door, pulling it open and allowing her to go in first.
She loved the manners that he showed, the courtesy, and just the fact that he’d seen that she needed something, and he wasn’t afraid to put himself out there, potentially risking his own reputation in order to save hers.
“Looks like you’re early,” he said.
“Yeah, I was excused from helping with serving breakfast to the elementary school today, which is what my class usually does, since I was bringing in the casserole.”
“I see. I... I realize that we have another problem.”
“Oh?” she asked, her hands out to take the casserole from him. But he made no move to hand it over.
“Yeah. There’s the small problem of everyone who was in the hall now thinks that you’re my girl, Dylan’s words, not mine,” Nash said with a curved-up grin that made Mina’s heart flip over twice.
“Oh. Yeah. Sorry about that.”
“Not your fault. It was what I had intended, but I hadn’t gone any further in my planning than thinking that if they thought you were with me, they wouldn’t pick on you anymore. I hadn’t considered what might happen...after that.”
“Oh,” she said, realizing what he was saying. Now the whole school thought that they were together.
“Well...” She swallowed, unsure of what to say. How could she make the suggestion that they ought to just stay together because she liked him anyway? Except, that wasn’t fair to him. “You suggested that we be friends. Maybe... Maybe we can just be friends.”
“Friends who eat lunch together?” he asked, in an even softer voice.
“Okay. Yeah, I’m okay with being friends who eat lunch together.”
“Maybe friends who walk out of school together after last bell?”
“Yeah. Those kinds of friends too.”
He nodded. Then he said, “Maybe friends who walk into school together too. Just in case the bullies are there tomorrow.”
“I can meet you in the parking lot. I usually ride the bus, but I can walk around.”
“All right. What’s your bus number? I’ll get there early and watch for you at the end of the sidewalk.”
She gave him her bus number, and he lifted his brows. “I don’t want to push you into anything you don’t want.”
“You’re not. I guess I just hadn’t thought about later. I hadn’t even thought about now. I appreciate what you’ve done, and I guess...I’m happy to be...friends.”
“Friends.”
He lifted his brows. She nodded, and then it felt kind of awkward when they just stared at each other, and she had this crazy urge to walk forward, but she didn’t.
She remembered so many of her Clyborne adopted family saying that their parents had told them that dating was a bad idea. That it was a good idea to just hang out with someone, in a group if possible. Working with them would be even better, since they’d get to see their character and how they handle things that don’t go their way. Even though Mina thought Nash was quickly growing into a man of character, she supposed that the friends thing was the best idea.
Even if she was a little disappointed.