Chapter Fifteen
Chapter
fifteen
“DO YOU KEEP OLD YEARBOOKS here?” I asked the librarian, Mrs.Hughs, the next day at school during lunch break. The night before, my mom and I had spent hours looking through family pictures. While it was fun to walk down memory lane, there were zero pictures featuring the surfboard. Not that we thought there would be, since the surfboard predated my mom, but we thought we’d at least try.
“Yes, we keep old yearbooks,” she said. “What year are you looking for?”
“Sixties?”
“Follow me.” She led me up the stairs and to the back corner, then presented the wall of yearbooks. “They’re in order, so you’ll find the sixties over here.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“You looking for grandparents?”
“Sort of.”
“Good luck.”
First, I went to last year’s yearbook and pulled it down. I flipped through till I found Jensen. I pulled a sticky note out of my backpack and wrote the words world’s worst boyfriend with an arrow and stuck it next to his picture. It was silly and immature, but it brought me a sense of satisfaction. Someone at some point in the future, maybe his grandkid, would see that and ask him about it. The thought that even in fifty years he might have to defend what he’d done to me made me smile. I shut the book and slid it back into place. The 1960s section was on the far left all the way on the bottom, so I sat down and pulled one out.
Where are you? The text from Deja buzzed through on my phone.
In the library. I’ll be out in a minute.
What’s in the library? she asked.
Your mom, I retorted.
Tell her to get back to work. The library is no place for people who want to make money.
She told me to tell you that you’re grounded for that comment.
I knew Deja, and she probably rolled her eyes while reading my last couple joking texts. Whatever secret mission you’re on, hurry.
I will.
The upstairs section of the library was a loft area that had a half wall overlooking the bottom floor. It allowed the noise from the lower level to drift up perfectly. That’s how I heard a group of guys come in talking about the school’s podcast.
“Does anyone even listen to it?” someone said.
“I only listen to comedy podcasts. And only when I’m driving.”
“Nerd,” someone else said, and they all laughed.
I slid the book onto the floor and inched my way to the wall. I wondered why someone had introduced the subject of the school’s podcast if none of them listened to it. I moved to a crouch, held on to the edge, and pulled myself up until just my eyes were above the wall. I should’ve known. A group of football players now sat at a round table. I could only see half the group. They were probably talking about the podcast because Jensen had joined and was at the center of drama because of it.
“I listened to it once,” one of them said. “So boring. Who comes up with the topics anyway? Some teacher who forgot what it was like to be in high school?”
They all laughed again.
“Nice,” I muttered. Not that I’d been responsible for any topics yet, but I would be. So much for Nolen’s plan to get football players to listen. They apparently thought that only their interests were worth listening to. I slid back down the wall.
“What brilliant ideas would you come up with?” I heard the calm voice of Theo ask. My heart and breath seemed to stop in order to listen better. “What would entertain you?”
“I don’t know,” someone said. “Sports recaps?”
A smattering of laughter sounded.
“Bad-date recaps,” someone else said to even more laughter.
When nobody else offered any ideas, he said, “Not as easy as it seems, is it?”
“Chill, Theo. We didn’t mean anything by it. What’s your problem?”
“I don’t have a problem,” he said. “Never listened to the thing and definitely won’t start listening now.”
They all laughed.
My breath came back to me, and my heart started beating double time.
I grumbled about how we wouldn’t want them to listen anyway and went back to my spot by the shelves, searching through the yearbooks until I found a small grainy picture of Cheryl Millcreek. I snapped a pic with my phone and flipped through the rest of the book to see if she was shown anywhere else. I found her in one other spot: the Surf Club. She stood with a striped board next to her and a serious expression on her face. I took another pic.
Downstairs the football guys had changed the subject to some pickup game they’d played over the weekend and were asking Theo why he wasn’t there.
“I had other plans,” he said.
His other plans were me. I’d sworn him to secrecy, though. Was that the only reason he wasn’t saying he was with me?
They were getting so loud that I was surprised Mrs.Hughs hadn’t shushed them. I put the yearbook back and took pictures of Cheryl’s other years as well. I had ten minutes left of lunch, and I hadn’t eaten anything. My still-sore muscles reminded me of what Theo said about feeding and taking care of my body. Hopefully my friends had some leftover food, because I didn’t have time to get anything from the food trucks or cafeteria.
I pushed myself off the ground and stood at the top of the stairs for several breaths. If I kept my head down, maybe he wouldn’t see me. And even if he did see me, he wouldn’t say anything, surrounded by his friends like he was.
I scurried down the stairs and was heading to the door when Theo said, “Soccer Star!”
I turned, and the whole table was staring at me. All with varying degrees of smirks on their faces. I narrowed my eyes at him.
Theo’s smirk was worst of all, like the world was a joke to him. “Tell the guys about the podcast.”
“What about it?” I asked.
“How hard it is to come up with ideas.”
“Why? It’s not like any of you are listening to it,” I said. “But ask Jensen—he’s the expert now.” I turned toward the door again.
“I would listen if there were interviews of other students!” Theo called after me. I immediately remembered how he’d called that idea boring before.
“Ugh,” someone at the table said. “That’s the worst idea yet.”
“Not as easy as you thought,” someone else said with a laugh.
There were other words I couldn’t make out.
I kept walking. The library door was heavy, and my still-sore legs didn’t help as I struggled for a moment to open it.
“I don’t think it’s working,” one of the guys said.
“Lift weights tonight!” Theo called. “It will help flush out the lactic acid.”
I shoved my way out into the hall in a mix of anger and embarrassment.
Once I found my friends, the first thing I said was “He’s going to tell everyone, and Jensen will find out and ruin our revenge plans.”
Half a sandwich was sitting in front of Deja, and I picked it up and took a bite, then sat down next to her.
“Who is going to do what now?” Maxwell said.
I summarized what happened in the library.
“And how is that going to ruin everything?” Lee asked.
“Don’t you think people are going to wonder why he’s telling me to work out? Realize he’s probably training me to kick?”
“Probably,” Deja agreed. “He’s an idiot.”
“Nobody will think twice about it. He’s an athlete,” Max said. “He was just trying to be funny.”
“Well, it wasn’t funny,” I groaned, burying my head in my hands.
“You also have trust issues,” Max observed, and I groaned again.
Deja said, “He doesn’t deserve your trust.”
Lee put his hand on my arm. “Your real trust issues are because you got screwed over not that long ago by someone you trusted with your whole heart. You’re skeptical of anyone who’s coming in the wake of that. It’s totally understandable.”
“Yes! I have a right to be screwed up,” I said, and smiled gratefully his way.
“What secret project were you doing in the library anyway?” Deja asked.
“I was looking for a picture of Cheryl Millcreek that I can feed into the internet. The lady who borrowed my grandma’s surfboard. If I find her, maybe she’ll remember what happened to it.” I didn’t know why it was suddenly so important for me to find this surfboard. Maybe because it was a missing piece of my grandma’s past that might bring her some joy. And making her happy was very important to me. It was the one spot of sunshine in my life right now. I needed that.