Chapter 33
EVERETT
“H ey! Everett, wake up!” Smack! I fell off Jahnvi’s shoulder right into the hard back of the seat in front of me. It was only like an hour and a half from Chicago to Washington DC, but with how tired I’d been I was out cold.
I was so grateful for Jahnvi’s shoulder.
I had only planned on laying my head there for a second but when she placed her head on top of mine, I had felt such a feeling of comfort.
I felt myself take a shaky breath, trying to forget all of that stress with the flowers.
But what she said next was what got me to sleep instantly.
In a voice slow and confident, she muttered, “We’ll figure it out later. Go to sleep.” It was the way she said it; I immediately believed her.
I was also grateful that I had been knocked out for another reason: my extreme fear of planes.
Sure, I was busy with flowers last night but either way I wouldn’t have been able to sleep because the thought of having to be on a plane was sending tingles all over my skin, and not the good kind that Jahnvi caused.
If I had been up, I would have surely been shaking so hard that people wouldn’t be able to sit next to me.
Still half asleep, I rubbed my head and groaned in pain. “Jeez, Pickles, you could’ve warned me.”
I heard a scoff somewhere above me “Maybe you should ask her to carry you out, if you’re too tired to use your own two feet.” An old competitor, Julia Ramirez, was getting her heavy pink suitcase from the overhead bin right above me.
How did I know it was heavy?
Because she dropped it on my head and it cracked open, spewing all her clothes and things over my lap.
“Oh, oops,” she told me, not meaning a word, after the tears cleared from my eyes. When I looked up, I even saw her smiling.
Ugh, and I couldn’t even get mad.
I was an absolute jerk to her a few years ago and it’s not something I’m proud of.
I was really awful. I found out that her grandmother had Alzheimer’s and then used that information to throw Julia off her game by changing my speech about end-of-life care for people with Alzheimer’s for the next tournament.
When she heard my speech, it hit her hard and she barely got through her own performance.
So my tactic worked, and she didn’t win that tournament, but I’d felt terrible about it ever since. It was a shitty thing to do.
Still, it was just one...mistake, right? It was definitely something I didn’t think through, long-term. Whatever it was, I was now feeling the repercussions in the form of her twenty-ton suitcase. Seriously, what did she have in there? The whole women’s section from Macy’s?
People rushed over to help us. I handed her a hair straightener that had fallen down on my lap. Or was it a curler? Whatever it was, she grabbed it from my hands like I had just contaminated it with some disease and hissed at me, “Well, at least it wasn’t turned on.”
“There was no way it could be on. It was in a suitcase.”
“Maybe it will be on in the future.”
“To curl your hair? I sure hope so, or else your hair’s gonna stay frizzy like it is now,” I said, acting like I was oblivious to her threat.
Well, it was a weak threat.
I heard a snort behind me as Jahnvi giggled. Julia, now that she had all her things, gave me a frown and stalked off toward her own team. Her ponytail was swinging so wildly that it hit all the people around her, giving them a mouthful of hair.
“Damn, Everett,” Jahnvi said, “she looks like she’s gonna totally obliterate you this week.”
I turned to face her. “How would she obliterate me? You and I aren’t in the same category as her anymore.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah, do your research. I think I scared her enough that she moved categories.”
“I mean, I would too, after what you pulled on her a few years ago.”
I knew where this was going, and I wasn’t enjoying it. “I didn’t quit after Matt Riley told me the wrong room to go to. Or remember when Julia Ramirez herself accidentally took my blazer before the first round at the state tournament last year? Didn’t see me changing categories then.”
“All right, all right. I get the point you’re trying to make.” Jahnvi rolled her eyes and softly pushed against my arm, motioning for me to move. I was glad the topic had been dropped and that she was a fellow speech kid; she understood.
But what I did to Julia was wrong, no doubt about it. I’d taken it too far. But, luckily I knew that Jahnvi also understood me well enough to know that I’d changed.
Right?