Chapter 29
The school formal was the most important event of the year for some people, but not for me. Not until King Ronan made me promise to go.
I had to keep that promise.
My stomach jolted when I got off the bus to see Jennifer standing at the gates waiting for me.
‘Thought we could meet here in the mornings?’ she said. ‘Get as much time together as we can?’
Her face was blushed from the cold and I’ll bet mine was too, although not because of the weather.
‘Great idea,’ I said. ‘Perfect.’
Jennifer was definitely a morning person and did most of the talking on the way to assembly; she didn’t seem to notice how quiet I was before we got there and had to join our separate lines.
We said we’d catch each other between morning classes but I ended up taking routes to bypass any chance of that happening.
We were supposed to meet during morning break too, but I hid myself in the Science corridor until the bell rang.
By lunchtime, I’d pulled myself together and stood at the corner of the canteen as Jennifer and one of her friends approached.
‘Jennifer, can I speak to you for a second?’ I said. Her eyes went wide and she looked at her friend, then back to me and smiled, fixing her scarf up around her neck.
‘Sure, stranger.’ She turned to her friend. ‘Margaret, I’ll see you in there.’
Margaret looked me up and down, sighed out a strange laugh, glanced at Jennifer while raising and dropping her eyebrows, then walked off into the canteen.
‘What was that about?’ I asked Jennifer.
‘Where have you been all morning?’ she said.
‘I was … just about,’ I said weakly.
‘About? You’re not avoiding me again, are you?’
‘Definitely not!’
‘You’ve been keeping me in suspense – you said you’d tell me how you got on with Ronan and his parents. Did you talk things through with them?’
‘I did and you know what? You were one hundred per cent right, Jennifer, all Ronan wanted was total friend time but I didn’t even have to bring it up because, you’re not going to believe this, he’s starting to talk!’
‘What? Why didn’t you tell me this first thing this morning? That’s amazing! What, like, did he start just last night?’
‘No, over the weekend apparently, he was making sounds he’d never made before, then on Monday with his tutor he actually started to say words.
So, you were right, he was able to do all the vocabulary stuff he just didn’t want to do it with me.
And I didn’t have to have that awkward conversation with the McCoys either because they came to that realisation themselves. ’
‘Brendan, this is just brilliant, you didn’t even need my help. I love it when the universe works in our favour,’ she said.
‘So Tuesdays and Thursdays are just hangout time, basically. But now that he’s starting to speak it’s just, I don’t know, things are moving so fast that maybe even by this time next year … well … who knows …?’
I trailed off amidst my excitement because ‘this time next year’ suddenly felt scary.
When I’d said ‘this time next year’ any time before it felt like a safe and secure thing to say because I knew I’d be in school, the same school; even if things changed like they did over the summer, I’d still be in the same place.
But one year on, I’d no idea where I would be.
‘Yeah,’ Jennifer said, ‘who knows? I certainly don’t.’
If Jennifer, the girl who had all the answers, didn’t know, then what chance did any of the rest of us have?
‘We’ve just got to seize the moment that’s in front of us, I suppose,’ she said.
‘Jennifer, will you go to the formal with me?’
‘What?’
I’d said it before I even knew it. Her eyes went wide again and I shrugged as if to say, That’s all I’ve got, please don’t make me say it again. Jennifer shrugged too and then dropped her shoulders quickly.
‘I thought you didn’t want to go? You said you didn’t,’ she said.
‘I know. But you didn’t want to go either, you said it was cliched.’
‘Oh my God, it’s so cliched, but I don’t know, us going … like … together, well that somehow doesn’t seem as cliched?’ She was almost stuttering, which was unlike her. ‘Am I making any sense?’
I think I knew what she meant. There were people like Kevin and Leanne who took the formal so seriously, so there was definitely something very cliched about those two.
But Jennifer and me didn’t fit in with that crowd, and it was probably expected that people like us wouldn’t be going to the formal at all.
‘And you’d wear a tuxedo and stuff?’ she said, looking down at her feet.
‘Wouldn’t be a cliched formal if I didn’t,’ I said. ‘If you’ll go with me I’ll even buy you a corsage.’
‘Oh God, please don’t,’ she laughed and covered her face with her hands then pulled them away. ‘OK. If I’m going then I suppose I’m going to have to get a dress.’ She looked at her grey school skirt. ‘This is one of the few dress things I own. I’m a jeans girl.’
‘Maybe we could go fancy dress?’ I said.
‘I wish! I’d love it if it was on Halloween, then I could go as something that was supposed to be ugly.’
‘Jesus, Jennifer,’ I said, shocked that she might even think that about herself, ‘you’re like the prettiest girl in school. What are you talking about?’
Her face turned instantly red.
‘Brendan, I absolutely am not and you know it.’ She flicked her head and breezed on. ‘Anyway. We’re going?’
‘Yeah, I guess we’re going?’
‘OK,’ she said.
‘Yeah,’ I said.
We looked at each other. It felt like we should hug or something but we didn’t.
‘I’m actually looking forward to it now, weirdly,’ Jennifer said, biting at a fingernail.
‘So am I. Weirdly.’
‘Us two weirdos.’
‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘I’m really OK with being a weirdo, though.’
‘Me too,’ she said.
I ballooned out my cheeks because I didn’t know what else to do.
‘Are you not supposed to be in the library for French revision?’ she said. ‘That’s on a Wednesday lunchtime, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah, good memory. I do have that. I better go do it,’ I said like a robot.
‘Need any help?’
‘Loads!’
‘Want me to help?’
‘What, now? It’s your lunch break.’
‘I don’t mind.’
‘But isn’t Margaret waiting for you?’
‘Margaret waits for no one.’
‘Sounds scary.’
‘She is, but she’s also really good at talking things through with people.’
‘What, like problems and stuff?’
‘Yeah … or … whether to ask a boy to the formal or not,’ she said, looking at me with eyes that might have been batting if they weren’t so still.
‘Is that what you were talking about just now on the way to the canteen?’
‘Believe it or not, yes.’
‘Was the “boy” … ?’ I asked.
‘Believe it or not,’ she said again, ‘yes.’
‘I was wondering why Margaret gave me a funny look. Weird timing.’
‘I know.’
‘So what did Margaret advise?’
‘Well, she said two things: one of the things she was right about and the other thing she was wrong about.’
‘OK … ?’
‘Well, she said if I really wanted you to ask me to the formal, all I had to do was wait for the universe to work in my favour and you would in the end.’
‘Good old universe.’
‘Exactly.’
‘So that’s the thing she was right about?’
‘Yeah.’
‘And the thing she was wrong about?’
‘Well, she said something about you that I don’t want to repeat, but she was wrong about that, entirely.’
‘What was it?’
‘No, I’m not going to say. Margaret has a way with words, but she more or less implied that I wouldn’t want to go with someone like you.’ She paused and smiled. ‘But that’s the thing she was wrong about. Completely.’
I looked down, not sure what to say.
‘Anyway,’ she said, ‘I’m not in the mood for having lunch with her today and she’s very much her own person. I’d rather spend it with you, monsieur.’
‘OK, mademoiselle, lead the way.’
We sat in the Music Room corridor instead of the library.
Jennifer with her back to one wall and me facing her with my back against the other.
Our French books on our knees and my lunchbox between us, sharing my peanut butter and banana sandwiches, which turned out to be a favourite of hers too.
I can’t remember exactly what we talked about; all I do know is that another French revision session got skipped and when the bell rang we had to go our separate ways.
Jennifer called something in French over her shoulder as she walked off, it sounded beautiful, but I didn’t understand it. I really needed to work on my French.