Beckoning Light (4 page)

“So, how do you like being back in Charleston? I know Kevin seems excited.” Brian acted like he was genuinely interested in my answer.

“It’s nice. I think I missed it here more than I thought,” I admitted.

“Well, just so you know, I’m having a party Friday night. My parents are going to be out of town, so it seemed like a good excuse.”

“Cool.” I wondered why he was telling me about his party.

“You’re definitely invited,” he added, probably realizing I hadn’t picked up on that part. He gestured to Anna. “You, too, obviously.”

“Really? Great, we’ll be there,” Anna answered before I could think of a way out of it. With a cute older brother and an invitation to a senior party, I must have seemed like a winning lottery ticket to Anna. Fantastic.

“Sounds like fun.” I tried to muster some enthusiasm.

“It’s still hard to believe I have a class with you,” Liam said, as Brian and Anna walked toward the locker rooms. 

“Yeah, I think Kevin even forgets I’m not a little kid anymore, so I’m not surprised.”

“My guess is that Kevin
wants
to think of you as a little kid. He’s always been pretty protective, you know?”

“Ha, I guess that’s one way to view it.”

“Well I guess we better go before we’re late to our next class.”

“Yeah, see you around.” I hurried into the locker room.

When I caught up with Anna, she went on and on about how cool it was that Brian had invited us. I was just surprised at how nice Liam had been. I wondered whether he was being nice because he wanted to or because Kevin had asked him to. It was hard to tell but, either way, the year looked like it might even be more awkward than I had predicted. I also figured the party invitation was part of Kevin’s make-me-cool campaign. I really wished I could slug him.

Biology turned out to be a great class. I got to share a lab table with Rachel, another girl I remembered. It turned out that she was dating a basketball player and had heard from Liam that I was coming back. I worried that her boyfriend was the guy who had been pushed aside by Kevin, but she told me he played center. Lunch came after biology, so we walked to the cafeteria together.

“I usually sit with my boyfriend and his friends at lunch. They’re all seniors, but you might know some of them because they used to be friends with your brother.”

“You sure I can sit there? I really don’t mind going off on my own,” I said, not sure whether the invitation was just to be nice.

“Are you crazy? Of course you should sit with us,” Rachel responded, sounding genuinely happy.

Rachel pointed out the table, and I saw that there were several other students already there. I was feeling better about sitting there until one guy shifted, and I saw that Liam was also seated at that table.

Liam looked up, and his face immediately broke into a smile. “Hey, Charlotte. What? Are you following me today?” I didn’t think it was possible to be as mortified as I had been the night before—wrong.

“Hey, yeah, looks like it.” I tried to play it cool but wondered if I could possibly go sit at another table.

“Well, I guess if I couldn’t have Kevin in my lunch period, at least I get one Calloway, right?”

I realized that moving to another table would probably be too weird. “I guess so.” I took a seat near the end of the table.

“Hey, guys, this is Charlotte, Coach’s niece,” Liam announced.

“Oh, yeah?” one of the boys said. “Coach was pretty excited that you and your brother were moving back. He’s a pretty cool uncle, I bet.”

“Very cool, I’m lucky.”

As I ate my lunch, I kept quiet, which wasn’t hard because Rachel was pretty absorbed in her boyfriend, Mike, and Liam had gone back to talking to some of the other girls. The quiet time didn’t last long, though. Before I could finish my lunch, James sat down next to me.

“Hey,” he said.

“Oh, hey, James. This is Charlotte,” Rachel said quickly, when she noticed him sitting next to me.

“We’ve already met. We’re partners in English.” James smiled, but didn’t mention that we were only partners because he volunteered me. 

Liam glanced over at me, but then went back to his conversation. I tried to act really interested in my lunch, but James kept asking me questions about Alaska, like how cold it was, clearly just trying to make conversation.

The afternoon went much like the morning, and soon I was walking into my last class, orchestra. I waited in the front of the room for Monty to finish talking to a violinist. I listened to the familiar sounds of students tuning their instruments and felt more comfortable than I had felt all day. Once the violinist walked away Monty turned to me. “Hi, Charlotte. How’s your day been?”

“It’s been fine.” It really had been better than I expected.

“Well, I set you up in the last stand in the cello section. I assumed you would be okay in last chair until our first lesson when I can evaluate your playing.” I could tell Monty was holding in a laugh because cello was something in which I excelled. I would likely wind up in one of the first chairs eventually.

“Perfect.” I figured there was no need to rock the boat on the first day.

Monty walked with me to the instruments at the back of the room and pointed out a cello. “This isn’t as nice as the one you have at home, but I didn’t want you dragging yours in every day.” It definitely felt funny to have him as a teacher, but it was nice to see such a familiar face after an emotional day.

“Thanks, Monty. Wait. I mean, Mr. Winthrop.” It felt so strange to call him that.

“You’re welcome. See you after class,” he said, and returned to the front of the room.

I set up the music on my stand, tightened my bow, and checked my tuning as I waited for class to start. I wondered if Liam still played bass. I suddenly wished I had asked Monty.

“Well, fancy meeting you here.” I looked behind me and saw Liam setting up his bass. 

“Quite a coincidence.”

“I’ll admit I knew I would have this class with you, so I can’t really say that you followed me here.” I noticed that Liam was smiling faintly as he adjusted the music on his stand.

“No, it wouldn’t really be fair to say that,” I responded casually. I really hoped he wasn’t that sick of me already.

“So, do you realize I have more classes with you than Kevin? I only have math and English with him.” He sounded disappointed at not seeing Kevin more. 

I didn’t know what to say. “Yeah, weird.”

“Well, I guess there are worse people to have in your classes,” he joked.

“A few, probably.” Somehow it was easy to go along with Liam’s joke, definitely easier than having a real conversation.

“And now I can give Kevin a good report.”

“A report?” I asked, alarmed.

“Yes, I almost started laughing when you sat with us at lunch.” He raised his eyebrows a little.

“Laughing? Why? I didn’t mean to; Rachel and I used to be friends, so she was being nice. I can sit somewhere else tomorrow.”

“Wow, Charlotte, slow down there. I was laughing because of all the tables in all the lunch periods, you ended up at mine, a mostly senior table.”

“Yeah, well of all the lunch tables, in all the towns, in all the world, I sat down at yours, huh?” I couldn’t believe I had just made a
Casablanca
joke, but it was the only thing that came into my head. Somebody would probably say it was intentional, referring to a great romantic movie.

“Ha ha, wow, a
Casablanca
reference? You have a better sense of humor than I remember.”

I was pleased that Liam understood my joke, and I tried to relax as Monty called the room to attention. Luckily, he knew better than to introduce me, and he had the orchestra start at the beginning of a piece. It felt good to fall into the familiar rhythm of playing music, and the class period flew. At the end of the class, I packed my music and walked with Liam to put away our instruments.

“Have fun at practice,” I said quickly, as I waited for Uncle Monty to come to the back of the room.

“Yeah, thanks. You heading to the library?”

“Um, I think I might check out the school newspaper meeting, actually.” I was glad that I could at least act like I wanted to be involved in school activities.

“Did I hear what I think I heard? You’re going to the newspaper meeting?” Monty asked, smiling as he walked over to us.

“Yeah, I wrote some articles in Fairbanks, so I figured I would try it here.”             

“Great! I mentioned to Ms. Wilson that you were into writing, and she’s always looking for new blood.”

“Where should I meet you after practice?” I hoped Monty wouldn’t tell me to go to the gym.

“Why don’t you come by the gym at around five o’clock?”

“Sure.” I agreed even though it was the last thing I wanted to do. The few times I had met Kevin in the gym after his practices had always been awkward—too many sweaty boys.

Just as I reached the door, I heard Monty say, “Good. I’m happy she’s making an effort.” I didn’t wait to hear Liam’s response. The newspaper meeting was fun, and I liked the people there. It came as no surprise when James walked into the room and sat next to me; I was starting to get used to him. I actually felt a little guilty for thinking so badly of him. Maybe he was just trying to be nice and wanted to make a new friend. I promised myself I would try to be more open-minded. I hadn’t really planned on signing up for an assignment yet, but when I found out that the sports editor needed someone to cover the next home basketball game, it seemed to make sense to sign up because I would be there anyway. I never missed Kevin’s home games.

When I met Monty after practice and told him about it, he was thrilled. “Great, my little sports reporter.” He held up his hand for a high five.

“Hey, you told me to join clubs.” I pretended offense at his surprise.

“I know, and you actually listened. Maybe this pseudo-parent stuff won’t be so hard after all.” He laughed.

“Ha ha. Don’t get too comfortable, Monty.”

Chapter Four

Charlotte

By midweek, I found myself enjoying school more than I expected. I was getting used to my new surroundings and the people. The only frustrating thing was being really early for school every morning because Monty had scheduled a bunch of morning practices for the team. On Tuesday morning, the weather was nice, so I sat outside and worked on some schoolwork. Wednesday, it rained, so I decided to go sit in the empty English classroom. 

“Charlotte?” I looked up and saw James walking toward my desk.

“Oh, hey, James.” I noticed that a few drops of water dripped from his dirty blond hair; he must not have bothered with an umbrella.

              “You’re here early, aren’t you?” he asked, as he took a pen and notebook out of his backpack.

              “Yeah, both of my rides had to get here early for a practice today. What’s your excuse?” I asked, more to be polite than because I really wanted to know.

              James smiled. “I just get so excited about learning that I can’t wait to get here.”

              I glared at him; his sarcasm could be very annoying.

              “You know, if you don’t want to get here so early, I could give you a ride. You’re on my way,” he offered.

              “Thanks,” I said warily. “But how do you know where I live?”

              He looked surprised. “You’re Liam’s neighbor, right?” He laughed. “A little paranoid, are you?” 

              “Oh, yeah.” I felt a blush creep into my cheeks. Why did I always have to embarrass myself? “Well anyway, if you drove me I would still be here really early, so no thanks.”

              “I could leave later, just let me know.”

              “Sure,” I responded, just to end the conversation.

              “You’re just saying that,” he retorted accusingly.

              “How do you know?”

              James smiled. “So I was right.”

              “No, I was just wondering why you assumed that.”

              “Well, you can’t let me know if you don’t have my number.”

              “Oh, yeah,” I admitted.

“Do you have your phone with you?” I pulled my phone out of my backpack and handed it to him. He quickly pushed a few buttons on my phone, then handed it back.

“Okay, now you can say ‘sure,’ because we have each other’s numbers.” He held up his cell phone, which displayed a missed call from my number.

Geez, I really could be gullible. Who actually falls for something like that? I just didn’t understand James. All he ever seemed to do was make me feel stupid with his sarcasm and weird smiles. Was he just trying to get me to make a fool of myself? In some ways, I was wary of him but, at the same time, I found him comfortable to be around.

“Have I met you before?” I asked, trying to figure out why he seemed so familiar.

“Yesterday,” he said with mock seriousness.
              “Seriously.” 

“Don’t you think you would remember me if we had met before?” He smirked.

This time, I didn’t take the bait. “I guess it’s nothing. I just thought you seemed familiar.”

James abruptly changed the subject. “So, any new clubs this afternoon?”

“Nope,” I said without thinking.

“Great! So we can work on our project. There isn’t much of a selection at the library here. Why don’t we head over to the public library downtown?” Although he phrased it as a question, I could tell that he wasn’t really asking.

“You’re forgetting I don’t drive. I’m stuck here until after basketball practice lets out.”

“I didn’t forget. I’ll give you a ride,” he said as though that settled it.

“Well…” I tried thinking of another excuse.

“Come on, what were you going to do until five o’clock, anyway?”

I was frustrated. I had been ready to get him to just let us work on the project individually but he didn’t appear to want to let it go. I wondered why he was so intent on us working on it together. I decided to try to get out of it anyway. “Well, I was thinking. Why don’t you do the biography section, and I’ll do the analysis part?” I hoped giving him the easy part would make him take the bait.