Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1) (7 page)

I nodded. I hoped they didn’t take too long. I wanted to get home. I didn’t want to stand there making small talk with people I didn’t know and would likely not speak to again.

They emerged from the locker room in just a few minutes with their backpacks. Bobby put his arm around Emily. Cassie took Jason’s hand. We all walked out to the parking lot together. We got to my car before any of theirs.

I unlocked my door. “Bye, guys.” I put my backpack on the driver’s seat.

The rest of the crew said ‘goodbye’. Patrick walked to the driver’s side of my car. “Do you want to give me your answers and I’ll type them up and with mine?”

“Um…” What if he lost my paper? What if he forgot it? How would I know if he was able to read my writing and got it typed up?

He tilted his head. “Come on. What do you think? I’ll lose
your
homework? I would never do that.”

He looked so sincere. I guess he wouldn’t lose it, if he kept it with his. If he did lose it, it shouldn’t take me too long to re-do it. “Uh… I guess.”

I leaned into my car and opened up my backpack. I pulled out my physics work. Hesitantly, I handed it to him. He smiled, “It’s okay. I’ll email it to you tonight. You can trust me. You’ll see.”

I bit the inside of my cheek and searched his eyes for some sign that I shouldn’t trust him. I didn’t see anything like that. “Okay.”

“Don’t worry. Go home. Practice. I’ll email you tonight.”

I nodded, “Alright. Bye.”

“Bye. And thanks!” He held up my paper, smiled and nodded.

I got into my car and hoped I didn’t make the wrong decision. I wasn’t going to run after him when he was with all his friends and embarrass myself. It was too late now to do anything about it. I started my car and pulled out of the space. As I drove out of the parking lot, I noticed Patrick and his crew hanging out by their cars. He waved as I went by.

* * *

I got home a little later than I hoped. Instead of practicing in the family room, I practiced in my room. The instant I heard the garage door open, I turned off my music, turned on the TV and started up my computer. I closed my eyes and hoped I had gotten an email from Patrick with our combined work.

I checked my email. My nerves calmed when I saw Patrick’s email.

Hey Liz,

Here’s the lab. I told you I’d get it done. =)

Thanks again for coming to the game. Hope you had fun. See you tomorrow!

-Patrick

My mom walked into my room just as I opened the attachment. She stood behind me, looking over my shoulder. I wish she didn’t do that. “Homework?”

“Yes. Physics.” I scrolled down the screen. “How was dinner?”

“It was wonderful. We tried this new Italian place on
Pacific Coast Highway
.” She went on and on about the dinner. “How was your day?”

“Fine. I was invited to go to a basketball game.” Telling her about the invitation was the best way to test the waters.

“By who?” I got scared by her reaction.

“Classmate.”

“Does this classmate have a name?”

I took a deep breath. Here we go. “Patrick.”

“A boy?” She shook her head. “So, a date?”

“No. He has a girlfriend. He’s just a guy from class. I told you about him yesterday – my lab partner in science.”

“If he has a girlfriend, why is he asking you to a game?”

Maybe because he’s just nice? Maybe not everyone has an ulterior motive. “He’s on the basketball team. He knew I liked basketball.”

She eyed me. “How would he know that? How long have you been talking to this boy?”

Great. I said too much, now I have to explain more without explaining more. “When we get new lab partners, Mr. D has us introduce ourselves.”

“Hmph. Where is the game?”

“At school.”

She stared at me. She knew how much I liked the game. “Basketball. Be careful.”

With that, she left my room. What did that mean? So, was that a ‘yes’? A ‘you can go, but I don’t really like it’ response? Regardless, I wasn’t going to tell her that I had already went. At least I planted the idea in her head, so if I ever decided to go again… Well, it wouldn’t seem like it was from out of the blue. I didn’t know if I’d watch another game.

5. REACHING OUT

The rest of the week, Patrick and I made good progress on our lab. We were much further along than the other groups. I figured we would be able to film our video part in the next day or two.

It was really nice to work
with
someone on the assignments. When teachers told us to pick our own partners, we would work together in English and math class. We had settled into a little routine for our project. By the end of class, we had divided up the work and by math he had shown me at least a portion of his part. If I finished my half before our last class together, he typed it up. If I hadn’t, I typed it up and emailed it to him.

He was hell bent on me trusting him. I had to admit, it was working. He did what he said he would do. He earned my trust, a little bit every class, every day. Patrick never gave me a reason before to doubt him.

Toward the end of physics class, we started putting our supplies away. We weren’t quite done with what we wanted to do, but there wasn’t enough time left in the period to finish it. “I don’t have basketball practice today, if you want to finish after school.”

“Sounds good.” I shoved my notebook in my backpack.

“Okay. Oh, hey, how’s your practicing going?” He asked.

My face fell. He never seemed to forget anything. “It’s going. I don’t know if I should bother.”

“Why?”

“I’m not really very good. I mean, singing in the car by myself is one thing. But, you know how you don’t really hear yourself like others do… I know how good the others are. I think I’m kidding myself about being okay. Maybe my mom is right…”

“Hey! Is this something you like to do?”

“Yeah.” I really did like to sing.

“Are you hurting anyone doing it?”

“Well, I’d be wasting their time.” I retorted.

He shook his head. “No, that’s not what I asked and that’s not an answer. They’ll be there anyway. Are you causing anyone any physical or emotional pain?”

“I might.” I said sourly. “What if I’m so bad that I traumatize everyone and make their ears bleed?”

“I don’t think
that
will happen.” He rolled his eyes.

“How do you know? You’ve never heard me sing.” Crap. As soon as it came out of my mouth, I regretted saying it. Usually, I’m really good at monitoring my words, after all I’ve had years of practice with my parents, family and people at school.

“And whose fault is that?” He grinned.

“Hmph.” I pouted. I couldn’t help it.

“Hey, I am more than willing to listen. Just let me know when.” He paused. “Unless you feel like you trust me less than when we started…”

No. That definitely wasn’t the case. I was surprised on how much I did trust him in such a short period of time. “Okay.”

“Okay? Okay what?” He looked at me curiously.

“I could use some feedback. But you need to be honest with me. If I suck, you have to tell me so I don’t make a fool out of myself at the audition.”

“Yeah, yeah. Of course.”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath. “After school? When we finish up this stuff.”

“Sure.”

“But…” I was still uneasy about something.

“But?” He eyed me quizzically.

“Ummm…” I didn’t know how to say it. “You’re the only audience I want. How do I sing without Mr. D hearing?”

He looked over to Mr. D, who was heading to the front of the room. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it.”

Somehow, I knew he would. How was beyond me. But if he said he would handle it, I could trust that he would. I wasn’t going to worry about it. Well, I was going to try not to.

At the end of class Mr. D announced the next project. “Alright, ladies and gentlemen… your next project will be to find physics in the world around you. You need to identify 3-4 examples of physics used in ‘real life’. You will then need to describe, in general, the concepts. Photos and/or video clips must be included, so we can see what you identified. To avoid duplication of locations, please register your place with me. First come, first serve. Work with your lab partners. It is due in two weeks. The details are in the handout.”

The bell rang and he gave each of us a handout as we left the classroom. I read over it, in my next class. Basically, we had to find places outside of school, like at the mall or at a restaurant, that used physics in their business. We had to go there, take pictures or video of it and explain the physics and diagram it. I knew that science was everywhere, so I didn’t think it would be hard to find something. But, I wanted the video to be interesting, so it had to be good.

* * *

I was in choir, we had just finished warming up, when the bell went off. Most students were excited. I wasn’t one of them. Ring. Ring. Ring. Great. It was the fire alarm. We had to evacuate. Mrs. Marshall seemed surprised, so it wasn’t a planned drill. But that didn’t mean that there was a fire. Still, I grabbed my bag and headed to the evacuation area – the soccer fields.

I really hated going down there. It wasn’t the walk, so much as 2000 students all going to the same place at the same time. It was very slow moving with bottlenecks where the gates were. I had someone immediately in front of me, on my right, left and behind me. I felt so claustrophobic. I couldn’t wait until I got to the open field, where there was more space between everyone.

I got to my classroom’s designated area and checked in with Mrs. Marshall. I had time to kill until they rang the ‘all clear’ bell and everyone could go back to class. Who knew how long that would take. I found a grassy spot nearby. I put my backpack on the grass and leaned up against the fence.

I wanted to try to get some work done, but I couldn’t concentrate. Instead, I stayed against the fence people watching. Most students wandered around the field, looking for their friends to hang out with them. Even the teachers did that. I could see my teachers talking with their teacher friends. I saw students playing cards in the grass or playing tag. It was the equivalent of recess for high school.

Everyone was having fun. It all seemed so easy for them, but it escaped me. It was frustrating. Things that were hard for others came easy to me. Yet something that was so simple for everyone was impossible for me. Maybe some things were never meant to be.

“Hey, Liz.” The voice came out of nowhere.

I tried to take a fast step back, but didn’t move anywhere with the fence behind me. I slammed myself against it. It took me a second to register that Patrick was standing in front of me.

“Oww.” I rubbed the back of my head.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Are you okay?” He reached out to touch my arm, but I moved it, so he couldn’t. His arm returned to his side.