Katy's Homecoming (9 page)

Mr. Gorsky shook his head. “Nope. We’ll take our day off after the final tournament. Until then, we’ve got work to do. So settle down, gang.”

With good-natured mutters, the students slouched into their desks. As soon as everyone was seated, Mr. Gorsky addressed the class. “This is very short notice, but I received a call today from the forensics coach at Hill City. They’re hosting a tournament on the twenty-seventh and need two more schools to participate, or they’ll have to cancel.”

“But that’s the Saturday after homecoming.” The reminder came from one of the senior girls. “We’ve got the dance after the game. It’d be pretty hard to get up for a tournament after being out so late.”

Mr. Gorsky nodded and held up one hand. “I know, Whitney. That’s why I initially didn’t sign up for it, but —” Marlys bustled into the room, waving a piece of paper. She handed it to Mr. Gorsky then dropped into the seat next to Bryce. Katy tried not to stare when Marlys tipped sideways and whispered something into Bryce’s ear, and Bryce smiled and nodded in response.

Mr. Gorsky glanced at the paper then set it on the desk behind him. He went on as if Marlys hadn’t interrupted. “There might be some of you who aren’t planning to go to the dance.”

Every student looked in Katy’s direction. Fire lit her ears. She looked at Bryce. He didn’t say a word. She blurted,“I’m going. With Bryce.”

Marlys’s jaw dropped. Some girls snickered. A couple of the boys burst into loud, abrasive laughter. Bryce ducked his head. Katy wished he’d tell the others to knock it off, that there wasn’t anything funny about him going with her. But instead he shrank like a turtle disappearing into its shell.

Embarrassed and hurt, she turned her attention to Mr. Gorsky, hoping everyone else would follow her lead.

“All right, all right.” Mr. Gorsky frowned at the class. The merriment faded. He glanced around the room. “No one can go? Are you sure? It’ll be a small tournament, maybe eight schools total competing. We stand a good chance of walking away with the first-place trophy,
especially if everyone performs as well as you did this past Saturday.”

Still, no one said anything.

Their teacher lifted his shoulders in a brief shrug. “Well, if everyone’s going to the dance, then obviously we can’t do it. So I’ll call the coach and tell him not to expect us.”

The same girl who’d first protested stood up and faced the other students. “Come on, guys — isn’t there
anybody
who could go? You can bet Salina High West is sending some of their thespians.” She grinned, her eyes twinkling mischievously. “Wouldn’t it be fun to stomp them in the forensics meet after stomping them in the basketball game?”

Murmurs broke across the group. One of the boys raised his hand. “I’m going to the dance, but I can still get up early and catch the bus to Hill City in the morning, Mr. G.” A few others said,“Me too” and “I’ll go.”

Mr. Gorsky snatched up a pen and the paper he’d discarded earlier. He grinned, his mustache twitching. “Now we’re talking.” He began scribbling on the paper. “Okay, so Brad, Marjorie, Connie, John, Roger, and Donna are all a go. Anybody else?”

“Me,” a girl named Eileen said as she sighed. “I’m better at reciting poetry than dancing, anyway.”

“I’ll say,” one of the boys teased, and she smacked him on the shoulder. Several students laughed.

Mr. Gorsky added her name to his list. He tapped the pen on the paper. “That makes seven competitors. We need three more to make it worth the trip.”

“I’m
definitely
going to the dance — with Michael Evans,” Marlys said, shooting Katy a
sorry, you lose
look,
“but I don’t mind getting up early. I can always sleep on the bus if I need to catch a few extra Z’s.” She looped arms with Bryce. “So count us in. Right, Bryce?”

Bryce didn’t say anything, but he nodded.

If Bryce was going, Katy was going. She jammed her hand into the air.

A couple of students tittered, but she ignored them.

Mr. Gorsky smiled. “And that makes ten. So we can get our school on the list of attendees.” He set the paper aside. “Even though we’ve got enough competitors to make a team, I’d be happy to take more than ten of you. I need to call the coach in the morning and give him the list of names and categories, so if you want to go, please let me know before class is over today. Now —” he rubbed his palms together —“let’s get to work.”

The week after Bryce invited Katy to go to homecoming, she puzzled over a peculiar change in his behavior. Before, nearly every day, he stopped by her lunch table or caught her in the hallway to chat. In their shared classes, he’d never been shy about taking the seat next to hers or asking to borrow a pencil. But now if they encountered each other in the hall, he offered a quick “hi” — or, even worse, an embarrassed glance — and hurried on. He chose a desk several seats away even if the one next to her was open. Not once, Tuesday through Friday, did he approach “her” table in the cafeteria. In fact, he seemed to make it a point to avoid her.

If he caught her by herself—at her locker or in the classroom — he spoke to her the same way he always had before. But as soon as another student came around, he turned aloof. And in a school with as many students as Salina High North, someone
always
came around and cut short their time of relaxed conversation. She’d considered Bryce a friend, but now he seemed a stranger. Katy couldn’t understand what she had done to change him.

On Friday at lunch, she gathered her courage and mentioned her confusion to Cora, Trisha, and Jewel. “I thought he liked me, but now I’m not so sure. Do you think he’s changed his mind about taking me to homecoming and doesn’t know how to tell me?” Images of Marlys and Bryce sitting close and whispering together in forensics class flashed in Katy’s memory. The remembrance stung.

“Boys are weird, Katy,” Jewel said in a bored tone. “If you’re gonna pursue ‘em, you just have to get used to it.” Then she looked up, her gaze following something behind Katy. A conniving smile curved her lips. “And speaking of pursuing … there goes my prize catch. See you all later.” She pushed away from the table, leaving her half-empty tray behind.

Katy peeked over her shoulder and watched Jewel saunter in her hip-swaying way to a group of older boys wearing leather letter jackets. When Katy spotted Tony Adkins in the middle of the boys, she knew who Jewel meant by the “prize catch.” Jewel slipped herself underneath Tony’s arm and snuggled close. He laughed, curling his arm around her waist. He winked at his friends then angled Jewel toward the hallway. The pair disappeared. Katy observed the other boys nudging each other on the shoulder and snickering before they headed to the lunch line.

She turned back and found both Cora and Trisha staring after Jewel with disapproving looks on their faces. Cora shook her head. “She’s gonna get herself in trouble.”

Trisha shrugged. “That’s her issue. Jewel does what Jewel does, and she doesn’t care what anyone thinks.”

Cora glanced around, as if making sure no one was listening, then quirked her finger to invite Trisha and Katy to
lean close. “Remember how she said she was going to get Tony Adkins to ask her to the dance?” She paused, waggling her eyebrows. “I heard she promised him a keg of beer if he took her.”

“Beer?” Katy squawked.

“Shhh!” Trisha hissed.

Katy lowered her voice to a whisper. “But where would she get beer?”

Cora shrugged and lifted the half-eaten hamburger from her tray. “I dunno. Maybe her mom’s boyfriend? Jewel said he’s bought it for her before.”

Katy gawked at Cora, who began eating as if nothing was wrong. She turned to Trisha. “We have to tell Shelby.”

Trisha released a little snort. “As if Shelby could do anything.”

“She could tell her parents. Jewel lives with them — she has to obey their rules.”

Trisha laughed. “Katy, you are so naïve. Just because Jewel lives with the Nusses doesn’t mean she
has
to do what they say. I mean, really, how many kids do everything their parents tell them to do?”

Katy knew of several kids who followed their parents’ directions. Before she could answer, Trisha went on.

“Kids usually find a way to do what they want whether their parents approve or not — and Jewel is a pro at breaking rules.”

“Well,” Katy insisted,“I still think we should tell Shelby.”

“She wouldn’t listen! She’s so caught up with Jayden, she doesn’t care about anything else.” Trisha broke off a chunk of her hamburger bun and jammed it in her mouth.
She spoke around the lump of bread. “It wouldn’t make any difference if you told, except to torque Jewel off royally. Just let it go.”

“But —” Katy started to argue.

Cora interrupted. “Katy, I’ve been thinking about Bryce and why he might’ve stopped talking to you.”

Katy forgot about Jewel. She leaned toward Cora. “Why?”

“Well, you know how guys are — sometimes they torment each other, and sometimes they egg each other on?”

Katy thought about the group of boys who’d seemed to approve of Tony heading off with Jewel. She nodded.

“I wonder,” Cora mused,“if some of the guys have been bugging Bryce. You know, giving him a hard time for asking you to homecoming. So to keep from being teased even more, he’s kind of, I don’t know, keeping his distance?”

“Yeah,” Trisha said. “He could be protecting himself. It’s nothing against you.”

“But it bothers me.” Katy thought about how she’d always looked forward to seeing Bryce, knowing he would smile and talk to her. Now when she saw him, her stomach felt heavy with dread instead of pleasure because she couldn’t be sure if he’d acknowledge or ignore her. She hated the roller coaster of emotions. “Why can’t we just be friends and be at ease with each other?”

Cora laughed. “You’ve never had a boyfriend, have you?”

Katy shook her head.

“Well, the thing with boys is, it’s all about appearances.” Cora pushed her tray aside and tipped her head, her eyebrows high. “Y’see, Katy, a jock might flirt with lots of different girls to get something from them, like maybe help with homework or —” Her face blushed briefly.

“Something else, but he’ll only seriously date the popular girls or the cheerleaders. But a skater will
never
go after a cheerleader, because he knows it’s pointless — she wouldn’t give him the time of day. So, instead, he goes after a skater girl. A skater girl will win his buddies’ approval and keep him in right standing with the group.”

Cora sent Trisha a thoughtful look. “Bryce is kinda between groups, isn’t he? He hangs with the good kids, and he gets really good grades so he fits with the smart kids, but since he’s on the soccer team he also hangs with some of the jocks.” She grimaced. “Kinda hard to know where to put him.”

Trisha tore her remaining hamburger into little pieces and dropped them on her tray while she spoke. “I bet it’s the other soccer guys who are riding him about asking Katy. He doesn’t want to be teased, so he tries not to let them see him talking to her.”

“That makes sense to me,” Cora said.

The two acted as though they’d forgotten Katy was there. Katy smacked her fork onto her tray. Cora and Trisha both jumped and looked at her. Katy said,“So if I go to homecoming with him, is he going to hide from me all night, or will he actually spend time with me? Because I don’t see any point in going if he isn’t going to talk to me or act like I’m there.” She’d never thought Bryce would treat her like so many other kids at school did, looking past her as though she didn’t exist. Now they knew she existed — they wouldn’t be able to ignore her on homecoming night when she represented the class — but Bryce pretended not to notice her. Being ignored by Bryce hurt more, because she’d trusted him.

Trisha and Cora exchanged a quick look. Cora said,“It’s kinda hard to know what’ll happen, Katy. Like Jewel said, boys are weird. Who can figure them out?”

“Yeah, but” — Trisha grinned — “they’re
sooo
worth it.” Both Trisha and Cora laughed.

Katy pondered Trisha’s statement as she settled in her desk for fifth hour. The up and down feelings of happiness and despair had nearly driven her crazy the past few days. Was it worth the emotional upheaval just to have a date? If going on a date made such a change in a friendship, she wasn’t sure she wanted the date. She’d rather have things go back to the way they’d been, when Bryce treated her like she mattered.

A woman Katy had never seen before stepped to the front of the classroom. “Good afternoon, class.” A nervous kind of smile twitched the corners of the woman’s lips. “I’m Mrs. Barnes, and I’m substituting for Mr. Harrison. I understand he intended to begin a group research project with you today, and he prefers to explain it himself. So he’s asked that you to use the hour as a study hall.”

Cheers erupted. Mrs. Barnes waved her hands. It took several seconds to restore order. She said,“If you don’t have homework to work on, please read a library book.”

From the back of the room, someone hollered,“Can I go to the library?”

“Me too,” another student called.

At least three others also requested permission to go to the library. The woman sighed. “Yes, anyone who needs a book, go ahead.” A dozen kids darted out the door. “The rest of you, please work quietly.” She sank into the teacher’s chair, seemingly relieved to be finished with her duty.

Katy had a library book in her backpack — she always carried one with her in case she finished an assignment early. She opened her backpack to remove it, but the sight of a spiral notebook captured her attention. A longing to release frustration welled up inside her, and she knew what would help. She opened the notebook to a clean sheet and smoothed the page flat. Leaning over the fresh lined sheet of paper, she began to write.