Starcrossed (20 page)

wrong when Hector and Jason joined them.

“Your mom’s here,” Jason told Lucas, who nodded as though he

was expecting her.

“What’s wrong?” Helen asked.

“Nothing. We’re meeting with the principal because my mom is

going to try and talk our way back on to the football team,” Lucas

explained.

“She’s playing the ‘have pity on a poor little woman raising so

many gigantic boys’ card and then she’ll beg them to let us beat up

kids from other schools instead of each other. All to the benefit of

Nantucket High, of course,” Jason said with a grin. “It never fails.

She’s like the Einstein of guilt.”

“But should you three be allowed to play football?” Helen said

with a disapproving frown. “I mean, you all have an unfair

advantage.”

“Keep talking, track star,” Hector replied with a little heat.

“Helen runs because she needs a scholarship for college,” Lucas

said, shooting Hector a warning glance. “We play sports because

it’s expected of us. It’s annoying, actually, because we have to pretend

to be unbearably weak and slow.”

“And we spend as much time making sure no one gets hurt as we

do playing,” added Jason with a rueful smile. “The truth is we’d

much rather be beating each other up than pretending to beat up

mortals, but that wouldn’t look normal at all.”

“Well, good luck on the whole looking-normal thing,” Helen said

briskly, stepping aside to let Jason and Hector go past her.

“I’ll find you after school,” Lucas promised her as he followed his

cousins. He glanced back and gave her a concerned look. Helen

tried to smile for him, but her expression was so phony she

wondered if Lucas could feel the lie in it.

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Helen slouched into the cafeteria, hoping to duck across the

room without attracting too much attention. She saw Gretchen say

something to Amy Heart and then the whole table of cheerleaders

started laughing mockingly at Helen. It took Helen far too long to

recover, and by the time she got herself oriented, everyone in the

cafeteria was staring at her. She retreated to her usual table with

Matt and Claire, sure she could feel a cramp coming on.

“Would you please just stand up straight!” Claire barked at her.

“There’s nothing more pathetic than watching you try to dissolve

feetfirst into the frigging floor, and I swear if I catch you doing it

one more time I’m going to lose it.”

It was the last straw. Helen spun around on her heel and fled the

cafeteria. She tried to eat her lunch in the restroom, sitting on a

sink, but the venue was so unappetizing that she gave up on her

sandwich after a few bites.

She made it through her last three classes and practically ran to

the girls’ locker room when the final bell rang, but Claire was

already there waiting for her.

“Sorry I yelled at you earlier,” she said bashfully. She looked so

cute when she was apologizing that Helen couldn’t even pick up a

grudge, let alone carry one.

“Oh, forget it. I’ve been a flake, and I’d be angry, too, if I were

you.” Helen threw an arm over Claire’s shoulder and led her outside

after they changed.

“One thing, and then I’m going to leave you alone about it until

you come to me to talk,” Claire said as they walked past the football

field. Helen didn’t have the patience for any more questions.

“We’ve never even kissed, Gig,” she said, cutting Claire off.

“Really?” Claire practically shouted. Helen nodded and bumped

Claire playfully with her hip.

“Really, really. I almost kissed him once, but he told me to lie

down and go to sleep.”

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“No way!” Claire shouted. Helen grabbed her, clamping a hand

over her mouth.

“He’s right over there,” she said, gesturing toward him with her

chin. “I told you I’d tell you if anything happened. I’m not trying to

keep secrets from you.”

Claire gave Helen a knowing smile.

“You’ve always kept secrets. But it’s okay. When you’re ready to

tell me you will,” she said patiently. Then she tackled Helen, trying

to wrestle her to the ground. Helen went along with it, pretending

to be overpowered by her pint-sized pal, both of them laughing

hysterically. The fun only lasted a moment.

“Get a room,” said a boy’s amused voice.

“You wish,” Claire answered back. “Wait. How’d you get over

here so fast?”

Helen rolled over onto her back, blew her tangled hair out of her

face, and saw Lucas and Jason standing over them.

“We saw you go down so we ran over to check it out,” Lucas said,

ignoring Claire’s question.

“Thanks. She is pretty ferocious,” Helen replied, allowing Claire

to flip her over one more time before Lucas helped her up.

“Five feet and two inches of pure terror,” Claire boasted as she

held out her hand, expecting Jason to help her. He folded his arms

across his chest deliberately.

“Is that how tall you are without those ridiculous shoes?” he said

derisively. “I think I was born bigger than that.”

“I bet you were. Five feet of fat head and two inches of ass,”

Claire muttered, standing up.

“Claire!” Helen blurted out, shocked. Lucas’s shoulders were

shaking with laughter. Jason pretended to take the joke okay, but

Helen suspected his feelings were hurt.

Helen bit back her own laughter and gave Claire a little pinch as

punishment. Claire yelped in protest, pointing out that monkey

bites had been off-limits since they were ten, and was about to say

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something else to Jason when the Delos boys were called back to

practice by their coach.

Helen watched as Lucas jogged back to the football field. Running

in the sun, he was about the most beautiful thing she’d ever

seen.

“Crap. We’re late,” Claire said, and they picked up their pace to

catch up with their teammates, having to run up to the trailhead

where Coach Tar was waiting with her clipboard. She was already

shouting out start times, so Helen and Claire just kept running,

calling back to their coach as they crossed over the line. Coach

scribbled their times down, shaking her head.

“You owe me a full minute off your last run for being late,

Hamilton!” she shouted after them.

“Sure, Coach!” Helen shouted back before she lowered her voice

to berate Claire privately. “Why’d you say that to him?” she asked,

still feeling bad for Jason.

“Because it felt fantastic!” Claire replied unapologetically.

“I like Jason,” Helen said, realizing it was true. He had always

been kind to her, and he seemed to have a good head on his

shoulders. “He’s a really nice guy, and you were awful to him.”

“Of course you like him, because Jason is nice to everyone.

Everyone but me. You don’t have classes with us so you haven’t

seen him do it, but whenever we debate, he always tries to shut me

down, arguing against whatever position I take. Even when he actually

agrees with me, he argues just to play devil’s advocate.”

“And why do you think he does that?” Helen asked with a little

grin.

“I asked him, and do you know what he said?” Claire plowed on,

getting herself even more worked up. “He said everyone else in this

school is afraid to stand up to me in a debate, except for him, and

it’s good for me to have to work a little bit for once in my life!”

“How dare he challenge you to think deeper,” Helen said with

mock horror.

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“Believe me, it’s not a favor. He’s just trying to prove he’s smarter

than me.”

“Is he?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe. Lucas is smarter than all of us, so

there goes valedictorian. And then there’s Ariadne. She’s really

bright, too, but I think I have her beat. We’ll see what happens,”

Claire said, biting at her lower lip.

She was deeply worried about all the new competition, and Helen

hadn’t even asked her how classes were going so far. It sounded

like Claire had basically given up on her lifelong dream of graduating

at the top of the class, and Helen hadn’t noticed.

“I’ve been a terrible friend to you these past couple of days,

haven’t I?” Helen asked, suddenly disgusted with herself.

“I wouldn’t say terrible,” Claire said with a wry smile. “But you

could do me a favor to make up for it if you like.”

“Anything,” Helen replied immediately.

“If you could keep Lucas awake and occupied the night before exams

. . .” Claire said, already holding up her arms to defend herself

from Helen’s pretend slaps. “I don’t know why you’re fighting it,

Len. One, he’s frigging gorgeous. Two, he’s so frigging gorgeous

you need to count it twice. Three, he saw you fall down and left

practice to see if you were okay. That’s, like, devotion.”

Helen didn’t know how to respond. She couldn’t exactly explain

that Lucas had only come over to make sure she was okay because

several of his relatives were trying to kill her. The image of Kate lying

unconscious on the dirty ground flashed into Helen’s head and

her stomach fluttered. Like Kate, Claire was in danger just being

around her.

“I gotta pick up the pace,” Helen said urgently, and Claire

nodded.

“Show Lucas those legs are for more than drooling over and call

me later,” she said cheerfully before Helen sped off.

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When Claire was out of sight, Helen sighed to herself, fighting

back a fit of guilt. She didn’t know what she would do if anyone

ever hurt Claire. The thought distracted her from reining in her

stride and she almost allowed herself to run into Coach Tar’s view

far too early. At the last moment she remembered to duck behind

some bushes, waiting several minutes before pretending to sprint

the last few yards. She still finished first, of course, and then had to

spend another half hour waiting for Lucas to finish up with practice.

If he was going to continue driving her to school in the morning,

she decided she was going to have to come up with another

plan for getting to work afterward.

As soon as Helen walked in the front door of the News Store,

Kate started following her around with a stunned look on her face.

“Wow!” Kate managed to say after a few moments of speechlessness.

“He’s like . . . wow! I could go to jail for even thinking what

I’m thinking.”

“Kate!” Helen exclaimed, throwing a balled-up napkin at her. “I

thought you were a feminist!”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Aren’t you always preaching that there can be no equality if the

sexes objectify each other?”

“Yeah, but damn!” Kate said, fanning herself with her hand.

“When I was your age all of the guys were trying to prove how antiestablishment

they were by out-uglying each other. I so got

robbed!”

“Keep on going and I’ll tell my dad he’s got competition,” Helen

teased, but the joke didn’t have the effect she thought it would. The

laughter went right out of Kate’s eyes and the smile melted off her

face.

“I don’t think it would make any difference to him,” she said, and

then abruptly changed the subject. “But we’re not talking about

me. We’re talking about you and Lucas and the importance of

condoms.”

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After several rounds of denial, and a few breaks to help customers,

Kate finally accepted the fact that Helen was still as pure as the

driven snow.

“Is he gay?” Kate asked. “I mean, look at you, Len.”

“I haven’t asked, but I’m pretty sure he’s straight,” Helen replied,

and then she sighed. “I honestly don’t know what’s going on.”

“No reason to rush, and don’t let anyone make you feel bad if you

want to wait, either. It’s more fun if you take your time, anyway,”

Kate said with a warm smile, changing the subject at the first sign

of Helen’s discomfort.

Although Kate seemed convinced that eventually she and Lucas

would go beyond virginal hand-holding, Helen suddenly wasn’t so

sure. The one time she had tried to kiss Lucas he had told her to go

to sleep. Despite what everyone was saying about them, the truth

was that she and Lucas were no more than friends. Lucas could

have anyone he wanted, and if Kate’s response was any indication,

that included women long out of high school.

Knowing that didn’t do anything to help Helen’s confidence. She

could tell that Lucas liked her—she’d caught him staring at her and

she’d heard his heart pound when she lay down next to him—but

for some reason Lucas didn’t seem to want to do anything about it.

Was that the way dating always was in the beginning, or was she

unintentionally doing something to push Lucas away? She’d never

had a boyfriend, and she honestly didn’t know what “normal” was.

After work, she went home and forced herself to do all of her

school assignments before bed. By the time she switched out the

light it was well past two. Helen was beyond tired, but she still

couldn’t fall asleep. She felt like she was missing something, or

maybe misunderstanding something. Lucas obviously liked her

and felt protective of her, but neither of those things meant that he