“Silly me,” Claire chuckled. “Please forgive me, I meant to say his grandson, B.J. Brimwell, who met you at the front door. He didn’t look quite 100, did he?” Heads bobbed in understanding, and a few boys even laughed at the dull joke.
More facts were mentioned, and the tour kept moving. Mr. West told them they would have a paper due concerning their tour, and Mina needed an A on this paper, badly. Sometime during the lecture on the usefulness of different sugars in the chocolate process, Mr. West had become separated from the tour group, but only Mina seemed to notice their ward’s absence.
Claire seemed to enjoy the extra attention from the boys, particularly Brody, and did nothing to discourage them. The tour went through the stockroom, the drying room, and the mixing rooms. Every room looked the same, sterile and depressing, the workers even more so in their drab white coats, shower caps, and listless, droning movements. The expression on every one of the workers’ faces was the same: blank.
Mina noticed that many of the students were becoming bored, and more than a few could be seen trying to stifle their yawns, so as not to upset their guide. Mina felt her eyes start to go heavy, as if she hadn’t slept in days.
Slowly the atmosphere of the tour changed. Mina hardly noticed when the steady stream of facts slowed significantly and Claire’s voice no longer echoed loudly enough to reach the back of the room. In fact, Claire had hardly spoken above a whisper for the last five minutes. The rest of the class had become incidental, as the tour now seemed to only consist of one VIP—Brody.
Claire would lean in and gently put her hand on his shoulder to direct him if he was turning the wrong way. She would whisper a comment that only he seemed to hear. Everything about the small movements and encounters between the two seemed odd, out of place. Claire stopped walking to listen to a comment that Brody made, turned her head coyly to the side, and giggled. Actually giggled. Now Mina wished that she wasn’t at the back of the group so she could hear what was said. But someone obviously did overhear; Savannah moved in for the kill.
Savannah flipped her blonde hair and physically stepped between Claire and Brody, her nose turned up in challenge. “Excuse me. Perhaps you could stop paying so much attention to my boyfriend so we can actually hear you in the back.” Claire’s eyes turned dark.
Brody grabbed her elbow and turned on her. “You have got to be kidding, Savannah. Are you trying to embarrass me?”
“Are you? When’s the last time you were so interested in a stupid bread barn?”
“Oh, come on. Really, you want to do this now?”
“Do what now?” she asked coldly.
Brody’s voice grew louder. Everyone stopped talking to listen in to witness firsthand what was sure to be the biggest argument of the semester.
“It’s over between us. I’m sick of you. I’m sick of your jealousy and your childish ways. It’s time for you to grow up!” Brody looked feverish and tense. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
Savannah’s eyes glistened with tears, and her cherry-glossed lip started to tremble. “You don’t mean that. Yesterday you told me…”
“Well, that was yesterday and this is today. Don’t you get it? You’re too much of a baby.” The words left Brody’s mouth, but they seemed awkward and forced. Savannah turned and ran back down the hallway toward the bathrooms. Pri dutifully ran after her.
Claire turned to the group and smiled brightly. “Well, now that that embarrassing scene is over with, let’s be on our way, shall we?” Her smile was so blindingly bright that it was almost painful look at.
Did no one else seem to notice the effect the bewitching tour guide was having on Brody and the boys? Apparently not. The girls were so upset by the breakup that they were no longer paying attention to the tour, instead whispering among themselves excitedly about sudden availability of the hottest guy in school. No one ever could hold a grudge against Brody Carmichael.
Nan nudged Mina and motioned to the group of girls with her chin. “I told you that everyone loves gossip. I’ve already been texted by three different people who aren’t even here that Brody and Savannah broke up.” Nan frowned, looking at one of the texts, and her fingers flew over the touchpad. “No, that’s not right. I was here. I saw it.” Nan began murmuring to herself as she tried to fix whatever new rumor was now flying through their high school ten miles away.