At one point she looked up at me, probably hoping for help. Like I had any clue about cooking. I’d almost burned our house down
microwaving popcorn the past year. It had smel ed like charred popcorn for over a week. I’d been wisely banned from the kitchen ever since.
“Is there a certain way you want them cut?” she asked Mom.
Mom opened her mouth and then it was like I saw a lightbulb go
on over her head. She went over to Macal an and showed her the
different ways to cut everything. Macal an’s green eyes were watching everything like she was gonna be graded on it.
“Thanks,” she said quietly when they were through. “There isn’t a lot of cooking at my house. Anymore.”
It was then that I realized why Macal an was enamored with Mom.
It was Emily who’d told me about the car accident — Macal an
hadn’t real y said much about her mom to me. And I had no clue if I should’ve said something to her. Or asked. Like, what do you do in that circumstance?
Blimey if I knew.
Even though I was quickly becoming friends with Macal an and her group, I still felt like I needed some dudes in my life.
“What’s up, California?” Keith came up to me after class in early November. “How’s it hanging, bro.” But he said it like brah. I knew he was making fun of how I talked, but had he never heard himself?
Everybody here had these nasal y accents and overpronounced
their vowels. I found it hilarious. “Saw you running ’round the track at gym. You’re pretty fast.”
“Thanks, man.”
23
I debated bragging to him that I was faster when it wasn’t so
cold. Even though the snow from the first snowstorm of the year (which happened before Hal oween) had melted, it was still freezing outside.
Part of me had already written off Keith and his group . . . and still I felt a little excited as Keith continued. “Yeah, maybe you could join our game sometime. Wide receiver or something. Do they even play football in La-La Land?” He laughed.
I decided to throw it right back at him. “I don’t know, man. Ever heard of this little thing cal ed the Rose Bowl? Probably not, since the Badgers haven’t won it in years.”
“Ouch.” But Keith looked impressed.
I was a little rusty with the guy put-downs. Back in California, my buddies and I would spend hours ragging on each other, our families, the girls we liked. You name it. The bigger the put-down, the bigger the laugh. It was our own art form.
“Okay, California.” Keith nodded to himself. “I guess I’ll see you around. Don’t let those chicks start braiding your hair or doing your nails. Real men play footbal .”
“Yeah, total y.” We did this awkward handshake thing that made
me feel even more like a tool. But hey, at least he was talking to me.
That was a start.
I could tell right away that Macal an was not in a good mood after school. Mom had a meeting that was running late, so we had to walk the twenty minutes to my house. She hardly talked to me during the walk and didn’t even want to stop in Riverside Park. We always
would stop in the park and goof around whenever we walked to my place. Even if it was cold out. But apparently not that day.
24
“Are you okay?” I final y asked her, mostly because the silence was super awkward.
She was all “Yeah, no . . . I don’t feel wel .”
I saw her holding her stomach. I hoped she wasn’t going to blow chunks in front of me.
Once we got home, she sat there. She didn’t talk, she didn’t want to watch TV, she didn’t want anything to eat. She didn’t even crack open a book to study. That’s when I knew things were serious.
I started playing a couple video games; she silently watched from the couch. “Man, I tell you . . .” I looked at her and saw that she didn’t look so great. I figured there was only one thing that could put a smile on her face. “Oi!” I cal ed out in my best cockney accent. “You gonna just sit there or you gonna help me deliver . . . a baby?” Then I pretended to faint. It was classic Buggy.
She got up suddenly and went to the bathroom.
This was the problem with being friends with a girl. They could be so complicated. Like, was I supposed to guess what was wrong?
Couldn’t she give me a hint?
After I played a few more games, I realized she had been in the bathroom for an unusual y long time. Gross. But what if she’d hit her head on the counter or something? I didn’t want to bother her, but she had said she wasn’t feeling wel .
I approached the bathroom cautiously. “Ah, Macal an?”
“Go away!”
“Um, do you need —”
“I SAID GO AWAY!”
I was pretty sure she threw something at the door. Or she banged on the door. There was some noise that happened and it was clear she was not happy.
25
I didn’t know what to do. My buddies back home never locked
themselves in a bathroom.
Thankful y, Mom arrived home a few minutes later. At first she
gave me a questioning look when she saw me staring at the bathroom door.
“Mom, I don’t know what’s going on. She’s locked herself in there.