That made him laugh.
‘What about the Smiths?’ he asked.
‘I didn’t know who was who,’
she said.
‘I’ll write it down for you.’
‘I liked it all.’
‘Good,’ he said.
‘I loved it.’
He smiled, but turned away to look out the window. She looked down.
They were pulling into the parking lot. Eleanor didn’t want this new talking thing – like, really talking, back and forth and smiling at each other – to stop.
‘And …’ she said quickly, ‘I love the X-Men. But I hate Cyclops.’
He whipped his head back.
‘You can’t hate Cyclops. He’s team captain.’
‘He’s boring. He’s worse than Batman.’
‘What? You hate Batman?’
‘God. So boring. I can’t even make myself read it. Whenever you bring Batman, I catch myself listening to Steve, or staring out the window, wishing I was in hypersleep.’ The bus came to a stop.
‘Huh,’ Park said, standing up.
He said it really judgmentally.
‘What?’
‘Now I know what you’re thinking when you stare out the window.’
‘No, you don’t,’ she said. ‘I mix it up.’
Everybody else was pushing down the aisle past them. Eleanor stood up, too.
‘I’m bringing you The Dark Knight Returns,’ he said.
‘What’s that?’
‘Only the least boring Batman story ever.’
‘The least boring Batman story ever, huh? Does Batman raise both eyebrows?’
He laughed again. His face completely changed when he laughed. He didn’t have dimples, exactly, but the sides of his face folded in on themselves, and his eyes almost disappeared.
‘Just wait,’ he said.
Park
That morning, in English, Park noticed that Eleanor’s hair came to a soft red point on the back of her neck.
Eleanor That afternoon, in history, Eleanor noticed that Park chewed on his pencil when he was thinking. And that the girl sitting behind him – what’s her name, Kim, with the giant breasts and the orange Esprit bag – obviously had a crush on him.
Park
That night, Park made a tape with the Joy Division song on it, over and over again.
He emptied all his handheld video games and Josh’s remote-control cars, and called his grandma to tell her that all he wanted for his birthday in November was double-A batteries.
CHAPTER 14
Eleanor
‘I know she doesn’t think I’m going to jump over that thing,’
DeNice said.
DeNice and the other girl, the big girl, Beebi, talked to Eleanor now in gym. (Because being assaulted with maxi pads is a great way to win friends and influence people.) Today in class, their gym teacher, Mrs Burt, had shown them how to swing over a thousand-year-old
gymnastics
horse. She said that next time everybody had to try.
‘She has got another thing coming,’ DeNice said after class, in the locker room. ‘Do I look like Mary Lou Retton?’
Beebi giggled. ‘Better tell her you didn’t eat your Wheaties.’
Actually,
Eleanor
thought,
DeNice did kind of look like a gymnast. With her little-girl bangs and braids. She looked way too young to be in high school, and her clothes just made it worse.
Puffed-sleeve
shirts,
overalls,
matching ponytail balls … She wore her gymsuit baggy, like a romper.
Eleanor wasn’t scared of the horse, but she didn’t want to have to run down the mats with the whole class watching her. She didn’t want to run, period. It made her breasts feel like they were going to detach from her body.
‘I’m going to tell Mrs Burt that my mom doesn’t want me to do anything that might rupture my hymen,’
Eleanor
said.
‘For
religious reasons.’
‘For real?’ Beebi asked.
‘No,’ Eleanor said, giggling.
‘Well. Actually …’
‘You’re nasty,’ DeNice said, hitching up her overalls.
Eleanor put her T-shirt on over her head then wriggled out of her gymsuit, using the shirt as cover.
‘Are you coming?’ DeNice asked.
‘Well, I’m probably not going to start skipping class now just because of gymnastics,’ Eleanor said, hopping to pull up her jeans.
‘No, are you coming to lunch?’
‘Oh,’ Eleanor said, looking up.
They were waiting for her at the end of the lockers. ‘Yeah.’
‘Then
hurry
up,
Miss
Jackson.’
She sat with DeNice and Beebi at their usual table by the windows. During passing period, Eleanor saw Park walk by.
Park
‘Why can’t you get your driver’s license by homecoming?’ Cal asked.
Mr Stessman had them in small groups. They were supposed to be comparing Juliet to Ophelia.
‘Because I can’t bend time and space,’ Park said. Eleanor was sitting across the room by the windows. She was paired up with a guy named Eric, a basketball player. He was talking, and Eleanor was frowning at him.
‘If you had your car,’ Cal said, ‘we could ask Kim.’
‘You can ask Kim,’ Park said.
Eric was one of those tall guys who always walked with his shoulders about a foot behind his hips. Constantly doing the limbo.