There was no use telling him that they didn’t have a phone. Or pointing out that he never called them back when they did have a phone. Or even saying that maybe he should find a way to talk to them, him being the one with a phone and a car and a life of his own.
There was no use telling her dad anything. Eleanor had known that for so long, she couldn’t even remember figuring it out.
‘Hey, I’ve got a cool offer for you,’ he said. ‘I thought maybe you could come over on Friday night.’ Her dad had a voice like someone on TV, somebody who would try to sell you record compilations. Disco hits of the ’70s or the latest Time-Life collection.
‘Donna wants me to go to some wedding,’ he said, ‘and I told her you would probably watch Matt. Thought you might like some babysitting money.’
‘Who’s Donna?’
‘You know, Donna – Donna my fiancée. You guys met her the last time you were here.’
That was almost a year ago.
‘Your neighbor?’ Eleanor asked.
‘Yeah, Donna. You can come over and spend the night. Watch Matt, eat pizza, talk on the phone … It will be the easiest ten bucks you ever made.’
And actually the first.
‘Okay,’ Eleanor said. ‘Are you picking us up? Do you know
where we live now?’
‘I’ll pick you up at school – just you this time. I don’t want to give you a whole house full of kids to watch. What time do they let you out of there?’
‘Three.’
‘Cool. I’ll see you Friday at three.’
‘All right.’
‘Well, all right. I love you, baby, study hard.’
Mrs Dunne was waiting in the doorway, with her arms open.
Fine, Eleanor thought as she walked down the hall. Everything is fine. Everyone is fine. She kissed the back of her hand, just to see how it felt on her lips.
Park
‘I’m not going to homecoming,’
Park said.
‘Of course you’re not going …
To the dance,’ Cal said. ‘I mean, it’s way too late to rent a tux anyways.’
They were early to English class. Cal sat two seats behind him, so Park kept having to look back over his shoulder to see if Eleanor had walked in yet.
‘You’re renting a tux?’ Park asked.
‘Uh, yeah,’ Cal said.
‘Nobody rents a tux for homecoming.’
‘So who’s going to look like the classiest guy there? Besides, what do you know – you’re not even going – to the dance, that is.
The football game, however?
Different story.’
‘I don’t even like football,’
Park said, looking back at the door.
‘Could you stop being the worst friend in the world for, like, five minutes?’
Park looked up at the clock.
‘Yes.’
‘Please,’ Cal said, ‘do me this one favor. There’s a whole group of cool people going, and if you go, Kim will sit with us. You’re a Kim magnet.’
‘Don’t you see what a problem that is?’
‘No. It’s like I’ve found the perfect bait for my Kim trap.’
‘Stop saying her name like that.’
‘Why? She’s not here yet, is she?’
Park
glanced
over
his
shoulder. ‘Can’t you just like a girl who likes you back?’
‘None of them like me back,’
Cal said. ‘I may as well like the one I really want. Come on, please. Come to the game on Friday – for me.’
‘I don’t know …’ Park said.
‘Wow, what’s up with her.
She looks like she just killed somebody for fun.’
Park
whipped
his
head
around. Eleanor. Smiling at him.
She had the kind of smile you see in toothpaste commercials, where you can see practically all of somebody’s teeth. She should smile like that all the time, Park thought; it made her face cross over from weird to beautiful. He wanted to make her smile like that constantly.
Mr Stessman pretended to fall against the chalkboard when he walked in. ‘Good God, Eleanor, stop. You’re blinding me. Is that why you keep that smile locked away, because it’s too powerful for mortal man?’
She
looked
down
self—
consciously and flattened her smile into a smirk.
‘Psst,’ Cal said. Kim was sitting down between them. Cal locked his fingers together like he was begging. Park sighed and nodded his head.
Eleanor She waited for the phone call from her dad to go sour on her.
(Conversations with her dad were like whiplash; they didn’t always hurt right away.) But it didn’t.
Nothing could bring Eleanor down. Nothing could drive Park’s words from her head.
He missed her …
Who knows what he missed.
Her fatness. Her weirdness. The fact that she couldn’t talk to him like a regular person. Whatever.
Whatever perversion caused him to like her was his problem. But he did like her, she was sure of it.
At least for now.
For today.
He liked her. He missed her.
She was so distracted in gym class, she actually forgot not to try. They were playing basketball, and Eleanor caught the ball, colliding with one of Tina’s friends, a jumpy, wiry girl named Annette. ‘Are you trying to start something?’ Annette demanded, pushing forward – pushing the ball into Eleanor’s chest. ‘Are you? Come on, then, let’s go.
Come on.’ Eleanor took a few steps back, out of bounds, and waited for Mrs Burt to blow the whistle.