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  I knew bumping into Mick was going to be our only chance to talk.

  It was a bit awkward at first, but that’s to be expected. You’re used to doing things one way for three years, and then suddenly you have to do them a different way? Of course it’s going to be uncomfortable. But I made a little joke, and that’s all it took. We both started laughing like the good old days.

  I love his laugh.

  He dropped his stuff, and we both went to pick it up at the same time. Our hands kept touching. It was almost as if we couldn’t help ourselves. I know this sounds corny, but it really was kind of magical. There’s a powerful connection between us. We both felt it. Who knows what would have happened if Shaun and Carson didn’t come by right then? I wouldn’t be surprised if Quinn had them spying on us.

  Anyway, it kind of ruined the moment, and we were back to being awkward again. He kept rubbing the back of his neck with his palm. That’s what he does when he’s nervous, and I’ve always found it so cute. It makes me want to look after him.

  I told him Gavin’s headaches were back. I could see how worried he was. I knew that would happen. They were like brothers. He’d do anything for him.

  I went to the library after school and searched childhood migraines. The doctor told us before that we had to watch what he ate, but I couldn’t believe all the foods that can set them off. Chocolate, hot dogs, cheese, yeast, pepperoni—the list went on and on. I printed it out and taped it to the kitchen cupboard when I got home. I’ll have to try and figure out which ones make Gavin sick.

  When I was at the library, I also went online to look for a dress to wear to the spring dance. I’ve lost seven pounds, so I want something that’s going to show off my waist. I think I found one—long sleeves but low in the back and with a tight skirt. It’s kind of a greeny-blue too, so you just KNOW Mick’s going to love it. (Brings out the color of my eyes. He always says that.)

  If I could do some extra cleaning for Mrs. Crespo, I might be able to afford it next week.

  I should turn out the light. Mom’s doing back-to-back shifts all week, so I’m going to be busy.

  Note to Self

  1. Make appointment for highlights.

  2. Write treasury report for Enviroclub meeting.

  3. Buy groceries. (Take migraine list.)

  Mick

  Chapter Five

  Everybody’s grabbing their stuff and booting it out of class. Friday afternoon. It’s always like that. I was slow copying down the notes, so I’m the last one to leave. Ms. Hamilton spots me going out the door and waves me over.

  The new girl is standing beside her, so I’ve got a pretty good idea what this is about. The history test. Please don’t tell me I did as badly as some kid who barely speaks English.

  “Relax, Mick. I’m not going to bite you.” Ms. Hamilton doesn’t look up.

  She’s writing something in her agenda.

  “The school board frowns on that sort of thing.”

  She slaps down her pen and pushes the book aside. “I have a little favor to ask. You know Dalma?”

  I say yes, but I don’t really, not unless knowing her name counts. She only started here a few days ago.

  “Excellent! I just got a text from my son’s babysitter. He’s been in some sort of…altercation.” She pretends to growl. I’m not sure if she’s mad at the kid or the babysitter, or if she’s even really mad at all.

  “I’ve got to run. Would you mind taking Dalma to the language lab for me? She’s supposed to meet her tutor there at three forty-five.”

  “Sure. No problem.” Maybe I didn’t do as bad on the test as I thought.

  Ms. Hamilton is already shoving her stuff into her briefcase. I’m not sure Dalma is following what’s going on. She looks like she’s still a little worried about the teacher biting me. Ms. Hamilton nods at her and smiles. “That okay with you?”

  Before Dalma can answer, Ms. Hamilton has switched off the lights and hustled us out the door. “Thanks, Mick,” she says. “You’re a peach!”

  She’s halfway down the hall when she turns around. “Oh, sorry. Better tell her what that means, Mick.”

  Then she’s gone. I can hear her high heels clacking down the hall. She really picks up speed when she gets out of sight. Something about that seems funny to me. I sort of chuckle. Dalma does too, although I don’t know if we’re laughing at the same thing.

  “This way,” I say and point toward the east stairs. It feels really formal, like I’m showing her to her seat in a fancy restaurant. She nods. We start walking.

  We’re quiet for a while, and then Dalma says, “Peach?” It takes me a second to understand what she’s talking about. She brings her hand in front of her mouth as if she’s holding a ball and pretends to take a bite.

  “Oh, right,” I say. “Yeah. That’s it. Peach.”

  “You are peach?” She laughs. A big loud “ha!” It surprises me. I laugh at her laugh, then try to cover it up by sounding like I’m laughing at her joke. I say, “No, that’s not what it means exactly.”

  She wipes her hand across her forehead like she’s going, “Phew!” Her eyes are so brown, they’re practically black. The hall lights leave little white squares in them.

  “So what it mean exactly?”

  I rub the back of my neck and try to explain. “It means I’m, like, a good guy.”

  “You are?”

  “Well, that’s what it means. I don’t know if I am or not.”

  She pretends to be shocked.

  “You don’t know you are a good guy? You are maybe bad guy?”

  My face is hot. “No, no. I’m good.”

  “Therefore I am safe with you?”

  I laugh. “Yes, you are safe with me.”

  I’m just realizing she’s kind of pretty when I see Jade coming out of Mr. Panjvani’s class. I jerk like someone snapped me with an elastic band.

  Dalma notices. “Something is not good?” she says.

  “No, no. It’s nothing.” It’s been over a month since we broke up. Jade said she didn’t want a relationship. I can talk to another girl if I want.

  “Mick, hey!” Jade scurries over. I don’t know what to do with my face. She kisses my cheek.

  My forehead suddenly feels really itchy. Dalma looks back and forth between the two of us. Jade clicks her fingernails on her binder.

  “Um. This is Dalma. She’s new. I’m just taking her to the language lab.” I sound guilty. I didn’t need to say where we’re going.

  “Oh, hi, I’m Jade!” Big smile, handshake. She seems okay. “New? From where?”

  “My country?”

  “Yes.”

  “Croatia.”

  “Wow! Long way. I hear it’s beautiful.”

  “Yes. Very beautiful.”

  Jade asks about her family and how well Dalma knows the city and if she likes school and if she’s having any trouble getting around or finding places to shop. Jade should speak a little slower.

  The clock in the hall reads 3:42.

  “Ah, we better get going,” I say. “The tutor’s waiting.”

  “Can I take her?” Jade asks. “I’m going right past the lab anyway, and it’d give me a chance to tell her about the Newcomers Club.”

  I shrug. It’s not my decision.

  Jade smiles at Dalma to see if it’s okay with her.

  Dalma looks at me.

  Jade says, “He won’t mind!” She takes Dalma’s arm and starts walking away. “You heard about the Newcomers Club? Every second Thursday in the multipurpose room, three-thirty to five. We’re here to make arriving students feel welcome.”

  Jade seems to remember me at the last minute. “Oh, sorry. Bye, Mick!”

  She blows me a kiss. Dalma makes this goofy face, like “What’s going on here?” I shrug again. I don’t know.

  On the way home, I realize I didn’t ask about Gavin. I figure he must be doing okay. Jade seemed happy.

  Jade’s Diary

  Chapter Six

  M
arch 30

  I shouldn’t say this, but it was almost funny running into Mick today. He’s so transparent. He shows up outside Mr. Panjvani’s room with another girl, then tries to act all surprised to see me there.

  Hello-o. I’ve been taking that class all year. I always stay late on Fridays to help put the equipment away. He knows that better than anyone. Of course I’m going to be there!

  I wonder what he was expecting. Some kind of jealous rage? Me running off in tears? He’s really not very good at this kind of thing—but that’s one of the many reasons I love him. He’s not phony. Mick can’t act a certain way if he’s not that way.

  Can you imagine if it were Quinn trying to make me jealous? He’d have had the whole thing worked out. He’d have picked the hottest girl in school, and they’d be deep in the throes of passion right when I walked out the door.

  Mick, on the other hand, looked like he was eight years old and his teacher had made him stand next to a girl in the bus lineup. You’ve got to wonder what poor Dalma was thinking. It couldn’t have been very comfortable for her either. They barely looked at each other.

  Honestly, I felt obliged to put them out of their misery. That’s the only reason I offered to walk her to the language lab.

  Her English isn’t very good, but she’s actually kind of sweet. I told her about Newcomers and left my number with the tutor in case he wanted me to give her some extra help during the week. She doesn’t have a phone yet, which is too bad. I think she and Kevin Peters might hit it off. He’s been wanting a girlfriend for ages, and he does like the tall ones! She’d be perfect.

  Maybe we could double-date sometime. Her and Kevin, me and Mick. Wouldn’t that be ironic?

  On another topic entirely…I’m a little annoyed at Mick. Not about the Dalma thing. (That’s almost touching, when you think about it. I mean, he wouldn’t have gone to all that trouble if he didn’t care!) It’s about Gavin. Mick asked me a couple of times in English class how he was doing, but since then—nothing. I expected him to be more concerned that that. He didn’t even mention Gavin today.

  I hope he hasn’t forgotten about him. I wouldn’t want that to happen.

  Note to Self

  1. Set up meeting for Dalma with Newcomers Club.

  2. Talk to Kevin P.

  3. Send in application for nursing school.

  Mick

  Chapter Seven

  Jade’s not in English class today. It shouldn’t make any difference, but it does. I stretch my legs out under her chair and let myself get comfortable. I haven’t done that since we broke up.

  “Jade…Jade Nelson?” Mr. Ubu looks up from his attendance sheet. “Does anyone know where Jade is?”

  Lily Crouse says, “She just texted me. She was in a car accident.”

  I sit up straight. Everyone turns around and starts talking. It’s an excuse as much as anything, and Ubu knows it.

  “Class. Class!” He presses his hands down in front of him like he’s demonstrating how to do a push-up.

  “Jade is still capable of tapping out a detailed message. Clearly, this was not a catastrophic accident. Now settle down. And Lily, put your phone away. You know the rules.”

  He starts writing on the board. I lean over to Lily. “What happened?”

  She shakes her head. “I think it’s Gavin. She said she has to take him to the hospital.”

  That’s all I get before Ubu claps chalk dust off his hands and faces the class again.

  He’s wrong. Just because Jade can still text doesn’t mean she’s okay. I know her. She could be gushing blood from her brain, and she’d still make sure she didn’t have an “unexplained absence” on her record. She’s dying to get into nursing school.

  Dying.

  I warned her mother about that crap car of theirs. I can’t believe it ever passed inspection. The muffler’s held on with duct tape, and I’m not even exaggerating. I walked home in the freezing rain one night rather than get in that death trap.

  Mr. Ubu says, “Turn to chapter four.”

  Gavin is four.

  I should have called. I should have gone around and seen him, taken him to the playground or out for an ice cream or something.

  What does Jade mean by an accident? How bad of an accident?

  My eyes sting. It would be so lame if I started to cry.

  I tell myself Quinn’s right. I had to walk away from them. I couldn’t be going back to their place all the time. Gavin already went through that once when his dad left. I couldn’t let him get his hopes up again. It’s like that thing they say about pulling off a Band-Aid. Do it fast. It’ll hurt less in the long run.

  That’s what I tell myself, but as soon as class ends, I’m out of there like a shot.

  I try Jade’s cell phone. She doesn’t pick up. No answer at her mother’s either. I’d call Gavin’s preschool, but I don’t remember the name.

  The bell rings for second period. Math. It’s midterm review today. I can’t miss it. I’ll try Jade again later.

  I head straight to class. If I hadn’t had to walk by the door to the parking lot, I bet I would have made it. Instead, I grab Anwar and ask him to tell Mr. Lawson I have to go to the hospital. At least I’m not lying about that.

  Luckily, it’s my day for the car. I gun it to the children’s hospital. The whole way there, I’m hunched over the wheel with these pictures flashing in my mind. It’s like I’m watching the lead-in to the five o’clock news. A paramedic pulling a little kid’s body out of a smashed car. Heart-wrenching close-up of a stuffed kangaroo by the wreck. The reporter shaking her head and doing her best sad face. “The name of the victim cannot be identified until next of kin have been notified. And now over to you, Ted.”

  I park with one wheel up on the curb and run through the hospital’s emergency entrance. The waiting room is half empty. I look around. I don’t see them.

  That’s either a good sign or a very bad one.

  The security guard says, “Yes?” I turn and stare at him. I’m trying to come up with a way to ask the question I want to ask without making an idiot of myself.

  “Can I help you?” he says.

  At that exact moment, the sliding door opens and there’s Gavin. A nurse is pushing him in a wheelchair. His arm is wrapped in a big bandage. Angie, his mother, is right behind him. She’s holding Kanga. That seems kind of funny to me. The kangaroo survived too. I almost laugh.

  “Mick,” she says. Jade looks up from her cell phone. Gavin jumps out of the wheelchair and runs right at me.

  “Careful!” I say. I don’t want to hurt him.

  The nurse says, “A remarkable recovery.”

  Angie laughs, then nods at me. “You can pick him up. Don’t worry.”

  She points at the bandage and whispers, “It’s mostly for show. Although heaven knows I wish I’d listened to you about that damn car.”

  She puts her hand on her throat and manages not to cry. She’s a nice lady. I feel bad for her. Since her husband left, all she does is work.

  I hoist Gavin up, and he throws his arms around my head. I can barely see. He’s sticky. He smells like grape juice and pee. I really really missed him.

  “Mick,” Jade says. I move Gavin’s wrist from my eyes and look at her. I almost forgot she was here. “You’re so sweet to come,” she says.

  “You okay?”

  “Oh. Yeah. Fine.” She waves a hand. “More worried about you-know-who than anything.”

  Gavin says, “Who?”

  We all say, “Nobody.”

  Angie’s on a double shift at the adult hospital, so I take the others home. It’s like having a chimp in the car. If Gavin weren’t strapped into his car seat, he’d be banging his head on the ceiling.

  He’s babbling away about preschool and the crash and the cop and the nurse. Everything is, “Know what, Mick?” or “Guess what, Mick,” or “That’s the truth, Mick.” He must have used my name thirty times.

  Jade leans against the passenger door and wiggles her
eyebrows. “Someone’s happy to see you.”

  “The feeling’s mutual,” I say. “I’m so glad he’s okay. I mean, so glad you’re both okay.”

  “We are now,” Jade says.

  We pull into the building’s parking lot. Jade gets Gavin out of his car seat. She flinches when she picks him up.

  “Here,” I say. “I’ll carry him.” I kind of forgot she was in the accident too.

  They live on the fourth floor and, as usual, the elevator’s not working. I’m huffing by the time we get to the top of the stairs.

  “Can you come in for a while?” Jade says.

  Gavin bounces up and down in my arms. “Yes, yes, yes!”

  No getting out of it. “Just for a minute,” I say.

  Jade opens the door. I’ve always liked the smell of their place. She and Angie drink a lot of ginger tea. There’s something about it that seems kind of Christmasy or something. Today, though, it just seems sad. It’s like it was going into going into Nanny’s house after the funeral and smelling her perfume.

  Gavin drags me into the kitchen. He wants a snack. “Just be careful what you give him,” Jade says. “There’s a list of stuff he can’t have on the cupboard door.”

  “Okay, bud, what’ll it be?” I plop Gavin onto the counter and look at the list. It’s, like, a page long. I don’t have time for this.

  Chocolate. Coffee. Aged cheese.

  “What’s sodium nitrate?” I say.

  Jade’s in the living room, putting Gavin’s jacket and shoes away. “Something in hot dogs and salami.”

  Artificial sweeteners. Chicken livers.

  As if a preschooler’s going to want chicken livers for a snack.

  “MSG?” I say.

  “It’s a spice or something. Sort of looks like salt. They put it in Chinese food.”

  No Chinese food. Now that hurts.

  “Sulphites?”

  “You don’t have to worry about them. They’re in red wine.”

  I point my finger at Gavin and say, “Keep out of the red wine, buddy.” He rolls his eyes so he looks drunk. Or, at least, so he looks the way a four-year-old thinks someone looks when they’re drunk. He cracks me up.