Sometimes, Dare makes me want to hate him. I now understood why Alan, Jeff, Tami, and I used to irritate our classmates in grade and middle school. We got a pop quiz back, and he’d missed one of the questions. I thought he was going to cry. Of course, I reverted to ten-year-old David and showed him I’d gotten them all right.
He showed me his paper, and instead of selecting one of the multiple-choice answers, he’d written in a number. I got my tablet out and used the calculator to figure it out. Sure enough, he was right. Ms. Lowden had rounded the solution.
“You had to pick the best answer,” I tried.
He pointed at the paper to indicate that his answer was the best solution.
“You trying to get detention again?” Ms. Lowden asked from the front of the room.
“Dare is just pointing out that you have the wrong answer on the quiz.”
“Is he now?” she asked and then looked at Dare, who had tried to scrunch down in his seat far enough to disappear.
I could tell Ms. Lowden was about to make him come up to the board and prove his answer. I got out of my seat and walked up front.
“He showed me,” I explained.
Thankfully, Ms. Lowden realized that it would be traumatic for Dare if she forced him to come up front. She mouthed ‘thank you’ and allowed me to show the work.
“I agree that Dare has the correct answer. The problem is that when it comes to testing, you need to select the best answer offered when you take a multiple-choice test. In the future, it’s okay to show your work and what you think the answer is,” said Ms. Lowden as a compromise.
“Know,” I interrupted.
Her expression told me I was close to getting my second detention.
“‘Know’ what the answer is. But I want you to mark your answer sheet with the closest one. If you don’t, you won’t get credit,” she confirmed.
Dare looked unhappy.
“I’ll talk to him,” I offered, and Ms. Lowden nodded to send me back to my desk so she could teach.
◊◊◊
Lunch was pleasant. Not.
Dare was still pouting about missing a question, and Brook decided not to sit with me. I suspect she thought I would remind her that I told her so. The talk centered on what had set Destiny off and whether Don really couldn’t win in a fight against any girl. Cassidy was all smiles about the last one. I was sure that her boyfriend would be told in detail what a wimp we all thought he was.
I’m not for punching a girl. Where I draw the line is when they come after you like Destiny had her brother. I would, at the very least, have tried to wrap her up to minimize the damage she was dealing out.
“Where’s Brook?” Tracy asked. “Did she finally wise up and break up with you?”
The peanut gallery thought that was funny. I thought I’d better find out how much trouble I was in. I pulled out my phone and used the ‘Find Me’ app Fritz had installed on all our phones. With its help, I found Brook outside under my favorite thinking tree.
“I thought you might be hungry,” I said, handing her one of the to-go lunch bags the lunch ladies made mostly for teachers.
“Thanks.”
“Mind if I join you?”
She didn’t answer, so I sat down next to her.
“I thought I’d feel better after I took her down,” Brook said. “Do you still plan to go out with her?”
“We’ll see. I did make a promise, though,” I reminded her.
“Maybe you could break a promise just once for me,” she tried.
“I’ll talk to Destiny and see. Maybe I can pay for her and someone she likes to go out to dinner.”
“But if she insists that it’s you?”
“Then I’ll keep my word.”
“Even if I ask you not to?”
“Even if you ask me not to.”
“I love that I know I can count on you. I just hate her,” Brook admitted.
“Did you ever consider that she’s not worth it? I mean, this is all about Destiny being envious of you. It’s not like you’ll stop being head cheerleader or anything.”
“I did work at it and deserve it.”
“I know I wasn’t an easy catch,” I said with a grin.
“Why does everything have to be about you?” Brook shot back.
“It’s about us,” I replied, and leaned down and kissed her.
“Maybe we can get Cassidy to drive us around the block.”
“It would take longer than that,” I complained.
“You’ll have to prove that someday,” Brook teased.
“When I can do more than just lie there, I’ll show you,” I assured her.
“I think you like just lying there, you lazy sack.”
“Bite me, Princess.”
Cassidy showed up.
“I see you two are fine. Now fix Dare,” she said, pointing to him standing behind her.
“Come here and tell me all about it,” Brook said to him.
Dare told her his tale of woe. Brook babied him, and he seemed to be happy by the time lunch was finally over. I should have sent Dare to her in the first place. Then again, I think he likes my girlfriend. I might have to keep an eye on that.
◊◊◊ Friday October 21
I’d grabbed Trent to show him my pregame ritual, now that he was the starting quarterback. We walked over to the boosters’ building so we could eat. They were serving brats and hamburgers. I picked brats. When we sat down, it took a full minute for Jeff Delahey to join us.
