"Whatever you say."
She thought again for a moment, then smiled.
"Life 'round here has been pretty boring, but something tells me we're going to have a good time," she said. "Right?"
I shrugged. "I don't know."
"Take my word for it. So tell me all about this brother of yours and this mansion your grandmother owns. Don't hold back on nothing neither. You can trust me. I ride the same bus and go to the same school, so we're going to be friends, okay?"
I nodded. "Will you tell me things, too?" I asked her.
"Sure, I will," she said. laughing. "You can just ask away anytime you want."
That's good, I thought, Ian always said questions were the s
teps on the ladder we climbed to becoming adults,
"Go ahead, in fact," she said, sitting back with her arms folded, as if she was ready for anything. "You can have the first question. We'll take turns."
I can? That's really very nice of her, I thought. I knew exactly what my first question would be.
"Go ahead," she challenged more firmly. "What's your first question?"
I leaned toward her, and her eyes widened with expectation. "Well?"
"What were you doing with that boy in the basement?"
4 Closets Full of People
.
"What do you think we were doing in the basement?'" Alanis fired back. She wore a crooked smile over her lips.
I tried to think of the best way to answer, the way Ian would answer.
"Well?"
"It looked like that boy was putting tadpoles in you," I said.
I never had anyone laugh so hard at something I had said, but I wasn't happy about it. No one laughed at Ian's answers.
"Tadpoles, huh? I know what you mean. We had a health class last year and the teacher, the school nurse, put on a slide show about human reproduction. The things boys have in them did look like tadpoles. Hey. I think that's what I'll call Chad next time I see him, Tadpole."
"Was that what he was doing? Aren't you worried about getting pregnant?" I asked quickly. Ian had made it sound as if that always happened.
"Worried about getting pregnant. huh? You're absolutely sure you're telling me the truth about your age?" she asked, tilting her head and squinting at me.
"Yes. I am."
She stared at me a moment longer and relaxed,
"I guess you might be. I know some other girls younger than me who look older, too. I even know a girl in fourth grade who looks like she could be in ninth."
"Maybe she has precocious puberty. My brother Ian told me all about it."
"What's that?"
"It's when your body grows faster than it's supposed to."