Jake: She’s all right, isn’t she? Do you guys know him?
Archie: Never heard of him. I’ll find out soon enough.
Coop: She’s happy. Leave him alone.
Jake: …
Archie: …
Bubba: Explain?
Coop: You heard her. She wants to date.
She was really happy tonight, so leave the guy alone.
Archie: She’sourFrankie. I don’t know who this jerk is…
Jake: What if he’s a perv?
Bubba: I asked her out.
Archie: …
Jake: …
Coop: …
Bubba: Figure I should tell you. Saw her at work earlier.
She told me she wants to date.
Wants to do all the things we’ve done.
Wants to go to dances. I asked her to homecoming.
Archie: …
Jake: …
Coop: Did she say yes?
Chapter Twelve
Manic Monday
Monday was off to a really weird start. Coop and I got to school with plenty of time for coffee, but Archie was a no show. Bubba and Jake ran late at practice, so I just hung out with Coop and played games on our phones. Archie wasn’t in Government first period, either. When the teacher wasn’t looking in my direction, I sent him a text. I had earlier—when I got up. Including answering his question about whether or not I’d really had a date on Sunday, which came in about fifteen minutes after Coop left.
Coop was a damn gossip, so no way he hadn’t ratted me out. There was no answer to my texts, so I sent another.
Missing you in gov. Will get your hw. Hope all is okay.
By the time the bell rang, the message was still unread. Bubba caught me three steps out of the door. “Hey,” he said, panting a little. Had he run all the way down here from his class? AP Calculus was upstairs, not far from his first period.
“Hey,” I said with a grin. “Didn’t get enough running in practice?”
“Yeah, I got plenty, but Coach went over because we had to go over the game from Friday.”
“Go over what? Didn’t you guys win?” I had my fingers tucked into the straps of my backpack as we walked side by side up the steps. The fun part of walking up the stairs with Bubba was I didn’t have to play dodge with other kids. They just got out of his way.