A Month of Mondays Page 6

  “Don’t let them push you around,” he said in my ear. “Caroline messed up, but deep down she loves you.”

  I stood there, stunned, until Tracie said, “Earth to Suze. We’re going.”

  I followed them out to the car in a daze. I was so freaked out by Uncle Bill’s words, not to mention the huge hug. I could count the number of times he’d hugged me in the last year. Ever since I got boobs, both he and Dad kept me at a distance like I’d contaminate them with girl cooties or something. My whole life Tracie and the adults had told me what to do. So why was it so important to my uncle that I got to make my own choice about this? What did he know about Caroline that no one else was telling me?

  Chapter 9

  Whoever first said that Mondays suck really knew what they were talking about. My fried hair stuck out more than usual today, my sweatshirt was wrinkled because I’d forgotten to take it out of the dryer, and Tracie had been her usual charming self and eaten the last of the cereal. To add to the suckiness, Baker was waiting for me when I walked through the door, and tall cup of gorgeous were still not the words I would’ve chosen to describe him. My life was starting to feel like an entire month of Mondays.

  He motioned me up to his desk. “Suze, come here a minute.”

  Now what? Was he going to drive me crazy all year? Probably the stupid project again. I stood in front of him, making sure my hair was in my face so I didn’t have to meet his eye.

  “Good news. I’ve arranged with Madame Duke for you to switch your English and French classes around. Starting today you go to French this period and come to English seventh.”

  “Huh?” He couldn’t possibly be serious.

  “I thought it would be easier if you and Amanda had English together. Now get going before I have to write you a hall pass.”

  “I can’t go to seventh-period English. That’s the Honors Class,” I reminded him. What an idiot. He couldn’t even keep his own schedule straight.

  “Sure you can. Now go. It’s all arranged.” He shuffled papers on his desk. I peeped through my hair curtain, not moving, but he didn’t notice.

  I tried once more. “Mr. Baker?”

  He acted surprised, but I could tell he was totally faking it. “You still here, Suze?” His eyes were fastened on something really exciting in his grade book and he didn’t even look up.

  “Can’t Amanda switch her classes instead?”

  “No, it doesn’t work for her. Now go, and I’ll see you this afternoon.”

  It didn’t work for me either, but that appeared to be too bad. There was nothing to do except go to French. Nobody cared what I thought. Not one person asked if I wanted to switch French and English. I bet they would’ve asked Amanda before they moved her schedule around. But she’s special because she’s a smartie. Who am I anyway? Nobody, that’s who.

  I took the long way to the French wing and even considered skipping, until I saw Farbinger bearing down on me. I ducked into the classroom as the bell shrilled and stood there with everyone gawking, until my teacher noticed me in the doorway.

  “Bonjour, Suzanne,” Madame Duke said. “Asseyez-vous à côté de Brendan.”

  I sat, because what else could I do?

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Hiya.”

  “Class, s’il vous plaît, ouvrez vos livres à la page vingt-quatre.”

  I didn’t have my book because I hadn’t planned to be here, so I shared with Brendan. My mind zoomed ahead to the afternoon and Honors English. The thought of all those brainy kids together in one class made me shake. They weren’t exactly a clique, but they all knew each other. I might as well tattoo outsider across my forehead.

  The brains all look the same too. Not physically, but smart or something. You can pick them out in the hall, even if you’re new like Jessica. This is her first year at Maywood, but I’d put money on it that she could name the brains already.

  The thing that really annoyed me was that after Christmas I’d have to go back to my regular English class. Then everyone would think I couldn’t cut it, even though I wasn’t supposed to cut it. That wasn’t the plan, right? To move me up? I didn’t think so. After all, Baker had made it very clear exactly how dumb he thought I was by sticking me with Amanda in the first place—so she could help me.

  “How come you’re in French this period?” Brendan asked when class was over.

  “Baker’s making me go to seventh-period English for some stupid reason.”

  “Honors, huh? Cool.”

  It was starting already. “It’s just so Amanda and I can work on our project together.”

  “Oh. The janitor thing?”

  “Yeah, but don’t let her hear you call them janitors,” I told him. “They’re custodians.”

  “Oh, right. Well, see you later.”

  “See you.”

  Naturally I assumed Brendan meant he’d see me in a few minutes for lunch, because there was Robot Club today. However, when I got to the table, my pile of food was there, but his seat was empty. Amanda sat pouting in her chair. “What’s with you?” I asked, dropping my backpack and unwrapping the sandwich.

  She didn’t answer.

  “Brendan’s eating lunch with his English partner,” Leigh explained. “And Amanda’s jealous.”

  “I’m not jealous,” Amanda said.

  “Well, annoyed?” Leigh suggested.

  “Who’s his partner?” I asked. I figured it must be Danielle Mayers, the only girl in grade seven as pretty as Amanda.

  “Brian Jacobson,” Leigh said.

  I laughed. “Let me get this straight. You’re sulking because he’s eating with some loser guy?” Amanda glared at me and crumpled up her garbage. “You’ve got to loosen the leash,” I said, teasing, “or he’s gonna break free.”

  I was kidding, but I swear her green eyes darkened as she glowered at me. I guess it was because I always tease her about Brendan following her around like a puppy. But he totally does. I mean, name another grade-seven guy who eats lunch with a girl and her friends. You can’t. There aren’t any. She threw her crumpled paper bag at me, but she didn’t simply toss it, she pitched it straight at my head. Hard.

  The thing was, I was having a rotten day too. A lot worse than Amanda had probably ever had in her life. That paper bag whacking me above my right eyebrow pushed me over the edge, just like the lemmings we’d read about in science class. I knew I had to get out of there fast, or I’d take her down with me. I was sick of life. Baker was driving me crazy. And most of all, I was not going to sit there and let Amanda throw garbage at me. I grabbed my food and backpack.

  “Hey, Suze?” Amanda said. “You mean break free like your true love Spencer did at the Fall Fling?”

  “Oh, grow up,” I said. “I didn’t even like him.”

  “Yeah, right. Ooooh, Spencer’s so tall. And hot. Did I mention hot?” she said in what I guess was supposed to be my voice.

  “Shut up.”

  “Uh, yeah, you mentioned hot. About a million times,” she said, answering her own stupid question.

  “Amanda, I’m warning you.”

  She sneered up at me from her seat. “What’re you gonna do? Beat me up? Throw me in a locker?” She laughed. “I’d like to see you try.”

  Instead of punching her like I wanted to, I crushed my chips and dumped them over her perfect little head. I knew it would make her madder. At first she sat there, surprised, I guess. Then she stood up, towering over me and picked a chip out her thick hair. She threw it on the ground and stomped on it.

  I mean, I had to laugh, didn’t I? Anyone would’ve cracked up at that. She looked so totally ridiculous. So dramatic. Her face was stricken, like I’d squashed a kitten or flattened a helpless kindergarten baby. I guess she didn’t like being laughed at any more than I liked being reminded of Spencer.

  “You’re going to be
so sorry,” she threatened me.

  “What’s your problem?” I demanded. “You’re the one who insulted me.”

  “Well, you started it,” she yelled.

  She grabbed her milk carton and unloaded it all down the front of my black sweatshirt.

  “You witch!” I said. Except the word I actually said started with another letter. I was so ready for a fight. I grabbed Jessica’s pop and splashed it all over Amanda’s white tennis shoes. For a tomboy, she sure could scream like a girl.

  She tried to grab me in a headlock, but after living with Tracie for years, I was too quick and ducked out of the way. She chased after me, weaving between the tables, yelling. By this time, it seemed almost funny to me, and as I swerved out of her grasp once more, I was actually laughing.

  Unfortunately, that’s when I tripped over some stupid kid’s school bag, and she tackled me while I was on the ground. After that, it wasn’t so funny. But it only took about two seconds before we were being dragged up to Farbinger’s office—I didn’t even get in any good hair-pulling, which I know she hates.

  Of course, I’d be the one in trouble. Amazingly Perfect Amanda would get off scot-free. Farbinger was really going to let me have it this time.

  Chapter 10

  Detention. On a Monday. Farbinger didn’t even pull the usual “take this slip home and have your mom sign it” first. After keeping us waiting forever, he sent us to detention hall for last period. Same-day detention was reserved for people who really annoyed him, and surprisingly, I wasn’t usually one of those kids.

  I didn’t have to be a brain surgeon to figure out this was going to be a long week. My only consolation was Amanda had won the pleasure of my company. For once I wasn’t stuck taking the blame alone. Put that on your school record, Miss Perfect.

  I’d forgotten my novel at home, and so I settled into the desk behind a curtain of hair for a forty-five minute nap. Two minutes later Baker walked into the room, whispered something to the detention monitor, and they nodded together.

  He crossed over to us. “Ladies. Come with me, please. Bring your stuff.”

  Good thing he kept his voice low, because the other three loser dudes in the last row were already taking siestas at their desks, and, trust me, you don’t want to wake those guys up. We followed him out of the room. I hoped Baker wasn’t going to try to be the peacemaker. Obviously he knew we’d had a fight, because Amanda and I had both missed English. Farbinger had kept us waiting for all of fifth, sixth, and seventh period before he’d bothered to banish us. Missing class was the best part of my day.

  We trailed Baker down the hall, not sure where he was taking us, but then he stopped outside the library, and I got a clue. “I hear you two are having some troubles,” he said.

  I clamped my mouth shut. We had the right to remain silent.

  “Does this have anything to do with your project?”

  Yeah. Sure. The whole world revolves around your class. If this guy was trying to push my buttons, he was hitting all of them. I rubbed the toe of my boot against a groove in the tile floor.

  “No,” Amanda finally answered him.

  “So if that’s not the problem,” he said, “then it’s probably none of my business.”

  “Right,” Amanda and I said together.

  That was kind of funny—we sounded like Jessica’s twin sisters. I glanced at her through my bangs. Her tennis shoes were stained and stuck to the tile floor when she walked, and the smell of sour milk on my sweatshirt was nauseating. I guess we were even. I sort of grinned at her. I didn’t want to apologize first, especially in front of Baker, but the whole thing was pretty ridiculous.

  She half-smiled back. “So how come you pulled us out of detention?” I asked Baker.

  “Principal Farbinger said you two could use this time at the library to work on your project. If you think you can refrain from throwing food.”

  “We’re fresh out,” I told him, and he laughed.

  Being excused from detention to go to the library was a first for me. Special treatment was probably a perk of being one of the elite students. Great! I could get used to these sorts of advantages.

  When the last bell rang for the day, Amanda told me she was in the middle of something important and we needed to stay longer. I didn’t want to, but I wasn’t that hot on the idea of going home either, in case Caroline called or something. An hour and a half later Amanda looked up from the stack of school-board minutes the librarian had printed out for her. “You know, you’re supposed to be searching the web for stuff about custodians. Not clothes.”

  “This is a pop-up window,” I said. “It opened on its own.”

  “Well, close it and get back to the custodian thing.”

  “Yes, Mother.”

  “Look, Suze, if you’re not going to play ball, then we can’t be on the same team.”

  My stomach tightened. “You don’t want to be my partner anyway,” I said. “You’ve made that clear from day one. But you know what? We’re stuck together, so it would be great if you could treat me like I have some intelligence.”

  “Whatever.”

  “The whole janitor—”

  “Custodian.”

  “The whole custodian thing was my idea, remember?”

  “Yeah, okay, okay. Can we just get back to work?”

  “Fine.”

  I typed a new search into Google. This time it pulled up a page about how a janitor had spotted a kid in his school who didn’t belong there and it turned out to be a drug dealer. That gave me an awesome idea.

  “Look at this,” I said.

  Amanda leaned over my shoulder and read the screen. “Score! That’s great.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “But what I was thinking was maybe we could do a few tests of our own.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know, sneak into other schools and see if we get caught.”

  “I don’t think that’s the kind of research Baker had in mind.”

  “So?” I said. “I want to get an A on this.”

  “The best you can get on any project in an Honors English is a B,” she told me. “Unless you do something extra.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about. Visiting other schools.”

  “Not something that gets us suspended.”

  “What, then?”

  “Well,” she said, “something like Leigh and Mitch. They figured kids would learn to read better if they practiced reading to dogs, so they borrowed a few mutts and are taking them to the elementary school for the grade ones to read to. And they’re tracking their progress on charts and stuff.”

  I laughed. “You want to read our report to a bunch of dogs?”

  I was joking, but Amanda tilted her chair back and looked me in the eye the way my cat, Sammy, does when she’s challenging me. “Nope. Not dogs,” she said. “I think we should give our presentation to the school board.”

  Something clamped itself around my heart. “You are joking, right? There’s no way I’m getting up in front of those stiffs.”

  “Why not?”

  Because I would die of a heart attack? “I’m not doing that,” I said. “No way.”

  “Listen, Suze, I was talking it over with my mom, and she thinks this is a great idea.” I knew it wasn’t Amanda’s idea. Figures Heather came up with it—she’s really into activism and stuff like that. “I have to get an A,” Amanda said. “That means we have to do something really stellar. The school trustees make the most sense, because they’re the ones who want to get rid of the custodians.”

  Our second fight of the day bloomed between us.

  “Adults hate me,” I pointed out. “Especially ones in charge. Trust me, we won’t get an A. We’ll probably flunk.”

  “Suze—”

  “Excuse me, ladies.” Mrs. Woods jingled her keys at u
s. “But I’m closing the library now.”

  “You know we have to do it,” Amanda said in a sing-songy voice.

  Didn’t she understand there was no way I could get up in front of a bunch of adults and do our project? It was too much to ask. I signed off the Internet and gathered up my stuff. “Let’s talk about it later.”

  “You might as well give in.”

  “Look what time it is,” I said. “I can’t believe we stayed so late.”

  “You’re in Honors now. You have to do that sometimes.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  I still didn’t like the idea of staying at school any longer than I had to, and I made a beeline for the hallway. I didn’t have to be told twice to go home.

  “Maybe you can come over this weekend and do some more research,” Amanda suggested.

  “Sure. But not Friday. I’m going to dinner with Caroline.”

  “Caroline?”

  “My mother.” The words leapt over my tongue and spilled out before I could stop them.

  “Your mother?” Amanda’s voice echoed down the empty hallway, making me cringe. Instantly I regretted telling her. Why did I say anything? As soon as she was alone, Amanda would text Leigh. Then Brendan. Maybe even Jessica. By Friday it’d be front-page news: MOTHER RETURNS AFTER TEN-YEAR ABSENCE TO TAKE GIRL OUT TO DINNER. SISTER SUES FOR BREACH OF CONTRACT.

  “So what’s up with that?” Amanda asked. “Since when are you seeing your mom?”

  I shrugged as casually as I could. Obviously she hadn’t heard anything about it before now, so it was good to know Jessica hadn’t told the world about Caroline. At least I knew I could trust her for sure. That’s a big plus. You never know with new friends.

  “She moved back to Victoria,” I said, digging my gloves out of my bag. “It’s no big deal. We’re just going out to dinner.”

  I tried to sound cool, but talking about it made my internal organs do loopty-loops. My heart fluttered against my ribs, or whatever there is in there to bump into.

  Maybe Dad, AJ, and Tracie had their reasons for hating Caroline, but I like to think that not only do I fight for the underdog, but I also give people second chances. Besides, my curiosity was killing me. She might be really nice, regardless of what happened when I was a kid. And no matter how Tracie felt, I’d always wanted to get to know my mom. Whether it was a good idea or not, I’d be finding out in approximately four days and two and a half hours.