11 Birthdays Read online

  The rest of the morning is a blur. I don’t even bother stopping at the office to request that my locker be fixed. As soon as Leo sees me approach the cafeteria, he motions for me to follow him back down the hall. My friends are going to wonder where I am when I don’t show up at lunch, but I have to do this.

  Leo leads me to the end of the hall and pushes open the door to the courtyard that only the gardening class uses. I stop, but he grabs my arm and pulls me outside, letting the door swing closed behind me. Neither of us speak. It feels so strange being here with him. Over the past year I’ve imagined how our first conversation would go a million times, and it usually started with him on his knees begging for forgiveness. He’s not on his knees now, though.

  He breaks the silence. “So, um, how’s it going?”

  In light of everything that’s happened over the past four days, I can’t even BEGIN to answer that question. I look him straight in the face and do the last thing I ever thought I would if this day came. I burst out laughing.

  “How’s it going?” I repeat. I keep laughing until my sides ache and I have to wrap my arms around myself. His face lights up. He starts laughing, too, and soon we’re kneeling on the cobblestones, clutching our sides and gasping for breath. I collect myself first.

  “I still … hate you,” I say in between gulps of air.

  He nods, trying to get control of himself. “I know. But I think … that we … we …” He starts cracking up again, then forces himself to stop. “I think we have bigger problems right now.”

  “We sure do!” I wipe at my eyes. We both lean back on our heels. “But I’m confused about something. Every time I saw you on the second day, you were doing the same things you had done on the first day. Like everyone else.”

  “So were you,” he points out. “I figured I was alone in this. And then yesterday when you didn’t show up for the quiz, I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to call you, but I was too freaked out. Then when I winked at you and you made that face, I knew.”

  “What face?” I ask, getting defensive.

  “It was like you saw a ghost.”

  I cross my arms, annoyed. “Well, you would have reacted the same way.”

  “Believe me, I’m sure I looked like that when that pop quiz started and you weren’t in your chair. Look, you and I seem to be the only people this is happening to, so there’s no sense arguing.”

  “But why us?”

  “I’ve been trying to figure that out, but I can’t.”

  I look at my watch. “We better get back in there. Stephanie’s going to start looking for me.”

  “You’re right. We don’t want to draw any attention to ourselves.” He gathers his books and stands up. “And I don’t think we should let people see us together. It’d be too hard to explain why we’re suddenly friends.”

  I stiffen. All the hurt from his mean words comes flooding back. “We’re not friends,” I say coldly, swinging my bag over my shoulder.

  “Well, you know what I mean,” Leo says, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

  I take a bit of pity on him and ask, “So what do we do now?”

  “I think we should lie low,” he says hurriedly, “and do everything as close as possible to the way we did it the first time. Then after our parties I’ll sneak over and we can compare notes. You know, about everything we’ve been through these last few days. Maybe together we can figure out what’s going on.”

  The thought of going through with my party again makes me want to hide under a rock. I’m sure his party was great so it’s not much of a hardship for him. We don’t speak as we head back inside. Leo clears his throat as we approach the cafeteria. “Um, just so you know, I’ve felt horrible every day for what I said at our party last year. I didn’t mean any of it.”

  Unable to meet his eyes I ask, “Then why’d you say it?”

  “It’s a long story. Any chance we can just skip it and be friends again?”

  I shake my head.

  “I didn’t think so. I’ll explain tonight, I promise.”

  I turn to go, but he reaches out and stops me. “Amanda? Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For reading my note and for meeting me. I was really scared you wouldn’t. I just … I …”

  I look up to see his eyes fill with tears. For the first time it occurs to me that maybe it wasn’t allergies that made his face red and blotchy those other days. I want to ask him why he was in the guidance counselor’s office. I want to ask him a million things. But for now I just nod.

  We stand there awkwardly. I glance down at my watch, then grab a surprised Leo by the sleeve and push him out of the way. A second later the crying Bee Boy throws open his classroom door and flies into the hall. A second earlier and the door would have crashed right into Leo’s head.

  “Wow, thanks!” Leo says, eyes wide.

  “No problem.” I turn and quickly walk toward the cafeteria.

  I can tell, even without turning around, that Leo is smiling.

  Chapter Eleven

  Humiliating myself in gymnastics tryouts is easier to handle this time. One good thing about being stuck doing this with Leo is that I can cross off “I’m going crazy” from my list of reasons why this is happening. I don’t think people go crazy together.

  When it comes time to put on my costume, I’ve thought of a few ways to make it less horrible. I slip on a T-shirt first so the lace isn’t as itchy, and put fresh Band-Aids on my ankles so the shoes don’t hurt as much. When I come out of the bathroom, Kylie’s door is still closed. I haven’t seen her since I’ve been home, which works out fine for me. The warning on the cover of her diary was probably just a bluff, but I don’t want to take any chances. I’m about to head downstairs to greet the first arrivals when her door swings open, making me jump. She’s still wearing the clothes she wore to school.

  “Where’s your costume?”

  “I’m not wearing one.”

  I knew she’d be mad, but I didn’t expect her not to dress up for my party. “But you looked so great in it.”

  She puts her hands on her hips. “How do you know how I looked in it? Are you spying on me now?”

  I’ve said the wrong thing again. “I mean, I’m SURE you’d look great in it.”

  “Well, I’m not wearing it. Thanks to you, this has been a really awful day.”

  I’m taken aback. “Me? Why?”

  “You know why. All that stuff you said about Dustin liking Alyssa instead of me.”

  “Er, but isn’t that true?”

  She glares and I back up a step. “I’ll never know because I didn’t ask him to the dance and now he’s going with her.”

  “But he was always going with her, right?” Clearly the rules of teenage dating rituals are something I have yet to figure out.

  “And then if that wasn’t enough,” she continues, ignoring my last question, “I forgot my science project and my teacher took off half a grade and Dustin’s really mad at me.”

  “But that wasn’t your fault,” I insist. “Mom took your poster by mistake. Maybe if she calls your teacher and explains —”

  For the first time today, Kylie’s lips curl up into something resembling a smile. It’s the kind of smile you see on the Nature Channel before one seemingly harmless animal devours another. She stomps back into her room and slams the door shut.

  I knock. “Aren’t you coming to my party?”

  No answer. I guess this is how she’s getting back at me for reading her diary.

  Seeing as I know what to expect, I’m not disappointed this time that so many people don’t show up. I try to make the party more fun for the people who did come. We play silly kids’ games like limbo and musical chairs. Dad sneezes into the punch bowl by mistake, and everyone laughs (then Mom takes away the punch bowl). I’m still thinking of Leo’s party, and wondering how it’s going, but this time it’s different. This time I know for sure that he’s thinking of me, too.

  When everyone leaves