Andrea and the 5-Day Challenge (9 page)

I might have agreed with her in the past (especially after the
incident
last year), but something my mom said to me came to mind: “We are all created equal.”

What made her think she was superior over me? Her beauty, which had made her into a master manipulator, her sharp wit which utilized such words as “Toodles,” or was it her skill of turning stunning cartwheels and stealing other girls' boyfriends? She wasn't so scary after all. If anything, she needed some prayer. There had to be a reason why she acted the way she did.

I mean, it was no secret she'd been forced to go to this school back in seventh grade by her mother, who thought she'd get a good education here. Stephanie was always telling stories about how great her old school had been back in Virginia. But Steph's family didn't go to church or anything. She never volunteered for community service like when we went to the soup kitchen last month, or the rest home the month before that. Recently, I'd heard through the whirling rumor mill buzz that Steph's mom might be getting a divorce from her third husband. Maybe she needed more prayer than I thought.

Without blinking an eyelash, I stared her square in the face. “Thanks for the advice, Steph.” (I used the shortened version of her name so she'd know we were being friendly and all.) “I'll take it under advisement for future reference.” Then I raised an eyebrow at her, and with that movement, she knew I had no intention of following her suggestion. “Of course, you are welcome to hang out with us at homecoming. We're all just friends here at Aubrey, right?” What was I saying? I wasn't even going to homecoming!

Stephanie didn't reply with words, but merely a glare.

Even that didn't deter me as I kept talking. “You know, my youth group has Bible study tonight. We have lots of fun. You're welcome to come if you like.”

Stephanie just huffed and murmured, “Whatever,” as she shuffled off down the hallway.

Afterward, I closed my locker, picked up my bag, and strolled down to the exit.
Thank you, Lord, for helping me avoid caving to the will of the snobby cheerleader.
And I'd even invited her to church. That had to be God. I don't think I would have ever attempted that on my own.

 

~*~

 

A warm wind blew in through the lowered windows of Luke's car. My elevated heart rate hummed gently along with the purr of the car's engine. I stared out at the blur of storefronts as we drove down Harrison Avenue. There went the local ice cream shop and my mom's favorite grocery store.

I'd worried so much about driving off with Luke and really, it hadn't stirred up as much attention as I'd thought. As usual, I'd overreacted. Actually, no one really noticed. My friends were curiously absent. I mean, how could they go through the evening without observing the days of my life? The few people who did see us didn't seem to find it of any great interest. So maybe we wouldn't find ourselves plastered all over the front page of
The Warrior Post
(the school paper at Aubrey Christian Academy) tomorrow. Of course, if that happened, I'd hate Amy forever as she is the editor.

Even though going off with Luke kicked up the potential for embarrassment to a whole new level, I had hope that I might actually keep myself under control. Of course, riding home with Luke without my parents' permission might be considered open rebellion against their rules. Then again, I'd ridden in cars driven by other male teen drivers, but of course, there had been a whole group of us in the car at the time, and my parents did know said male drivers previous to me getting into their cars. I decided not to worry about the dissimilarity for the moment.

During the first five minutes of driving, the conversation between Luke and I had been a little strained. Then Luke suggested playing some music and now we were listening to one of his favorite bands,
Requisition Believer
. They were a local California band on some new independent Christian label. Luke knew the drummer. They'd attended the same church in California. The group was pretty good.

With the wind in my face and my eyes closed, I felt fairly relaxed when I should have been a collection of nerves. I mean, I was in Luke's car. Oh, good Lord! I was in Luke's car! He was driving me home—home where my parents might see us and ground me permanently. Maybe I'd been on too much of a high when I hopped inside his vehicle. All I could think about at the time had been my triumph and the astonished face of Stephanie that I hadn't submitted to her will.

It now dawned on me that Luke was sitting right next to me. My hands started to sweat. I hoped he didn't try to hold my hand. Not that he would. That's all I needed—a reputation as a hand sweater. My hands didn't normally sweat. It must just be the stress of worrying that my hands would be sweaty should Luke try to hold my hand that had made my hands start to sweat. I placed one hand out the window to dry it off, hoping it looked like I was just enjoying the tunes.

And why would I even entertain the thought that Luke would hold my hand? It must be due to Stephanie's intimidation about homecoming. She saw me as a threat to her gaining Luke as a date.
Could it possibly be true?

Luke's silence had me a bit worried. I knew I should check on him. After opening my eyes, I veered my gaze to the left without moving my head. He had his hands at ten and two just like they teach you in driver's ed. At the light, he tapped his hands on the steering wheel in tune to the music, looking totally at ease.

My movement of resting back in the seat caught his attention. He turned his head more toward me and smiled. “So, what do you think?”

“The band's great. I really liked the last song.” I moved my head in time to the music.

“Yeah, that's my favorite.” He turned to face the streetlight. “Cool. Glad you like it.”

Just then, loud music poured into the car, overpowering our song
.

Luke and I both looked out the driver side window to see who the rude creep was. Some people think it's cool to blast their music so loud that they drown out whatever anyone else is listening to on the road. Really, where is the common courtesy?

I shouldn't have been surprised that the culprit turned out to be Stephanie. She was with Josh Renault, in his cherry-red convertible. How had she gotten off campus with Josh so quickly?

Josh, I'm sad to tell you, is my friend Alisha's older cousin. He's a senior at Elton High School, a private all-boy school only a couple miles from Aubrey. As Alisha has invited Josh to several school activities over the years, we've all gotten to know him. Let's just say that my thought of the rude creep a minute ago wasn't all that far off. Josh wasn't a total creep, but sometimes he could be—especially when he's accompanied by those who bring it out in him. Those like Stephanie Ruiz. She must have called him just after our exchange in the hallway.

Stephanie rolled her window down and smiled at Luke. “Hey,” she said to him in that way where she lowers her eyelashes and looks all beguiling.

Luke nodded, but didn't say a word.

Josh revved his engine and smiled at us. “Hey, Beanpole,” he yelled over Stephanie to me. “Who's your friend?”

Beanpole
. My nickname from fifth grade when I sprang up four inches practically overnight. He knew I hated that name, and still he insisted on using it.

Luke glanced at me. “A friend of yours?”

“He's no friend. That's Josh, Alisha Andrews' cousin. He can be a…well, a real jerk.”

Luke nodded. “Yeah, I can see that.”

Josh revved the engine of his car even louder this time. What? Was he planning to race? How juvenile was he, or had he watched one too many teen flicks from the fifties? I was waiting for him to pull out a comb and slick his hair back.

Josh leaned forward and shouted, “So, you guys want to race?” He raised his eyebrows like he was cute or something.

Stephanie beamed into a smile. “Oh, yeah, let's race. What do you think, Luke?”

I couldn't see Luke's face as he was looking out the window, and, I hoped, giving them both the evil eye. Then he surprised me by what he did. He set his elbow over the side of his opened window and pressed the gas pedal, revving the engine of the car. “You think road racing is cool, right?”

Oh, help!
He was going to race. Don't a large number of teens die every year from road races? I didn't want to become another statistic. This is one of many reasons why I would never drink or enter cars with others who drink. (Oh yeah, and I think it smells gross. Plus, I believe it's wrong and my parents would totally kill me!) And yet here I was about to die in a car accident.

I grabbed onto his arm, and he instantly peered over at me. “Luke, please don't do this. Josh is just stupid; don't let him push you into this.”

He chuckled. Yes, he had the nerve to actually laugh at my concern. “Don't worry. I've got it covered.” Then he winked at me, and I realized my fingers still clutched at his arm. I was that disturbed by this turn of events.

Releasing his arm, I sat back in the seat and seized hold of the armrest in preparation for takeoff. I suppose I could have demanded he let me out of the car, but I would have looked like the worst kind of a dork if I had. See what peer pressure does to you? I would rather enter a road race than be smeared by my peers even if I would no longer be alive to be smeared because I would, in fact, be physically smeared all over the road.

Josh revved his engine again.

My desire to live took over from the part of me that hated being ridiculed. “Luke, I think you better let me out.” I grabbed the car door handle.

Luke looked straight ahead. He placed a hand on mine. “It will be fine.” His voice came out calm and deep. That tone made me believe it all would turn out fine.

The light changed from red to green and Josh took off, covering the road in his burnt rubber as he went.

Luke just sat there and waited. He slanted a smile at me and shook his head. “You didn't actually think I'd be stupid enough to race that guy, did you?”

I smiled awkwardly. “Well, I didn't know if…”

The squealing sound of tires erupted in the air. Up ahead, Josh almost crashed into the people in front of a shopping center at the next light only a couple yards ahead.

I gasped. “Oh, my gosh. Josh is such an idiot. Wait until I tell Alisha what he did.”

“I grew up with guys like him in California. I'd never endanger people's lives like that.” He looked so serious when he said it, as if he were from the sheriff's office giving us safety tips.

“I didn't think so. Not really.”

There were cars behind us now, and they honked impatiently.

Luke put the car into drive and slowly entered the intersection. I guess all I could say after this episode was that Luke was not easily riled and was secure enough in who he was that he didn't have to stroke his male ego and impress anyone. He didn't seem to be affected by peer pressure with the need to come off looking like the cool guy.

I wished I could be more like that. I worried way too much about what people thought about me. Although, after my interaction with Stephanie, it seemed I might be getting there.

 

 

 

 

8

 

“So, you want to tell me why you neglected to mention that you're actually a superhero fan? I mean, will I have to look up your screen name at the Kryptonite Place message board now, or what?” Luke sent me a quick grin as we drove along.

A little bit of warmth moved into my cheeks, and I peered out the opened window, allowing the cool air to rush over my face. Hopefully, he couldn't discover my secret id—PianoGrl096. Now my ears started to get hot. How could I admit what a child I'd been? “I don't know. I guess I thought you'd think it was weird.”

“Why? Do your other friends think it's weird?”

“No, but no one really knows except Amy.”
“Oh, Amy Appleby. I've seen her with Dion. You two are tight, right?”

Even he'd seen Amy with Dion? I really had to question her on this later. “Yeah, we've been friends since kindergarten. She lives a couple streets away from me, and Mike McCutcheon is my next door neighbor.”
Not that he ever talks to me.

“Wow, I guess this is what it's like living in a small town.”

“Hey, we aren't that small. And officially, we're a city, not a town. We have a Dairy Queen and everything.” I rolled my eyes so he knew I was playing with him.

“OK, thanks for the update. I just meant it seems small compared to California.”

“I guess everything seems small compared to living in the Golden State.”

“Yeah…it does.” He sounded a little wistful.

The thing I'd begun to understand about Luke was that he was sweet and had a good sense of humor, but he had a serious, deep side, too.

“You know you shouldn't be embarrassed to be yourself…I mean, if people can't accept you, then maybe they just aren't worth it.”

He was right. How was it that he was so certain of himself, and he understood the world so well? Had his circumstances made him that way?

“I know you're right. It's just hard sometimes. All my friends are…”

“They're what?”

“Well, talented for one thing. They all have something.”

“And you play the piano pretty well, I hear.”

“Yeah, and practically flunk Geometry.”

He sniggered. “I believe the skill of failing Geometry belongs to yours truly. Although, I got a C on that last quiz—thanks to you.” He glanced at me and my heart rate accelerated. It got quiet between us for a minute before Luke spoke up again. “I know it's hard being yourself to your friends. I've been there, done that. Take me coming to Aubrey. Everyone knew about me before I stepped on the campus. They had certain expectations about me from day one. They've been nice, but not because of who I am. None of them know who I am. It's about what I can do. I'm this big baseball player that will hopefully help this school win a championship.”