Intrigue (9 page)

Around dinnertime, Dr. A came back wearing jeans and a UM t-shirt. He said he had ordered pizza for the group, so we headed to the dinning room to hang out and gab about the status of their current projects. Rafe grabbed me a Diet Dr. Pepper and a Mt. Dew for himself. The volunteers recapped the progress they had made in their various projects. They were doing a Parcel Survey of one area of Detroit, researching the history of a particular neighborhood, and restoring a historic theatre. I sat back and tried to absorb all the different activities. I raised my hand to ask a question, and everyone laughed at me.

Dr. A chided me with an amused tone, “Calli, you don’t have to raise your hand to ask a question here.”

I sassed back, “Dr. A, my grandma was strict about not interrupting anyone while they are speaking.”

Dr. A laughed at me again and replied, “Your grandma was right, but you can wait for a pause in the conversation and jump in then.”

“Our school is big on having us take classes where we can apply our knowledge to actual real world settings. I was wondering whether you or one of your staff would be interested in teaching an elective if I could set it up next semester. Since school starts on Monday, I think this semester is out of our reach.”

Dr. A pondered my request before he finally said, “I think the DUA could handle teaching a service-based learning class at your school. It wouldn’t always be one person teaching every day. Maybe you could even raise money to buy a particular building to rehab, then the school could sell it or kept it at the end.”

“Wow. I never thought of that. We could raise money and target certain DAI parents that are in construction to help out with some of the cost.”

Dr. A smiled and replied, “I will start a list of properties that might fit the bill for you.”

“Thanks, Dr. A. Do you have some publicity material on your organization that I could present to my school board?”

“What do you need? We have brochures, our website, informational packets. We even have a documentary created by one of our UM film majors about one of our rehabs. I will have Rafe give you what you need before you leave.” And then the group was off to the races again with 10 different conversations going on.

After we were done eating, Rafe took me down to the reception parlor where all the materials Dr. A talked about were located. He switched on the TV and the DUA documentary started to play. I immediately became engrossed in the show. Rafe did make several attempts to draw my attention away from the DVD with his outrageous flirting, but I just rolled my eyes at him. When the credits were rolling, I gave him back my attention. An amused smile played across his lips as he said, “You have complete tunnel vision when you want something, don’t you?”

I tilted my head and replied, “Yes and no. Tunnel vision implies that I see nothing else, but the end goal—that is not true. I see the 50 things I have to do to get to the end goal. So, it’s more like spider web vision.”

“Alright, Spider Woman, let’s get you home before your parents start to worry.”

I got home about 8, and I said good-bye to Rafe in the car. I thanked him for the amazing day as he commented, “Somehow, I think the amazing part was because of the setting and not my company. Someday, Calli, when you are ready, that will change. I promise you.” Then, he kissed my hand and gave me his best wicked grin.

I replied in a calm voice that didn’t mirror how fast my heart was beating, “We’ll see, Sparky,” as I bolted out the door and went into my house. As I shut the front door, I leaned back onto it until I got my heart rate and breathing back to normal.

Since my parents were not home, I went upstairs to write in my journal about today. As I entered my room, I had to stop and literally shake my head to see if my vision needed clearing. My whole ceiling was covered in different colored helium balloons. Each balloon had a message on it in Thrace’s handwriting. I started pulling the balloons down to read them. They had messages like, “I’m Soooooooo Sorry! I’m a Big Tool! Please Forgive Me! I Love You. I’ll Do Anything.” There were probably close to 100 balloons. Then, I looked on my bed, and there were two sold out concert tickets to
Seymore Save the World
for next weekend sitting on a t-shirt. It had an arrow pointing to the right that declared, “I’m with Stupid.” My cell phone was under the t-shirt with a post-it note that said, “Please call me, Calli.”

I laughed and sat down on my bed to think. Thrace or Rafe. Rafe was charm and mischief, but I still knew so little about him. Thrace had been my hero growing up and the love of my life. Was I ready to give him up just because of a few bad days? I would call Thrace and listen to him before I made that decision.

I picked up my phone and hit speed dial 3. Thrace immediately picked up like he had been waiting by the phone. “Calli! Oh, thank God. Would you please let me come over and grovel in person? Please?”

I hesitated before I said, “Fine. Come over.”

“Thank you, Calli. I’m on my way.”

He managed to get to my door just as I was opening it, which was pretty impressive. He was out of breath though, so I just led him to the kitchen and got him some water. I finally asked, “How were you able to decorate my room and get those tickets while being grounded?”

He came toward me like he was going to hug me, but I stopped him by putting my arm out to stop his progress. “My mom un-grounded me for the duration of my mission. I told her how I flocked up, and if I didn’t do something extraordinary, I was going to lose you for good. You know mom adores you.”

“Thrace, I need you to really think about things for once before you just decide that I am what you want, because there are times that you sure don’t respect me.” Thrace kept shaking his head back and forth to disagree with me, but I continued. “You are a senior. It is perfectly natural to want a girlfriend that will be able to party and mess around with you like you want. I am not that girl though, Thrace. Even with your 21 steps, I am still not going to be that girl.”

Thrace took my hands and captured my gaze, “Is it my turn to speak, now, Calli? I can live without both of those things, but what I can’t live without is you. I can’t believe I pulled that crap at the house. I guess I thought because you seemed so relaxed and that you were really having fun for once that was ok. I know that you deserved better than that. Please, forgive me for the whole night.”

“You lost some of my trust last night. I even played by your rules during spin the bottle so you wouldn’t freak, and what did you do? Made out with Siena and Tiffany.” Apparently, I was starting to channel Clio, Jazz, and Key.

“That was just a game, Calli. I swear.”

“And if Rafe had kissed me the way you kissed your ex-girlfriends, you would have tried to beat the crap out of him.”

Thrace nodded his head and said, “True. He definitely did the stand up thing. Can we just forget last night? Start over this year. Start fresh. I promise no pressure about drinking or sex. I will even write it down. Nothing is the same without you by my side, Calli.”

In the end, there wasn’t much to think about. As charming as Rafe was, my heart still belonged to Thrace. It was definitely bruised, but he was my Prince Charming. I finally said, “You will write that pledge down, and you are on probation. Plus, you are going to have to accept that I have a guy friend. Jazz and Key are gonna make sure Rafe sits with us and is friends with us. So, you might want to work on that jealousy thing as well.” Then, I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him.

He kissed my forehead and did the pick up hug where he lifted me off my feet and twirled me around. He finally set me down and kissed me. It felt safe. It felt like home. I let him hold me for a while just taking comfort in his presence. I finally let go and took him by the hand to the den. I told him all about my plan to work with the DUA for the upcoming year as we snuggled on the couch.

My parents got home about 10:30. Thrace kissed me good night on the doorstep and made me promise I would come over after church tomorrow. I asked my parents about their part in my room surprise. My mom just laughed and said, “Believe me, that was all Thrace with a little help and money from Honey. You don’t actually think your father would encourage any boy, even Thrace.” Dad just grumbled, “Whatever he did, you best let him know that I’ve got my eyes on him again.”

I laughed and replied, “I will let him know.”

When I got upstairs, I completed my nightly beauty rituals and found that I missed a text from Rafe. “2 roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the 1 less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

Flock it. How does he know just how to get me--to make my stomach churn--to doubt myself? I could even see his sarcastic grin as he sent that. I just replied, “U Suck! That was not nice! I Luv that Poem!”

I took a picture of my room and sent it to Jazz and Key and told them they had to come over after church to either help me pop the balloons or help me release them. They texted me back that they would come over to help if they got all the details. When they arrived the next day, we decided for every good deed Thrace performed, I would give him back one of the balloons. When I had no more balloons, Thrace would be off probation. We called Thrace over and walked him through his probation. He accepted it, and we made him sign his contract with his misdeeds that would be given to my dad to see if he broke the contract--that more than anything scared the flock out of him. Then, the girls called over the basketball players to hang out on our last night of freedom. We played Boxers or Briefs, which is kinda like Apples to Apples but much funnier until my parents kicked everyone out with a, “You realize this is a school night, Falcons.” We all groaned and all the boys being mighty seniors had to go into a chorus of remarks about ruling the school before they were booted and booed out the door.

Just as I was about to go to bed, I got a call from Rafe. He started by asking me all these dorky school related questions, and I always answered with totally inappropriate responses about the dress code (wear only togas), our classes (15 minutes long), the cafeteria food (all vegetarian), and our teachers (all male models) that he pretended to believe. As expected, he asked about Thrace, and I gave him the scoop. He sighed, then asked me if I wanted to go meet with Dr. A because he thought they had a building picked out for me. I was totally on board, and we planned to meet after school at the GAR building. He reminded me that I would probably want to make an appointment with our Superintendent, School Board, and PTA to get on their agenda. I thought that was a little rushed since I didn’t have any of the details of the building or a presentation ready, but he convinced me that by the time they would get me on their schedule we would have that all completed. I told him since we were both juniors that I would volunteer to guide him through tomorrow, and I got a wicked laugh with a, “My guardian angel.” I hung up with a smile on my face. My junior year was
not
gonna be boring.

Chapter 7: Pot Stirrers

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. - Mark Twain

The first day of junior year started out with a bang—quite literally. Thrace’s Mustang seriously needed a new muffler, but he still refused to let me drive. I think we managed to scare the flock out of half the students in the parking lot, which included Jazz, Rafe, and Key. They were razzing Thrace on his car as we all walked in together like one big happy dysfunctional family. We showed Rafe the office as we headed to our homerooms because we were running late. I had just settled in my chair next to Jazz and Key as Rafe walked into our homeroom with a note in his hand. He gave it to the teacher and made a beeline for the three of us. We all smiled at him, and he took the open chair next to Jazz. We all compared schedules. Jazz and Key’s were the same, and amazingly Rafe and I had the exact same schedule. I shot him a slightly accusing look as he shot me his satisfied smile. I had all my required courses with Jazz and Key, but my afternoon electives except for gym were different.

Jazz remarked, “Well, aren’t you two gonna be cozy this semester.”

Key whispered, “Please let me be there when Thrace finds out! I want to see if he breaks any of the probation rules. You are not the only one that is going to hold him to those rules.”

I hissed back, “Hey, pot stirrers, can’t we all just get along!”

All three of the pot stirrers snickered before the announcements came on to reduce the classroom noise to a dull roar.

Minus the hot new guy trailing me around all day, it was a typical first day at DAI. Every teacher gave us homework. We scoped out a new table in the cafeteria and laid claim to our new heightened status. We volleyed for seats and hierarchy within that table. Several of the juniors got pushed to the overflow table next to us. But as juniors dating seniors, we did not get pushed off the island. Thrace sat next to me, and Rafe sat across from me.

Thrace and I only had journalism together, so we said good-bye at the door to study hall. It did not go unnoticed by Thrace that Rafe was in study hall with me. When I caught back up with him in journalism and he saw Rafe and I walking in together, he made a face of concern until I made a beeline for him. Rafe again gave a slip to the teacher and took a seat away from us. Thrace wanted to make plans for after school until I reminded him that he needed to take care of his car issue. When the bell rang, he walked me to my Shakespeare class and saw Rafe sitting in class already.