Scary Mary (4 page)

He laughed at that.

She looked him in the eye. “You really think I’m
fun?”

He grinned. “Yeah, I do. May I hang out with
you? Is there a formal application process? I have excellent
references.”

She averted her eyes. “Thanks, but trust me, you
don’t want to be associated with me.” She turned to go to
class.

Cy caught her arm. “Hey, I don’t care what Vicky
and they say. Don’t worry about them. Do you want to come over to
my house this Saturday? We could hang out and watch movies.”

“
And miss the welcome back dance?” She
pointed at the hot pink flier on the wall.

“
You’re going?” he asked in
surprise.

“
Well, I was in the mood for a lynching,
but I guess watching movies could be cool,” she said.

“
Great.” He gave her another grin and
turned down the hall. Mary turned the opposite way and stopped.
Where was her Latin class?

~~ ~~ ~~

At lunch, Mary sat out on the front school lawn,
waiting for Rachel to join her. She had her Latin book out and was
trying to conjugate a few verbs. She did take Latin, only during
third period. Luckily, she’d remembered that right before she went
into the classroom.

Two shadows fell across her book.

“
Hey Mary, look who I ran into on the way
out here,” Rachel said. She looked up and found that the second
shadow belonged to Cy. Mary saw it in Rachel’s eyes. If she
couldn’t pry the details out of her, Rachel would get the details
from the source. She dropped to the ground beside her and started
rummaging in her book bag for her lunch, leaving Mary still staring
up at Cy.

“
Hey,” he said.

“
Hey,” Mary said back, but her ‘hey’
didn’t sound casual and friendly like his. Hers sounded like, ‘Hey,
don’t do that!’

“
Is it all right if I sit with you?” he
asked.

"You didn’t ask yesterday,” she said and winced.
Jeez, now she sounded tetchy. “I mean it’s okay. You can sit with
us if you want. Please.” She almost winced again. From tetchy to
needy in less than five seconds, that had to be a record
somewhere.

“
Thanks.” He smiled and sat down by
her.

“
So what’s up?” Rachel demanded, taking a
voracious bite out of her peanut butter and banana
sandwich.

Still nervous about Cy’s presence, Mary was
startled by the question. “No-thing,” she stuttered. She ducked her
head and occupied herself with her lunch.

For ten minutes, they all ate silently. Rachel
was busy doing her best tennis fan impression with her eyes darting
back and forth between Cy and Mary. Mary made a face at her when
Rachel’s eyes jumped back to Mary for the fifth time. Rachel
laughed and almost choked on her sandwich. Cy pounded her back and
asked Rachel if she were all right. Mary made no move to help. When
Rachel recovered, she said, “Okay, I’ll start. How do you like
Eastern Snyder High so far, Cy?”

“
It’s all right. This school’s about the
same as my old school.”

“
So why’d you move here?” Rachel asked in
full interview mode.

“
My dad’s work. He got promoted, but the
promotion also came with an address change.”

“
Must’ve sucked to have to get up and
move,” she said.

“
It seemed that way at the time, but I’m
beginning to see the upside.” Mary saw the glance he gave her while
he said that and bent her head to hide her blush. Rachel saw it too
and grinned.

“
So do you have any brothers or
sisters?”

He nodded. “Yeah, one older brother.”

“
How much older?” Double dates were
already dancing in Rachel’s eyes.

"A year, but I wish it were ten, then maybe he’d
be living somewhere else.”

Her eyes fell. “Yeah well, like they say, you
can’t choose your family. Take me for example. Do you really think
that I’d have chosen a legal eagle with a surgically implanted
stick up his butt for a father? If I’d had a choice, Jerry Garcia
would’ve been first, second would’ve been Bono.”

“
I thought you wanted to marry Bono,” Mary
said.

“
I do, but he could adopt me for the
meantime while scientists work on a youth restoring pill, and once
that’s discovered, he could take that, and then he could confess
his undying love for me.”

Mary grimaced. “Too Woody Allen.”

“
That’s because it was Woody Allen. I
mean, the man looks like a total pedophile.”

“
But the public would judge you and Bono
differently?” he asked in a slightly confused tone.

Rachel gave him a shocked look, amazed that he
wasn’t on her wavelength. “Totally, everyone judges rock stars on a
more liberal level.”

“
Ooh.” Cy caught Mary’s eye, and they both
started laughing.

“
What’s so funny?”

“
Nothing,” Cy said.

“
Tell me,” Rachel demanded and hit Mary’s
leg.

Mary turned her head to wipe her watering eyes.
She saw something headed their way that squelched her laughter.

Rachel looked over her shoulder to see what had
caught her attention. “Uh oh, cheerleader incoming. Everyone
prepare for imminent impact.”

“
Huh?” Cy turned to look.

“
Well, there you are, Cyrus,” Vicky said
coming to stand over the trio. She bestowed a flash bulb ready
smile upon him.

“
What’s up, Vicky?” He asked, looking up
at her, but he didn’t return the smile.

“
I just wanted to personally invite you to
the Welcome Back Dance. I was on the decorating committee. It will
be great. I know you’re new, but you are very welcome to come,” she
told him, excluding Rachel and Mary.

“
Fine.” Cy returned to his
lunch.

“
Is that a yes?”

“
No,” he said, trying to eat his
sandwich.

“
So what is it?” she asked. She tilted her
head to the side like an inquisitive bird trying to understand some
strange sound or maybe a bird looking down a hole at the earthworm
it wanted to yank up and gobble whole.

“
Fine, you’ve invited me. Thanks, but I
can’t make it,” he said.

“
Oh come on, your brother said that he’s
coming. You two can like ride together.”

“
I’m glad that he’s going,” he
muttered.

“
Maybe we can talk about this later.” She
turned away to leave. Cy shot her a dark glare.

“
Hey Vicky,” Rachel called, “I’m sorry
too, but I can’t make it either. I gotta be in Aspen this weekend.
You understand, right?”

“
So what?” she said. Her voice dripped
with disdain.

“
Oh, I just want to be a part of the
rejection. Buh-bye,” she said giving her the beauty queen parade
wave.

Vicky walked away grumbling about
outpatients.

Rachel dropped her hand and stared daggers into
Vicky’s diminishing back. “Mary, are you sure your grandma doesn’t
do voodoo?”

“
Yeah, but I got some books,” she replied
as she glowered at Vicky’s diminishing back too.

Rachel rubbed her hands together. “I feel a
study party coming on.”

“
Uh, voodoo?”

Mary jumped. She’d forgotten that Cy was there.
He didn’t know about her grandma or her for that matter. Her eyes
slid to him. “Uh, my grandma’s a fortuneteller, so I’m sort of into
all that new age stuff, you know, because it’s like a family
thing.”

He looked like he was absorbing this.

“
Freaked out?”

“
What? No, it just explains some things.”
He took a contemplative bite from his sandwich. She could just
imagine what it explained. Who knew what he’d heard about her
around school and from Vicky in particular.

~~ ~~ ~~

Mary chewed on her nails as she sat in her usual
seat in sixth period. She kept telling herself that she wasn’t
nervous. So a boy had asked her over to his house, no big deal. It
didn’t matter at all. He was just a guy from school. They would
watch movies. There was nothing to get excited about. Anyway, he
was probably going to uninvite her after what he’d found out at
lunch.

Vicky came in and looked at Mary sitting in the
back. Mary dropped her hands to her lap. In a condescendingly sweet
tone, Vicky said, “Look everybody, Scary Mary is waiting for her
new friend Cy. Isn’t that cute?” Everyone turned to look at Mary
either openly or in hidden glances. Mary did not like the attention
but ground her teeth and kept her head high. She would not give
Vicky the satisfaction of seeing her squirm. Vicky sat down and put
her bag in the empty seat next to her to save it for someone.
Mary’s shoulders slumped. Vicky was going to try for Cy again.

Cy came in and made his way toward Mary. Vicky
leapt up and called to him, “Cy, sit by me today. I need to talk to
you.”

He turned to her with a grimace. “Sorry, Vicky,
but Mary and I need to talk.”

“
You can talk to Mary anytime. I need to
talk to you now,” pleaded Vicky.

“
Sorry, Vicky,” he said again. Vicky’s
face darkened in anger as she sat down in her chair with a huff.
Now everyone looked at her openly or in hidden glances, except
Mary. Her eyes were glued on Cy. He’d chosen her over the
cheerleader again. It was beyond startling.

He sat down beside her and leaned over. “How are
you?”

“
Fine,” she murmured. She stole a glance
at him out of the corner of her eye. He was doing the same. They
both smiled.

“
So what’d you want to talk about?” she
asked.

“
I don’t know. How about them
Broncos?”

"What sport do they play?”

He smirked. “I forgot that you’re a girl.”

Mary’s back stiffened. “I’m not sure, but I
think I’m offended.”

"Sorry. So what do you want to talk about?”

“
Why do I have to come up with something?
You’re the one who had something to tell me.”

“
That was just to get Vicky off my
back.”

“
So I’m just your handy
excuse?”

“
No, it’s just that when I look at you, my
brain goes blank.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, right.”

He decided to ham it up even more. “But Mary,
the radiance of your smile completely undoes me. One little look
from you sends me into fits of rapture. My entire universe hinges
on your every whim.”

She turned away and scanned the room.

“
What are you doing?”

“
I’m looking for another place to
sit.”

His hand smacked his chest. “You wound me. All I
want to do is worship you.”

“
Going to build an altar to me and
sacrifice small woodland creatures in my name?”

“
Uh, sure?”

“
Cool. I could get into that.” Cy glanced
at her sharply. She grinned back. He shook his head with a
chuckle.

"Cy and Mary, could you please turn your
attentions to the board, or do I need to separate you two?” Mrs.
Myers asked. They’d been talking in low voices while she’d begun
class. They both guiltily turned their attention to the
blackboard.

~~ ~~ ~~

When the final bell rang, Mary and Cy dashed out
of school and stopped on the lawn to catch their breaths. They’d
had to bolt out the door to escape Vicky, who’d looked about ready
to tackle Cy to speak to him. When he’d caught his breath, he let
out a long sigh. “Vicky doesn’t let up, does she?”

“
Not on something she wants,” Mary
replied.

“
I’m flattered, but I could do without the
attention.”

“
So could I.”

Cy looked like he wanted to ask her what she
meant, but Rachel came bouncing up to them. “Hey guys, enough with
the long faces. It’s the weekend. Two days of freedom.”

“
Freedom for you. You get to flee to
Aspen,” Mary said.

“
So you’re really going to Aspen?” Cy
asked.

“
Yep, my dad’s taking me with him to some
conference. He thinks that it’ll keep me out of trouble. Oh, but
how little he knows. So while you two losers are kicking your heels
without any clue about to what to do, I’ll be speeding down the
powdery slopes in Colorado.”

“
Rub it in why don’t you?” Mary
said.

“
Hey, I’ll think about you, maybe even
bring you back a snow ball."

“
Gee, thanks.”

“
Mary and I’ll be able to make do without
you for two days I think. We’ll rent a few movies like maybe Alive
and Touching the Void, and think of you in snowy Aspen,” he
said.

"Rent movies?”

“
Yeah, Mary’s coming over to watch movies
and hang out.”

Rachel turned to Mary with raised eyebrows.

Mary suddenly found her shoes very
interesting.

“
Yeah, why watch TV at my house when I can
do it someplace else?”

“
Especially since at home, you can’t share
popcorn with anyone,” Rachel said with a sly grin. Cy returned the
grin. Mary scowled at both of them. What did they think they were
getting at?

Rachel smacked her hands together. “Well, I
gotta go home and pack.”

"Have fun,” Mary said.

"Yeah, build a snowman for us,” Cy said.

Rachel waved and headed off, leaving Cy and Mary
standing awkwardly together. She remembered that she didn’t have
his number or his address and got both from him. He got her info as
well. After a few seconds of just staring dumbly at the scrap of
paper with his address and number scrawled on it, Mary said to her
shoes, “Well, I’ll see you this weekend.”