Mia the Meek (4 page)

“At least it’s a start,” Maggie remarked.

“It’s probably for the best,” I said. “If Jake ever spoke to me, I’d simply die.”

“If Jake spent as much time on his homework as he does searching the web for the latest slang, he might actually do well in school, or at least pass his classes,” Lisa said as she organized her notebooks.

“When I look at Jake, I’m not thinking about his brain.”

“Look, there’s Mike.” Lisa waved her arms over her head and yelled, “Mike, over here!”

After Mike slid into the desk next to mine, Lisa said, “Have you seen Jason Blevins yet? I wanted to talk to him about the Quiz Bowl.”

“No, I heard Jason moved over the summer,” Mike said. “He’s not going to be on our Academic Quiz Bowl team after all.”

“What?” Lisa cried. “Jason was supposed to be our math expert! What are we going to do?”

“I don’t believe it,” I said.

Lisa shook her head.

“I know it’s terrible, Mia. I spent all summer studying scientific formulas, when I should have been working on math equations.”

“Not that. I can’t believe who just walked in the door.”

Lisa strained her neck to look.

“Who’s that guy?”

“Tim Radford, my new neighbor. He thinks he’s God’s gift to the world.”

“Obviously, he isn’t the only one who thinks so,” Lisa remarked as Cassie grabbed hold of Tim’s arm and led him to a seat near her own.

Mr. Benson stood up and asked Lisa and me to come up to his desk. “I just wanted to remind you about the informational meeting about student council today after school. Your mom mentioned you two might be interested in joining, and if you’re seriously interested in contributing to what goes on at St. Hilary’s, I’d be glad to have you on our team. We’ll be nominating people for president and vice president of the freshman class, so it’s very important you attend if you wish to have your voices heard.”

“We’ll be there, Mr. Benson,” Lisa quickly replied, not giving me a chance to say no.

“Great. Now get back to your seats so I can start class.”

We headed to the back of the room and I whispered, “Thanks a lot. I didn’t want to go out for student council. I mean, why should we even hold an election? Cassie’s going to be president. She knows everyone, and even if she doesn’t know them, they know her. She’s already got this election wrapped up.”

Lisa whispered, “Don’t worry, I have a plan.”

“What plan?”

“Girls, hurry up. I need to get started,” Mr. Benson warned. I quickly climbed into my seat and scrunched down as he launched into a lengthy lecture on the struggles of our forefathers. Personally, I wished I’d had it as easy as they did; all they had to do was declare their independence, win a war of revolution, and write a constitution. I had to face my mother next period.

The bell rang starting second period, and my mom bellowed too loudly, “Welcome, literary giants! This will be the year when you’ll dive into literature and let it become part of your lives. You’ll discover a love of words hidden within you and astound me with your prose.” Then she launched into a long, tedious lecture about assignments, books we’d read in class, and her expectations for the semester.

By the end of the period, most of my classmates were dying a slow death of boredom, but I was elated. Maybe my mom finally understood how much I hated being in her room. Maybe she wouldn’t try to totally humiliate me this year. Maybe—

“I always end my first day by describing how literature can change your life.” She beamed at me.

Then again, maybe not. My stomach lurched. I knew what was coming next: the
Petey and the Potty
story!

“My daughter, Mia, whom some of you already know—and if you don’t—she’s the pretty girl with brown hair sitting in the back of the room right now. Wave your arm so everyone knows who you are, Mia.”

In a state of shock, I limply waved my hand.

“Anyway, Mia would simply not get potty trained. My husband and I thought she would wear diapers until she entered kindergarten. Then we got the book,
Petey and the Potty.
Mia loved that book! One day, she marched up to me and said, ‘If Petey can go potty, I can too!’ And she never wore diapers again after that.

“So, if Petey can change a small girl’s life, imagine what great literature can do for you,” my mom declared as the ending bell rang.

Gathering their books, my classmates thundered to the door as I sat immobilized in my chair. Lisa laughed.

“I’ve heard that story before, but every time your mom tells it, I crack up. I can just picture you sitting on your potty and reading that book. Hey, I wonder if she’ll teach punctuation by telling everyone about your first menstrual period.”

“Oh, shut up.” I grabbed my books and stormed for the door. Stephanie was waiting for me in the hallway.

“Hey, Mia the Meek, my great-grandma has some diapers you can borrow if you need them.”

I clenched my jaw and brushed past her, racing to my next class. I was going to kill my mom!

Tim ran after me. “Mia, wait up!”

I twirled around and looked him squarely in the eye.

“For your information,” I said, “I’ve been going to the bathroom on my own for over ten years.”

“Good for you. I was only going to let you know I picked up a pencil you dropped. But, because you brought the subject up, I understand now why you had so much trouble understanding
Whisper.
Potty training books must be more your style. If you want to borrow it, I think we still have a copy of
Willy Goes Wee Wee
from when my brother was a baby.”

I glared at him.

“When I first met you, I didn’t really like you. But now that I’ve gotten to know you better, I think I might hate you.”

“At least your feelings are growing,” Tim said as we walked into the science room together. Sister Donovan immediately grabbed both of our arms.

“Because you two are the last to arrive, you’ll be lab partners. Now, go and take a seat across from Jake and Cassie.”

“What? Sister Donovan,” I pleaded, “I can’t be partners with him!”

“Yes, you can and you will.” She dragged us over to our table.

I reluctantly climbed onto my stool while Sister Donovan returned to the front of the room and began handing out worksheets on lab procedures. Cassie slid a note across the table to Tim and whispered, “If you have any questions about anything, here’s my phone number. Call me.”

Tim pocketed her number. “Thanks.”

I rolled my eyes and turned away to catch Jake staring at me. Why was he looking at me like that? Oh my God! Did I have something hanging from my nose?

Jake smiled. “Dude, do I know you?”

I looked over my shoulder to see if he was talking to someone else, but when I turned back, he was still smiling at me.

“Jake, it’s me, Mia Fullerton. We’ve gone to school together since kindergarten.”

“No way, dude.”

“It’s Mia, you moron,” Cassie said, rolling her eyes. “She got rid of her glasses and braces and grew out her hair.”

Jake continued to check me out and I thought I had died and gone to heaven until Tim brought me crashing back to earth.

“Hey, speaking of braces, where’s your retainer, Mia? Didn’t your dad say you were supposed to wear it all the time?”

Without prying my eyes away from Jake’s smile, I whispered at Tim out of the corner of my mouth, “Not now.”

“Well, just make sure when you put it in, it stays in. I don’t want it flying all over the room again.”

Cassie wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Oh, gross! Mia’s retainer flew out of her mouth?”

“It was the result of her flawed basketball skills.”

“I sunk that shot!” I said, turning to face Tim. “I sacrificed my body for the points, and for your information, I’m an excellent basketball player. I bet I could wipe the court with you any day.”

“That I would like to see,” Tim said.

“You name the time and place and I’ll be there.”

“Tonight after dinner, I’ll come over to your backyard. See, I’m a gentleman. I’m even giving you home court advantage.”

“Fact is, it has to be on my basketball court. You don’t have one at your house.”

“So, I’m smart and a gentleman. I’ll see you tonight.”

“My pleasure.”

“Whoa, Mia, you’re like talking and stuff,” Jake said. “Totally off the chain.”

“So, what’s the deal?” Tim persisted. “Are you going to put your retainer in or not? I need to know if I should take cover.”

I reached into my backpack and jammed my retainer into my mouth.

“There! Are you satisfied? Now leave me alone.”

“Certainly, especially because I know your retainer’s a deadly weapon that you know how to use.”

“I
wonder who ever thought of taking a perfectly good fish and turning it into a tasteless stick,” Lisa said, dousing her lunch in tartar sauce.

“It smells like Lent,” I said, wrinkling my nose in disgust as I wrapped my retainer in a napkin and placed it on the edge of my tray. Glancing at the clock on the wall of the cafeteria, I groaned. Since every upperclassman believed it was their right to cut in front of us in the lunch line, we now had only four minutes left in the period to eat.

Mike picked out a piece of brown banana swimming in his cherry Jell-O. “Well, we survived our first morning of high school. The only good thing that’s happened to me so far is getting Lisa as my science lab partner.”

Lisa beamed. “Thanks, Mike.”

“And I got stuck with Tim Radford,” I said as I opened my carton of chocolate milk and proceeded to spill it down the front of my white blouse. Dabbing at the stain with a napkin, I muttered, “I can’t believe Tim thinks he’s so much better than me.”

“So, Mike, who will Ms. Jackson get to fill the fourth spot on the Academic Quiz Bowl team?” Lisa asked, ignoring me.

I scooped up some corn. “I mean, who does Tim think he is? There’s no way he’s smarter than me.”

Mike shrugged. “I don’t know—maybe Michelle McDonald, that really smart girl from St. Pius X.”

“Tim even thinks he can beat me in basketball!”

Lisa shook her head.

“No, I heard Michelle isn’t very good in math.”

“I bet Tim can’t even make a lay-up.”

“Maybe there’s someone from Holy Family. They have a pretty good math teacher.”

“And then Tim had the nerve to remind me to wear my retainer!”

“The kids from Holy Family are too into sports.”

I put my fork down. “Are either of you listening to me?”

“I heard every word,” Lisa replied. “Tim is a jerk who obviously enjoys making you angry. Just try to ignore him, Mia.”

“You’re right. I won’t talk about him again.” I ate a spoonful of Jell-O. “But don’t you think he’s totally annoying?”

Lisa rolled her eyes at Mike.

“What? Oh, right. I’m not mentioning his name again.” I picked up a fish stick and jabbed it into some tartar sauce. “But who is he to tell me I don’t understand my favorite book?”

“You’re spending a lot of energy on somebody you supposedly don’t like,” Lisa said, grabbing her tray and heading toward the garbage can.

I followed her and dumped in the remaining contents of my tray.

“I don’t like Tim Radford. He’s an idiot. Anyway, he’s not even that cute. Jake is way cuter.”

“Whatever. Just stop talking and grab your retainer so we aren’t late for class.”

I looked at my tray and then at the trash bin. Lisa followed my gaze.

“Don’t tell me you just threw your retainer away.”

I bit my lip, watching the garbage grow as student after student scraped their trays into the bin. “I just threw my retainer away.”

“Well, you’d better hurry and get it. Your parents will kill you if you lose it.”

“I am
not
digging through the garbage in front of the whole cafeteria. There are juniors and seniors in here.”

“You have to. There’s no other solution.”

I tentatively reached my finger into the trash bin and flipped over a few napkins.

“I don’t see it.”

“Mia, you’re going to have to reach into the garbage can to find it.”

I gave Lisa a look of despair and slowly stuck my arms into the giant, gray rubber container, feeling my way through mounds of cherry Jell-O, lumpy tartar sauce, and soggy corn. Holding my breath, I picked through a heap of squishy fish and understood how Jonah must have felt.