Authors: Yvonne Collins
Paper Cuts (21 page)
‘Someone grab a hose.’
It’s the sound of a bubble bursting. Joey and I are saying goodbye at the front door of my building. Not that we’ve done much talking. Standing on tiptoe, I look over his shoulder at Grace. ‘What do you want?’
‘Are you done yet?’
‘No.’ I don’t plan to be done kissing Joey for a long time. Nor do I plan on letting my sister tell me who I can kiss anymore. Grace’s reign is over.
Joey turns and gives Grace a sheepish wave, which she ignores. ‘I need you upstairs, Luisa.’
‘Unless something has happened to Mom or Keira, you don’t need me upstairs.’
‘There’s an important phone message. But if you want, I could tell you about it right here.’
That gets my attention. Solana G. must have called. Grace is worried about her pulling out of the Literacy
Gala. I guess she really wants to meet her.
I kiss Joey once more before following Grace inside. She starts in on me as the elevator doors close. ‘I can’t believe Paz didn’t tell me you actually hooked up with that loser.’
I keep my cool because it’s the only way to win any battle with Grace. ‘Joey isn’t a loser. He’s amazing, and I’m lucky to be with him. And Paz probably doesn’t know. We haven’t gone public yet.’
Grace circles me like a shark trying to decide which limb to sever. ‘What do you call making out at the front door? No one should have to see that. Where’s your class?’
I have to laugh at this. ‘You and Paz used to make out there all the time. You should try it again: it might bring the spark back.’
‘You’re giving
me
relationship advice? You and Joey won’t last a week.’
The elevator door opens, and I saunter down the hall. ‘It’s already been more than that. He’s going to be around for a long time too, so you might as well get used to the idea.’
‘What do you know about guys?’ she asks, following me inside the apartment.
‘Enough not to listen to you.’ I sit down on the couch and start pulling things out of my backpack. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, I have a column to write.’
She glares at me. ‘What about Solana?’
That’s it? The end of the attack on Joey? I expected so much worse. In fact, I developed mental scripts for several near-violent scenarios, and I’m almost disappointed I won’t
get to use them. ‘I’ll listen to her message later.’
‘She wants you to call her.’
I unfurl the new issue of the
Bulletin
. ‘Then I’ll call her. Like I said, I have a column to write first.’
Scoop’s steaming pile of beauty came out today, and I want to read it and respond while my indignation is fresh.
Born Too Late
How old are you, Newshound? Since our editor insists that you really are a Dunfield student, I can’t help but wonder if your grandmother wrote your last column. Please tell me you don’t believe that ‘slow burn’ garbage. One day, when you live in a geriatric condo, a slow burn will be all you can handle. In the meantime, why don’t you enjoy life while you’ve still got your original body parts?
Obviously you’re only writing that drivel to disguise the fact that you’re not getting any and I am. But whose fault is that? You’re the one who decided to date a eunuch. Dunfield is full of red-blooded guys who’d show you a good time – especially if you managed to keep your antiquated ideas in your diary. Assuming you’re at least marginally attractive, by my calculation you could be seeing one of hundreds of marginally attractive straight guys in our school. Instead, you chose someone who’s either gay or simply not into you.
Wake up and smell the smoke, girlfriend, because there’s a big difference between a slow burn and cold ashes.
Grace pushes the newspaper down to stare at me. ‘Solana wants you to come over to her place to look at the itinerary for the gala.’
The gala is the last thing I want to think about at the moment. How can I attend now that Tyler has called Joey a eunuch? Maybe if I go to Mr Sparling and beg, he’ll let me remain anonymous forever. He was young once. If he can remember back that far, he might understand.
‘Lu,’ Grace tries again. ‘Did you hear me?’
I raise the paper again. ‘Relax, I’ll call her.’
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but someone has to be honest, and your friends are probably as misguided as you are. If you spent less time shopping and more time getting out in the real world, you wouldn’t be in this position. You might have a closet full of clothes, but are you happy, Newshound? I am, and if that’s immaturity, I’m all for it.
Lady Scoop seems happy too. In fact, so many sparks are flying that we have to keep a fire extinguisher handy at all times. Ignition has been achieved and liftoff is imminent.
You have no idea how freeing it is to have all the benefits of a romance without any of the drama. And I
mean that. You clearly don’t know what you’re missing, Newshound. Lucky for you that ignorance appears to be bliss. Still, I urge you to not to write yourself off too soon. While your eunuch doesn’t want to touch you with a ten-foot pole, someone else might, especially if you can fix your personality flaws.
None of us want to listen to you whine anymore, but there are plenty of support groups out there that do. So grab your cane and your bifocals and get on it before it’s too late.
Grace hands me the phone as I lower the paper. ‘Call now.’
I’m not going to call when Grace is eavesdropping. I pull out a yellow highlighter and start flagging items in the column that I need to refute. ‘I’ll call later.’
‘But it’s Solana. You shouldn’t keep her waiting when she’s doing you a favor.’
Suddenly it strikes me how oddly Grace is behaving. First she dropped the whole Joey issue and now she’s hovering over me as if I have something she wants. ‘What’s up, Grace?’
She hesitates. ‘I want to come with you to Solana’s.’
‘You’re not exactly my biggest supporter. Why would I take you?’
‘Because sisters do nice things for each other?’
‘What’s the last nice thing you did for me?’
‘Hmmmm …’ She pretends to think. ‘I didn’t tell Paz about your stupid column, because you asked me not to.’
Oh, right. That. I apply a little more yellow to Scoop’s column. ‘I’ll think about it.’
Grace takes the newspaper out of my hand and scans it. ‘Think fast, because if you don’t take me along, I may have to tell Joey who’s behind his getting called a eunuch in a certain syndicated column.’
Obviously Grace’s reign isn’t quite over yet.
Grace hangs her leather jacket on a hook and shakes Solana’s hand.
‘Great art,’ Solana says, examining Grace’s
rainbow-colored
arms.
‘Thanks,’ Grace says, offering a rare smile. ‘Kai at Cherry Bomb.’
To me this is an unintelligible fragment, but Solana nods and points to a tattoo on her own forearm. ‘Kai.’
Grace spots a framed concert poster on the wall over an old upright piano. ‘I went to that one.’
‘That was years ago. You couldn’t have been more than fifteen.’
‘Fourteen,’ Grace admits. ‘I knew the bouncers and they used to let me in if I promised not to drink. Our mom works nights, so it was easy.’
‘Mine too,’ Solana says. ‘That’s how I got my start in the clubs. She didn’t even know I was performing until someone showed her a review. But she did know I was having trouble at school.’
‘Ditching?’ Grace asks, perching on the edge of the brown
velvet couch. My sister has hijacked my meeting, but it’s interesting, so I keep quiet.
‘Ditching. Also taking creative license with report cards and letters from my guidance counselor.’
My sister’s face lights up. She had a talent for forgery herself. I witnessed her altering Dunfield notices many times, but she coerced me into silence with a variety of threats, some involving her body piercer.
‘You can get away with murder in a school as big as Dunfield,’ Solana says. ‘No one can keep track of you. If it weren’t for music, I don’t know how I’d have ended up.’
‘Probably pregnant and working in a diner,’ Grace says, her voice sounding a little wistful.
Solana studies Grace for a moment. ‘Well, we all do the best we can with what we’ve got, right? And it’s never too late to try something new. I got help with my learning disability, and I’ll be graduating soon.’
Her phone rings, and she apologizes as she answers. ‘It hasn’t stopped all day. I’ve a got a couple projects heating up.’
After Solana hangs up, Grace asks, ‘Are you going to talk about your learning disability at the Literacy Gala?’
‘No. Too personal.’
‘But your story would inspire a lot of people,’ Grace says. She pushes herself as far back in the couch as she can. ‘Like me.’
Solana hesitates, switching the phone from one hand to the other and back. ‘I wouldn’t know what to say.’
‘Luisa can help you. She’s a great writer.’
I stare over at my sister incredulously and then back to Solana. ‘I’d love to help you.’
Solana ponders for a few more moments and finally says, ‘Okay. Maybe I should, if it will do some good.’
The phone rings again. Before Solana can answer, Grace reaches over and takes it from her. ‘Why don’t I handle your calls while you guys work?’
Solana sets Grace up in the dining room with her schedule and rejoins me. We listen in on a call, and she says, ‘Your sister is very persuasive.’
By the time Solana and I have come up with an outline for the speech, Grace has rearranged about ten appointments and mapped them out on a grid. ‘Nothing starts before noon on the days after you’ve performed.’
Solana is clearly more impressed with Grace’s efforts than mine, which causes my constantly simmering sibling resentment to bubble up. I couldn’t get Solana to speak about her problem, and Grace did. And then she upstages me even more by playing personal assistant. Why couldn’t she let me have my moment without stealing my thunder?
At the elevator, Solana turns to hug Grace. I expect my sister to recoil because she barely tolerates displays of affection, even from Keira, but she actually throws her arms around Solana.
Hugging me next, Solana says, ‘Thanks for your help. I couldn’t tell my story half as well without you.’
As the elevator doors close, Grace says, ‘That was cool.’
‘Very.’
Neither of us looks at the other, but I sense we’re both smiling. As it turns out, there’s plenty of thunder to go around.
The dart flies out of my hand and punctures the red balloon with a satisfying pop.
‘Your girl’s got quite the arm,’ the guy behind the counter tells Joey, who’s standing beside me holding my purse and cotton candy.
We’re at the Fun Fair, the last major fundraising event in the Literacy Challenge. The guys and the girls teams actually came together to organize it, and the unseasonably warm day has drawn a huge crowd. Plus, since Tyler and I mentioned it in ‘The Word,’ students from other schools have at least doubled our usual crowd.
‘The rest of her isn’t bad, either,’ Joey says, stooping to kiss my cheek.
Rachel and Izzy beam at him. This is the first time they’ve hung out with us, and I can tell he’s made a good impression. It shouldn’t matter what other people think, but it makes me happy anyway.