The Ghost of Lizard's Rock (7 page)

Without even reacting, I turned my
head back toward Troy who was finishing his story.

“Well,” said Mr. Anders,
“that leaves us just one more to go.” His eyes looked to the back
of the room as if he were about to regret saying something. “Oliver
you’re next.”

Everyone in the room
stopped what they were doing, sat up in their desks and turned
toward Oliver in anticipation. They knew this was going to be
good.

Oliver stood up with his
paper in hand, acted as if he were clearing his throat, and tried
to look very serious, “I had a very quiet summer with nothing
really to talk about.” He acted as if he was going to sit
down.

It was like the greatest
disappointment that could have ever hit a classroom. Everyone just
sat in their seats in disbelief that Oliver had not said anything
funny.

Oliver stopped the
downward motion of his body and began grinning, “Just messin’ with
ya.”

A loud chuckle spread
across the room and a sense of something great was about to
happen.

Oliver placed his paper on
the desk. He didn’t need to read it – he had lived it!

For the next twenty
minutes Oliver told story after story to the class of things that
had happened during the summer. Even Mr. Anders had to wipe tears
of laughter from his eyes several times.

It was a great ending to
the activity and the beginning of a fantastic school
year.

I looked at Oliver when he
finally sat down and gave him a ‘thumbs up’.

Mr. Anders sensed the need
to regain some calmness in the classroom and directed all of us to
take out our science books and read the first chapter
quietly.

Troy flipped open his book
and stared at the page as if he were reliving a moment in the past.
His mind quickly drifted away from the pages of the book to the
girl right beside him. Although, he barely knew Kati in the past,
Troy now found her worth getting to know.

His interest didn’t just
happen today. Actually it was an interest that began in the summer
without Kati even knowing it.

Troy looked over at Oliver
and nearly laughed out loud as he remembered the moment.

During the summer at the
swimming hole, he had tried to explain his stepbrothers to Oliver
which became a wonderfully funny situation.

“Who are those guys?”
Oliver walked up to Troy and pointed toward two teen boys standing
on the rocks ready to dive into the water.

The two guys were clearly
brothers. From their long curly blonde hair to their six-foot
height, the boys looked like twins.

“They’re brothers,” said
Troy calmly without emotion, “my brothers!”

Oliver stood speechless
comparing the teens to Troy and Troy to the teens.

“The one on the left is
Tim. He’s 16. The other one is Brady. Brady is 18.”

“Sorry,” answered Oliver,
as he looked back at Troy, “They don’t look anything like
you.”

“We have the same mom but
different dads,” answered Troy. “They live in the city with their
dad.”

“Oh,” replied Oliver. He
was reluctant to say any more.

“Years ago, their dad left
my mother for a ‘younger’ woman that worked for him. Her name is
Missy and she always wears high heels. Tim and Brady call her
‘clicky heels’ behind her back.”

“Are there any more
brothers and sisters?” asked Oliver respectfully.

“Nope,” answered Troy,
“just us.”

Oliver and Troy watched as
the boys dove into the water. They were very athletic and entered
the water gracefully at the same exact time.

Instead of just getting
out of the water and climbing up the bank, they looked at each
other for a moment and tossed their long blonde hair back and forth
a couple of times as they gazed at the girls sunbathing near the
water’s edge. They were clearly flirting.

“Why didn’t they stay with
your mom back then?” asked a curious Oliver after a few
seconds.

“I don’t know,” Troy
replied, “Mom won’t talk about any of it. This is actually the
first time Tim and Brady have come to Tiny.” Troy hesitated for a
moment. “Usually, we pick them up at their dad’s house and go
somewhere else for a week or two each summer.”

“I can’t imagine seeing my
mother only a couple of times each year,” said Oliver
compassionately.

“It’s really hard on my
mom,” answered Troy. “I’ve heard my mom and dad talking about it
late at night when they thought I was asleep. It usually ends with
my mom crying and my dad holding her tightly.”

Oliver looked at Troy and
back at the boys. There was no comparison. Their fair skin and
blonde hair was a huge contrast to Troy’s deeply tanned skin and
dark brown hair; and yet each of their deep blue eyes looked
exactly the same as Troy’s mother.

Tim and Brady worked their
way back up the rocks and circled behind Troy and
Oliver.

In a split second, the
boys were on each side of Oliver, grabbed him by the arms and ran
him right off the rocks and into the water below.

The swimming hole erupted
into a loud chorus of laughter and yells as Oliver’s hat and
sunglasses flew in different directions.

Oliver’s head popped out
of the water just in time to see Tim nodding his head at his
sister, Michele, who was sunbathing with her friends on a rock
straight across from him. He knew in an instant that Michele had
set him up.

Troy stood on the bank
laughing just as loud as everyone else. It was at that moment that
he noticed a long haired girl about his age in a ponytail standing
on the highest rocks surrounding the swimming hole. Only the
bravest and usually the oldest would even venture to the top of the
rocks.

The girl stood all alone
looking down into the water. Everyone around the swimming hole
suddenly went silent as they watched the girl all alone on the
rocks.

The girl bent her knees
and pushed off.

A collective gasp seemed
to fill the air as Troy watched this beautiful angel glide
effortlessly towards to the water. She didn’t jump off feet first –
she was actually diving!

The girl’s body entered
the water gracefully and disappeared under the surface. Everyone
stared in anticipation and waited breathlessly for her to
resurface.

A moment later, the girl’s
head broke the surface to the chorus of cheers that erupted from
everyone watching – it was Kati!

Troy blinked his eyes a
couple of times as he came back to the reality of his science book
and looked over at Kati, who was staring at him.

He thought, “How could
anyone be that brave?”

“You okay,” asked
Kati.

Yeah,” replied Troy. “I
was just remembering something from last summer.” Troy looked into
Kati’s warm eyes for a moment without blinking. He was truly seeing
her in a whole new light.

Kati smiled nervously and
looked back down at her book as she fidgeted with the hair by her
ear. She glanced out the corner of her eyes a few seconds later to
see if Troy was still looking at her.

Troy was quietly reading
the pages.

“I wonder what he was
thinking about?” thought Kati.

Kati’s eyes happened to
look across the room at Maddison. She was definitely throwing
daggers at Kati with her eyes.

“This can’t be good,” thought
Kati.

A Sneeze to
Remember

The rest of the morning
went by fast. I was quite surprised when Mr. Anders told the class
to put their things away for lunch.

“Let’s have everyone with
cold lunches move to the front of the line with hot lunches behind
them.”

I walked up to the front
of the line with Oliver right behind me. It looked like about half
the class was eating cold lunches this year.

Troy was in the other
group with Maddison trying to get as close as possible to
him.

“Seventh grade students
eat at the tables next to the windows in the lunchroom,” directed
Mr. Anders loudly. “Eighth grade students eat at the tables on the
opposite side of the room.”

“Who eats in the middle?”
said Oliver jokingly.

“Students on detention for
a month,” replied Mr. Anders quickly. “Want to be the first to try
it out?”

Oliver pulled two fingers
across his lips as if he were zipping his mouth shut. Mr. Anders
clearly had Oliver’s number.

“Let’s go,” said Mr.
Anders. He stood by the doorway, waited for the last student to
leave the room, closed the door, and locked it.

Oliver whispered to me,
“It seems you have a new admirer this year.” He was grinning from
ear to ear.

In a split second my elbow
struck outward nearly knocking him off his feet.

“That’s not very
lady-like,” teased Oliver as he regained his balance.

I gave him my ’knock it
off’ look.

Oliver just laughed and
continued to walk beside me.

The eighth graders were
already seated as we walked into the lunchroom.

A few of them called out
to the seventh graders but were quickly put in their place by the
duty teachers. All they had to do was point at the two tables in
the middle of the room as a reminder.

“I thought Mr. Anders was
kidding,” whispered Oliver as he looked at the tables. “There
really
are
detention tables in the middle.”

I nodded my head, grabbed
a juice, and walked to the last table next to the exit doors on the
seventh grade side. I sat on the side of the table where I could
see the entire lunchroom.

For some reason, I
happened to notice that Jacob was at the end of the line and two
eighth graders were moving in behind him. Without anyone noticing,
one of the eighth graders tripped Jacob as he moved away from the
serving line.

Jacob seemed to fly in one
direction and his food tray in the other.

There was a moment of
silence in the lunchroom and then loud laughter erupted on the
eighth grade side. Most of the seventh graders sat frozen - unsure
whether to laugh or ignore it.

Jacob was totally
embarrassed. He looked around to see who had tripped him, but they
had already melted back into the eighth graders.

I gritted my teeth. I knew
who they were and quickly spotted them back at their seats laughing
at what they had done to Jacob. I started to stand up but felt
Oliver’s hand on my shoulder.

“Not now,” said Oliver.
“The teachers are watching.”

I turned toward him, “Then
very soon.”

Oliver pointed to Jacob,
who began picking up his food off the floor with the help of the
duty teachers.

Jacob looked into the
faces of the eighth graders with a sadness that was hard to
describe. He stood up slowly, placed his tray in the window where
you put your tray when you are done eating, and walked past all of
us and out the door without saying a word.

I heard a voice from the
eighth graders, “Boo hoo,” followed by more laughter.

Dan sat down across from
me, “That was wrong!”

I stared at Dan in
complete amazement. It was a rare moment for him to speak out
loud.

Dan had a look of
determination in his eyes, “I saw them too.”

“Here come the guys who
did it.” I nodded my head in the direction of the two eighth
graders walking toward the doors still laughing and retelling the
story to each other’s amusement.

Before I even realized
what was happening, Dan was out of his seat walking directly
towards them.

Oliver and I wondered what
Dan was up to.

Dan stopped just a few
feet in front of them. I don’t know how he did it, but Dan sneezed.
It was the biggest explosion of ‘you know what’ all over the two
eighth graders. The boys stood frozen in their tracks and stared at
what had just hit them all over their shirts and jeans.

“I’m,” stammered Dan as he
wiped his nose with his arm, “so sorry.” He wiped his hands all
over their chest as they stood there looking at him in total shock.
“It’s my allergies.”

I thought both eighth
graders were going to puke on the spot. They were desperately
peeling off their shirts as they ran out of the lunchroom and into
the hallway.

Dan walked over to a sink
near the serving line and washed his hands and arms thoroughly. A
little bit later, he sat back down across from Kati and Oliver and
began eating his lunch as if nothing had happened. “Dang
allergies.”

Oliver and I stared at him
for several minutes without moving or saying a word. Neither of us
really knew what to say.

Without warning, Allie
walked up at that moment and sat down beside Dan with one of her
new friends in tow. She looked straight into Dan’s eyes, “Classic.”
Allie held up her hand for a ‘high five’.