Making the right move

I’d spent the whole night trying to figure out a way to introduce myself to Elizabeth. I couldn’t come up with anything that didn’t seem totally obvious. Maybe Mark was right. Maybe he could introduce us. But that’s when you risk the horrible three minutes’ silence where everyone is trying to figure out what to say. It’s in those awkward, not very smooth silences that I begin to glow a rosy, very uncool red. That just can’t happen.

I was still thinking about it during the trip to school.

Are you all right, Will?

Yeah, Mum.

So it looks like from here on in I’ll be taking care of the veggie patch….

But then it would be better because there’d be other people around so I wouldn’t have to be the only one talking.

Will?

Yeah?

As long as Mark didn’t carry on.

Meaning … it’s getting down to the final weeks.

I looked over at her, wondering what she was going on about.

Well, that’s what the note on the fridge says, full rehearsals for the next three weekends and then the show.

So that’s the only time I have left. I have to make my move today, otherwise there’s no point.

Will …? It would be nice if you actually listened while your mother tried to communicate with you.

Yeah, no, it’s all good, Mum.

Well, I never thought I would ever hear Will Armstrong say that spending three consecutive weekends at school was good. You must be enjoying it.

Maybe Mark was right, maybe all I had to do was … 

Have you made any new friends?

I willed myself back into the car and back into the conversation. She had given me another lift to school after all. And I knew she was making up for lost veggie-patch bonding time.

A couple.

Pause.

Any girls, Will?

Left field! Left field! Back up! How did she do that? I looked over at her, trying to suss whether she had one of those I know everything about you smiles on her face. Mum always asked a lot of questions but she never asked those types of questions. She left that up to Dad.

Come on, Mum. It’s a school musical, not somewhere you go to pick up.

I know that, Will, I was just wondering if there was anyone, well, you know, special?

Anyone special! As soon as the opposite sex is mentioned Mum turns into one of Andrews’s walking stereotypes. That was the difference—if I told Dad we’d end up having a laugh, I tell Mum and it’s serious. I pushed that thought straight back out of my head as soon as it got there.

We pulled up outside the gates again. The unanswered question filled the car.

No, Mum, but if there is I’ll fill you in—as long as you don’t ask me if she’s special.

Deal.

I reached over and threw a kiss on her left cheek. I was getting used to that smile, and I liked it.

As soon as I had picked up the guitar and turned toward the hall the Freak had sniffed me out.

Is that your mum?

I turned to find him doing the fox-terrier jump at my side. I hadn’t seen him since last week.

Hey, man, where did you spring from? Nice to see you back.

He nearly did backflips in response.

I was waiting for you. So was that your mum?

Who else would it have been, unless I had this whole older-woman thing going on?

She seems nice.

I looked at him. He was one of the strangest earthlings I had ever met.

So were you waiting outside for a reason? Are those geeks giving you a hard time again?

Nope, they’re scared of what you’ll do to them. I told them that you’re my best friend.

Yet another strike to my almost nonexistent image. I attempted to reset the boundaries.

Ahh, well, I wouldn’t go that far. I mean, I’m pretty much older than you are.

But that doesn’t matter. I’m used to having older people as my friends. Dad thinks it’s good for my development. Anyway, Dad’s my other best friend and he’s much older than you. I told him all about you and he said I was lucky to have someone as nice and caring as you as a friend.

I gave up then.

All right, mate. Let’s go inside.

The rest of the geeks were playing the latest geek craze on their laptops and Zach was very obviously not invited. They might have backed right off him but that didn’t mean they were going to let him infiltrate their geekdom. I could feel the confidence in him grow as he walked beside me. He had to get some mates. But for the moment it looked like I was it.