Summer Of The Geek Part 18

"This should be a fun afternoon," I said.

"That's why they pay you the big bucks," Dex teased me. "Hey! Stop splas.h.i.+ng me!"

"You're not hungry?" I asked.

Amelia and I were sitting at the kitchen table at her house. I'd made us grilled cheese sandwiches and heated up tomato soup for lunch.

"My sandwich is burnt," Amelia said, staring at her plate with disgust.

"It's not burnt," I said. "It's just a little brown."

"It's burned," Amelia said again, and pushed her plate away from her.

"Well, then, just eat your soup," I said.

"I don't like soup," Amelia complained.

"Then I guess you can just starve," I said, taking a bite of my grilled cheese sandwich.

The words sounded familiar to me, and I realized that I'd probably heard my mother say something similar, when I was acting like a brat at mealtime. Did this mean I was turning into my mother? What a horrible thought.

I expected Amelia to push her chair back and stalk off to her piano. But instead, she just sat there, her shoulders slumped and her mouth a tense line. My irritation dissipated a bit. She was so talented and so driven, sometimes it was hard to remember that she was just a little girl.

"Is everything okay?" I asked, forcing myself to use a kinder, gentler tone.

Amelia shrugged.

"Did you ever talk to your mom about not wanting to change piano teachers?"

"She didn't want to hear it," Amelia said. "She said I've outgrown Miss Kendall, and Ian Gregory will help me to maximize my potential. End of discussion."

"Did you show her the list we made?"

Amelia shook her head. "There was no point. She'd already made up her mind."

"And what do you think?"

"I don't even want to play anymore," Amelia said.

We both went silent under the weight of this admission.

"I didn't mean that," Amelia finally said. "I don't know why I said it."

"It's okay if you feel that way," I said.

Amelia snorted her disbelief. "No, it's not. My mom would freak. Besides, I don't really want to stop. I love playing. I just . . . well, sometimes I wonder what it would be like not to feel so . . ." She stopped, grappling for the right word.

"Pressured?" I suggested.

Amelia nodded. "But then I feel guilty for thinking that. It's like, because I have this gift, all of the decisions about my whole life have already been made. What I'm going to do, what I'm going to be."

"But they haven't, really," I said. "You still get to make choices for yourself."

"It doesn't feel that way," Amelia said softly. Tears glittered in her eyes.

"I really think you should talk to your mom about how you're feeling," I said.

"I tried that. Remember? She wouldn't listen to me."

"You talked to her about changing piano teachers. This is a little different. I think she'll have to listen to you talk about your feelings on this," I said. "It's your life, Amelia. You get to decide what you're going to do with it. If you don't want to be a concert pianist, you don't have to be."

"I can't tell my mom that. She'd be so disappointed," Amelia said. She wiped at her eyes, looked up at me under a damp fringe of lashes.

"I know, it's hard," I said. "But I think you still have to talk to her."

Amelia nodded. And, strangely enough, this decision to confront her future-or, at least, to confront the possibility of a different future than the one she'd had for as long as she could remember-seemed to steady her. Her shoulders relaxed, and she reached for her grilled cheese sandwich.

"I thought it was burned," I teased her as she took a big bite.

Her cheeks were bulging, chipmunk-style, but even so, she managed a weak grin. "I guess it's not as bad as I thought," she admitted.

Chapter Twenty-one.

"Who's coming tonight?" Charlie asked as she tied the laces on her red bowling shoes.

"Dex said he's bringing some friends," I said. We had arrived early to claim two side- by-side lanes. The bowling alley tended to get crowded on penny pin nights.

"Are they cute?" Charlie asked.

I rolled my eyes. It was such an un-Charlie-like thing to say. "I have no idea," I said.

"You haven't met them?" she persisted.

"I think I have, but I don't really remember them. Dex said they're both on his lacrosse team, though, so they're probably not your type."

"Why wouldn't they be my type?"

"Aren't you the one who said that all jocks have IQs roughly equal to their jersey numbers?" I asked.

Charlie considered this. "I may have said that," she admitted. "But I don't want to date them for their minds. I just want to use them to make Finn jealous."

"Make me jealous of what?" Finn asked, appearing behind Charlie.

Charlie jumped, and let out a small scream. She stared at me, wide-eyed, silently begging me to fix it.

"Yeesh, what's up with you?" Finn asked. "And what would I be jealous of?"

"Charlie made it to level five on Arachnozombies," I lied quickly.

I wasn't that into gaming, but close proximity to Finn over the years kept me more up to date on the gaming world than I ever wanted to be. Arachnozombies was Finn's current obsession. He'd bragged endlessly when he made it to level four. I had no idea if there even was a level five, but it was all I had.

"You did not," Finn said accusingly. He stared at Charlie as though she'd personally wounded him.

Charlie managed to compose herself quickly. She shrugged modestly. "It wasn't all that hard," she said.

"I didn't even know you played!"

"You never asked," Charlie said.

"Prove it," Finn said. "Show me how you get to level five right now."

Charlie looked around pointedly. "Um, h.e.l.lo? We're in a bowling alley."

"So?" Finn asked.

"There aren't any computers here."

"I have a laptop in my car," Finn said, turning. "I'll go get it."

Charlie and I exchanged an alarmed glance. I was pretty sure that she had never even played Arachnozombies before. Chances were she wouldn't get past level one. Luckily, we were saved by the timely appearance of Phoebe McLeod, wearing a short denim skirt that showed off her long tan legs.

"Hi," Phoebe said, giggling a little as she greeted Finn.

"Hi, yourself," Finn said, sidling over to her for a kiss, all thoughts of Arachnozombies forgotten.

Charlie looked like she wanted to vomit at this scene. I tried to distract her.

"Do you want to be the scorekeeper?" I asked as I signed our names into the computer that kept track of the bowling scores.

"No, thanks," Charlie muttered.

"But you love being scorekeeper," I said.

Finn and Phoebe started whispering into each other's ears, causing Phoebe's giggling to become even louder and more giddy.

"No, I need to concentrate on my goals for the evening," Charlie said. She straightened suddenly and waved. "Oh, good, Hannah and Emmett are here. Hannah! Over here!"

I turned and saw Hannah and Emmett strolling toward us, hand in hand.

"Hi, Bloom," Emmett said to me. Emmet Dutch was as gorgeous as ever-tall, broad-shouldered, and tan. He had blond hair that curled back from his face and eyes the color of the ocean at sunset. There was a time, pre-Dex, when hearing Emmett Dutch call me Bloom and seeing him holding hands with my stepsister would have caused my insides to shrivel up with jealousy. Happily, he no longer had that affect on me.

"Hi, Emmett," I said. "Are you having a good summer?"

"Pretty good," Emmett said cheerfully.

"Is he here yet?" Hannah asked Charlie.

Charlie widened her eyes and looked meaningfully in Finn's direction. He was so absorbed in Phoebe, he didn't notice the exchange.

"Him?" Hannah asked, surprised.

With his s.h.a.ggy hair and goofy smile, I knew Finn was not what Hannah would consider much of a catch. Still, she'd given her word, so she shrugged off her surprise and got to work.

"Where's Dex?" she asked me. "I thought he was bringing Luke and Brian."

Hannah, of course, knew both guys. She went to school with them at Orange Cove High, and was friendly with most of the jocks.

"He said he'd be here," I said.

"Good," Hannah said. She turned to Charlie and began pelting her with instructions in a low, fierce whisper. "Luke's a lot more outgoing than Brian, so he's probably the better bet. Still, you never know who you'll have better chemistry with, so flirt like crazy with both of them. Touch your hair a lot, make eye contact, find reasons to touch his arm. Guys love that. Oh, and I brought you this." Hannah handed Charlie a tube of lip gloss. "Put it on."

Charlie looked doubtfully at the tube. "I don't usually wear lip gloss. My hair gets stuck in it," she said.

"You're as bad as Miranda," Hannah said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey!" I said.

Hannah ignored me. "Trust me. Put it on. You can't flirt without glossy lips," Hannah said with such authority that Charlie meekly obeyed.

I saw Dex enter the bowling alley, flanked by two guys who looked vaguely familiar. As I'd suspected, they were both of the typical high school jock variety. One was thicker through the chest and had very dark hair. The other had longish blond hair, and was even taller and lankier than Dex.

"Hey," he said when they'd reached us. He smiled down at me.

"Hi," I said.

"This is Luke and that's Brian," Finn said. "And this is Miranda."

We all said h.e.l.lo. Luke was the dark-haired one, and he stood with his hands in his pockets, his eyes roaming over the crowd. They rested briefly on Hannah, again on Phoebe, and then lingered when they got to Charlie. I turned and saw that Charlie was smiling at him, while tilting her head to one side and tucking her purple hair behind her ears, as per Hannah's instructions.

"Hey," he said to her.

"Hey yourself," Charlie said flirtatiously.

Hannah looked pleased, but I couldn't help feeling uncomfortable. I didn't think anything good could come of Charlie acting like anyone other than herself. Charlie seemed to read my thoughts, and winked at me.

Don't worry, the wink said. I've got a plan.

I rolled my eyes. That's exactly what I'm worried about.

Charlie grinned at me and then turned her attention back to Luke. "Let's have a bowl-off," she suggested. "We'll pick teams, and then the team with the highest score has to buy wings and cheese fries for the other. The shoe rental is over there."