“We have to do a poll,” Michael said as he came rushing up to me, Hailey, and Kate at lunch the next day. We stopped our conversation and stared at him.
“Hi. How are you, Michael? Have a seat.” Hailey gestured to a chair.
“Sorry,” Michael said, smiling sheepishly. “I’m just a little keyed up.”
“Wait, what do you mean?” I asked, unwrapping a granola bar. Hailey picked at yet another plate of rice, which she ate every day for lunch. Maybe Allie needed to give Hailey one of her spinach smoothies; then Hailey might appreciate other foods more. Kate was delicately eating a turkey sandwich, but then again, she could be eating a rack of ribs and she would eat them delicately.
Michael pulled out his chair and sat down. He did look a little keyed up. His blue eyes were wide. His hair was a little messy, which of course on him looked totally cute.
“Frank got detention for texting,” Michael said, a little breathlessly. “He was just texting his mom in the hallway to tell her what time he’d be home after practice!”
One Down, Several More to Go. This was just the beginning, I thought.
“The school has gone mad!” Kate exclaimed.
“Wow, poor Frank,” Hailey said, looking very concerned. Was I crazy, or was this more evidence of the fact that Hailey was crushing on Frank even though she wouldn’t admit it?
“That’s awful,” I said. “This new rule is really ridiculous. People text now to communicate. It has to be worked into our lives at school without distracting people in class. There’s got to be a way.”
“That’s why I think we have to set up a poll online. That way we’ll know what the majority thinks. We could do it through the Voice site. It would get people interested in the article before it even came out. More points for technology.”
“That’s a great idea,” I said. Just then Frank came over. He looked really down.
“Frank,” Hailey said. “Michael told us about your detention. That sounds so unfair.” Then she did her little hair flip, which she only did when she was flirting.
“Thanks,” he said, looking at her. “It’s okay. But my mom is furious with the school that I got in trouble for texting her important information. If I had called her on the office phone, which would have taken more time, I wouldn’t have gotten in trouble.”
“If this rule makes no sense, why do you think they did it?” Kate asked.
“I think it’s because texting is an unconscious habit the school is trying to break,” I theorized. “For most kids, it’s obvious that it’s not okay to text during class, but I see kids do it all the time, probably because they’re just so used to texting all the time, they don’t even think about it.”
“Well,” said Hailey, pointing her fork at Frank. “This will certainly make people think twice. Maybe we need an extreme rule like this to snap us out of it.”
“Glad I could be of service,” Frank said bitterly.
“No,” Hailey said, looking worried. “I meant the rule, not what happened to you.”
“I gotta go,” Frank said. “Catch y’all later.”
“Hey, Frankie,” called Michael. “I’ll walk out with you. Sam, I’ll text you, um”—he cleared his throat—“tonight about putting up the poll.”
“Sounds good,” I answered. Then we watched in silence as he and Frank left the cafeteria.
“Was I obnoxious?” Hailey wailed. “I hadn’t meant to be at all.”
“No, you weren’t. I think Frank’s just bummed that he was made an example of. I would be too, but then again, he knew the rule.”
“How can you be taking the school’s side?” Hailey asked, now even more upset.
“I’m not,” I replied.
“I think what Sam means is that—,” Kate said, trying to step in and lower the tension.
“I need some air,” Hailey said, getting up.
“Are you mad at me now?” I asked.
Hailey took a deep breath. “No, no. I just feel a little stupid. Listen, I’ll meet you after school and we can walk home together.”
My shoulders relaxed. “Okay,” I said in a small voice.
“I think I’m going to take off too,” Kate said.
“Sure, go right ahead,” I said. What was with everyone today?
After school, Hailey and I walked home together, but we were both pretty quiet, lost in our own thoughts. It was still warm out, and I started longing for the ease of summer again. Suddenly school seemed so complicated. The texting article now just made me feel angry at the school because of what happened to Frank. At the same time, I could understand that the administrators might need to take a stand. I had done a little research, and it was true what Jessica said about the New York Times article—teenagers send and receive texts eighty times a day. I didn’t, but I was still pretty new to having my own phone and I also wasn’t one of those people who are addicted to their phone. Allie was, though. I wondered what her number would be. Maybe the poll would clarify things a little more.
“You sure you’re not mad?” I asked Hailey as we were about to go our separate ways to our houses.
“Promise. I just felt bad that I made Frank feel worse.”
“Hailey, are you sure you don’t have a crush on him?” I asked, staring her dead in the eye.
“Sorry, O Matchmaker, but he’s just a friend to me,” Hailey said lightly. “Later, alligator!”
I couldn’t help but think about poor Frank’s ears again. If only they were a little smaller, he’d be in luck.
When I got home, Allie was in the kitchen again. I could hear the blender. Good grief!
This time the contents looked purple instead of green, and there were blueberries and strawberry tops scattered around the countertop. A promising sign.
“What are you making now?” I asked, sitting on the bar stool at the kitchen counter. “Is Mom home?”
“No, she’ll be back in an hour,” Allie replied absentmindedly.
“Good, now I don’t have to get up and put this away,” I said, letting my bag drop to the floor. There was nothing my mom hated more than stepping over our school bags.
“It’s called my superdelicious berryrific soy smoothie!” Allie announced. “I’ll give you some. You could use some antioxidants.”
“You didn’t tell me what’s in it.”
“Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and soy milk,” she said, pouring me a big glass of it.
I took it and looked inside. It was purple and frothy. It smelled pretty good. I took a sip. It was creamy, sweet, and tangy.
“Not bad,” I said, and took another sip.
“And you can’t even taste the kale, can you?” she asked, a mischievous sparkle in her eye.
“Kale! You said berries!” I exclaimed.
“So you’d taste it. Berries and kale.”
I looked inside again. It did actually taste yummy. Not a bad way to eat kale. I shrugged and sipped away. Maybe it would make my skin look better. Magical Smoothie Clears Up Skin Instantly! Hey, you never know. Lately I was getting some bumps on my chin, which I was not happy about. Gosh, what if I really started breaking out? That would ruin all chances of getting Michael to see me as more than a friend, or would it? That made me think of my Dear Know-It-All letter.
“Allie,” I said as she leaned against the counter sipping her own serving of smoothie. “Would you ever change your appearance for a boy?”
“Like, in what way?” she asked, and squinted at me. Now I had her full attention. She probably liked giving advice more than I did, but I was the one-and-only Dear Know-It-All. I couldn’t wait for that day in the future when I’d finally be able to tell Allie how I secretly wrote Dear Know-It-All for two years. I’d make sure to bring a camera and record the expression on her face. “Like, if the boy you really liked only liked girls with short hair or something. Would you cut your hair for him?”
“No way! Are you kidding me?”
“Just asking,” I said. I actually hadn’t expected Allie to have such a strong reaction to the question. She lived for attention from boys, but then again she had a new boyfriend basically every three months, so she didn’t have to try so hard. “Well, boys always seem to like you. Maybe you don’t have to think about things like this.”
“You have a smoothie mustache,” Allie said, and pointed at me.
I swiped the back of my hand over my mouth.
“Still, my answer remains the same,” Allie went on. “And not every boy I’ve liked has liked me back, believe it or not.”
“Really?” I said.
“Really.”
Well, that at least made me feel better. It wasn’t easy having a blond boy magnet for a sister. I was even suspicious that Michael had a crush on her. At least Allie would never reciprocate. He was too young for her, and she knew I’d never speak to her again. Allie was a lot of things, but she was also loyal. Michael had a couple of pretty cute brothers, though, and she was friends with them. I wouldn’t even like her dating one of them. Too close for comfort.
“Okay, I think I’ve had my fill of antioxidants,” I said, putting the half-finished smoothie down. I went into my room and poked around at CNN.com and Huffington Post. My phone beeped and I grabbed it.
Let’s put up the poll 2nite, said a text from Michael.
K. How about this question: Do you break the texting rule at school? I responded.
Perfect! I’ll get it going! he wrote back.
Thanks!
We were a perfect pair in that respect. I was faster with content and he was faster with the tech stuff. I decided to do a Google search to get more facts about teen texting. Lots of stuff came up, but one thing that caught my eye was an article about the Centers for Disease Control. They had just done a study and found that one-third of teens admit to texting while driving. I guess any habit that leads to a lot of distraction can be dangerous. Sneaking a text here and there at school was probably harmless, but it could lead to stuff that might be really bad. It added another complicated layer to a subject that suddenly didn’t seem so boring anymore.
Allie knocked on my door and then came in without waiting for my answer.
“You always make me knock,” I said, whipping around in my chair.
“I knocked,” she said.
“Yeah, but I didn’t say anything,” I said, turning back to the screen.
“It’s urgent. I was thinking about your question.” She flung herself on my bed and propped up her head in her hands.
“Yeah?” I spun around on my desk chair to face her.
“I changed my mind. It’s only hair. It will grow back. Why not try a new look?”
“Really? So you would cut your hair for a guy?” I asked, wondering what had changed her mind.
“Well, no, I wouldn’t do it just for the guy. If I found a cute haircut that I wanted to try, I might take a risk, but I’d never do it if I didn’t want to do it. You can’t lose yourself in the hope that someone would like you better if you just looked different,” she said, and went over to my mirror. She piled her hair on top of her head and checked her look from different angles. Then she let her hair tumble down. “If he doesn’t like me the way I am, that’s it for him.” She sat down on the edge of my bed and smiled. “Boys are like trains. If you miss one, there’s always another one in five minutes.”
“Maybe for you,” I said, and crossed my arms over my chest.
Allie narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Did Michael Lawrence tell you to cut your hair? Don’t you dare! It’s your best feature.”
I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment. “Michael Lawrence has nothing to do with it. I swear.”
“Good,” she said. She hopped up. “Let’s see.” She came over and pulled my hair up and glanced at me from both sides. “Yeah, keep it long.”
“I plan to,” I said. “Now I have top-secret work to do.”
“Yeah, right,” Allie said as she headed out the door. Little did she know.