Despite their name, black bears aren’t always black. They can also be brown, blond, blue gray, cinnamon, or white.
—Animal Wisdom
Cinnamon bears?! That sounds like the cutest thing ever!
I dashed down past the lockers to the main hall, searching for Mr. Nicholson. But when I turned a corner and saw him in the middle of the crowd, he was already holding up Bella’s hand.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m happy to announce our winner is Bella Rodriguez, for her wonderful presentation using antique hardcover books!”
My heart sank. “I missed it,” I said, shaking my head. Liv crossed her arms beside me, looking like she wanted to start a riot.
“Well, that isn’t fair!” she started. “I’m going to go over there and make sure that—”
“No, Liv!” I pulled her back. “Bella won. That’s pretty fantastic actually! Don’t mess this up for her.” I gave Bella the teensiest wave when I caught her eye, followed by a geeky thumbs-up. Ashley and Brooke were right beside her, cheering her on as Mr. Nicholson handed her the “official” slip, getting her out of her chosen grade.
“Argh, fine,” Liv said. “I’m sorry you lost out because of me. I’m sure you would have crushed it.”
I shrugged. “I’ll have to convince Mr. Nicholson to let me present to him later,” I said. A small niggle of doubt crept up in me. Mr. Nicholson could be super strict on project deadlines, but I was sure he’d give me a chance once he heard my excuse.
“Maybe I’ll have to throw in some extra credit,” I said, uncertain. “Hey,” I said, poking Mom in the shoulder. “I have to go to the bathroom, okay? Too much cherry shake.”
Shouldering my way through the crowd into the bathroom, I turned the faucet on full blast. I didn’t need to pee. I just wanted a minute alone. The rush of water drowned out the noise outside. Suddenly, now that I was alone, the weight of the evening seemed to crash down on me.
Missing out on my project.
Finding Liv after that horrible scare.
Cherry shakes and casts.
So much had happened and it seemed like every emotion was lining up inside of me, demanding its turn. I guess this is why they say that being a teenager is so hard—half the time it seems like your feelings can’t even fit in your body anymore.
Staring at my blotchy face, I leaned my head against the mirror.
“Ana?” A timid voice echoed against the concrete, beige walls. “You okay?”
I sniffed, wiping my eyes. I hadn’t realized I had tears in my eyes.
“I’m fine,” I said, cringing at how hoarse my voice was.
Kevin appeared in the doorway.
“Kev!” I surprised myself with how happy I sounded. “What are you doing here?! I thought you weren’t back until tomorrow! You can’t be in here!”
Flushing with embarrassment, I turned the faucet off and yanked a few yards of paper towel from the machine. I dabbed my eyes, trying not to smear whatever sad goop was in them all over my face. I was too strung out to go up and hug him like a normal person who hadn’t seen her boyfriend in days.
He frowned. “We got home early, and I thought it would be nice to see you. Are you crying?” he asked. My heart clenched with happiness. Life wasn’t right without Kevin, I realized. Like a fox without teeth or an ice-cream shake without the cherries. Kevin helped to keep me sane.
“I didn’t think I was,” I said, exhausted.
“That’s not the face of someone who won back a free grade,” he said. “What happened?”
“I missed it,” I said simply, throwing up my hands. “We all thought Liv might be in trouble, so we had to go to Shaken, Not Stirred to find her, and thank God she was there, but by the time we talked it all out and started to feel a little bit better, it was too late for me to come back here and present my documentary, even though I really wanted a shot at that free pass, because I hate the thought of some giant fail on my report card, and it was such a good project, but now there’s nothing I can do about it, so I’m in the bathroom, then I randomly started crying because…because, I don’t know. Liv is going back soon, and we’re friends, but this past week has been…ugh.” My voice ran out of breath at the end of my rant, leaving me wheezing.
His eyes softened. “You found Liv though?”
I nodded glumly as he came over to give me a hug. Sniffling into his shoulder, I probably got mucky tears and goobers all over him. But Kev didn’t move. He did reach for a tissue for me though, so obviously I was a complete phlegm monster.
“Thirteen sucks,” I said. “Every time I think I have something figured out, it’s like the whole world flips upside down again and I’m stuck trying to juggle in zero gravity.”
Kev nodded appreciatively. “Nice one!” He beamed. “Maybe you have missed me. What do you want to do about your project?”
I hung my head lower, scratching under my cast the best I could. “There’s nothing to do. I know Mr. Nicholson will hear me out, and he’ll let me present it to him. But you know what he’s like about late stuff and his policy on docking grades. I kind of feel like I need something extra now to make up for ditching. It was so good, you know?”
“You could give him a two-part project,” he suggested. “Even though you won’t win the free pass, I bet you won’t lose points for it.”
I looked up at him. “What, like tonight? There’s no way!”
The dimple appeared on his cheek. “That doesn’t sound like the Ana I know,” he teased.
I grinned for the first time in what felt like ages. “What? Am I supposed to magically create something razzle-dazzly to distract him from the fact I wasn’t even there tonight?”
He nodded. “That’s one idea, for sure.” He took my hand, lacing his fingers awkwardly through my ragged cast. “But there’s got to be something else. Something that will go perfectly with your documentary.”
I let my eyes nearly droop closed as I watched Kevin’s fingers slowly drumming on my cast. Dr. Carriso’s loopy writing stared back at me.
“Proud to be the first friend to sign your cast!”
Then something hit me. And this time it wasn’t how much being thirteen felt like being stuck in a giant vat of monkey poop. I didn’t need to make another project. I already had the perfect addition to my documentary.
“Kev,” I said, pulling myself taller, “you’re a genius!”
His eyes lit up with surprise. “I am?”
I beamed at him. For a moment, it crossed my mind that we were in the girls’ bathroom, and this probably wasn’t the most romantic spot in the world. But Kev’s idea—or maybe it was my idea that he helped me find—swept over me with such an impact, I couldn’t help myself.
I kissed him.
Yes!
I know!
I was snotty faced with a cast on my wrist, and the girls’ bathroom wasn’t the most exciting first kiss story, but it was now my first kiss story, because I downright planted one on Kevin without even thinking.
After all this time, wondering, hoping, planning, wishing for this moment, I couldn’t believe how fast my lips were able to find his. I didn’t think about how to kiss him or where I should lean my head or how to avoid giving him a nosebleed (like last time—no need to replay that little trauma bomb) or what my breath smelled like or whether or not my eyes were red and my nose was runny or even about kiss pacts.
Instead, I was just kissing him.
And you know what?
It.
Was.
Awesome.
“Whoa,” Kev said when I pulled away. If there’s one thing I know now about kissing is that while you’re in the moment, you can feel totally cool and not embarrassed at all. But the minute you leave that moment, it becomes Awkward City all over again. What’s up with that?
“Um…” I blinked at him, half enjoying the dazed look on his face and half-terrified that I looked as goofy as he did. Considering the swirly-whirly butterflies in my stomach, my odds were not looking good.
“Sorry,” I said.
“No!” he said, shaking his head. “Don’t apologize for that. That was…”
I grinned at him, probably looking like a full-on psychotic person.
“Right?!” I giggled, then commanded myself to pull my goofball self back together. “I wanted to thank you. For helping me come up with the perfect idea.”
He tilted his head. “What’s your big idea then?”
I rubbed my hands together like a scheming housefly. “I’ll tell you once we get out of here. Sorry our first kiss was in the girls’ bathroom,” I added, standing up. “I mean, of all the places where I’d imagined our first kiss happening—not that I was just sitting around imagining it because that would be a little crazy—but, um. You know.” I was babbling now, and the feeling was returning to my toes again. “I just think it’s kind of funny, you being in here…” I giggled.
“Uh…Ana?” Kevin said, holding the door open for us to leave.
“Yuh-huh?” Clearly I was still in a daze over our kiss, no matter how über-chill I was trying to be.
He pointed at the sign on the door, where the little stick man without a skirt on was staring back at me.
Wait.
“Yep.” Kevin grinned, taking my hand. “This is the boys’ bathroom.”