As nice as Carter’s house was, his car wasn’t much. It was a used clunker with windows that rattled. He kept it pretty neat, but the floor carpets and seats had stains all over them from the spilled sodas of its previous owners. I felt really uneasy sitting on the stains in his mom’s nice slacks.
Trying not to sound rude, but burning to know, I said, “I take it Mom and Dad didn’t buy you a car for your 16th birthday.”
His face reddened like I’d plugged him into the cigarette lighter. His usually confident grin got real lopsided. “Well... actually, they did.”
“Was it some kind of harsh lesson?” I asked. “You must have been the only kid in your school with a car that cost less than $15,000.”
He nodded slowly. “You’re right. This is a posh neighborhood. Most kids get pretty cool cars.”
“So what happened?” I pressed. There had to be a reason. My parents wouldn’t get me a car because they want to protect the environment from one more vehicle’s gas emissions. As long as you live in our house, we can share a car, they told me repeatedly. In reality that meant that if I wanted to go anywhere, I needed to ask Haley to drive. I’m not sure why I even got my driver’s license.
But Carter’s parents clearly had money, and they didn’t seem like the kind of people who would share a car with their son for the benefit of the ozone layer. Carter himself appeared to be the perfect son: good-looking, well-spoken, college bound. A parent’s dream teen. So, what was the deal with the clunker car?
Carter chewed on his lip for a moment, then gave in. “My folks did buy me a car—a cool Ford Explorer that was only a year old and low mileage. It was 4-wheel drive and V6. I took it off-roading with some friends my second weekend owning it and destroyed it.”
“Oh no!” I shouted. “You didn’t!”
He grinned sheepishly. “I did. Stupid. My folks informed me in no uncertain terms that if I wanted another car I had to buy it myself.” He lifted his right hand and presented his car like a game show host. “Voila! This is what weekends stocking shelves at the grocery store gets you.”
We laughed about that and joked about parents in general. He never once asked about why my mom was so pissed at me, and I was grateful for that. We didn’t turn on the radio at all because we talked whole ride. I did wind up having to swing by my house after all, because I needed my backpack and I had to change my shoes. I could not face going to school in my nasty boots covered with oil and sand. While home, I quickly changed into my own pants, too, and returned the ones I borrowed to Carter.
“I’m afraid I’ll damage them,” I told him. Of course, I could have changed out of his shirts and didn’t. I know he realized this, too, but he didn’t say anything about it and seemed mildly pleased with me that I kept them on. Returning them was an excuse to see him again.
We arrived at school right about 10:30. I’d missed most of third period, but I would catch fourth if I hurried.
“I’ll pick you up here at 3:00,” he said.
“Really?” I asked. “I can just get a ride home with Haley and wait till Dad gets home later.”
“Your dad will still be out at the beach, and I know you want to get back to our friend in the tank.”
He was absolutely right. Carter was cute and smart and wonderful. But despite his company and the impending lunchtime of school politics, the thought of that poor creature never left my mind. The mermaid needed help, and I wanted to be there with her. The last place I wanted to be was at school.
“Sounds good,” I said. “3:00, right here.”
I got out and strolled through the front doors of the school.
Or I would have, except the front doors were locked. So, I had to push the office button, which is apparently attached to some kind of truancy alarm. When the doors opened for me to stroll through, I was intercepted by a pissy office attendant who whisked me off to the Vice Principal’s office to explain why I’d ditched school all morning. Because, naturally, with everything going on I had forgotten to have my dad sign an excuse note explaining why I was late for school.
They called him, but they couldn’t get through. I knew he was busy on the phone with reporters trying to convince them that the oil damage to the shoreline of Washington was news—important news—and the public needed to be aware of what was going on. That didn’t matter to the office staff. They were annoyed by my dad, and I heard them muttering to each other about how my dad was “neglectful”, “disrespectful”, and “a bad influence.”
Like usual, I found myself in that really weird state of mind where I hated my dad for not answering the damn phone and sparing me this humiliation, and being so proud of him for the hard work he does. These women led such small lives. They had no idea what was happening down at the coast and that it might actually ruin their next trip to the beach or the fish they were going to eat for dinner one night this month. They really had no idea that there was this silver sea creature with a woman’s torso and giant, sad eyes covered with oil in a tank, only alive because my dad and I found her this morning.
By the time Dad managed to call the school back to verify that, yes, I had been helping him all morning, only five minutes remained until lunchtime.
According to Vice Principal Slater, a heavy-set woman with one of those short porcupine hairdos that has some kind of gel/hairspray product stuck to every individual strand and teeny-tiny eyebrows that had been plucked too much, my dad’s reason for my absence was not an excuse. Vice Principal Slater spoke calmly into the phone. “Mr. Sawfeather, it is important that your daughter be at school. She has missed several days this year because of joining you with your work.” She said “work” like he was having me sort his drug paraphernalia before taking it out on the street to sell from his trunk.
I was so glad Dad didn’t see how she rolled her eyes. He’d have come undone. I was pretty close to it myself, but I was afraid she’d shoot poison barbs from her hair at me.
I couldn’t hear my dad on the other line, but I got the gist of what he said when Mrs. Slater replied, “Yes, I’m sure your work is very important, to you, but school is more important for Juniper.”
“More important than saving the entire West Coast from being destroyed?” I asked.
She shushed me. Like I was a three-year-old. She put her finger to her mouth and went “Shh!” Into the phone she continued her ridiculousness, “I will allow her to make up the work she missed this morning, but not in the future.”
“I wouldn’t have missed fourth period if you hadn’t made me stay in here.”
She pinched up those tiny eyebrows and then turned her back to me. “This is the last time your missions can take priority over her studies.”
I know my dad didn’t cuss her out on the phone, but I know he wanted to. I wanted to. The restraint I felt was intense. So were the canker sores I was creating by biting the insides of my lips to keep them shut.
However, when the bell rang for lunch and I was still sitting there in the hard chair in her cramped office usually saved for the behavioral bottom feeders of the school, I muttered a small four-letter word.
I was now late meeting Haley and getting to the Student Council presentation. The only reason I showed up at school at all, thank you very much.
The Mistress of Detention spun around, hung up the phone, and glared at me. She was about to condemn me to a lifetime of after school study because of my foul mouth. I saw her hand reaching for that dreaded pad of yellow papers.
Except my phone rang. Haley calling, wondering where the heck I was. And then that got confiscated because we’re not supposed to have our phones at school. Well, truth be told, everyone has a phone. Everyone. We just aren’t supposed to use them at school. So, we use them under stealth in the bathrooms between classes and at lunchtime. And that’s never really been a problem.
Until now.
After robbing me of my ability to communicate and of my patience, the Office Nazis let me go. I ran through the building to meet Haley, breaking yet another rule: no running through the school. Oddly, I got away with the first actual rule that I broke on purpose.
The Student Council meets in an office near the cafeteria. Haley stood in the hallway outside the room, cell phone in hand, and started shouting at me as soon as she saw me dodging people with trays of bean burritos and cheesy nachos to get to her.
“Where have you been? Why didn’t you answer your phone? They’re waiting for us!” Then, noting my oversized boy clothes, “And what are you wearing?”
“I know,” I said, breathing hard. “I’ll explain later. You look really cute though.”
And she did. Haley had on this really neat combination of pale green and brown. Khaki pants, green turtleneck, with a chocolate brown knit poncho over it. I really liked it, even though I would never have thought of putting those two colors together because I would look like an Andes mint. She even had her hair down and curled, instead of up in her usual ponytail.
She smiled at the compliment, and before the smile could fade, I grabbed her hand, took in one more big breath and opened the door to the tiny classroom usually reserved for tutoring or small group lessons. The four members of Student Council raised their heads to us as we burst into the room. I could see that each of them was about to say something about how it was too late and lunch was nearly over. However, my momentum was way up and my patience way thin, so I didn’t even wait for the Council to say anything before I started speaking my piece. Once my mouth opened, I kind of couldn’t stop it.
“Hi guys,” I said. “Sorry I’m late, I was at the beach all morning rescuing sea animals hurt by an oil spill. It was slightly more important to me than American History and Chemistry, because, you know, these are living, breathing creatures that are dying. A lot of them were dead already, and it took time to walk through all of that and search for the still-living ones. It had to be done because you never know what you’re going to find. There could be something really important out there that needs help, something that needs to be discovered and saved. The Founding Fathers are dead and can’t help, really. Memorizing what elements make superglue stick is also not going to help.”
Everyone looked very puzzled, including Haley. I didn’t care. I went on.
“Another thing more important to me than colonists and chemicals is getting to live past forty, which won’t happen if the environment collapses on all of us because we aren’t taking care of it. Our oil spills kill animals; our trash is killing ourselves. Now, that may not matter to all of you, but it does me, and Haley, and several other people in this school who would like to be in our Recycling Club.
“What is this club about, you ask?” I went on before anyone actually could ask. “We just want to get some trash cans specifically marked for recycling. We want to gather the recyclables once a week and take them to a recycling center. We will keep an eye out for containers littering our campus that could be recycled, and we will put out information to let the students know how to participate in our club and mission.
“What do I need from you?” I went on again, seeing them itchy to interrupt. “Nothing. I mean, it would be nice if you occasionally put your Aquafina bottles or Red Bull cans in the recyclable bin. That would be cool of you. Otherwise, all we really need is for you to give us the big Okay. Because, really, our club is nothing that interferes with your other plans around this place and is only going to help you and the school in the long run.”
I stopped.
Haley stared at me for a moment in shock. I’m not sure her expression had flipped over to totally upset or angry, although it wasn’t exactly “Way to go, June” either. I hadn’t done the presentation as we had planned. She had handouts and a Power Point document with bullet points. She was supposed to be the one talking—not me. I had skipped all that. After another beat, I turned my attention to the four seniors in front of us to see what would happen next.
The four of them sat in chairs behind one long table. Marlee Gephalt, our school treasurer, wasn’t looking at us. She was busy picking all the raisins out of her salad. Ted Cowley, the group secretary, didn’t have a pen out to record any of this. Don’t think I saw paper either. He did have a phone in his hand though and seemed to be endlessly texting somebody. Gary Donnelly, the vice president, had his feet up on the desk in front of him and was leaning so far back in his chair he had to be seeing only his size eleven Jordans and not our faces.
Then there was Regina Williams, class president and royal B. Her Blonde Highness leaned way forward and rested her chin in her hands like a little schoolgirl, pretending to be amazed and awed by us. She stayed this way for almost a full minute after I had finished speaking as though she hadn’t noticed I stopped.
Finally she asked, “Is that it?”
Haley cleared her throat and answered hesitantly. “No.” Regina’s eyes cut over to my friend like she was an irritating bug. “I mean that we have some charts and... stuff.” Her voice dwindled off as she noticed Regina was no longer looking at her and was focused on me again.
Regina raised her hand like she was addressing a teacher with her question. I nodded uncomfortably, and she asked, “So, do you guys mean that you’re going to be digging in the trash to get the cans out?”
Marlee glanced up from her salad. “Ew!” Finally not looking at a raisin, she took in my appearance. “Whose clothes are you wearing? A boy’s?” She got up and sauntered over to me in her khaki mini-skirt that tested the school rule of being “fingertip length”, peeked at the label of my oversized sweatshirt, and then sniffed really hard. “And are you wearing Axe cologne?”
I sighed. “Yes. I borrowed some clothes and showered after leaving the beach this morning. This was all he had.”
“He?” Regina asked. She winked at the others and high-fived Marlee as her friend came back to the table. Ted and Gary started chuckling at some private joke.
I didn’t get it at first.
“Yeah, this guy who works at the Marine Rescue Center in Aberdeen,” I said. “He let me clean up at his house.” They all laughed some more. “I mean it’s better than smelling like fish, isn’t it? You wouldn’t have wanted to see me like I was this morning.”
“I don’t know,” Ted said in this nasty, teasing voice. “Maybe I would have.”
Gary laughed so hard he fell out of his seat, his giant shoes taking out his soda can on the way down. Luckily for him it was empty.
Regina smacked Ted hard on the shoulder. “No you wouldn’t have.” He stopped laughing and rubbed his shoulder. I guess they were a couple? I should have known that, but I didn’t follow the popular crowd’s comings and goings like most people did.
Haley started edging backwards toward the door. I grabbed her hand and stopped her.
“So, are we getting approval to start the club or not?” I asked firmly.
Ted shrugged. Marlee shook her head. Gary was still laughing. Regina offered a wicked smile she probably perfected in the mirror. “Sure, start your trashy club. It’s only fitting.” I thought Gary would explode if he laughed any harder. Ted snickered again, trying to hold it in with a hand over his mouth.
“It’s a recycling club,” Haley said quietly. “Not a trash club.”
“Whatever,” Regina said.
Gary sputtered, “Does that mean they get used over and over again?” and then started guffawing harder than before. Ted joined in, and Regina cracked a smile.
Okay, I got it.
Did I care? Not really.
Did I care that Haley had her lips shut so tight that they were turning white instead of saying something in my defense? Yeah. A little bit.
I was done with them and their teasing and wanted to say something nasty and walk out. Only I still needed their stupid signatures on our form. Without saying anything, I slapped the paper down on the table. Through their sputtering fits, they each put their scribble on it.
“Are we done then?” I asked, taking back the paper.
“Sure,” Ted said. “Thanks for fitting us in and coming to see us.”
More laughter.
Haley and I headed for the door.
Regina’s voice followed us out. “Now go do your walk of shame where we don’t have to see you.” She shut the door behind us. The laughter in that room was so loud I could hear it out in the corridor and over the bell ringing to end lunch.
Haley took off toward the cafeteria without saying anything to me. I chased after her.
“Haley, slow down,” I shouted. “What’s the matter?”
“Are you serious?” she asked. “You just embarrassed me so much.”
“They’re just being jerks,” I said.
“Don’t you get it?” Haley said. “They think you’re a slut and slept with that guy this morning.”
“Oh, they’re just joking around. Mean joking, but nothing serious.” I reached out an arm and stopped her. “You don’t think I skipped school to sleep with some guy do you?”
She started to say something, caught herself and stopped. “No,” she mumbled. “Of course not.”
She did. She really did think I’d been with some guy all morning and not at the beach rescuing sea animals. How could she think that? I tried hard not to accept that she’d take the insinuations of some preppy social club over what she knew about me. Haley and I had been next-door neighbors for ten years. She’d seen my family rush after every conceivable natural disaster during that time.
“Then what’s the problem, really?” I asked. “We got their signatures. Our club is approved. We got what we wanted.”
“Sort of,” she said. “We’ll see.”
“Are you mad that I did all the talking?”
“Kind of.”
“And that I was late?”
“Yes.”
“I couldn’t help that,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
Haley sighed really hard. She glanced around, trying not to look right at me. The cafeteria was nearly empty of students now and we were late for class. “I’ve got to go. Meet me after school?”
At that moment I was ready to call Carter and tell him not to pick me up after school. I probably needed to be with Haley to reassure her that our friendship was okay. I could go home with her and spend the afternoon eating pizza rolls and bashing the Student Council. I could tell her all about Carter, and she’d be so excited about the possibility of one of us finally hooking up with someone.
Except there was a mermaid dying in a tank in Aberdeen.
And my cell phone with Carter’s number on it had been confiscated.
So, I shifted my eyes to the ground and said, “I’m being picked up by Carter, the guy who helped us this morning, to head back to the beach and assist my dad some more.”
Haley nodded. “Fine.” Then she snatched the club permission form out of my hands. “I’ll turn this in.” She was out of sight before I noticed the sting of the paper cut on my right forefinger.
I sucked on my finger for a second, adjusted my backpack and turned around to head for class. That’s when I noticed Vice Principal Devil-Hair staring at me with her hands on her hips and tapping her toe impatiently.