Aunt Tina would be here any minute to pick up Bonney and take her home. We watched the whole video, which would have taken only five minutes straight through, but Bonney kept asking questions so it took about a half hour.
I was pretty amazed at my mom. She’s known for how much she thinks about other people, and it sure shows in what she does for them. I can’t believe how much time it took for her to find all those pictures though, and then the Jumbotron stuff, and put it all together.
As we were just finishing up a light load of homework my mind began to wander back to how Bonney reacted to my bringing up Seldon’s crush on her. She took it real casual-like. As I thought about it more though, I guess you could say I do the same thing. Girls have crushes on me sometimes but I take it real casual-like too. When I catch them staring at me, I usually give them a lame-y wave or a half-assed, chin-up nod to say, “Hey,” but in a “not-interested” sort of way. Some girls look away real quick, but some get bold and take it like an invitation. I play it cool though; I’m just not interested in anyone yet. I have enough friends, you know what I mean? The last thing I want right now is a commitment. That can wait ’til I’m, like, thirteen, or something.
I never give them my number, ’cause then they’d be texting me and calling me all the time. I can’t go over my family minutes!
I don’t even know what I would do or talk about if I had to be alone with a girl. The only thing I can think of is video games and Bonney’s the only girl who can keep up with me, so why would I lower my standards? Gaming time is quality time. No guy in his right mind would want to compromise his quality time.
But maybe Bonney’s different than me. She is a girl after all. Maybe she’s more mature ’cause she’s okay with him liking her, and she likes him back. Or maybe I should warn her about getting stuck with someone.
I decided I couldn’t do that though. There’s nothing bad I can say about Seldon. He’s way cool. And it’s not even about all his money, either. Like Bonney said, he’s “pensive.” It’s not that I feel sorry for him ’cause his mom died. I mean, that sucks, big time. I can’t even imagine dealing with that. But I can’t help but be amazed at how he can still be nice to people, and not be pissed at the world ’cause she’s gone.
What Bonney said before Mom made us come in and watch the video really opened my eyes. I can’t believe I didn’t see it. She’s right: I can think of about five times in the last month that Seldon asked me to hang out. I always had some kind of excuse though; not a lie-excuse, but a previous-commitment excuse.
See, Bonney and me go swimming once a week at the Y. Since Seldon doesn’t swim, I never thought to ask him to go with us. If he did then maybe we would hang out after, ’cause his place is right around the corner.
Other times I just had lots of homework for people. I guess I could have done it at Seldon’s place and then kicked back for a video game after.
Well, I decided, from now on, I’m gonna make more time for Seldon. Now that we’re doing the science project together it’ll seem real natural to hang out more. But once it’s over, I’ll make sure to keep him on my radar.
Come to think of it, he’s the most reliable friend I have. He’s also real smart. I really don’t know why he needs my help with homework, actually. But then, I realized, maybe he’s just asking for help ’cause he wants a reason to keep contacting me. Duh! I should’ve realized sooner! I really need to open my eyes more about people, and try to be more like Mom.
“You’re pretty quiet. And you’ve been staring at that equation for, like, five minutes. Need help, Einstein?”
Instead of coming back with a snarky answer like, “Yeah, how many boogers equal one Shrek?” I just looked at Bonney and said, “Thanks for saying what you did about Seldon. You’re right. I’m gonna be a better friend from now on.”
Bonney’s eyes grew wide. I never realized the edges of her pupils have a little brown in them. Then she smiled real slow and sweet, tilted her head, and just said, “You’re welcome.”
“There you are! Ugh! I need to sit for a minute and warm up. It’s sleeting now!” Aunt Tina’s nose was red and she was cupping her ears, which were red too.
“Hi, Mommy!”
Bonney looked like a mini-me of Aunt Tina, only with longer hair and no glasses. She jumped up, climbed onto the daybed, and wrapped a wool blanket around her mom. Aunt Tina made like a baby and let Bonney warm her up. They do this all the time. I think it’s called “role reversal.” It’s cute until Aunt Tina starts talking like a baby; then it’s just plain weird.
“How was your day, Mrs. Mom?”
“Oh, same-old, same-old, only way colder! Got all your homework done?”
“Yup! And this weekend, we’re starting on our science project. With Seldon!”
“Oh, that’s great. How is Seldon?”
“He’s getting a great, big, ginormous aquarium! Mom, you should see how big it’s gonna be. It’s so completely amazing! ”
“Wow! Guess you don’t care much for a little ole fish tank now, right?”
“Nope! He one-upped us. It’s completely custom. It’s insane! ”
“Grab a picture for me next time you go.”
“It’s not done yet. It needs to be built. I think we can take some pictures for you, right, Klyde?”
Bonney winked at me in a way that was way scary ’cause she did it totally on the sly and just then I started to worry about any guy that marries her.
“Sure thing. We’ll be using that aquarium as a model for our science project. We’ll get plenty of pics for you, Aunt Tina.”
“I can’t wait to see them! That reminds me, we better get going. I’ve got sushi in my bag and I need to get it home before it gets too warm. Let’s skedaddle, Bonney Lou.”
Well, that was gross. All of a sudden, all I could think about was sliced piranha wrapped in rice balls and seaweed. My stomach did a somersault. I hoped Mom wouldn’t have anything too weird in mind for dinner tonight.
So off they went, sushi and all, and I just sat there, thinking about things.