Lexie came bounding down the hallway and skidded to a halt at Annie’s locker. Today, she was rocking a 1960s Motown girl-group look, with her frizzy brown hair smoothed into a “groovy” flip and huge hoop earrings.
“Nice go-go boots,” said Annie, grinning.
“Thanks. They were my grandma’s during the Summer of Love, if you can believe it.” Lexie opened her backpack and pulled out a pile of photos. “But these boots are nothing compared to the pictures I took yesterday! Check ’em out!”
Annie took the photos. There she was, the Queen of Hearts, looking regal and ridiculous at the same time. In one of the shots, Dad’s cheeks were puffed out with a mouthful of stolen tarts. But she had to admit, the photographs were brilliant. And if this humorous advert – with a headline that read “EAT YOUR HEART OUT AT ROSIE LEE’S” – didn’t bring customers into the shop, nothing would.
“You never cease to amaze me,” said Annie, handing Lexie back the photos. “These look professional. You’re the most talented person I know.”
“Thanks,” Lexie said modestly. “Do you think your dad will like them?”
“He’ll love them,” said Annie. “The sillier I look, the happier he is.”
“I think you look awesome,” said Lexie, pointing to one of the photos. “I mean, sure, it’s supposed to be funny. But you look really good.”
The warning bell rang and Annie felt her heart sink. When Lexie noticed the look on her friend’s face she gave her a sympathetic smile.
“English this period?”
Annie nodded. Ms Schwarz’s literature class used to be her favourite. Now, though, she positively dreaded it.
“Maybe Tyler will ditch class today,” Lexie offered.
“Not likely. Athletes can get kicked off the team if they get caught skiving. Tyler may not care about Jane Austen, but soccer is his life.”
“So ignore him,” Lexie advised, as they walked down the hall together. “That shouldn’t be hard to do. The boy’s got the personality of a dirty sock.”
Annie laughed. “True. Unfortunately, Kelsey is also in the class and she loves rubbing it in my face that she and Tyler are together now.”
“Well, maybe you should remind her that you had him first and didn’t want him.”
Annie wished she had the guts to be able to do that. She’d stood up to Kelsey before. But seeing Tyler and Kelsey all over each other had a way of draining Annie’s confidence.
“Besides,” Lexie said, giving Annie a playful elbow to the ribs as they reached Ms Schwarz’s classroom. “Kelsey’s just the head cheerleader. You’re the Queen of Hearts. There’s no contest!”
Annie laughed, then took a deep breath and entered her English classroom.
Annie slipped into a desk in the back corner of the room. Before their break-up, Tyler had sat in the seat directly in front of her, but now he’d got into the habit of sitting next to Kelsey.
She took her paperback copy of Austen’s Sense and Sensibility out of her backpack and began to flip through it. This was Annie’s third time reading the book – she’d loved it since reading it in Year Eight, even though it had been a little difficult to get through back then. She’d watched the film to help her understand the more complicated plot points.
Having just gone through a break-up herself, Annie could thoroughly relate to the story. The Dashwood sisters had both been unlucky in love, and their heartache resonated with Annie now in a way it never had before. She opened her notebook and looked at some of the things she’d jotted down as she was re-reading the novel. Her first not-so-academic observation was written in big, bold bubble letters:
GUYS SUCK!!!
IN EVERY CENTURY!!!
Annie wondered if Ms Schwarz would give her an A if she wrote that on their next test. Probably not.
The class bell rang, and for a moment, Annie thought she might be spared the presence of Liberty Heights High’s golden couple. But two seconds after the bell Tyler and Kelsey sauntered in, arm in arm. From her desk, Ms Schwarz gave them a sharp look.
But they were both so besotted with each other they didn’t even notice the teacher’s glare. They remained entwined as they made their way to their desks. When Kelsey finally had to let go of Tyler’s hand to take her seat, she looked so devastated you’d think she’d just been taken off life support!
Annie let out a little snort of disgust.
“Now that we’re all present and accounted for,” Ms Schwarz said, “I’d like to try something a little different today. I’m going to assign you each a partner, which will give us a dozen co-ed pairs.”
“I pick Tyler,” Kelsey cooed, giving her boyfriend a flirtatious wink.
“Nice try,” said the teacher. “But I can’t imagine you and Mr Erickson would accomplish much. I don’t give extra credit for cuddling.”
The whole class (except Annie) cracked up at that. Kelsey didn’t even have the decency to blush. If anything, she looked pleased with Ms Schwarz’s remark.
When the laughter calmed down, the teacher went about breaking up the class into boy–girl pairs. Kelsey got matched with the boy Annie had been hoping to be paired with – a softly spoken but cute guy named Michael O’Connor, who was the star of the swimming team. This didn’t seem to bother Tyler; he was so cocky it probably didn’t even occur to him to feel jealous. Annie’s derby friend, Tessa, got paired with a boy from the marching band named Charles, who had twinkling blue eyes and seemed to have a great sense of humour. As the teacher went down the class list randomly pairing up girls and boys, Annie began to feel a knot forming in the pit of her stomach. There were only so many possible partners, after all.
Annie felt her chest tightening. Could Annie be unlucky enough to be paired with the one boy in class she couldn’t bear to look at, let alone work with?
Ben DeMarco with Emma-Kate McNeely...
Process of elimination was definitely not working in Annie’s favour. She held her breath.
“Annie Turner,” said Ms Schwarz, “you’ll be working with Demetri Vangelis.”
A flood of relief washed over Annie.
Demetri raised his hand. “I’ve got an early dismissal pass,” he said. “My mom’s picking me up in five minutes for a dentist appointment.”
Ms Schwarz sighed. “I sincerely wish you children could see to your dental hygiene on your own time.” She ran her pencil over the list again. “Very well. Annie, you can work with Tyler Erickson.”
It was all Annie could do to keep from leaping to her feet and screaming, ‘Nooooo!’ at the top of her lungs. She hazarded a glance at Kelsey who looked ready to explode.
Tyler merely looked amused.
Oh! So cocky!
Annie refused to be the one to get up and move to his desk. He could collect his books and come to her!
She waited as the rest of the students gathered up their belongings and shuffled around the classroom to join their partners. Swimmer Mike wasted no time getting himself over to Kelsey’s desk. Even shy Charles had enough gentlemanly courtesy to approach Tessa. But Tyler remained right where he was, looking smug. Annie’s foot tapped nervously under the desk, her fingers gripping the novel so tightly her knuckles were white.
“Mr Erickson,” Ms Schwarz prompted at last, “your partner is waiting.”
With an arrogant look, Tyler picked up his books and strolled across the room towards Annie. He took the seat in front of hers – the one he used to sit in back when they were a couple – and turned his back to the class to face her.
Annie was gritting her teeth so furiously she was afraid she might find herself joining Demetri at the dentist.
But now that Tyler was in front of her, she could see that he was looking a lot less sure of himself. Was it her imagination or did he look as uncomfortable as she did?
“Hi,” she mumbled, not fully meeting his eyes.
“Hi.”
OK, now what? Annie wondered if congratulating him on his new relationship would seem mature, or snarky. Should she tell him straight out she was over him? Maybe she should just comment on the weather. It wasn’t helping that he had on the same shirt he was wearing the first time he’d ever kissed her.
Thankfully, Ms Schwarz picked that moment to explain the assignment.
“The purpose of this exercise is to discuss the relationship, such as it was, between Marianne Dashwood and John Willoughby. The question at the centre or your discourse should be this: did Willoughby really love Marianne, or was he just using her?”
“Let me guess,” joked Charles. “The boys are supposed to argue in favour of Willoughby.”
“Actually,” said Ms Schwarz with a sly grin, “I want to mix things up a bit and have the girls take Willoughby’s side.”
“You’re kidding!” cried Nicole.
“That’s impossible,” Allison agreed. “Willoughby was a complete jerk!”
“And how can a guy argue for Marianne?” David asked. “She was so blinded by romance she was delusional!”
“The chick was practically a stalker!” Alex added.
“I’m glad I’m leaving early,” Demetri remarked, scooping up his books and heading for the door. “My filling is going to be a cakewalk compared to this.”
When he was gone, Ms Schwarz continued with her instructions. “The point is for you to think beyond commonly held gender prejudices and try to imagine how a character of the opposite sex might defend his or her actions. You should take notes on your conversation, and for tonight’s homework, I want two paragraphs on what you learned from the discussion.”
Everyone grumbled, but after a moment or two, the class got to work.
Annie opened her book and went directly to the scene where Marianne and Willoughby first meet after she twists her ankle and is unable to walk home. The passage reminded her of the sprained ankle she’d suffered last autumn, although the circumstances were far less romantic. She’d been knocked down by her derby nemesis, Dee Stroyer, and, unfortunately, no one had ridden up on a stallion to rescue her.
“Well,” said Annie hesitantly, “I suppose Willoughby should get some credit for rescuing Marianne.”
Tyler shrugged. “I guess.”
Annie cleared her throat. “And it absolutely was not his fault that she fell for him so hard. He couldn’t help the fact that he was gorgeous.”
“Maybe not,” said Tyler. “But he didn’t have to lead her on the way he did.”
Annie frowned, feeling defensive on the fictional character’s behalf. “Maybe he was just being nice.”
“Nice?” Tyler gave a wave of his hand. “Guys like Willoughby aren’t nice. They have an agenda. And his agenda was to get with Marianne.”
“Well, she certainly encouraged him! And remember – he never asked her to marry him. She just assumed—”
“Of course she did! She was young and inexperienced.”
“Maybe he loved her back,” said Annie. “Maybe in his own way, he did the best he could.”
Tyler shook his head and sneered. “His best wasn’t good enough, then. And in the end, he took advantage of her.” Tyler’s green eyes suddenly seemed to deepen, and his voice sounded sincere. “Think about it, Annie. They were from two totally different worlds. Their relationship was doomed from the start. Marianne was too innocent to realize that, so it was up to Willoughby to do the right thing. But he didn’t.”
“That doesn’t mean he didn’t love her,” Annie countered. “Maybe he was torn between his world and hers.”
Tyler mulled this over for a moment, then slumped in his chair and frowned. “OK. So maybe he did, ya know, care about her. A lot. Still, he should have known better than to get involved with a sweet girl like y—” He looked away quickly, catching himself. “Like her,” he finished quietly.
Annie blinked. Had Tyler just apologized? And had she admitted that maybe part of what went wrong between them had been her fault, too?
It was true – she and Tyler were from opposite worlds, just like Willoughby and Marianne Dashwood. But there was no denying there’d been an attraction, maybe even some real affection. It hadn’t worked out, but maybe they could get past the anger, past the blame.
Maybe they could be friends after all.
She was about to offer him a genuine smile when she noticed Kelsey glaring at them from across the room.
Tyler noticed too. He immediately sat up straight and gave Annie a cool look. “The thing is, this is just a stupid assignment and Sense and Sensibility is fiction. In real life, any normal guy would have done exactly what Willoughby did.” He gave Annie a smirk. “The girl was a waste of his time. Any real guy would forget about her and move on in a second.”
The words were like a bucket of cold water tossed in Annie’s face.
So much for apologies.
“Well, I guess you would know,” she said bitterly, slamming her book shut. “By the way, did you read the whole book?”
“No. Why?”
Annie looked pointedly at Kelsey, who was now openly flirting with Mike. “Let’s just say that Willoughby gets exactly what he deserves,” Annie snapped, referring to Willoughby’s unhappy marriage at the end of Sense and Sensibility. With that, she got up and stormed out of the classroom just as the bell rang.