And Baby Makes Two - Dyan Sheldon [10]
But even though we were so different, Shanee and I had been best friends since primary school.
She was waiting for me in the hall when Mrs Mela finally let me go.
“I saw you through the door,” said Shanee. “What’d she want?”
I shrugged. “Oh, you know…” Shanee didn’t really know. She never got in trouble. “She caught me passing notes with Amie, and then I didn’t know what page we were on in the stupid play and then it turned out that I didn’t have my homework—”
“Turned out?” Shanee smirked. “What do you mean it turned out that you didn’t have your homework?”
I gave her a look. “I forgot it.”
She spluttered. “You mean you forgot to do it.”
Shanee knew me too well.
“More or less.” I grinned. “Old mealy-mouth went mad. So I had to hear the lecture about making an effort and thinking about the future and all that stuff.”
Shanee adjusted her school bag on her shoulder.
“You’d think she’d get tired of saying it,” said Shanee.
I laughed. “Preachers are robots. They just repeat the same things over and over.”
Shanee kicked a drinks can out of her path. “On the other hand, I suppose you have let your usual low standards drop a bit lately…”
If my mother had made a crack like that, it would’ve been a criticism, but with Shanee I knew she was just joking.
“You know,” she went on, “you used to do your homework now and then.” She gave me a smile. “Or at least copy someone else’s.”
“I couldn’t copy someone else’s English, it was an essay. Plus, Amie’s useless at English and she’s the only one who would let me.”
Shanee laughed. “You really are too much sometimes…”
I was laughing, too. We stepped through the gates.
“I’ve got a life now, Shanee. I’m not going to waste my time trying to work out what some dead geezer wrote hundreds of years ago. It’s not redolent.”
“You mean relevant,” said Shanee. “Redolent has to do with smell.”
I flapped one hand. “Whatever you say.”
She stopped just outside the gates and looked at me with her head to one side.
“Where are you going?” she demanded. “The garden centre’s left.”
I was going right, towards the café.
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? I’m meeting Les for tea before he goes to work.”
Shanee’s mouth formed a perfect O.
“What about our science project?”
We were working in pairs. Shanee and I were finding out about the effects of light and water on plants. This was the day we were meant to buy our seeds.
“You don’t need me to pick out a packet of seeds.”
Shanee was quiet, but she was stubborn.
“What about planting them?” she insisted. “Do you expect me to do it all on my own?”
“I trust you,” I assured her. “I’m sure you’ll do a brilliant job.”
Shanee rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me,” she said. “Who needs photosynthesis when they’ve got love?”
I forgot all about Mrs Mela and Shanee for the rest of the afternoon. I had a great time.
After tea, I walked Les to work. The other guy on the night shift hadn’t turned up yet, so I helped out behind the counter till he did. You had to log in each title that was being taken in or out on the computer. I’d done pretty well in my computer class, so I had no trouble. Les was impressed.
“It took me ages just to learn how to call up a file.” He gave me a quick kiss. “Not only pretty but clever, too.”
No one had ever called me clever before.
Later, he came up behind me while I was putting some titles back on the shelves and gave me a squeeze.
“And she’s a hard worker,” he informed an invisible audience. “What more could one man ask?”
I laughed. Mrs Mela and Hilary Spiggs would’ve had heart attacks if they’d heard Les describe me