The Beautiful Between - Alyssa B. Sheinmel [1]
Emily Winters sits down next to me, her bangle bracelets clicking against themselves. She has to take them off when we’re in class because they’re so loud, but she always wears them in between classes, before and after school, and at lunch.
“Did you hear who Jeremy Cole is dating?”
Like anyone else would when Jeremy’s name is mentioned, I snap to attention. “No, who?”
“Well, this is just a rumor, but I swear to God, I heard he hooked up with Beverly Edwards last weekend.”
“No!”
“Yes!”
“But she’s so … She’s not smart. Once she asked Ms. Jewett whether To Kill a Mockingbird was a hunting book.”
“She must have been joking.”
“She wasn’t.”
“He can’t be dating her.”
“Maybe he just hooked up with her.”
A new voice enters the conversation, a guy’s voice all high-pitched and pretending to be girly: “We should take him out back and beat the crap out of him.”
Emily and I look up—Jeremy is sitting on the other side of me. If my face is anything like Emily’s, I’m blushing wildly. Emily pretends to be done eating and leaves me. Alone. With Jeremy Cole. I’m sure that everyone’s watching; this table is right across from the food line, right smack in the center. Everyone can see.
“What’s wrong, Sternin?” He grins at me.
I always liked the idea of being called by my last name but figured I didn’t have the kind of name that adapted well to that. No one has ever called me Sternin before.
I guess because of that, I didn’t respond right away. “Connelly?” Jeremy prompts.
“Yeah?” The magic of “Sternin” is gone, so I can be nonchalant.
“I hear you’re having trouble in physics.”
“Where’d you hear that? I’m doing fine. I’m fine.”
It feels like the chatter in the cafeteria has gone quiet and everyone is listening to us. Which, by the way, isn’t entirely beyond reality, because people are always watching Jeremy Cole.
“Hey, don’t worry.” Jeremy seems surprised. I realize that my response had been pretty shrill.
“Well, then why are you mentioning it?” I ask, still defensive.
“Okay, so I didn’t so much hear it as I did see your test score when Mr. Kreel gave them out.” I must look horrified, because he adds, “It wasn’t on purpose, Connelly, it was just that you were sitting right in front of me.”
Does Jeremy know that physics is already—a month into the school year!—my lowest grade this semester and I’m freaking out because one bad grade can bring your whole GPA down and then it’s goodbye, Columbia, the school you’ve been working your whole life to get into? I’m angry at him. How dare he come over here with his preternaturally perfect tan and his charmingly gap-toothed smile and announce my shitty grade. Why would a person do that? It’s just mean.
“Look,” I say defensively, pushing my hair behind my ears and then back out again, “I’m going to work on it. I’ll figure it out.”
“Hey—calm down. I’m sorry.” Jeremy touches my arm. “Sternin, really.” And I melt because he’s calling me Sternin again. His hand on my arm doesn’t hurt his case either. I can actually feel the little hairs tingling. “I was just going to offer to help.”
“Huh?” I say dumbly.
“I’m really good at physics. You seemed so bummed about your grade. I could help you with that lab that’s due next week—it would bring your grade up to at least a B if you did well.”
Oh thank God. I wanted to hire a physics tutor, but I didn’t want to have to admit to my mom that I was having this much trouble. And Jeremy might be cheap enough that I could pay for him myself, without my mom’s help. Maybe he sees it as one of his princely duties to help a citizen in distress, and paying him would be like paying taxes.
“I could pay you cash, but it depends on how much—I mean, I can’t afford much.”
Jeremy laughs. “Dude, I didn’t mean you had to pay me. I just wanted to help you.”
“Oh.” I’m suspicious again, because I can’t think of why Jeremy Cole would want to help me.
“Yeah, you could pay me in kind. I could use some help with my SAT words.”
“Couldn’t you just get a real tutor for that?” I ask dumbly.
Why am I trying to talk him out of hanging out with me? Shut up, Connelly,