Old Story, New Twist Page 8

  But I also felt bad for these kids with a whole bunch of regrets. Middle school is kind of a process—it’s not like you can know everything about the place the first day you arrive. You also don’t know everything about yourself the first day you arrive. Like, maybe Jimmy Becker wasn’t even interested in theater when he got here. Maybe it came later, after his parents took him to see a play in the city. I didn’t want people to be too hard on themselves. We’re still kids and we can’t do everything perfectly, right?

  Sam Martone: The Voice of Reason.

  I did a draft of my opening and closing paragraphs before saving the document and giving myself a chance to cruise around the news sites online. I always like to read good journalism while I’m working on a piece because it keeps my writing fresh and tight. It’s also inspiring.

  Finally, after all the work, my adrenaline had calmed down and I called Hailey to tell her about my baking session with Michael. There was one little detail irritating me, though, through our whole conversation, and that was my lunch plan for the next day with Danny Burke. Should I tell Hailey? Should I not? I wasn’t sure.

  Ultimately, I took my own advice from the article and went for it.

  “Hails, by the way, I have to have lunch with Danny tomorrow,” I said quietly, and I bit my lip, waiting for her reply.

  There was a silence for a few moments until Hailey said, “Why?”

  “I have to interview him for the paper,” I said. “You know how I’ve been interviewing eighth graders for the article on their memories of Cherry Valley? Well, Susannah wants to include Danny because he was new this year. She thinks he’ll have an interesting perspective.”

  “Oh,” said Hailey.

  “Do you mind?” I asked, wincing.

  “No, it’s fine. Have fun,” she said, but not that enthusiastically.

  “Thanks,” I said. “It’s work, though, so I don’t think it will be that fun.”

  “Yeah, well . . . ”

  Was I reading into it too much, or was Hailey down in the dumps? I didn’t want to make a big deal about it, but I felt like I was leaving things unsettled.

  “Okay . . . see you tomorrow. Call me if anything comes up.”

  “Bye.”

  After I hung up, I stared into space for a while. Things with Michael were always up in the air, and that was annoying, but at least I knew who I liked and I had a goal. Hailey was always kind of all over the place.

  On the other hand, was liking only one boy pathetic? Why didn’t I like more people? Hailey has already liked three different boys this year and it’s only winter.

  Sighing, I stood up and went to watch TV. Sometimes it’s best to take a break and just clear your head.

  Chapter 11

  JOURNO SLEUTH NAILS IT AGAIN!

  Danny Burke is not quite the person I thought he was, as it turns out.

  Or, actually, he is the person I thought he was, but he actually has a pretty good reason for being that way. Not that I in any way approve, but at least I now understand.

  Our lunch started annoyingly enough, as I had expected it would.

  “Sammy!” he said, smiling his charming smile and indicating with his tray that I should follow him.

  Walking in his wake as he called out to all the girls, I thought I’d puke. Girls were blushing, smiling, waving, and he was eating it up. When we sat and started to talk, it was all about this girl and that girl and so on.

  Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Danny, why are you always trying to charm all the girls? You’re kind of leading them all on, and it’s mean!” My blood was starting to boil, and I was out to avenge his two-timing of Jenna and Hailey.

  He looked at me in surprise. Was it because I’d asked such a blunt question or because I was clearly immune to his charms? But it was neither.

  “What do you mean leading people on?” he asked.

  “Well, you ask one girl to the movies one day and another to the movies the next day. You’re texting this one and winking at that one. They all think you like them, and you’re not really following through with any of them, so that’s leading people on.”

  There! I’d said it! I sat back and waited for his answer.

  But Danny had gone quiet. And serious. I’d never actually seen him not in charm mode. “Is that really what I do?” he asked in all sincerity. “Is that what people think?”

  “Duh! Hello?”

  “Wow,” he said quietly. “I never saw it that way.”

  “What? You have to be kidding me! You’re the class Romeo!”

  “Huh.”

  “Isn’t it on purpose?” I asked.

  Danny shook his head. “No. Not at all. I mean, I wasn’t trying to . . . I didn’t mean to be dating different girls. I just thought I was making friends.”

  “Seriously? Asking girls to the movies, one after the other?”

  He shrugged. “I haven’t made any guy friends since I moved here last summer. I’m not on any sports teams, and I’m not in any hobby clubs or anything. When my mom died last spring, my dad moved us here to be closer to his sister’s family so she could help out while he traveled for work. He’s a salesman, so he’s on the road a lot.”

  Ah, that’s where all the flirty stuff comes from, I realized. The winking and compliments and everything a salesman knows how to do.

  Journo Sleuth Nails It Again!

  “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” I asked.

  “I have two half sisters, but they’re much older. They just think of me more as this cute little kid than a brother.” He smiled kind of sadly and shrugged again. Suddenly, I was worried he might cry.

  “So you’re alone a lot or with your aunt?”

  He nodded and took a sip of juice.

  “Hmm.” He must be pretty lonely, but I didn’t want to make it worse by saying so. And now I could hardly go through the questions on my list about regrets and wishes. It would probably be easy to guess what Danny Burke wished. “Is that why you like the movies so much?”

  “Yeah!” Here Danny perked up, and we moved on to a whole new discussion about Hollywood and everything.

  “You know,” I said, thinking, “it’s not too late to join the film club. They do cool stuff. I’d join it if I had the time, but I just don’t. They see a movie every week, and then they meet to talk about it. Usually, one of the members writes movie reviews for the paper.”

  “Really? I wish I’d known about that sooner,” he said. “I’ll check it out.”

  I love when people take my advice (obviously), so now I was liking Danny Burke a little more. I also felt sorry for him, which always makes it tough to hate someone. Anyway, once he calmed down the whole flirty act, he was actually a pretty decent guy. I thought about Michael’s comment that “people aren’t always what they seem.” Now I thought that was even truer. I’d thought Danny was a sleazy jerk out to date all these girls. Now I could see that he was a lonely guy, scared and unsure of how to make friends with other guys, crazy about movies, so he imitates cheesy movie and TV stars and invites girls out and they think it’s a date. Maybe it kind of is, but he doesn’t mean it that way. I don’t know if I could ever really be friends with him, unless he toned down his whole act a lot, but I felt like I understood him better now.

  I spied Hailey across the room, and when she caught my eye, I waved her over to join us. She shook her head no, but when Danny turned, he waved her over too, and she finally stood up with her tray and joined us.

  “I didn’t know Mr. Burke here was such a movie nut!” I said as Hailey sat down shyly.

  She nodded. “Yeah. He knows a lot about movies and even filmmaking,” she agreed.

  Danny smiled, about to turn on the charm, but then he glanced at me and dialed it back. “Thanks, Hailey,” he said.

  I scolded myself for judging Danny before I’d really ever had a conversation with him. It was bad journalism. I made a mental note to try to remain objective before every interview. It would be hard, but it was important
. Because once you have an impression of someone—right or wrong—it can be hard to shake.

  Journo Has Long Way to Go.

  I wrapped up the interview and had to dash to my next class. I left Hailey and Danny trailing behind, but this time I wasn’t nervous about Hailey’s heart getting broken. Danny probably wasn’t the right guy for her, but at least he wasn’t the jerk I’d thought he was, and that was a relief.

  I ran into Jenna that afternoon, and she gave a similar account of her date with Danny. She was disappointed, and I listened sympathetically. But whereas a few days ago I would have ranted about Danny, now I kind of gently shared the info about his dead mother and his loneliness (“Things aren’t always what they seem . . . ”). As I talked, I could see Jenna’s sympathy grow and her disappointment lessen.

  “I think what he really needs is a good friend,” I said.

  “I know the feeling,” agreed Jenna.

  “Well, you have at least one!” I said cheerfully.

  “Thanks, I know,” said Jenna, smiling.

  Do-Gooder Advice Columnist Cheers the World, One Person at a Time!

  By Wednesday I was down to my final practice before tryouts started on Friday after school. The gymnastics room was really crowded, with all the interested girls there at once, even the existing team members, polishing their routines. It was slow-going to get a turn on each apparatus, so I had to make the most of my time. Allie, Hailey, and Kristen were all there to help me, and Jenna came to watch too (still not motivated to try out herself, but I was sure that when my column came out on Friday, she’d get pumped and just go for it).

  It was late when we were finally leaving, and I was so grateful to Allie and Hailey for devoting their whole afternoon to this that I promised to make them cinnamon buns over the weekend.

  We said good-bye to Jenna, and I went to wish Kristen luck too.

  “Oh, I’m . . . I don’t think I’m going to do it,” she said. “I just can’t seem to get the bars right.”

  “Kristen, that’s ridiculous! You have to try out! You’re amazing! Who cares if bars aren’t your best thing?”

  She looked kind of sad. “I just . . . I don’t know.”

  “I will see you here Friday afternoon. Do not skip it!” I commanded.

  Kristen smiled. “I’ll try,” she said.

  “Don’t try. Do!” I said, laughing. That was a Haileyism.

  Hailey’s mom was outside in her car and offered to drive me and Allie home, but we wanted to walk since it was only five blocks, and Hailey my trainer approved of the extra exercise. Walking home in the dark after all that workout time together, I felt close to Allie, so I filled her in on all the Michael Lawrence stuff and even a little of the Danny Burke stuff.

  “So things aren’t always what they seem, you know?” I said, trying out my new observation.

  “Yeah,” Allie agreed. “That’s for sure,” she said with a sigh.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, nothing. Just . . . I always thought I’d be this gymnastics champ, and I’d be on the track for the Junior Olympics, and now look at us. I’m all washed up, and you’re going to be the new champ.”

  “Hardly,” I said, but inside I was thrilled at the compliment even as I knew it was a major exaggeration.

  “Well, I just wish—” Allie stopped.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I wish I hadn’t quit. I wish I’d stuck with it and worked harder.”

  I thought of my article. I guess everyone has regrets, no matter what age they are. But it seemed sad to hear Allie feeling all washed up in her teens.

  “Listen, you made good choices. The gymnastics team was taking over your life. It was unhealthy. And when you stopped”—I didn’t want to use the word “quit”—“it opened up room for a lot of other good things, like the website you run and your schoolwork and stuff.”

  “Hmm, I don’t know,” said Allie.

  “Come on!” I said, wanting her to cheer up. “And you’re superpopular!”

  Allie smiled. “I know.”

  “And you’re a great dancer and beautiful and smart and funny and . . . ”

  Allie smiled. “All right, now you’re going overboard.”

  “Good, because I was running out of compliments. Now let’s make some popcorn and watch some bad TV.”

  Allie laughed. “Sounds like a plan!”

  I was glad I was able to snap her out of her sad mood.

  So I didn’t make the gymnastics team. That’s what happened.

  I went to the tryouts Friday after school. Allie came to watch when she got out of school, and Hailey skipped futsal (unprecedented!) to attend.

  And you will never believe this, but Jenna tried out too! And so did Kristen.

  What happened was the Dear Know-It-All letter came out in the paper earlier that day, and it was pretty darn good. Everyone was talking about it in the cafeteria, and when I got there, Hailey, Jenna, and Kristen were all milling around looking for a place to sit. I corralled them all and we sat together, which was really fun.

  Here’s the response I had written:

  Dear Gymnastics Team Hopeful,

  I am just going to tell you flat out—you should try out for the team. There are so many things we can change in our lives, but there is one thing nobody can do. And that is turn back time. Don’t do (or in this case, not do) something you’ll regret later. You don’t want to spend the rest of your life wondering “what if.” Just practice and then try your best. And let’s just imagine for a minute that the worst happens—you don’t make the team. So what? You’re not any worse off than you are right now. Nothing has changed. So it’s actually a can’t-lose situation. You either make the team or you can sleep easy knowing you gave it your best shot. I have my fingers crossed for you. Good luck and carpe diem! That means “seize the day.” Go for it!

  Best wishes,

  Dear Know-It-All

  Jenna had a copy of the paper, and when she sat down, she said, “Hey, Sam! Did you see Dear Know-It-All? You wrote that, didn’t you?”

  I was so caught off guard that I blushed bright red. “What?” I said.

  “I knew it!” cried Jenna. “I knew you wrote that letter in to the paper! Busted!”

  It took another second for me to realize that she thought I was Gymnastics Team Hopeful, not Dear Know-It-All. Phew!

  “Oh . . . no,” I said, laughing. “That wasn’t me. But it could have been!” In relief, I began eating my egg salad sandwich. But wait. How could she think it was me who wrote it if it was she who wrote it?

  “Come on, fess up!” she pressed me. Was she just trying to throw people off her trail or what? I was confused.

  “Wait, did you write it?” I asked.

  But just then Kristen said softly, “Actually, it was me. I wrote the letter to Dear Know-It-All.”

  “What?” I whipped my head to the side to stare at her in shock. “Are you kidding?”

  Kristen was the one to blush now. She shook her head and looked down at her plate.

  “So it wasn’t you?” I asked Jenna.

  “No! And I thought it was you! But it was her!” Jenna laughed. “Well, it had to be somebody at this table, didn’t it?”

  “Not me!” said Hailey, happily eating a piece of cake.

  “Wow. Good for you, Kristen! That was brave of you to write in. So you’re going to go for it, right? Just like Dear Old What’s His Face said?” I messed up the column name on purpose, just to throw them off my trail, in case I had acted suspicious.

  “It’s Dear Know-It-All,” corrected Hailey in a snotty voice.

  “Thanks,” I said dryly. “How would I ever get by without you?”

  Just then Danny Burke walked up. “Ladies, ladies, please! No fighting! There’s enough of me to go around!”

  Though he was being his usual flirty self, I had to laugh this time, and then he actually toned it down. “Anyone want to go to the movies with me this weekend?” he asked.

  It w
as kind of a weird offer, throwing it out like that. I decided to call him on it.

  “What are we supposed to do, Danny? Fight over your offer like a pack of dogs with a bone?”

  He took it well, laughing. “As friends! I want to see that new scary movie that just came out in 3-D, and I hate going to the movies alone.”

  Hailey shrugged. “I might be able to go,” she said.

  “Me too,” said Jenna.

  “You know I joined the film club,” Danny said, smiling at me. “So now I can get us discount tickets. Anyone else interested?”

  Kristen couldn’t go, and this was the last thing I wanted to get mixed up in, so we just let them plan their double not-date.

  “Hey, I liked the article, by the way,” said Danny. “I think the photos were pretty good too, right? I’ve, um . . . heard from a lot of . . . people that it’s a good shot of me. I don’t know.” Danny was definitely letting up on the swagger, and I had to give myself a little credit for that.

  “Thanks. I think it went over pretty well.”

  Mr. Trigg had loved it, even as he promised me a harder-hitting article for the next issue.

  “And I’d like to write it with Michael,” I had told him. I didn’t want to live a life of regrets, wishing I’d gone for things that I hadn’t.

  Mr. Trigg had laughed. “Of course. The new Woodward and Bernstein,” he added with a wink, referencing the famous journalism team from the 1970s.

  Well, at least that was taken care of.

  My friends and I split up after lunch, and the rest of the day flew by. Before I knew it, there we all were at the tryouts.

  Jenna admitted she’d been inspired by the Dear Know-It-All letter, and even though she didn’t have a leotard, she’d borrowed one and just gone for it. Kristen had screwed up her courage and gone for it too.

  I did great on the bars, if I do say so myself, and not too badly on the vault and the trampoline. But my beam and floor exercises were not great. I fell during both, and all I could do was gracefully manage to keep a smile on my face. At least I didn’t get hurt.

  At the end, we waited while the scores were tallied, and Allie gave me an encouraging pat on the back.