Quite an Undertaking - Devon's Story by Barbara Clanton Read Free Book Online Page B

unknowingly handed me a way to get to know Rebecca faster than smiles and waves across the noisy cafeteria.
    “ C'est super, ça ! You’re in the dance troupe here, right?”
    “ Oui, mademoiselle Devón. Oui . Are you coming to my concert?”
    Of course. Every single performance. “ Quand est-ce ?”
    “In about a month. The week before Noël .”
    “Christmas, cool.” Even the thought of watching Rebecca dance on stage wasn’t enough to stop the realization that this would be the first Christmas without Grandma. Rebecca and I had been leaning close together, so Mme Depardieu wouldn’t hear our Frenglish, but my sudden heartache made me sit back and pull away.
    “Devon, what’s wrong?”
    “Christmas.”
    She seemed to understand because she grabbed my hand. A perverse side of me actually enjoyed having her console me in my pain, but then my pain overtook even that. As she held my one hand, I cried behind the other. Images of Christmases past came pouring into my mind. Grandma always gave me and Missy an extra fifty dollars each that we weren’t supposed to tell our parents about, and we never did because it was our secret with Grandma. Grandma and I had lots of fun secrets. Like how she always wanted to be my partner on Sundays when we played bridge after dinner because she and I could cheat really well and not get caught. If I hadn’t been so choked up I might have laughed at the memory.
    Rebecca’s squeezed my hand while she murmured in French, “ Oui, je sais, c’est difficile! Courage, Devón, courage. ”
    Listening to her whisper sympathy to me in French brought me back to the present. I did that breathing thing she’d taught me and got myself under better control.
    “That’s it,” she encouraged. “You’re okay, now.” She squeezed my hand one last time.
    “ Merci .” I cleared my throat and, even though I didn’t want to, I said, “I think we’d better finish our questions.”
    “Only if you’re okay.”
    I looked into her deep brown eyes. “I’m okay with you here.” Something softened in her eyes, and I would have gotten lost in them if the other students weren’t in the room. She continued to hold my gaze for an overlong moment, but then pulled away and looked down at her desk.
    Crap. I had overstepped. I got too pushy and scared her. What an idiot.
    I felt the tension spread around us like an early-morning fog, but we managed to finish the worksheet just as the bell rang. Rebecca stood up. “Jessie said okay to a basketball interview, by the way. Do you still want to do it?”
    Not really, I thought, but if I can be closer to you, then yeah, I want to do it. “Okay, sure.” My inner voice screamed at me to run as far away from Jessie as possible.
    “How’s lunch tomorrow?”
    “Cool.” It was a date, but with the wrong girl.
     
     
    I STUDIED THE list of questions for my interview with Jessie as I ate half of Gail’s tuna fish sandwich. She and Travis sat as close together as two people reasonably could, although I think she would have been in his lap if she could have gotten away with it.
    Gail leaned toward me. “So which one are you interviewing?”
    “Oh, Jessie Crowler.” I pointed to Jessie’s back four tables away. “She’s the captain of the girls’ basketball team.”
    “Senior?”
    “Yeah.” I took the last bite of her sandwich. “Good sandwich today.”
    “Amazing things happen when I make lunch.”
    Jessie turned around and looked toward me and Gail. I caught a quick glimpse of Rebecca pointing at me and saying something to Jessie. When Rebecca noticed me looking, she smiled and waved. I waved back and tried not to let my permagrin take over my face.
    Jessie and Rebecca stood up from their table and headed my way. I shoved Gail’s plastic sandwich bag and my used napkin into her empty paper lunch bag and stood up to meet them. I’d eat my little bag of carrots later.
    Gail leaned toward me. “She looks like a guy.”
    “Who?”
    “Jessie.