Ch. 21: Rachel's Reviews

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
Film went by pretty quickly today. We started a new movie, another classic featuring Gene Wilder, See No Evil, Hear No Evil. It was hilarious. I enjoyed the movie, and really enjoyed Sean’s laughter. He seemed to be smiling at the funny parts an instant before they happened, I’m pretty sure he had to have seen this one before. But he was still enthralled by it. A few times he looked over to wink at me or nudge my shoulder. He was totally at ease.
Maxine stayed pretty focused on the movie but I noticed she sighed a few times. She was holding her head up, resting against her fists, like she was having a hard time staying awake. I worried about her. What had happened earlier? Why did she specifically want to talk to me at lunch today? I think she was trying to be lighthearted earlier in her request, but it weighed on me. I couldn’t help but keep an eye on her through the movie when I wasn’t totally entranced. And it was very easy for me to get entranced by screens. I once was at home watching TV and when I looked up it was dark and the house was empty. I remember calling my mom only for her to tell me that she, her boyfriend at the time, and my sister had all asked me if I wanted to go out with them to the local fair and I had apparently politely declined. I had zero memory of it.
The bell rang and Mr. Waller got up to turn on all the lights. Everyone groaned, their eyes adjusting to the light. We would finish the movie next class and didn’t need to complete our comparison assignment until after finishing this movie, so we had plenty of time. Man, I really liked this class. Maxine followed Sean and I out the door, Sean holding my hand the whole way.
“After school?” I asked Maxine, making sure she knew I hadn’t forgotten.
“Yeah, I’ll see you then,” she smiled a tiny close-lipped smile.
Something was definitely up. She was definitely more serious than Marsha, but this was different. I looked after her, concerned. Sean seemed to notice.
“Do you want to go talk to her?” He looked at me inquisitively.
I watched Marsha walk up to her and the two walked into the courtyard.
“No, that’s alright. Marsha’s there,” I said.
“Alright, well then,” he said, satisfied with my answer, “Time to go show my girlfriend another Pacific hidden gem…”
Girlfriend? I raised an eyebrow at him.
“Oh, come on,” he said eagerly like a little kid wanting to show you their newest drawing.
I laughed at his eagerness and he pulled on my hand. I followed him as we started down the stairway to the gym.
“The gym? I thought you said gem?” I joked.
“Trust me?” Sean asked, glint in his eye.
“I -” I started to say.
“Rachel!” A voice yelled from above the steps at the edge of the courtyard.
It was Kyle. He noted Sean, and looked confused. Oh my god, I totally forgot.
“One second!” I yelled back.
Kyle nodded and turned around, stepping away from the stairwell.
I turned to Sean, to see the confusion on his face, and said, “I'm so, so sorry. I totally forgot, I told Kyle he could show me around today at Break.”
He let go of my hand, obviously confused and disappointed.
“Show you around?” he asked, slowly spacing out each word, totally confused. “I -” he started, paused and started again, “I get it. It’s fine,” he breathed out, shoulders sagging. “We’ll pick this up again?” He asked me.
“Of course,” I reassured, and I had the urge to touch his face. My hand lifted but instead I went in for a hug. This hug was different since he was one step down from me. It made me feel taller. He rested his chin on my head for a good few seconds. A group of guys walked around us, heading up from the gym. One glanced our way as they passed. Sean raised one hand to him in acknowledgement, and I leaned back from the hug.
“I’ll text you if we’re done early?” I tried to reconcile.
He nodded and shrugged, clearly disappointed. I expected him to ask more questions about Kyle but he didn’t. I made a mental note to myself to talk to Sean about this later. I did have guy friends, I always have, but I didn’t want him to feel blindsided again. I could only imagine what I would be thinking if our roles were reversed. I squeezed his hand hard and let go, walking back up the stairs to meet Kyle. I looked back at him as I got to the top for him to smile, briefly wave and continue down the stairs.
I caught up to Kyle a few steps away.
“Sorry about that, I saw you head down and thought you might be looking for me. I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Kyle explained.
“Oh, no. It’s totally my bad. We should have made a better plan,” I assured. I didn’t want to let him know I had been so stricken with puppy love for Sean that I totally forgot our conversation yesterday after he saved me from a lunatic.
“Alright, if you’re sure,” he paused, waiting for me to contradict him but after I didn’t he added, “Well, welcome to ‘Tours by Kyle.’ Our continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before,” he ended in a dramatic movie trailer voice.
I tsked.
“Oh come on, don’t tell me you’ve never seen TNG?” he asked, flabbergasted.
“TMG?” I asked back, purposefully changing the letters.
“I - uh - NO,” he exclaimed, “This simply will not do! We will need to end the tour with a list of TNG episodes you must watch for homework. Or this friendship is doomed.”
He stood there shaking his head, and I motioned him forward.
“Oh yes, let’s not get sidetracked - onward!” Kyle declared.
“I think you mean Engage,” I said back, impersonating Sir Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard.
The look of total joy and betrayal crossing Kyle’s face had me dying with laughter. I continued to laugh so hard I’m sure people could hear me all across the courtyard.
“You!” he pointed at me incredulously and started laughing. “Holy sh**!” he yelled between laughter, “You totally had me.”
He started walking without further notice. Both with a huge grin and with maybe a pissed off attitude for the way I totally played him. Of course I had seen Star Trek: The Next Generation. I mean it was the best Trek, hands down.
Kyle led me around the school, mostly to areas I had been before. He tried showing me where the garden would be when I gently burst his bubble. He tried walking to a few vista spots, but Ally had taken me there too. Break was almost over when he threw his hands in the air.
“Yep, it’s official. I waited way, way too long to follow up on my request. At this point you should be leading tours for ‘Tours by Kyle’,” he said, defeated.
“I would, but I’d rather go into business for myself,” I responded, “Rachel’s Reviews,” I said, using my hand to swipe across the sky like the headline of a newspaper. “We would, of course, review tour companies.”
That got Kyle laughing again, “Yeah I don’t think my business could handle your honest review, we’d go belly up and have to sell our office supplies to recoup some funds. There would be mass layoffs at Christmas time, just horrible,” he went on seriously.
I couldn’t help but laugh. Kyle had a really fun sense of humor. I was reminded briefly of the fast banter of Gilmore Girls with the way he quickly ran with ‘bits.’
Kyle rubbed at the black, thick, spiked bracelet on his left arm then abruptly announced, “Alright, tours over. Sorry, no refunds, returns or exchanges. No, not even for terrible service. Take your complaints to Rachel’s Reviews and let nature take its course. We accept tips in the form of life advice. Any to impart before we conclude?”
It took me a second to put together a thought in my head to respond to all that, “Drugs are bad, m’kay?” I finally offered, quoting Mr. Mackey from South Park.
“Good one,” Kyle simply said.
The bell rang and we walked the rest of the hallway to Ms. Del Rios’.
We stood out front as other people started to gather.
“Oh,” Kyle remembered, “I almost forgot. Did you decide to, you know, tell anyone?”
“No,” I said matter-of-factly. “At least not yet,” I quickly added, lowering my voice.
Kyle nodded in understanding. Yeah, I had tried to block all of that out, and succeeded actually. For several hours yesterday, and the entirety of this morning I had blocked out everything Vance. I felt warm in my protective bubble. That was until I saw him on the edge of the crowd.
Kyle leaned forward, “Hey I think we’re picking new seats today. I’ll stick around and make sure he’s away from you.”
I nodded at him, grateful. I was pretty sure Kyle wanted more than friendship but I couldn’t be totally sure. Plus, I’m very sure he knew what Sean and I were to each other, and he didn’t seem like the type of person to cross that line. Even without Sean, Kyle was great but I was definitely not attracted to him, not in that way.
“I got you, girl,” he said with sass.
Really, who was this guy?
Ms. Del Rios opened the door and sure enough we were picking out new seats today. We started in the current seating arrangement while she reminded the class that she expected us to choose new seating and new people to sit by. She also added that she would move people she thought would be too distracted by each other, and emphasized taking this seriously. We got up and started milling around. Bella walked towards the back, while Kyle beelined for me. Vance had started walking to the front and he had noticed. My heartbeat quickened and I started to feel nauseous. I was really giving it my all trying to avoid him, and while I didn’t feel his stare as much today, I definitely felt him getting closer.
“Vance!” Kyle suddenly yelled at him.
Vance’s eyes shot towards Kyle and I swear he was seething at the attention. Most of the class didn’t seem to be paying much attention besides a few people who had chosen to sit in my old area.
“Vance, come sit up here,” Kyle pointed to the seat that was now empty where Bella once sat, using a suggestive tone.
Ms. Del Rios was walking by Vance trying to grab something on that side of the class and urged him too, “Go on, it’s good to make new friends.”
I snorted. Vance continued his way to the seat Kyle had pointed to and he sat in the seat on the other side from him. I gave Kyle a meaningful, grateful look and he nodded before looking back at Vance, who looked away and back towards the front of the classroom. Kyle just took a grenade for me. I felt so incredibly grateful.
Looking towards the back I found an empty seat, far, far from the front board where Kyle was watching Vance closely. I sat down next to Lucy and Elizabeth. They smiled at me and said a quick, “Hey,” before Ms. Del Rios regathered the class’ attention and moved on with the day by going over the agenda.
I sank into my seat like I was sinking into a warm hot tub. The words, “Ahhhh….” almost escaped my mouth, I was so put at ease. I didn’t know what I could possibly do to repay Kyle.
Class went by nearly as smoothly as it did yesterday in Ally’s Humanities block. Vance did try to look at me once, but I saw Kyle react so quickly, scooting his own notebook over in front of Vance’s things. Kyle had pointed to whatever was on there, and he never looked at me again the whole class. Amazing. It lifted me up enough in spirits to give more thought to what to do about Vance beyond this class, and beyond today. I decided to finally tell Ally about what happened yesterday. I could really use her insight.