Chapter twenty

20.
Monday at school, R and I both acted like everything was normal. Because, basically, it was. I mean, normal for the time being. Sure, R's mom had cancer, and sure, I was still freaking out that I would say something wrong and hurt his feelings. But that had become normal. Besides, we were both pretty relieved, because the doctors had found a treatment for Barbra that they thought would work perfectly for “her area of something something and something something something”. More technical stuff. I was like Mom, didn't really understand it. But I knew that it meant something good, and we were all happy about it.
James caught up with me after lunch period, which I had spent with Sophia and R. I had even had the courage to turn down Mike's offer to take me to lunch.
“Hey Shane, can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure. What's up?” I was kind of worried he would 'warn' me about R again, because even though I still hadn't gotten any evidence that R wasn't 'getting into serious stuff' (and I was sure tired of those words), I was sure that he wasn't. Seriously, he always seemed fine. All the time. So if that's what James wanted to talk about, I would just tell him that, and blow him off. But that's not what James said, after all.
“I tried calling you a bunch of times yesterday, but you never answered. Did you go somewhere?”
“Oh, yeah, um... I was at the hospital, R's mom... mumble mumble.” I dropped my voice so low that I could barely make out my words, and I knew James couldn't. Somehow it just didn't seem right to go around announcing what had happened yesterday, even though it also didn't seem exactly wrong.
“What? ...You know, you don't have to tell me if you don't want. I'm just asking. As a friend.”
I looked into James' face, thankful for him. “I was with R.” I was even going to tell him where, but he must have thought I was done, because he started talking.
“Oh, cool. I was just wondering if you wanted to do one of those homework party things again. As it is, I spent too much time trying to call you and had to stay up until 1 A.M. to finish my projects.”
“Oh. Ha ha! That's kind of funny. Sorry, though.”
We chatted about a few more things, just like R and I had done the day before, except my conversation with James mostly focused on teachers and why they had to give us such a workload, and what classes had the least homework and stuff like that. When we parted ways, Sophia caught up with me almost immediately.
“You're getting to be really good friends with James, aren't you?”
I shrugged. “I guess so. Why do you care?”
“Oh, no reason,” she said slowly. I didn't believe her, of course. But it was time for another class, so I didn't say anything more about it, and neither did she.
After school was mostly over for the day, I headed for my counseling session. It was my final one, actually, unless I chose to kept going to them. And, even as I had grown fond of Mr. Quirk, I didn't really want to have to continue any longer. I felt that he'd helped me with some stuff, but that I needed to start learning to help myself, too. Because I knew that people wouldn't always be around to help me through things. But it's nice when they are.
Halfway through our session, Mr. Quirk asked me how I was dealing with R these days. I thought about my answer, and came up with something I hadn't even fully realized before.
“Well, I'm still kind of nervous a lot of the time around him. Like, I don't feel as relaxed as I did before, because I'm always worried I'll say something wrong, and offend him. And there are times that I don't know if he wants to talk about his mom, or just talk about other stuff. And I don't even know if it hurts him much to talk about his mom, or anything.”
“Then why don't you ask him? Surely it can't hurt to just ask what his boundaries are.”
I hadn't thought of that. “Yeah, I guess I could. But I think I'd still feel nervous doing that, you know? Since we had a little – well, not a fight exactly, but a time when things weren't really right between us, I guess. And I've been on edge ever since then, I guess.” Huh.
We talked about some more things, about school, and just random stuff. And, to my surprise, we actually just chatted for a little while. I mean, man-to-...teen... instead of counselor-to-patient. It was pretty cool, just talking to him without being analyzed.
I said goodbye to him for the last time (well, probably), and said bye to Miss Germain, also. I left the room, and was walking through the mostly deserted hallways, making the now -familiar path through the school to the parking lot. I was close to the door when all of a sudden, rounding a corner, I ran into someone – Kyle! I was startled, of course.
“Kyle! What are you doing here?”
He smiled, crookedly, and tilted his head a little. “Hmm... promise you won't laugh?”
“Yeah, I promise! Tell me!” I was really curious by then.
He laughed, a little. “I'm in the astronomy club.”
I was shocked, startled once again. I raised my eyebrows. “Really? …I had no idea.”
He laughed again, a little harder. “Yeah, it's not a very well known fact. I just figure that people might think I'm a nerd since I'm in the club. But I'm not trying to hide it, because that would definitely classify me as a geek.”
“But, well, I mean... why are you in the astronomy club? I didn't know you liked that kind of stuff.”
“Promise to keep a secret?” I nodded, and he leaned in a little closer like he had some big secret. “I kind of have an attachment to Pluto. You know, the planet. Well, they say it's not a planet anymore. That's why I joined the club, I want to see if I can find out if Pluto is really a planet or not. I mean, seriously, poor little guy, he's up there in the sky, all happy, cause he's a planet! He's special! And they're just trying to toss him out. It's not very nice, if you ask me.”
I stared. Probably open mouthed. Kyle laughed at me, so I asked, “Are you serious?”
“Yeah! Totally! I don't tell many people that, though, because, well, because of the reaction! Like you're reacting right now. You look pretty funny, Shane. Anyway. Most people just can't seem to understand that the little guy is my friend. Pluto, that is. He's really cool. I even have a poster of him in my room.”
I was still staring. Kyle laughed a little more. “Kyle?”
“Yeah?”
“No offense, but that's really weird. A planet (maybe even not) is your friend?”
“Yeah!” He laughed even more, at me. “See, you don't understand either. Anyway, come on, Mike's waiting with the car.”
“What?”
“We're confiscating you for the day. Already called your mom and told her. Your old lady must not like you much, she was all for the idea.”
“Ha ha. But wait, what's going on?”
“You're hopeless,” Kyle sighed, and presently grabbed my arm and dragged me out the door. I was pretty confused.
There was Mike, leaning against his car. He stood up when he saw us, saying,
“What took you so long?”
“I told him about me and Pluto,” Kyle said with a grin.
They bundled me into the back seat of the car, and Mike geared up, and roared off.
“Where are we going?” I asked, surprising myself with how calm I was acting.
“You'll find out!” My friends both called out at the same time.
So I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. I watched the scenery, recognizing a lot of it, and parts of it not looking familiar. I could tell we weren't going too far away, though. I wondering why Mike and Kyle had decided to 'confiscate' me.
“I think you meant 'abducting',” I called up to Kyle.
“Whatever,” was his response.
We drove for maybe 15 minutes, until the car pulled to a halt. However, that could mean 30 minutes worth of someone else's driving, since Mike liked high speeds. Oh, I forgot to mention – I had been blindfolded 5 minutes into our car ride. They really were 'abducting' me.
“Where are we?” I of course asked as soon as I had gotten out of the car. My blindfold still wasn't taken off.
“Just wait a minute! Gosh!” Kyle said. I could hear Mike doing – something, I'm not sure what. Sounded like he was opening a trash can.
“What's Mike doing?” I asked. I was curious again.
“Oh, nothing.” Mike answered me.
My blindfold was finally taken off, and I looked around to see where we were. I was surprised. Not really expecting a certain something, but definitely not expecting what I saw when I opened up my eyes.
“We're going to Build-A-Bear?” I asked, with a hint of sarcasm. They had to be kidding.
“Yep!”
“And we're gonna have so much fun!” Kyle said, looking like he would bounce out of his pants. He was seriously excited.
I raised my eyebrows at them, doubting. What the heck? Build-A-Bear? I then asked the other question that had been on my mind. “What, did James think that this was too immature?”
Mike and Kyle looked at each other, confused. “What?” Mike asked.
“I mean, I'm his replacement, right?”
They looked even more baffled. “No you're not. Why would you think that?” Mike asked.
Kyle told me, “Shane, you're our friend, too. Not just James. We like you for yourself. James doesn't have anything to do with it, he's our friend too, but so are you. I mean, you are kind of weird sometimes-”
Mike interrupted him. “Ha, that coming from the guy who's friends with Pluto?”
“I was about to say that!” He protested.
They both grinned, and Kyle continued. “Anyway, like I was saying. We like you for who you are, and James for who he is. You're different people, and that's cool, cause everyone is 'different people'. And you're our friend! Not a replacement. Now let's go make some stuffed animals!”
“Yeah!” A cheer went up from Mike, and I was so moved, I couldn't help myself. I joined in. We left the parking lot and entered the store.
I must admit, it was fun. A lot of fun. We were being goofy, making stuffed animals and even putting those voice chips in them. Mike's sang “Happy birthday” when you squeezed it, Kyle's sang, “I feel good! Like I knew that I would now...” and mine just said “I love you! I love you!” in this perky little voice that made us laugh every time we heard it. And, even worse than just the bear itself, Mike and Kyle just had to name it (of course) Sophia. I protested, saying I would never call it that, but they taunted me, saying, “Oh, Sophia loves me! Sophia loves Shane!” I punched them both on the shoulder, but, both of them being significantly bigger than me, it barely phased them. In fact, it gave them another thing to tease me about.
“Aww, weakling little Shane.”
“Poor little feather-weight.”
“I'm not a feather-weight!” I protested. “And besides, I'm not that weak. If I was still on the track team, I'd be in much better shape, though!”
“You have to be in shape to start with, though, Shane.” Mike teased.
“Hey, round is a shape!” Kyle said, for my benefit (I suppose).
“Thanks, Kyle.” I don't think he did anything to help my case.