“Why does our nephew look like he just swallowed a slug?”
“I mentioned theR-word, honey.”
I flip him off while Lily’s back is turned and he grins.
“TheR-word?” The pitch of her voice raises. “Is there some new slang word I’m unaware of?”
“You’re unaware of pretty much every current slang term there is, Aunt Lily. Rad and tubular are no longer cool and haven’t been for like two of my lifetimes.”
She pivots on her heel to face me and I hold my hands up defensively and try to hide my grin. The vacuum cleaner hose gets pointed in my direction, and she looks down at me. “Watch that smart mouth, sweetie, or I’ll put you on toilet duty for the next month. And you can bet that deceptively sweet face of yours I’ll be serving your uncle beans with breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single one of those days.”
“Ew.” I cringe and try to become one with the back of the couch. “That’s disgusting.”
She just shrugs. “Anyway, what’s this elusiveR-word?”
I glare at Nathan. “Relationships, Lily. And Nathan is being immature.”
“Bud, I’m not the one who nearly faints at the mention of the word, just remember that.”
Lily sighs and pushes her glasses up on top of her head. “You’re young, Ryne, and I’m not saying you should be in a relationship now. But will you please keep that stubborn head of yours open to the idea of it happening? Because someday you might find a nice girl or boy you actually want to do more than mess around with.”
“Oh my God.” I groan and put my head in my hands. “You’re just as bad as Nathan. Y’all suck.”
When I peek up again, Lily pulls her glasses back on and peers down at me. “We love you, sweetie. But that mouth of yours? Keep it up, boy. Those toilets are calling your name.”
11
Dacen
We won our game last night. We all played hard and earned that win, and I scored the winning goal, which was pretty epic. Everyone on the field and the sidelines jumped up and cheered when the ball snuck past the goalie and into the net. While getting high-fived and slapped on the ass by a number of my teammates, I glanced at Ryne and he even seemed begrudgingly excited. That ratcheted my excitement up a few levels, although I’m still kinda ticked off at the way he treated me at practice last week. We haven’t said as much as two words to each other since then. It’s made for some highly awkward moments at our lockers, in class, and at practice. The other day I walked past their cafeteria table and felt four sets of eyes on me. I held my head high and didn’t look over.
I’m starting to see why Evie calls them the horsemen. They do have a sort of intense vibe, even with Evan being a big goof as I’ve come to learn, and Tyler being so friendly. The four of them together come across as more than a bit intimidating, and given the right—or wrong?—circumstances, maybe even a little frightening. They’re intriguing, particularly Ryne. I have so many questions about him, and frustratingly few answers.
“Okay everyone, please split up into your groups and get started on today’s assignment.”
Mrs. Carter clicks the remote in her hand and the info from her laptop projects onto the wall. We’re working on understanding the various parts of a speech and how to approach them to connect with your audience. The content is a little dry but the application of it is pretty fun. For those of us who like to talk, anyway. I glance over my shoulder at Ryne and he’s wearing an uber-bored expression. I turn around quickly so he doesn’t catch me staring and tuck my head down to hide my smile. To clarify, it’s pretty fun for those of us who can tolerate being around people, let alone enjoy talking with them.
Matt and I are paired up, which suits me just fine. He’s nice and we get along well. His girlfriend Lucy is pretty great, too. We dive into the assignment. After a few minutes, Mrs. Carter leaves the room and Matt turns to me.
“So.”
“That was not at all suspicious,” I laugh. He grins and continues.
“Lucy asked me to find volunteers for the Homecoming Committee. I figured you like people. You like talking.” He holds his hands up in a ta-da sort of way.
It actually sounds pretty interesting. “What does one do if they join the committee?”
“I’m glad you asked, Dacen.” Matt speaks in a silly voice sounding a bit like a used car salesman. “You’d have the privilege of helping decide the homecoming dance theme including decorations and shopping for them, what the theme should be for each day of Spirit Week, and you’d get to help decorate the gym for the dance.”
“Okay, you could have stopped like thirty words ago. You had me at ‘decorations and shopping.’ I’m in. Assuming it doesn’t conflict with soccer.”
Matt shoots both arms up in the air. “Thank you! Now Lucy can’t tell me I slacked off and didn’t help at all.”
I smile and tap my pencil against the desk. “When do the meetings or whatever start?”
“As soon as we get enough suckers—I mean student volunteers—to help.” He gives me a wide grin. “Probably next Tuesday.”
“Okay cool. Well, consider me suckered. It sounds fun.”
