AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His grin widens. “Nice to meet you, Julie. Any guys give you trouble, be sure to sic Matthews here on them. I can tell you from personal experience she’ll—”
“Caleb!” I snap.
Caleb smiles as he grabs a sticky note off the desk and jots something down on it using Julie’s pen. “Call me when you’re free tonight,” he says, handing me the fluorescent square of paper. “I have practice until six. We can meet up after that.”
I glance down at the series of numbers. Caleb hands Julie her pen and heads for the door. He turns back around right as he’s about to reach it. “Bring your English stuff too,” he calls. “We can work on the project.”
“What wasthat?” Julie asks me as soon as the door swings shut behind Caleb.
“That was Caleb Winters,” I say sourly, dropping into my swivel chair.
Julie rolls her eyes. “I know. What I don’t know is why—”
“Lennon! Would it have killed you to be nicer to Caleb?” Andrew appears alongside my desk, looking annoyed.
“Yes. It actually might have.”
Andrew shoots me a sharp look. “Please do not do anything to mess this up, Lennon. I already told the printer to double our order for next month’s issue, before… If Caleb is still willing to do the article butyoumess it up and we have to lead with Steve’s story about the new running track—we’re going to end up with a lot of wasted paper.”
I sigh. “I’m not making any promises. But if it makes you feel any better, Caleb still seems set on doing the article. If nothing I’ve said to him so far has dissuaded him, I seriously doubt he’s going to change his mind now.”
“That doesnotmake me feel any better,” Andrew replies, which is probably fair.
“Look, I’m apparently meeting him tonight—” I grit my teeth in annoyance. “So I’ll have a draft ready for you next week, all right?”
“Fine.” Andrew lets out a long-suffering sigh, sounding more like a sixty-year-old than a high school senior.
I roll my eyes at his dramatics. “You insisted I do this, remember?”
“He said he’d do it with you, or no one else,” Andrew replies. “What was I supposed to do, Lennon?”
Andrew may act like he runs a global news organization rather than just a small school paper, but he did what any reasonable editor would to ensure a good story. He didn’t have a choice, but I did.
I could have gotten out of this, and I didn’t.
There’s nothing worse than realizing the person you should really be angry with is yourself. Because I didn’t take the out when Caleb offered it. Because I have been avoiding him since his grandfather’s funeral last weekend.
“The article will be fine, okay? Good. Great, even.”
Andrew eyes me dubiously, but nods. “Okay.”
He heads toward the center of the room, where the rest of the staff has already begun to assemble for the meeting. I grab a notebook and follow.
“Happy Hump Day!” Andrew calls out, falling comfortably into his favorite role: overseer of everything.
“I thought you said good reporters don’t make sexual references,” Joe Watkins replies with a cheeky grin. Out of everyone on the paper, he’s probably my favorite peer. Mostly because he seems to enjoy teasing Andrew about how seriously he takes his role almost as much as I do.
“My mistake. I thought I was dealing with near adults, not with reporters who have the maturity level of middle schoolers,” Andrew retorts.
“You should probably start calling me Mr. Watkins, then,” Joe informs him. “Treat people the way you want them to act, and all.” That comment draws a few guffaws from the rest of us.
Andrew exhales deeply. “Joe, you can go first.”
Joe leans back in his chair and crosses his ankles. “I’m working on a piece detailing the two new courses they’re adding in the fall. One is a medieval history class I would actually take if I was still going to be here. The other is some super advanced chemistry for the nerds who already made it through regular and advanced. Don’t expect any details on it because I didn’t understand a word of what Mr. Johnson said when he explained what the course would cover. Should make a splash on the fourth page.”
Andrew lets out another long sigh, but the rest of us are all grinning. “Great. Just avoid using the word ‘nerd’ in your article, all right? We’re trying to foster an inclusive atmosphere and demonstrate the academic rigor our curriculum offers.”
I have to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud, and I’m not the only one. I have no idea where Andrew comes up with this stuff. He must read the school handbook for material.
