Take My Advice

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

I waited for what seemed like forever in the hallway for Amanda later that morning. She had French that period and we always met up where the big hallway met up with the smaller side corridor, which was halfway between our two classes. She was nowhere to be seen, and I wondered if she'd been abducted by aliens or something. Probably not-that was too cliché. I only had a few minutes before I had to go meet up with Colby and the other students on the newspaper staff to proofread the edition before it went to press, and I couldn't wait much longer.  

"Victory!" Dylan called out, walking toward me with both arms up in the air like he'd just scored a touchdown or something. That was an odd visual because I couldn't imagine him playing football at all, let alone being good at it. "I did my hard thing."  

"You did? Already?"  

"Yep! I walked right up to Mrs. Gillis and said, 'Hi, I'm Dylan. I'm a fantastic actor, and I'd like to audition for the lead in your next play.'"  

I wanted to tell him I'd already done something hard too, but I couldn't tell him about turning in the mysterious note. "And what did she say?"  

"Well, it could have gone better, to be honest. Turns out the next play is 'Anne of Green Gables,' and it would appear that I'm not quite suited for the role of a little redheaded orphan girl. But she gave me a script and said I'd be perfect to play Gilbert."  

I tilted my head to the side, considering him. You know, I could see that. He had just enough nerve to pull it off, too. "When are tryouts?"  

"Not for another three weeks, so I'll have a lot of time to prepare. This is definitely going to be the best year ever."  

"I sure hope so-I mean, it's our senior year, and if we mess it up, it's not like we get another chance."  

"Sure we do-don't forget about college. We get freshman year, sophomore year . . ."  

I sighed. "Are you always this happy?" I didn't have it in for happy people, but I had so much going on inside me, threatening to squeeze me until I turned blue, that I couldn't handle all this sunshine-and-fluffy-bunnies stuff.  

Dylan surprised me by dropping the smile and leaning up against the wall, folding his arms across his chest. "No, not always. In fact, I used to think I had to be in control all the time, take care of everything going on around me. See, my dad's an alcoholic and he left us a long time ago. I thought if I stepped it up, became the man of the house, I could protect my mom and stop other bad things from happening. And then I learned I was wrong."  

"So how did you get over it-wanting to control everything?" Not that I needed his advice, but I thought it was polite to ask.  

"I realized that my mom was actually a lot tougher than I thought and she was handling it pretty well. Oh, and the long lecture she gave me about just being a kid really helped."  

"And so now you're all happy and cheerful?"  

"I choose to be happy and cheerful. There's a big difference."  

I groaned. "Oh, no-don't tell me you're one of those 'happiness is a choice' people."  

He grinned. "Is there something wrong with that? It's true, you know."  

"It might be true, but it's a great way to end up eating lunch alone every day."  

I was just about to give up on Amanda when I finally saw her weaving her way through the throng of students.  

"I did it!" she said breathlessly. "I sat down next to Mario in class, and I said hi to him. And then later, about halfway through conjugating French verbs, I smiled at him."