In Search of Tomorrow ✓

Seven

It took me a few minutes to realize the corners of my mouth were upturned in a smile and the bell for the next period was ringing. Muttering angrily to myself about losing track of time, I dashed through the hallway and slid into my seat in Spanish one minute late.

"Hola, Evelyn," said Sra. Olivera when I ran through the door. "Gracias por venir a clase hoy."

What the heck had she just said? I gave her what I hoped was a studious smile and replied, because I at least understood the "gracias" part, "De nada."

Sra. Olivera's eyebrows crinkled together and her lips pursed, as if she were trying to decide whether or not I had been disrespectful (how had I been disrespectful?) and then addressed the whole class. "Hoy vamos a practicar el presente de subjuntivo."

Present subjunctive. I pulled out my Spanish notebook, where I'd written my homework and copied down Cameron's verb charts, and joined the rest of the class in chorusing, "Sí, señora."

~*~*~

After Spanish and my elective, art, the lunch bell rang. I quickly put my horrendous painting of what was supposed to be a sunset but what looked like someone had spilled paint on paper onto a drying rack and then sped my way out the door. Suddenly, I remembered that Cameron and I hadn't agreed on where to meet for lunch. Would I have to search the entire cafeteria for him?

"Hey, Evelyn."

I whirled around and saw that Cameron had fallen into step with me, still holding his stack of textbooks and smiling. "Ready for lunch?"

My stomach flopped a little bit. "Sure."

We walked in an awkward silence into the cafeteria and got into line. I busied myself with inspecting the water on my tray from when it had been recently washed and avoided Cameron's icy blue eyes.

"So," he said after a few minutes (we had barely moved up in the line), "How were your morning classes?"

Finally, a topic I could easily talk about. "Spanish and art were fine," I said, "But I had a ton of trouble in math. Some worksheet about conic section application word problems. And I've got a test on them on Friday."

"It's only Wednesday," said Cameron. Some guy I didn't know called out a greeting and he waved back before adding, "Want to work on that during lunch?"

At least if we did schoolwork, I could avoid the prospect of awkward conversations or even Cameron questioning me about my parents. "Sure," I said.

We finally reached the food in the cafeteria line and I grabbed a hamburger and some veggies before going to check out. Cameron had selected grilled chicken and fruit--he was balancing his tray on top of his textbooks. After we paid, he led me through the cafeteria and out the back door to a nice, quiet table under the shade.

"I've never eaten here," I said, sitting down and sticking my fork into my bowl of vegetables. To be honest, I usually ate lunch with Ashley and some other girls in my grade, not partaking in the conversation and eating in silence. "It's really nice."

"Quiet, too," said Cameron. "For studying, of course. All the noise can be really distracting."

I wondered if he usually spent his lunches hanging out with his friends or studying his textbooks.

Nervously, I stabbed a baby carrot and stuffed it into my mouth. It was so quiet I could hear myself chewing. After five minutes of this unbearable torture, during which Cameron cut and ate his grilled chicken while reading I science textbook, I said, "Are we going to work on math?"

Cameron started, looking up at me as if I had interrupted him. "If you want to," he said. "Want to look over that conic sections worksheet?"

He pushed aside his stack of textbooks and scooted around the bench at the table so that he was sitting beside me. I could practically feel his breath on the back on his neck as I opened my white folder and pulled out my math homework.

"Here," I said, shoving it at him. "I don't even know where to start."

In my defense, Cameron nor Mr. Roberts had ever taught me how conic sections applied to satellites or domed ceilings, but my tutor read the problems with such a knowing look on his face that I felt like I was stupid for not understanding them.

"Oh. This one's easy," he said. He pulled out a pencil and pumped out some lead, then began scribbling down some equations. "They're asking you about the orbit, right? So you should start by graphing out the equation. You remember how to do that?"

I took the pencil from him and graphed out the ellipse, just like I had on my test. "Now what?"

"It says that the sun is the origin, so go on a put a dot there..." He tapped the center of my coordinate plane. "And now you can find the focal distance."

"Focal what?"

Cameron smiled a little, then took the pencil and drew a line along the x-axis. "The focal distance. We don't know the focii, but we can find them using the Pythagorean Theorem, just like what's in the textbook. Then we can find the distance between the center of the ellipse, which is here"--he drew another dot-- "and then find the distance to the sun."

He was now scribbling out a new equation, probably to find the focii. "Got it?" he asked.

"Sure..."

We worked through the next two problems before I had a clear idea of what I was doing, and I was able to complete the fourth problem entirely by myself. When I got to the fifth question, Cameron pulled out his science textbook again and opened back up to the page he was on while I worked.

"How are Clare and Maddie?" he asked absentmindedly, flipping a page. "Do I get to drive them to daycare again today?"

I erased something I'd written and tried again on the equation, then stole Cameron's calculator to check my work. "Yeah," I said, tucking my hair behind my ear as I discovered that the calculator's answer didn't match up with my own. "I get my car back later today, though."

"Nice." He took out a highlighter and underlined something on the page, then looked over at my work. "How's it going?"

"I'm stuck again."

He slid my sheet of notebook paper with my work on it over to him and scanned it. "Oh, that's easy. See, you wrote down the quadratic equation wrong."

"Oh."

There was more awkward silence, filled only by my pencil scratching and me punching numbers into Cameron's sleek black calculator. Every once and a while, Cameron would turn a page.

By the time I got through the next few problems, it was nearing the end of the lunch period, and the people at the tables surrounding us were starting to leave. I began packing up my things, feeling much more confident about my math, and thanked Cameron.

"No problem," he said, smiling. "Seven o'clock at your house?"

"As always," I said, smiling back.

I had American History after lunch, so I headed up to the second floor after stopping by my locker to grab my extremely heavy textbook. Ashley fell into step beside me as I walked, her black curls bouncing.

"Where were you at lunch today?" she asked, adjusting her headband. "We missed you."

I wasn't sure exactly how they missed me, since I usually said nothing anyway, but I said, "I ate with Cameron today. I needed extra help on math."

Ashley raised her eyebrows, and it could have just been me, but I thought I saw her eyes narrow suspiciously. "Do you know who he's taking to prom?" she asked suddenly.

"Why would I know?" Cameron would probably pick one of the girl soccer players, or one of the prettiest girls in the grade. Anyone would go with him.

"I wasn't sure if he asked you."

Rolling my eyes, I glanced at Ashley to make sure she wasn't joking, but she seemed dead serious. I couldn't help but notice that my stomach twisted pleasantly at the thought. I tried to force images of Cameron giving me a bouquet of roses and asking me to the biggest event of the year away, but I couldn't.

Who was I to be thinking about trivial things like the prom when I had my car bills to worry about, and Maddie and Clare, and how it was getting harder by the day to keep my secret?