Average Jane |Lesbian Story|

Chapter 17

"This is a really cool project," Caroline said as Jane began dropping the tennis ball onto the concrete floor of the garage. "Three feet. I wouldn't be surprised if the judges picked it to go to the regional fair. They get sick of the same old stuff. Like mine. Mine is the hundred-thousandth project on electromagnetism. Yours is something really different."

"You'll get picked," Jane said. "You always get picked."

She tried to keep the hint of bitterness out of her voice.

Caroline couldn't contradict her. She always did get picked. "Three feet one inch. Well, if you want some pointers, neatness counts. Neatness counts a lot. The judges go in for the really spiffy displays. Every year I've seen kids with terrific projects not get picked because their displays are a mess. And the judges like it if you act real enthusiastic about your project. I mean, you shouldn't put on an act or anything. But if you're enthusiastic about a project, chances are they will be, too."

Jane dropped her golf ball. It hardly bounced at all.

"Two inches," Caroline read off the tape. "How come you and Emily weren't working together this time?"

Jane shrugged. She dropped the ball again.

"Two and a half inches. I think it's a good idea, going off on your own. Emily is a good kid, but..."

Jane felt her face flushing. Nobody had asked Caroline to critique her friends. "But what?"

"It's just that she – you know. She likes being – well, I wouldn't call her a loser, exactly, but she's a..."

Loser.

"No, she's not," Jane said. "She's just not into grades and hard things. And impressing people. But she's smarter than she looks. This year she has a great science project, too. She really does. And she's a great friend."

A series of memories flashed through Jane's mind. Emily defending Jane against Jonas's teasing. Emily defending Jane against Ms. Reed's accusations. Emily being the only one who showed her disgust about the prank against Lucy.

"She's the best person I know."

"Look, Jane, don't get mad," Caroline said and handed her the basketball. "I said she was a good girl. I just think you have a better chance at winning the science fair on your own, that's all."

Jane dropped the basketball.

"Three feet," Caroline read out.

Jane dropped it again.

"Two feet ten inches."

Winning the science fair isn't everything, you know, Jane wanted to say to Caroline. She didn't say it. For the truth was that Jane wanted to win the science fair. She couldn't remember the last time she had wanted anything as much.

By four-thirty, all of Jane's data had been collected. She and Caroline gave each other exuberant high fives. Now if Jane won the Nobel Prize, in her acceptance speech she'd definitely have to thank Caroline along with Grace Anderson. Caroline had helped her for four solid hours, even though her own project still wasn't finished.

It was more than a lot of sisters would have done.

"Hey, I have an idea," Caroline said. "Let's go outside and bounce some basketballs."

Jane laughed. "I'm going to dream about bouncing balls tonight."

"What about dinner?"

Satisfaction in the afternoon's work made Jane feel ready for anything. She had a sudden urge to make something fancy. Whatever they were. Or something on fire. Though, on second thought, the Bunsen burners had been enough fire for one week. Maybe a cake like the ones she liked to look at in the window of the French bakery in the shopping center.

"Let's bake a cake," she said.

"A cake?" Caroline sounded surprised. The girls almost never made desserts. The most ambitious desserts they had ever attempted were brownies and instant chocolate pudding.

"Yeah. For the dinner part, we can just have scrambled eggs or something. But for dessert, let's make a cake."

In her mind, Jane already had a name for the cake, though she'd never tell it to Caroline.

La Grace.

Caroline found an easy-looking recipe in one of the cookbooks on the kitchen shelf. Jane gathered all the ingredients. But the cake was a failure. For starters, the layers wouldn't come out of the pans. Jane turned the pans over onto the cake racks, burning her hand on one of them, and then pounded the bottoms again and again.

"You're not doing it right," Caroline said. She took over, whacking the pans until she dented the metal. The cakes still wouldn't come out.

"Maybe there's something wrong with the pans," Caroline suggested.

"They're the same ones Mom uses all the time," Jane couldn't resist pointing out.

Finally, the top half came out of one pan, but the bottom half stayed in, stuck to the pan as firmly as if they had glued it there with household cement. And when Jane ate a chunk of the part that was stuck in the pan, it had a funny, rubbery texture. Jane was sure that if they dropped the cake into a sink full of water, it wouldn't fall apart, it would just sink to the bottom, and then they'd be able to wring it out and put it back on the plate.

"I think we forgot to put something in," Jane said.

"Yeah," Caroline agreed ruefully. "Like whatever the stuff is that gives cakes their flavor."

Their parents came home from shopping as Jane was scraping both pans of La Grace into the trash. She hoped the cake wasn't an omen. She shouldn't have called it La Grace. She should have called it La Lucy. But she felt oddly cheerful that she and Caroline shared the blame for its failure.

"Something smells..."

Jane could tell that her mother had planned to say good, but at the last minute changed her mind.

"Terrible?" Caroline asked.

"Interesting," she said.

"It was a cake," Caroline told her. "It was interesting all right. I hope I don't make anything that interesting again for a long time. Scrambled eggs, anyone?"

"Let's get a pizza," their dad said, coming to the rescue.

At dinner, Caroline didn't need much coaxing to tell their parents about the work they had done all afternoon on Jane's science fair project.

"It's looking great," she said.

"It certainly sounds it," Jane's mother said. "I have a feeling that this is the year we're going to have two Waleski projects chosen for the regional science fair!"

Jane wished she hadn't said it. She always tried too hard to act as if she were as successful as Caroline. And she wasn't. She had never had a project chosen for the regional science fair for as long as she remembered. Caroline had never had projects that weren't chosen.

But maybe this year would be different. Caroline honestly seemed to think that the sports project was good. So did Grace Anderson. Of course, Emily had said she thought her ice cream project was great, too.

Maybe both their projects would be picked: three could be chosen for each grade. That would really be something for Loser Club. Maybe it was time to start drafting that Nobel acceptance speech, after all.