Chapter 1:
"Evangeline Warner, you may not allow that boy to call on you!" My mother yelled at the
top of her voice. We had gone over this before. "Not until you are 16 years old!"
"But I'm fifteen!" I cried. "What does one year mean? I'm mature for my age. Miss Willow says that I am mature enough to teach the whole class!" I was certainly smart enough to. Plus all of the younger kids were afraid of me because I punched Jimmy Connor a few weeks ago because he insulted my long hair that had been cut to above my shoulders. Jocelyn, my sister who is 12, cut it during one of her tantrums as I slept. All of those beautiful brown curls cut short! I cried for hours afterwards.
"I don't care what that radical teacher of yours says! How would she know about competence? She cannot keep those children in check! Jocelyn's Latin and math skills are absurd! And she has let you dawdle in class when you should be at home learning proper things!" Mother went back to stirring the tomato stew we were to have for dinner.
I took a deep breath and held back an outright curse that threatened to slip from my lips. Instead I screamed in frustration and stormed to my room. I opened my diary and made up a meeting between me and Landon, the boy who wanted to call on me.
"Why, hello Landon Green," I swept into a graceful curtsy. My beautiful scarlet dress billowed onto the floor and my hair was elegantly tied back with ribbons.
"You look absolutely beautiful, Eva," Landon said, admiring me. He held my arm and we walked out the door with my mother and Jocelyn waving at the door. As we turned the corner of the driveway Marianne Nurton would walk past us and look at us jealously through slitted eyes. I would wave haughtily as Landon would kiss me on the lips.
Oh, how I wish this could be so. But my mother won't allow me to have a gentleman caller, and certainly wouldn't allow me to go on a walk with a boy unchaperoned. For goodness sake, Landon wouldn't have the courage to kiss me, anyway! It's just a walk!
The next day at school I saw Landon.
"Hello, Eva," he greeted me. Everyone calls me Eva, except my mother. I hate Evangeline.
"Landon, I'm sorry," I said. Did I really have to tell him this? "My mother won't allow me to have any callers until I'm 16. I still really like you though," I said tentatively. We had already gone through the whole "I like him, does he like me?" thing. Everyone knew we were a thing, sort of. If he could call on me it would be so much easier! If only my father were around. He's in Boston or some such place discussing philosophy at Harvard College. I like that he's a professor, but he's always traveling. He wasn't even home for my birthday. But when he is home things are so much better. The house is bright and inviting, and Jocelyn is bearable. During the long stretches my father is away, I often am at my best friend Annalie's house. She is so understanding and wonderful, and her mother is much nicer than mine. I even have a few clothes there so that when I sleep over I won't have to go home. I am more a part of Annalie's family than my own. I might as well be a Kelleher, not a Warner.
"I like you too, and I'm not going to give up, yet." Landon said determinedly.
"Landon, is Landon your real name? It's so outlandish. You wouldn't expect your mother to call you something so daring." Landon's mother is so prim and proper it looks as if she's sitting on a pincushion constantly.
Landon blushed. "No, my father thought of it as a nickname for me. It has nothing to do with my real name."
"Ooh, tell me your real name," I sat down in his desk next to him. There was just enough room so that I could sit down.
"No, it's so embarrassing," he protested. After much persuasion he relented. "Alright, but please don't laugh."
"I can't promise anything. You know me. I'll laugh at anything, but only in jest. If I do laugh at least don't take offense from it." I was notorious or laughing at exactly the wrong moment.
"My real name is Palomedes." He looked down at his desk. I really tried not to laugh. I inhaled quickly and tried to hold my breath, but I couldn't help it. I bursted out suddenly in a great laugh. I was laughing so hard I fell off of the chair, but that didn't stop me. I covered my face with my hands and tried to stifle the laughing that I started to cry and wheeze. By this time Landon, or should I say Palomedes (Hahaha!), was laughing, too.
"Don't make fun of it!" Landon said between laughs. "It's the name of one of the Knights of the Round Table. It means bravery and chivalry!"
"That's just something your mother says to make you feel better for having such an awful name!" I bellowed. "I'm going to call you Pal now."
"No!" Landon cried. "That's what my grandmother calls me!" He pushed my head playfully, but I lost my balance and fell over. I started laughing again.
"Alright, Eva, get in your seat, now!" My teacher, Miss Willow said. I blushed and hoisted myself onto the seat across from Landon and next to Annalie. I suppressed giggles and I glanced sidelong at Landon. Annalie nudged me on the elbow.
"Eva!" she chided. "It's not like Miss Willow can't see you!" I smiled at her, and Annalie smiled back, but we quickly started to pay attention to the lesson.
"Class," Miss Willow announced. I think Miss Willow is so pretty. She has long flowy blond hair and big blue hazel eyes. She's only 19, I recently found out. Miss Willow seems so much older than 19. She also has a fiancé; I think his name is Hugo Fairfax. "I have an announcement to make. Our school has been invited to participate in an academic competition throughout the county. Three students from each school are invited to compete as a team, answering questions and receiving one point for each correct answer. The questions are on anything, including geography, mathematics, and history. Even some teams are required to name famous paintings or spell a word correctly. We are going to simulate one of these competitions in our classroom and the winning team will advance to the county's contest. Get into groups of three, children.
I looked around. I already knew my group: Annalie and Landon (Palomedes!). We moved our desks into a cluster and waited for the other kids to catch up and get organized. Once the competition started I was very excited. I have always been competitive and very smart, which isn't a very good combination. I'm also bossy; I like to be in control of any kind of group I'm in. I'd like to say that our group won (of course we won!) because of me, but Annalie and Landon did help quite a bit, I must admit. Annalie knows everything there is to know about music and the arts, so it was rather helpful. She also can spell chrysanthemum which helped us out a lot. Landon is very intelligent. I mean he reads history books and long epic poems like the Odyssey for fun! He's rather handy for the history questions, though. And then there's me, who just is a head full of seemingly useless knowledge that is only helpful during these types of contests.
After the contest was finished and our group had handily won, Miss Willow congratulated us. "Eva, Annalie, and Landon: the competition is on December 16th, in precisely 2 months. It is to be held in the Town Hall at 8:00 am. I will give you more details when the date draws near."
"Why did you have the contest so early in the year?" I asked Miss Willow. I mean, 2 months is just a bit too much "in advance."
"The people in charge needed the final number of teams participating by next week. It is a tad inconvenient, but that is what must be done." She explained. We all nodded in understanding.
As the school day ended and my classmates filed out of the building, I waited behind with Landon and Annalie.
"Annalie, can I come to your house for dinner? Jocelyn is having one of her little friends over and I can hardly stand one of her! Two will just be unbearable!" I asked. Jocelyn always had one of her snooty friends over and they gallivanted all around the house looking at fashion magazines or talking about what boys played tricks on the girls that day. It was absolutely headache-inducing!
"Of, course, Eva!" Annalie exclaimed. "You don't even have to ask anymore. Mother just makes an extra portion of food for you out of habit, now!" I loved Annalie's easy lightness and sprightly behaviors. She just seemed to always be in a good mood. I always look at the dark side of a situation, and I have the quickest temper! Sometimes I curse twice in a day, and I don't feel the slightest bit guilty about it. My mother would faint if she knew half of what I did during the day.
By now the three of us were outside walking on the main street in our town, Appleton, Connecticut. It was a small town, but yet it was the biggest in the county. I liked that everyone knew each other, and I felt at home pretty much anywhere in the town. Annalie turned down her street and Landon and I kept walking. As we approached my doorstep a few minutes later, I said teasingly to him: "See you later, Palomedes!"
"Until tomorrow, Evangeline!" He retorted. I groaned inwardly at the name, making a mental note not to call him Palomedes again... out loud. As I opened my front door, I turned and stuck out my tongue at Landon, and he returned the favor.