Tommy smacked Merton's arm with the back of his hand as he stepped up to their lockers. "Morning Merton."
"Oh hey. Your cousin settle in alright last night?"
"Yeah, she's doing good. She's doing all her new-school orientation stuff today, but I told her to find me at lunch."
"So are you gonna tell her about, you know," he gestured with his hands, making fangs from his fingers.
"No, I think we'll keep that on the down low."
"She's in the same grade as us, though, right? We could be a trio again." He grinned, wagging his eyebrows at Tommy as he recalled their days with Lori.
"I'd rather keep my family in the dark about the whole…" he did the fang gesture awkwardly, immediately regretting it. "Thing." He closed his locker, patting Merton on the shoulder. "I think you two will get along, though."
"You always think people will like me." Merton smiled crookedly, then deadpanned. "You've been mostly wrong."
Tommy snorted, laughing at his best friend's self-deprecation.
Merton sat at his usual table, picking at his cafeteria lunch while he waited for Tommy.
"Hi."
He looked up to see a pretty brunette wearing a miniskirt over thigh-high black socks standing awkwardly beside the table, her tray set down mostly-on-the-table.
"You're Merton Dingle, right?"
He blinked a couple times, wondering what such a flawless teenage specimen was doing talking to him. Then he pulled a wide grin. "Merton J. Dingle. In the flesh." He held his hand out to her.
She shook it with a smile. "Kalida Dawkins. Tommy said you guys normally eat together, and that it'd be ok to join?"
"Oh! You're Tommy's cousin!" He studied her face, thinking to himself that maybe their brown eyes looked a bit similar.
She let out a small laugh. "Guilty as charged."
He let go of her hand, shaking his head slightly. "Uh, of course, please sit."
"Thanks." She slid into the seat opposite him, looking him over. "Tommy talks about you a lot."
Merton raised his brows in surprise as he sipped his chocolate milk. "Oh?"
"I think he was more excited for me to meet you than to hang out with me himself," she laughed.
Merton smiled a bit to himself, grateful for Tommy's friendship. He watched as she carefully opened her juice box. "You're from Canada, right?"
"Yeah. West coast."
"Parlez-vous français?"
"Ouias, sûrement."
Merton grinned in surprise. "Nice. I took a couple years, but I'm not fluent or anything."
"That's cool." She shrugged. "My parents put me in immersion. It hasn't been too useful, though."
"Looks good on college applications."
She laughed softly. "Yeah, we'll see."
"Hey, you found him!" Tommy plunked down beside Merton. "You two getting caught up?"
Kali grinned at Tommy. "Yeah, I was just telling him how your room is covered in posters of him that you kiss goodnight."
Tommy threw a baby carrot at her, but nudged Merton. "Kali's a big nerd, like you."
Merton winced. Did he really have to call him a nerd in front of the new girl in town?
"Nerd club." Kali laughed, picking at her sandwich. "Represent."
Merton was about to ask what they meant by that when Tommy interrupted.
"How was your morning?"
"Uh, good. Got my locker, my books. Went to second period, which is Math." She shrugged. "Still a bit lost. I had to ask three people where the cafeteria was."
"You'll get the hang of it," Merton offered. "The school's not that big."
She nodded. "Yeah, I'll figure it out eventually." She looked over at Tommy. "You've got practice after school?"
"Yeah, I'll be like two hours. You can chill on the bleachers til I'm done, or catch the bus. If you're feeling adventurous."
"I-I could drive her home." Merton interjected. "It's not like I don't know where you live."
"Oh, thanks man." Tommy patted his shoulder. "Would you rather?"
Kali looked between the two of them a moment, then shrugged. "Yeah, a ride home sounds cool. Thanks, Merton."
He grinned. "Yeah, no problem. Meet you out front after school then?"
"Sure."
After school, Merton got pushed around in the hallway by the Eckert brothers on his way to his locker. When he rounded the corner, he was surprised to see Kalida standing a few lockers down from his, chatting up Brett Johnson. The two were smiling and nodding at each other a lot, and as he got close enough to overhear, Brett started writing something down for her on a piece of paper.
"So I'll see you there?" Brett passed her the paper with a wink.
"Yeah, sounds great."
"Alright, until then." Brett grinned and waved as he walked off.
Kalida spotted Merton just as he got to his locker. "Oh, hey Merton!"
"Hey." Merton set to work sorting out what he needed to take home. "Got a date with the class president?" he asked nervously.
Kalida laughed. "Uh, no. No dates. We're lab partners in chem, and we got talking about Guiding. Or, I guess, Boy Scouts in his case."
"Are you a Girl Scout? With the uniform and the cookies?" He tried not to imagine her in a skimpy Scouting outfit. Hair in pigtails. Moving on.
"I used to be, yeah. It's called Girl Guides up north, but same thing." She leaned against the locker beside her. "I guess our lockers are super close to each other.
"Oh, yeah, they're mostly alphabetical." Merton nodded. "So you're joining his troupe?"
"What?" She laughed again, shaking her head. "No, sorry, we were also talking about Student Council. He invited me to a council meeting to check it out." She waved the slip of paper, which showed a class number and time.
He gave her a lopsided grin. "I could always use a friend or two on council."
"Oh yeah?" She raised a brow. "You a trouble-maker?"
"It… follows me." He shut his locker and gestured for them to head out. "The school cut funding to the Gothic Fantasy Guild when the other guy graduated. We're making a comeback, but the council doesn't exactly respect us."
"Oh… I think Tommy said something about you being the president of a club."
Merton watched as she waved at a few people on their way out. "Looks like you're pretty popular already."
"Hm? I guess." She shrugged. "It's just new-girl syndrome."
He slowed as they got to his vehicle. "Here she is." He gestured to the long black car before them.
Kalida gawked, putting a hand on the roof as she peered in the back window. "Is this a hearse?"
"Yep."
"Like, this was used as a hearse?"
Merton smiled sheepishly, suddenly unsure if his friend's cousin was actually going to accept the ride home. "Uh, yeah. I got a pretty good deal on it."
"Creepy," she flashed him a grin and skipped around to the passenger side to get in. "I like your style, Dingle."
He mouthed a silent prayer upward before joining her inside the vehicle.
"Thanks again for the ride. I definitely haven't figured out my way around town yet."
"No problem." Merton did his seatbelt up and glanced over at her. "The, uh, radio tuner is busted, but you could pick a CD out if you want?" He gestured to a black and red multi-disc case in the bin between the two front seats.
"Okay, cool." She started flipping through them silently as he pulled out of the school lot.
"Ooh, Disposable Teens." She pushed the home-burned disc into the stereo.
"Wait, you're a Marilyn Manson fan?" Merton gave her another look over, incredulous.
"Uh, yeah." She blushed, turning the volume up slightly. "That weird?"
He shook his head, grinning to himself. "No, just… Getting Tommy to sit through my music is impossible. I thought you were gonna hit his CD's at the back and put in some pop music. That's cool."
"Cool." She stared out the window.
"So… Do you have your licence?"
"Not yet, but I had it in BC. I've got a driver's test next week, and then I'll be able to insure Betsy down here."
"Betsy?"
"My camper," she laughed. "I'd live in it, but Uncle Bob insists I sleep in the house like a normal person."
"Oh. Are you going to drive it to school?"
"Probably not. Tommy's allowed to use the Jeep, so he'll probably drive me to and from school most days. But I want to take it camping."
"Girl Scout. Right." Merton nodded to himself as they pulled up to the Dawkins residence. "1236 Ogden Street."
"Home for now." She unclipped her seatbelt and pointed up the driveway to the small white camper parked beside the house. "That's Betsy."
"Looks… practical."
She laughed and got out, then leaned back into the hearse. "Thanks again, Merton. See you later."
He tried not to blush as he smiled back. "See you later."
Merton sat at his computer, looking up the town Tommy had said Kalida was from. He'd already looked up teen Girl Scout outfits - not nearly as interesting as he'd imagined - and was wondering what his chances of wooing the Canuck might be. And whether or not Tommy would kill him for trying.
He did want us to meet, he reminded himself.
Granted, he still didn't know her that well. Sure, she was cute, and Tommy's cousin. And, she had seemed somewhat impressed by his car and taste in music. But he shouldn't let it get to his head.
He typed into the search bar. How to woo a Canadian Girl