Chapter Eleven

Flirty

When we got back to school the following Monday, I was relieved. All weekend following the holiday, all I felt from my parents was guilt, remorse, and mournful emotions. I was glad to be in school and away from that. Dinah hadn't come by for our usual drive during the weekend through the city, so I was sort of trapped inside. I left for school over a half an hour early because I couldn't stand the silence of the house. I sat down on the bench next to the flagpole and watched as people trickled in one by one or two by two. I saw Jeremy Fox, who was in my Algebra class last year, and I watched him. His shoe was untied, and he was running towards one of his friends. Should he trip, his pride wouldn't be the only thing hurt. I'm sure I could have simply called out for him to tie his shoe, but what's the point of having special abilities if you're not going to use them?

I kept my head down, my hair falling lightly over my face, and I concentrated on Jeremy's steps. I tried to remember what I had done the night I got Dinah to call me, or at least, I think I had done that. I thought to him as I imagined his running footsteps, 'Jeremy, tie your shoe.'

The poor boy looked spooked, but he stopped running long enough to look down at his feet. He looked around, and after he thought no one was looking at him, he slowly bent to tie his shoe. My hands felt shakey then, and I was glad that I was sitting down. I wasn't sure if I could have stayed upright had I done that while standing, remembering the weak feeling I had when I had summoned Dinah's phone call. I kept my head down as I thought, then slowly brought my shaking hands under my chin. I had to admit, that was pretty cool. Though I know I've already thrown my thoughts out to two people, I thought it was amazing to do it on purpose and see the reaction once I had. I wished I had seen Dinah's face when she felt suddenly that she had to call me right away. Was she scared? For me?

A hand gripped my right shoulder and I must have jumped really high. Up the flagpole. "Hey, easy. I didn't mean to freak you out. Are you okay?" It was Dinah, of course, standing over me with a mischievious grin that said she had, in fact, intended to scare the be-jesus out of me. I nodded.

"Yeah. How was your break?" Dinah shrugged.

"It was pleasent," she said, "Well, once we turned off the smoke detectors and cleared the place of smoke. Shoulda known Helena's a disaster in the kitchen, but did we listen? No. We let her cook some dessert thing her mother used to make, and she put it on too high of a temperature to make it cook faster." I giggled. "What was left of it could be used to draw stick figures on the inside of cave walls." I couldn't help it, I laughed harder at that. Dinah seemed pleased with herself, as if making me laugh was her only goal for that day. "What about your holiday?" she asked me as she sat down on the bench next to me. I turned my head to look at her.

"Really good," I lied, my eyes flickering down, then back to her, hoping she wouldn't know that I was lying to her. "My grandparents on my father's side and my grandpa on my mother's side came up from the west coast and we had a really big feast. It was nice."

"Your grandparents are from the west coast?"

"Yeah, so am I. I lived in San Diego until I was eleven when I moved up here where my uncle Leonard owns a bar." I told her. I saw a look of recognition at the sound of my uncle's name, as if she already knew what I was talking about.

"I never would have guessed you for a California girl. We don't really talk much about our pasts," Dinah surprised me by saying. She sounded almost sad that we didn't, even though it was like an unspoken rule that we don't ask, don't tell about our pasts unless it comes up. At least, that is how I took it ever since Dinah told me about her mother. 'That is partly because I don't remember most of it.' I thought bitterly. Instead, I playfully rolled my eyes.

"I'm not a California girl. I ride subways, not waves. I'm terrified of water. Well, not baths and showers, but you get the idea. I don't think I ever even learned to swim because I was so scared." I told her.

"I'll keep that in mind if there is ever a pop quiz." She said sarcastically, and I stuck my tongue out at her. "Oooh, I'm hurt, I'm scared, I'm going to fall down dead because you, Gabby, have stuck your tongue out at me. Help me... Hellllp... meee..." Dinah made a display of melting like the Wicked Witch of the West, then stood to her full height. I grinned at her. She stared at me for a second, considering me, or just starting a staring contest that I wasn't sure I was winning or losing. I certainly liked this playfullness that Dinah seemed to add to the day. It made my weekend seem worth bearing. I wondered, though, about the change of mood. What got her so happy? What could I do to keep her mood like this?

"Are you ready to walk to class? It's kind of cold out here." I nodded and slowly stood up. The shakiness was gone and I was glad for that as I walked slowly with Dinah to her class, then went to my own as the warning bell sounded.

Later in our lab class, Dinah and I sat together, whispering and passing notes when we should have been paying attention to what was on the overhead projector. Eventually, we'd forgone the notes all together, and were sitting close enough to hear the whispering between us. I must say, I really liked the intimacy we seemed to share in that space with our heads together and talking. "So, how are things with G-I-N-A?" she asked.

"I told you, nothing's going on between us." I replied.

"Then why is she staring at you?" I looked towards the black board, and sure enough, Gina was staring at me with a smile that clearly said 'You get 'er Tiger.' She quickly looked down and wrote something on her paper. When Dinah was searching in her backpack for something, probably some paper or a pencil or something to make it look like she wasn't being bad and talking to me in class, Gina held up a piece of paper that said 'G+D=?' in big bold lettering. I shook my head and mouthed deliberately, 'Nothing'.

Unfortunately, it was true, but Gina didn't seem to believe me. She wrote furiously, then held it up quickly. 'Then why are you flirting?' I frowned, my look saying that we were not at all flirting. Gina shook her head.

"Making goo-goo eyes at each other..." Dinah whispered playfully in my ear.

I tried not to shudder at the feel of her breath on my skin.

"Just like you were making goo-goo eyes at Matt while he made goo-goo eyes at his CD player..." I whispered back. Dinah laughed silently, and hit me playfully on the shoulder. I hit her back, slightly harder.

"Ow! I barely touched you, and you just socked me in the arm!" She whispered in what I'm sure would have been a whine if she was any louder.

"You're just a wuss. The extra pain was for scaring the shit out of me earlier," I said. She brought her middle and thumb fingers together and flicked me on the thigh. I hissed and rubbed it. "What was that for?"

"Fun," she replied with a grin as I glared at her, but I couldn't help but grin back as a tought occured to me. I raised my right hand as if to flick her on her shoulder but she went to block it, and as she moved both hands upward, I flicked her with my left hand on her thigh just as hard as she had done to me. "Ow!" Dinah squeaked, making the teacher, Mrs. Dean, look up at us just in time to see me lower my hands.

"Gabby, thank you for volunteering to clean Bunson burners after school today."

"Aww, damn it." It wasn't as if I had any plans for after school except for the turkey sandwhich made not so delicately with the rest of the leftovers, and my English assignment, which was to attempt to write a sonnet (I'd already started it last period and it was almost done, so I didn't need to spend a huge amount of time on it), but cleaning Bunson burners that were overused and poorly treated didn't sound like the ending to what shaped up to be a pretty good day. I heard some of the class laugh at my small outburst, and I sighed.

"I'll see you at two forty five, Miss Andrews."

"Okay," I said in a low tone.

I walked from my last class to Dinah's last class, where I usually walked her to the flagpole, to find she had already left. I searched the school a little, from my class to hers, from her locker to mine, to Ms. Gordon's classroom to the flagpole. She wasn't at any of these places. I felt sad that I didn't get to talk to Dinah before serving detention. I walked slowly, dragging myself back to the lab classroom to serve my time. Mrs.

Dean pretty much told me what to clean with and let me have at it. At three o'clock, almost on the dot, the door opened and I looked up to see Dinah in a white t-shirt and jeans with torn and faded hems on the legs. "If I got any cleaning supplies on Helena's clothes, I wouldn't live to attend your little slumber party on Friday night." I smiled.

"You went all the way home, changed clothes and came back?" I asked.

"Well, I couldn't let you take the fall because we were horseplaying. What kind of a friend would I be?"

"I'm touched." I said softly, and I meant it.

"Yeah yeah. So what are we doing?" There was a little bit of color on Dinah's face, and I was surprised to see it. She was blushing! I pretended I didn't see the blush or feel her slight embaressment.

"Uh, cleaner good, but stay away from that cabnet with them." I replied in somewhat a caveman grunt as I pointed towards the back. "Something about kaplowie."

"No more school? No more homework? No more dealing with retards who insist on calling me Zipper Girl like it wasn't SO last month? I say kaplowie, baby!" Her enthusiasm made me smile.

"As much of a pyro as I can be at times," which was a lie, since I hated fire as much as I feared water, "I'm pretty sure that my twenty dollar a week allowance isn't enough to cover the cost of rebuilding the school, so let's keep the kaplowie to a minimum, shall we?"

"Aww..." I laughed again, and we spent the rest of that time cleaning the Bunson burners in silence.

Dinah called me later that week to inform me that she couldn't stay the night (and possibly the weekend) over that weekend. It was because she had to go to some charity event Ms. Gordon wanted her to attend. She sounded like she didn't really want to go, but in her voice it sounded like she was saying 'duty calls'. I told her that I understood, and she promised to tell me how it went. Not long after that New Gotham went insane, litterally.