Thursday
"You're not usually in the food line."
Jamie looks up as he shuffles forward. "Uh, yeah…I don't have a packed lunch today so…"
"What, your mommy didn't make you a five-star turkey sandwich today?" Eddie teases.
"My mommy has the stomach flu," Jamie informs her in the same taunting tone. "And I got up too late to make anything myself. What are you doing in line? Your personal chef had the morning off?"
"It's spaghetti day. I always buy lunch on spaghetti day."
"Overcooked pasta and watery tomato sauce. Yum."
"Garlic bread," she says. "It's all about the garlic bread."
He lets out a small laugh - really he's just glad she's not ignoring him anymore, even if all the small encounters they've had in the last few days have been as pointless as this one. She's still been quiet, a far cry from the animated ball of energy he got to know over winter break. But this is the first time she's been the one to initiate their conversation in weeks and he has to remind himself to contain his smile at this development.
"Got any plans for the long weekend?" he asks, not ready to fall back into silence yet.
"Um, not really. Next week is the regional swim meet so this weekend we're just supposed to relax."
"Oh. Nice."
"You?"
"Debate tournament," he tells her. "It's all impromptu - where we don't know the topic until right before we go onstage, they just give us a few articles and that's all we have to go on."
"Isn't that, like, really hard?"
"Yeah. But it's fine. Thomas and I, we're really good. We'll win," he shrugs breezily.
"Well good. Because you already know I can't be friends with losers."
"Friends?"
"Yeah, we're friends. Don't be weird."
"I just-" he chuckles. "That's news to me. Good news."
"See, that - that's being weird. Stop it."
"I'm not being weird!"
She rolls her eyes, narrowing her gaze over her shoulder before she steps up to the glass-shielded counter. "Everything, please - and can I have extra garlic bread?"
Wednesday
Eddie is so focused on the math worksheet in front of her that she nearly jumps out of her skin at the sudden feeling of fingers tapping against her shoulder.
She glances first at Lauren and Amy - they're supposed to be helping her with this group assignment, but they've been more concerned about restaurant options for Saturday morning's bus trip to the regional swim meet - before she cranes to see Jamie standing behind her.
"Sorry," he says. "Didn't mean to scare you."
"What is it?" she asks.
"Did you figure out the antiderivative for the last one on the second page?"
"Go ask Ms. Chapple," Amy tells him dismissively.
"Thomas is but she's busy." He nods over to where Thomas waits against the wall with two classmates while Ms. Chapple helps another confused student.
"This isn't even that hard," Eddie mutters.
"See, you're the only person who thinks that, which is why I came straight to the expert."
She feels her features melt into an easy smile. "Could you say that one more time? Is anyone recording this? I'm the expert."
Lauren rolls her eyes, though Eddie doesn't miss the hint of a smirk that surfaces on her face. "Do you have a math question?" she teases. "Or did you just come over here to grin at her like a dumbass?"
"I have a question!" he insists.
"Then ask it!"
"Well, for this one-" Jamie sets his paper on Eddie's desk and leans one arm over her shoulder to point "-how do you deal with the stuff inside the parentheses?"
"I just distributed this term to get rid of the parentheses altogether," Eddie explains. "Then you can just go term by term like all the other ones."
"Oh! Okay. Right."
He crouches next to Eddie, still using her desk as he works out the problem on his paper. She sits back to watch him work and she can feel Lauren and Amy's eyes on her. She ignores them until Jamie stands up, shifting an expectant glance between Eddie's face and his paper.
"Yeah, that's what I got," she tells him.
"Okay. Good. Thanks."
"Sure."
"Well, we've got to finish our worksheet," Lauren says.
"Yeah. Of course." He rushes to gather his packet, holding it up to signal to Thomas that he's got the answer to their issue. With one last small smile he weaves around the desks to get back to his own in the front of the classroom.
Lauren watches him go and then she leans forward on her elbows. "He's an idiot, Eddie."
"He's got a point – way faster to ask me for help than wait in line. I'm the expert, after all."
"Ms. Chapple did almost the exact same problem on the board – look at the last example in the notes," Amy says. "You really think Jamie Reagan needed help doing it by himself?"
"Since when do you pay attention to the notes?"
Lauren lets out an incredulous laugh, shaking her head. "If he really needed help, he's an idiot. And if he didn't, well, he's still an idiot."
Monday
Eddie sees him at her locker from all the way down the hall, trying to look casual as he leans against the wall there, though his searching eyes give away his excited anticipation. They light up when he sees her and he pushes off the lockers to stand up straight. "So? How'd you do?"
"Second!"
"Second?" he cries, withdrawing the arms he'd been extending for a hug. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Unacceptable, Janko."
"Don't even talk. You came in third at your debate thing last week."
"In the hardest kind of tournament! Against two of the top five finishers at states last year!"
"I thought you were a top five finisher at states last year."
"I was, but not in that kind of debate."
"Move," Eddie orders, shouldering him aside so she can reach her locker. "The only girl who beat me has a scholarship to one of the best swimming schools in the country-"
"Was it that St. Agnes girl?"
"Yeah," she drawls suspiciously. "What, have you been doing your research on high school swimming?"
"I watched her beat you that one time," he reminds her. "And I watched you beat her at districts. What's wrong, couldn't do it again?"
"I didn't eat enough garlic bread the night before," Eddie jokes.
"Garlic bread, magic fuel…?"
"That and ice cream."
"I should've known."
"And hey, I learned, so at states next week I'll be ready to go."
"But maybe you should sabotage that St. Agnes girl, just to be safe," he says. "Nothing major, just…I don't know, hide her goggles or something."
"Cheating?" she gasps. "Jamie! I didn't know you had that in you."
"It's not cheating!" he laughs, hands up in a display of innocence. "It's facilitating. Shifting the odds in your favor."
"More like they'd shift my ass right out of the pool if they found out I did something like that."
"So don't let anyone find out. I'll help you. I come from a family of cops, I know how to get away with a crime."
"So you admit it is wrong."
"I thought you wanted to win! Just trying to help."
"Well. Thanks for the suggestion. But no thanks." She grins at him as she slams her locker shut.
"Here if you need me," he says. "Hey, do you want to go to the library until first block?"
"Not today, I have to go argue with my Spanish teacher about my last test grade so…"
"Oh," he says, his face falling a little. "Señora Olsen?"
"Yep."
"Damn. Good luck."
She grimaces and he returns the expression with a sympathetic smile. "You'll be fine," he promises. "Just tell her you like that weird cactus poster behind her desk and she'll do anything you ask."
"I tried that once before and it didn't work," Eddie laments.
"Well then – eat some garlic bread and hide her goggles. Or her red pen, I guess. You'll beat her."
"You're really not helpful," Eddie groans, but her eye roll doesn't disguise the amusement on her face as she turns to walk away.
Friday
The snow started early this morning as what looked like an annoying flurry that would do little more than make the trip to school a little extra sloshy. But now it's coming down so hard that Jamie can't see the street outside his classroom window through the wall of white. Six or eight inches have accumulated just during the first two classes of the day and there is no sign that it'll slow down anytime soon.
"It's just a little snow, guys," the chemistry teacher sighs at the front of the room. "Let's focus and get through this chapter, hmm?"
But it doesn't help. The class buzzes over any attempts at a lesson as excited whispers speculate whether administration will close school early like that one storm two years ago, when they got two and a half days off while the public school students still had to trudge through eighteen inches of snow to get to class.
They don't have to wait long. Ten minutes before the end of third period, the schoolwide PA dings to life: "Attention teachers and students, due to the inclement weather, the school day will conclude at 11:45 at the end of fourth period. Lunch will still be served. We ask all students to leave campus no later than 12:30..."
The principal keeps talking but nobody hears the rest of the announcement over the explosion of excited conversation. There's no hope for finishing the lesson after that so the chemistry teacher doesn't even try to rein her students back in. They pack up and inch closer to the door, practically bursting into the hallway as soon as the bell rings.
The rest of the school is just as thrilled as Jamie's chemistry class. He concentrates on fighting his way through the jostling hallway crowd, muttering to himself about the chaos when they still have to get through one more class before they can go home…
"Jamie!"
Eddie is so short that he doesn't see her until she's elbowing her way into his tiny bubble of personal space. "What are you gonna do?" she asks, bouncing beside him as she pushes her way through the crowd. "Some of us, I think we're going to the park, go sledding or whatever, and then go over to Katie Bateman's because she's got a hot tub."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, so're you in? We just have to go meet Lauren, she'll drive us-"
"What, now?"
"Yeah! Come on!"
"But school isn't over yet."
"So? It's not like anyone's gonna do anything important before the early dismissal."
"I…"
Her hand finds his forearm and she tugs as they reach the library hallway, where a left turn will send him to fourth period history or going straight will take them past his locker on the way to the small student parking lot. "It'll be fun!" she cries. "Come onnnn!"
"Eddie," he groans, wincing, "I shouldn't - I shouldn't skip history. And I promised my grandpa we'd hang out tonight."
Confused disappointment clouds over her blue eyes. "You can hang out with your grandpa any night."
He offers an apologetic shrug that he knows will do nothing to appease her.
"But early dismissals never happen!" she cries. "Hurry up, everyone else is probably already leaving-"
"I'm sorry. I can't tonight."
She looks up at him for a moment, her brows twitching together into the slightest frown, but she doesn't push anymore. "Alright, fine," she sighs. "I should go then."
"Have fun," he tells her, and she leaves him with a small insincere smile as she heads for the door.
A/N: Poor, silly, clueless Jamie. Eddie might need to take matters into her own hands if Jamko is meant to be...