I got a surprise, though, when it was nearly time for me to head out of school to Ivy's. I gathered up all my stuff, and

then went to check out, as usual, in the office, expecting Ivy to be there to pick me up.

Daniel was there, leaning against the front counter, talking with Mrs. Wilson, the secretary.

He greeted me with a casual, "Hey, brat," and then finished listening to Mrs. Wilson talking about her two-year-old grandson,

Ellis, and how he'd managed to climb nearly half-way up the backyard tree.

"He's full of adventure," Mrs. Wilson was saying, fondly. Usually, Mrs. Wilson is not so talkative. She mostly acts as though

she's irritated at even having to be there at the school at all. She's usually nice enough to me, but, not like she was being right

at this moment, with Daniel. She was friendly, and darn animated.

"I'm here to get ya," Daniel said to me, as we prepared to go.

"Where's Ivy?" I asked.

"I'll tell you about it outside," Daniel said, gesturing towards the doorway of the office. "Take care, Mrs. Wilson," he told

her.

Mrs. Wilson fairly beamed at Daniel. "You too, Daniel," she said. "It was good to visit with you, and catch up a bit."

"It sure was," Daniel said, smiling in return at Mrs. Wilson.

When we were outside of the office, and Daniel had closed the door, we stood there, in the hallway for a moment or so.

"How come you're here?" I asked him.

"Ivy had to go out of town. To go see her folks. Her mom took a fall, I guess," Daniel said.

"Oh, no," I said, feeling concerned. "Is it bad?"

"I don't think it's too serious. Crane said she was banged up, but nothin' was broken, or anything. He was gonna go

with Ivy," Daniel said.

"I'm glad he's going with her," I said.

"Yeah. I was thinkin' I'd drive into Stockton. I need to pick up some stuff. You okay with ridin' along? We could get

some pizza," Daniel offered.

"Pizza sounds good," I said. If I was going to have an afternoon off of work, (sorry as I was about Ivy's mom), then

I was thinking that hanging out with Daniel and eating some pizza sounded like fun. I even had the hopeful thought that

maybe we could have a more serious talk. About Jill.

"I don't think I've ever seen Mrs. Wilson so effervescent," I told him as we reached the outer doors.

"Effervescent, huh?" Daniel asked, raising an eyebrow at my choice of words.

"She likes you," I said. "She never acts like that with any of the students."

"Well, I can't say as I blame her for that," Daniel said. "I mean, teenagers are a general pain in the ass."

"Hey!" I protested, slugging him lightly on his arm.

I was smiling at him, feeling light-hearted, right up until we were close to Daniel's truck. And, I saw Jill sitting inside.

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I halted for a moment, and Daniel nearly walked into me.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

What was I supposed to say? Something along the lines of (you didn't tell me that your girlfriend, who is vastly annoying to

me, was part of this Stockton afternoon visit). Or, (you made it sound, by your invitation inside the school, that it was you and I that

were going to hang out).

But, of course, I couldn't say any of that stuff. I mean, maybe I could have, but it would have sounded ridiculous, and bratty, and

any number of other things. So, I shook my head, and said, "Nothing," when Daniel asked me what was wrong.

I went around to the other side of the truck to get in, thinking to myself that I'd been dumb to not think of Jill being with

Daniel. Unless he was out on the ranch somewhere working, I'd noticed that Jill was never very far from his side.

When I opened the passenger door to get into the truck, Jill was sitting in the middle of the truck seat, filing her nails with an

emery board.

"Hey, Harlie," she greeted me, in her Southern accent.

"Hi," I answered.

Once we were headed out of Angels Camp, and on the highway towards Stockton, Jill began to talk. She spoke of some people

she and Daniel knew in Nashville, and things that they had done. She would interrupt herself to ask me, "Did you hear that story, Harlie?" at least twice.

Both times I shook my head and said, "Nope."

"You'll have to come and visit us in Nashville," Jill was saying then. "I think you'd really like it if you got to see it." I'd taken a pack of crackers out of my

backpack to munch on, and I nearly choked on my first bite when she said that.

First of all, I resented that us and the casual way that she said it. Secondly, her throwing an invite out that way, as if she had

the right to issue it, still made me think of last spring, when I'd taken off to Tennessee.

I settled for, "Um, sure," as an answer, praying that she would just drop it, right there.

Daniel said, "She likes to go more for the surprise value when she visits. Isn't that right, squirt?" he asked, leaning forward a

bit to survey me, a grin on his face.

I felt as though I was going to explode. I mean, seriously, my head was gonna go POOF! I could not, could not, believe

that Daniel was bringing that up, that he was about to, apparently, tell Jill about what had happened last spring.

I glared at Daniel. I clamped my lips shut tight, and told him with everything in my eyes, to stop talking.

Daniel got that glare. He gave me a wrinkled forehead sort of look, though, obviously puzzled by my reaction.

"What?" he asked me. As in, (what's wrong with you).

I couldn't believe he could be so insensitive.

Before I could formulate a response, Jill sort of perked up and said, "It seems like there's a story here."

Daniel was still looking at me, while I inwardly fumed, and Jill, darn her, said, "Come on. Let me in on it. What's

the story?"

"There's no story," I said, barely able to keep from snapping at her.

I sat back in my seat, still fuming.

Jill flicked a glance at me, and then at Daniel again. "Well, okay," she said, but I knew that her 'okay' really didn't mean 'okay'.

The rest of the way to Stockton I was silent, only answering when Jill directed a question my way. And then, I only responded

with the minimum of words.

Once in Stockton, Daniel went to the mall, where he parked the truck. We walked inside, and he headed towards one of the

hardware stores, where he went in. He bought some stuff, a sack of a certain type of nails, and a book of blueprints. I got a quick look

at it, and saw that it was about building some sort of shed on wheels or something like that. After that Jill said she wanted

to go to the jewelry store. Not like the fancy jewelry store, with real diamond stuff, but the fun sort of store, with girly earrings and costume

jewelry, and glittery pillows and all that.

The food court was just down a bit, and I said, "I'm gonna go sit at the food court," to Daniel.

"Don't you wanna go in there?" Daniel asked, gesturing towards the 'girly' store.

"No," I said shortly. "I've got a headache. The lights in there will make it worse."

"Do you think you're blood sugar is high?" Daniel asked, looking concerned.

"No," I said curtly. "I'll wait over there for you and Jill," I said, and turned around to walk towards the food court. I resisted the temptation to

look back to see if Daniel was watching me.

I ordered a Coke, an extra-large, and sat down at one of the tables. I was still feeling all wrought up. I was sooo mad. And truthfully,

I was hurt. How could Daniel have even thought of telling Jill the truth behind my impromptu trip to Nashville last year?

How could he-

I saw Daniel come out of the 'glitter girl' shop and start towards me.

I picked up my cup and starting slurping the cold Coke down, trying not to look at Daniel. He came over and sat down across the

table from me. At first he didn't say anything at all, then in a sudden burst he said, "If you have a headache, you shouldn't be

drinkin' Coke, should you? Can't that make your blood sugar spike?"

He was right. Obviously, it could. I wasn't gonna say that, though. So, I just shrugged in answer.

Daniel gave me a look across the table, and said, in about as direct a fashion as a person could, "What's your problem?"

What was my problem? I set my cup down with a snap.

"I can't believe you were gonna-" I began, and then paused.

"Gonna what?" he asked, looking genuinely perplexed. "What was I gonna do?"

"Tell Jill," I said, in a snappy tone.

"Tell Jill what?" he asked, and then he must have realized, because he sort of leaned back in the chair. "You mean about

you comin' to Nashville on the bus-"

"Yes!" I snapped.

"Is it a secret or somethin'? Because I sure didn't think that it was-" Daniel began.

"Never mind!" I said, and turned in my chair so that I wasn't looking at him any longer, but at the people walking by. I was fuming.

"Hey," Daniel said, and when I didn't answer, and didn't look at him, he said it again. "Hey. Look at me."

I looked at him, but didn't twist my body to face him. My expression was, I knew, confrontational.

Daniel was studying my face, wrinkling his forehead. "How come you're so mad about it?"

"If you don't know-" I began, and then I looked away again, pointedly. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"Well, I do," Daniel said. He said it quietly, but there was no mistaking his meaning. He leaned forward. And said, again,

"Look at me. Now."

I whirled to face him. "What?!" I demanded, rudely.

"Don't talk to me like that," Daniel said. He didn't sound angry so much as puzzled. "I'm tryin' to have a conversation with

ya, so I can understand what's goin' on in your head. There's no reason for you to be so hateful. If I've done somethin'-then

just tell me."

I let out a long breath. "I don't want Jill to know. About how I ran off and rode the bus out to see you last spring."

"Okay," Daniel said, still looking puzzled.

"It's personal," I went on. "It's not something I'm proud of. It's private, Daniel."

"I was just teasin' you, about how you made a surprise visit," Daniel said. "I thought enough time had passed that

we could joke about it-"

"Maybe," I said. "Maybe we could joke about it, once in awhile, or something. But, not to anybody else. Not to Jill."

"Okay," Daniel said, again. I flicked my eyes up at him, and he was looking still somewhat confused. "The lid's on it. No

worries," he said.

"It's too late now," I said.

"What do you mean, it's too late?" he asked.

"Jill knows something happened, from what you said. She's probably gonna keep asking about it," I insisted.

"So, I'll just tell her you don't wanna talk about it. That I spoke when I shouldn't have," Daniel said.

"I don't think that will work," I said.

"Why not?" Daniel asked, and I could tell he was rapidly passing being just irritated.

"I just don't." I wrapped my fingers around my Coke cup. "And, anyway, you'll just tell her later, probably, when I'm not

around."

Daniel was silent for such a long few moments, that I looked up at him. He was regarding me with an expression of-well, something.

Partly stunned. Partly just downright ticked off.

"You think I'd do that?" he asked, sounding incredulous.

"I don't know," I said, and I saw then that I'd hurt his feelings. Just like he had mine, earlier.

There was a tense, uncomfortable silence then. For more than a few moments.

"I just don't want her to know-that I rode the bus all that way, and how mad you were at me, and-all of that stuff," I

said.

I felt my face get all hot in embarrassment, as Daniel and I exchanged a look then. I knew that he knew very well just

what it was that would have me the most embarrassed for Jill to hear about.

"I won't say anything more than what I have already," Daniel said. "Not to Jill. Not to anybody. It's not somethin' I go

around talking about. I wouldn't do that to you."

"Okay," I said.

Daniel sighed. "Okay."

We sat there for a few moments in silence.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Jill came out of the store she'd been in, and started towards us,

carrying a big bag.

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