Cool With A "K" PART 13 - CHAPTER 4

In homeroom on thursday, Alice was sitting at her desk staring blankly into space. Her face was pale and her eyes were wide and glazed over.
I walked up to her, "Alice?" I said gently. "Are you alright?"
She jumped as if she hadn't seen me come up to her. "Oh! Angie! Um.... I-I'm fine. I'm fine."
I eyed her, a worried look probably covering my face.
Alice cleared her throat and looked at me, her eyes serious. "My mother is pregnant." 
The first thing I think of when someone says there mother is pregnant is "Congratulations! Yay! Baby!", but Alice looked so serious that I didn't know what to say. "Is that bad?"
Alice looked down, "Chad." She said. 
Oh.
I asked quietly, "Chad's baby?"
Alice nodded. Chad is her step dad. Her real dad, John Coleman, died in a bus crash five years ago when Alice was eleven. Alice was nice to Chad, but she had never been able to entirely except him into the family, which I can completely understand. Alice loved her dad, they were really close. Now I understood.
"Oh." I said softly. 
Alice nodded again, her eyes tearing up. I put my arm around her and she sniffed. "I know I should be happy for my mom, but.... I-I just..... I find it hard to except Chad as part of my family and it sometimes seems like he tries just a little too hard to earn my trust. I mean, I trust him, but...."
"I know...." I said gently. "But he's not your dad."
Alice nodded and patted her on the back, "I'll see you in third period."
"See you."


I sat down in Science next to Chris and Mouse. Chris studied my face and said, "Hey, you okay?"
I nodded, "Um, yeah. I'm fine. I'm just worried about.... Alice."
Chris and Mouse looked at me curiously and I sighed. "She might want to tell you two personally. Er, tell Chris....." Mouse pouted as I said this. Mouse likes secrets. Mouse spreads secrets.


At lunch, I saw Chris tense next to me as Kathy walked by. He bent down closer to the table, trying to hide. "Oh my god oh my god oh my god pleaaaase don't walk this way. Please please please don't walk this way!" He whispered, eyeing the empty seat next to him.
Kathy walked right by us. "Hi Angie, Chris." She smiled her creepy 'flirty' smile and passed us.
Chris stood up suddenly, "Hey!" 
Kathy whirled around. "What?"
"You didn't sit down and start being all creepy and all I'm-gonna-kill-you-in-your-sleep and all HI CHRIS HOW ARE YOU TODAY!" Chris yelled stupidly.
Kathy looked around at all the staring people and said to Chris, "Hi. How was your day?"
Chris sat down, annoyed. "UHG! You did it wrong!"
"Should I sit down?"
"No!"
Kathy looked confused and walked away.
"I thought you didn't like Kathy?" I said. 
Chris sighed, "I don't. It just kind of worried me that she got out of schedule, so I reacted."
We all stared at him. Chris was afraid of Kathy, but he is also a perfectionist. He hates when 
surprising things that he doesn't have time to prepare for happen. Kathy not stalking him was kind of a new thing that was a bit hard for his brain to process.


When I got home, I opened the door only to see Alice and Chris playing SingStar. They were singing Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, which is Chris's favorite song. Jamie and her friend, 
Crystal, were sitting on the couch, watching them sing. "Hi, Angie!" Jamie said.
Chris and Alice looked at me but didn't stop singing. It was funny because in their duet, Alice kept stumbling over the words, while Chris knew the entire song. Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh! Caught in a bad romance! Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah! Roma-Roma-ma-ah! Ga-ga-ooh-la-la! Want your bad romance!
I laughed and sat next to Jamie. Crystal leaned over and whispered, "These people are freaking me out." Jamie and I laughed.
When the song ended, Chris and Alice slapped a high-five and Chris handed me his mic. "Sing." 
"What?!" I said. 
Chris smiled and Alice said, "Come on, Ange!"
"What about you, Crystal?" Chris said, Alice holding out her mic to Crystal. 
"Uh- Sure." Crystal said, glancing at Jamie. Jamie laughed and gestured for her to get on with it.
"Why is this all Lady Gag a and Rihanna and Gwen Stefani crap?" I said as I searched through the song library. 
"We found a way to send in songs from Chris's iPod to SingStar." Alice said.
"Oh." I said, picking Paparazzi by Lady Gaga.
We sang it, I was amazing, Crystal wasn't bad. Everyone clapped for us at the end. We all sat in various places in the room and talked.
"Doesn't Chris feel weird about being the only boy?" I heard Crystal whisper to Jamie. 
Jamie shook her head, "Nope." Crystal didn't know, but she was bound to find out if she hung out with us I don't know, maybe two, three more times.
Jamie started talking about someone named Eddie and Crystal blushed. Jamie told us about how she, Crystal, and Jesse had to babysit the devil yesterday (Jamie's six-year-old cousin). Chris giggled stupidly. Oh, she said 'Jesse'! My goodness! The drama!
"We had to watch Saw VI. She made us." Jamie said.
"Oh, I hate that movie!" Chris and Alice both said. They whirled to face each other and Chris said, "One, two, three! You owe me a soda!"
Alice laughed. "Uhg! Chris, you always win!"
"Is Alice Chris's girlfriend?" Crystal whispered to Jamie. No, no, silly.
"Ange," Chris said, "You do know you're wearing purple and orange in the same outfit, right?" Chris sighed, gesturing to my purple skinny jeans. "Cute, but, excuse me, not with that shirt." 
He gestured to my orange t-shirt and I rolled my eyes. "Thank you, Chris. Please excuse my outrageous fashion mistake, but dude, you're wearing a freaking sweater vest!"
"In fashion!"
"Where? At Nerds 'R' Us?"
Alice said, "Now, now. Don't argue, you two."
I couldn't help laughing when I saw the confusion on Crystal's face. What? She mouthed to Jamie. Poor girl, I guess she just didn't know us yet.
We talked for a while. Crystal observed as Alice started to take out her little blue box and start scrubbing the back of her chair. Chris touched her arm, "Honey, no one cleans the back of chairs in their spare time." Alice stopped scrubbing and put the box away.
Eventually, Crystal asked us if any of us had crushes. I exchanged a look with Chris and he smiled at me as if to say, "I know something you don't." 
What? I mouthed. 
Harold? Chris grinned at me. 
Oh, hell no! I shook my head violently. Jamie cocked her head at me, "You okay, Angie?"
"Uh, yeah! I mean, yeah I'm okay. N-no I don't have a crush! Crush! What a stupid word, ha ha ha!" Wow, I was almost as bad at fake laughter as Chris....
Crystal turned to Alice, "Alice?"
Alice smiled shyly but shook her head, "No, not particularly."
Jamie grinned at Crystal, "Eddieeeeeeeee." So that was who he was. 
Crystal blushed, "I do not!" Whoever Eddie was, I was sure she in fact did have feelings for him.
"Chris?" I said, smirking. 
Chris blushed. "Well..." Deja vu. We all leaned in closer.
"Come on, Chris. Everyone here knows except for Crystal." I pried.
Chris smiled coyly. "Okay. It's.... Jesse." Crystal snorted and Jamie elbowed her. Then Crystal blinked, putting the pieces together. Sometimes it amazes me how shocked 
some people seem when they find out Chris is gay.
"What about you, Jamie?" Alice said.
Crystal said, "Jeeessseeee?" She said Jesse's name the same way Jamie had said Eddie's name.
"WHAT?!" Jamie said, "Eewww! No!"
Chris's face fell as the possibility of competition appeared in his mind. I thought about this. Did Jamie really like Jesse? Was she just pretending not to like him? But, Chris said she beat Jesse up.... Then why would Crystal say that?
"I don't like anyone!" Jamie crossed her arms.
"You girls are all so defensive!" Chris said. "I told you who I had a crush on and none of you said who you did! This is a no-judgement game."
"Fine!" I said, Chris's ears pricking up. I sighed and looked around the circle. "Well, not 
necessarily anyone, but.... I kind of.... well.... Harold... seems.... nice. I mean-"
"I knew it!" Chris practically squealed. "I so knew it!" 
"What ever happened to 'no judgement game?'" I said loudly.
Chris caught himself. "I'm sorry, Angie...... I just totally knew it!"
"Chris,"
"Sorry."
"What? Angela loves Harold?" Leo stuck his head in the window. "Girls!" He fell face-first into the room. 
"Nice to see you too, stalker." Chris said, getting up to close the window behind Leo. Leo crawled over to our circle and sat down next to Crystal. "Hi." He said.
Crystal drew back a little, "Uh, hi."
Chris rejoined the circle and Leo said, "So, Angela loves Harold?" He snorted, "Why?"
"I don't love him!" I said loudly, annoyed. 
"You just like like him." Leo smirked. "But seriously, Ange, why him? Baaad taste."
"I still don't love you, Leo." I said flatly. Leo pouted. Maybe he thought that if he teased me enough I would get annoyed and become his girlfriend, which makes no sense, but some things just work better in Leo's world than it would in ours.
Chris broke in, "Do you like him because he blushes and can't stop stuttering every time you talk to him? Or because he was dazzled by your singing, which in reality sounded like someone was killing a goat."
"Oh, I don't know- Wait. What?" I don't love Harold. Geez, I shouldn't have said anything. Chris is going to hold this against me for the rest of my high school life. But Harold was nice. There was something I just liked about him, but I wasn't sure what it was. Was it that he freaked out every time he was around me? No, that couldn't be it. He eats his lunch in the bathroom? Ooh, how attractive. No. Uhhhh.....
Chris and Leo were kind of trying to figure it out for me. Chris because he wanted to help, Leo because he didn't. "Charm?" Jamie suggested. 
Chris pursed his lips, "No, not really. I like the kid though, he's nice."
Jamie and Alice oohed and Chris shook his head, "No, not like that. My loyalty is to Jesse." 
Crystal snorted again, Jamie shushing her.
"I don't like him." Leo said shortly. 
Chris turned to him, "Do you even know the kid?"
Leo didn't answer immediately and he drew back a little. "Chris, stop looking at me!"
Chris cocked his head to the side, "What do you mean?"
"I don't like it when you look at me."
"Oh, sorry." Chris said sarcastically, covering his eyes with his hands.
Leo smiled, as if saying that's better. "No, I don't know Harold, but I don't like him. He 
loves you, Angela."
"I know."
"And he might be wimpier than Chris." Leo said, grinning stupidly. Chris glared at him.
Chris's cat. Ger10, came in. Chris picked him up, "Oh, hello Ger10!" He said in his I'm-
talking-to-my-stupid-creepy-'adorable'-cat voice.
Chris sat with Ger10 in his lap, both Chris and the cat were grinning stupidly. That cat 
was so creepy. We all stared at him. "What? I can't hold my cat?"
I sneezed and Leo grabbed the cat. "No, you can't! Angela's alergic. Why do you have a cat, Chris? This cat could kill her." Or anyone for that matter. I thought.
"No, Leo. I'm fine. Give Chris his cat." I said, Leo handing Ger10 back to Chris. Chris 
petted the cat protectively and the cat seemed to glare at Leo with him. Leo held out his hand to pet Ger10. Ger10 didn't bite him, but it totally looked like it was scowling. Leo 
retracted, clearing his throat and sitting down by me. "That cat scares me." He said.
"Join the club, we have jackets."
"Well," Crystal said, "I guess we don't have to ask who Leo likes." She gestured to me.
"Nah," I said, "He likes 'em all."
"All the girls." Leo drew the word 'girls' out as if he had to make it clearer. He glanced at Chris and Chris rolled his eyes. Chris then leaned over to me and whispered, "I don't 
like him!"
I nodded, "I know."


That night, as I was leaving Chris's room (to say night-night to baby Chris), Chris bent down and looked under his bed.
"What are you doing?" I asked him.
Chris said, "Checking for Kathy, to make sure she's not hiding under my bed. I check 
every night."
I blinked, "Good night, Chris."
"'Night, Ange."