Page 11 of Love me, Maddie Mendoza

“What?”

“All legit fields of study.” She claimed.

“Egyptology?”

Maddie sighed and turned to me. “I don’t know, Z. Pete thinks is silly, that I should do something practical, you know? But I…how amazing is studying ancient Egypt? How incredible would be to speak in Latin?” She shrugged. “I know is stupid and careless…”

“But you want to do it.” I finished for her.

She nodded slowly. “I’m leaning toward Egyptology. I talked to a few professors, and they gave me literature for research… God, am I destroying my future?”

I scoffed. “Come on Maddie, if anyone can make ancient Egypt interesting again it’s you.”

She laughed. “It was always interesting!”

“Just follow what you think is right.” I shrugged. I always followed her advice. Why wouldn’t she?

“I guess it won’t be a surprise for people,” she said. “I mean, I wouldn’t be good at accounting.” Her nose wiggled in a cute way.

I shook my head. “Yeah, god forbid you mess with people’s money. Now tell me all about your major, ok?"

“Aye, aye, calling to order a super special meeting. All present say, aye.”

I looked around the table where I sat alone, confused. My gaze turned back to Jason and his toy gavel.

“Aye?”

“Where’s Nick?” Jason whispered for no reason.

I shrugged. I had texted them both at the same time and requested a meeting, but nothing was ever justsimplewith Jason. He took house meetings seriously, and it wasn’t every day we wanted to deal with a toy gavel. I caught him weeks ago checking on a judge’s wig to purchase online. He promised it was just a joke, yet I inspected every package that came through the post.

“We can’t start without Nick.” He told me.

“I know. We can wait.”

Jason put his gavel on the table with care and then turned to me, relaxing on the back on the chair. “What’s up, man?”

“I’m good. Nelson’s class is still kicking my ass…”

“He’s a hard-ass, did you-”

But the rest of that sentence I’d ever know. The rolling of Nick’s chair down the ramp announced his arrival to the kitchen. Jason gripped the gavel again and positioned himself with his chin up in his best judge pose. I rolled my eyes.

“What’s up?” Nick said, tipping his chin up to us. Jason cleared his throat like someone who demanded a little decorum. Nick took one look at the gavel and sighed.

I became friends with Nick first. He was in some of my classes, but we never really talked. It was later when I caught his team at practice playing wheelchair basketball on the Statham court that he blew my mind. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen, so of course, we became friends.

Jason came later, during our second year. He was the rash I couldn’t get rid of. For no good reason, he decided that Nick and I were his new friends and before we protested; the three of us were living together in a three-bedroom house off campus. That was Jay, loyal to a fault. He wore his heart on his sleeve. He found us such a perfect house, to this day it baffled me. It came equipped with ramps and lowered cabinets for wheelchair use. At just the right price and complete with a backyard? I never said it a lot, but Jason was a blessing in disguise. Even when the disguise was his judge posture and a toy gavel.

I rubbed my face, forcing myself to get into the game so we could move on with our lives. “Please, Jason, start the meeting.”

Nick went to the other side of the table and watched unblinkingly while Jason cleared his throat. Three knocks of the gavel on the wooden table, and it was started. “Aye, aye, calling to order a super special meeting. All present say, aye.”

“Aye.”

“Aye.”

“Dearly beloved…”

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