Page 86 of Something in Between

As soon as she pulls out one pan, I replace it with another. “Probably walking home,” I say.

“Yeah, well, they’re walking really slow,” she says. “Funny how long it takes when you know you have to do some work when you get home. You were the same way.”

“I’ve always done my chores,” I protest.

Scooping food from the pan onto a plate, Mom shakes her head. “When your brothers show up, tell them they can’t play any video games.”

“They’re not going to like that,” I say, wondering where Royce is.

He’s late for the party, and he’s never late. That’s one thing he learned from his mother. We’ve been texting each other, and I spoke to him on the phone a couple of times, but I haven’t seen him in days. Not properly. It’s starting to worry me, even though we haven’t fought or anything. He apologized a bunch of times about Mason’s behavior at Lo’s party, but I told him it was all right, and he seemed to believe me. I guess I should tell him how I really feel about Mason, but I don’t want to cause conflict. Besides, I don’t want to think about his jackass brother right now. This is my party.

Dad’s roped a couple of the girls into playing dominoes. He looks over and starts digging in. “Neneng?Why don’t you go clean your room? You must have some chores to do.”

“This is how you congratulate me?” I ask. “By putting me to work?”

“Exactly. Hard work makes a cheerleader strong,” Dad says, turning back to the game. “Girls, this is where I dominate your futures.”

Some of the other girls are already digging in to the food. Deandra seems to have the metabolism of the entire team and goes back for thirds. We don’t know how she keeps that small muscular frame so trim. She must be working harder than the rest of us. Or maybe all the clowning around she does burns more calories than I think.

Lexie must be thinking the same thing, because she says, “Did you not eat anything for the last month before Nationals?”

Deandra just smiles and talks with her mouth full. “You can’t let good food like this go to waste.” She turns to me. “My mother’s cooking is terrible. If I had this food around every day, I’d be five times my size.”

Royce finally shows up. I practically run into his arms but he just gives me a quick peck on the cheek when he walks into the kitchen. “Hey, babe,” he says distractedly. “Am I late?”

“A little,” I say. “Where’ve you been?”

He doesn’t answer and seems tense, like he doesn’t want to be here. He’s never like this. Does he not want to hang out with the cheerleaders? He knows Kayla, of course, but not any of the other girls. He takes a piece of lumpia from the tray. It’s his favorite. “I was with Mason,” he finally says.

“Everything all right?” I ask. Like I said, I’m not a big fan of Mason, but I try to be cool about it. If one of my brothers was having trouble, I would expect the same from Royce.

“Yeah, yeah, you know, Mason,” he says, waving off my words. “So what’s going on here? Food and girls? How can a guy want anything more?”

“Whatever,” I say, sticking my tongue out at him. I get jealous so easily. And I’m thrilled to see him. “I need something to drink. Want something?”

“I’m good,” he says, and finally grins at me. “You’re not wearing your cheer uniform.”

“Oh, you liked that, did you?” I put my hands on my hips and pretend to scold him.

He shrugs his shoulders boyishly, and my heart flips in my chest. He sits on a kitchen stool and I lean forward against his back, my arms around his neck, resting my chin on his head. It’s the most public we’ve been with our affection around my family, but I think they can handle it.

As soon as I slip away to get my drink, Kayla walks right up to him. As I pour some tea at the drink table, I listen to them talk to each other.

“Hey, Kayla,” he says, stretching out his hand to shake hers. “Nice to see you again.”

What a dork. What kind of high school guy shakes hands with a girl he’s met before? A politician’s son. That’s who. It’s probably automatic for him at this point.

“You too,” she says. “Glad you could make it. How’s your...”

“Good,” he interrupts. “We’re all good. You know?”

“Yeah. I better go check on the dominoes game. Jasmine’s dad usually needs to be watched so he won’t cheat,” Kayla says. “See you.”

“Yeah,” he says. “I’m sure I’ll see you at some point.”

What doesthatmean? Why is he going to see her? When? I walk back to Royce, thinking how odd it was that Kayla approached him. Maybe she was just trying to make him feel welcome, but I get the sense that something’s going on.

“What was that all about?” I ask.

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