Page 7 of Rules for Rule Breaking
Bobby turned bright red. “The last day of school.”
“Is she on vacation?”
“No.”
“Haveyoubeen on vacation?”
“No.”
Winter laughed so hard she snorted. “So what makes you think you’re dating?”
Bobby folded his arms and huffed. “It’s none of your business.”
“She doesn’t live that far from you. I think you could walk to her house.”
“Drop it already. Why do you care so much?”
Winter mimed zipping her mouth shut and dropped the subject even though she still had so many thoughts. She couldn’t imagine Bobby as a boyfriend. Freshman year, he petitioned the band director over and over again because he wanted to be first chair for trombone. But there was a kid named Ethan who was far better than he was, so Bobby, wanting to be the best, switched to flute and became first chair instantly because that whole section was a tragedy. But Bobby was so miserable he claimed to have lost his flute and switched back to trombone. Winter still maintained that Bobby lost that flute up his ass.
Bobby’s girlfriend, Jacqueline Charlotte Turner, wasn’t any better. She thought that because she had opinions on everything, everyone wanted to hear them.
“Anyway,” Bobby said in an “I’m changing the subject” kind of way.
“What are we going to do?”
“Well, we’re not going together. That’s for sure. We’d kill each other within an hour.”
“Within a minute.”
“Stop arguing with me.”
“I’m not! I’m agreeing with you.”
“Fine. Whatever,” Bobby huffed.
The sun was setting, and Winter had fresh mosquito bites on her arms and legs. They had always been especially drawn to her for whatever reason. Her doctor told her eating a lot of garlic and onions would help, but he would have known that wasn’t an issue if he had ever tried Korean food.
“Soonhee-yah, come help me. Daeseong-ah, you too,” Halmeoni called from the door.
Winter threw up a peace sign at Bobby and headed inside. He immediately came following after her like a lost puppy. His shadow obscured hers in the doorway. Halmeoni instructed them to set up the room for the weekly bingo game. It was going to start soon, and the seniors were already filing in.
Halmeoni pointed to the supply closet where the spinning bingo apparatus that held the balls was stored. The bingo cage alone might not have been so horrible to move, but because it was connected to a clunky cart, it had to be maneuvered by at least two people. Together, Winter and Bobby rolled the bingo cage out of the closet. They had to stop when it caught on the door threshold. Instead of redirecting it, Winter pushed it harder, which made it jump up over the threshold and roll over Bobby’s foot. He cursed loudly, drawing the attention of several elderly ladies who were probably mentally adding his name to the tops of their Sunday prayer lists. Winter wanted to make fun of him further, but he did such a great job of embarrassing himself all on his own.
They parked the cart next to the stage by the windows, then went to set out the food on the tables in the back. They were mostly things you could get at Costco in bulk, such as a thousand cookies in animpossible-to-open plastic container and a punch bowl that had been filled with a sugar-free powdered drink that tasted a lot like cold medicine.
Winter watched Bobby lay out the napkins in perfect little piles. He looked too pleased with himself, so she took the top napkins off each stack and folded them into origami bunnies. Bobby scoffed. He attempted to fold his napkins as well, but he didn’t know how to do origami and ended up turning them into wads of nothing. He threw his failed attempts in the garbage can, and Winter smiled to herself.
“Soon-hee, Dae-seong. Come here,” Halmeoni said in a tone that made Winter feel like she was in trouble. The two of them walked over, shoulders hunched.
“Yes, Halmeoni?” they said in unison.
“You disappoint me.”
Winter and Bobby didn’t have much in common, but the one thing they knew they did was that they didn’t like to disappoint.
“Did we do something wrong?” Winter asked. She had never been in any real trouble before. She didn’t know what to expect. Her worst infraction to date had been the time her parents invited their church’s pastor to dinner, and when asked about what she was learning in school, she used the term “galactic bulge” one too many times. Umma and Appa grounded her for approximately twelve minutes before feeling bad and calling it off.
Bobby’s mouth dropped open. “Is it the napkins? I can learn how to fold them.”
