I ran into Tonie as soon as I got to the gym.

She smiled at me. “Hi.”

“Did Mike yell at you too?” I asked wearily.

“No. I volunteered. I take it you didn’t?”

I laughed hollowly. “Hah. No.”

She smiled again. “But you’re here. That’s what matters,” she said, and pulled the heavy doors open. The scene inside made us stop in our tracks.

There were two boys and three girls from Mr. Swanson’s art class. And they were probably the only ones who’d be of any help out of the twenty or so people milling about.

“I had a feeling this would happen,” Tonie sighed. “The entire cheerleading squad and all their evil minions are here.”

“Where’s Mike?” I wondered aloud.

Tonie pointed wordlessly at the far end of the gym.

Buckets, brushes, and other stuff were piled untidily before the vandalized wall. Mike, seemingly unconcerned by all the noise around him, was lying flat on his back on the floor, his eyes closed and his hands under his head.

We went over and Tonie kicked him lightly in the side. “Wake up.”

He was wearing a dark green t-shirt spattered with paint and old, frayed jeans. He looked all set for a day of hard work. “I’m awake, just thinking,” he said, and cracked an eye open. “You came.”

“We thought you’d like a fully functional human being around,” I said dryly.

“Don’t insult these nice girls,” he said, motioning for Tonie to help him up.

I rolled my eyes. “Are you enjoying this?”

“Honestly, no.” He picked up his single crutch, which had been leaning against the wall. “Thanks,” he told Tonie, letting her go. “I guess it’s time to thin out the crowd.”

He cleared his throat and raised his voice. “All right people, listen up! We’re going to start working on the mural right now! We won’t be doing any real painting today. We’re just going to be prepping the wall. This black paint the vandals used is easy to scrape off. Then we’re going to paint the wall white. It won’t be all that complicated, but it will be messy. Now, I don’t want any slackers or whiners in this group so if you don’t like hard work, I want you to leave. Now.”

Several of the girls made faces but not one moved an inch.

Mike shrugged. “All right, then. Let me just say again that it will be messy. I hope you aren’t too attached to your pretty designer clothes because after today, the next place they’re going is the wastebasket.” He paused, studying their chagrin. “Unless you want to go home and change first.” He pointed at Tonie’s ugly shorts and t-shirt, worn especially for the ocassion. “It’d be best if you looked like her.”

They fled, leaving only the art people, Katie Tanner, Jana Larsen, Mike, Tonie, and me.

“Thanks a lot,” Tonie said dryly.

“Well, now that they’re out of the way—”

“They might come back.”

Katie snorted. “Mike only gave them two choices. Either they stay away or they come back looking like you. I’m almost positive they’ll pick the former. They wouldn’t be caught dead in an outfit like yours.”

Tonie brandished a brush but Mike picked her up easily in one arm. “Hey!”

“Quit playing around,” he told her, dragging her away from Katie and wresting the brush from her grip. “Did you bring it?” he asked the blond cheerleader.

Katie nodded then turned to the sketchpad on the floor beside her. She pulled out a sheet of paper and gave it to Mike, who then proceeded to tape it to the wall.

He waved the art class over.

“Take a look at this,” he told them. “If you guys want to modify it or have other ideas, tell me, okay?”

We all crowded over it and I had to admit the guy had talent, though I knew little about art. It was very different from the Sandclock mural. That had been all light and whimsical. His colored-pencil sketch for the gym wall was rather abstract, though I could make out the shapes of athletes and sports equipment if I stepped back a little. The design was strangely compelling, the lines both heavy and yet somehow fluid.

Behind me, Tonie and Katie were busy discussing other things.

“What are you doing with his sketchpad?” Tonie demanded.

Katie’s response was lofty. “Would you believe he spent the night with me?”

“No.”

Katie sighed. “I made him do my homework, then he left his sketchpad on my nightstand.”

“Homework? That’s all you did? And you couldn’t stay in the living room for that?”

“Well... there were some other things we were busy with at first, but his heart wasn’t really in it. After that it was all math and science. I think he’s seriously interested in someone.”

I turned around abruptly to look at them and opened my mouth to say something. Then I closed it again because I didn’t really know what I was going to say.

“Yes, that’s true,” Tonie was going on thoughtfully.

“Will you please stop talking like I’m not even here?” Mike asked in exasperation from the bleachers. “And stop making things up, Katie.”

The two of them walked away, smirking. I pulled away from the rest of the group and stopped in front of him as he unpacked what looked like a lunch bag. “Listen, Mike, I have to tell you something.”

“What?”

“I was serious about not being artistic.”

“Did you get to finish your breakfast?” he asked suddenly, out of the blue.

I shook my head.

He handed me a thick sandwich wrapped in wax paper. “There. Eat. After this, I’d better not hear any more complaints from you.”

I blinked in surprise, unable to move or say anything.

“The rest of us are going to start now, but you can jump in when you’re done,” he said, getting to his feet and walking away.

I stared at the sandwich. Every time I decided that Mike was nothing more than an ordinary jock – gorgeous, nice to look at, insensitive and completely useless – he turned around and did something completely unexpected.

I sighed and wondered when I’d actually have to stop revising what I thought him to be. It was going to take me quite a while to decide if I really hated him or not.

Since there weren’t all that many of us, and since the gym wall was enormous, we didn’t stop working until the sun had already set – and even then, we were nowhere near finished prepping the wall. Mike probably wouldn’t have called it quits at all if Tonie hadn’t yelled at him about how tired she was and kicked him right in his broken leg.

Since I somehow got more paint on me than anyone else – “somehow” meaning Mike put some on my arm on purpose – I took longer than everyone else to clean up. I was the last person to leave the locker room, left behind even by Katie and Tonie.

I absently tried to scratch the last remaining streaks off my arm with a damp towel as I wandered out of the gym.

“What took you so long?”

I jumped and saw Mike leaning against the wall just outside the door. “W-What?”

“The others left ages ago.”

“What are you still doing here?”

“I need a ride.”

“Why me?”

“I don’t know the others all that well.”

“You know Katie and Tonie.”

He rolled his eyes at me. “Please, don’t even say their names in the same sentence,” he said wryly. “Look, if you don’t want to drive me home, fine. I’ll just...hop or something.” And he took up his crutch and started doing just that.

I sighed. “Wait! All right! I’ll drive you home.”

“You live right next-door to Samantha,” I said in surprise as I pulled my car into the Hardings’ driveway.

He shrugged. “Hey. Want to come in?”

I shook my head. “I should go home.”

“No. You should come in and have dinner. As my way of saying thanks for driving me.”

I hesitated and he took that opportunity to bound out of the car, go around the hood, and pull my door open. I blinked. For someone on crutches, he moved awfully fast.

He grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the car. “Now all you have to do is tell your parents you’re with me so they won’t worry.”

Worry? If I actually told them where I was, worry would be an understatement.

“Ah. My long-lost brother returns.”

Mike looked startled when Brian opened the door before he could unlock it himself. “What are you doing here?”

His twin brother looked downcast. “Is that any way to greet your brother who came all the way over here just to make sure you aren’t all sad and lonely? Jennifer had to go out of town suddenly. I thought you might like some company...but it looks like you already found someone better,” he smirked, glancing at me.

I glared at him.

Brian Harding frowned. “Hey, aren’t you the girl he knocked out?”

“Brian.”

He ignored the warning note in his brother’s voice. “Looks like you forgave him after all, Jenkins.”

“No, I didn’t,” I snapped.

He looked meaningfully at my hand, still clasped in Mike’s. “Right.”

I quickly snatched my hand away. “I’m going home.”

“Hey, wait a second!” Mike protested, grabbing my hand again. “You can’t leave. I invited you over! But I was expecting Jen had already made dinner...”

“Never fear,” Brian gallantly assured him. “I made dinner. But I’m not sure it’s going to be enough for three people.”

“Thanks. Now I’m kicking you out.”

Mike seemed prepared to literally do that but Brian turned to me for help.

“You can’t kick me out! I worked hard on dinner,” he said, looking hurt.

“He’s right, Mike,” I agreed, trying not to laugh in spite of myself.

“See? So why don’t you be a gentleman and give Jamie your share?”

“I’ve got a better solution,” I interrupted. “I’ll go.”

“You can’t do that!” both of them exclaimed at once.

“Brian can just cut back. Eat less,” Mike said, glaring at his brother.

“And Mike won’t eat like someone with a black hole in place of a stomach,” Brian grinned, then he quickly moved away when Mike made as if to hit him.

“He’s funny,” I told Mike. “I like him.”

“I’d reserve judgment until I knew him better, if I were you,” he muttered, stepping through the door into the foyer. “Even if you were to believe all the rumors about me, I’d look positively harmless next to him.”

I eyed the phone in the front hall. “You know, the two of you are entertaining. I think I’ll stay. But I really do have to call home first...”

“Please, feel free,” Brian intoned solemnly. “Mike, let’s go in the living room.”

“Why? I want to eat. Right now.”

“There’s something I have to talk to you about first.”

Mike sighed and pointed at an entryway to the right. “The living room’s right through there.”

I nodded and picked up the phone while they left. I dialed my house’s number and waited.

“Hello?”

Good. It’s just Aaron. “Hey, Aaron. Are Mom and Dad home?” I asked into the receiver.

Aaron’s voice on the line seemed rather irritated. In the other room, Mike and Brian were arguing about something. “Yes, they’re home. They have been for over two hours. Where the hell are you?”

“Um...I’m at a friend’s house,” I answered evasively. “Tell them I’m eating out.”

“You can’t do that! Jamie have you forgotten? It’s that special dinner thing with your father’s associates! We’re all supposed to be here on our best behavior! The guests will arrive in an hour!”

Uh-oh.

I was just hanging up when Mike came back out – minus Brian – and I gave him a sheepish grin.

“What?”

“I can’t stay.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I see.”

“We have this dinner thing at home...It’s pretty important.”

“Right.”

I sighed. “I’m sorry.”

He smiled faintly. “You sound like you mean that.”

“Maybe I do.”

Mike laughed. “Don’t you hate my guts?”

I looked down, a bit embarrassed. “You’re not so bad,” I mumbled under my breath.

“What did you say?”

I raised my head and glared at him. “You heard me the first time. I’m not saying it again!”

He smiled his strange millisecond smile.

“I have to go,” I said abruptly, turning to the door.

“I understand. Brian will be crushed, though.”

His voice was suddenly strangely cool and I turned my head to look at him.

His back was already to me. “Lock the door on your way out,” he said carelessly, and vanished through the living room doorway.

I blinked in disbelief. What was that? Not even an “I’ll walk you to your car” or a “good night.” What kind of guy is he?

I yanked the door open, slightly offended, and stomped back to my car.