“So, tell me about yourself, Grant,” Misty insisted, gently turning his chin toward her, forcing Grant to notice that he had been staring at Hailey.
“There isn’t that much to tell,” Grant laughed.
Misty pulled a bag of animal crackers from her purse and neatly unfolded the crease in the top of the package; she took one for herself and, reaching the bag toward him, offered one to Grant. “I missed breakfast,” she smiled.
“I’ll pass,” Grant shook his head. “My mom made me and Hailey sausage and eggs before we left the house.”
“I’m a vegetarian,” Misty offered. “I guess that comes from years of seeing my daddy slaughter animals that I was naïve enough to name. At first I only avoided cows, pigs, that sort of thing. Then, one Thanksgiving when I was eight, Mama cooked up Tommy the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, and now I avoid meat all together.”
Grant laughed, struck by the irony. “Should a vegetarian really be eating animal crackers?”
Misty grinned shyly and bit the head off of a camel.
“I’m just kidding,” Grant winked. “So, how long have you and Hailey been friends?”
“Hailey and I have been best friends since we were bed babies in the nursery at church,” Misty replied chipperly. “I’ve been going out with Paul since like sixth grade or so.” Without so much as stopping to take a breath, she continued. “Our click pretty much consists of, Paul, me, Hailey, Jess, Joe John and Billy Wayne. It’s such a small town that we’re all really like one big extended family.”
Misty started speaking again, but Grant was only half listening.
“My mama and my granny still talk about how your mama disappeared after her senior year,” she said, and Grant’s ears perked up. “Of course, I didn’t realize that Nora Miller was your mama until Hailey told me about five minutes ago. People around here get very set in their ways, so to them I guess she will always be Nora Jean Miller instead of Nora Cohen. That’s why it took me a minute to put two and two together. All you have to do is go sit down at Maude’s for ten minutes, and you can catch up on what everybody in town is up to. Yesterday at church your granny told my granny, who told my mama, that Nora Jean’s boy, and I’m guessing she means you even though I didn’t know that at the time, is nothing but a fancy talkin’ bundle of trouble waitin’ to happen. Is that true? Are you bad news?”
Grant shook his head, imagining two old women in their Sunday best, talking smack about him in the pews, and the image made him grin. “Does anyone really ever answer yes to that question?”
Misty shrugged. “I mean if your own granny says you’re trouble, then…”
“Yes,” Grant nodded, “I am an awful human being with no morals and no values, here to corrupt you wholesome country folks with my big city vocabulary.”
“You don’t seem so bad,” Misty said after a moment.
“So what’s the word on me over at Maude’s?” Grant chuckled.
Misty shook her head dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. I remember one time when I was real little, it got around town that I had lost my first tooth, and people kept on asking me if the Tooth Fairy had come. The truth was, my tooth was barely loose, even though I had wiggled it for days tryin’ to get that money. So, sometimes they get it wrong.”
Upon entering his next class for the day, Grant learned that Mrs. Jordan the English teacher pulled double duty as the math teacher as well.
“Well, hi there, Sweetheart,” she greeted him when Grant stepped inside. “You must be Nora Jean Miller’s boy. They warned me you were cute as pie.”
“Hey there!” Joe John stuck out his hand, and Grant shook it.
“This is my boy,” Mrs. Jordan said proudly. “Joe John, this here is Grant. He’s gonna play ball with y’all.”
“Where you from?” Joe John asked as his mother excused herself to go prepare for class.
“Around,” Grant shrugged.
Billy Wayne poked his head into the conversation. “He’s been a little bit of everywhere,” he declared. He looked Grant over curiously. “Have you been to every state?”
“No,” Grant smiled wryly, “only fifty of them.”
Billy Wayne nodded. “Oh yeah…well, I’ve been to all fifty two…you know, including Hawaii and Alaska.”
“I thought that might be the case,” Grant nodded.
“Go on now, Billy Wayne,” Misty said, as though shooing away a stray dog.
Billy Wayne trotted off and Joe John followed him.
“That boy must have snuck into the gene pool while the lifeguard was off duty,” Grant smiled.
Misty laughed. “Rule number one…if you’ve done it, Billy Wayne Harper has done it bigger and better. I swear if I announced I was pregnant, Billy Wayne would miraculously conceive twins.”
Grant grinned. “So…is he on my new team?”
Misty pursed her lips together.
“Great,” Grant rolled his eyes.
“Go easy on him,” Misty laughed as Mrs. Jordan began ringing her bell and shushing her students.
Laughing, Grant leaned down to whisper something in Misty’s ear as Paul and Hailey arrived late to class. “Hey,” Paul hollered, shoving Grant from behind. “Do you think you can just show up here and start flirting with my girlfriend?”
“Paul, what did you do that for?” Misty yelped. “We were just talkin’!”
“Excuse me!” Mrs. Jordan said, stepping between the two boys. “Why don’t you both find a seat?”
Paul glared past his teacher at Grant. “I don’t know what it is that makes girls lose their minds around you,” he pointed, “but I’m warning you…”
