Err on the Side of Violence: Terribly Acronymed Detective Club Series (Book 3)

Chapter Twelve: Joe, Summer, 1978-Summer, 1979

Lauren Hasegawa continued to make an impression on Joe over that summer. She had a way of talking and acting that made him want to go along with everything she wanted to do. When Rachel wanted to go find a lost dog, and Joe wanted to stay back with Al and Sunny to play Star Wars with the new figures Al got, all Lauren had to do was say, "I'm in. Have fun with your games, boys," and suddenly he felt childish and ashamed that he still liked toys. Then, when they actually found the dog and he received a share of the reward, he'd never felt so accomplished in his life, and knowing he was sharing that accomplishment with Lauren was exhilarating in a way he'd never experienced before. 

When she and Rachel devised the Lawrence Street Detective Club, and he stated his opposition to the venture, not wanting to do more work than he already did helping his dad in the bean fields, Lauren engaged him, listened to him, and calmly stated counterarguments, all the while eyeing him that way she did, like she was examining him under a microscope. Assessing him. What she was assessing him for, he didn't know, but he found that he liked the scrutiny. She made him feel seen; not that he'd felt invisible up to that point, it was just that his value had mostly been based on what he could contribute to the family enterprise, or how closely he held to the beliefs with which he was raised. He felt like Lauren saw him and found him interesting just as he was. Sure, the other friends did too, but until now he hadn't known how important it was to him.

He felt like he'd won her over, in a way he couldn't explain, a little later in the Fall, when the LSDC did a job for an old lady who claimed to have lost something in her backyard. What she hadn't told them was that the backyard was a jungle of overgrown foliage, and that the only way to find anything back there was to do a whole day's worth of yard work. Joe had never wanted this venture to involve the hard work he was acquainted with at home, but he didn't grumble about this job. He could tell the lady was lonely and needed the help; she wouldn't have been able to do all this on her own. At the end of the day, when she paid them, Joe said, "Whenever you need us again, just call. You don't even have to lose something next time."

As they rode their bikes home, Lauren asked, "How come you were so nice to her? She basically lied to us, and you hate lying." She'd been referring to another job the LSDC was commissioned to do, passing one dog off as another; Joe wasn't involved in that one, wanted nothing to do with it, because it involved tricking a younger girl, and he thought it wasn't right. 

Joe shrugged. "She reminded me of my Nonna, and I miss my Nonna very much." 

No one had a retort for that, and they didn't say anything for the rest of the way home, but the way Lauren looked at him, as if she'd discovered an Egyptian artifact digging in the backyard, made him tingle all the way down to his toes.

The first time Joe remembered Lauren touching him was when she reached out to comfort him after Principal Burnett paraded him through the school by his ear. He wished it had been at a better time, when he wasn't crying and embarrassing himself, but she might not have done it if he hadn't been crying, so on balance it was worth the embarrassment.

It had been such a good day until lunch time rolled around. He was dressed for Halloween in what he thought was the cleverest costume he'd ever devised. He was his favourite superhero, the Incredible Hulk, and he'd even thought ahead to make the costume as warm as possible knowing it would be a cold day. A green sweatshirt with muscles drawn in in black felt marker, genius! He'd even bought green makeup and spray paint for his hair at Woodwards to complete the look. When he looked at himself in the mirror before coming to school, in old jeans he'd torn himself, he thought he even looked like Lou Ferrigno, the Italian-American actor who played the big green guy in the show, and his idol. 

He loved Lou Ferrigno; he loved that he didn't let his hearing impairment stand in the way of his dream of becoming a successful bodybuilder and an actor. Sure, all he did was growl and pretend to lift and throw things but, man, he was one cool guy.