Silent Genius

Chapter 9

May 2010

It’s Tom’s sixteenth birthday today. He’s having a huge party. So, fifty kids are coming. Most are from grade eleven, but a couple of kids from grades ten and twelve are coming too.

I know most of them, friends Tom has had since primary school. Also, I know the kids who are in my maths class. The grade tens that are here are all on Tom’s hockey team. I know their names, but I don’t know them.

There is one person here who I know, Tyler, who has taken to sitting next to me in maths. He’s not really good friends with Tom, but he got invited anyway.

‘Sweet party,’ Tyler yells over the music.

‘Yeah, I guess,’ I reply.

‘You guess?’ he steps closer to me so he doesn’t have to yell as loud.

‘It’s just very loud in here,’ I shrug.

He takes my hand and, before I can ask what he’s doing, drags me through the crowd of people and outside into the cool, night air. We go over to the pool and sit down on the edge, taking our shoes off before slipping our feet into the water. Even though we are no longer walking, Tyler doesn’t let go of my hand. We sit in silence for few minutes. When I look up at him, he’s looking at the water. I look at the water too.

‘You know, you’re really pretty,’ Tyler whispers.

I can tell my cheeks have turned scarlet.

‘I’m sorry,’ he says quickly, ‘I didn’t mean to freak you out or anything.’

He starts to stand up, but I pull him back down beside me.

‘No, don’t go,’ I say.

He sits back down, smiling.

‘You’re not like the other girls at school,’ he says.

I’m not sure how to reply to this. I just look at the water, smiling. With my free hand, I swirl my fingers through the water. The water ripples at my touch. Tyler puts his hands in the water too. The ripples meet, mixing with the others. I laugh and he smiles.

‘Do you have any siblings?’ I ask after a few minutes of silence.

‘Yes,’ he nods, ‘two older brothers and an older sister.’

‘How old are they?’ I ask, making conversation.

‘My brothers are both in grade twelve and Sissy is twenty-two.’

‘Cool.’

Silence envelops us again. The only noise is the thumping of the music inside and a few night-birds hooting in the trees. I shiver as a cold breeze crawls over my skin. Tyler let’s go of my hand, takes his jumper off and throws it around my shoulders. I pull it tighter around myself and he puts his arms around my shoulders.

‘Thanks,’ I whisper.

I’m not sure how long we sit like that but very soon Tom is outside looking for us. Just before he sees us, Tyler places a kiss on my forehead. I’m very glad we are bathed in darkness because I’m quite sure my cheeks have gone bright-red. Tyler goes inside first, telling Tom I must be inside and that he was just checking out the pool. I go back inside after a few minutes and search out Tyler, intending to give him his jumper back. But somebody else finds me first.

‘Claire,’ I laugh, picking her up.

She tugs at the jumper, a questioning look on her face.

‘It’s Tyler’s,’ I whisper to her, ‘don’t tell anyone.’

We push through the crowd, dancing at the same time. It doesn’t take me long to find Tyler and Tom, hanging out at the food table.

‘Go distract Tom for me,’ I whisper to Claire before putting her down.

She runs up to Tom and takes his hand. Then, with a quick smile to Tyler, does her best to drag Tom away.

‘I’m guessing she wants to show me something,’ Tom says to Tyler before letting Claire drag him off.

‘Hey,’ I say, jumping behind Tyler.

‘Hey,’ he replies.

I start to take the jumper off, but he stops me.

‘Give it back on Monday,’ he whispers.

I feel my cheeks grow hot and he just laughs.

‘You sure?’ I ask.

‘Very,’ he hesitates, ‘you look really cute in it.’

I blush even more and his smile widens.

‘Wanna dance?’ he asks, holding out his hand.

I take it and nod. He leads me into the middle of the room. We laugh and jump around, dancing to the beat half the time and totally out of time for the rest. It’s not until everyone’s gone home that I realise the flashing in the corner of my eye all night wasn’t the lights, but Tom with his camera.