The Seventh Grade Wars

CHAPTER 19: Cricket

"What does Hayley think she's doing?" I fumed. I spent most of my time in the lunchroom peering at the B Side table, where Hayley George was sitting. She had on a whole new look. Her hair wasn't stringy anymore, her face perked up in a cute sort of way. And as much as I hated to admit it, she didn't look as nerdy without her glasses. She actually looked kind of...pretty. 

"She has really nice legs," said Alexa. "I never would have known because she wears those awful jeans all the time."

"Nice legs?" Peyton said. "What would you know about nice legs?"

"She's obviously trying to get Jordan Walker to notice her," I said, "although it doesn't look like it's working."

"Hey! Earth to Cricket," Pete called. I spun around to see that he'd taken a seat at the table while I was off staring at Hayley. 

I blushed. "Sorry."

"What're you doing anyway, looking at the B Side table?" Tess wanted to know. She gasped. "Are you spying on them?"

"No, she's looking at that pretty girl over there," said Marcus. "Why don't you go ask her for some makeup tips, Cricket?"

"Aw, quit picking on her, man," said Pete, which earned him a glare from Asia. 

"Anyway. Guys, I need you to look at this," said Pete quickly, and unfolded a slightly crumpled flyer. "It's advertising a pool party. At Jessica Malboy's house."

Jessica Malboy was the queen bee of the school. She was even more glamorous than Asia. She ruled the grade last year, with her French manicures, and her abundant amounts of makeup and lip gloss. I knew she had an older sister named Avril, who threw the best high school parties of all time. Even though she was a grade higher than Alana, Alana had attended one of her parties. She said it was wild, one of the boys drove his father's car into one of the Malboys' many swimming pools, and she would never go to a party there again if she could help it. 

It sounded pretty awesome to me. If Jessica was going to have a party, I imagined how amazing that would be. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't go. When I took a look at the invitation on the flyer, it said, 'A SIDERS ONLY.'

"Why are you showing this to us, Pete?" said Tess. "If we can't go what's the point?"

"Oh, my plan was that we are going to go," said Pete. "And we're going to crash it."

"Crash it?" I repeated, before I could stop myself. "How?"

"We'll brainstorm later on. But I was thinking along the lines of water balloons, shaving cream everywhere, squirt guns—"

"That's so juvenile," Asia complained, rolling her mascara-covered eyes.

"Asia," said Marcus. "Hate to break it to you, but we are juvenile. We're seventh graders! And I'm totally with Pete—we should crash the party."

"Yeah, I think it sounds fun," said Peyton. 

"Great." Pete actually looked excited about all this. "I can't wait until Jessica gets a taste of her own medicine."

Everyone seemed to feed off of Pete's vibes. They all chattered amongst themselves, discussing the date and time of the party. Nobody seemed to catch exactly what he'd said. 

I caught up to Pete that same day as soon as school let out. It was the only time I'd been able to find him. He was standing by his locker, which was not so far down the hall away from mine. 

"Pete," I said to him. 

He closed his locker door. He looked surprised to see me. "Oh. Hi, Cricket. What's up?"

"What did you mean about Jessica Malboy today?"

"What do you mean?"

I shifted my backpack on my shoulders. "Today at lunch you said you couldn't wait until Jessica got a taste of her own medicine. What did you mean by that?"

"Oh," said Pete. The corner of his mouth turned up. "Well, it's kind of a long story. Um..." he glanced at his wristwatch. "Hey, do you want to come over to my house today? We could do our homework together."

It was my turn to be shocked. "I thought you and Asia did homework together, every day," I said. It was a widely known fact. Pete and Asia were one of the only real couples in the grade. 

"We do, mostly," he told me. "Today Asia is busy. She has cheerleading practice."

"Well, in that case," I said. "Sure."

Pete and I walked back to his house, since it wasn't too far away. We stopped by the deli on the way to purchase two cans of Sprite, then continued our walk.

I'd never been to Pete's house before. It was a modest little house, painted white, with grey shutters over all the windows except for the one in the attic. The lamp positioned next to their driveway was shattered, as if somebody, probably a neighborhood boy, had thrown a rock through it. 

As we walked to his front door, Pete saw me looking at the lamp. "Asia did that," he said. 

"Asia what?" 

"Asia broke that. She hurled a piece of cement through it...and she said she was bad at softball in PE," he said, shaking his head. "She'd make a mean pitcher."

I stared at it. "Why did she break it?"

"She was mad at me that I was talking to another girl," he said. "She was from my math class. I was asking her for the homework. I told my parents a teenager did it."

"But you're talking to me right now," I pointed out. 

"Yeah," Pete agreed. "And she'll probably throw a rock through my bedroom window for that."

He inserted a key into the keyhole and opened the door. 

The front door led directly to his living room. There was an older boy sitting on the couch, watching something on a laptop computer. 

"Hey, Pete," said the boy. "Who's she?"

"Lanceton, this is Cricket," said Pete. "Cricket, Lanceton."

"Sup," said Lanceton coolly. Then to his brother, "So, Pete, you don't think your girlfriend will get worked up about this?"

"Probably," said Pete. "But who cares about her?"

"Uh-huh. Hey, if you need the living room, I'll move to the study," said Lanceton quickly. "I don't mind."

"Thanks," said Pete. As soon as Lanceton left, we took a seat on the couch. Pete sipped at his soda. 

"So," I said. "Jessica Malboy."

"Right. Um, well, let's get to the point," he told me. "Last year, Jessica asked me to be her boyfriend."

"Really?" I was stunned. Jessica was so glamorous. Why would she go after Pete, who's about as modest as it gets?

"Yeah," I said. "Well, I said no to her, because I really wanted to be after Asia. I guess Jessica got mad. I didn't even have a girlfriend yet, and I turned her down."

"I wasn't expecting it to be for that reason," I said. "I thought maybe you broke her driveway lamp or something."

"Ha-ha," replied Pete jokingly. "Anyway. That day I asked Asia out. She said yes. Jessica got even more upset. She and Asia used to be best friends, you know."

"I can imagine."

"Yep. Jessica's never liked me since. But I can deal with that. What I can't really stand is Asia. Don't tell her this, but I'm starting to regret asking her out. She says I can't break up with her because I was the one who asked her to be my girlfriend first. That's not even a rule, is it?"

"No," I said. "It's not. But maybe you can get Asia to break up with you."

"How?" he asked.

I smiled. "Start hanging out with me," I said.