My Best Friend's Older Brother

Chapter 9: Another Playdate

Mrs. Graham dropped Katie off at the Loach household. Katie hesitantly knocked on the door. Mrs. Loach opened it. "Oh, hello, Katie!" she squealed, wrapping her arms around Katie and giving her a sticky kiss. "Come sit at the table!" We're having lunch. Derak is eating pasta."

Katie strode shyly across eh living room and plopped onto a chair at the table. Derak glanced up at her from his pasta. I bet he has a crush on you, Eileen had said. Katie missed Eileen.

Mrs. Loach sat next to Derak and beamed at Katie. "Well," Mrs. Loach started, trying to strike up a conversation. "Um, do you have any hobbies?"

"Um..." Katie looked at her pasta. "Uh... I like to read."

"So does Derak!"

Derak squinted curiously at Mrs. Loach.

"Do you like math? Do you like to play computer games?"

Katie swallowed a bite of pasta. "Uh... sorta," Katie lied. She was not sure what to say.

'Oh, good. Derak, would you please take Katie up to your room? Maybe you can hang out a bit!"

Derak seemed as reluctant as Katie. "Uh... sure." He clunked down his spoon and the two of them walked up the stairs in silence. Katie followed him into his bedroom. "Um," Derak mumbled, "Do you want to play a game?"

"Like what?" asked Katie. Her ears could already predict his answer.

"Um," Derak suggested, "I have this game on the computer I like to play called Math Code."

"Er... we could play that," Katie forced her voice to say.

Derak pulled up a stool in front of his computer and let Katie sit in the swivel chair. He turned on his computer and clicked on Math Code application. "First," he explained. "You give yourself a username."

Katie thought of a cute name. "Um... KittyCat."

Derak shrugged and typed in "KittyCat."

Then he pressed the yellow button play. "Now you can play anytime you want." He let her start her game. Katie worked on her first code. It multiplied and divided. Katie squinted ponderingly. She hadn't learned how to do that yet.

Derak could see she was stumped. "Oh, uh, I could help you." He fished out a sheet of lined paper from the drawer in his desk. Then he showed Katie the steps for multiplying and dividing fractions.

Katie smiled faintly. "Thank you," she whispered. The code was easier to figure out now. It was similar to an online test. Derak explained how his fourth grade teacher had assigned this instead of homework, and Derak had continued it. Katie did not understand how Derak would be able to keep up with a game as dull as this.

"Um, what books do you like to read?" Derak asked.

"Boxcar Children," Katie answered.

"Oh."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"What books do you like to read?"

"Oh, um," Derak looked at his shoes shyly. "Er... I like textbooks and academic books and stuff."

Geek, thought Katie.

Derak let Katie flip through some of his books about astronomy and geometry and physics and other large words. "They have cool pictures," Katie complimented.

After a few minutes, Mrs. Graham rang the doorbell. "Katie!" called Mrs. Loach. "Your mother is here!"

"Um, bye," Katie waved to Derak.

"Bye," he said.