In Search of Tomorrow ✓

Eight

After school, Cameron drove Maddie and Clare to their after-school care and me to Skyport Creamery for work, then turned to go back to the school for soccer practice. I watched with a strange feeling of peace as the tail end of his silver convertible, too extravagant in this tiny, shabby town, pulled out of the parking lot and turn onto the main road. Then I ran my hands through my hair, fixing it where it had tangled in the wind, and opened the door to the ice cream shop.

The creamery was empty except for Katie, who was sitting at the counter and eating a large bowl of what looked like Superman ice cream. When she saw me, she smiled and patted the seat next to her.

"Hey, Evelyn, honey," she said as I sat down and began to watch her eat. "How was school?"

"Good." I thought about Cameron tutoring me in lunch, and how my mind had turned to him so often during my classes that day—how I had had such an easy time understanding what my teachers were saying, and how I was actually looking forward to the stack of homework awaiting me when I got home. "Better than I thought school could be."

Katie smiled and scooped a particularly large bit of ice cream onto her spoon. "That's good. Business here is slow today, so I thought you could help me do a deep cleaning of the shop."

She finished her dessert and tossed the paper bowl into the black trash can a few feet away, then stood. "Why don't you wipe down the tables and I'll start on the equipment?"

Even though the tables looked like they hadn't been used since I'd cleaned them the evening before, I obediently took out paper towels and glass cleaner and set to work. I didn't get tips scrubbing down the ice cream parlor, but at least the work was cheerful—Katie and I chattered nonsense as we cleaned.

"Cameron asked me to eat lunch with him today," I said, spraying more cleaner onto the table and wiping it until the glass squeaked.

"I saw him dropping you off just a few minutes ago." Katie glanced up at me from where she was hand-cleaning the ice cream scoopers. "You two are spending a lot of time together lately."

For some reason, that made my insides glow and my cheeks start to flush. "He's just my tutor," I said.

Katie was still staring at me as I turned my back to her and kept cleaning, but she didn't press the matter. What else was there to say, anyway? Cameron really was just my tutor, and he happened to be doing me a favor by playing chauffeur while my car was in the shop. After all, he could have any girl in the whole school, and he'd never choose me—I couldn't even keep my grades up!

We worked in silence for about fifteen minutes before Katie brought the topic back up. "Cameron is really nice," she said pointedly. She was now wiping the class in front of the cabinet where the ice cream was displayed and I was dusting. "He means well."

"I know that."

Katie pursed her lips at my defensive tone. "I think you need someone easygoing and carefree like that in your life. You seem stressed a lot."

Now it was my turn to purse my lips. I finished dusting the black-and-white picture of the original Skyport Creamery, which looked like it had been in an old barn and was owned by Katie's grandparents, and didn't reply.

Maybe Katie just thought I was overwhelmed by my schoolwork and my job. She had no way of knowing there was more to it than she could see. I glanced longingly at the tip jar, which only had a few coins in it from customers who had stopped by earlier in the day, and bit my lip.