Bending the Rules

Chapter 2 : In America They Call It A Crush

English was interesting, French was boring (all stuff Tori had studied year before in Australia), and then it was time for lunch. Tori hurried up the street to Eatz, looking for Lara on the way. They only had thirty-eight minutes to eat and get back to school for fourth period. No time to shilly shally.

Lara was already waiting in one of the tattered orange-vinyl booths when Tori got there, nibbling at a place of cheese fries and watching the door for Tori. 

Her waist-length dark hair was gathered into a single braid today. Tori saw she was wearing her multicolored crocheted sweater, over a pink tie-dyed top. Tori loved clothes like that, even though she never wore them.

Tori waved to Bill, the cook, who stood in the window behind the counter and passed food through an opening to the waitresses. Bill was Australian too, and Tori was always happy to see somebody from home.

"G'day, luv!" Bill called to her. 

Tori slid into the seat across from Lara, balled up her jacket, and threw it into the seat beside her. She immediately reached for one of Lara's fries. "What's the word?" she said.

Lara looked a little upset, which was unusual. 

Normally she looked cool and calm as a mountain pool, never a hair out of place. It had taken Tori a while to get to like her, because they were different in that way; Tori ran hot as fire.  

But they were also a lot more alike than Tori had first thought. Lara, like Tori, followed her own path. She did not give a hoot what people thought of her shoes, her taste in art, or her ideas. She was her own person. Tori liked that.

It was a good thing Lara was so centered, too, because she'd had a crazy, mixed-up international life that could have made someone else very confused. Her father was German. Her mother was Italian. She'd been raised mostly in Paris, France. And now she was in New York, just sliding into another life without missing a beat.

Tori smiled, thinking about the bumpy start the two of them had gotten off to. They had had a serious misunderstanding on the very first day of school, before they'd even met. 

Thank goodness Barbie had untagled it before it got out of hand.

Lar pused a french fry around in a puddle of cheese, but didn't eat it. She looked glumly at Tori. "I think I am a little mixed up" she said in her French-and-whatever-else accent. This was what Tori loved about M.I.H: Here were an Australian girl and a French girl sitting in a booth, and in the booth behind them were two African boys. Crazy.

"You? Mixed up? Crikey! I didn't think it was possible. What's worrying you?" She ate two of Lara's fries at once.

"Please, have a fry," said Lara with a litte smile. "Don't be shy." 

"Thanks, I think I will," grinned Tori, taking two more.

"You know my teacher of art history? Mr.Harris?" said Lara. She still had trouble pronouncing the "h," and had to work really hard to get the air out the right way.

"You mean that really really fabulous-looking black-haired one?"

Lara put her chin down on the table and looked mopey. "That is him," she said. "The fabulous-looking one."

"He's a good teacher, right? I remember you told me that. So what's the problem?"

"Oh, yes, he is a very good teacher. He has such a beautiful mind. He understands art better than anybody I know. Everybody wants to be in his class. When he asks you a question, he listens to what you have to say. It is as if nobody else was in the classroom."

"Uh-oh!" said Tori, clapping her hand to her forehead. "I see what the problem is. You can't really have a crush on him. Can you?" 

"A what?" 

"A crush. You know, when you're sweet on somebody. That's what they call it in America. It's very uncool when you have one on a teacher."

"I know. It's ridiculous. I feel as if I am a stupid little girl."

It didn't help that Mr.Harris was Lara's art teacher, either. Art wasn't just a subject for Lara, Tori knew. Although she was maddeningly good at everything she tried, Lara lived for art.

"Come with me to the skateboard park this afternoon," she said to Lara. "They just built some amazing new ramps. The Pants Boys will be there. They're both cute, even if you can't tell which one of them is which."

Lara laughed. "I don't think they are quite my type," she said. "I think I like boys a little more . . . how you say it? ── sophisticated. At least they should comb their hair, no? Also, I made a promise with my mom to be home today. You want to come with me?"

Tori always liked going to Lara's house. She lived in a big apartment in Soho. Soho got its name beacause it was an area south of Houston Street. Lara's apartment was just called a loft because there were no walls, just one big open space.

Soho was a totally cool neighborhood not too far from Greenwich Village where Tori lived. 

Full of art galleries, Soho had lots of big, white, spacious stories with polished wood floors and maybe three dresses that sold for a thousand dollars each hanging on a rack. And places with names like "The Center full for the Dull". Whatever that was. Every block was full of surprises. It was great!

"I'll tell you what," Tori said. "Let's go to my house first ── I mean my Aunt Tessa's house ── so I can drop my books off. I'm dragging around my big old biology book today because I had to exchange it for one that doesn't have writing on every page."

"I know. My English book looks like somebody has chewed it up," Lara sympathized. "I have enough trouble with English, without a book that has been chewed." She pushed the fries toward Tori, without having eaten a single one. "Why don't you finish them?" she said. "I'm not hungry."

"That's a bad sign," said Tori. She tried a new approach. "Have you noticed that really good-looking boy in history class? I'm positive he likes you. I wish he would look at me, but it's you he likes. He's obviously attracted to girls who have it all together. Not like me. I have it all apart."

Lara sighed, without even noticing that Tori was trying to make her laugh. "I haven't noticed," she said. She wasn't looking at anybody else besides Mr.Harris, it was clear.

It was time to go back. Lara stood up. "Okay, I'll meet you after school," she said to Tori. 

"Oh, just one thing," Tori said as they walked back to school. "You haven't been to my aunt's before, so you don't know the rules. If she's there, we have to be really, really quiet, all right? We can't bother my aunt." 

"Oh, okay," said Lara. "Is she sick?" 

"No. She just doesn't like to have kids around." 

"That's too bad." 

"You got that right. See you this arvo." 

Lara blinked. "Pardon me?" 

"Oh sorry, it's Australian. See you this afternoon."

Tori watched Lara go up the stairs toward art class. She wondered whether Aunt Tessa would be home, and how it would feel to bring Lara there.