The Boy Band Who Adopted Me!

Chapter 32 - A Tea Party

"Her name is Corinne," Will said as he sipped his third coffee of the day. The skin beneath his eyes was just a shade darker than the rest of his pale, freckled face. The other boys seemed extremely interested in this development.

It was another day in music appreciation, and we were just jamming, writing songs, and talking. Even if we went to a decent private school, sometimes teachers tended to get caught up in their own stuff, and leave us to a 'movie' or 'worksheet' - really just an excuse to not have a lesson plan. We definitely weren't complaining.

Cody practically dropped his drumstucks. He got way too excited. "I know who you're talking about!" he practically yelled. Jamie seemed sensitive not only to the topic, but also to the volume of Cody's voice at this moment.

"Jamie, you okay?" Gavin asked. Jamie just nodded at him, like he usually did when he appeared to have a lot on his mind. I deduced pretty quickly that Jamie had a crush on Will, and either nobody noticed, or everybody was pretending not to.

I know that I was certainly doing the latter. "Hey, Jamie, can you pass me your blues history notes? I have to finish this worksheet." I quickly changed the subject so that Jamie wouldn't feel put on the spot. "About this question..."

---

Mason, 3:14 PM: by the way. WHOLE bunch of preppy kids blocking my view at that concert.

Mason, 3:15 PM: said people were bullying you though, right? well, all those kids couldn't stop talking about how pretty and talented you are. you're really makin it.

I smiled so wide my cheeks hurt. I was walking with Jamie and Cody from chemistry to Will's van for band practice.

Mason, 3:17 PM: heard some rumors that you & i are a couple though lol. watch out for that. don't worry, corrected the kids talking.

Wow, the rumor mill was still focused on me somehow. I showed the texts to Jamie and Cody.

"Don't worry about those kids, Aly," Cody said. "Gavin won't care either. He knows how you feel."

"Gavin can be jealous," Jamie said with a matter-of-fact tone as we waited for Will at the van. I nodded to concur. Cody's expression was puzzled.

"Was that..."

I just nodded again, because I knew exactly what the question was going to be: Was that what Gavin was bringing you roses about a couple weeks ago?

"I get it," Cody said, a mini Oreo pack in his hands. "Boy, it's cold out here," he continued, awkwardly changing the subject.

Way in the distance, out beyond the parking lot on the campus green, I saw Will hug Corinne for just a little longer than friendly. I smiled for his happiness. Jamie was fortunately looking at his phone.

--

I wouldn't necessarily call myself a troublemaker, but it was 2:00 AM and I was having a sleepover with Cody in my dorm room. I knew that there weren't any tests the next day, that the administrator for the girls' dorm usually had to go to the bathroom right around 10:00 PM, and that Maisy Davids was on the phone once, talking to her cheerleader friends about how easy it was to tweak a stray wire sticking out of a ceiling tile in the stairwell and cause the cameras to go out temporarily. Mason had a hearty laugh about my deviant observations when I told him this during a chemistry lab.

Cody was braiding my hair as I played reruns of American Horror Story on my laptop and showed him pictures of band members I either thought were cute or wished I could sing as well as.

"Haha! I think Hayley Williams is cuter," he practically sang as he tied off the end of the first braid.

"Hey, Cody, I don't mean to ask you to dish on Gavin or anything, but we're dating and... is there anything I should know?"

"Well, you probably know more than I do, Aly," Cody said thoughtfully. "At least, about relationship stuff. Gav was still in counseling and therapy and stuff, all through freshman and sophomore year. He didn't even think about music... he never thought about a girlfriend.

"Of course," Cody continued, "he did sort of have a relationship with this girl Danica, but they broke up because he didn't have time for her. He was always in class, or his therapist's office, or at band practice... she was pretty beat up about it. Although, she was kinda clingy. I don't ever remember him being super jealous or anything."

Danica? Oh, my God.

"Danica... Beauregard?" I looked over my shoulder for a second.

Cody lit up. "Yeah! That's it!"

"Dude, that's the little sister of the guy he almost fought with because of me. You know, Mason? Red hair?"

"Whoa... weird coincidence. Carroll is.... weird."

It seemed as though Cody didn't really have another word for it, but then again, he didn't exactly need one. 'Weird' was a perfect descriptor for the way things all seemed to come back together at this school.

"Next I'm going to find out that Will is actually my long-lost brother," I replied, amused.

"Fun trivia for you," Cody said after a short pause, "Jamie's crush on Will? It's like five years old."

I whipped around, yanking the braid from Cody's hand. This is the first time any one of the boys had publicly acknowledged anyone's feelings about anything without beating around the bush about it.

"Wow, are you kidding? Did he ever say anything?"

"Nope, 'cause it's really obvious, and we all pick up a vibe off Will like he pretends not to know so he doesn't have to reject him. It's really sad, but we just try to ignore it. Usually we don't talk about this stuff." Wow, things ran really deep.

"More fun trivia," Cody continued, "Maisy was really nice to us in middle school, and had a HUGE crush on Gavin, bigger than Jamie's crush on Will, and she wrote his name in hearts on everything, and put lots of notes in his locker... he rejected her."

My jaw was literally hanging open.

Silence.

Cody had the most innocent and childlike laugh, and it was almost too loud for the hour.

"... Done being amazed yet, Aly? Hahaha!"

I flopped over on the bed, next to where Cody was sitting. "I absolutely cannot believe that this is a real, honest thing that happened. Here, we gotta talk about this."

I went to group chat on my phone, snapped a picture of myself hanging in my dorm with Cody, and sent it.

xXAlexXx: Sent a picture.

Emmett was the first to reply.

Northern_Downpour: Lucky!

xXAlexXx: Would anyone care to explain this middle school Maisy crush I am hearing so much about?

_Gav_: ....I can explain

Northern_Downpour: Omg...

Cody joined into the group chat, even though he was sitting right next to me.

Capn_Cody: HAHAHAHAHAHA

_Gav_: It was 8th grade, I was in the school band and she played flute next to me

_Gav_: She kept talking about how hot I was

_Gav_: And I tried to ignore her because what are girls

Capn_Cody: This has literally made my life

I rolled onto my bed, burying my face in my hands to stifle my laughter. Cody only stopped laughing long enough to put another handful of chips in his mouth.

Every day got better and better because of nerdy secrets just like that.