An Exchange

Chapter Sixteen - Moving Out of the Comfort Zone

Ryan

As I guessed, Spencer wasn’t impressed about sitting with Penny’s friends in the cafeteria. “We can’t sit with them, they're among the Mormons. They all hate us, they think we're—”

“I know,” I said, not feeling terribly comfortable with it either. “But I need to, for Penny, and I need you to come with me. You're my best friend.”

He protested profusely, but he couldn’t get out of it. Later, we went to the cafeteria together. We grabbed our food and began our fearful journey toward Penny’s table. As we passed our normal table, the guys asked where we were heading. When I answered they laughed, until they realized I was serious. They then gave us sympathetic pats on the back and bid us good luck.

Spencer continued muttering his protests as we passed into the foreign crowd’s domain and their stares followed us. I sat beside Penny, who smiled at me warmly. The others at the table looked at Spencer and me in shock. Giles avoided looking directly at us as he shuffled and prodded his food. Ray continued to eat unfazed. I had to remain calm and act natural. I began to eat as Spencer played with his food beside me.

Then, Penny and Giles stood. Giles glanced at me and I couldn’t help giving him a smug smirk. I then noticed Seth staring at me. I smiled at him. “Hey, Seth.”

He sat back, startled. “Ryan.”

“I heard you got the main role in the upcoming school play, is that right?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Isn’t it a Shakespeare play?”

“Yes, Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

“Isn’t there a guy who becomes a donkey or something?”

Seth smiled, and began to remind me the plot for the play. Soon Giles and Penny returned and we finished eating. Afterward, we headed out to the field to play football as usual. On the field, Penny pulled me aside and told Spencer, Ray, and Maria to keep going. She looked up at me with concern in her eyes. “I need to ask you something you probably won’t like.”

My stomach turned with worry. “Okay...”

“Could you try to get along with Giles for me?”

“What?” I said sharply, not even thinking. “But he’s such a—”

“Ryan, please. He’s my best friend. You are the two most important people to me. Could you at least try?”

I gritted my teeth. Getting along with Giles was nearly impossible. His high and mighty attitude rubbed me the wrong way, and along with the way his father treated my dad, it seemed like a tall order. But I looked into her pleading eyes and couldn’t say no. I couldn’t hurt her. Then, I had an idea. “All right, I’ll try.”

She smiled and thanked me with a quick kiss on the cheek. We then walked out onto the field to play.

I thought carefully about how I could put my idea into action. Penny didn’t have to see how much I couldn’t stand Giles, and I was sure she had asked him to do the same thing for me. Neither of us wanted her to know that, no matter what, we could never get along.

*

Penny

I sat in the cafeteria with my normal group of friends; Zoe, Seth, and Giles. Soon Maria and Ray surprised us by joining us. We welcomed them gladly, having asked them for some time to join. Then, we were even more surprised by Ryan and Spencer as they, too, sat at our table.

Ryan sat beside me and smiled, softly touching my back before he began to eat. Spencer on the other side of him played with his food uncomfortably. All the others looked shocked, except Ray who didn’t react at all.

I looked across the table at Giles who raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t impressed, so I signaled for him to step away from the table. We both stood, causing Ryan to look up at me.

“I’ll be back in a sec, okay?” I said.

He nodded and squeezed my hand, then looked at Giles with a twinkle in his eye. Giles and I stepped away from the table. Once out of earshot, Giles asked, “Why's he with us?”

“What’s wrong with him sitting with us?” I responded.

“He hates us.”

“Us?”

“Yes. Zoe, Seth, me.”

I huffed. This was getting ridiculous. I looked over at the group around the table. Ryan leaned forward to talk to Seth. Seth smiled, amused by whatever Ryan said. I turned back to Giles. “It doesn’t look like it to me.”

Giles gritted his teeth. “Fine, but he hates me.”

“Why does he hate you anyway?”

Giles glanced across at Ryan. “It has something to do with my dad being his dad’s boss. I don’t know the deal exactly, but it’s been going on for as long as I can remember, and sometimes, after he’s done something stupid, he’ll come and blame me for all his problems.”

I touched his shoulder. “Giles, you're the person who I trust the most, we're best friends. It would really mean a lot to me if you and Ryan tried to get along, and I’ll tell him to do the same. No more blaming you, okay?”

Giles rubbed his eyes. “Ah Penny, only you...” He sighed. “All right. I’ll try. For you.”

When I spoke to Ryan about the same thing later, he was far from pleased, but agreed. It would be hard for both of them, but we all met in the car park after school and they shook hands stiffly. Ray came out to see what he described as “the closest thing to a loaves and fishes type miracle” he would ever see.

As Ryan walked away, and Giles slid with a huff into his car, Ray grasped my elbow. “Hey, are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

I turned to face him. “Why?”

He let out a long breath. “I don’t know either of them really well, but I do know they have a rough history. I don’t think anyone has ever known a time when there wasn’t tension between them.”

“What is their history?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. Their dad’s work together, but my mom says Mr. Fisher has the utmost respect for Mr. Hamilton. He did something once that Mr. Fisher feels he owes him for. But that could just be gossip. It definitely doesn’t explain why those two would hate each other.”

“No.” I looked to Giles who sat talking to Jonas in the car. Respect didn’t seem to fit with the tension between Ryan and Giles.

That evening, I took my host family onto the street to teach them cricket. It was difficult to get them to hold the bat down instead of over their shoulder, then to swing and hit it without also knocking the wickets. After about an hour, Pat and Alma went inside to get out of the cold and prepare dinner.

As I continued to bowl to Jonas—who teased me relentlessly about the bowling looking utterly ridiculous—we found ourselves deep in conversation.

“So, you’re with Ryan,” he said.

“Yeah,” I answered, my cheeks warming.

“If anything happens tell me, okay?”

I caught the ball and held it. “Why would anything happen?”

“Well, Ryan isn’t a member, is he? And he has been known for his immoral conduct. Then there’s Dylan who, when she finds out, will blow a fuse.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine, and if something does happen, I'll tell you."

I bowled the ball and he hit it hard and fast into Giles taking the garbage out. Jonas dropped the bat and sprinted down the street. Giles flew passed me and tackled Jonas to the ground. I laughed as the pair wrestled in the grass.