There Must Be Something More

12 | Book Report

"Mr. Borlock, what a nice surprise!" Mrs. Saunders said as soon as I tiptoed behind the class. I tried my best. I kept my head low, did my best to be as indifferent as everyone else, and it wasn't working.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Saunders, my car broke down and I still needed to change my flat tire and--"

"I've heard that excuse way too many times, Charlie," Mrs. Saunders said. She had her hands on her hips. That meant she was blocking out any of my attempt to reason.

"But this time it's true," I croaked. She still gave me the look. I sat down my seat, just beside Meredith. She was looking at me, I could see her through my peripherals.

When I turned to her, she looked away, snickered. I blushed. Did she just laugh at my little scene?

"And so, I've been getting a lot of complaints from the librarian about the library not being used so much anymore," Mrs. Saunders said.

One student said: "People only come there to make out!"

The whole class erupted with laughter. So did I. Meredith didn't. She kept her head down, reading her book, shaking her head. I stopped laughing.

"And so, I know how to make better use of the library," Mrs. Saunders said. She looked at us, examined. And then she grabbed the chalk and wrote:

Book Report!

Everyone started to groan. I did too. Meredith did no reaction.

"Maybe you'll start doing good and actually read and make use of the books in the library. And just so you wouldn't be with your boyfriends or girlfriends, I will be pairing all of you."

"Mrs. Saunders!" One guy yelled from the back.

"The last time I checked I'm still the educational authority in this place," our English teacher said. She cleared her throat, walked up front, and started to call names. Pairs of names. I waited for mine.

And then she said, "Borlock and... Caraway."

"Who's Caraway?" I raised a hand.

"Meredith Caraway, dear. She's right by your side. Gosh, will you guys interact with other people too? The world isn't limited for your group of friends, you know," Mrs. Saunders was ranting.

So her name's Meredith Caraway? I thought. I looked over my side. Meredith was already looking at me.

"Guess we're partners, partner," she said. She giggled.

"Guess we are," I said.

And then I felt a pull on my side. It was one of my baseball teammates, Randy Clifford. He grinned, whispered in my ear: "Oh, man. You got the religious girl."

He snickered. I faked a smile. And then I looked over Meredith again. I felt a little twinge of excitement.

"You will be grabbing a book about anything. Anything. But make sure it's in your field of interest."

~~~

"Unlucky you," Amanda was saying. She had her eyes on her baloney sandwich, though. But she had just heard about my book report with Meredith.

"Maybe if you're lucky, she won't talk about God and Bible verses and stuff," Calum cringed. He pointed his chicken drumstick at me. "Or maybe you could tell her yourself. You know, just tell her you don't want to hear anything about the Bible or God or any of that religious stuff."

But that was the thing. I actually liked to hear about that stuff.

~~~

"Don't be scared. Don't be scared." I kept telling myself right after baseball practice. I faced my gaudy self on the mirror behind my locker door. I was giving myself pep talk.

I was going to talk to Meredith.

She was just a few feet away. She was chatting with a girl. She was laughing. Every time she laughed, she would back up a few steps, her boot heels clicking on the marble floor.

"What are you waiting for, Charlie?" I whispered to myself. Go talk to her!

My legs felt like jelly. I kept twitching my locker combination out of sheer nervousness. I knew I was stalling. I have never been this stark raving nervous.

But my feet dragged me to her. I kept walking until I was a foot away. Her back was to me. Her friend was gone.

"Hi," I said.

Meredith turned, smiled. "I was wondering when you'd show. It's crazy, right, for Mrs. Saunders to pair us up? I mean, like it's fated or something."

I scoffed. "What, are you saying we're some kind of soulmates?"

"I didn't mean it like that," she said. Her tone was serious. It was as if she had more meaning to fate than I did.

And then she added, "You're the guy who showed up in the infirmary, right?"

I blushed. I remembered. That was only two days ago.

"Yeah," I said, cracking a nervous chuckle. "You remember?"

"Well, it's a little too unsual a scene to forget," she said. She smiled. There it was again.

Peace.

I smiled. "So, what book do we report on?"

"I was thinking of something worth sharing about. You know, something that would change people's lives," she said.

I frowned. I knew she was going to talk about God and all that stuff again. I knew I was up to a long religious hour.

But, surprising myself, she put her hands behind her, grinned. "You choose the book, Charlie."

"Me?" I boggled.

She nodded. "Come on. The book report is tomorrow. There's no time to lose."

~~~

"This one," I showed her a certain favorite book of mine. She grabbed it in her hands, examined the cover. It took her a few seconds to look up at me and smile.

"You like baseball?" She asked.

I was surprised. I knew I wasn't the most popular guy in school, but I also knew I was pretty renowned as one of the best guys in the team.

How could she not know I play baseball?

"Yeah, I'm the batter in our school's team," I said. "One day, I wanna be an world-famous baseball player."

She nodded. She looked down her book. She started talking about making an outline. She did not even care about me playing or my dream of becoming a successful one.

To regular people, it would be a big deal. But not to her.

When we started to read the contents of my selected book, I started to tell her the first time I played baseball, when I started to dream of becoming a player, when I decided to actually be one. She nodded out of all this, listened intently. But the next words she said was something out of the ordinary:

"Life is so much more than that, you know."

I felt convicted. Her tone made me stop, think back on everything I did with my life. Right there in one sitting. Right there with her.