Ethan Adams

Chapter 13

Ella slams her books down on the lunch table, stopping our conversation. I wince as she throws her bag down on the floor and sits down next to me with a deep frown indented on her brow. For a moment, Janet and I exchange a silent conversation on who should ask her what's wrong first.

"Ella, what's wrong?" I ask tepidly.

"Josh hasn't asked me to Homecoming." She says and folds her arms.

"I'm sure he will, just give it another day or so." I try to comfort her but she gives me a dry look.

"Homecoming is in three days, Alisa. It's not gonna happen!" Suddenly her bottom lip starts quivering. "I picked out a dress that brings out his eyes!"

Ethan blinks a few times and rightfully decides that this issue is none of his business. "Yo, David, Anthony, you wanna go... get a pudding cup?"

"Dude, I love pudding cups." David stands up abruptly and the three of them walk away together, leaving behind their unopened pudding cups on our table.

Janet comes to sit on the other side of Ella and puts a hand on her shoulder. "I'm pretty sure that whatever brings out his eyes brings out the inner goddess in you, Ella! You're gonna look amazing and he's gonna hate himself for not asking you sooner and this time next week you'll be a couple again and Jessica will be bald!"

Ella looks at her, vulnerable. "You really think so?"

"I know so." Janet puts a hand to her chest and grins. "Besides, if you don't get asked out, you can always go stag and show all the boys what they're missing!"

"Only losers go to Homecoming without a date." She mumbles.

"I'm going without a date." I say. She stares at me blankly, like I just spoke a full sentence in perfect Japanese and she didn't catch a word I said.

"Anyway, I'll go with another football guy to make him jealous." She says, sighing. "It's pretty much bound to work. Or wait, is Ethan free?!"

The two of them turn to me as I start eating Ethan's abandoned pudding cup. "What?" I ask, dumbfounded.

Janet rubs her chin. "If he's not going with Alisa, he's probably free. You could always ask him!"

The two of them squeal while I finish off the pudding cup bitterly. Maybe I'm just bad at comforting Ella which is why I almost always get left out of conversations when she's upset.

David comes back with a handful of pudding cups. I guess he wasn't kidding when he said he loved pudding. "You look happy again." He comments, handing Ella one of them. She gives it to me and I pull off the cover, glum.

"Just figured out my dilemma, thanks to the help of my girls! Now, where's Ethan?"

Anthony comes over and hands some pudding to Janet, kissing her on the forehead when she grins at him. "Oh, er some junior is asking him to Homecoming."

Ella's face falls as she spots him and this pretty blonde girl talking underneath a tree. "That's Elaine Phoenix! She's like, the most popular junior, of course he's gonna say yes."

"He won't." I comment, halfway through the pudding.

She frowns at me. "How'd you know that?"

"He's been avoiding her all week because word got around that she was gonna ask him. He doesn't wanna go with her." I recite what he told me this morning in homeroom. The four of them stare at me with my spoon in my mouth. "What?"