Can You Not?

Chapter 2

Jena and Colleen had the same homeroom as Norah. They were her two best friends at Pennington. They were great people to pass the time with and even better people to copy homework from. Despite the occasional tiff between them, the three could always depend on each other.  

“Sup, Doodle?” Jena asked as Norah took a seat behind her.

Doodle was a nickname Jena had given her back when they’d first met in 6th grade. Jena was the new kid in school who was looking to make friends and Norah was an easy target sitting by herself at a picnic table, drawing pictures in a leather-bound sketchbook that she got from her grandmother. They sat together all recess. Norah drew, while Jena ate her lunch, watched her draw, and threw in witty comments about the characters every now and then. Eventually they had an actual conversation and the friendship was set in motion. Today Jena was one of Norah’s most dedicated readers and fans. As soon as a new page went up, she was the first to like and comment. It was almost always something snarky, but snarky in a supportive way.

“Not much,” Norah answered. “How was summer at Mary’s?”

“Oh, you know. As good as any summer spent in a retirement home with your sassy grandmother could be. I did get some beach time in, which made up for the 24/7 crocheting. Speaking of which,” she said as she dug around in her backpack and pulled something out. “I made you a beanie.”

Norah took the monstrosity and turned it around in her hands. It was at least four different shades of green and roughly stitched together. It was awful.

“Wow,” Norah said tentatively. “That’s so nice, J. I love it.”

“It’s okay. I know it’s awful.”

Norah took a sigh of relief, smiled and turned to Colleen who’d sat down in the chair next to her.

“Hey, how was your vacation?”

“Pretty good,” Colleen answered coolly. “Baja was great. My brother was awful though and I literally could not do anything about it.”

“Aren’t all brothers awful though?” Jena piped in.

“True,” Colleen said and nodded her head. “What about you, Nor? How was your vacation?”

“Um…” Norah hesitated to dive in and tell them about her boring vacation. She was debating whether or not she should tell them about the irrelevant details of her holiday to nowhere just to make it seem better than it was, but then she realized something interesting actually did happen.

“I didn’t do anything interesting, but we got new neighbours.”

“Okay…” Colleen said. “That wouldn’t be interesting unless they’re, like, super cool people.”

“Or murderers,” Jena said.

“Neither actually. They’re pretty average, but they have a son who’s a senior here.”

“Ooh,” both girls said in unison and scooted closer.

“Is he hot?” Jena asked with a little too much sparkle in her eye.

“I do find him very attractive.”

Colleen’s eyes narrowed. “Detail.”

“Okay,” Norah breathed. “Well, he’s taller than me and about average build. He has longish brown hair, brown eyes, a nice smile… The first time I saw him he was wearing a plain grey t-shirt. The second time, he was wearing ripped jeans and a black Ramones t-shirt – “

Colleen gasped and sat back in her chair dramatically. “This guy is your type.”

“You’re totally going to fall for him,” Jena added, leaning her chin in her hand.