We Find What Is Lost: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 1)

Chapter Fifty-Two: Rachel, Fall 1981-Summer 1982

His name was Brendan. He was tall, he was on the basketball team, and he had shoulders like she remembered Johnny DiTomaso having, the one who'd first awakened her interest in boys. He had longer hair than she remembered any boy having before, down to his shoulders. It flew out behind him when he streaked down the basketball court. It hypnotized her as she watched him from the other side of the gym where the girls' volleyball team practiced. It got her a ball in the face once for her inattention, earning her a bloody nose and a call to Mom, and she had to resolve to commit more to her own performance. Her resolve crumbled the next time she saw him dribbling, passing and shooting, the muscles flexing under his gleaming skin.

He'd transferred from another high school like she had, but unlike her he'd had no problem finding a crowd to run with. He'd been on the basketball team in his old school, and the coaches at hers courted him as soon as they had a look at him. He was already beloved of the grade ten class, and the girls were already flirting with him. She could only watch it all happening in dismay, from her D&D table, frozen with indecision.

"Rachel?"

A.J.'s voice drew her attention back to the five boys, who knew exactly where she was looking. She never had to give them the talk. They knew all too well what she was thinking whenever she looked at the new guy, and now a dark cloud hung over every gaming session, the stink of their misery and resentment. 

"Sorry," she said. "Where were we?"

"Lorelei is facing five kobolds. What's your play?" Jake asked from behind his screen, only his burning eyes visible.

"Uh, use my plus two longsword."

"You always use your sword," Billy said. "You have magic too, you know."

Rachel shrugged. "I like slicing and dicing."

"Like Legolas with his knives?" Jake asked.

"Huh?"

"He was the elf warrior in Lord of the Rings. Haven't you read Lord of the Rings?"

"I think my dad has."

They all looked at her with a mixture of shock and derision. "How can you play D and D and not have read Lord of the Rings?" Omar asked.

"I didn't think there was required reading to be in this club," Rachel said defensively.

They all looked at each other in consternation. "Well, there isn't," Ted said. "It's just that most people we know who play have also read those. There's also the Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks, there's the Elric series by Michael Moorcock and the Xanth series by Piers Anthony."

Rachel blinked at Ted as if he were speaking a foreign language. "I guess I don't do a lot of reading," she said. "I thought we were just having fun."

"Are you, though?" A.J. asked. "Because it looks like you want to be somewhere else."

Rachel was stung. "Sorry," she said. "Maybe my head's just not in it today."

"Your head hasn't been in it since the beginning of the school year," Billy said. "Maybe the summer holidays kept you away for too long and it just lost its lustre for you."

They all knew what the real reason was, and they were all too nice to say what it was, or too afraid to, as it would bring out in the open the fact that she was interested in a boy that was not any of them. She felt terrible about it, because they were good friends; maybe not LSDC material, but she didn't want to lose them over this, because the table Brendan was sitting at might as well have been on Mars, and there was no way he would even notice her, much less bring her into his world, and the D&D table was all she had.