Lay Me Down

4. New leaf.

{Kadee}

Kadee tugged her skirt up and stretched her bare legs out in the sun. It was finally warm enough to take their lunches outside and eat on the football stands. Beside her, Sarah was pouring over her social studies notes. On the bench in front of them, Madison hunched her bony shoulders as she nibbled the carrot sticks from her lunch.

"Todd Klassen is totally checking you out, Kadee," Madison said in a neutral voice.

Sarah snorted without looking up. "What else is new?"

Kadee kept her eyes closed, basking in the warmth of the sunlight and the sense that she was the centre of attention in the group of girls sprawled on the stands and the footballers practicing in the field below them. "He can look all he wants—this girl is so not interested."

"Really?" Sarah said. "He seems like your type."

Kadee cracked one eye open to give her a look. "Ew."

Sarah shrugged. "Sorry, I can't keep track anymore."

"Dumb, beefy footballers are so not my type," Kadee said loftily.

"They were last year," Sarah muttered.

"Don't be mean," Madison said. "Tyson was kind of nice."

Sarah rolled her eyes. Kadee brushed the spectre of Tyson and the rest aside. "Nope, I'm turning over a new leaf. Spring is in the air—time for new things."

Both her friends raised their eyebrows at her, waiting. Kadee widened her eyes. "A girl can change, right?"

"Who is he?" Sarah narrowed her eyes.

Kadee smiled secretively. "Someone you'll like. Someone nice. Someone who reads his Bible." She wiggled her eyebrows at Sarah, who snorted in disbelief. Sarah was a Bible study leader for the junior-high youth group, and privately, Madison and Kadee had talked about how she was maybe taking it too seriously. They'd known each other since riding lessons in, like, Grade 2. Since boys had become a thing for Kadee, she felt like she'd gotten out of sync with her friends. Madison had had a million crushes, but her skinny body had barely begun to develop a feminine shape, and she was so painfully shy she could never say a word to a guy without turning bright pink from her head to her toes. Sarah was too serious for relationships.

But now, Kadee thought she'd found a way to get them all back in sync—a relationship she wanted and they would approve of. "I'll tell you after school, okay? If I ever date a guy like Todd again, you guys can just tie me up and keep me home."

///

Her entire friend group would have been astonished to discover that math was Kadee's new favourite class. Of course, that had everything to do with the boy sitting just across the aisle and one seat in front of her. Kadee did her math homework each night with new determination—if she had the answer for the teacher in class the next day, Jon White would turn around in his seat and look at her when she solved for x. Her improvement in the class over the past few weeks was remarkable.

Today, she alternated between admiring her new gel nails and watching Jon. The tuft of hair sticking straight up from his cowlick on the back of his head was a welcome distraction from the boring drone of Mr. Buble's lesson. Midway through the class, she was pretty sure Jon fell asleep. He had his arms around his math text and his head on his arms, and his breathing was slow and deep. The shape of his shoulder blades under his T-shirt was oddly fascinating. She imagined how one would fit into her palm, like one of the triangles Mr. Buble was solving up on the board.

When the bell rang, Jon unfolded, smushed his math textbook closed around his notebook, and shuffled out of class like he was still half asleep.

She came up next to him in the hall, smiling sideways at him. "You slept all class. Want my notes?"