Wyatt snorted out a laugh. “Okay, touché.” He let his swing go, and it spun forward and rocked from side to side.
Julia let her swing go, too. She was blushing again.
Of course she’d spoken to Wyatt Hardy before. But she’d never reallytalkedto him. She’d never made himlaugh.
He really must not recognize her ...
She should say something. Something like—I didn’t know that Coty Christensen had a truck.
And Wyatt would say,How do you know Coty?
And she’d say,Wyatt, it’s me, Julia, from AP World History.
And he’d say,Julia?Or maybe,Julia who?
And she’d say,I cut my hair.
And then he’d really look at her—and he’d finally see it. That she was plain old Julia Kimball. Not some exotic girl from a different school, some swing-set fairy. And he’d go back to his popular friends and be grateful for them.
“Am I actually bothering you?” Wyatt asked.
“No,” Julia said softly.
“Because I could let you watch the movie.”
“I’ve already missed too much.”
“You are going to besoconfused duringJurassic Park 2.”
They both laughed.
Julia wasn’tobligatedto tell Wyatt who she was ...
You didn’t have to introduce yourself to someone you already knew. That wasn’t etiquette.
Julia wasn’tlying. She was just letting him believe his own eyes.
“Are you staying for the second movie?” Wyatt asked. It was a double feature—Jurassic ParkandThe Lost World.
“Do people really do that?”
“Heck yeah. I mean ...” He shrugged. “A lot of people do fall asleep. I usually get more out of the second movie than the first one.”
“Oh god,” Julia said. “I’m going to be stuck on this swing for three hours.”
“Excuse me,” someone said.
There was a woman standing next to the swing set with two grade-schoolers. She looked fed up. “These little guys have been waiting for their turn.”
They couldn’t have been waiting that long; Wyatt had just sat down.
He was already standing up. “Sorry about that. Here you go.”
Julia stood up, too.
“The swing set is meant for little kids,” the woman said. “Not teenagers.”
“Yeah,” Wyatt said, walking away. “Have a good night.”
