I hesitate for a minute, then write,It was really really good. And shove the paper back at him before my fingers spasm and rip it to pieces.
Thanks! Are you feeling okay? You look pale.
I’m fine—I always look like this.
Like a drowned rat in sweatpants.
Mrs. Grier gets up and starts taking attendance.
Okay then. Lunch again today?
It’s going to be too cold in the courtyard. Wind.
I’ll punch someone for a seat in the cafeteria. I’m good at stuff like that.
After I read this, he makes a show of placing his elbow on his desk and flexing his arm like he’s stretching. His bicep bulges against his shirt sleeve. Then his elbow slips off the desk and he catches himself, glancing around. A laugh escapes me.
Mrs. Grier pauses, looking back with her onion earrings swinging in her ears, and says nothing. She never calls out students for things like this. I clamp my lips shut until she continues reading. Then I write:
I don’t have anything to top that. Sorry.
He smiles and replies,Can’t top genius.
Wallace does find us a table at lunch, but it’s because he gets there early, not because he punches anyone.
The table is at the end of the lunch lines, so after I get my food he’s sitting right there, smiling like he’s proud of what he’s done. His lunch is the same as yesterday: two hamburgers, two orders of fries, two milks. One Drumstick. There are papers on the table across from him, with a note stuck to the front.
Only if you want.
The top page saysChapter Two.
“Really?” I notice too late, again, that I’ve said it out loud. Wallace doesn’t seem to mind, though—he grabs another piece of paper to write on.
New beta?
I don’t have a pen handy. “Yeah. Yes. Definitely.” I know my voice is too quiet now. When he doesn’t speak, it feels like I shouldn’t either, like I’m ruining the atmosphere. I dig in my bag for my pencil, then reach for his paper. He gladly hands it over.
Sorry I keep forgetting to write. You think I’d remember, considering how much time I spend online.
It’s okay. You don’t have to if you’d rather talk.
I don’t know if I would.
He smiles a little.So you’re online. On the MS forums?
Yes. Sometimes.
Username?
I give him the only one I can, the only other username I have.
MirkerLurker.
Let me guess—you don’t post much.
Not if I can help it. What about you?
Do you read the MS fanfiction?
