When I tried to decide what to write this month, I had a
thought. Two thoughts actually. It was the second one that I found
interesting. The first thought was… I
bet this would be easier if I could post fiction. The second thought was… Who says I can’t?
I decided to pluck a couple of characters from my next book
and give them their own short story to post here. This story takes place about 11 years before
They See a Family. If all goes according
to plan, the book will be released in January, and I’ll post the end of The
Study Group shortly before that.
----
“What are
you working on today?” Annie asked. She
leaned closer, not so much to see but to smell.
Carlos smelled awesome. She
wanted to ask him what it was so she could get a bottle to use as air freshener
for her dorm. She had to wait
though. Why do you always smell so
awesome seemed more like a second date question and they hadn’t even been out
once yet, much to Annie’s disappointment.
“Statistics,”
he said.
“Oh.” Her nose wrinkled, despite the pleasant
scent.
“Not a fan
of statistics?”
“Let’s just
say I’m glad I only needed one semester.”
“I could
help you with statistics.” Jake leaned
across the table with an earnest expression.
Annie sat back. “I took that last semester,” she reminded
him.
He nodded. “I remember.”
His eyes stayed wide as though he was still offering.
“So I don’t need help anymore.”
“I think this semester seems to be
going better for everyone,” Hannah observed as she looked around the
group. There were six of them at the
table, all sophomores. They went to the
same church and formed a study group at the beginning of the school year. Since they were mostly taking different
classes, they usually just sat together while they worked on different
homework. Sometimes they did help each
other study, and sometimes they talked so much that nobody got any work
done. Hannah’s eyes lingered on Aaron
longer than anyone else. They’d recently
started dating.
“Yeah,” Annie said, “I know Mallory’s
as glad to be through that tough English class as I am to be done with
statistics. That class was a huge disappointment.”
Mallory was on Annie’s other
side. “You actually thought it might be
interesting?” she asked.
“Sort of. I mean, when I think statistics, I think of a
bunch of cool facts. Like this
percentage of people use their right hand even though they’re left-handed and
one out of every so many cows has twins.
But the class was like memorize this formula. Now memorize this formula. You need to know all six of these formulas
for the test.”
Everyone at the table laughed at
her impression of the class until Carlos shushed them. “Quiet, guys,” he said. “I’m trying to memorize a formula here.”
Then they laughed harder.
Annie leaned over his paper
again. “That does look vaguely familiar.”
“You’re interested in left-handed
people?” Jake twirled his pencil while
he talked, in his left hand. Annie hadn’t
noticed he was left-handed before. She
knew Carlos and Hannah both were. The
fact that half the people at the table were left-handed was probably
statistically significant in some way and far more interesting than the whole
semester of formulas had been.
Mallory poked her in the back. “Your idea of what constitutes a cool fact is
a bit of a stretch.”
Annie rolled her eyes at
herself. “Well, I didn’t have time to
look anything up.”
“Is there such a thing as a cool
fact?” Hannah hitched her eyebrows
together skeptically.
“Sure,” Jake said. “There are whole books of weird but true
things.”
“Weird, not cool,” Hannah said.
“Weird can be cool.” Carlos tipped his head as though giving the
matter serious thought, probably more serious than it deserved.
Annie found this serious nature
attractive. It wasn’t as though he went
around brooding or anything. He just
seemed more mature than a lot of the young men at school who thought bodily
functions were necessary for comedy. “I
agree,” she said. “At least
sometimes. But I was talking about
statistical facts, not which animals can turn their tongues upside-down.”
“But what about the percentage of
animals who can turn their tongues upside-down?”
Carlos smiled and said, “Good one,
Jake. I bet that’s a small number.”
Carlos had a nice smile and a nice
serious face and Annie could not inhale often enough whatever that great scent
was. Why were they talking about
tongues?
“Ow!” Annie turned around as she felt another jab
in her ribs.
Mallory handed her a notebook. “Here.
Quiz me on those names again.”
“Okay.” She took the notes and began to go down the
list. It was difficult not to laugh
whenever Mallory struggled for an answer.
She’d open and close her mouth while she twirled red curls around her
fingers. It almost looked as though she
was treating herself like her own ventriloquist’s dummy. They were working through the notes a second
time when Hannah snapped a textbook closed.
“Wow,” she said, “I can’t believe
how late it’s gotten.” She stuffed her
book into a bag.
“You’re always the first one to
turn into a pumpkin,” Mallory teased.
“Sorry, guys. I’ve never been a night owl.” Hannah had stood and was putting on her coat.
Aaron was gathering his things as
well. “I’ll walk you back.”
Hannah paused long enough to turn
gooey as she thanked him. The others
waved as the two of them walked away from the table holding hands.
“How about those of us who are
night owls head over to the Sundial for a late night snack?” Jake
suggested. “I’m thinking French fries.”
“Sorry, man.” Carlos was the first to answer. “I gotta stay put. This is due tomorrow.”
“Anyone else?” Jake’s eyes landed hopefully on Annie with
little flickers over to Mallory.
“Count me out,” Mallory said. She was collecting her books and papers. “Even though I gave Hannah a hard time, I
should get to bed, too.”
Annie hurriedly stuffed everything
she brought into her bag to keep up with Mallory. “It is probably time to call it a night.” She grabbed her coat and put it on as she and
Mallory left the library together.