The late buses hadn’t yet arrived. Students were milling around the front walkway and adjacent lawn, which had a large civil war canon in it. Brian and Richard were already outside in the place they always waited, against the short brick all that lined the wheelchair ramp in front of the school.

Brian decided telling the twins to go find Pat was a good idea. He didn’t have to talk to Pat about where the twins were or put up with the twins himself while they waited for the late bus.

"So you figured out how you’re going to get Anne to ditch her dad’s?"

"No," Brian said, "I’ll think of something." He had almost forgotten their bet.

"Okay, remember if you get scared I can do it."

"Lay off it, Cudaghy. I told you I would."

"Cool out man, I was just kidding."

"There’s Maria, go ask her," Brian said.

Richard turned in the direction of Brian’s gaze and saw Maria with a group of girls from the drill team. "She’s talking," he said.

"Is that Dawn?" Brian asked.

"I didn’t notice," Richard said.

"Hey Maria! Over here!" Brian called out to the group. Richard quickly turned his back to the girls, hitting Brian’s arm.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"What? I though you were going to ask." Brian asked, feigning wide-eyed innocence. He waved.

"Man, not now!" Richard jerked Brian’s arm down mid-wave.

"Oh yeah, that wasn’t obvious," Brian said.

"Quit it, I’m not going to ask in front of the girl, shithead," Richard said.

"Keep your panties on. She probably didn’t see me anyway."

Richard shook his head and leaned back on the wall. "You’re a real asshole sometimes. I think you and Troy know the same amount about girls."

"Oh I see," Brian knew this was intended as a heavy insult. Richard’s anger often amused him. "And what about you? Talkin’ smack during the picture, now you can’t even look over there."

"I’m not going to ask Maria in front of the girl, Brian. Jesus, I can’t believe you get better grades than me!"

Brian laughed, which made Richard relax a little and smile himself. "Dumbass," Brian said,bending his left leg backwards to kick Richard’s butt.

"At least I have a plan anyway," Richard said as he side-stepped Brian’s foot.

"A plan? Oooo..." Brian edged closer to try kicking Richard again.

"It’s better than what you got, which is nothing." Richard blocked Brian’s foot with his shin.

"What?" Brian asked.

"Simple. All I have to do is bring it up when I help her with Algebra tomorrow."

"She asked you to help her with Algebra?" Brian asked. Maria always refused when he asked.

"Yeah well, kind of. We were talking about school and math and whatever and since I have that notebook from last year, I told her I would."

"Ah, the notebook, "said Brian, shaking his head. Richard had kept a lot of his notebooks from last school year at the advice of his stepbrother Mike. Mike impressed Consuela that they would be good for Richard to study anything he forgot. Mike told Richard later that it was a perfect way to meet new girls, offer them help in their classes. So Richard had many of his freshman year notebooks, world history, ninth grade English, science and Algebra.

"Yep," Richard said with that grin he got when he was talking about girls. Usually Brian returned it, but somehow the idea of Maria being caught up in a Richard plan bothered him.

"Well what good is that going to do? It’s just Maria," Brian asked, a little sharply.

"I know," Richard said.

Brian waited for Richard to elaborate. When Richard didn’t go any further, he said, "So what’s the point then?"

Richard looked surprised. "She is my friend, too."

Brian looked away. "I know."

"So it’s not a crime to help her in math."

"No," snapped Brian, "just forget it. We don’t have to make a federal case out of it."

"Whatever," answered Richard, shaking his head.

Just then one of the school’s front doors burst open. Out came Yolanda and Troy, apparently racing each other to the spot where Brian told them to meet him.

"Oh God," Brian said. Richard chuckled with sympathy.

Behind them were Pat and Diana talking excitedly. Brian figured they were rehashing Pat’s talking to Danny during the team picture. It always amazed him how girls could make a five hour discussion out of a five minute conversation. They didn’t seem satisfied until they had talked every detail to death. Guys just wanted to get to the point; they didn’t need to know what color shirt he had on that day or where everyone was standing.

Diana waved and smiled as they came closer. Brian watched for his friend’s reaction out of the corner of his eye. He still wasn’t sure what was going between them. He supposed he wouldn’t be talking to Pat about it anymore. She walked right past them without a word and walked over to talk to another girl.

"Here’s your notebook back," Diana said to Richard.

Brian laughed. "Is that last year’s algebra notebook by chance?"

"Yes," Diana answered, innocent. Richard shot him a dirty look.

Diana held the notebook out to Richard, then pulled it back towards her chest before he could reach out and take it.

"Unless," she said, "I can keep it until tomorrow for a quiz? Pleeese?"

Richard shook his head. "Na-uh, I need it."

"Oh, what for? These are your notes from last year. You said Algebra and Geometry don’t really have anything to do with each other."

"Diana, I need it." Richard reached out and began trying to pull the notebook away from her. "You can have it back later."

"But I have a quiz tomorrow." Diana turned to Brian. "Don’t you want to help your poor cousin? Talk to him. I’m going to fail this quiz." She said in a voice that was one step away from whining.

Brian shrugged. "He’s helping Maria during lunch tomorrow, he needs it."

"Oh!" Diana brightened. "We’re in the same class, could I sit in with you guys?" she turned to Richard who shot Brian another look. What? Brian mouthed over Diana’s head.

"Well, I don’t know," Richard said.

"It’s the same quiz. I promise I’ll just be quiet and listen."

"Do you have our lunch?" Richard asked.

Diana nodded rapidly.

"Well, whatever. It doesn’t make any difference to me. Ask Maria."

Brian waved to Maria as she came up to them. She waved back at Brian and tugged at Richard’s sleeve. "Ask me what? Hey guys, hey Diana."

Diana looked at Richard, hoping he would broach the subject. But Richard just looked back ather, nodding towards Maria with his head. "Go ahead," he told Diana.

"Oh, I uh..." Diana stammered. Maria turned to her expectantly."...it wasn’t anything really, I just well...I just wanted to know." For a minute, Diana looked so uncomfortable Brian was about to take pity on her and finish the question But Diana got it out.

"Go on, spit it out," Maria said. Her smile was friendly and disarming.

"Well, since Richard is going to go over the Algebra notes with you, I just wondered if I could like hang out during lunch."

"Oh, I don’t care." Maria turned to Richard. "Professor Cudaghy?"

Richard shrugged. "Fine."

Maria continued to look at him, slowly raising her eyebrows with a mischievous smile.

"It’s fine," Richard gave her the same look he gave Brian. Maria looked over at Brian, who cleared his throat. "I guess it's settled," he said. "Yep," answered Maria. Richard waved them away. "Shutup you guys," he said.

All of this took place rapidly--Diana’s head swiveled between them all but Brian was pretty sure she didn’t catch the whole exchange. He and his friends had been having those types of conversations too long. Half the time people didn’t know what the four of them were talking about.

Maria turned to Brian. "Did you see the note I gave you before the team picture?"

Brian drew a blank. "What note?"

"From this morning."

"Oh, wait..." Brian shuffled around in his backpack until he found a folded piece of paper with Maria’s handwriting.

"Look at this before the team picture," Brian read off of the front. He looked at Maria with a sheepish smile. "Whoops, I’m a little late."

Maria smiled, holding out her index finger and thumb about an inch apart. "Just a little," she said.

Brian opened the note. Inside was a little cartoon of a boy in a suit with a basketball for a head. Underneath it said, "Cheese!"

"Oh that reminds me, I didn’t tell you what happened with Danny and my sister!" Brian launched into his story of the afternoon’s events, checking to make sure Diana was out of earshot.

Maria nodded and made this proper responses: "What a jerk!" and "That is an insult!" When Brian dropped the note while illustrating how he took Pat out of the theater, Maria bent over, picked it up and refolded it.

"Sounds like you could’ve used this earlier. To cheer you up," she said, holding it out to him.

"Huh? Oh..." Brian took back the note. "Yeah right, or I could’ve made that dick Danny eat it."

"Well, that’s one use for it, I guess." Maria said quietly. "Well, I’ve got to go, see you later." She turned to go.

"Hey, hold on," Brian said.

"What?" When Maria turned around, Brian saw her expression had changed. He sensed something wasn’t right, but he didn’t know what. He always hated when people asked, ‘Are you mad at me?’ It sounded whiny. But he needed to figure out her mood.

"You’re not taking the late bus?"

"No Brian, I have late practices Tuesdays, remember?"

He didn’t. "Oh. Well, how are you getting home?"

"Sherri."

"Oh well, buckle up." Brian attempted a smile.

"Ha-ha. See you later." Maria walked away.

"Just kidding!" Brian called after her.

Maria waved without turning around and headed towards the front door. He watched her go inside. He turned back around to see Diana. He shrugged. "Great, what’d I say now?"

"What? Is she mad?" Diana asked.

"I can’t tell." Brian leaned against the wall next to her. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Richard talking and laughing with Pat. Diana was turned straight ahead.

"So that’s cool, you wont flunk the quiz," Brian said.

Diana nodded. "Yeah."

The buses started to come. They began to walk out to the parking lot.

"Could you believe me in front of Maria? I was totally stuttering. I don’t what’s going to happen tomorrow."

Brian shrugged. "Don’t worry about Maria, she doesn’t bite. At least not that I know of," he added with a little chuckle.

"Oooo, wouldn’t you like to know?" Diana said, bumping against him.

What he said next surprised him. "Sure, why not?"

"Excuse me?" Diana took him by the arm and stopped them in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Nothin’, come on." Brian continued towards the buses.

Diana scooted after him. "I heard you!" she said. "Are you serious or what?" Then lower: "Do you like her now?"

"Hush," Brian said, smiling.

"Omigod." Diana covered her mouth.

"Diana, shutup." Brian nudged his cousin as they approached the late bus that went to their neighborhood. He looked around for Richard and Pat. They were up on the stairs, getting in.

Diana’s eyes followed his gaze. "Oh, I won’t tell them," she said with a bit of disdain. "Does Maria know? I mean, what would she say?"

"I don’t know, and let’s keep it that way," Brian said.

"Whhhhy?..."

Brian shook his head, wondering what possessed him to hint to Diana that he liked Maria. He wasn’t even completely sure how he felt, and here he was discussing it with Diana, who probably had the biggest mouth in their family. Now he had to keep her quiet. As they were boarding the bus, Diana turned to face him.

"Hey, you know I see her in math..."

"NO," Brian said.

"I don’t mean I would tell her, just like..."

"Diana, we’ll talk about it later." He leaned towards her. "Can we not discuss this with the whole bus?"

"Oh," Diana turned as if realizing for the first time that they had boarded. Richard looked up with a curious glance from two rows away. Pat turned away as soon as they looked up.

"Gotcha." Diana started to walk towards the back.

Brian put his books down in the seat in the front of Richard. "Diana, c’mere!"

Diana put her books in the seat across from Pat and walked back to the front. She stopped in front of Richard’s seat. Brian beckoned her closer with his index finger. She walked over and leaned in.

"What?"

"I mean it, don’t tell anyone," he hissed.

Diana straightened. "I won’t, Brian. Seriously."

They looked at each other for a minute. When Brian was convinced she was sincere, he sat back down and she went back to her seat.

"Hi Patella, are the late buses always empty like this?" Yolanda was saying. "We never get to sit in the back,"

Pat smiled. "I remember when everybody wanted to sit in the back in the seventh grade," she said as if intermediate school days were far behind her instead of one semester. "Oh and by the way you guys, if you're going to be around Seb now, you have to call me Pat. Nobody knows me as Patella here."

"Except for our family, right Pat?" said Diana, slipping into a seat across the aisle from Pat.

So now it was our family, Pat thought. In front of the guys she wanted nothing to do with any of them. She ignored the remark.

"What was that all about?" Pat asked, nodding towards the front.

"What, oh Brian? Inside thing, don’t worry about it," Diana said.

Pat knew from Diana’s tone that she wanted to be asked more about it so she deliberately changed the subject. Why should she care anyway? "So what's your name in the play?" she asked Yolanda.

"Alice," Yolanda said. "Look at all these lines."

Pat reached out and the script. To be sure, Alice was in a fair amount of scenes. Their English teacher had told them that in Shakespeare's plays, most of the major characters were listed on the top. Pat ran a finger down the cast of characters for Alice. She was near the top. She looked up at her sister, who suddenly seemed very young. "Are you like a star or something?"

"Oh no..." Yolanda said.

"Well, who are you supposed to be?" Diana asked her.

"I have a crush on one of the teachers and commit suicide," said Yolanda.

"On stage?" Pat said.

"No, no. You don't see it."

"Are you in it?" Diana turned to Troy.

This was the first time she had directly addressed them all afternoon--when Danny and Mike weren't around. All while the twins were down at their locker much was made about the fact that Troy and Yolanda were Pat's brother and sister, but Diana had not once mentioned that the twins were her cousins. She'd joked right along with the guys as if she'd barely known them. In fact, she never mentioned the fact that she was Pat's cousin either. To be sure neither did Pat, but the whole situation gave Diana the perfect opportunity to mention that Pat's family was also hers. Pat was ready to strangle Troy and Yolanda in front of Danny, but they were just acting twelve. Pat didn’t say as much, but she thought the play was a pretty big deal. Diana was asking the twins about it in that grownup to kid voice Heather used when she was answering the door on Halloween.

"Hey you guys," Pat said suddenly. She was secretly pleased at the way the twins looked in her direction when she spoke, cutting off Diana in mid-sentence. "If you want to we can read it out when you practice. Remember how we did that with Romeo and Juliet? when I was reading it for English?"

"Oh yeah, that was cool! Remember Troy?" Yolanda said, tugging at Troy's arm. He nodded.

"Except this time it'll be for real," Pat said with a pleasant smile at her brother and sister.