Arcadia's Gift(2)

“Yes,” I replied, swallowing. “Pick your battles.”
“Thanks,” he muttered. Shawn set to work dissecting his cafeteria pizza until it was free of all veggie matter.
“Hi, guys,” Bronwyn said cheerfully, taking her usual seat by my side. Bronwyn Perkins was my other best friend. We met in the first day of junior high when we showed up wearing identical outfits. In many ways, Bronwyn was more like me than my own twin. We’re both quiet until you get to know us. We both love animals and work part-time at a local shelter. We listen to the same music, like the same books and think the same movie stars are cute. My high school career would royally suck without her.
“Shawn just found out that Lony is his partner for the chem term project,” I explained.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Bronwyn replied, patting his arm. There was no love lost between her and my sister either. Lony thought Bronwyn was a nerd of the highest caliber, and Bronwyn thought Lony was a spoiled brat. Both were right to a certain extent, but that didn’t mean I didn’t love them both.
My gaze trailed over to where Lony and her friends sat at the center table, clearly the loudest group in the room. If a bomb fell out of the sky and took only Lony’s table out, Dubuque Senior High would lose all of its varsity cheerleaders and most of the football team, leaving the marching band miraculously intact. At the moment, I could barely see my sister, because, Cane, had his muscular arms draped over her shoulders. They started dating almost a year ago, at the beginning of our sophomore year. Since then, Cane had become a regular fixture on our living room couch.
“Do you work tomorrow, Cady?” Bronwyn asked. She yanked the band out of her copper hair and began re-fixing her ponytail which had worked itself loose throughout the morning.
“Um, no. Dad’s moving, remember? Thought I’d give him a hand.” I bent my head down over my plate, blinking like crazy to keep the tears back. Actually, my father said he didn’t want my help. He planned to pay some guys from his construction crew overtime to load and unload boxes, but I didn’t think I’d be able to keep myself from pitching in. Maybe he’d let me do the unpacking at his new place. If left to his own devices, I could picture him living out of cardboard boxes for the next year.
Shawn shot Bronwyn a warning look and responded, “We’re sorry, Cady. We forgot. Are you okay? Wanna talk about it?”
“Not really,” I sighed. I set my fork down, having lost my appetite. My friends stared at me with concern. I know they just wanted to be there for me, but I really needed to get through this day on my own. “I think I’m going to take off. I want to stop by the library before literature.”
I stood up and carried my tray to the washing counter. As I passed by, I heard Lony’s trilling soprano erupt into a fit of giggles. How could she behave so normally today? Didn’t she care at all about our family falling apart? I took a deep breath. Of course she cares about our family, I reminded myself. She just deals differently, that’s all.
I trudged up one flight of stairs and turned into the library, bustling with students avoiding the humiliation of where to sit in the cafeteria. The library was always busy the first couple weeks of school.
I wanted to check out some books on the Russian royal family for my European History class. I had a vague idea of doing a Romanov family tree for my class project later in the semester. I jotted down the call numbers of two promising books from the computer catalog and set off for the stacks. After locating a large volume on Nicholas II, I stood in the aisle reviewing the table of contents.
Suddenly, someone rounded the corner of the shelves and ran right in to me. I let out a little shriek and dropped the heavy volume on my foot, sending a white flash of pain up from my toes.
“Damn! I’m so sorry!” the guy said, before muttering under his breath, “I’m such an idiot…”
I bent down to rub my toe and retrieve the book splayed open on the floor. I wanted to be annoyed with him, but I didn’t have the energy for it.
“Don’t worry about it,” I sighed. I carefully straightened the bent pages.
I didn’t recognize him, but with over two thousand students, and this being the first week of school, there were lots of new faces roaming the halls. He wore a black button down over a white Flobots t-shirt and black, faded jeans. Over his eyes were thick brows and a disheveled patch of black hair. He carried a worn backpack covered in sewed-on patches of indie rock bands. Realizing I was staring, my face flushed.#p#分页标题#e#
His shoulders were slumped, but I couldn’t tell if it was because I was so much shorter than him or if he just had poor posture.