Juli, or me. What was wrong with me? If I wanted to
make it up to Juli, why didn't I just go over there and help? What was stopping me?
I wound up at Garrett's house, and man, I'd never been so glad to see anyone in my life.
Leave it to Garrett to get your mind off anything important.
That dude's the master. We went out back and shot hoops, watched the tube, and talked
about hitting the water slides this summer.
And when I got home, there was Juli, sprinkling the yard.
She saw me, all right, but she didn't wave or smile or anything. She just looked away.
Normally what I'd do in that situation is maybe pretend like I hadn't seen her, or give a quick
wave and charge inside. But she'd been mad at me
for what seemed like ages. She hadn't said word one to me since the morning of the eggs.
She'd completely dissed me in math a couple days
before when I'd smiled at her, trying to tell her I was sorry. She didn't smile back or nod or
anything. She just turned away and never looked back.
I even waited for her outside the classroom to say something, anything, about her fixing up
the yard and how bad I felt, but she ditched me out the
other door, and after that anytime I got anywhere near her, she'd find some way to skate
around me.
So there she was, watering the yard, making me feel like a jerk, and I'd had enough of it. I
went up to her and said, “It's looking real good, Juli.
Nice job.”
“Thanks,” she said without smiling. “Chet did most of it.”
Chet? I thought. Chet? What was she doing, calling my grandfather by his first name? “Look,
Juli,” I said, trying to get on with why I was there. “I'm
sorry for what I did.”
She looked at me for a second, then went back to watching the water spray across the dirt.
Finally she said, “I still don't get it, Bryce. Why didn't
you just tell me?”
“I…I don't know. It was dumb. I should have. And I shouldn't have said anything about the
yard, either. It was, you know, out of line.”
I was already feeling better. A lot better. Then Juli says, “Well, maybe it's all for the better,”
and starts bouncing up and down on the balls of her
feet, acting more like her old self. “Doesn't it look great? I learned so much from Chet it's
amazing. You are so lucky. I don't even have grandparents
anymore.”
“Oh,” I said, not knowing what to say.
“I do feel sorry for him, though. He sure misses your grandmother.” Then she laughs and
shakes her head, saying, “Can you believe it? He says I
remind him of her.”
“What?” “Yeah,” she laughs again. “That's what I said. But he meant it in a nice way.”
I looked at Juli and tried to picture my grandmother as an eighth grader. It was hopeless. I
mean, Juli's got long, fluffy brown hair and a nose full of
freckles, where my grandmother had always been some variety of blond. And my
grandmother had used powder. Puffy white powder. She'd put it
on her face and in her hair, in her slippers and on her chest…. That woman powdered
everything.
I could not see Juli coated in powder. Okay, maybe gun powder, but the white perfumy stuff?
Forget it.
----------------------- Page 40-----------------------
I guess I was staring, because Juli says, “Look, I didn't say it, he did. I just thought it was nice,
