Average Jane |Lesbian Story|

Chapter 10

The bell rang. Jane was stuffing A Tale of Two Cities into her backpack when she heard Lucy's voice beside her.

"You're reading Dickens?"

Jane nodded warily.

"Oh, I love Dickens. Have you read David Copperfield? Or Oliver Twist? Olive Twist is my favorite. I've read it twice. I cried both times. I can't believe someone else in our class is reading Dickens."

To her dismay, Jane found herself walking down the hall to English with Lucy by her side, still talking, talking, talking.

"I didn't know you were such a big reader, Jane," Lucy said, smiling at her. "I guess because your book-report books are always so short. But length isn't what matters in a book. I love a lot of short books, too. Just look at poetry. A poem can be any length. There are millions of wonderful poems that are only a few lines long. Like Emily Dickinson's poems. She can say more in two lines than most people can say in a hundred pages. What part are you up to in A Tale of Two Cities?"

They had reached the English room.

"Um...page 97," Jane said. "I think the bell is going to ring soon."

She took her seat. Had anyone besides Emily seen her walking with Lucy Adams? She made herself look at Emily. The pity that shone from her best friend's eyes was embarrassing, but in a way comforting, too.

"If I didn't know better," Emily said to her in a voice low enough that no one else could hear, "I'd say Lucy Adams likes you."

"She likes me," Jane admitted dully.

"I guess it backfired, eh?" Emily said. "You might want to stop reading Dickens now."

Jane didn't know what to say.

"Yeah, well, but at this point, I might as well go ahead and finish it. I meant I've already read 97 pages. It'd be a shame to waste them."

Emily just shook her head. But Jane hadn't been reading A Tale of Two Cities to irritate Lucy. Or even to prove something to Ms. Reeds. She had been reading it to be worthy of Grace Anderson. Even if she never knew Jane had read it, Jane was still reading it for her.

~*~

On Saturday afternoon, Jane had an extra math class with Lucy. They decided to meet at the public library because it was more quiet and convenient, and hardly anyone from Jane's school went there on the weekend. She did not tell Emily about her plan of becoming less loser-ish. Jane felt it was against her role as the vice president, so she just said she had plans with her family.

Jane had checked out three math textbooks from the library, Basic Math, Pre-Algebra, Algebra I. Lucy had prescribed these three books for her self-study program before their first private Peer-Teaching session. Jane had gone through them, but they might as well be written in Arabic. After all, the word Algebra itself was an Arabic word according to Lucy Adams.

Carrying the heavy load of books in her arms, Jane tried to spot her tutor. She found her in a corner by the windows. Lucy was reading a very thick book.

"Hey," she said when they saw each other. Lucy was smiling brightly as Jane walked up to her.

"Hi," Jane said after she sat down. They shared a moment of awkward silence.

"Umm...so have you memorized the multiplication facts?" Lucy finally asked.

"Huh?"

"The multiplication facts," she repeated. "Have you memorized them?"