Misfit Theater Company 2

4. Jealousy (Part 1)

At lunch Patti decided that the four of us must read through A Midsummer Night's Dream immediately after school. She made it seem like it was an emergency, but honestly it could be depending on what sort of "audition preparation" Mrs. Permala has in store for us tomorrow.

But before the day is over and we can all go to Patti's to do our read through, Moth and I need to go to science class. Chemistry to be specific, which I think I will hate more than any other science I've ever taken, because the teacher just said there is math involved.

Mr. McKinley, or Mr. Mac as he told us to call him, made a seating chart prior to us even entering the classroom which does not include Moth and I being lab partners. It does, however, allow us to sit near each other toward the back of class, with Moth and his partner in front of me and mine.

Mr. Mac turns his back to the class in order to write some starting equations on the board that he hopes will "separate the wheat from the chaff" and while his back is turned, Moth turns around to my lab partner.

"Switch seats with me?" he whispers.

"No," the guy says with some unnecessary attitude.

"Why, dude? C'mon, let me sit with my friend."

"No, I'm not trying to get in trouble."

"Excuse me," Mr. Mac interrupts them. Moth turns back around, and Mr. Mac raises his eyebrows at him. "Is there something you need, Mr... Boone?"

"Uh, well, yeah. I'd rather be lab partners with Janie Myers, this girl behind me. Is that cool?"

"What, are you dating?"

"Nope, just friends, Mr. Mac dude."

Mr. Mac thinks about it for a moment, and then says, "Sure, fine, who cares, just no talking while I'm teaching, otherwise I'll move you."

"Cool, I won't. Thanks," Moth says, picking up his binder and standing up.

"Suck up," my now former lab partner says under his breath at Moth as he lifts his binder from the desk and moves to his new seat.

"You wish you had my moves," Moth replies under his breath.

"What?" the guy asks.

"Yeah," Moth replies, sitting down beside me. He holds back laughter, and admits, "I don't know for sure if I'm intimidating him, but I feel like I'm making it work."

"Totally," I say, smiling.

Mr. Mac turns back around to continue writing on the board.

"I guess we didn't need to plot how we'd become lab partners too hard, since all I had to do was ask," Moth whispers.

"Good thing we didn't need to set all the lab frogs free."

"Especially since they're dead," Moth agrees, and I laugh.

My former lab partner turns around to shush us.

"Dude... really?" Moth responds, and the guy rolls his eyes and turns back towards Mr. Mac. Moth looks back at me and rolls his eyes dramatically. "I guess we should take notes," he says.

I suddenly realize how I've been hypocritical today: I ignored Gina this morning, because I wanted to focus; yet, here I am, looking for any way to let Moth distract me in chemistry class. I don't linger too long on the thought, though, because the major difference between the two scenarios is that I actually enjoy talking to Moth.

I start writing down the equations that Mr. Mac has put up on the board, but when he stops for a minute to explain something about the periodic table numbers, I rip out an extra piece of paper from the back of my notebook, and write, "How about passing notes to?" I slide it to his side of the table.

He smiles, corrects my spelling of "too" real quick, and then writes his reply, "Rebellious Janie has returned. Welcome."

"Can I tell you something?"

"Yes.... deep breaths, deep breaths."

I take a deep breath, like he taught me to, and on the exhale, I write, "Paige upset me today."

"What?? Paigey Brew?? What did she do to my Janie girl???"

I start writing, but cross it out, deciding instead just to risk whispering this part to Moth. "She talked to me like I was just watching you guys while she was gone, and now that she was back, I wouldn't be needed or something."

He raises his brows. "Did she say that?"

"She said something like, 'thanks for watching the troupe while I was gone.'"

He frowns and puts his arm around me. "I can't imagine that she meant it to sound like it did. She's pretty cool, but there's a reason we're all tighter now than we were while she was in our troupe."

I take a deep breath before letting out my next embarrassing question. "Why don't you have a nickname for me then?"

He smiles at me, but the corners of his mouth are turned down. "Don't be jealous, you're always going to be my favorite fourth member, Janie My. Nope, didn't like that. How about J-My? Nope, hated that one too. I'll come up with a banging nickname for you, and it's going to blow you away, just wait."

Mr. Mac clears his throat. Moth and I look up. "Anything you want to add Mr. Boone?"

"Um," Moth stalls. "I would just like to apologize for talking. It will only ever happen... periodically."

Mr. Mac glares at him for a moment and then cracks a little smile. "Apology accepted. Make sure you're listening, both of you."

"You got it," Moth replies.

Then Mr. Mac turns back around. Moth looks at me, eyes wide, and mouths the word, "Phew."

"Thank goodness I'm punny af," he writes on the note we have going.

I laugh and get back to work.