Can You Not?

Chapter 12

She had an idea, but she had nowhere to start. Norah spent the entire night researching different types of sculpting to figure out which one she would screw up the least. In the end she settled on paper mache, but she would have to make her thing smaller. Or if she wanted to make it bigger, she would need someone's help. Dropping down onto her bed, she grabbed her phone and sent Sierra a text.

"Wanna come over after school?"

"Sure. Why?"

"Art project. I need your help."

"Okay. Cool. I'll bring something to paint in."

Norah texted Ellis right after. "Are you still under house arrest?"

"Technically, no."

"Cool. I need you to do me a favor."

"Shoot."

"Can you pick me up some wire and as much newspaper as you can find?"

"Um.. Okay. When do you need it?"

"As soon as possible."

"I'm on it."

She jumped into planning the sculpture, finding a paper mache recipe and checking to make sure she didn't miss anything. Everything seemed to be in order. All she would need was help from her friends. Digging out some old clothes, she meant to send Ellis a message telling him that he needs to wear old clothes too if he wants to help. Instead she sent a message that read: "When you come over be naked."

He called back immediately. "You want me to do what?"

"It was a joke."

"Why you gotta play me like that?"

"Because it's funny. Listen, wear old clothes if you want to help. We're doing paper mache."

"That sounds fun," he said. "I'm at the hobby store now. How thick does the wire need to be?"

"Not too thick. We need to be able to shape it."

"Okay. I'll see you in a few minutes."

When the call disconnected, Norah went downstairs to find her dad's collection of old newspapers. He seemed to be unable to throw them away, but never read them again, so it worked in her favor this one time. She picked up the dusty stack from the corner of his office and carried it into her room. Going back downstairs, she grabbed a few old mixing bowls, flour, water and a trash bag to put down on the floor. Luckily her bedroom was quite spacious. If she tried to do this in any other room in the house, her mother would kill her. She'd just finished rolling out the trash bag on the ground when the doorbell rang. Ellis was wearing old sweatpants with holes in them and a way too small t-shirt of the Power Rangers. It fit around his torso so snuggly that Norah could very clearly see the outlines of his pecs. The shirt tapered down far away enough from his body to hide his abdomen.

"It's the only old shirt I could find," he said when he noticed how she stared.

"I don't see a problem." She tried saying it nonchalantly, but she could feel her heart hammering against her sternum as she looked at him.

He cocked an eyebrow, which only made her palpitations worse, and followed her inside.

When Sierra arrived, they all went up to Norah's room and assessed their work space. Norah put on some music and they all dove in. The structure was the first thing to go up. It was a meticulous job, one they needed a lot of reference for, but once they could see some progress time flew. They made it just a little bit shorter than Ellis. He approved. Then the fun began. Sierra was the one who made the paper mache mixture. She mixed raw flour with water in a big bowl while Ellis and Norah tore the newspaper into small strips. They dipped the strips into the mix and applied the first one to see if it would stay. Norah rubbed the strip against the wire frame and held it there for a few seconds. She was too scared to let go, afraid it wouldn't stay in place, but when she took her hands away and it stuck, Ellis gave a whoop and Sierra clapped. All three of them started sticking the newspaper to the structure. There was nothing more satisfying than seeing it take shape. They had to remake the mixture at least twice because it wasn't enough. Ellis dabbed some of it on the end of Norah's nose and she swatted at him. Sierra just watched them and smiled. Paper mache done, they had to wait for it to dry and that would take some time. Longer than they had together. Sierra had to leave before it was dry, but they all decided to pick up where they left off the next day. Norah and Ellis said goodbye to Sierra outside by her car. When she was gone they went back up to Norah's room together. They cleaned up just enough for Norah to not step in a bowl of paper mache mix in the middle of the night, but left everything out so they could jump right in tomorrow. Ellis decided to climb through the window, just in case Norah's parents came home while he was leaving. She didn't need the extra trouble. That's why she changed into clean clothes as well. Ellis was leaning on her windowsill with his elbows, looking at their creation.