Lily and the Creep

Hey, Robbins," Leo Cooks hissed in Lily's ear. Don't answer, Lily Robbins told herself sternly. It's a trick. She concentrated on not touching his sweaty hand-even though Ms. Gooch had said "join hands with your partner." "Ms. Gooch is lookin' at ya," Leo whispered. His breath was hot, and it made Lily want to slap her hand over her ear, but she ignored him. "She's givin' you the eyebrow," Leo persisted. That was not a good thing. The teacher's eyebrow was usually the last warning sign before a name went on the board or something. Don't fall into this absurd little creep's trap, Lily thought. Leo wasn't actually little. He was even bigger than his buddy Shad Shifferdecker, who was at this very moment managing to step all over the feet of his partner-Lily's best friend, Reni Johnson. Even as Lily watched, he caught Reni on the side of her Nike with his left Timberland. She jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. Don't let him know he's getting to you, Reni, Lily thought. Right. Just then Leo jabbed her in the side and hissed, "You better take my hand. Ms. Gooch's got both eyebrows goin'!" Both eyebrows and the don't-start-with-me tone. "Join hands, people," she called out over the blaring of Italian music. Taking a breath full of dread, Lily slid her hand into Leo's. He squeezed it like he was wringing out a dishrag, and suddenly, Lily felt a jolt go up her arm. Before she could stop herself, she'd let out a yell. The music came to an abrupt halt, and Ms. Gooch planted her hands on her hips. Both black eyebrows were in full gear. "All right, who's yelling?" she said. "It was Lily," Marcie McCleary said. Lily tucked a curl of red hair behind her ear and otherwise tried to look innocent. "All right, you two," Ms. Gooch said. "What's going on?" Iwasn't doing anything! Lily wanted to protest. It was him! Still, Lily pressed her full lips together and kept quiet. She'd die before she'd be a tattletale like Marcie McCleary. "So what's the story?" Ms. Gooch said. "I don't know," Leo said. "You told us to join hands, so I grabbed hers and she started yelling." "Is there a problem, Lily?" "Lily is a problem," Shad Shifferdecker said. Daniel Tibbetts snorted. Ms. Gooch waved both of them off with an impatient hand. She didn't lose patience often, and the class got that uncomfortable kind of quiet like when they were waiting to see if somebody was going to get sent to the office. "Lily," she said again, "is there a problem?" Lily rubbed her fingers into her palm where moments ago Leo had set off some kind of buzzer-shock thing. But she shook her head no. "No," she said. "Everything's fine." "Do you always yell when everything's fine?" Ashley asked. Ashley's best friend, Chelsea Green, let out her shriek of a laugh, and Marcie joined in because she always joined in when Ashley and Chelsea laughed, whether she knew what they were laughing at or not. Lily noticed with relief that her friends continued to glare at Leo and Shad. "We're about finished here anyway," Ms. Gooch said. "Let's go back to the room." Leo left Lily's side with a flailing of long arms and legs. Lily did her most poised walk up to the tape recorder where Ms. Gooch was busily pushing buttons. "Ms. Gooch?" Lily said. "I'm really sorry." Ms. Gooch frowned down at the tape deck. "I'm sure you were provoked. You want to tell me what was going on?" "It wasn't that big of a deal. I just overreacted." Lily could see Ms. Gooch was trying to smother a smile. "'Overreacted'?" she said. "Yes," Lily replied. It was a term her mother used all the time when she was talking about the way Lily responded to her two brothers. "So what were you 'overreacting' to?" Ms. Gooch said. "I don't want to say. Could I change partners?" "Nope. Sorry," Ms. Gooch said. "If I let you switch, I'll have everybody and her dog up here whining. I ought toRue, Nancy N. is the author of 'Lily and the Creep' with ISBN 9780310232520 and ISBN 031023252X.