Scramble
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 4
The doorbell rang just as I finished wiping down the kitchen counter. I knew it was Li before I even opened the door. She was frighteningly punctual.
“Heaven forbid you be two seconds late,” I said, swinging the door open.
“Being late is a sign of disrespect,” she said, sounding a little like she’d been possessed by her mother. “Where are we working?”
“Kitchen table,” I said, leading the way. “I didn’t think my mom was going to make it, but she finally went to work, and so did my dad, so we shouldn’t be interrupted. My brother’s around here, but hopefully he’ll just stay in his room like usual.”
Li nodded and followed me back, dropping her backpack on the kitchen table, which made an impressive thud as it landed.
“Are you carrying bricks in there?” I asked.
“Just books.” She unzipped her backpack and started pulling out textbooks, notebooks, and enough pens and highlighters to stock a small office supply store. “I brought everything I thought we might need.”
I’d cleared space for us to work, setting out a couple of sodas and a bag of chips, brain food by teenage standards.
“So,” I said, dropping into the chair across from her, “how’s it going with the campaign stuff? Any progress since yesterday?”
“I put up ten posters. Three were torn down before lunch.”
“Brandy?”
“Probably. People keep asking why I’m running.”
“Don’t let it get to you. It’s just ‘cause you’re quiet most of the time, so it surprises them.”
“I guess. What about you? Any luck?”
“I think so. Melanie’s agreed to talk to the cheerleaders and people she knows.”
“Yeah, right. She hates me.”
“No. She just gets a little jealous. I’ve also talked to most of the guys on the team, and they’ve agreed to talk to their girlfriends and friends.”
“Some of their girlfriends are in cheerleading with Brandy, so they’ll probably vote for her.”
“I don’t think so. For one, Melanie is also a cheerleader, so her support should counteract that. And for two, Brandy pissed off several of the girls last semester with her little mind games, which isn’t doing her a lot of favors. What about the basketball team? Did you talk to them?”
“Yeah, and most said they’d help, although some, like Taylor, said she didn’t know any freshman and just walked away, so I don’t know.”
“Still, some said yes, right?”
“I guess, but I’m the only freshman on varsity, so I may be seven votes off from there, which isn’t a lot of votes.”
“I think you’re doing better than you give yourself credit for.”
She didn’t look convinced. “Let’s just start studying. I have a math quiz on Monday, which is a review of last semester, and I want to do well on it.”
“Come on, that’s just like housekeeping stuff. We’re only a week in, it’s probably not that serious of a quiz.”
Li just shook her head and opened her physics textbook. “What did you need help with again?”
“Algebra. Ms. White has me for geometry and is starting on algebra this semester and it’s just ... a lot. There are these word problems that are driving me crazy.”
“Word problems are just equations in disguise. Show me what you’re stuck on,” she said.
I pulled out my math worksheet. That was one of the things I really appreciated about Li. She had a way of explaining things and doing it without making me feel stupid about it, which was one of the many reasons I liked her.
We’d been at it for about twenty minutes when something caught my attention in my peripheral vision, a shadow that moved in the hallway just beyond the kitchen entrance.
I leaned back in my chair enough to see what it was, and saw Joshua standing just around the corner, partially hidden but clearly watching us. Or more specifically, watching Li.
I repressed a sigh. I thought we’d dealt with this bullshit when Melanie had come over the one time. She’d refused to come back after that, but I’d hoped I’d put enough fear in him to keep him from being a problem.
Clearly, I hadn’t, because he was staring at Li with an intensity that made my skin crawl.
“So if x equals the time, then you just need to...” Li was saying.
“Hang on a sec,” I interrupted, standing up. “Josh! What are you doing?”
Joshua jumped like he was shocked he’d been caught, which I don’t know what he was thinking since he wasn’t being particularly stealthy, but he quickly composed himself.
Stepping into view, he leaned against the doorframe and said, “Nothing. Just getting a snack.”
“Then why are you hovering in the hallway? Get your snack and go back to your room. We’re studying.”
Joshua took his time walking to the refrigerator, making a show of looking for something while continuously glancing at Li. Now that she noticed him, she was clearly uncomfortable. Li was usually uncomfortable around people she wasn’t tight with, but it was obvious, to me at least, that he was making her extra uncomfortable.
Joshua grabbed an apple from the fridge and then leaned against the counter, staring at her again.
“You’re really tall,” he said to Li, chewing with his mouth open.
“Josh. Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
He shrugged. “Not really.”
“Well, find somewhere. We’re trying to study.”
For a moment, I thought he might refuse, but then he pushed off from the counter.
“Whatever.”
He walked back down the hallway, but I knew he hadn’t gone far. He had that look like he was going to be a pain in the ass.
“Sorry about that. He did the same thing to Melanie when she came over.”
Li glanced toward the hallway. “It’s fine. Let’s just keep going.”
But the atmosphere had changed. Li kept her voice lower, and her eyes occasionally darted toward the hallway. I tried to focus on the math problems, but part of me was constantly listening for Josh’s return.
“So for this next one,” I started to ask.
“Is he always like that?” she interrupted suddenly.
I closed my textbook slightly. “Like what?”
“You know,” she gestured vaguely. “Creepy.”
“Yes,” I said.
I hadn’t really talked about him much to either her or Eduardo. How do you explain that your little brother is a psychopath? Better to just not bring it up at all.
Sure enough, almost as soon as I said yes, a floorboard creaked in the hallway.
“Seriously?” I muttered.
“Josh! Go to your room!” I said, going into the hallway and finding him pretending to look at a picture.
“I’m not doing anything,” he protested, not that his innocent act was going to work on me.
“You know exactly what you’re doing. Go.”
We stared each other down for a long moment before Josh finally backed away, mumbling something under his breath that I couldn’t catch.
I returned to the table, where Li was packing up her books.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I think I should probably go,” she said, zipping her backpack.
“No, don’t leave because of him. I’ll make sure he stays in his room.”
“It’s not just that. I should get home anyway. My mom wants me to help her with inventory before dinner.”
Another friend chased away by the psycho. This was getting a little exhausting.
“I’m really sorry about him,” I said, walking her to the door.
“It’s okay,” she said. “Do what you can on your homework and we can do the rest at lunch, okay?”
“Sure. See ya,” I said as she left, shutting the door behind her.
Fucking Josh.
Of course, once Li left, Josh didn’t need a single thing from the kitchen. I was going to have to stop inviting anyone who wasn’t a guy over, because he just couldn’t contain his creepiness. Eduardo had been here several times and it had been fine, but every single time there was a girl here, he was a freak.
I was annoyed for most of the day but managed to get over it by the time I met Melanie at her house and we walked down to Jimmy’s for some burgers for our normal Saturday date.
I’d actually offered to take her to Napoli’s. It wasn’t super fancy, but it was a step up from Jimmy’s ... and she liked going there. But she chose Jimmy’s. I think she liked it because it was popular with the other kids at school.
The smell of grilled beef and fryer oil hit us immediately when we entered. Jimmy’s had become our go-to date place, well ours and every other teen couple in town along with most of the single kids. It was affordable enough for our limited budget, had booths that offered at least some privacy, and pretty damn good food.
Everyone else thought so, too, because it was packed with people filling pretty much every table.
“Over there,” Melanie pointed to an empty booth toward the back.
We weaved through tables of students and a few adults who clearly regretted their dinner choice.
I slid into one side of the red vinyl booth while Melanie took the other. She immediately pulled a compact mirror from her purse and checked her reflection, adjusting a strand of golden blonde hair that had fallen out of place.
“My hair is a disaster today,” she complained, though to me it looked exactly the same as always, perfect.
“I don’t think hair can actually be a disaster unless it’s on fire.”
Melanie snapped her compact shut. “Very funny. You wouldn’t understand.”
Across the restaurant in one corner, Kenneth and four other varsity guys were eating and talking loudly. He noticed me looking and gave a casual head nod of acknowledgment before going back to his conversation.
“Kenneth’s here,” I said, nodding back slightly.
It was wild to see Melanie’s posture change instantly as she sat up straighter and subconsciously reached back up to her hair. She didn’t turn to look, which I knew was deliberate.
“Oh? With who?”
“Ben and a few of the other varsity guys. Andre’s with them too.”
She played with a straw wrapper, folding it into tiny sections. “Cool.”
I gave her a look but didn’t say anything. Darlene, who seemed to be the only waitress who ever worked here, appeared out of nowhere.
“What can I get you two to drink?”
“Diet Coke, please,” Melanie said.
“Just water for me. We’re ready to order food too, if that’s okay.”
Darlene nodded, flipping to a new page in her notepad.
“Cheeseburger, medium, with fries,” I said.
“Grilled chicken sandwich, no mayo, side salad instead of fries,” Melanie added. “Dressing on the side.”
When Darlene left, Melanie said, “So, I saw Li’s campaign poster in the hallway yesterday.”
“Yeah?”