Page 24 of Finding Her

bear

After failing to get Poppy to hate me on the one-mile run, I decided that I needed to up my game to make her complain about me before the camping trip.

At this point, I was even worried about getting out of gym class altogether.

Sure, it was awful to be here, but I was managing.

I thought the girls and I were beginning to have a good understanding between us, in that I wouldn’t bother them if they didn’t bother me.

And I did need the credit, after all. But going out into the wilderness with the likes of Poppy and Mia? That would probably do me in.

So, on Monday morning, I was ready. I was determined.

And then Poppy walked in wearing those shorts and I suddenly forgot my own name.

She walked in with her head high and her hands on her hips, ignoring the way that everyone turned to stare at her as she walked by them. Half of me wanted to yell at them to all stop looking. The other half of me couldn’t stop staring at her myself.

Not that I cared what she was doing. It was just hard not to notice when she strolled in like she owned the place, wearing shorts that could barely be considered more than underwear.

“Morning, partner!” She said as she came up to me. I blinked at her. I considered replying until I realized I wasn’t even sure she’d asked me a question to answer. Had she asked how I was? To be safe, I just grunted back. That was more normal for me, anyway.

When Mrs. Dixon announced that we be playing badminton today and said for one partner to come get the supplies, Poppy immediately went skipping off, unfortunately giving me the perfect view of the back of her shorts, which was impossible not to stare at—who bedazzled the back of their shorts anyway?

And if they had to, why would they bedazzle cutie ?

I watched as she chatted with Mrs. Dixon as she grabbed two rackets and a birdie for us. I was sure that Mrs. Dixon was asking her to change. There was no way those shorts were dress code compliant, right? And she could so easily send her back up to the dorms to get a new pair of shorts to wear.

But she didn’t. Poppy came back and we started playing badminton, without a word from Mrs. Dixon about finding new clothes.

Though, after the fifth time that I hit myself in the face with my badminton racket, she seemed to take sympathy on us as she called me and Poppy over—and I walked straight into the net instead of ducking under it.

Yeah, it was probably best for everyone’s safety that I wasn’t in the gym in this state.

“I need some supplies from the other athletic building,” Mrs. Dixon told us as we walked over. “Would you two mind getting them? You probably know the way around that building better than anyone else here, Bear.”

Anything to get out of this class.

I immediately took the key and the list she was holding out to me, but then glanced at Poppy. It wouldn’t be any better walking around with than watching her in here.

“I don’t mind going by myself,” I said. “So Poppy doesn’t have to miss class too.”

“There’s plenty to carry, so it will be easier if you both go. Besides, Poppy won’t have anyone to play badminton with if you’re gone.”

“But—“

“Go on,” she said. “You need to hurry if you’ll be back before the end of the period.”

We were only fifteen minutes into the class, so I really didn’t see that being a problem, but as a birdie hit me in the head and I heard Mia loudly yell “Whoops!” I decided it would be best for me to get out of there.

I turned on my heel and walked out, leaving Poppy to catch up with me. I figured as long as I was a step ahead of her, that at least I couldn’t just be staring at her legs the whole time. Poppy bounced alongside me as we walked out of the gym and into the cool autumn air.

“Aren’t you cold in those shorts?” I asked, even though it was only thirty seconds to the other building, where it would be warm inside as well. “I really don’t mind going by myself if?—”

“I’m not cold,” Poppy said. She pressed up beside me, tucking her chin by my arm. “What’s on the list?”

“Nothing interesting,” I muttered. I held the paper toward her so she could see it without clinging onto my arm, though strangely, I didn’t mind when she didn’t let go. Whenever Claire tried to grab me like this, I usually wanted to wrestle her off immediately.

“Looks like volleyball is our next unit based on this,” she said. I held open the door to the building so she could walk inside and she sighed in relief as she stepped into the warm air. I knew she’d been cold. “That means it will probably be a short volleyball unit, thank goodness. I suck at it.”

“How do you know it’ll be short?” I asked. Since Poppy didn’t know her way around this building as well as I did—since it was the one with the ice rink in it—I started leading the way down the hall where I knew the supply closets were.

“Because of the camping trip, of course. We leave next week and then we’ll start a new unit when we get back.” Her voice took on a teasing tone as she asked, “What, did you already forget about it?”

Of course I hadn’t forgotten about it. It was all that had been on my mind for over a week now.

But it was coming up a lot sooner than I thought it would.

I guess I’d assumed that once we were almost at the end of September, like we were, that I’d already be out of this class or close to it.

I hated to admit that we were almost twenty-percent of the way through the semester and I was no closer to getting out of here than I had been on the first day.

Just as we reached the end of the hall where we’d have to turn, I heard a voice echoing from the spot where we were headed, and I frowned.

There was no reason anyone should have been down this way right now.

What were the chances that other students happened to be sent to get gym class supplies at the exact same time as us?

The voice was high-pitched and coming closer to us. Poppy and I both came to a stop just before the turn and shared a glance. I guess she didn’t want to have a run-in with somebody, either.

The voice was becoming clearer now, which meant she had to be getting close, and my entire body tensed.

I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but I knew that voice anywhere.

And if she saw me and Poppy together, there was no way this wouldn’t turn lethal.

Acting on instinct, I grabbed Poppy’s arm and pulled her into a nearby closet, closing the door as quickly but softly as I could behind us.

The place was cramped, way too hot, and smelled so strongly of cleaning chemicals that it made me feel like I was choking.

I did my best to hold my breath so I wouldn’t start coughing, but then my lungs started to burn and my eyes watered from the smell anyway.

If there had been enough light in here for Poppy to see me, she would have probably thought I was dying.

“What are we doing in here?” Poppy hissed at me. Her back had been to my chest from the way that I’d pulled her but now she was moving around. Something was knocked off a shelf and clattered to the floor, and Poppy cursed under her breath.

“Will you stop moving?” I whispered. Now that she wasn’t right in front of me, though, I shifted toward the door, pressing my ear up to it so I could hear what Claire was up to.

I could still hear her heels clacking against the floor, but she wasn’t talking anymore, just making small hums of agreement and occasionally muttering right .

I didn’t hear anyone else speaking in the hallway, so I guessed that she was on the phone—and probably in this hallway so she wouldn’t get caught calling someone during school, because this place was normally empty during classes.

Poppy was moving again, this time closer to me, with her hand practically flailing around. As she smacked me in the face, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand down, against my chest so she couldn’t move it around.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

“Looking for a light!” She whispered back.

“We can’t. She’ll see it under the door.”

Even though I couldn’t see her properly, I could feel her confusion with the way her hair tickled my arm like she tilted her head and she stopped trying to pull her hand out of my grip.

“Who?” She asked. I guess she hadn’t recognized the voice in the same way I did.

Now that I thought about it, I wasn’t sure if she even knew Claire.

Poppy had been at the lockers a couple times when Claire stopped by to talk to me, but that didn’t mean anything, especially since the conversations were so short.

And there was definitely no reason for her to know why I was hiding in a closet to avoid her.

Nobody outside of our families knew the extent of what was going on between Claire and me.

All my friends thought she was just a family friend who liked me more than I liked her and who was basically trying to force me into a relationship.

It wasn’t entirely wrong, so I just went along with that assumption instead of explaining the way our families were pushing us together and were certain we would be getting married in ten years’ time.

It was just too weird—and part of me thought that if I told people the truth, that would only make it more likely to happen.

Like I would be setting my future in stone for myself.

“Claire Thompson,” I told her. The sound of Claire’s laughter broke through our tense whispers, coming from seemingly right outside the door. Poppy tensed, digging her fingers into my shoulder. I hadn’t even realized I was still holding her hand there. But for some reason, I also didn’t let go.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Claire’s voice filtered through the cracks in the door. Poppy and I were both still as statues. Her heels clicked against the floor, but didn’t get farther away. It was like she was pacing right outside the closet. “He would never go for her . I can’t lose.”

Poppy nails were digging into my skin now, so hard that it was almost painful.

I tried to back away, but I smacked straight into a shelf, making it shake.

I wasn’t sure what was on it but whatever it was began to rattle, like it was about to fall, and the next thing I knew, Poppy was pressed up against me, her arm reaching over my shoulder to stop the supplies from falling.

We both froze again, waiting for Claire to notice.

Waiting for her to come, to find us like this.

I had no idea what she would do if she did, but I knew it wouldn’t be pretty.

I waited with bated breath, sure that the doorknob was about to turn.

But then Claire’s laugh echoed through the hallway again, this time sounding further away.

“You’re so bad!” She squealed. With every word, her voice became quieter like she was walking off. “But maybe that’s a good idea. We can…”

Her voice became indistinguishable. Poppy sighed in relief, her head dropping forward onto my chest. My heart was thudding so loudly that I knew there was no way she couldn’t feel it.

“Sorry,” I whispered. “For pulling you in here. I just didn’t…”

“Don’t worry,” Poppy whispered back. Her head lifted slowly, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of where we were now standing or because my eyes were adjusting to the darkness of the room, but I could see her more clearly now, looking back at me.

Not as well as if the light was on but enough that I could make out her eyes, staring back into mine, and her lips, parted ever so slightly.

With both her hands against my shoulders and her legs pressed between mine, we were physically closer than we’d ever been before.

All it would take was moving an inch and our faces would touch…

“Bear?” Poppy murmured, her voice so quiet that I barely even heard it. “Are you…”

The door swung open and the light from the hallway almost blinded me.

Poppy screamed in surprise and jerked back, crashing straight into the shelf across from me and making more supplies come raining down around her head.

I cringed and looked at the door, where a custodian was standing, looking thoroughly unimpressed.

“Sorry,” he said. “Needed a mop.”