Hey guys. Deer Valley High basketball player of the year Tristan Collins here. About sixteen hours later, I was once again seated on the bench at the school gym. But why exactly was I seated in the empty gymnasium at the crack of dawn, exactly? It appeared that my sabotaging of Ben at the homecoming game had netted me an in with the team. Its members seemed keenly interested in making my acquaintance, especially after everything that happened on Saturday. At least, that was my rationale as to why Warren and I were at the gym for the second time this week. I didn’t blame them. I had made such a grand name for myself in the sport already that it was hard for anyone to resist trying to recruit me onto their team. My debut will be legendary. I will make my mark on this school’s illustrious basketball history.

Is what I would say, had any of this been about basketball. The truth of it is, Warren had actually called me regarding his issues with Penny. It caught me off guard since I knew nothing about either of them. Why wouldn’t he just ask Lawrence about it? Maybe he wasn’t a big fan of his playboy reputation? Who could say? The guy struck me as someone who was more than a little queer, so there was no use in thinking about it. As for Penny… she was just Gwen’s friend who sat next to me in programming class. I didn’t have much to say about her either.

“So, what’s wrong exactly?” I asked.

“She stopped talking to me ever since I mentioned that I’ve been tracking her menstrual cycle.”

“Uh, why would you do that?”

“Wait, what’s wrong with tracking someone’s menstrual cycle? I do it with Naomi.”

The latter question came from Lance, who had nothing better to do and decided to tag along with me on this adventure.

“Dude, Lance…” I said with a sly grin.

“What?”

“Well,” Warren said. “I just thought it’d be nice to know when she’s in a bad mood so I can make her feel better. You know, like giving her chocolates and stuff.”

“Huh, that’s surprisingly thoughtful. I just do it to avoid her because she gets pissed at me whenever she’s PMSing. Recently she’s been on birth control, so I stopped doing that. Oh, don’t tell her I told you guys that by the way.”

“Birth control stops menstruation?” I asked.

“Do you know anything Tristan?”

“I’m not a girl, how am I supposed to know that?”

“Whatever man. Anyway Warren, that sounds really nice to be honest. Girls like cute shit like that. Why’d she get mad at you?”

“I don’t know, I told her I was tracking her and Gwen because I was curious.”

“You tracked Gwen too?” I asked.

“Well, only because I happened to overhear them say that they’re blood sisters.”

“What on earth is a blood sister… oh.” I was learning a lot about women and their menstrual cycles. “Well either way, why don’t you just tell her why you did it for real?”

“Wouldn’t she think it’s weird?”

“Bro,” Lance said. “She already thinks you’re weird. At least if you tell her about it, she might think you’re being romantic. Actually, are you into her?”

“Yeah.” He said it with such a straight face that I thought he was joking.

“Okay well, go for it. Have a frank conversation with her. Tell her you only wanted to make her feel good on her bad days because you care about her,” Lance said.

“It’s embarrassing, though.”

“Uh, yeah. But you want her to like you, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

At his affirmation, Lance placed his hand on Warren’s back. “Alright, let’s go find her then.”

“What? Right now?”

“Yeah right now. You’re just going to get cold feet again if you think about it for too long. You gotta go for it RIGHT now.”

“Okay, right now…’

Warren had been staring at the ground, scratching his hand like a child lost at the mall. He probably hadn’t expected that he’d be forced to confront the girl he liked this early in the morning, but Lance just had a way of forcing people into uncomfortable situations. And Warren… I found it incredible that such a talented basketball player could be just as normal and vulnerable as anyone else. No, it wasn’t just basketball. The guy was a monster in every class we’ve been in. He was the only one who could match my answers in American Lit, and he had me beat in the sciences and social studies. But for some reason, when it came to regular social stuff, he was as stunted as a cat. He allowed Lance to bulldoze him in ways that Lawrence and Ben would scoff at.

“I don’t know where she is,” he finally admitted.

“Call her then,” Lance said.

“She won’t answer. She’s still mad at me.”

I don’t know what it was for certain that had suddenly led me down such a strange thought process, but judging by the mental whiplash I had been experiencing, it might have been Zoey’s influence. Because at that junction in time, I came up with a scheme that could wind up being entertaining for all of us.

“Oh, could you guys give me a minute?” I asked.

Saying that, I walked off and pulled out my phone to call the one person who could help me in this situation.

“What do you want?” Gwen’s familiar voice said over the line.

“What? What’s with all this attitude?”

“Sorry, what’s up?”

I was only joking, but I was surprised to see her back down that easily.

“Hey, are you at school today?” I asked.

“Yeah, I am. Why?”

“Well, Warren wants to make amends with Penny over something, so I was hoping you knew where she was.”

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“Uh, huh? Wait, him? Are you two friends now?”

“Well, kinda. He wanted my advice on this Penny thing, so…”

“Uhm, I dunno… Hey girls, I need to take this call. I’ll be right back.

The sound of movement came from her end of the phone. I assumed that she was putting distance between herself and her friends so that they couldn’t hear the conversation.

“Sorry about that. Did you say Warren and you are hanging out?”

“Yeah. Is that bad?”

“Well, Warren is kinda…”

“Kinda what?”

She went quiet. Did she have some reason to not like Warren? The two of them were friends, weren’t they? He was at her birthday outing too. Or is it because of his relationship with Ben?

“Never mind. We’ll talk about it later. Is he asking about the period thing?”

“You know about it?”

“Yeah, she told me. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal to be honest, but she was really grossed out by it so I kinda had to take her side on it.”

“You don’t think it’s weird? Even though he knows your cycle too?”

“What? Seriously? Ew. What a weirdo.”

I laughed. “Well, anyway yeah. Do you think you could help us out?”

“No way. Why on earth would he… wait, I did mention that Penny and I were blood sisters so of course he’d know mine if he knows Penny’s.” I thought for sure that the term ‘blood sisters’ was made up, but here she was saying it out in the open. “Anyway, I’m fine with helping but, where do you think they should meet up? I think they’d probably want to talk about it in private.”

“Hmmm…” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the keys to the photography club room that Zoey gave me on Friday. “I think I have an idea. Can you drop her off at the PoliSci clubroom?”

“PoliSci? The one next to the photography club?”

“Yeah, I’ll send him over right now.”

“That’s kind of a weird spot. Why there?”

“Can you trust me?”

There was silence on the line. Could she trust me? Well, thanks to our mutual act of terrorism, we kind of had to trust each other, didn’t we? Why was she hesitating so much?

“Gwen?”

“Okay, yeah. I trust you.”

“Thanks. I’ll send him that way now then.”

“Yeah, later.”

Talking to Gwen on the phone for something so small was refreshing. Everything that happened over the past two weeks might have been terrifying, but I’m grateful for it if for no other reason than the fact that I made a new connection in her. Someone who gets me the way she does is a useful addition to my life. As I returned to Warren and Lance’s side, who had been eyeing me from across the court the entire time, the realization that my high school career was becoming more fun and exciting had suddenly dawned upon me.

“Hey, Warren. Can you ask Lawrence for the key to the PoliSci room?”

“The PoliSci room?”

“Yeah, I got Penny to agree to meet you there.”

“Oh, sure.” He made his way towards the exit while pulling his phone out, then suddenly stopped and turned back to face me. “How did you know he had those keys?”

I almost flinched. “Oh, doesn’t everyone know that? It’s a pretty big rumor.”

What a blunder. I was so excited about my plan I had forgotten that I only knew about the clubroom because of Zoey. Thankfully, it seemed like lying came naturally to me due to that girl’s influence. It was in complete contrast to Laura’s influence which had me shooting truths from the hip without hesitation.

“Ah, right. It is a pretty big rumor, isn’t it?” But thankfully, Warren isn’t the most skillful interrogator I know, so he dropped it quickly. “Sure, I’ll call him.”

Having said that, he pulled out his phone and began walking to the exit of the gym.

“So what,” Lance spoke up. “They’re just gonna speak in private without us now? That sucks. I kinda wanted to see it myself.”

“Since when were you such a gossip?”

“Guys are bigger gossips than girls, dude. Everybody knows that.”

“Who is this everybody, exactly?”

“Everyone who’s spent any amount of time with guys and girls.”

“Whatever. Let’s just

.”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere that we can be gossips together.”

We ended up hanging out a few doors down from the PoliSci club room and hiding around a corner while Warren waited for Penny to show up. Lawrence had already swung by and handed him the key, but he didn’t leave before offering him up some words of encouragement. I assumed that Warren must have filled him in on what he was doing when he asked for the keys. After about five minutes of waiting, Penny and Gwen finally showed up.

“Hey, let’s go talk inside.”

“Whatever.”

Penny must have been genuinely upset about the whole thing, because she looked as if she would rather be anywhere else in the world than there. Did Gwen convince her to do it? Or was she genuinely hoping that things would work out somehow here? She must have had a lot that she also wanted to say to him too. But either way, once the two of them went inside, Lance and I made our move.

“Gwen!” I yelled in my softest imaginable voice.

“What? Tristan and… the rabbit? Why are you two here?”

“Why? Obviously so we don’t miss the show. Here, follow me.”

I led the two of them into the photography clubroom after unlocking the door. Then, I placed my finger over my lips just as Zoey had the first time I was invited in, then hurried over to the other side of the black curtains.

Lance and Gwen, seeming curious enough, but not wanting to make any noise, decided to quietly follow me. Once we were at the wall, I moved the stool over next to the hole and motioned for Gwen to sit at it.

“What?” she asked in a whisper.

“There’s a hole in the wall. Look.”

She raised an eyebrow, then took a seat at the stool after cleaning it down with some wipes and leaned into the hole.

“Ohhh…”

“Hey, what about me?” Lance asked. “Where’s my hole?”

“We’re going to have to share the other hole.”

“What? You and me? Sharing a hole? That’s too intimate, man.”

“Shut up, its big enough for the both of us.”

“You two are so gross,” Gwen whispered.

“What’s she talking about, Tristan?”

“No idea, she’s just being weird. Anyway, it’s here.”

The two of us knelt next to the other hole and peeked through it. On the other side, we caught sight of Warren and Penny standing in the middle of the room. Warren was staring at the ground absentmindedly as he always did, but Penny was almost his mirror, Was she doing it out of bashfulness?

“You understand, right Warren? About how weird that is? I just, I don’t know, I expect some kind of boundaries. It’s like if you knew my address without me telling you.”

“Well, I know that too.”

“What?”

Lance covered his mouth to stifle his laughter. I turned to Gwen, who was rubbing her temple like a mother whose first-born son just dropped the baton in a relay race.

“Well, Ben dropped us off one by one last year after the big game in June, right? First you, then me, then he dropped Gwen off.”

“And you memorized my address?”

“I don’t know the exact address, but I remember what the house looked like, so I basically know it.”

Penny sighed. “Look, don’t you understand why I’d find this creepy?”

“Not really.”

“You don’t?!”

“No. I’d be happy if you knew something like that about me.”

“W-well…”

Suddenly it got hot in the photography club. The tension in the room next door was pouring through the holes and smothering us like the steam of a sauna.

“But why? Why would you want to know when my period is? That’s just weird!”

“Because I wanted to make you feel better.”

“What?”

“You know, I want to give you chocolates or share funny videos when you’re in a bad mood. I’m bad at reading people’s moods. I know that. I can’t tell when someone is happy, sad, angry, jealous, nothing. But knowing when your time is, and knowing how hard that is for you, that’s something that even I can do.”

“That’s…”

“I’m sorry Penny,” he continued. “I just wanted you to like me.”

The eerie silence that followed Warren’s apology was so heavy that I could almost hear their hearts beating right out of their chests. I had to admit, I might have been a little nervous for him after offering him the advice of going through with this whole thing. Gwen, on the other hand, was a mess. She was pulling on her hair with an exasperated expression, most likely just praying for this whole thing to end. Lance, who was right next to me on the other hand, was smiling as if he were only watching a mildly entertaining Netflix drama. Either way, despite the spectator’s views or wishes, they both avoided eye contact with their frantic gazes that danced around the room nervously. And then suddenly, Penny spoke up.

“You know I already like you, right?”

Gwen gasped, then covered her mouth with both hands.

“I don’t know that,” Warren said.

“Well I do. You don’t need to do weird stuff like that to get me to like you.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

She smiled. “But, I did appreciate the chocolates Warren. They always cheered me up.”

“That’s good. I’m happy.”

Penny smiled, then suddenly started blushing. Her face was so red that she turned around to hide it out of embarrassment.

“U-uhm, by the way, when I said I like you I actually meant like, as a friend and stuff? You know? Not like, LIKE like you or anything. I mean, not that you’re not worth like liking, I WOULD like like you, you know…”

“No, I don’t know.”

She turned back around. “Do you wanna make out?”

Her face went from shamed to unashamed in a matter of seconds. It’s like she decided to throw it all away thanks to the weird atmosphere in the room.

“I don’t know how.”

“T-that’s okay, I’ll show you…

First you close your eyes… yeah, just like that… then you lean forward a bit, slowly… yeah… and you put your arm around me like that… and then…”