Read A Girl Like Gracie Online

Authors: Scarlett Haven

Tags: #romance, #love, #young adult, #high school, #stalker, #spy, #korea, #rich and famous, #south korea, #seoul

A Girl Like Gracie (6 page)

 

Noah:
Yes,
but in my defense, it’s not my fault she broke up with him for
me.

 

Me:
No wonder
my brother hates you so much…

 

Noah:
It’s
water under the bridge.

 

Me:
According
to my brother, that’s definitely not the case. You know, incase his
right hook was too subtle.

 

Noah:
Yeah. I
suppose I should apologize for that. You see, I kind of am
interested in his sister. And I doubt he’s going to let me take you
out on a date at this point.

 

Me:
DATE? Who
said anything about a DATE?

 

Noah:
I
did.

 

Me:
My answer
is NO. N-O. Not happening. Not in a million years. NEVER. EVER.
EVER.

 

Noah:
Wow,
don’t spare my feelings.

 

Me:
Wasn’t
planning on it.

 

Noah:
I don’t
think you’d be texting me right now if you weren’t
interested.

 

Me:
Fine
then. I won’t text you.

 

Noah:
Wait!

Noah:
I’m
sorry!

Noah:
Just
please don’t stop texting me.

Noah:
Please.

Noah:
I have
a question. For serious.

 

Me:
What is
your question?

 

Noah:
Will
you answer it?

 

Me:
Is that
your question?

 

Noah:
You
drive on hard bargain. THIS is my question… My dad is getting
married again. For, like, the fifth time. This time, it’s to a girl
younger than my older sister. And I can’t go to the wedding alone.
Will you pretty please go with me? You don’t have to go as my date.
Just as a friend.

 

Me:
We’re
friends?

 

Noah:
YES.
Definitely.

 

Me:
When is
it?

 

Noah:
Saturday. And if you come I will owe you MAJOR. And I will
love you forever.

 

Me:
I don’t
want your eternal love. However, I do want a favor. I don’t know
what that favor is yet, but when I think of it, you can’t deny me,
no matter how ridiculous it is.

 

Noah:
DEAL!
Does that mean you’re coming?

 

Me:
On one
condition.

 

Noah:
ANYTHING…

 

Me:
You can’t
tell anybody. I don’t want Alfie to find out. It stays between
us.

 

Noah:
Deal.

 

Me:
Okay. See
you tomorrow.

 

Noah:
Tomorrow :)

 

I have a feeling I am going to regret
that.

Friday, August 26

Mind games.

 

My first week at school is over before I
know it.

School is America is certainly a lot
different than school in Korea. For one, it’s shorter. I’m used to
going to school much longer each day. And two, the classes are
much, much easier. I don’t think being first in this school will be
a problem at all. In fact, the math class that I’m taking is
covering stuff that I learned my first year of high school in
Seoul. I would hardly call it an
advanced
class.

After school on Friday, Alfie informs me
that we’re going to Elliot’s house. Apparently he’s having a party
tonight, so we are all going to go hang out and have fun. I like
Elliot’s mom, so I definitely don’t mind going over to the Sherwood
home.

When we get there, Patricia Sherwood greets
me with a hug.


Gracie, you are just too cute,” she
says.


Thanks,” I say, feeling awkward for
doing so.


You kids can go on down to the
basement. Elliot is already down there,” Patricia says. “Have
fun.”

As I follow them out of the foyer and
towards the basement, I feel a little confused.


Elliot’s mom is okay with him having
female guests over without her supervising?” I ask.


She’s supervising,” Alfie
says.


Yeah, but in Korea we never would be
without adults somewhere in mixed company,” I say.


Elliot has a party almost every
weekend,” Jace says. “His mom trusts him. And we all just do this
to have fun.”

We go down the stairs towards the
basement.

In Korea, we lived on the sixth floor in our
apartment building, so we didn’t have a basement. As a kid, I
remember living in a house that had a basement, but it was creepy.
The floor was concrete, it always leaked, and one time I saw a
mouse down there, so I was scared to go. But this basement isn’t at
all creepy. In fact, it looks like just another story to the
house.

There is carpet on the floor. It’s a light
beige color that you would expect to be stained, but it’s not. I
feel weird not taking off my shoes. I don’t know why people don’t
take off their shoes in America when they enter a home. It’s
strange, but I suppose I’ll get used to it.

The basement walls are sheetrock and they’re
painted red. The ceilings are white, lightening it up a lot. The
lights are bright too, and even though there aren’t windows, I
don’t feel like I’m in a basement.

It also isn’t just one big room, like I
expected. There is a big area, but there are lots of doors, and I
wonder what all is down here.

Jace sees me looking. “Through there is a
theater,” he says, pointing to one of the doors.


A theater?” I ask, my mouth
open.


Yep,” he answers, the points to
another door. “Through the two bowling lanes.” He points to another
door. “And there is the bathroom. Elliot has a computer room down
here too.”


Wow,” I say.


Elliot is an only child, so he’s
spoiled,” he says.


I resent that,” Elliot says, coming
out of one of the doors. “Hey, guys. Glad you could make
it.”

Elliot, Jace and Alfie start talking about
things I don’t understand. While I’m standing there, with nothing
to say, I pull out my phone and decide to check my social media or
something. As I pull it out of my pocket, I feel it vibrate with a
text.

 

Noah:
What
are you doing?

 

Me:
At
Elliot’s house with Jace and Alfie.

 

Noah:
On my
way.

 

I read the text again.

On my
way
.

What?

Why is he on his way?

 

Me:
Why are
you coming?

 

He doesn’t respond. But this can’t be
good. Alfie hates Noah and this is definitely
not
going to end well for anybody.

Since I agreed to go with Noah to his dad’s
wedding, we’ve been texting everyday. He’s actually pretty nice. He
even apologized to Austin Yang. Only because I asked him to, but he
did it. He’s not as bad as I thought he was.

I keep thinking about Jace and Alfie’s
warning, but it doesn’t matter. I’m not interested in Noah like
that. We’re just friends, and I like being his friend. He’s the
only friends I’ve made at Bayside Academy. None of the girls in
school will talk to me. Maybe they just need to warm up to me.

Just a few minutes later, Noah walks into
the basement.


Hey, guys,” Noah says to Elliot, Jace
and Alfie, then looks at me. “Hey, Gracie.”


Sup, Noah,” Elliot says, doing some
weird fist bump guy thing with Noah.


Just thought I’d stop by. Dad’s got
wedding rehearsal tonight and he strictly told me that I’m not
allowed to come,” Noah says. “Not after what happened last
time.”

To my surprise, they all laugh, even
Alfie.


What happened last time?” I
ask.


Long story,” Noah says. “So what are
you guys up to tonight?”


Lola and Erica are coming,” Elliot
says. “So I figure they will bring a lot of people. It’ll be fun.
We’ll just hang out or whatever.”


Mind if I stay?” he asks.


You’re always welcome,” Elliot says,
then looks at Alfie. “Are you okay if Noah stays?”


As long as he keeps his hands off my
sister,” Alfie says, now looking at Noah.


Where’s the fun in that?” Noah says
quietly to me.

I laugh and everybody turns to me.
Thankfully nobody else heard Noah’s comment.


I am allowed to talk to her, right?”
Noah asks Alfie.

Alfie frowns. “Dude, we used to be friends.
I know how you are. I don’t want you playing your mind games with
my sister.”


No mind games,” Noah says. “We’re
just friends.” He looks at me. “Right, Gracie.”

I nod my head once. “Friends. Only friends.
And even that is pushing it.”


See. She won’t fall for my charms,”
he says.


What charms?” I ask.


Exactly,” Noah says.

Alfie walks over to me and puts a hand on
each shoulder. “If he hits on you, makes you uncomfortable in any
way or even breathes in your direction, tell me and I will take
care of him for you.”

I smile at his protectiveness. “I’ll be
fine.”


Are you sure?” he asks. “I talked to
Mom while you were gone, you know. She said you were too busy
studying to have a boyfriend, and that you were never interested in
guys.”

I look behind Alfie to see Jace and Elliot
both talking, but Noah is watching us. This is an embarrassing
conversation to be had with an audience.


Alfie, I was interested in guys,” I
say. “I just wasn’t sure what I wanted in life. I figured I would
come to college in America. I didn’t want to date a guy or get
attached to anybody, you know? Don’t worry about me. I can take
care of myself. I know taekwondo. I took lessons for three
years.”


Impressive,” Alfie says, then lowers
his voice. “So you weren’t planning on living in Korea
forever?”

I shake my head. “I wanted to go to college
with you.”

 

He smiles at my comment and backs away. “We
will go together. Somebody has to make sure you don’t date a
loser.” He then pats Noah on the back. “Like Noah here. You’re way
too good for him.”


I’m not going to argue with that,”
Noah says.

The basement door opens again, and about
four kids from school walk down. Three girls and one guy. I
recognize them, but I don’t know their names. They’re one of the
ones that don’t talk to me. Alfie goes to talk to one of the girls,
so I stand there awkwardly, just watching everybody else interact.
It was easier in Korea, because I started high school with
everybody else. We all made friends the first few weeks. But here,
the relationships have already been formed and I’m an outsider. I
don’t fit in. I’m just the weird girl that sometimes speaks Korean
and bows to people.


Have you met Gracie?” Noah asks a
blonde girl that came up to him. She twists her hair around her
finger as she looks at me.


No, I haven’t,” she says.


This is Lola,” Noah tells me. “Lola,
this is Gracie. She is Alfie’s sister.”

She looks shocked at the use of the
word
sister
, but she doesn’t
ask questions like everybody else has.


Gracie is awesome. She actually
corrected our math teacher last week when he did a problem wrong,”
Noah says. “It was epic. She’s pretty much the queen of math class
now. Even our teacher is scared of her.”

I just shrug. “The advanced math class is a
joke in our school. I did harder stuff than this my freshman year
in Seoul.”

The girl’s mouth falls open. “Are you
kidding? We go to one of the hardest schools in our state.”


Like you’d know,” Noah says, rolling
his eyes. “Her dad paid for the school to get a new gym so the
teachers wouldn’t fail her.”

Lola just shrugs, not denying it. One of her
friends calls to her, so she leaves Noah and me standing there. At
least I’m not alone. The basement starts to fill with even more
kids.


What do you think of Bayside Academy
so far?” Noah asks me, as I watch the crowd in front of
us.


Not a lot of people talk to me,” I
say. “So I haven’t made any friends. People probably think I’m
weird.”


It’s the whole bowing thing,” he
says. “And the chopsticks. But they’re all just jealous they can’t
use chopsticks as good as you can.”

I laugh. “Well I’m jealous I can’t use a
fork as good as them.”

Maybe not.

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