Cici Reno #MiddleSchoolMatchmaker Read online

  I drop my stuff on the floor and head over to my laptop to see if Drew is online. It’s interesting to know that Drew has been talking about Aggie to Luke. He must really like her, me, whoever, to actually be talking about us to my brother.

  There’s a message from Drew waiting for me when I open Twitter.

  Hey, you looked great at tryouts today. Hope you make the team.

  Thanks!

  Me too. Love volleyball.

  Even though I don’t love it and Aggie does.

  Did your book ever come out of time out?

  Yes! I finished it. I loved it! I’m sooooo happy Nylyan wasn’t really dead and it was just a potion to make her heart stop.

  See, I told you, you had to finish it.

  True, you did.

  Hey …

  What …

  Are you really busy this weekend?

  Here it is. He’s going to ask Aggie out.

  Um, not too busy. Just hanging around with family.

  Go out with me.

  OK

  Really???

  Yes. Why, were you kidding?

  No, not at all.

  Cool. Do you want to choose where we go?

  How about we meet somewhere? How about dinner at Mama Rosa’s? Do you know it?

  Near Beanies, right?

  Right. How about Saturday at five?

  Perfect

  Perfect, I think.

  18

  “Begin to move into tree pose,” Mom says. “Go ahead and slowly move your right foot up your left inner thigh until you find a comfortable spot. In ancient India, yogis were known to stand on the banks of the Ganges River for days like this, chanting and meditating. They say that your ability to easily hold this posture reflects your emotional state.”

  I move into tree and I’m feeling wobbly. Great, I think. My emotional state is really top notch today.

  “Keep your hands in prayer,” Mom continues, “and when you are ready, open your tree.”

  I push my hands up into the air and fall to my left. Peg gives me a surprised side glance. I never lose my balance like this. I’m too distracted. My mind is supposed to be empty of all thoughts, and I should be concentrating on my breathing but I’m just too nervous. Aggie is meeting Drew in one hour. I thought yoga would calm me down, but it’s not working today. Thankfully class is about over.

  “You okay, honey?” Mom asks after the rest of the class has left.

  “Just having an off day, you know?” I tell her. “I’m going to meet Aggie at Beanies in a few minutes if that’s okay.” It’s a small white lie, but I don’t want to get a lecture about ruining dinner. It’s not like I’m going to be eating anyway.

  “That’s fine. Come back when you’re done, and I’ll take you home. Tell Aggie I can give her a ride if she needs. And Cici, lay off the caffeine, okay? You’re awfully jumpy today. Try a fruit smoothie—maybe something with banana.”

  “I will,” I say, and dart out the door. I want to get to Mama Rosa’s before Aggie and set things up.

  I race over, not bothering to change out of my yoga clothes. Drew isn’t going to see me anyway. Not if I can help it.

  I scan the restaurant and it’s fairly empty. There’s a man reading a newspaper in the corner while eating chicken parmesan, and a woman talking loudly on her cell phone while her slice of veggie pizza gets cold. Two people are working, a guy and Mary, this nice lady who always gives Aggie and me a free garlic knot with our pizza. I make a beeline for Mary. She’s busily wiping down the counter.

  “Hi, Mary, I need a favor,” I say.

  “Sure, hon, what can I do for you?”

  “Let me hide behind the counter.”

  Mary stops wiping. “What? Who are you hiding from?”

  “I can’t exactly give you all the details but basically Aggie will be here in a minute, and she’s meeting a guy, and she needs me to feed her lines.”

  Mary’s eyebrows shoot up. “Well, that sounds interesting. Why can’t she just talk for herself?”

  “It’s a long story, Mary. I really need this favor. Please?”

  “Sorry, sweetie, I can’t have customers back behind the counter. I’ll get in trouble.”

  I frown and look around the restaurant. Aside from the long counter separating the customers from the kitchen, there are five small round tables positioned in front of a large glass window. There’s a red- and green-lit pizza sign hanging in the center of one of the windows, and a few smaller tables outside in front of the restaurant, for those who want to enjoy the weather. The tables inside are covered in red and white checkered tablecloths, with matching centerpieces of flickering red-glass battery-operated candles, and single red roses in small bud vases. Somewhere a speaker is piping in background Italian music and the scent of garlic lingers in the air. There’s a tall cooler full of pop on the left side of the restaurant, and that’s it, leaving me not a lot of options for a hiding place.

  What am I going to do?

  “Tell you what,” Mary says, coming out from behind the counter, “why don’t you have Aggie sit back here at this table, near the restroom. I have a huge stock of cups in the hallway that I need to unpack today. We can stack the boxes, and you can crouch behind them and hear everything. No one will ever know you’re back here.”

  I look over the boxes. “That could work,” I say. “Okay, I’ll give it a try. Thanks, Mary.” I throw my arms around her for a quick hug.

  She laughs. “No problem, hon. I hope this boy’s worth all the fuss.”

  “He is,” I assure her.

  I look up and see Aggie push through the door into the restaurant. “Ag!” I call, bouncing in place. I wave her over. “Here, sit here.” I point to the table. “Mary helped me. It’s the perfect spot, since I can hide back here behind the cups.”

  “Oh, Cici, I’m totally freaking out right now.” Aggie slips her light jacket from her shoulders and shakes out her hair. She curled it again for her date. It looks so pretty, I want to pull on one of the curls. She’s wearing a fitted striped shirt today, something she hasn’t been doing much of since her early onset of boobage.

  “I know, me too,” I tell her. “Though you’re doing all the work. I’ll be right here though, listening to everything.”

  “Right.”

  “Remember, safe topics: books, movies, and hockey. Try not to stray. And remember, we want him to feel that you like him.”

  “I know. Remind me what you told me to say about that book, The Last Token?” she asks.

  “Tell him you’re on book four of The Last Token. Ask him if Doryan and Nylyan are going to get married and say that you just can’t picture them together.”

  Aggie takes a deep breath. “Okay. Last Token, Doryan, Nylyan. How am I going to remember all of this?”

  “I’m here, Ag. You can do it.” I slip behind the boxes and we wait for Drew to arrive. I peek at Aggie, and she looks so pretty sitting there with the light from the fake candle illuminating her face. Even though we’re just at Mama Rosa’s, where we’ve probably eaten a hundred slices of pizza in our lifetime, it still looks she’s about to have the perfect romantic dinner with the boy of my, I mean her, dreams.

  Sigh.

  Minutes later, I hear Drew walk through the door and greet Aggie. I catch my breath.

  “Hey, Drew,” she says cautiously.

  He slides into the chair opposite her. “Have you been here long? Sorry if I kept you waiting,” he adds.

  “No, it’s fine. I mean, waiting is fine,” Aggie says. She knocks over the bud vase and water spills on the table. “Shoot.”

  “I got it.” Drew goes to the counter and grabs a small stack of napkins. He returns to the table, mops up the mess, and sets the vase back up right with the flower in it. “No foul,” he says with a smile.

  I peek around the boxes to see Aggie shoot a glance in my direction. I point for her to pay attention to Drew.

  “So, do you know what you want to eat?” he asks.

  Aggie
stares at the paper menu on the table like she’s never seen it before. “Um, maybe just a slice of pepperoni?”

  “Sounds good. I’ll get that, too. Be right back.” Drew makes his way to the counter to place their order.

  “Cici!” Aggie hisses as soon as he’s out of earshot. “I’m screwing up!”

  “No, you’re not. You’re doing great,” I tell her. “He didn’t even care. He probably thinks your even cuter being all clumsy. Remember, talk about the book.”

  “Sorry about before,” Aggie says. Drew must be back.

  “Someone will bring the food out to us in a few minutes. I forgot to ask you what you drink and got us a couple of Sprites. Is that okay? I can go back and get you something else,” he says, setting the drinks down on the table.

  Wow, Drew sounds a little nervous too.

  “No, Sprite is fine. I like Sprite.”

  I’m straining to hear, but no one is talking. What’s going on? Why isn’t Aggie making conversation? I pull out my phone and text her, “TALK TO HIM!”

  I hear Aggie’s phone buzz, and a moment later she texts back, “I don’t know what to say!”

  I quickly write back. “Try a compliment?” I peer around the boxes and see Drew looking out the window, bored, while Aggie is texting me on her phone. Agh, we’re being rude. “Sorry, no more texts. Put your phone away,” I send in a final text.

  Aggie puts her phone away and gets to lining up the parmesan and salt and pepper shakers on the table in size order.

  “So …” Drew says.

  “So …” Aggie repeats. “I really like your shirt. The color’s nice. It makes your eyes really, really blue.”

  Hey, that wasn’t bad. Maybe she’ll be able to do this after all.

  “Thanks. Yours is, uh, nice too,” he says.

  Aggie giggles. “I don’t know why this is so awkward. We talk all the time.”

  Drew lets out a sigh of relief. “I know, what’s with that? We talk so much online and then, when we’re face to face, it’s just, like you said. Awkward.”

  “Maybe we should bring laptops next time and just type to each other,” Aggie says.

  Wow! She’s doing fantastic. Go Aggie!

  “Or we can just keep talking until the awkwardness goes away. I’m already feeling more relaxed.”

  “Me too,” Aggie says.

  Mary approaches their table and sets down two slices of pepperoni pizza and two garlic knots.

  I can hear the two of them start to eat. “Mmm, this is good,” she says.

  “It is pretty good,” he agrees.

  They’re both silently chewing and Aggie fidgets and looks around the restaurant like she hasn’t been here five hundred times before. I rip a flier for guitar lessons off the community bulletin board in the hallway and with the dangling pen write, “Last Token” on the back. I hold it up. Aggie sees it and gives a slight nod.

  “So, I wanted to talk to you about The Last Token,” Aggie says to Drew. “Are Doorman and Nylyan really going to get married?”

  “Doryan?”

  “What did I say?” Aggie asks.

  “Doorman,” he says.

  “Oh wow, maybe I am still nervous,” Aggie says, trying to laugh it off.

  I peek through the boxes and can just make out Aggie’s hand fidgeting on the parmesan container. Drew reaches out and covers her hand with his.

  “Relax,” he says. “It’s cool. Things are going good.”

  “Yeah,” she squeaks.

  Uh oh. That hand squeeze might send her over the edge.

  “So, book four, you know I’m not going to tell you what happens. You have to wait and find out. And no putting the book in time out again,” he kids.

  Aggie tries to laugh. “Okay, I won’t. I guess. Hey, I got something in my eye. I’m going to run to the restroom and check it out.”

  “Okay,” he replies.

  Aggie whooshes around the corner, grabbing my arm, and drags me into the restroom. “Time out? You have a time out for books? Is that some smart thing you readers do? Why did you have to tell him I read, anyway? Now he’s going to expect me to know stuff about books.”

  “You do know stuff about books, relax. It’s not a big deal. I can loan you the books to read.”

  “Ugh,” she moans, rubbing her temples with her hands. “I have to read enough in school. I’m not going to do it in my free time too.”

  “Don’t even worry about that,” I tell her. “Switch the topic. Get him to talk about hockey. That’ll take some of the pressure off of you.”

  “All right. We’ll talk about hockey.” She checks her reflection in the mirror, takes a deep breath, and pushes through the restroom door.

  I follow her out and crouch behind the boxes again, getting in position.

  “All better, sorry about that,” I hear her tell Drew. “Hmm, this pizza really is good. Do you find playing hockey makes you feel like you’re starving all the time? I’m always hungry lately from volleyball.”

  “Totally. There are times I come home from practice and feel like I could eat an entire buffalo.”

  “That’d be something to see,” she jokes.

  There. Aggie’s loosening up.

  “You should come to some more of my games,” Drew says.

  “Sure, I’d really like that,” Aggie says.

  “You would?” Drew says, sounding a bit surprised.

  “Yeah, I like you.”

  Whoa! Did Aggie really just say that? Why is she suddenly being so forward? We’re not forward. We’re coy and cute. Sarcastic and silly. Ugh. I smack the box of cups without thinking. The top two boxes go toppling over and fall out into the dining room area, right in front of a waiter carrying a tray of cannolis. The cannolis go flying through the air, and I cover my mouth with both of my hands. Just as Drew is about to take in another mouthful of pizza, he’s slapped upside the head with a giant cannoli.

  Aggie’s mouth drops open in shock.

  “What was that?” Drew says, turning his attention toward the waiter, and I crouch as low to the ground as I can behind the remaining boxes.

  Aw, man.

  “Looks like flying cannoli,” Aggie says, giggling. She reaches over and scoops some filling that got on Drew’s cheek and tastes it. “Mmm, it’s good too.”

  Drew grins at her, and the waiter rushes over apologizing profusely as he tries to clean up the mess. Drew tells him it’s okay, but he offers to comp their meal and bring them fresh, intact cannolis. On a plate.

  Aggie and Drew talk for another twenty minutes or so and it feels like eternity. Finally his mom comes to pick him up.

  “I don’t want to leave you here alone,” he says. “Want me to run out and ask my mom to wait awhile?”

  “Oh no,” she says. “You go on ahead. I’m actually going to run down the sidewalk to Peony Lane, you know, Cici’s mom’s studio? I told Cici I’d meet her there.”

  “Okay,” he says, standing. Aggie stands too. “Dinner was fun. I had a nice time hanging out with you,” he tells her.

  I glimpse around the boxes. Neither one of them is looking down, so they shouldn’t see me.

  “Same here,” Aggie says. She suddenly throws both arms around Drew’s neck and gives him a tight squeeze. Drew looks startled at first but then hugs her back.

  What the heck, Aggie? What’s come over her? I didn’t say maul him. Drew is smiling now and he says good-bye and heads for the door. I’m sitting on the ground trying to calm down. I feel like my blood pressure is going crazy. I knew this was coming, that eventually Aggie and Drew would work everything out and officially be together. But she didn’t need to go getting all grabby with my …

  My what? He’s not technically anything to me. Though it feels like he is.

  I need to calm down.

  Aggie waits for a pause and then rushes around the stack of boxes to me. “Well?” she says with a huge smile. “That went great right?”

  I try to force a smile. “Great.”

  19<
br />
  “Two yoga classes in one day?” Claire says when I walk into the room.

  “It’s been a rough one,” I tell her. I toss my towel on the floor and roll out my mat. I take a seat and begin stretching. “You’re still here, are you taking another class?”

  “Oh, no. I just got caught up chatting, and never seemed to leave. Your mom’s back in her office, I think. Bonnie’s teaching this class.”

  “Yeah, I know.” I’m actually glad. I don’t want Mom asking me what’s wrong again.

  “Well, if you ever need to talk, I’m around,” Claire says.

  I smile. Maybe I should talk to Claire about my problems. It’s not that long ago that she was in middle school, and it’s not like she’d ever tell Aggie or anyone else I know. Plus, it’s not like I can talk to other kids at school. They always think I’m the one with the answers, not with the problems. I pull my legs into lotus pose.

  “Claire, do you ever get jealous? Or, like, did you ever get jealous of other girls in school?”

  Claire plops down on the floor next to my mat. “Of course! Jealousy is practically required in school. In fact, I still get jealous, even now. In school you are just forced to spend a lot of time with other people, so it’s only natural to get jealous from time to time. You can’t avoid it. It’s like when people only take photos of their great vacations on Instagram. You can’t help but wish that was your life.”

  “Yeah.” I nod. I get what she’s saying. It’s sorta the same on Twitter, seeing what everyone else is doing and all. But it’s different when the person you’re jealous of is right in front of you, not behind a screen. How do you hide your jealousy then? “I’ll just tell you what’s going on. It’s basically the guy I really, really like likes my best friend. And it’s hard seeing that.”

  “Oh,” Claire says. She twists her lips and looks deep in thought. “Well, you’re right about that. That’s rough. And how does Aggie feel about him?”