“What do you mean, back off? You’ve got a lot of nerve to—”
Luther put his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t. You remember what happened the last time Drew told y’all to back off?”
“Right,” A llison said, smiling tightly. “He’s keeping everyone from trampling on his machismo, and you’re letting him. Meanwhile, he’s ruining his relationship with Virginia. Look at her.”
I looked away, across the lunchroom, and noticed one twin or another staring at me with an evil grin. I turned back to A llison.
“He needs to reassure her that everything’s okay between them,” she said.
“Everything is not okay between them,” Luther said. “Can you imagine how humiliating this is for Drew?”
“Humiliating!” A llison exclaimed.
“Yes, humiliating.” Luther counted on his fingers. “He has to share drum major. With a girl. A younger girl. A rich, spoiled doctor’s daughter.
Who used to dress up like JonBenét Ramsey. A nd who’s stopped wearing shoes. That was bad enough. A nd now, to top it off, he actually lost drum major to this person.”
I wanted them to shut up. But I kept listening with a kind of horrified curiosity.
“Virginia is a good drum major,” A llison said. “She wouldn’t have won otherwise. If Drew feels humiliated, that s Drew’s personal problem.”
“Drew would have gotten over it,” Luther said. “The trombones would still be badgering him about it, but if Mr. O’Toole had come clean and told Drew he lost the election in the first place, he would have gotten over it.” He shrugged. “But now Drew’s spent a couple of months going through the motions, thinking he won, and thinking Mr. O’Toole gave Virginia the position because he had a thing for little blondes. It’s completely humiliating for Drew to find out that he didn’t win after all, and he’s just a charity case. Now he has to quit.”
“Quit!” A llison squealed. “He can’t quit!”
“The position is rightfully Virginia’s,” Luther said. “He has to quit. Otherwise, his dad will kill him. His dad will kill him anyway for losing.”
“But what about Drew and Virginia’s relationship?” A llison insisted.
Drew was still eating. Holding my breath, I waited for Luther’s verdict on our relationship.
“What relationship?” he asked. “It hasn’t even been a week. They’ve made out once, and they haven’t been on a date yet.”
“But they’ve been leading up to this for months.”
“Well, it’s over now,” Luther said. “I’m sorry, but Drew can’t get past this. It’s not just him, do you understand? It’s his dad and his brothers who think he’s let them down. It’s the trombones and the whole school laughing at him.”
“If he really liked her, he would be big enough to get past it.” A llison stood up, teary-eyed. “I can’t believe I trusted you! I thought you truly liked me, or I wouldn’t have hooked up with you. But clearly, you’ll take whatever you can get, wherever you can get it, and I was your latest target!” She whirled around and stamped daintily away.
Luther watched her go. “What just happened?”
I said quietly, “Girls are shocked when they find out how boys really think.”
He looked at me in alarm, scraped back his chair, and ran after A llison.
Drew had started on his cheeseburger.
“We don’t even know for sure that the rumor is true,” I said. “I’ll go ask Mr. Rush.”
“You do that,” Drew said.
A t least this was probably the last lunch I would skip for Drew’s sake. I raked back my chair and turned for the door, but a lunchroom lady stood guard. I grabbed up my full tray from beside Drew and took it to the dishwasher. A s I passed, people at the tables on either side of me bent their heads to whisper.
I opened my umbrella against the soft rain outside, but: I took off my flip-flops so I could feel the cold, wet grass between my toes. A nd when I hauled open the band room door, my wet foot slipped on the cold tile. I landed with a splat on the floor.
Mr. Rush leaned out his office door. “That sounded like you. I’ve been expecting you. Where’s the other one?”
I picked myself up off the floor. Shaking my head, I walked into Mr. Rush’s office and closed the door behind me.
He stared at the door for a moment like he would get up and open it. Then he gave in and looked at me expectantly.
“How long have you known?” I asked.
“Since I got the job.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, like Drew did, with the self-control of an authority figure. “I feel … betrayed.”
Mr. Rush nodded.
The self-control thing didn’t work for me. “Why didn’t you do something?” I asked desperately.
“I called my advisor from college. She told me if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
“It was clearly broken.”
“I didn’t think so at first. I thought you were two nice, trustworthy kids who hadn’t been trusted. You were both good drum majors. You were into each other. I thought you could work it out. If I could find out what was behind Morrow’s steely exterior. A nd your nose stud. But maybe you’re right.”
I held out a little hope, though I wasn’t sure what I hoped for. “When you got the job, did you count the votes again?”
“Yes.”
“How many did I get?”
He shrugged. “I don’t remember. Seventy-something.”
“How many did Drew get?”
“Three fewer than you.”
I could tell by the way my heart sank that I’d hoped I had lost. To keep up the image that I was just checking his math, I asked, “How many did Clayton Porridge get?”
“Two.”
I swallowed. “I think Drew may quit.”
Mr. Rush nodded again. “I think you’re right.”
“We’ve gone all this time with Drew as drum major. We have a game tonight and the contest tomorrow. Drew should stay drum major with me.”
“I agree.”
“But he’s humiliated,” I said. “A nd he thinks the job is rightfully mine. He won’t do it.”
“No, he won’t.”
I closed my eyes, breathed the humid air, and listened to the noise outside the office. We couldn’t practice on the football field in the rain.