Casey Barnes Eponymous - By E.A. Rigg Page 0,11

God and Moby was vegan (NOT something Casey approved of in a rock and roller. How far was a plate of seitan dogs gonna get you in trashing a hotel room? Huh?). So what. The song was ethereal and haunting and it made her feel like anything was possible. Even Alex Deal saying the Melanie Corcoran interlude had been a horrible, horrible mistake.

He walked towards them with a book on World War II in his hand. She started to fold the list up but then stopped, grabbed a pen, and scribbled Rehoboth Mix on top. Her heart palpitated like a hummingbird. Mr. Cole went to pick up the scanner gun. In one swift movement she beat him to it. He gave her a baffled look.

“I got this one,” she said. He looked from her to Alex Deal. His face softened. God, Casey hated the way adults got you just when you did not want them to. He backed away from the scanner.

Alex Deal reached the checkout counter. He handed the book and his student ID to her. His eyes lingered. “How’s it going?”

She shrugged as she held the book under the counter to scan it. She slipped the list into the front cover of the book. “You know.”

She handed him the book. He looked her up and down. “Joe Cocker?”

For a moment she was confused. Then she remembered she was wearing a Joe Cocker T-shirt. Oh what those eyes did to her.

She nodded. “Ever heard of him?”

“Of course. Has your new guy?”

She saw it again, in the eyes: A hint of irritation. Alex Deal was jealous.

“Of course,” she said.

He looked her up and down. “Ciao.” He walked out.

She was disappointed, even if his leaving was a reasonable consequence of her telling him about her imaginary boyfriend liking Joe Cocker. But then again he had her list. And she had a feeling something else was going to happen as a result of that list. She just didn’t realize how quickly it would happen.

8

Math class was built over the gates of hell. It began freshman year when, upon entering Walton, Casey scored freakishly well on her math proficiency exam. That in turn caused her to be placed in a math class with sophomores and juniors. She bombed the first few tests but her mother insisted she stay in it and hired a math tutor, a calm Indian doctoral candidate named Raj, whose diligent efforts scraped her through the year with passing grades. But that was the year before. Raj had gone off to Chicago and Casey failed the first quiz of the year. To make matters worse, Maxine French was in her math class.

Awful, queen of the school Maxine French. Was a junior. She had long buttery hair and a face that if not classically beautiful was always coiffed to perfection. Her wardrobe was a pricey argument for school uniforms. Yet despite factors pointing to Maxine being a specific kind of girl, Maxine never scored lower than a 94 on her report card. And, in addition to being captain of the cheerleaders, Maxine was cellist in the classical music ensemble and president of the French club. The year before she was out for the entire fall semester studying with an exchange program in France. Maxine, of course, loved Yull. Whenever she saw him in the hall she shrieked and kissed him on both cheeks.

But woe was the fate of those Maxine chose to pick off. That year there was Genevieve Sayer, unceremoniously kicked off the cheerleading squad when she started dating Brad Hayes, whom, Genevieve claimed, Maxine liked too. Maxine of course refuted the claim. As she liked to remind everyone, she was taking a break from relationships after ending it with her college-aged boyfriend, who in reality was a loser. Not only did he have a DNJ (dude nose job), but he faked a knee injury after he got kicked off the football team for lack of ability. Regardless Maxine scored points for dating an upperclassman when she was not and more still for the vast sexual knowledge he bequeathed her along the way. Most people at Walton viewed Maxine French with a mixture of jealousy, reverence, and disdain. That meant she had everyone’s attention most of the time.

The math teacher Miss Kinsey assigned Casey the seat behind Maxine. Because of this she did not dare cheat in math. But that day, emboldened by her run-in with Alex Deal, she snuck a peak at Maxine’s pop quiz. Maxine did not seem