to me. “Finn, can I have your homework?”
At lunch, Kate asked me, “Are you going to Yeoman’s party tonight?”
“Yeoman’s? How do you know about that?” I scoffed at her.
“Everyone knows about that,” she said.
“You’re a sophomore,” I told her with disdain. “You’re too young for underage drinking.”
“Shut up!” Kate said, and she hit me lightly. My arm felt hot where she’d touched it. “I don’t drink. And I don’t really go to parties.”
Wow! Kate was really brave to say that out loud! I was so impressed. There were at least ten kids in earshot of us, and Kate was admitting that she didn’t drink. That was like me casually proclaiming I had an undescended testicle (I don’t, I swear! I’m just saying it’s considered freakish not to drink or go to parties when you’re a high school student. No offense to the undescended).
No matter how much Johnny Frackas bugged me at St. Luke’s, I hadn’t ever admitted that I just didn’t want to drink. I made up a football team’s worth of imaginary drinking buddies to avoid this revelation. But Kate was just so cool. She could admit that she didn’t like drinking or parties, and it didn’t make her lame. It only made her… cooler.
“That’s amazing!” I burst out.
She gave me a strange look.
“I mean, that’s cool,” I said. “That you don’t go to parties. Parties aren’t that… cool.”
“I was gonna say,” Kate continued, “if you’re not going to Yeoman’s, you should come see that new action movie with me. Apparently these agent guys have better suits than Will Smith in Men in Black.”
“Oh, yeah,” I said. I was smooth and casual, but in reality the idea of hanging out with Kate outside of school made me feel like I could hurdle Mount Everest. “That sounds… yeah, sure. Yeah.”
“So you’re not going?” Kate asked.
“What?”
“To Yeoman’s.”
“Nah. I was gonna skip it anyway.”
“Good!” Kate said, twisting off her Snapple cap. “I haven’t been to the movies in forever. Can you pick me up?”
“Yeah, sure,” I said. “Does anyone else need a ride?”
“Like who else?”
“Who’s coming?”
Kate shrugged. “You can invite whoever you want.”
“No, but, who did you invite?”
“You.”
“Just me?” My voice squeaked on “me,” and I coughed elaborately to cover it up.
Kate raised an eyebrow. “Yes.”
“So just you and me,” I confirmed, trying to pitch my voice lower.
“Don’t worry, it’s not a girly movie or anything,” she said. “There’s lots of explosions and guy stuff for you.”
Wow. Kate was not just asking me to a movie; she was asking me to a movie she’d chosen for a guy. So she thought of me as a guy. One who needed blood and action and superpowers. I’d always assumed if a girl took me to a movie, it would be Jane Austen’s latest sappy big-screen resurrection. Okay, so that had already happened. And that “girl” had been my mom.
“I live in Larchmont,” Kate continued. “Do you know how to get there?”
“Larchmont?” I said. “That’s, like, four towns north of here, isn’t it?”
She said, “Twenty minutes, tops. I’ll buy the popcorn.”
“Wait, aren’t you in a different school district?” I asked.
Most Pelham Public kids lived, like I did, less than a mile from our school.
“I switched schools, but my parents didn’t want to move,” Kate said. “So I actually pay tuition here. Don’t tell anyone; it’s totally lame.”
“Weird,” I said. “Why did you switch?”
“Just geeky stuff,” Kate said. “They didn’t have as many AP math classes.” She shrugged. “So I’ll text you my address!”
Switching schools to take AP classes seemed weird to me, but the thought passed quickly through my very occupied brain. All my neurons were charged and chest-bumping each other with the joy of knowing that I, Finbar Frame, was going out with Kate.
That night, I was leaving the house at the same time as Luke, who was going with some teammates to the bars on Arthur Avenue. Arthur Avenue is in the Bronx, near Luke’s school. I would have slaughtered Luke, Cain and Abel–style, for use of the Volvo on this particular night. Luckily, he didn’t need the car because (a) he could take the train there and (b) going to a bar underage and then driving is five times dumber than just going to a bar underage. Which Luke was already doing.
“Do you have a fake ID?” I asked him as we both grabbed jackets from the closet near the front door.
“I just got one yesterday,” Luke said. “This senior guy doctors up fake IDs in the bathroom at school.”
Luke took out