Love You, Hate You Page 8

  “Sun.”

  “Kageki, this is a horror film! You can’t have sun in a horror film.”

  “Maybe there’s sun in Japanese horror films,” Julian suggested.

  “No! There is no sun in horror films. Period!” Tristan said.

  “This movie has sun,” Kageki said decisively.

  “It’s like Disney,” sighed Tristan, shrugging his shoulders and grabbing the blue crayon. “This is bluebirds, ’kay?” He stuck the crayon into the candle.

  Anna kicked him under the table. “The waitress is coming back!”

  Tristan quickly blew out the candle and Kageki stuffed it under his napkin. Both of them turned and beamed at the waitress.

  “Her boobs are really big,” Grace whispered to Anna.

  “Yeah, I think I’m going to be sick,” Anna whispered back. “Do you think she realizes that the only reason she has such big boobs is because she’s fat?”

  “No. She looks pretty proud of them.”

  “I think Julian likes them,” Grace giggled. Tristan overheard and glared at her.

  As the waitress was about to leave with their orders, Tristan asked if they could have their picture taken with her.

  “Alexandra, come on,” Tristan said, grinning. Grace took the picture, trying not to laugh. As soon as the waitress left, everyone started passing Grace’s camera around.

  “Wow, her boobies are huge!” Taylor giggled. “I love how you two are sort of presenting them with your arms.”

  “This so better go on Facebook,” laughed Delilah. Kaitlyn laughed with them, happy that she was a lot smaller than the waitress.

  “Thank goodness,” Delilah said dramatically as the food began to arrive. “I am starving.”

  They passed the food around and began trading. Aiko, Ella, Sophia, and Leon passed around four drinks and a tray of shooters.

  “Can I take your salad? I’ll give you my chicken and dinner roll,” Alexandra asked Julian.

  “Uh, sure.” Julian was surprised.

  “You can have half of my fries, too,” Tristan offered.

  “Hey, aren’t you guys going to be hungry?” Julian asked, taking his second shot from Aiko.

  “Nope,” they both replied. Tristan moved Julian’s salad to Alexandra’s plate and dumped over half of his fries in the empty space.

  “Anybody want my fries?” Jessica asked. There was a chorus of “nos,” so Jessica picked up her water glass and dumped half of it on her fries.

  “What did you do that for?” Kaitlyn asked in astonishment.

  “It’s this new trick I learned. Now that the fries are wet, I can’t eat them.”

  Kaitlyn looked at the fries sadly.

  “No, you sure can’t. But it’s such a waste of fries …”

  “What, would you rather that they went in someone’s body, clogging up their arteries?” Jessica asked indignantly.

  “No, I guess not.” Kaitlyn began eating her wrap, but she wasn’t as hungry as usual. Alexandra was dissecting her salad. She shoved Julian’s salad to the side so that it didn’t contaminate hers (it had salad dressing already mixed in). She began spearing bits of her salad and dipping it lightly into the small dish of dressing. Kaitlyn caught herself staring.

  “Do you want some?” Jonathon asked Kaitlyn, pointing at the shot beside him.

  “Um, no thank you.”

  Jonathon laughed. “Come on. Just try a sip. It tastes like juice.”

  Kaitlyn took a tiny sip. Surprised, she passed it back. “It does taste like juice.”

  “You didn’t even have a teaspoon’s worth. Wimp.” Kaitlyn blushed. “Look at Julian!” Jonathon pointed up the table with his knife. “I think he’s on his fifth already.”

  Kaitlyn looked up the table. Aiko was handing a very happy Julian a green shot, and Anna was explaining why hard alcohol was so much better than beer, because beer was really just empty calories. Taylor was telling everyone how much she liked lava lamps, because you could see the layers. Keiko said she wouldn’t drink a lamp.

  “You’re drinking a bug!” Taylor exclaimed.

  “A grasshopper’s a bug?” Keiko asked, lifting up her drink and eying it suspiciously. Kaitlyn finished her dinner silently, then sat there drinking her sprite.

  “Wow, you were hungry,” Jessica said.

  “What? Oh, no, not really,” Kaitlyn said, waking up out of her reverie.

  “Oh … it’s just you finished your whole plate!”

  Kaitlyn looked down at her plate and then around the table at the other half-full plates. She was embarrassed, so she crumpled up some napkins and put them on her plate, hoping that no one else would notice that she had finished her whole dinner. Tristan and Kageki were watching Julian drink shots. Many shots.

  As they stood outside of Earls, everybody began dividing up according to their bus routes and car pools. Kaitlyn phoned her parents. Delilah’s ears perked up.

  “Are your parents picking you up?” she asked.

  “Uh, yeah.” Kaitlyn wondered if there was anything wrong with that.

  “Oh, do you think I could get a ride then?” Delilah smiled at her for the first time. “I live really close.”

  “Oh, yeah, I’m sure you can.” Kaitlyn was surprised and pleased. They spent several awkward and silent minutes waiting for Cecilia.

  When they were in the car, Cecilia asked them about the party as they fastened their seat belts.

  “Oh, it was great,” Delilah said without waiting for Kaitlyn to speak. “Kaitlyn was way at the other end of the table, though, so I’m not really sure how it was down there, but whatevs!”

  They drove home listening to a non-stop monologue from Delilah: what she thought about the academy, McKinley, Kaitlyn’s dress, everyone else’s dress, and the radio station Cecilia had chosen.

  Chapter Six

  Taylor Audley

  Yay, Halloween!

  Taylor walked to the bus slowly. She’d skipped math class. She hadn’t wanted to, because now she had to explain it to her mom and get her to write a note, but if she had gone she’d have failed her test, for sure. And if she failed that test, she’d fail first term. Maybe I can say I had a stomach-ache, she thought. No, then I’d have to miss Halloween tonight. She sighed.

  She turned to walk up to Kerrisdale Boulevard, not wanting to get to the academy too early. I’ll have to tell her that I would’ve failed, she decided miserably. Then she can decide what to do. It wasn’t my fault, it was because rehearsals went on so long yesterday! She debated where to go and decided on Starbucks. She shivered as she started walking; it was pouring rain, and it was all dripping down her back. She’d forgotten to bring an umbrella, as usual.

  As she sat down with her pumpkin spice frappuccino, she sneezed violently. Great, now I’m getting a cold. When she finally got on the bus, she felt a bit more optimistic. The rain was getting warmer, and the clouds were starting to clear up.

  Her cellphone started ringing as soon as she’d sat down. She checked her display; it was her mom. She groaned.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “Hello, Taylor. Where are you?”

  “Um, on the bus to the academy? Where else would I be?” Taylor said, anxiously doing up her bag. She’d left it undone, and now all her papers were wet.

  “I don’t know, Taylor. Where would you be? I just got a call from your counsellor; he said that you didn’t show up for math class today. He also said that you were supposed to have a test that determined whether or not you passed math this term.” Her voice had gotten progressively shriller as she got more hysterical. Taylor quickly turned down the volume on her cell and debated hanging up. No, she decided. Mom won’t let me go out tonight if I hang up.

  “Mom, I wasn’t going to pass the test.”

  “Taylor!” Charlize screeched. “I am not doing this! If you had shown up, you would have gotten some grade, and you might have had a prayer of passing math for the year. As it is …”

  “I don’t have a prayer?” Taylor asked in
nocently. Her mother became completely incomprehensible, so Taylor hung up. She dried off her earphones and turned on The Plain White T’s. They were usually too calm for her, but today she needed calm. She bit her lip nervously as she thought about class today. It was Mrs. Castillo, and the last time Taylor had had class with her … well, it hadn’t been fun. Mrs. Castillo had told the whole class that Taylor had the perfect body type for ballet, but no brain. The whole class had bullied her for weeks afterwards. It was going better so far this year though. When the graduating class left last year, so had many of the scariest people in the school. It had also helped that she had been cast so much better this year. Taylor took some red sprinkles out of her bag and absentmindedly shook some into her mouth.

  Inside the academy, Taylor checked the schedule. It hadn’t changed. They still had Mrs. Castillo. She went downstairs to get changed, dripping water all the way.

  Taylor bent backwards over the barre, cracking her back. She heard everyone laughing and quickly swung up again. Too fast! She slumped against the barre, dizzy. When she could see again, she looked up. There was Leon in his Halloween costume. He was wearing small, black stretch shorts over top of fishnet tights, black ballet shoes, and a pink tank top. On top of this, he was wearing bunny ears, a large, red bunny nose, and was carrying a cat o’nine tails. Kageki ran over and got Anna to take a picture of him gazing adoringly into Leon’s eyes with one leg wrapped around his hip, and then another of him kissing Leon’s bunny nose.

  Taylor got an idea. She quickly ran downstairs and rummaged through her bag. She pulled out her Barbie crown, and changed into her pink bodysuit and white wrap skirt. She eyed her reflection in the mirror approvingly, and ran upstairs. No one seemed to notice as she slowly opened the door. Everyone was too busy admiring Jonathon’s costume to worry about hers. He was wearing uniform, but he had drawn obscene things all over his shirt, and was wearing sunglasses and earrings.

  Mrs. Castillo came into the studio with a huge smile, her shawl floating behind her. Everyone snapped to attention. “Class! We start!” She frowned as she looked around the studio. “Ah, Halloween, yes? The trick or treat?” Everyone nodded. “Everyone to the barre. Okay.” She began to lead the barre exercises, demonstrating each exercise dramatically.

  As Mrs. Castillo was demonstrating the grand battements exercise, she caught Tristan looking at his butt in the mirror. “Tristan! Do not keep looking in the mirror! There are maybe one hundred perfect bodies in the world; you got one.” Tristan turned away from the mirror, both pleased and embarrassed.

  Taylor’s crown started slipping when began doing the pirouette combination. Mrs. Castillo grabbed her arm and led her to the side. “Taylor! You wear too much jewellery. Crown today? Perhaps crown and necklace tomorrow? What the day after? Take off now!” Taylor quickly took off the crown, noticing that Mrs. Castillo hadn’t made Leon take off his ears or nose.

  After everyone had gone across the room, Mrs. Castillo worked on the boy’s grande allegro while the girls were putting on their pointe shoes. Julian suddenly stopped, and asked to go get some ice. He’d turned on his ankle the wrong way.

  Mrs. Castillo nodded absently, working on Tristan’s tour en l’aire. “And push!” She was standing behind him, pushing his left shoulder as soon as he left the ground. “You must always land in fifth, not second!” Tristan came down off balance. Taylor tested her foot in her pointe shoes, wincing as soon as she put weight on it. Her Achilles was inflamed, again. She watched Mrs. Castillo nervously, trying to judge the right time to go ask if she could sit down.

  “Are you going to sit out because of your ankle?” Keiko asked Taylor. Taylor nodded. “Okay, let’s go ask together then. My knee’s really hurting me.”

  “Mrs. Castillo, may I sit down because of my knee?” Keiko asked.

  “Yes, yes, of course, Keiko. And what do you want?” Mrs. Castillo asked Taylor.

  “Ah … my ankle?” Taylor pointed at the ankle in question.

  Mrs. Castillo sighed. “Again, this ankle? All right, sit down, but do some exercise by yourself. Do back, do stomach, work.” She gestured Taylor to the side impatiently and turned back to the class. “Adage! One two, three four, breathe … and draw up leg. Up, up, no up hip and unfold — no drop! Hold, and rise. Coupé pas de bourée, pirouette en dedans … three at least please! You are the advanced students now, yes? Coupé, ronds de jambe, and fondue … hold. Hold back attitude! Tristan, knee up! And fondue deeper, leg higher — yes!” Mrs. Castillo continued to call out exercises, then had the class mark it out to music.

  At the end of class, Mrs. Castillo called the class over to her, having them make a semi-circle so she could give them a lecture. “Class, you must take care of your feet, your body. The choreographer is the artist, you are the brush, and your body, it is your paper. The feeling, the artistry is the paint, but you need the paper for the paint to be beautiful. Good, high-quality brush. And must be thin, strong paper. If you want to be the dancer, and have fat, you are fooling yourself. I don’t care if you lie to your friends, your boyfriend, that is okay. But don’t lie to yourself, don’t cheat yourself, that is very stupid, eh? Do you understand me, Delilah? You know, if you don’t drink water, lose maybe three pounds. Okay, finish!”

  As everyone got changed, Taylor phoned her mom. “Mom, am I going home before I go out tonight? Or are we, like, going to dinner or something first? I need to know if I should get changed into my costume here.”

  Her mom sighed. “Taylor, I’m not even sure if I should let you go tonight. I can’t believe you skipped that math test.”

  “Mom, I have to go. Everyone’s going tonight.”

  “I know you have to go. I’m just not sure that I should be letting you. Taylor, you need to at least graduate from high school. Your counsellor has been unbelievably understanding by letting you stay in the super achievers program despite your grades, but you have to try. He wanted me to get you a tutor, but …”

  “Mom, I don’t have time for a tutor.”

  “I know, that’s what I told him. I’ll let you go tonight, but you really have to try harder, okay? I’ve got to go.”

  Taylor hung up, trying not to cry. And I still don’t know whether I should get changed into my costume or not! she thought. She sat there for a minute and listened to everyone talk about Halloween. She forced herself to stand and opened her locker, taking out a ROCKSTAR and a packet of sour gummy worms. Biting the top off of a worm, she sat back down, avoiding the pile of used toe tape beside her. Gross! She sneezed. The academy always had a weird smell from a mixture of tea tree oil, Tiger Balm, Chinese medicine, mould, and old costumes. Taylor had the feeling that she was allergic to it. She sneezed again and reached for a Kleenex.

  “Bless you!” Keiko said. She sat down beside Taylor. “What are you dressing as tonight?”

  “Same as for class. A Barbie princess. But I have a dress and stuff, too.”

  “I am dressing as butterfly.”

  “Cool!” said Taylor, gulping some of her ROCKSTAR.

  “Quick, quick!” Kageki said, as he came thundering down the stairs. “Come upstairs! The third floor toilet is overflowing. It’s coming through the ceiling!” Everybody ran upstairs.

  The water was coming through the ceiling and pouring down the sliding door at the academy’s side entrance, creating a waterfall. An enormous waterfall. “I didn’t know the upstairs toilet had so much water!” Taylor shouted over the water.

  “It was the one that just kept flushing. You know, the one that the little kids thought Moaning Myrtle lived in?” Kageki said. “So now they can’t stop it from flooding!”

  Outside, passersby stopped to look through the sliding doors, gazing at the waterfall in amazement. Julian grinned and waved at them.

  Gabriel came bustling along, saying “Go, go! The plumber is coming, don’t worry.” He waved the people in the street away from the sliding door and shooed the students back downstairs.

  “Alison, turn down that music!” Ch
arlize said. She turned into Grandview Park. “Do you see your friends, Taylor?”

  “No, but they’re taking the bus. I’ll call Keiko, though.” Taylor hung up almost as soon as the phone connected. “Mom, they’re right behind us!”

  “Is Keiko the one in the butterfly costume?”

  “Yes! Bye!” Taylor called over her shoulder as she ran out to meet them.

  “Hey, Taylor!” said Keiko. “Are we going to go trick or treating first?”

  “Nah, why don’t we skip it?” Taylor said, seeing the expression on Delilah’s face.

  “Oh, yeah sure,” Keiko said.

  “Oh, look!” Delilah said excitedly as they heard music starting up. “The parade is starting.” They pushed to the front of the crowd, murmuring apologies.

  “There’s the boys and the rest,” Taylor said, looking across the street. Delilah waved at them, but they either didn’t see her or didn’t want to acknowledge that they had seen her. The drums started, and the crowd got quieter. People came running into the clear area and then stopped, gyrating fire rings around their hips.

  “Cool!” Taylor exclaimed as one of the dancers tossed her hoop into the air, still burning, and then caught it. They stayed there watching the parade until most of the stilt walkers had gone by.

  “Let’s move over there,” Keiko said, pointing to a clear place in the park with some benches, just a little ways away. “I really want to sit down.”

  “Me too,” Taylor said, so they all drifted over to the benches.

  “Want some?” a man on a blanket asked, holding up a bag.

  Taylor jumped. She hadn’t noticed him in the darkness. “No, thank you,” she answered, giggling. He shrugged and they kept walking.

  They sat down on the benches just as the fireworks began to start.

  “Where did that guy on the blanket go?” Delilah asked. “He’s disappeared.”