Due Date

Kelly shook her head and looked down, guiltily muttering, “Nothing.”

“Precisely. I must admit I’d never noticed you harboring these criminal thoughts before.”

“Come on, you know what I mean.” Kelly playfully punched him on the arm. “There are times when kids do or say something, and you wish the earth would open you up and swallow you or they’d drop dead on the spot. Like when everyone else has done the correct homework, and you bring in the wrong thing, and then some bitch draws attention to the error.”

Sam laughed as if he remembered a specific incident. “Dad would tell you those things are character building.”

I groaned, recalling too many instances just like those Kelly described. “Yeah, right.” However, I generally took the role of a mere bystander witnessing these incidents, and not a victim, nor a member of the inner circle perpetuating the torment.

“Tell me about it. My mom says much the same, and she knows about creating characters.” She did. Kelly’s mom was an enthusiastic amateur actress and a drama teacher within our school.

Within our ex-school.

“The thing about being a teacher’s kid is the other kids expect a lot of you. They believe you have a free pass to get away with stuff.”

“Be a snitch. Not be a snitch.” Without missing a beat, Sam picked up and ran with Ryan’s thoughts. “Be good at all sports. And while being cool, you have to be clever and know all the answers and get the best marks.”

“Which you did, I must point out,” I interrupted because the twins had brains to burn and seemed to put in no effort for their perfect grades.

“Hmmm. But not knowing who you could count as real friends was the real downside. Kids seemed to have ulterior motives for wanting to hang out. Like as if they’d get higher grades or be let off the hook if they had us as buddies.”

“It didn’t work. No one got let off anything,” his brother added.

“But the old man wouldn’t be the type just to sweep any misdemeanor under the rug. He’d use us as examples to frighten anyone else against transgression. If he were harsh on his sons, it’d send a strong message to anyone who was a constant thorn in the school’s side,” Ryan said, and took a swig of his illegal beer.

“Same with girls. Did they want to date or be friends, and if so, why? Apart from you girls, most of the kids seemed false.”

And I knew this more than most because although other girls—you know, those sexy, fit, cheerleader types—would throw themselves at the twins, they didn’t really know the twins like Kelly and I did. The four of us had just about grown up together as if we were cousins. In fact, we couldn’t be closer if we were real siblings.

“Still, I’ll be glad to get to college where I’ll just be the same as everyone else.” Ryan picked up the thread when Sam paused for breath.

“Yeah, sounds good.” I had to agree, as my mother worked as the head of the mathematics department. The four of us found each other in the first semester at high school, when we discovered we all had a common burden—parents who were teachers. We kept seeking each other out for moral support and a friendly ear to listen to each other’s complaints.

The twins were super-nice guys with stunning good looks. You could just say perfect with no faults at all.

I might have been biased.

Of course, I tried to hide my lustful desires for the guys because they were my friends, and I didn’t want to spoil the friendship. But that wasn’t my only reason. If I ever to made a move on one of them, who would it be? They were both equally lovely.

It wouldn’t be right to date one dude, secretly knowing I’d be as happy to date his brother.

As if I would get the chance.

Dream on, girl.

But really, really, underneath it all, the number one reason I hadn’t made my feelings about the guys known to the guys was that they were completely out of my league.

Guys that hot, clever, and charming were going to have a confident, brainy supermodel on their arms.

Not someone like me: an all-round average plain Jane.

It seemed like half the class had better self-esteem than me.

As for me attracting friends and boyfriends, I had my share of problems. Even as a plain girl I had things about me that got the boys interested, but it was mostly my mom. The boys were after my mother’s favorable opinion because calculus was very hard, but they soon realized dating me wouldn’t help raise their grades.

It was a risky strategy for the dudes, if they were smart they would have figured it out for themselves. My mom might have hated them more for dating me. Things never got far before I called a halt. I never found myself all that attracted to the guys who were interested in me.