Chapter 10

The next day, as the bell rang for lunch break, Maija wanted to rush to the cafeteria. At the moment she put her foot outside the class, she heard angry voices behind her back.
   "Maija! Wait! Why are you going to the cafeteria alone? Why aren"t you waiting for us?"
   A horde of her classmates, all dressed in miniskirts and high heels, all with fashionable haircuts and make-up on their faces, were standing behind her.
   "You see, she probably has a date with Tommy," - winked Helena at the rest of the girls.
   "No, no, there"s no way we"re going to let you go eat at the cafeteria alone." - said a red-haired girl named Sandra. - "If Tommy comes here, then why can"t he sit with us?"
   "It"s not about - ", started Maija but it was pretty useless.
   "We all know that you went on a date with Tommy yesterday," - said Helena, smiling. - "we also know that he took you home on his motorbike alone - and we"re just dying to know more details!"
   "He didn"t take me home on his motorbike - well, not exactly - well, not all the way home- "
   "That"s even more interesting!" - Sandra exclaimed, and the rest of the girls clapped their hands enthusiastically. - "Then he probably walked you home, and then there was more time for something interesting to happen - oh come on, tell us!"
   Followed by a horde of girls and by much more chit-chatting of that sort, Maija went down with the cafeteria, unable to get rid of the company of her classmates. Together they occupied a whole table in the cafeteria.
   "Oh come on, you don"t really expect us to believe that nothing happened!" - Helena didn"t give up. Maija noticed a strange vicious joy in her eyes. She saw Martin sitting at a table nearby with his classmates. She wanted to get up and explain to him all about yesterday, but the very thought about how stupid a conversation like this would look in front of the entire school was enough to keep her sitting still in her place.
   "Nothing happened between Tommy and me." - she said, - "Absolutely nothing. First, Helena and me went to see his rehearsal. Then, Tommy took me home and one of his friends took Helena. Why won"t we start investigating her as well? You went alone with Niko, Helena. Who knows what happened!"
   "Ooh, really?" - the enthusiasm of the girls didn"t have limits. - "Did you, Helena? You didn"t tell us about it! Tell us!"
   "Oh come on." - Helena shrugged. - "You don"t think that I could really give a chance to that lanky idiot. He can"t even keep on a proper conversation. Tommy is another thing, you can"t possibly compare him to the fools of his gang. And besides, I think someone here is just trying to change the subject - aren"t you, Maija?"
   "Look," - she raised her voice slightly and tried to catch Martin"s sight. - "if I say that nothing happened, I mean it. He walked me home, that"s true. He even came inside and spent the whole evening in our living room-"
   "Ooh!" - exclaimed the girls. - "The whole evening?!"
   "He spends the evening with you instead of hanging out with his friends in the old park, and you still claim that nothing is going on?" - Helena looked at her with a rather unpleasant smile. - "Because he wasn"t there yesterday."
   "Well yes, he stayed with us to drink some tea," - Maija defended herself, - "But to tell you the truth, he spoke more to my father than to me. My father is rather friendly with him - they spoke about cars, sports, things of that sort. I just sat there quietly."
   "Hard to believe," - Helena made a remark, grinning.
   "Really nothing happened?" - asked Sandra, slightly disappointed. - "What a waste! You sure need to fix this today when he takes you home from school," - she winked.
   "He"s not going to take me home today." - said Maija. - "My father will."
   Helena smiled.
   "Oh come on, so hard for you to admit the truth, is it?"
   The rest of the girls kept on winking and babbling all through lunch break. When it was finally time to go back to the class, Maija thought that there was probably nothing left that the girls didn"t gossip about. She was walking upstairs with her classmates, all of them still chittering and laughing. Martin and his friends were walking a couple of steps ahead of them. He didn"t turn around. Eventually, as the stairs ended, he went to the right - to the hallway of the eights" grades, and entered through the door of 8-G. Maija"s classmates, carrying her away with them, continued to the left to 9-D.
   At the end of the lesson, she got up and put her books and pencils into her schoolbag quietly, trying not to attract attention. She was just about to tiptoe out of the class when she heard, once again, the protests of her classmates.
   "Hey, Maija! Why do you go alone? Come on, wait for us, we"ll walk down the stairs together!"
   Surrounded by the bright-colored, cheerful crowd of girls, Maija left the class. She saw Martin again - he was walking, just like after lunchbreak, a little bit ahead of her. He was alone - she wished she could come over and join him, instead of being surrounded by so many girls that she didn"t even know so well, and who suddenly became so keen on her company. Maybe it was because they"ve seen her with Tommy yesterday, she thought - Tommy told her that soon she"ll gain popularity at school. But on the other hand, everyone seemed to be very well informed by Helena - or, to say more precisely, convinced that Helena"s juicy interpertations of completely innocent situations were nothing but the truth. What did she gain with that? It was obvious that she didn"t like Tommy, but the one whom he put in an unpleasant situation was she, Maija. Maija decided that from now on, she will look at Helena"s friendly gestures very carefully. There was definitely something about her - she didn"t seem as naive and easy-to-trick as the other girls.
   The girls walked together downstairs, where Vlad was already waiting for Maija in his car. Tommy was sitting at the backseat. Once again, Maija wished she could disappear.
   "Aha, that"s how she"s not going home with Tommy," - Helena whispered to the other girls, who giggled.
   "I didn"t say anything like that." - said Maija. She was starting to lose her patience already - I just said he wasn"t taking me home -"
   Luckily, it was time to go home and Maija got rid of the annoying interrogations, at least temporarily. On the way home, she, Vlad and Tommy spoke about insignificant things. At the end of the way, Maija surprised Tommy by inviting him to stay for lunch.
   "Yeah, sonny," - said Vlad, - "you should eat with us, you"ll get some decent food - not like the meal you eat at school every day. And I"m familiar with the way your mom cooks - how she"s obsessed with dieting and serves nothing but salads to the table. Your mom is a great woman, Tommy, but she doesn"t understand that a teenage boy needs more food than a woman in her forties."
   After they had their meal, Vlad went to work, like always, and Maija stayed with Tommy in the living room. She started talking, rather uncertainly:
   "Tommy, you know Helena much better than I do, don"t you? Tell me, what might she have against me? She doesn"t know me. Yet today she did everything she could to embarrass me in front of the others, to make me feel uncomfortable. I just can"t help but wondering - why might she want to do that?"
   "Why?" - Tommy repeated her question. - "Don"t want to sound cruel, but that is the way she is. That"s just her manner of acting - being nasty, making other people feel bad. What did she say, anyway?"
   "Umh," - Maija blushed. - "all sorts of things. It"s just that I"m confused - why might she feel such a strong dislike for me? I see it in the way she looks at me. And she doesn"t even know me."
   "Ah, don"t mind her. She"s just being her bitter, cruel, ugly, own true self. Hey, that doesn"t matter. Listen, on Saturday night I"m having a party - that"s in three days. You"ll come, won"t you? Without you it just won"t be worth. Don"t disappoint me - yesterday you promised to come to our concert, come to my party as well. Come on, make a promise," - he smiled.
   "Oh, don"t exaggerate," - Maija returned him a faint smile, - "sure all of your friends are going to come, and you have lots, don"t you? If I won"t be there you won"t even notice my absence,"
   "That"s what you think." - He suddenly became serious. - "You think I really have so many friends? I"m going to invite everyone from my class, that"s true, and everyone from the street but it doesn"t mean anything."
   "Alright, I"ll be there," - said Maija, blushing up to the roots of her hair.
   Tommy stayed with her for the whole afternoon again - he didn"t go to the rehearsal, and didn"t go to hang out in the old park when darkness fell. Maija made some hot chocolate and they were doing their homework - well, actually Tommy did nothing but opening his notebooks and closing them, untouched - and making plans for Saturday night"s party. The curtains were closed.