The Crazy Things Girls Do for Love

Chapter Forty-Six All systems normal

Maya’s friends – all of whom have been having a great time at the Earth Day celebration – have stopped by to see her. With Alice’s help, Maya’s been running the children’s workshop. Making art out of junk. To inspire them, she set up a stall with the whirligigs and mobiles she made out of things she rescued from the recycling centre. The result is a cross between an invention by the cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who specialized in drawing complicated machines to perform simple tasks, and Aladdin’s cave.

“Man, this is so cool…” Brion whistles. “You’re selling these things, right? My dad would love one for the backyard.”

“I always knew you were talented, Maya,” says Mallory, “but I never knew you were this talented.”

Maya smiles shyly. “It’s more inspiration than talent. Once I started, I just couldn’t seem to stop.”

“But when did you make all this stuff?” asks Shayla. “It must have taken hours and hours.”

Maya doesn’t say that she made it in those dark days after her Be Kind to Our Planet Night, when she kept pretty much to herself for a while. Maya, like Sicilee, is happy to have her friends back. Especially since it was they who came to her and not the other way around. A certain way of dressing might make you cool. A certain kind of music might make you cool. Reading certain books might make you cool as well. But nothing does the job as well as having a photo of you being led away by a policeman published in the daily paper with the headline: Clifton Springs Students Climb up for the First Amendment. There’s no making fun of her now. Celebrity is, indeed, forgiven a lot.

“Well, you know…” Maya shrugs. “I kind of stopped watching so much TV, so I did this instead.” She gives them all a big smile. “You know what they say: use less … reuse … recycle.”

“Maybe we should all give up TV.” Finn laughs. “These are totally amazing.”

“Man, this rules so bad.” Jason’s eyes move back and forth as though he’s committing the pieces to memory. “Has Zin seen it? He’s got to give you an A for this.”

Maya looks at her watch. “He’s supposed to be here at three – to judge the Junk Art competition.”

“Well, that’s not long.” Jason leans over her shoulder, also looking at her watch. “Why don’t I hang out with you? Give you a hand here?” There are a few small children still glueing bits and bobs on painted boxes and tying plastic bottles together with coloured string. “I want to see his face.”

“That’s OK. I’m here,” says Alice.

“Don’t you want to look around?” asks Jason. “You’ve been stuck here all day.”

Alice blinks. It’s never before occurred to her to think of Jason as being especially thoughtful. “Well, I…” She glances at Maya. Maya has an oh-my-gosh expression on her face. “Yeah,” says Alice quickly. “That’s cool. I’ll see you guys later.”

After the others leave, Jason says, “I guess that wasn’t very subtle, was it?”

“What?” Maya starts walking through the junior artists, picking up discarded containers and scraps and putting them back in the bins. “Practically telling Alice to go away?”

Jason grimaces. “I wanted to get you alone. You know, so I could apologize for the way I’ve been acting.”

Maya retrieves a handful of old CDs from the grass. “You mean being rude and obnoxious and torturing me? You want to apologize for that?”

“Yeah.” He kicks a cork towards her foot. “You know, because… I know it’s going to sound crazy, but I think I was jealous.”

“You were jealous? What of? Me eating lentils? Or me riding my bike to school?”

“Lightfoot.” Jason is scouring the grass for more corks and he is mumbling. “I thought, you know… I thought you had the hots for him.”

“Me?” It is a testament to how much things can change in a short period of time that Maya isn’t acting at all. “You thought I liked Cody?”

“Yeah, well, you know… He is pretty good looking.”

“Do you think so?” asks Maya.

It is another testament to how much things can change in a short period of time that although, at this very moment, Cody Lightfoot is walking past them, smiling that smile that not so long ago would have turned her toenails to glue, Maya doesn’t even see him.