Kara's Cross

“If either of you need anything, I’ll be in the kitchen, making you both a snack. Oh by the way, Maddie, are you allergic to anything?”

I roll my eyes. My dad is insane. He has been grinning like a lunatic ever since I brought Maddie up to the car after school to ask if she could come over. He acts as if it’s a miracle anybody would want to be my friend.

“Not that I know of, Mr. Eldridge,” Maddie answers enthusiastically. “Thanks again for letting me come over.”

“Okay, then, thanks dad,” I add, impatiently glaring at him to leave the room. “We’ll be fine now.”

“I’ll leave your snack on the kitchen counter,” he informs as he backs out of the room, giving me a big smile and a thumbs up. Sheesh. What am I a pitiful wretch?

“Sorry about my dad, Maddie. He can be overbearing at times.”

“Don’t be sorry, I like your dad. My parents both work really long hours and are tired when they come home. More often than not, they either plop down in front of the TV or go right to bed after supper. My brother and I take care of ourselves for the most part.”

“It must feel good, having that kind of freedom.”

A look of either annoyance or mild anger appears on Maddie’s face, “It would be nice to feel watched over, or protected.”

I have nothing to say in response. ‘Watched over’ is exactly how I feel. Maybe that’s what bothers me the most. I should probably just change the subject.

“So, have you come up with any ideas on how to become popular?”

Maddie’s look changes from annoyance to a wide-eyed smirk.

“Kara, you can’t just become popular. If you could, everybody would do it.”

“People aren’t born popular, Maddie, they learn it. It’s just a matter of wanting it enough to work for it.”

“Okay,” her voice sounds skeptical, “what have you come up with?”

“Well, let’s write down all the things we know about popular people.”

I get out a notebook and pencil from my backpack and open it to the first page. On the first line I write, “How Kara and Maddie are going to become popular!” and underline it. Indenting a little on the second line, I write the number one and circle it.

We are silent for several moments.

“Umm...” Maddie breaks the silence, “Popular kids seem to do really well in school. Does that count?”

“Yeah, that’s good,” I quickly write it down and draw a picture of a piece of paper with an A+ at the top. “Plus, they are usually in sports,” I add, “and popular girls are usually cheerleaders, too.”

Maddie’s face lights up with hope.

“They wear cool clothes, too,” she blurts out enthusiastically, “and makeup.”

I frantically write and draw the suggestions, attempting to keep up.

“They always talk about hanging out after school,” Maddie continues, “either at the mall or at the square downtown.”

We both become quiet as I finish the most recent suggestion. I can’t think of any other obvious ideas right now.

“That’s probably enough for now.” I set my pencil down. “Now, what do we do?”

Silence again fills the room. I use the opportunity to go into the kitchen, grab the snack off the counter, and bring it into the family room. I balance a plate of cookies on my left arm, holding a glass of milk in each hand while I push my way through the door back into the family room. I place the cookies on the floor in front of us and hand her one of the cups of milk.

I take a few bites of a cookie and drink some of the milk.

“I guess we could just start working down the list, right?”

Maddie looks at the notebook.

“Some of those seem kind of hard, but I suppose we could try.” She points to the first one. “This one shouldn’t be too bad. I do pretty well in school, how about you?”

“I’ve been head of my class for the last five years,” I laugh, “but the competition was rather slim, being the only student. My dad did say I was usually ahead of the requirements, though.”

“How is everyone going to find out we are really good in school?” Maddie asks. “It doesn’t matter if we’re smart if no one knows it.”

“We’ll have to volunteer as much as possible for a while,” I suggest. “Let’s raise our hands as often as we can and make sure everybody knows we’re as smart as them.”

“Whenever the teacher wants someone to do something,” Maddie includes, “we should be the ones she picks.”

“That should work.” I feel hopeful. “We can start tomorrow.”

“Sounds good,” Maddie agrees, before becoming thoughtful. “Kara?”

“Yeah.”

“I was just wondering...” she stops for a couple of seconds. “I was wondering if you are going to use your power to help us become popular.”

I study Maddie for a while. I hadn’t thought of using my power. I hate using my power. If I never use my power again, I would be ecstatic. Part of me wonders if she is asking because she wants me to use my power. Is she pretending to be my friend now because of it? She has a lot of nerve coming into my house, just to try to use me.

“Kara? You look mad.” Maddie’s face becomes pale. “I wasn’t asking you because I want you to use it. I just didn’t know if you were thinking of it as an option. I’m sorry if I upset you. It doesn’t seem right to use it anyway.”

“No, Maddie, I’m not mad. Sorry. You are the only person in the world who knows I have this power, and I’m really not used to trusting anyone with it.”

This will be a new experience, but she seems worthy.

“To answer your question, I wasn’t planning on using my power. I would rather it didn’t exist in the first place. We can do this without it anyway, right?”

She smiles at me and nods. I am looking forward to tomorrow.