A Girl Like Gracie Page 3

  Inside, the foyer of the house is full. There are people standing around. All of them are wearing gorgeous gowns or tuxedos. There is a piano in the corner of the room, and some girl is sitting at it, playing a classical piece that I recognize.

  Claire and Dad walk up beside me.

  “Are you going to be okay here?” Dad asks.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I answer, not quite believing it.

  “Okay,” Dad says, him and Claire walking away to go talk in the crowd.

  I just stand there, looking at everybody. I feel like an impostor. Alfie was absolutely right. I don’t belong here.

  “Are you all right?” somebody asks from beside me.

  I turn towards the voice and see a boy that I don’t recognize. Not that I know anybody, aside from my family, Jace, and the Sherwood family. And I’m not even sure if Jace will even be here. And if he would be, he would be hanging out with Alfie anyway.

  The boy has on a nice tuxedo. It looks really expensive. His short, dark brown hair is messy, but you can tell it’s intentional. And he has the most amazing emerald green eyes.

  “I’m not sure,” I answer, deciding to be honest. I’m pretty sure the answer is already plainly written on my face anyway.

  “I’m Noah Pennington,” the boy says.

  “Annyeonghaseyo,” I say, then bow to him. “I’m Gracie.”

  “Do you have a last name?” he asks.

  “Yeah, sorry,” I say, bowing again. Ah, why do I keep bowing? It’s not normal to bow to people in America. “James. I’m Gracie James.”

  “James,” he says, repeating it. “You wouldn’t happen to be related to Travis and Alfie James, would you?”

  “Travis is my dad,” I say. “And Alfie is my twin brother.”

  “Twin?” he asks, looking at me.

  “Yeah, I know. I look twelve.”

  Noah laughs. “No, that wasn’t what I was referring to. You two just don’t look related, like, at all. Are you Asian?”

  “Our dad is white, and our mom is Korean. I take after my mom and Alfie takes after our dad,” I explain.

  “That’s why you keep bowing?” he asks.

  I nod. “It’s not on purpose. I just keep forgetting.”

  “Oh, right. Alfie did say he had a sister living in South Korea,” he says. “So… you’re back.”

  “I am,” I say, nodding.

  “Good,” he says.

  “Good?”

  He doesn’t respond.

  “This house is massive,” I say to him, looking around the room. There is even a huge statue in the middle. Their foyer is definitely bigger than ours, even though our house is bigger.

  “Not as big as your house,” Noah says.

  I look at him. “You’ve been to my house?”

  “Many times,” he says.

  “So are you and Alfie friends?”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” he says, but doesn’t say anything else.

  “What is your house like?” I ask. “Is it huge like this?”

  “Do you not know whose house you’re at right now?” he asks.

  I shake my head.

  “It’s mine. Or my dad’s,” he says. “But I live here.”

  “Wow,” I say, looking at him. “Your dad must be rich.”

  “Not as rich as yours,” he says.

  I look back at the crowd again, and see Alfie walking towards me with Jace following closely behind. He walks right up to me.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Alfie asks me.

  “Um… standing here,” I answer.

  “I mean talking to him,” he clarifies.

  “Alfie, come on man,” Jace says. “Leave them alone.”

  “I’m confused,” I say. “What is wrong with Noah? Isn’t this his house we’re at? He’s nice. Did I do something wrong?”

  Noah puts a hand on my arm.

  “Get your hands off her,” Alfie says, then swings a punch at Noah.

  I hear the crowd around us gasp, but I’m too busy watching Alfie to notice anything else. His fist connects with Noah’s face.

  “Alfie!” I yell at him.

  Noah’s nose starts to drip blood.

  “Don’t let me ever see you near my sister again!” Alfie yells.

  Before anything else can be said, Alfie grabs my arm and pulls me away. We go right out the front door, and Jace comes out with us.

  “What were you thinking?” I ask Alfie. “Why the heck did you just hit that guy?”

  “You can’t talk to him,” Alfie says. “Or go near him. Or even think about him.”

  “Why not?” I ask. “He was nice. Not that it matters. He’ll never want to talk to me again since you punched him in the face without a reason!”

  “I had plenty of reason!”

  “You did kind of overreact,” Jace says, coming to my defense. “All he did was talk to her and he touched her elbow. What do you think he was going to do in front of all those people?”

  “I don’t know,” Alfie says.

  The front door opens up and Claire walks out. She looks angry.

  “Alfie James, what were you thinking?” she asks him, as she walks up to us. She doesn’t give him a chance to answer. “Your father is in there trying to smooth things over with the Pennington family. We will be lucky if they don’t sue.”

  “He started it!” Alfie says.

  “What did he do?”

  “He talked to Gracie,” he answers.

  “That’s it?” Claire asks.

  “He touched her elbow. But he only did that to make me mad,” Alfie says.

  Claire lets out an exasperated sigh. “Alfie. I just… I don’t know where to start. You guys go home while your dad and I sort things out.”

  She walks back inside and Alfie pushes off the side of the house where he was leaning.

  “Maybe you could make a list of people I am and am not allowed to talk to,” I say. “That would make this all a lot easier.”

  “Don’t talk to any guys besides me. Period,” he says.

  “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not thirteen anymore,” I say. “I can talk to any guy I want to. Besides, I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I was standing there all alone and I was just thankful that the boy came and started talking to me.”

  The doors open up again, and I expect it to be Claire or Dad, coming to yell at Alfie. But it’s not. It’s Noah. He’s got a handkerchief pressed against his nose, and it’s stained red.

  “Are you all right?” he asks me.

  “I think I’m supposed to ask you that,” I say.

  “Come back for seconds?” Alfie asks him, in a taunting voice.

  “I just came to give you this,” Noah says, handing me a piece of paper. I grab it from him, and then he walks back through the doors.

  “What’s that?” Jace asks me.

  I hold up the paper.

  It has his phone number on it.

  “It’s the number to his handphone,” I answer.

  Alfie tries to grab the paper out of my hand, but I hold onto it tight. I put the piece of paper in my bra where I know Alfie can’t get it.

  “You better not text him,” he says.

  I don’t respond. I just smile.

  “Gracie Nicole James, I am serious,” Alfie says.

  “You know, I wasn’t going to, but if it annoys you, I might just do it,” I say.

  Jace who is watching the two of us laughs. We both turn to look at him and he stops laughing immediately.

  “You two are fun together,” he says. “I think senior year might be the best year yet.”

  The limo pulls up in front, and a guy opens the door for us. The three of us get in and head back home in complete silence. I can’t help but wonder what this means for Alfie and me. Are we friends again? I hope so.

  Monday, August 22

  Please leave.

  A little over two weeks later, school starts.

  I’m ready for school to start.

  I pas
sed my written examination for my driver’s test and now I have to wait six months before I can take the driving portion of the test. Until then, I am going to be riding with Alfie to school, which he does not seem happy about. Like, at all.

  Whenever we got home from the charity ball that night, Alfie asked me, in the nicest way possible, to promise not to call or text Noah. I agreed, and then he went to his room. He hasn’t spoken a word to me since that night, so I’ve been all alone.

  I mean, sure, I have Claire. That girl loves to shop. She took me for a mani pedi on Saturday just so I’d be ready for school today. She even helped me pick out a cute outfit to wear and helped me fix my hair this morning. But besides her and the hired help, nobody in the house is talking to me.

  Well, Dad talks to me in passing, but I don’t see him very much. He’s always working. I’ve talked to Mom a few times on the phone, but she never talks to me for very long. It’s almost like she’s avoiding me, which I don’t like.

  So, here I am, all alone in this big huge house. It’s kind of depressing.

  That morning, when I come down for school, Alfie and Jace are both waiting for me in the foyer.

  “She’s riding with us?” Jace asks, as he follows Alfie to the door. I follow both of them.

  “I don’t have a choice,” Alfie says to him, completely ignoring me. “She passed her written examination, but she only had a permit for the next six months.”

  “Did you have your license in Korea?” Jace asks me. Alfie gets in his car and slams the door.

  I open the passenger side and climb in the small backseat. Jace gets in the front side.

  “I didn’t need my license there. I always walked and took the subway,” I answer. “Besides, driving in Korea is a little scary. More than one of my friends at school have been hit by a car while walking. Usually by a taxi. Those taxi drivers are crazy.”

  Jace laughs.

  I look at Alfie, who puts the car in gear and takes off. He is gripping the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles are turning white.

  “Did you end up texting Noah Pennington?” Jace asks.

  “No,” I answer.

  Alfie’s grip loosens a bit.

  “Good,” Jace says. “That guys a bit arrogant anyway. You’re too good for him.”

  “I doubt Alfie will let me text any guy,” I say. “Does Noah go to our school?”

  “Yeah,” he answers. “And I don’t think Alfie will try to stop you from texting any guy. Just the guys he doesn’t approve of.”

  “Can we not talk about me like I’m not sitting right here?” Alfie asks.

  Now you know how I feel.

  I want to say the words out loud, but I’m too scared to make him more mad. Maybe I shouldn’t be. How could it get any worse that it already is? Maybe if I start dishing it back, he will see how much it hurts.

  No. I can’t be that cruel to him.

  I just wish he felt the same.

  The rest of the way to school, Jace tries to start a few conversations, but it always falls flat. Eventually, he stops trying and we ride the rest of the way to school in an uncomfortable silence. As soon as we get to school, Alfie gets out of the car and runs away before Jace and I can even get out.

  Jace gets out, and then helps me climb out of the small backseat.

  “Don’t worry about him. He’ll come around,” Jace tells me.

  “I’ve been told that, but I don’t think it’s going to happen,” I say, grabbing my messenger bag from the backseat and sling it over my shoulder. “But thanks anyway.”

  “If you want to get even, just talk to Noah again. He can’t stand that guy,” he says, as we walk towards the school together. “When he saw the two of you flirting, he flew off the handle.”

  “We weren’t flirting.”

  “Well, he was flirting with you,” Jace says, then turns to me. “I’m going to go find your brother.”

  “Okay. I’m leaving first,” I say, and walk into the double doors of the school.

  “Hey, Gracie,” Jace yells from behind me.

  I turn toward him.

  “In America, you don’t have to tell somebody you’re leaving first,” he says.

  “Right. Sorry,” I say, then turn back around.

  At least I didn’t bow that time.

  I pull the schedule out of my backpack and look at the room number of my first class. It’s on the second floor, so I head up the first staircase that I see and my class it just a couple doors away from the stairs. The school is easy to navigate, so at least I won’t get lost.

  In Korea, we stayed the whole day in the same room. I’m going to miss that for sure. All of my classes are each in different rooms. But at least my first class of the day is math. I like math. It’s a good way to start the day.

  I walk inside the room. Nobody is in there yet, so I take a seat in the front. I’m short by American standards, and I don’t want to get stuck behind somebody and not be able to see.

  A few minutes later, somebody sits in the desk beside me.

  “Hey,” the guys says to me.

  I look over and see a Chinese boy sit beside me. He has an American accent, though, so he’s probably been raised here.

  “Hey,” I say, bowing towards him.

  “Are you a scholarship student?” he asks.

  “Scholarship?” I ask. “Aniyo. No.”

  “It’s okay to be a scholarship kid,” he says. “I’m here on a scholarship. The other kids don’t really bug us if we stick together.”

  “I don’t really understand,” I say. “I’m not…”

  “Gracie,” a voice says.

  I turn around in my seat to see Noah walk in to the class. His nose is looking completely normal, thank goodness.

  “Noah, hey,” I say.

  “You didn’t call me,” he says. “I’m hurt.”

  “Sorry,” I say. “I didn’t want to make Alfie mad.”

  Noah walks over to the desk where the Chinese boy is sitting.

  “Move it Yang,” Noah says. “I want to sit by her.”

  “So sit on the other side,” he says, but he does get up and move to a desk on the other side of the room.

  Noah sits beside me.

  “That was rude,” I tell Noah.

  He shrugs. “You don’t want to sit by him.”

  I roll my eyes and get up out of the seat. I grab my bag and go sit by the boy that Noah called Yang.

  “Sorry about him,” I say, when I take a seat. “I didn’t get to properly introduce myself. I’m Gracie James.”

  The boy looks at me. “I’m Austin Yang. And sorry that I called you a scholarship student. I didn’t realize.”

  I shrug. “It’s okay.”

  “Look, Gracie, I don’t want to be rude, but maybe you should go back and sit by him,” he says.

  “Why?”

  “Because it’ll just cause trouble for me if you sit here,” he says.

  “Don’t worry about him. I’ll take care of…”

  Austin cuts me off. “I don’t want you to sit here. Please leave.”

  Seriously?

  I stand up and grab my bag. I go back and sit by Noah, who looks like he knew I would eventually come back.

  Ugh.

  Maybe this isn’t going to be my favorite class after all.

  Obviously.

  I have dreaded lunchtime all day long. Mostly because I have made zero friends here, and I don’t have anybody to sit by. I’m going to be that weird girl who sits by herself in the cafeteria. Nobody will want to sit by me. No doubt by now, Alfie has told everybody in the entire school to stay away from me.

  I stand in the short line in the cafeteria and get my food. Much to my dismay, they don’t have any rice. What kind of a school lunchroom doesn’t serve rice with every meal? But then I remember, I’m in America. Americans think rice is unhealthy or something.

  With my tray of food, I look out at the cafeteria, trying to figure out there I’m going to sit.

  Bay
side Academy is a really small private school. Today I have learned that most of the kids here are either really smart, or they are really rich. I suppose that I fall into the rich category because of my dad, but I don’t feel rich. To me, I’m still the girl who has a mom who works two jobs just so she can pay for my extra tutoring. Looking back, I don’t understand why Mom didn’t just ask Dad for the money. Maybe because of pride. I guess I can’t blame her for wanting to make it on her own. It’s a good thing I love ramyeon so much. It’s pretty much the cheapest food you can get.

  I look at Alfie, who is sitting by Jace. They’re both watching me, but I know I can’t sit by them. If I do, Alfie will get up and just move away.

  “Want to sit by me?” Noah asks, as he walks up beside me.

  “I don’t know,” I say hesitantly. I’m not sure that I like Noah after the way he talked to Austin earlier. It was uncalled for.

  “You don’t call me and now you’re refusing to sit at my table even though you don’t have anywhere else to sit. I’m beginning to think you don’t like me,” Noah says, trying to look hurt.

  “You treated Austin really bad earlier,” I say.

  “Austin?” he asks.

  “Austin Yang,” I say.

  “Oh. Yang.” Noah laughs. “You’re mad because I made Yang move? I did you a favor.”

  “I don’t need any favors,” I say.

  “Gracie.”

  I turn to see Elliot standing on the other side of me.

  Elliot and his family comes over at least once a week for dinner. He doesn’t talk that much, but he seems really nice.

  “Hey, Elliot,” I say.

  “Want to sit by me?” he asks.

  I nod. “Yes, please.” I turn to Noah. “Talk to you later.”

  I follow Elliot towards the table where he was sitting and take the spot directly across from him. Everybody at the table turns to look at me when I sit.

  “Everybody, this is Gracie James,” Elliot says, then looks at me. “Was Noah bothering you?”

  “My brother doesn’t like him,” I say. “I don’t want to give Alfie another reason to punch him.”

  “That was you!” A girl at the table says. “Oh, man! That was awesome! Everybody has wanted to punch Noah at some point, but Alfie just walked up all protective like and punched him. We all thought you were his girlfriend or something. I didn’t know you were his sister. You two look nothing alike. Are you half siblings or something?”