Saturday morning, Megan got up, got dressed, and rooted around her room for that stupid English book. She looked on her dresser, under the bed, even in her closet under all sorts of junk. But she couldn’t find it anywhere. Maybe it was still in her locker at school. She laid back down on her bed, trying to think. Maybe she could borrow Jake’s book – he had to have one, right? She really didn’t want to wait until next week to start on it, especially since she was supposed to be a little over halfway done with it by now.
“Jake?” she asked.
She hadn’t seen him yet, and she kind of wondered why. She hadn’t actually put the cork back in the bottle in weeks, so it wasn’t like he couldn’t come out whenever he wanted.
“Are you awake?” he asked, appearing in the middle of the room. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt – his new uniform since he started attending school. Megan had to admit, she liked it a lot better.
“Yeah.” she told him. “Hey – do you have a copy of The Scarlet Letter?”
“I do. Why?”
“I can’t find mine. Can I borrow yours?”
Jake shrugged and handed her a copy he seemed to pull from thin air.
“Thanks.” Megan told him, stretching out on her bed to read.
“You’re really doing homework on a Saturday?” Jake asked.
“Yeah. I really need to catch up. You?”
“I’m caught up.” he told her.
“Yeah, I figured. Even with this weekend’s stuff?”
Jake nodded.
“So not fair.” Megan mumbled, turning back to the book. “You can do whatever you want.” she told him, not even looking up.
“Computer?” he asked instantly. Megan actually looked at him.
“Sure.” she said. She would have thought he’d want to do something more fun, but what did she know? She turned back to her book.
Forty-five minutes later, she was done. She’d read two chapters and she couldn’t take any more.
“You wanna do something?” Megan asked Jake suddenly.
“Done already?” he asked, looking over.
“For now.” she told him. “I can’t read a story written like this.”
“Written like what?” he asked.
“In Old English.”
“It’s not Old English.” he told her. Megan just gave him a look and he stopped talking.
“Whatever it is – I can’t do it right now. So you wanna go to the arcade?”
“You want to take me again?” he seemed hesitant.
“Sure, why not?” she asked. He was already here, and really, he wasn’t so bad. A little annoying maybe, but not any worse than Drew.
“It’s Saturday – you could probably find someone else if you wanted.”
“You don’t want to go?” Megan tried not to be disappointed. Even someone who never did anything would rather sit here then go somewhere with her.
“No, I do.” he told her. “I just didn’t think I’d be your first choice to take.”
Megan stared at him for a minute, trying to decide what to say. Finally, she decided on the truth. She just hoped it didn’t come back to bite her.
“You’re growing on me.” she shrugged.
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“So what do you want to do first?” Megan asked.
“Racing.” Jake said instantly. Then he got a somewhat apologetic look on his face. “That is, as long as you want to.”
“If that’s what you want, let’s do it.” she said. After all, that’s why she asked.
Megan sat down at the machine, Jake taking the seat next to her. She was just about to put the quarters in when she thought of something. She turned to Jake, putting on her most serious face.
“No cheating.” she told him.
“Why would I cheat?” he asked almost innocently.
“To make me mad? Because it’s the only way you can win? Who knows?”
“Oh, I don’t have to cheat to win.” he told her, grinning.
“Then prove it. No cheating.”
“No cheating.” he agreed.
They played for a bit, and Megan had to admit he wasn’t bad. Actually, he was annoyingly good.
“You sure you’re not cheating?” she asked as casually as she could.
“I told you I wouldn’t.” he said.
“Yeah, I know.” Megan admitted. She fought back the urge to ask if he did it anyway.
They ended up playing for a couple hours. Megan would have thought she’d get bored of the game, but she really didn’t. She wasn’t sure if it was the fact that each race was so close or the fact that he seemed to be having an even better time that she was, but she was actually sorry when she ran out of quarters.
Their last game, Megan knew she’d have to win. There was no way she could go home with him having beaten her, especially not on the last round. But when they crossed the finish line, Jake was in second. She didn’t even place.
“Well, I guess that’s it.” Megan said.
She kind of hated to leave on that note, but there was nothing she could do about that. Maybe next time, she told herself.
“What? No rematch?” Jake asked. “That’s not like you.”
“I’m all out of quarters.” she shrugged.
“Really?”
It looked like that kind of thing had never occurred to him before. But then, Megan guessed he didn’t have a lot of need for money normally.
Jake stared at her for a minute, like he was trying to decide something. He leaned towards her a little, putting his hand on the console between them. But before Megan had time to wonder what he was doing, Jake grinned. When he pulled away, the console was covered in quarters.
Megan caught her breath. She never noticed how deep his eyes were. As he looked at her, they seemed to shine. A small smile played on his lips, and Megan caught herself ending what he was doing here with her. There was no way someone this cute would ever be with her under normal circumstances.
He leaned in towards her, and Megan’s stomach did a flip. What was he planning? His face was tantalizingly close to hers.
Megan’s mind started running wild with possibilities. Should she lean in to meet him? Should she pull away? Let him know that it wasn’t appropriate? Would that kind of thing even matter? Or maybe she should just pretend she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. That was probably the safest bet anyway.
But before Megan could get carried away, wondering just exactly how far Jake was going to go, that plateful smile of his turned into an impish grin.
“Go again?” he asked. Megan caught herself grinning; his excitement was kind of contagious.
Megan blinked, trying to hide her surprised at the sudden change in him. Then, she shook her head. What was she thinking? He was her genie; he’d never be interested in anything else – why would he?
Megan might have been just the tiniest bit disappointed, but she brushed those thoughts from her mind. Instead, she found herself grinning back at him. So, he wasn’t going to kiss her – so what? She told herself it was just a passing fancy anyway. So why not enjoy the moment with him that she did have, here and now. She’d be a fool to waste that. Besides, even that impish grin of his was kind of infectious.
“So how’d you get so good at this anyway?” Megan asked as she fed the machine. She remembered when she first started playing arcade games, she was terrible.
“You really want to know?” he asked, sounding surprised.
“Why not?”
“I just didn’t think you’d want to hear about what I do.”
“Sure I would.”
He’d been living in her house for weeks – why wouldn’t she want to know about him? Actually, she probably didn’t know nearly enough.
“I used to play a game kind of like it on PlayStation.” he admitted.
“What? When did that ever happen?” she asked. It just seemed so...normal.
“I told you – I had someone wish for one a few years ago.”
“And he just let you play?”
“Of course not – nobody ever lets me do things like that. But it’s not like he locked it up when he was gone.” Jake grinned wickedly.
“You’re very sneaky.” Megan told him. But she surprised herself when she realized that it didn’t make her worried.
She already knew he was a little devious, but at least he was telling her the truth. And sneaking around to play video games kind of made him seem like a normal kid; she could easily picture one of her brothers doing the same thing. Jake must have known what she was thinking, because he looked at her and grinned.
“Told you I had ways to keep myself entertained.”
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