Quite an Undertaking - Devon's Story Read Online Free Page A

sighed.
    I looked over. Peanut butter and jelly. “Did your brother make the lunches again?”
    “Pfft,” she spat. “I can’t wait until it’s my turn. Oh well. Trade?”
    “No way. Maybe when you have tuna fish or roast beef.” I smiled at her, and she smiled back in that best friend sort of way. The smile that said we were in this together, through thick and thin.
    Gail held my gaze a bit longer than usual. Uh oh, something was up. Before I could ask where her boyfriend Travis was, she asked me softly, “So how’d it go yesterday?”
    Yesterday. The funeral. It came flooding back so fast that my heart broke all over again before I could stop it. I closed my eyes and looked away. Before I let myself get too choked up, I muttered, “It went okay, as far as those things go.”
    “Yeah, I know.” She rubbed my back over my jean jacket. “I’m sorry I couldn’t go. I wanted to be there, you know that, right? My mom wanted me in school.” She continued to rub my jean jacket.
    “I know.” I did know. I pushed my lunch toward her. Food was kind of turning my stomach at that point, anyway. She put her PB & J in front of me without a word. We’d been trading lunches since fourth grade, so words weren’t necessary.
    Travis, Gail’s boyfriend of about three months, came bounding up to the table out of breath. He was a definite hottie. He kept his short black hair neat and trimmed, unlike most of the other guys around school that had never seen a comb.
    Gail’s face lit up when she saw him. He threw his backpack on the gravel and sat down. It wasn’t hard to tell that they really liked each other. He leaned over for a kiss that she gave freely. I felt a little nosy watching them, so I looked away.
    I looked out past the maple trees in the courtyard, past the cars in the senior parking lot, and past the tall pine trees separating the school’s property from the neighborhood behind. Storm clouds hurried past us in the dark sky on their way toward Canada.
    An elbow jammed into my side and jolted me out of my cloud gazing. “Hey.” I scowled at Gail. She pointed to Travis.
    Travis said, “Hey, Devon, sorry about your grandma. Funerals suck, don’t they?”
    I laughed. “Yeah, they do.” Bless Travis for knowing the right thing to say. “Thanks,” I added.
    I looked back to the changing sky and inhaled the scent of the damp maple leaves carpeting the courtyard. The faint whiff of pine made me wonder if my grandma was up there in that tumultuous sky. Was she with Grandpa and Great Aunt Bertie? I felt the now-familiar sting of tears in my eyes and was amazed that I had any more to give. My chest tightened, and I knew this could go one of two ways. I might be able to sit here crying quietly, or I might have another complete meltdown like the one I’d had at the funeral home.
    I used the clean napkin from Gail’s lunch to wipe at my nose when all of a sudden loud voices interrupted my misery. To my amazement, Rebecca burst into the courtyard with her friends. One of her friends, Jessie something-or-other, had hundreds of tiny braids in her hair. I would have to ask Missy, but I think they were called cornrows or something. The braids hung down almost to her shoulders and looked nice against her white shirt and dark skin. I didn’t know a lot about Jessie, but I did know two things. She played on the girls’ basketball team, and I’d never seen her smile. I was pretty sure that Rebecca’s other friend, whose name I couldn’t remember, played on the basketball team, too.
    Watching Rebecca with her friends lifted me out of my funk a little. As I thought about it, I realized that those three hung out together all the time at lunch like me and Gail and Travis. I never realized it, but all the black kids seemed to hang out in one big group. Jessie’s story must have been mesmerizing because Rebecca didn’t see me at all, so I took that opportunity to watch her. I tried not to make it obvious, like I was a