Chapter Fifteen - GRACIE

Gracie stumbled back. She wasn’t sure why Mark had pulled away so quickly—she was just getting started. Until she heard Cameron.

“Seriously,” he said with a snort. “We can’t take you two anywhere.”

Gracie saw the tour group had approached without her even realizing it, and this time there was a lot more laughter that followed Cameron’s comment. She was still breathing hard, and she wondered how much they had seen. Thank goodness it was pretty dark, but judging from their reactions, they had seen enough.

“Mr. Taylor, you act like I didn’t catch you under the bleachers with a girl last week,” Mrs. Krump said, approaching from behind him.

Cameron stuttered for a moment, then turned silent.

Gracie chuckled, thankful that Mrs. Krump was on their side, but it slipped away when she saw their teacher was not smiling.

“I expected better from you,” she said, eying both Gracie and Mark.

“It was my fault,” Gracie said quickly, wanting to take the pressure off him.

Mrs. Krump raised an eyebrow. “Really?” She didn’t look like she’d believe anything Gracie said at this point.

“You see…I…” She couldn’t tell Mrs. Krump that she was scared. Gracie had already used that excuse at Independence Hall. And she couldn’t claim to be sick. She’d used that one at the Liberty Bell. Both reasons had been valid, and completely real, but she doubted Mrs. Krump thought so anymore. Not after what she’d just witnessed. That had been real, right? She touched her lips to make sure. She could still feel the pressure of Mark’s lips on them. Yup. That had totally happened.

“I’m waiting,” Mrs. Krump said.

Gracie’s mind was blank. She had nothing. Finally she gave a little shrug and said, “It turns out that I like Mark a lot more than I like ghost tours.”

Gracie chanced a glance at Mark, and judging by the surprise on his face, she bet he was the source of at least one of the gasps she’d heard.

“Is that so?” Mrs. Krump’s voice held amusement. “The purpose of this school trip is to experience history through a variety of avenues, which you are expected to fully participate in. Not only that, but your parents have entrusted your safety to me and the other parent chaperons.” She no longer sounded amused. “Suffice to say, if you disappear again, you will be under strict supervision for the remainder of the trip and will face suspension when we arrive back in Lakeview.”

“But—” Gracie said, starting to protest, but to her surprise, Mark beat her to it.

“That seems a bit extreme,” he said.

Mrs. Krump studied him as if unsure what to make of the boy standing in front of her. “I was referring to you too.”

Mark’s mouth opened and then closed again. He remained silent, as if struck dumb.

Well, there went the only other person who might have spoken up on her behalf.

Now that that was out of the way—with the entire group watching, and seemingly entertained by the whole exchange—Mrs. Krump turned back and thanked the tour guide, who had been standing to the side and watching the entire scene as if he were at the movies.

He slipped back into character, dramatically bowed to Mrs. Krump, then hurried away as if she might call him back. Gracie would’ve thought he’d be used to a bunch of teenagers. Really, they couldn’t be scarier than a bunch of old ghosts.

* * * * *

Gracie dressed in her old jeans and stained T-shirt. She didn’t know what to expect for the day, but she knew they were going to be volunteering at the local food bank. She figured she might as well dress to get dirty.

So had Mark, apparently. He was already on the bus when Gracie finally got out there, and it was the first time she had ever seen him wear a T-shirt.

“Casual looks good on you,” she said as she slid into the seat next to him.

He blushed, but by the way he was smiling, he didn’t seem to mind the compliment. “You too.”

Gracie laughed. “I’m always casual.”

“And it always looks good on you.”

Okay, this was officially crazy. Mark Brown was openly flirting with her. It turned out he was pretty good at it, too.

“So, I guess no sneaking off today?” Gracie asked. Now that they had been caught kissing, not once, but twice, she figured they could be out in the open about…whatever it was that was going on.

She wasn’t sure that Mark agreed, however. His cheeks turned a dark shade of red and he stammered a bit before finally saying, “Uh…yeah. I don’t think my dad could handle me getting suspended.”

Gracie studied him for a moment, remembering his reaction the previous evening. As soon as Mrs. Krump had mentioned suspension, he’d clammed up. “Could you?”

“Could I what?”

“Handle being suspended.”

Mark seemed a little shocked by the question, like he was trying to figure out if she was joking or not. But then he did something that surprised her. He smiled. “For you? Anything.”

Gracie stared. Was he for real? He didn’t seem like he was joking. “You would risk that?”

“I don’t care about school anymore,” he said, leaning back in his seat. “I’m graduating in a few months and I have enough extra credit that I could not do another assignment for the rest of the year and still graduate with a 4.0 GPA.”

Okay. Now she was worried. Mark was on a first-name basis with most of the teachers. She had heard he volunteered to help in detention regularly as well. For him to suddenly not care about school was more than a little concerning. “Why don’t you care?”

He seemed a little uncomfortable as he gave a small shrug. After a moment, he looked like he might answer, but then the bus started, Mrs. Krump took attendance to make sure they weren’t missing anyone, and Mark fell silent.

They didn’t talk for the rest of the way, and it wasn’t until they pulled up in front of the food bank that Mark brightened. As they filed into the sparsely designed warehouse, Mark’s whole demeanor changed. He seemed relaxed and in his element. Gracie, on the other hand, felt anxious as she eyed the room they stood in. It seemed endless, and there were so many pieces of unfamiliar equipment, she wondered if she’d be leaving their assignment with all limbs still intact.

“Have you done this before?” Gracie asked him, edging away from something that looked like it could take her hand off if she wasn’t careful.

“All the time,” Mark said. “It’s what I love best.”

“Being at the food bank?”

“There, or Homes for Humanity, or places like that.”

“Anywhere you can help people?” Gracie asked, not able to hide the wonder she felt. Who was this guy? Other than a great kisser. Because she realized she was just barely scraping the surface.

He gave an embarrassed shrug. “Something like that.”

A man who looked like he worked at the food bank introduced himself and took them into a small room where they watched a video about the various jobs they might be asked to do, as well as safety precautions.

There was one job where the only thing they’d be in charge of was taking out the trash and breaking down boxes. That was a job Gracie knew she could do without screwing it up.

But before she had the chance to request it, the man in charge started assigning their various positions.

“Quality control?” she asked when she received her assignment. Mark received the same job, but that didn’t keep her from being a little nervous. “What’s that?”

“That’s the fun job,” the man in charge said.

Oh, great. That meant it was probably dangerous.

“You check the food, make sure it isn’t past its expiration date and looks good. If all is well, you mark it off and send it on down the line.”

That didn’t sound so bad.

Until they were taken to their station.

Something that the nice man had forgotten to mention was that the food would be on a conveyor belt. And it would be moving.

“It’s not a big deal,” Mark said. “I’ve done this same job loads of times. You don’t have to grab all the food, just what you can. It will come back around.”

That was easy for him to say. He was fast at this. Gracie…not so much.

She tried to do it quickly, but it was hard when she felt pressured. The man kept coming around and asking if she could work a little quicker. Apparently, they had goals for how much food was processed per hour. Gracie just couldn’t keep up, though. The expiration date was in a different place on each food item and it took her a moment to make sure there were no dents or bulges in the cans.

Gracie hadn’t thought someone could be fired from a job they were doing for free. She was wrong. After an hour, the man pulled Cameron off trash duty, which he seemed very thankful for, and had Gracie take his place.

She should have been relieved…that was the job she had originally wanted. But now she just felt like a failure.

“I-I can go faster,” she said.

The man looked at her kindly but then handed her a cardboard box and a box cutter. “Cut an X across the bottom, flatten it, and throw it in the black bin. Once in a while, you can walk around everyone’s stations with a bag and see if they have any trash they need to get rid of.”

Mark looked from Gracie to Cameron, who was now standing where Gracie had stood. “Do you mind if I do trash duty as well?” Mark asked. “It looks like you have a large pile of boxes, and Gracie might need help.”

It was possible he had said it because he wanted to spend more time with Gracie, and not be stuck with Cameron, but it only made Gracie feel worse about her ineptitude—like she couldn’t recycle boxes on her own.

“I think I have it covered,” Gracie said.

The man shot a quick glance at Mark. “I need you here. I trust you can educate this young man on how it’s done.”

Mark frowned at Gracie, but then turned back to the man. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“What was that?” he whispered in her direction after the man had walked off.

She waved him off, not wanting to get into it at that moment. “I have work to do. Those boxes aren’t going to collapse themselves.” She hurried off, trying to ignore the look of disappointment that had settled across Mark’s features, but failing.

Gracie couldn’t help but wonder if it had been because she hadn’t wanted him to come along or because she couldn’t even check a can correctly.

Well, it was better he learned the truth now rather than later.

Gracie Porter was a hot mess. And there was nothing he could do about it.