On Wednesday nights Mama had a Drawing 1 class, so Munch was all alone in the house. He was watching the hands on the kitchen clock move very slowly to the number 6. Five minutes, two minutes and then all the minutes were gone. He looked at the crumpled piece of paper in his hand and slowly dialed the number. The phone rang once, it rang again. What if she didn’t answer? What if she wasn’t home? She said she would be home. The phone rang a third time and he heard her say, “Hello.”

“Hi, it’s me.”

“Hey you. I’m so glad you called.”

Everything about her voice was inviting and kind. It had only been a few hours since he last saw her so he wasn’t sure what to say. “Thanks, me too.” So obvious! He asked, "Do you have homework tonight?”

“Oh, yes, I am still a little behind from when I was sick. Almost there though.”

“How are you feeling?” Seriously, he was asking her that!

She responded, “Better. Some foods still make me feel nauseous. I really don’t like throwing up.”

“Me either.” Boy did he NOT like throwing up.

There was a pause. Maybe this whole conversation thing would be better if one of them had a bit more confidence, but for whatever reason, Munch had become very shy. He had never been shy. He heard Le asked, “Who you talking to?”

Thahn Ho said, “A friend.”

Le asked, “Lolly?”

“Go away Le.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so.”

Le asked, “Is it Crunchy?”

“If you don’t leave me a lone, I’m not going to read James and the Giant Peach to you at bedtime.”

“Okay, I’m goin’." Loudly he called out, “Bye Crunchy.”

Flustered, Thahn Ho said, “He is such a pain in the ass.”

Munch burst into giggles. He didn’t know she said words like that.

He heard the door close. He also heard Le shout, “You can’t watch me if you CAN’T see me!”

“I am so sorry Michael. He is full of it tonight. I think he ate too much sugar or something. Ong noi has a chocolate stash, and Le probably found it again. I just hope he settles down before my parents get home.”

Munch was amazed. She had never said so many words to him at one time.

She asked, “Is your mom home?”

“No, she’s at work.”

“So right now its just us.”

“Yes.”

“When I am fully recovered, Lolly said I could come over. When I do, will you be home?”

“Most definitely.”

There was another pause in the conversation. Munch asked, what he knew he needed to know and had to ask, “Will your parents be very upset if they find out about me calling you?”

Silence. It seemed to stretch out for an eternity before she said, “Yes. They will be. Ong noi, he won’t. He knows.”

“He knows?”

“Yes. He asked me about you and I couldn’t lie to him. I told him that I liked you very much.” For a quiet girl, she was sure bold.

“You do?”

“Yes, I do.”

“I like you very much too.”

“Oh Michael, I am so glad. You have so many friends I thought maybe you were just being nice to me.”

He had so many friends? He knew a lot of people because he’d grown up with them, but most of them were not his friends. “I liked you the minute I saw you.”

“That quick?”

“Yes.”

“That is what Ong noi suspected. He is such a romantic. Everyday he watches The Million Dollar Movie on Channel 13. If it’s a movie with Greer Garson in it, he is completely gone. I don’t know if he loves her because she’s beautiful or because she was my my bà ngoại’s favorite actress.”

Munch had no idea who Greer Garson was or who or what a bà ngoại was, but it didn’t matter. Ong noi was on his side. He didn’t know why, but he was.

Thahn Ho said, “I am so glad you called. I better let you go. Le has gotten very quiet and that is always a bad sign.”

He asked, “Can I call you again?”

“I would like that. I will let you know when.”

“Okay.”

“Bye Michael.”

“Bye Thahn Ho.”

After the line went dead, he just held the phone. She liked him. She liked him It was not just his imagination. It was real.

*

It was after 9:30 when Mama got home. She looked beat when she came through the door. Munch asked, “Have a long day?”

“Yes.” She eyed him a minute and asked, “How bout you?”

“It was a good day over all.” He was not ready to say a word about Thahn Ho. It was a secret he wanted to keep for himself.

“That’s good. I was wondering if you could ask your friend Grace if she would be interested in sitting for my drawing class. She’d get paid for her time.”

“Okay, sure.”

Mama kissed him on the top of his head and went to her room.

*

The next morning when he, Lolly and Trevor got to school, Grace was waiting outside. As soon as she saw them she came up to them and said, “I don’t know where y’all are going this morning but I am not sitting in that cafeteria by myself. So who wants my company?”

There was this look of fear and desperation in Grace’s eyes. Munch knew that look and that fear. He couldn’t just let her stand there. Before he could say anything though, Lolly hooked her arm through Grace’s and said, “Come with us.”

“Y’all sure?”

“Of course.”

Grace hesitated, “Will Lisa be there?”

A look of dismay came over Lolly’s face. “Yeah. I talked to her last night. So, so sorry that happened.”

Trevor said, “Jake is an idiot.”

Grace asked, “Is Lisa still mad at me?”

“Mostly she’s hurt. I know she will get over it.”

There was a catch in Grace’s voice when she said, “Thanks, but no. I’m not ready to see her yet.”

Lolly said, “Okay. I get it.” She looked at Munch.

Would Thahn Ho understand if he showed up with Grace? She was not Jake, but he didn’t know her well enough to know how she would react and this was their very first morning of them being an almost couple. Still, he said, “Come with me. If you do some volunteer work for Mademoiselle Petite she’ll let you stay in the art room.”

She smiled at him and said, “Thanks Munch.”

The two headed down the hall. Fewer eyes were following them as they walked. This morning Thahn Ho was not standing at the door. Was she there? She had to be there! Hopefully she wasn’t sick. He opened the door and walked in, followed by Grace. Thahn Ho was at their table. She waved.

Grace said, “Hey Thahn Ho. I didn’t know you were an artist too.”

The smile that spread across Thahn Ho’s face was heratfelt. Light came into her eyes. And he had seriously been worried she would be upset with him for showing up with Grace. Such a worry wart! He turned his attention to Mademoiselle Petite.

She asked him, “So you’ve brought me another volunteer, Michael?”

“Yes Ma’am. This is Grace.”

Mademoiselle Petite got up from her desk and extended her hand to Grace. Surprised by the gesture, Grace took her hand and grinned. Mademoiselle said, “It’s nice to meet you Grace. Follow me.” She lead her to the cluttered back corner.

Munch went to the table he shared with Thahn Ho and sat down. He felt so happy and she looked so happy. She leaned over and whispered, “I saw what happened to Grace yesterday. You are such a good friend.”

Munch beamed.

Grace brought a huge stack of mixed up construction paper to their table to sort. When she saw the sketches that Munch and Thahn Ho were working on she whispered, “Dang you guys can draw.” She shook her head. “I had no idea. Wow. I might be sitting with two someday famous people.”

Thahn Ho smiled and said, “You might be.”

Munch remembered Mama’s request. He asked, “Hey my mama was wondering if you might be able to sit for her drawing class.”

Grace frowned. “What do you mean sit?”

“I mean, you sit on a stool in the middle of class and people draw you.”

A little too loudly she said, “Hell no!”

“Why not? You’d get paid.”

“Uhm, is your mama crazy?”

"What? No!"

“Right. Your mama wants me to sit naked in front of a bunch of strangers and you don't see a problem with that. As you know I am underage. Wouldn’t matter if I got paid a million dollars, I am not doing it.”

Thahn Ho started to giggle.

Grace asked, “What is so funny?”

Munch said, “Grace, my mom doesn’t teach Life Drawing Class with nude models. She teaches Drawing 1. Nobody gets naked in Drawing 1.”

“Oh. Okay. Sorry for what I said about your mom. I don’t know nothing about art stuff.”

“Its okay. So do you want the job or not?”

“I will have to ask my daddy. I’ll let you know. God I feel like such an idiot.”

Firmly, Thahn Ho said, “You are not an idiot. My ong noi says, you cannot know, what you do not know. One must learn.”

Grace asked, “What’s an ong noi?”

“Ong noi is Vietnamese for Grandfather.”

“Oh, okay.” Grace grinned at them and said, “Dang, I’m learning an awful lot this morning and first bell hasn’t even rung.”

When the bell did ring the three of them walked down the hall together. It was so nice to get to walk beside Thahn Ho and not have to worry about what people might think. Thahn Ho glanced up at him and smiled. His hand itched to take hers but he knew better. He had held her hand before, and he was sure he would hold it again. He returned her smile.

As always Mrs. Beasley was at her door welcoming students into her class room. She said "Good morning, Thahn Ho."

"Good morning." Thahn Ho waved at them and entered the class.

Munch and Grace headed for Algebra. The instant they walked in the room, stupid Quack gave Munch the thumbs up sign. Grace took a quick glance around the room and glared at him. It was scary what she could do with her eyes. She flicked her wrist and flipped him off. Quack’s face fell. He turned red and looked down at his desk. Was it possible, Quack took his supposed matchmaking seriously? Or did he actually care what Grace thought of him? One thing for sure was that Grace had made her point. Quack looked piss scared.

Grace slid into her seat and hissed, “So tired of stupid assed white boys.”

Munch asked, “What about Trevor?”

She rolled her eyes at him and sighed. “You know Trevor’s different.”

Yeah, he knew.