In Too Deep

Dinner was an awkward affair.

Mr. Leopold, a tall, balding man, observed Jackie closely as she squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. “What’s your name, again?” he asked.

“Jackie Bodello,” she answered.

“Where do you live?”

“When I’m not at school, I live with my parents in Nashville, Tennessee.”

“Your parents. What do they do?”

Jackie didn’t know what that had to do with anything, but she answered anyway. “Um, they’re both representatives for Kevin Deckerman, the country singer. They’re actually in Tokyo this week for his world tour.”

“Hm,” Mr. Leopold mumbled. “You make good grades?”

“Dad!” Max exclaimed, frowning at him. His father ignored him.

Jackie nodded. “I make all A’s usually,” she answered honestly.

After that, both Max and Jackie were completely forgotten from the conversation for the rest of the night.

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In fact, Max and Jackie were ignored for a good part of the next two days. Not that they minded, of course. The two of them spent a better part of those two days hanging out in Max’s room, arguing over which gangster movie to watch, doing homework, and sometimes just talking. They even spent an entire afternoon seeing who could name every character from Harry Potter in the order they were introduced in the books. (Jackie won, of course.)

One morning, Max was unpleasantly awoken from a dream in which he and Jackie were sitting on a giant blueberry muffin and using Unforgivable Curses on members of his family.

“Maxwell. Up!”

Max cringed at his mother’s harsh voice and the loud bang she gave his bedroom door. He tiredly opened his eyes to see sunlight streaming through the window. The clock read 8:05 AM.

“Mom, it’s early,” Max whined, shutting his eyes again and curling up in his blankets. He refused to be woken up before nine o’clock when there was no school.

Mrs. Leopold banged on the door again. “We have your father’s company brunch to be at in an hour and a half! Are you up?”

“Getting there,” he murmured, not moving an inch.

“I’m going to wake your friend up,” his mom said through the door. “What’s her name again?”

Max inwardly rolled his eyes. “Jackie,” he answered. “She’s been here two days. How do you not know her name?”

Mrs. Leopold’s tone was severe. “Max, don’t talk to me like that. Maybe I would know her name if I’d known she was coming prior to her arriving at the doorstep.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Max muttered as he heard his mom’s footsteps down the hall. “It’s all my fault.”

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“It’s freezing,” Max moaned, hugging himself and bouncing up and down. Jackie chuckled at him and rolled her eyes. Max stared at her. “How can you not be freezing? You’re wearing that!”

“I’m just tolerating it better than you,” Jackie answered, shrugging. They stood on the decorated lawn of a posh country club, where Mr. Leopold’s advertising company was holding a special brunch. Everyone was required to look nice, so Jackie donned a yellow spring dress with spaghetti straps, but she had forgotten to pack a matching sweater.

Max tugged at his collared button-up. “I feel like I’m wearing my uniform,” he complained, undoing the top buttons. “I’m all boxed up.”

“You look nice,” Jackie said airily, gazing out at all the guests.

“So do you,” Max commented, watching her reaction closely. He swore he saw her cheeks turn a shade pinker, and Max inwardly grinned.

Annie and Emma suddenly appeared in front of them, wearing matching pink sundresses and their hair in braids. “Uncle Max!” Annie screamed in a high-pitched voice. “Grandma told us to tell you to get your useless butt over there to talk to the guests!”

“Right,” Max grumbled, grabbing Jackie’s arm and pulling her along. “Come on.”

For the next hour, Max and Jackie were shunted from person to person as Mr. Leopold introduced them. Jackie watched as Max’s face turned sour with each word his father said. And she didn’t blame him.

“Yes, my sons are incredibly successful. Steven actually just got a promotion in the winter. He took us all to Europe for Christmas! Oh yes, Jason’s great too. He just moved out to New Mexico and is working for a law firm there. David got married in November. He’s finishing up at Berkeley and already has a job offer at NASA. Very smart boys, all of them. My youngest? Max is at boarding school in Brooklyn. We hope he’ll make something of himself in college. He just slacks and plays basketball right now. Jason was a phenomenal basketball player in high school… Steven too, now that I think of it…”

Jackie had to bite her tongue to stop herself from interrupting Mr. Leopold and shouting in his face that Max was the best commentary editor The James Journal ever had and that he was the star basketball player on the JA team.

The brunch finally ended, and the Leopold clan (plus Jackie) piled into their cars to head home. Max and Jackie were unfortunately stuck in a car alone with Max’s parents.

“That was delightful, wasn’t it?” Mrs. Leopold gushed to no one in particular.

When neither male in the car answered, Jackie said politely, “Yes, it was. Thanks for letting me come.”

Mrs. Leopold pursed her lips and said nothing in response. Max glared at the back of his mother’s head. “I’m sure my parents were thrilled to have you there,” he bit out, hoping his mom and dad would catch on. They remained silent.

“It’s a shame you couldn’t meet my protégé,” Mr. Leopold said several minutes later to his wife. “He couldn’t make it this morning, so he’s coming for dinner tonight.”

“Wonderful!” Mr. Leopold exclaimed. “I’ll make something delicious. Nikki can help me—she’s a lovely cook. Jessica, as well. In fact, I’ll head over to the store after we get home.”

“Please, don’t come back,” Max muttered, and Jackie nudged him.

“What was that, Max?” Mrs. Leopold snapped.

Max cleared his throat. “I can’t wait to meet Dad’s protégé,” he said, a strained smile on his face.

“We can tell him all about Steven’s promotion!” Mrs. Leopold exclaimed excitedly. “Oh, and that interesting case Jason is taking on when he gets back. Maybe David can tell him a little about the NASA job….”

“You know, Mr. and Mrs. Leopold,” Jackie said brightly, ignoring the confused look Max was giving her, “The James Journal got a really great review from Walter Windham last semester. He specifically mentioned the commentary section, which Max is editor of, and he raved about Max’s editorial on energy conservation in New York City. I bet your protégé would love to hear about that.”

Mr. Leopold frowned and took the opportunity to look back at Max and Jackie when they were at a red light. “What’s The James Journal?” he asked.

Max sighed. “It’s the school newspaper at JA, Dad,” he said, obviously having explained this before. “I work on it everyday. I’m editor of the commentary section. Jackie’s editor-in-chief. It’s pretty much how I spend most of my time.”

“Is that why you’re failing chemistry?” Mrs. Leopold asked, not even bothering to look back at them.

“What?” Mr. Leopold snapped, looking at his wife.

“The midterm report was sent a few weeks ago,” Mrs. Leopold said. “He’s failing chemistry.”

“I’m not failing!” Max exclaimed. “I have a C! It’s a high C, actually. And I’m going to have someone tutor me. I can bring it up. And besides, I have an A in everything else.”

Mr. Leopold shook his head. “We’ll talk about this later, Max. Maybe you should get your head out of this newspaper you’re wasting time on and start focusing on worthwhile studies.”

Max opened his mouth to scream back, but Mrs. Leopold sent him a harsh look and cut him off. “Max, we don’t want to hear it! When you get back to school, you’re dropping out of this newspaper club. End of story.”