Chapter 25: Chapter 24

"Ah, the Strasbourg Defense!" Jello yells at Teddy while pivoting, racquet up and ready for Byron's incoming shot.

We're waiting for our tacos and huddling together at a counter by the front window of the taco shop, watching the video on Teddy's phone. Goodminton is pretty hilarious and yes, as Teddy said, pretty stupid too. Two players serve at the same time, shouting "En garde!" and hitting their birdies in the same direction around the weird three-section court. You don't have time to admire your shot because you've got another birdie coming at you. In the video the guys obviously enjoy calling the birdies "cocks." Teddy tells me it's short for "shuttlecock" and assures me it isn't rude at all. Right.

The direction of serve in goodminton changes every third or fifth time, depending on something I didn't quite catch, and the players have to keep hitting the birdies in the same direction until points are won or someone calls "reversé," at which time players must immediately start hitting their shots in the opposite direction. You can only call reversé once per point apparently.

"It would get too crazy, otherwise," Teddy clarifies.

When someone's shot doesn't clear the net, goes into the wrong court or out-of-bounds, or they miss and the birdie hits the ground, both the other players get a point, which, for some reason, they call a "feather" The scoring is even more complicated than the gameplay and besides feathers, involves things I really don't understand called "quails" and "braces".

To make it even weirder, the guys are all wearing white polo shirts tucked into dark blue or dark green gym shorts. Yes, tucked in. Teddy says they used to wear those old scarf-ties called cravats as part of the uniform, but they got too hot. There's a lot of taunting going on but it's all done in posh English accents, which seem to be a necessary part of the game. At one point, Teddy gets caught by a fierce shot from Byron and the other guys jeer at him. Then Jello can be heard saying, "Dreadful luck, old sod! One wants to keep one's wits about one, doesn't one?"

Teddy and I are laughing pretty hard watching this ridiculousness and when our tacos are ready, the guy behind the counter is smiling at us and looks like he wants in on the joke.

"It's a game," I say to him. "Hard to explain."

T puts his phone away and we dress up our tacos with some hot sauce and dig in, washing them down with pineapple-flavored pop from Mexico. We're still giggling from the goodminton video.

"You have to play tomorrow," I say. "I need to see an actual game!"

"Why not?" says Teddy. "You can be the scorekeeper."

"Oh my god, I could never keep score. It's completely demented!"

"What do you mean? It's so simple!" says Teddy smiling. "Ten feathers to a quail and two quails in a brace. First player to eight braces wins."

"Demented," I say.

"One just needs to keep one's wits about one," says Teddy with a grin.

• • • •

They said thanks to the guy behind the counter and stepped out onto Yates Street. Teddy noticed Darwin looking across the street.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Uh, nothing," said Darwin. "Thought I saw someone I know."

He wondered if she was talking about the kids she used hang out with but he chose not to ask. As they walked down Yates and turned onto Wharf Street, Teddy was asking Darwin about growing up in Kamloops.

"Ugh," she said.

"What? What was wrong with it?"

"I don't know. Just the attitude. The people are fine. Supposedly it's BC's 'friendliest city'," she said, with air quotes.

"But there's this feeling," she went on "that we're just not the U.S., we're just not Calgary, we're just not Vancouver. Just not, you know, a lot of things. It wears you down. Maybe it was just me that felt that."

Teddy looked at Darwin, expecting her to say more, but she was looking across the street into Bastion Square as if something had caught her eye again. He looked over and could see people walking around but didn't see anyone looking back at them or doing anything unusual.

"See someone again?" asked Teddy.

"Yeah. I think it's some of the guys I used to hang out with. Probably nothing. Either way, let's just ignore them."

"OK," Teddy said a little uneasily.

The harbour was on their right, the water black under the night sky. Lights from the buildings on the opposite shore reflected in wavy lines toward them. Between the sounds of passing cars they could hear a soft metallic tapping, ropes blown by a gentle breeze lightly hitting the aluminum masts of sailboats moored in the marina nearby. Teddy remembered going to that marina when they went on Peter's boat back when Peter was trying to make Neea fall in love with him.

"OK, so what do you like about Kamloops?" he asked. "There must be something."

"Oh," Darwin thought for a moment. "The culture. You know, the arts! Ha! No, just kidding. Um, the name, for one thing. Gotta love the name: Kamloops. K-loops. It's from a Shuswap word, 'Tk'emlups'. Do you know what people from Kamloops are called?"

"Nope."

"Kamloopsians! Isn't that the best?"

"Yeah, that actually is pretty great. I guess you can't take yourself too seriously if you're a Kamloopsian."

"I know!"

"OK, so what else?"

"Um, the Blazers! We love our Blazers. Best hockey team west of Calgary... and, uh, east of Vancouver. And the weather. So sunny. Did you know that Kamloops has more sunny days each year than Cairo?"

"Really?"

"No, I just made that up. But we're known for sunshine. It's kinda like a desert. We even have cactuses and rattlesnakes."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's the exact opposite of Victoria. It's hard to believe they're in the same province, you know? It always rains here. I honestly don't know how you do it. Like, why don't you have mold growing on you? I swear..."

Darwin was checking for signs of mold under Teddy's arm. "Hey, come on!" said Teddy pulling his arm away. "It doesn't rain that much. Places like Tofino are way worse! Besides, rain isn't that bad when you, you know, live in a house."

"Right. Good point. I should try to remember that."

Darwin took Teddy's arm as they walked on and Teddy felt a warm rush, pleased to have her close to him. "Oh, one more cool thing about Kamloops!" Darwin said. "There's a crater on Mars named after it."

"Yeah, right! You made that up too."

"I did not make it up!" she said, giving Teddy a shove with her shoulder. "It's a fact! Go look it up. Remember I told you about my ex, Ethan? His grandfather was one of the guys who got it named, OK?"

"OK, but there must be a million craters on Mars. There's probably some website where I can pay five bucks and get my name on one: Crater Teddy Aiken."

"Yeah, and it would be like one metre across. The Kamloops Crater is massive! Like, sixty-five kilometres wide!"

"Whatever you say, Kamloopsian. So... this Ethan guy. What was he like, anyway?" asked Teddy.

"Ugh. Do we have to talk about him? That was way back in the Mesozoic," said Darwin.

"I thought you said it was two years ago."

"Exactly."

• • • •

So T and I had tacos and we're walking back home through the danger zone of my old life down here, and of course, I spotted P. L. and Jewels spying on us. They were across the street when we were in the taco shop, which OK, stupidly, we sat right in the front window of, and they were hiding and watching us when we left. I flipped them off when Teddy wasn't looking, but I think they're following us.

I don't want to make a big deal out of it because I remember how Teddy reacted when Kodi had broken into the house and I don't want him to freak out, but I'm actually really worried about the fact that I might be putting Teddy and Neea and their house and their entire everything in danger.

But maybe I'm overreacting and there isn't really anything to worry about. I know that Kodi has a mean streak, and so does Bryn—the others just go along with whatever—but I don't think any of them are really bad people. For some reason they're making me the enemy right now, but I doubt if Kodi will actually do anything.

Teddy's asking me all about my life in Kamloops, my ex, Ethan, my high school, my mom and dad and my brothers. It's so sweet. He seems to really want to know all about me. As we walk I'm trying hard to ignore the possible spies and just concentrate on Teddy and the conversation.

He's asking about how my mom was when I was growing up. I guess Teddy's seen and heard enough to know that I have some Mommy issues, and he probably also guesses that they might have contributed to my, uh, questionable life choices. I've been trying to give him the short version but he has a lot of questions.

"It took me a long time to realize the reason she would push me so hard to be the best at stuff like figure skating and gymnastics, the reason she put me up on those pedestals, was so she could knock them out from under me. At the time I had no idea what was happening cuz I was, like, ten years old! She'd get me into those things and then pressure me until I was the top of the class and then make me feel like a complete and utter failure if I got one little thing wrong, or if my hair wasn't perfect or whatever. And since I could never measure up to her standards, I eventually lost interest in all the things she wanted me to do. She made me think that it was always me, always my fault, that I was always doing something wrong, that I was a quitter. I grew up thinking I was this useless person because I could never please her."

I know that must sound lame, like I'm grasping at straws to explain why I think my mom is so awful. I probably sound like a spoiled kid who acted up when she didn't get her way. Ugh, it's impossible to explain it to anyone.

Ahead of us, the street widens onto the postcard view where the road wraps around Victoria Harbour and the lights of the Parliament Buildings and the grand old Empress Hotel brighten the night. The tourists are here, even in early November, and there are a few horse-drawn carriages taking them around to see the sights in the most touristy way possible.

"That's so cruel," says Teddy.

At first I'm not sure if he's talking about my mom or the treatment of the horses, but he goes on. "It sounds like she had some pretty serious issues of her own and she took them out on you. That's so unfair!"

"Yes!" I say loudly, excited that he gets what I'm saying. "That's exactly it!"

"But you couldn't have known that when you were just ten, or even fifteen I guess, right?"

"Right! All those years of not knowing what the real problem was and always just assuming it was me."

Teddy really is special. When you talk to him he actually thinks about what you're saying and tries to see things from your point of view. Maybe he gets that from Neea. He looks at me and I guess I'm not really hiding all the affection I'm feeling towards him right now because we stop walking and he's just looking down at me with those penetrating brown eyes like he's trying to read my deepest thoughts. I think he actually is, because...

Oh no...

Oh yes, but seriously, Ted, no! Not here. Not now!

Usually the reserved one, Teddy now leans toward me right here on Wharf Street with people all around. I force myself to not glance across the street to see if I can spot the guys and instead just tilt my head back as Teddy's lips come close to mine.

And boom! Just like that...

It's amazing! It's terrible! I'm full of equal parts joy and fear. Kodi is watching us, I just know it.

Teddy's holding onto me and his lips are pressed sort of lightly to mine as if he's both afraid to let me go and afraid to pull me closer. I'm feeling a little dizzy. I think maybe Wharf Street, the city of Victoria, and maybe the entire planet just pivoted suddenly under my feet. When we break, Teddy is looking into my eyes again.

"Holy moly," I whisper.

• • • •

After the kiss they walked hand-in-hand, Darwin nervously glancing around, still not sure if they were being followed, and Teddy unconcerned, unaware of anything but Darwin's warm hand in his and the hugeness of that kiss. He couldn't wait to get home, but thought it wouldn't be cool if he walked too fast.

Maybe it was all the anticipation leading up to it, or maybe it was the deeper connection he felt with Darwin, but that single kiss had more electricity than anything he had ever felt with Naomi.

"It's getting colder," he said.

"Yeah," said Darwin.

They headed up Menzies Street, leaving the buzz of the harbour behind. In the relative quiet they stopped to kiss again. Teddy pulled Darwin close and kissed her deeply this time. She stood on her toes as he clasped his arms tightly around her. His heart was pounding and he wondered if she could feel it.

"Let's go home," said Darwin.

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— D.B.