Carl the Beaver
an excerpt

As it turned out, Mrs. Williams was all for it.
“You’ve finished your homework?” she asked the girls.
A resounding “yes” came from the girls, so Sara drove them to Underrated Pizza, which had, as its name would suggest, fabulous pizza. And, as Maylin reported happily, it also had fabulous sushi. She made sure to only have a few, though, and only one slice of pizza, which her friends easily noticed.
“Are you sure you’re full?” Rachel asked.
“Yeah,” Maylin nodded, although she wasn’t. “I had a bit to eat, you know, before you guys came…”
Her friends knew she was lying, and she knew they knew she was lying, but what could they say?
Amber came up with it.
“No you’re not. Maylin, you’ve barely eaten all day. You had, like, a cereal bar, an apple, water, one slice of pizza, and some sushi.” She looked at her friend, concerned. “Why are you doing this to yourself?”
“I’m not doing anything to myself,” Maylin snapped, “and if you want to talk about my supposed anorexia – which I don’t have, by the way – the pizza place is not the place to do it.”
As if to prove this, Michael suddenly came over to their table.
“Oh, hey, you guys,” he said, as if he’d just noticed them, which he hadn’t. He’d been watching them for a few minutes while his brothers chose their pizza, a fact that Allayna had noticed but decided not to mention, figuring Maylin would eat even less. “What’s up?”
Maylin became mute, and shrugged in a way that could have meant anything.
“Not much,” Amber answered, the one most at ease with him. “You?”
“Not much,” he shrugged. “My brothers are fighting over who can eat the most pizza.”
Maylin felt repulsed at that, but did her best not to show it.
“If you get annoyed with it at some point,” Rachel told him, “tell them that no matter how many more slices they can eat more then the other, they can’t eat more then my brothers, who can eat four and a half each in one sitting and still have room for salad.”
Michael grinned. “Really? How old are your brothers?” he asked.
“Adam’s sixteen and Jacob’s eighteen,” she told him.
“Hey, is your last name Davis?” Michael asked. “Adam Davis is one of my brother’s friends.”
“Yeah, that’s him. Your brother is Kevin?” Rachel asked.
“Yeah,” Michael said.
“Duh!” Rachel said. “I can’t believe I didn’t make the connection. He comes around often.”
“Does he?” Michael asked distractedly. He was watching Maylin, who was resolutely not looking at him and playing with her sushi roll. “Oh, oh yeah, he does.” He blushed. He opened his mouth to say something, closed it, then said, “I, um, have to go now,” and hurried away.
“He likes –” Amber began.
“I know he likes me,” Maylin cut in, smiling.

At that moment, a llama galloped by the store, followed by… a lot of people.

The girls watched the llama and the people go around the corner, shook their heads, and talked about Michael.