“Is there a problem?” she said to these three guys who were probably sixteen or seventeen.

“Oh, is that your girlfriend?” one of them asked.

I was used to the question being directed at me, but instead it was aimed at the guy who was trying to wipe down the table next to them.

“Oops.” Another guy dumped his soda on the floor. “Better go clean that up, retard.”

“EXCUSE ME?” Macallan’s voice boomed through the seating area. Even some people in line started turning around to see what was going on.

“I wasn’t talking to you.” The guy started laughing.

Macallan stood in front of the table. “Well, you are now.”

The guys were snickering and saying some things I couldn’t make out. Then Macallan slammed her fists on their table. The guy who appeared to be the ringleader jumped a little.

“What’s your problem?” Macallan asked, her entire body shaking. “All he’s doing is working, minding his own business, cleaning up after slobs like you. He’s making a contribution to society, which is a lot more than I can say about you. So who’s the real waste of space in this scenario?”

A manager approached. “Is everything okay?”

The guys all mumbled that it was fine, but Macallan wasn’t going to let them off that easily. “No, everything is not okay. These gentlemen” — she said the word with such disdain — “were harassing your employee, who is, I might add, doing excellent work.”

“Yes,” the manager, who looked to be around the same age as the guys causing the problem, said. “Hank is one of our best employees. Hank, why don’t you take a break?”

Hank took his towel and trays from the table and walked away.

The manager waited for Hank to be out of earshot before he turned his attention back to the table. “I think I’m going to need to ask you gentlemen to leave.”

They laughed. “Whatever. We were going anyway.”

As they got up to leave, one of them brushed past me and said, “You need to learn to put a muzzle on your girlfriend.”

I had been frozen the entire time. Macallan stood up to those three guys while I’d stood there like an idiot.

Macallan talked a little bit with the manager before he thanked her for stepping in. “It’s great what you did. It’s unfortunate, but it does happen.”

“It shouldn’t,” Macallan said coldly.

Once we were back at our table, just the two of us again, I asked, “Are you okay?”

“No. I hate people like that. They think they’re so much better than Hank. And they probably think they’re better than you or me. What kills me is that those jerks get to walk down the street and nobody ever judges them. I can guarantee you that Adam works a lot harder in one day than those guys ever will in their lifetimes.”

I’d never seen Macallan so mad. I knew she had very little tolerance for crap, but I’d had no idea how much it would set her off. “You’re right,” I told her. “And I’m really proud of you. I also know to never make you angry. That was something else.”

A smile started to warm her face. “Sorry. I can’t help myself.”

“No, I’m serious. That was awesome. I never saw you as the confronting type. Lesson learned.”

“Only when someone’s being bullied, I guess.”

“Let’s get out of here. I think this calls for a Buggy and Floyd marathon.”

“And some more custard.”

That was the Macallan I knew. “Like I’d say no to you now.”

She laughed as we headed back in line. I poked her in the ribs. “I’m telling you, no girl back home is as cool as you.”

Macallan froze again. I immediately looked around to see if the guys were back.

“You know” — she turned toward me — “I understand that you spent your first twelve years in California, but this is your home now.”

I wasn’t sure why she was suddenly annoyed at me.

“I don’t know —”

She interrupted. “You keep saying ‘back home’ all the time.”

“I don’t —”

She slouched her shoulders and did this low voice. “ ‘Yeah, my buddies back home, back home we did this, back home was all like this, and back home is awesome.’ ” I think she was doing an impersonation of me. But I so didn’t talk with that exaggerated Valley accent she was doing. At least I hoped I didn’t. She fixed her gaze on me. “This is your new home.”

She moved forward and ordered her second custard. And I stood there thinking about what she had said.

Maybe I was still living in the past. Maybe I hadn’t realized that this move was permanent. Maybe it was time for me to start living in the present, to embrace my new school and my new classmates. Maybe I hadn’t made enough of an effort.

I had to face the fact that I was now a Wisconsinite.

I stopped looking at everything, especially school, as temporary. I was going to have to find a way to get comfortable at school and with the guys.

But first I had the little matter of my date with Emily.

We were sitting across from each other like we did every day at school for lunch. But this was different. Not just because we were at a pizza place before the movie. This was a date. And it wasn’t any date, it was a date with the hottest girl in school and Macallan’s best friend. This was a big deal.

Emily always looked pretty at school, but she went all out that night. I almost didn’t know what to do when I met her at the mall. She had on this flowery dress and her hair had one of those sparkly barrettes in it. And every time she smiled at me, I got a little nauseous. Not the I’m-gonna-hurl nauseous, the this-is-exciting one.

I took an extra big sip of my soda as Emily smiled at me while we waited for our pizza. It was like she was expecting something witty, something more than our usual dissection of the school day.

“So …” She wrapped one of her loose strands of hair around her finger.

“So …” was my witty reply.

She reached her other hand out to me. “I’m so glad we’re doing this.”

“Me too.”

Ugh. I swore I knew how to talk to girls. I talked to Macallan all the time. But I became worried that I’d used up all my small talk with Emily at school.

“I’m thinking of having a Halloween party,” Emily said as her finger kept twisting her hair. I wasn’t the only one who was a little nervous.

“That could be fun.”

She nodded. “Yeah, especially since I was thinking that I’d invite all the guys, like Keith and Troy.”

“Troy’s cool.” And the only guy who really gave me the time of day.

“Yeah, I feel like it would be good for you to spend some time with the guys.”

I hated that it was so obvious to everybody how I wasn’t “one of the guys” here.

I swallowed my ever-shrinking pride. “Thanks.”

“Don’t worry about it. Even I need to make sure to get in good with everybody.”

That surprised me. Emily was one of the most popular girls in school.

She continued. “Especially Keith. Ever since we were little, he was always the one with the biggest circle of friends. He’d have the birthday parties everybody wanted to be invited to. That’s not going to change for him. He’ll have no problems fitting in next year. But the new school is going to be so big. I’m worried about getting lost.” Her voice got quiet and she sank down in her seat a bit. Emily was usually so bright and bubbly, I felt like I was getting a deeper glance. “I don’t know. I guess I’m thinking too much. I like the little circle we have now. And I feel things already changed so much with you moving here. I mean, I see Macallan less.” Emily’s eyes got wide, like she knew she shouldn’t have said that.

Before I could say I didn’t mean to take Macallan away from Emily, she jumped back in and said, “Not that I —” Then she fumbled for a second. “I like having you here. I hope you don’t think it’s that.”