Lucky. Валерия Лихачева

v проспать

      interrupt v прерывать

      decrease v уменьшаться

      irritate v раздражать

      speak up v высказываться

      arrogant adj высокомерный

      stay out v оставаться в стороне

      squad n отряд

      humiliate v унижать

      chuckle v хихикать

      immerse v погружать

      pat v похлопать

      exaggerate v преувеличивать

      III

      Cole couldn’t stop thinking about the situation that happened at school. Why did Ivy talk to him? She always seemed to be a little proud and judgmental. She also didn’t make friends with other girls. Ivy was new to the school, but she didn’t even try to find friends.

      The thing that irritated Cole was that Ivy wasn’t afraid to speak out. She didn’t fear to say her point of view even if there was nobody to support her. Cole didn’t act like that. He doubted that anyone would be interested and, therefore, kept his opinion to himself. Deep down inside Cole knew he liked independent people like Jacob and Ivy. Maybe he envied them. Cole felt ashamed, but it revealed his weakness. So, he could work on it.

      Now Cole was curious about that girl. Poor boy spent three hours trying to find her page on social networks. He tried all possible nicknames he could come up with. He failed. Then he asked all his friends (all three of them). Dylan, his classmate, was subscribed to her account. “But there’s nothing interesting,” he said.

      “Ok, let’s see.” Cole opened Ivy’s page. There were only 6 posts. The first one was made more than two years ago. It showed Ivy’s photo where she was standing near the sea and looking at the sunset. She was wearing a nice dress. Cole almost felt the warmth of that day. Summer breeze was waving Ivy’s hair and touching something deep inside Cole’s heart.

      In the second post Ivy shared a list of her favourite books. “That’s intriguing,” Cole thought. He found “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas and “Vol de nuit” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in the list.

      “Ahh, French again,” Cole sighed. “Ok, maybe I should start learning it, or, at least, read some French books.” The third one was “The Lost World” by Arthur Conan Doyle. “Oh, this one is really worthy. I love it!” Cole was into reading science fiction stories.

      The next post presented a short video where Ivy was trying to play the guitar. The location was tagged – Lake Michigan. It was a kind of a camping with a few tents and a campfire. Ivy pretended to be a rockstar that was hilarious and cute. She was laughing and singing. She looked free and careless – very attractive…

      “Dinner's ready!” Cole heard his mom’s voice. “Ok, I’m going to see the rest later,” Cole switched the phone off.

      “How are you, son?” Cole’s mother asked when he appeared in the dining room.

      “Everything’s alright. How’s your work?” His mother owned a flower shop.

      “Ahh, plenty of work! I think I’ll need your help tomorrow. Are you free after school?”

      “Sure.”

      “Great! You can also bring your friends with you.”

      Cole liked the flower fragrance that he could smell from his mother. Her name was Sheryl. She had dark hair, green eyes. Cole looked a lot like her. He had green eyes too. Sheryl was always positive and sensitive. Cole adored her. She was an example of a woman for him.

      After dinner the boy had to do some household chores and forgot to investigate Ivy’s page. Anyway, he didn’t have time for it.

      The next day Cole looked through the rest of the posts. There was a photo of Ivy and her friend whose name was signed as Cami. They were best friends, but Ivy had to move to another city.

      “She must be lonely here,” he supposed.

      The last two posts were about some events. There were advertisements which didn’t interest Cole. He didn’t even read them.

      The bell rang and Cole had to go. He had a PE lesson. He was good at sports and liked to train. Doing sports also helped him to abstract from the constant process of thinking. It was necessary sometimes.

      Vocabulary

      judgemental adj осуждающий

      speak out v высказываться

      doubt v сомневаться

      envy v завидовать

      reveal v раскрывать

      weakness n слабость

      come up with v придумывать

      fail v потерпеть неудачу

      warmth n теплота

      tag v помечать

      hilarious adj веселый

      fragrance n аромат

      constant adj постоянный

      IV

      At the end of that school day Ivy realized that she had left her jacket in the dressing room. She headed there and, all of a sudden, saw Cole coming out of the gym. He was putting his T-shirt on and didn’t notice Ivy. The girl stopped and smiled. Cole saw her and froze for a moment.

      “Hmm… Hey!” she said.

      “Hi…”

      “You’re Cole, right?”

      “Yeah.”

      “I’m Ivy.”

      “I know,” Cole felt confused.

      “Well, I would never think you’re good at sports.”

      “I’m not.”

      “But you look really athletic.”

      “Maybe a little.”

      “Ok, I’ve left my jacket here. I’ve got to find it.”

      “I see.” Cole was going to walk away.

      “Wait, Cole… What are you doing after school?” Ivy kept shocking the boy.

      “I need to help my mother at her flower shop. Why?”

      “Cool! Can I go with you?”

      “Hmm… Well…Why not?” Cole couldn’t understand why she was acting like that.

      “Fine! Just a minute. I’ll take my jacket!”

      Ivy left, Cole stayed shocked.

      The girl was back in five minutes and they headed to the shop. Ivy turned out to be a talkative girl. On their way to the shop Ivy was telling stories about her previous school and friends. Cole was listening and wondering why she was telling him all that stuff. First, he was feeling nervous. He even doubted if he had done the right thing to let Ivy go with him. Cole wasn’t used to hanging out with other peers, especially girls. He didn’t know what to say and felt embarrassed. But Cole relaxed some time later. He realized that Ivy wasn’t like other girls he had ever known. “At least, she doesn’t get on my nerves anymore. Plus, she seems to be smart.” Meanwhile, Ivy was laughing at her own joke. Cole missed it but smiled. He asked, “Do you have friends here?”

      “Nope. And you?”

      “I have three mates. Jacob is my best friend. You might have heard of him. He is our school president.”

      “Ah,