fashionably late with his latest victim. Ever since then I’d known exactly where he was at any given moment, and I’d been nothing but tense. What the hell was my problem? Practically all I thought about was Jake. Half the time I fantasized about bumping into him in the hall and ripping into him for the lawn jockey prank. Telling him about how my mom had called some junk-hauling place, and they’d said it would cost two hundred bucks to pick the thing up and dispose of it because it was so heavy. Two hundred dollars! Money we did not have. Didn’t he realize that his actions had consequences? In my fantasy he would be chagrined into speechlessness and I’d walk away all triumphant while he hung his head in shame. The other half of the time the very same fantasy ended up with him grabbing my arm as I tried to walk away, pulling me to him, and kissing me half to death. I was in serious need of some therapy . “So, I have a question,” David said. We’d turned so that Jake was no longer in my line of sight. Slight r eprieve. “Let me guess. Would I ever name my first born after a planet?” I joked. “Close,” David said. “W ould you go out with me?” I st epped on my own foot and sort of slid sideways. “Wait. What?” My heart was pounding a mile a minute. He had to be kidding. He was kidding. Right? He looked around, dropping his arms from my waist. “Um . . . do you really need me to say it again?” he asked, his smile beseeching and adorable. I swallowed hard. He was serious. “I thought you liked Shannen.” David shrugged one shoulder . “That was stupid,” he said. “That was, like, the unattain able stupid crush. But you . . .” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he looked at me, his gaze steady. “You’re, like, extremely cool. Pretty much any guy in this room would kill to have a girlfriend like you.” My heart melted into warm mush. Could he possibly be any sweeter? What girl in this room wouldn’t kill to have a cute guy say that to her? I took a de ep breath and considered David. Sweet, fun, adorable David, who was growing more uncertain and vulnerable by the second. What was stopping me from saying yes? “Hey.”
We both turned. Jake Graydon stood in front of us, jacket unbuttoned, hands slipped casually into his pockets. Hotter than any normal person had the right to be. “Um, hi,” David said ironically . Not that Jake would get the tone, considering he had no idea what he’d just walked in on. “What’ s up?” Jake gave David a baffled look. “Uh, actually , I came over to see if I could, you know , cut in or whatever .” I snorted a laugh. “Y eah, right.” Jake colored slightly . “What?” “No, you cannot cut in,” I said slowly. A thrill skittered over my shoulders. He was finally giving me my chance to reject him. To make him feel the way I’d felt when I saw him peeling off from my house with the Idiot Twins cackling in the backseat. I still had no idea which one of his friends was driving the car, but it didn’t matter. Jake had been there, defiling my home, rubbing my downfall in my face. And now he was asking me to dance? “But I—” David slipped in front of me, facing off with Jake. “She said no thanks. You can walk away now .” My heart fluttered. David was defending my honor. But as much as I appreciated the gesture, I wasn’ t about to let him speak for me. “I’ve got this, David,” I said, st epping around him. I looked up at Jake, lifting my chin. Annie and Logan were suddenly there at our side, as if a brawl were about to break out and they were ready to throw down. “I’ll dance with you,” I told him, “after you give me the two-hundred dollars you owe me.” His brow knitted. “What?” “Two hundred dollars. That’s what it’s going to cost to have the lawn jockey you and your friends left on my doorst ep hauled away.” I folded my arms over my green H&M dress—the one I’d bought for last year’s Holiday Dance in Baltimore. The good thing about moving to a new school? All your clothes are brand new again. And even if it cost one tenth the amount of Faith’ s black strapless, I still thought I looked pretty good in it. “I assume you have the cash.” Jake blanched. “I . . .” “No? I’ll take a check,” I said obnoxiously . “I do know where you live in case it bounces.” I held out my hand flat, waiting.
“I didn’t know,” Jake said. He looked away. “I didn’t think it’d be that big a deal.” I narrowed my eyes as my heart started to soften. It was so Jakesessed it wanted to take that meager nothing of an apology and run with it. But I wouldn’ t let it. My brain had some pride, even if my heart didn’ t. “Come on, David. I’m over this dance,” I said, taking his hand. “Let’s get out of here.” Confused, David followed me toward the door nonetheless. Jake, much to my surprise, came after us. “Wait.” His hand was on my arm. I turned around. “Look, I’m . . . I’m sorry, okay?” he said quietly. “We shouldn’ t have done it. But it’s not like it was my idea—” “No? Then whose was it? T ell me so I can ask them for the cash,” I said. Jake looked away again, his handsome face turning a de eper shade of red. “Fine. I’ll expect the money in the morning.” I twisted around on my heel and walked off, David, Annie, and Logan jogging to catch up. “Are we really leaving?” David asked. “Should I get the coats?” “Yeah. I mean, if it’s okay with you guys,” I said. “This is lame anyway , right? I say we hit the diner .” “I’m all over that,” Logan said. He smacked David in the chest with the back of his meaty hand. “Let’ s go.” The two of them loped off toward the lobby, where the makeshift coat rack had been placed. I k ept moving for the door, wanting to put as much space between me and Jake as possible. “Okay. That was weird,” Annie said, clutching her notebook in one hand, her pumpkin-shaped purse in the other . “What?” I asked, both fuming and exulting. I’d finally gotten to tell him off, but somehow , I was still pissed. “In all the months I’ve been documenting Jake’s every move, I’ve never seen him (a) go after a girl who’s walking away from him or (b) apologize for anything.” I paused with my hand on the metal door . “Really?” “Really ,” she said, whipping the notebook open to jot something down. “Clearly you’ve had some kind of positive ef fect on Jake Graydon.”
I swallowed hard and looked across the room at him. He was rejoining his friends and his date, as if nothing had happened. Apparently it wasn’t a huge effect. “Here you go, milady,” David said, holding out my mom’s black wool coat to me. “Thank you.” I slipped my bare arms into the warm sleeves. “Let’s go. I’m starved,” Logan said, shoving open the door and barreling through it ahead of Annie. She rolled her eyes and went after him before it could slam in her face. As hard as he’d worked to win this first date, he wasn’t exactly gunning for a second. “Um . . . shall we?” David said, tilting his head. “Yeah,” I r eplied. My stomach was clenching and unclenching as I remembered what we’d been talking about before we were so rudely interrupted. Jake was clearly a jerk, and David was clearly his polar opposite. Maybe the key to breaking the Jakesession was to r eplace it with something else. Something real. Someone who actually cared about me. “Hey, David,” I said. His eyebrows rose. “Y eah?” “The answer to your question is yes,” I said. His grin lit the entire room. He took a sliding, sideways st ep toward me. “Yeah?” I grinned back. “Y eah.” David slipped one arm around my back. “Cool.” Then he leaned in and kissed me, his lips warm and soft, his eyelashes tickling my cheek. When he pulled away, I smiled. There may not have been fireworks, but it was nice. Part of me had to wonder if Jake had seen that , too, but I forced myself not to look over at him. From now on, I only had eyes for David Drake. I was a Norm, I was going to date a Norm, and I was going to for get all about the lame-ass Cresties and their evil pranks. “Come on,” David said, taking my hand. “Let’s catch up with them before Logan eats his dad’ s car.” I laughed as he held the door open for me and I slipped out into the cool night. At that moment, there was no doubt in my mind that I had just made the right decision.
Twenty-three down . . . formerly trendy berry . Formerly trendy berry ending with an i. What kind of berry ended with an i ? Why could I not get this? “Done!” Annie smacked the “ring for service” bell atop the CVS counter and threw her hands up. “You are not done.” I lifted my head. My neck hurt from straining over Ultimate Crosswor ds for the past half hour. Annie turned her book around and showed me her puzzle. Every single box was filled in. I looked down at my pathetic excuse for a crossword board. It was maybe half done. If I was being nice to myself. “What’s twenty-three down?” I whined. She looked over her board. “Acai! That’ s the easiest one.” “I suck at this,” I said, throwing my pencil down. Why had I even spent a dollar ninety-nine (minus discount) of my hard-earned money on that crappy book if she was going to beat me every time we challenged? I checked my watch and sighed. Ten minutes and I would be able to clock out. “Why is this place so dead?” “Football game,” Annie said, jumping up and coming down with her butt on the counter . She swung her legs over, grabbed a Reese’s from the display underneath, and tore it open. “This side of town goes dead on game night. Now, if you were working at the Apothecary ,” she said, putting on a snotty tone and lifting her nose, “you’d be seriously busy .” The Apothecary was an old-school pharmacy and makeup outlet on the Crestie side of town. I used to accompany my mother there once a week to pick up “essentials” like La Mer skin cream, Estée Lauder eye gel, and cooling pedicur e socks shipped in from Italy. None of which could be afforded now. I wondered what my former friends would think if they saw the current state of my mom’s makeup bag. These days it was Avon and Olay all the way . “Right. Norms play football, Cresties play soccer,” I said, rolling my eyes. I walked around the counter and joined her, eyeing the candy selection. “Speaking of Cresties, you’ll never believe what happened this morning.”