7 Clues to Winning You (12 page)

“Wow,” he said. “Nice phone. By Ash Grove standards, I mean. By Meriton standards, I’m sure it’s garbage.”

I ignored him and brought up a website of Shakespeare quotes. I typed in
Once more unto the breach
. When the passage came up, I handed the phone to Luke.

He glanced at the first line. “Shakespeare? This isn’t it. I know this speech.”

“Then you should recognize the last four lines. Scroll to the end and read,” I said, and then added, “Out loud, please.”

He straightened his glasses and pursed his lips at me but did as I said. His voice was low and resonant, like a bass drum.

“Well, crap,” he said. He scrolled up and down to read again. “I guess Meriton really does give you a better education.”

He tapped the screen a few times to close the browser and handed the phone back to me with a sly smile. His bright eyes bored into mine and I forgot to breathe. I knew why. Even as I admitted it to myself, I tried to mentally beat the idea into submission. I already had way too much to handle without getting a crush on Luke Pavel. He was a senior. He had a god complex, probably. Maybe. Maybe not. I didn’t have time for this! He wouldn’t be interested in me anyway. Not after seeing so many of my flaws. So why was he still grinning at me like that?

Luke checked an invisible watch on his wrist. “Well, I’d better bolt. See ya.” He started to go.

“Hey!” I laugh-squealed and grabbed his arm. Immediately, I realized it was a mistake to touch him because instead of pulling away from my grasp, he moved into it. And that sent sparks up my arm and into my body.

“Did you need something else?” he teased. He was too close. Too familiar. I wasn’t ready to be that open and honest. I didn’t even know Luke Pavel.

I let go and pulled back. “I believe you have a debt to settle?”

“Oh, that. Yes.” He stayed silent.

“Well? Aren’t you going to apologize?” I tried not to sound as rattled as I felt.

“Absolutely.” Luke smirked and backed away from me. “But I never said I’d do it today.” He shrugged, turned, and loped off.

What?

Had I just been played? Was Luke Pavel actually an infantile jerk after all? It sure looked that way. What an idiot I was for giving him the smallest amount of consideration as crush material. I was glad I’d let go of his arm. I just wished I’d been the one who walked away.

I texted Tara and arranged to meet her at the Daily Grind, the coffee shop in Meriton. I couldn’t wait to tell her about Luke and what a tool he seemed to be. Apparently, he was not an adorable geek; he was an ass. And so was I, but for different reasons. She’d understand. Best friends don’t need that kind of explanation. Still, I wanted to tell her everything.

I spent the whole drive back to Meriton composing the
perfect monologue about my day that only Tara could fully appreciate. So you can imagine my shock when I got there and she wasn’t alone. Melissa was there too. Sitting across from Tara. Sitting in my spot.

I have to be honest: I didn’t feel terribly charitable at that moment. I should’ve been gracious to Melissa. I should’ve dismissed my jealousy as unwarranted. Yet, I did neither of those things. I closed up, walked over, and sat down.

“Hey girl!” Tara sang. She slid a tall cup across the table to me. “I got you a peppermint and white chocolate chai latte. Taste. It’s orgasmic.” I took a sip as Tara kept talking. “Isn’t it good? Melissa turned me on to them. I tried hers yesterday, and I was totally craving one all day today.”

I swallowed hard. Tara got coffee with Melissa yesterday too?

My disappointment must have shown on my face because Tara covered quickly. “We ran into each other in front of the library. I was coming out, she was going in.”

Melissa caught on. “I had to get rid of the latte anyway. I couldn’t bring it inside the library.”

“Total coincidence,” Tara added, with a fake “no big deal” gesture that was a bit of overkill, in my opinion. Why did it suddenly seem like
I
was the charity case for
those two
? “So what’s up with you?” she asked, obviously trying to change the subject but sincerely interested, I could tell.

The next thing I did surprised me at the time, but looking back, it makes sense. I plastered a huge, garish lady look disguise over the gigantic imperfection of a day I’d had. I smiled a perky smile and said, “Nothing.” Then I cheerfully
agreed that the peppermint white chocolate chai latte was exceptionally yummy and let them believe everything was fine and dandy with me.

I justified it by telling myself that I was trying not to be selfish. But really, I was trying to hide. I know that now.

I sat and listened to Tara gab about everything at Meriton. Fill me in on all the news. Catch me up on all the gossip. The irony is, I’m sure she thought she was trying to keep me connected to Meriton, but all she really did was underscore the fact that I was set apart from them.

I didn’t let on, though. I knew Tara’s intentions were good. So I listened attentively until my phone on the table pinged, telling me I’d gotten an e-mail. When I glanced down and saw who it was from, well, let’s just say that my attention got diverted from Tara. As inconspicuously as possible, I slid the phone onto my lap and opened the e-mail.

His apology. He hadn’t wanted to blow it off. He’d wanted to get it right. With Shakespeare! Adorable geek status officially reinstated.

I read the e-mail again. And again. And again, until I noticed that Tara had stopped talking. Oops.

“Hellooo?” she sang. She could tell I was reading something on my phone. So much for being inconspicuous. “Anything you want to share with the rest of the class?”

I thought about it. It should be. But was it? Normally, I wouldn’t hesitate to tell Tara all about a semi-non-jerk possible crush. I switched off my phone and dropped it in my bag. “Nah,” I said. I took another sip of my chai latte and Tara went back to her gossip.

I tried to follow her conversation, but my mind kept sneaking back to Shakespeare and ocean-blue eyes and blond curls blowing in the wind. I had to stop thinking about him.
My life was already complicated enough without adding a guy into the mix.

Back at Meriton, I’d been very careful not to get so involved with someone that it would interfere with my future plans. Bryn Mawr didn’t accept average students who spent their entire high school career video-chatting or getting felt up in the bowling alley parking lot. I went out with guys all the time, but I didn’t get serious with anyone. I never saw the point. It’s not like I was going to marry someone I met in high school. Especially if the guy didn’t want to go to Haverford. So it seemed like a waste of time.

Now that I was going to graduate with
Ash Grove
on my transcript, I had to step up my game. Work harder. Focus more. I had to be at the top of my class. I had to have some seriously worthwhile extracurricular activities. As it was, the Senior Scramble was going to eat up a huge chunk of time. There simply wasn’t room in my life for a crush.

Even a tall one with blue eyes and strong arms and a laugh like bubbles popping.

BY THE END OF THE WEEK, WORD HAD SPREAD THAT the Senior Scramble was going underground because of me, and I was finally out of everyone’s crosshairs. The name-calling stopped, the food-throwing stopped, and people stopped looking at me like they wanted to sink their fangs into my skull. It felt better than any day at Meriton ever had.

Luke had set up the members-only website anonymously, and its address had not-so-mysteriously circulated throughout the entire school in about seventeen minutes. He’d named the site the Revolting Phoenix.
Phoenix
because it came out of
Buried Ashes
(out of the ashes, get it?) and
Revolting
because it was a revolt against the administration. But the graphic he created for the homepage banner was this hideous, messed-up bird on fire so that it seemed the “revolting” meant disgusting. Pretty clever, actually.

After school on Friday, I went online in my bedroom and opened a private web browser so my browsing history would be clean in case my parents or Zach came snooping. I pulled up the Revolting Phoenix website. I clicked on the Join button and typed my name into the membership application, but a pop-up appeared saying that a profile had already been
made under that name. What? I tried again and got the same result. Almost immediately, my phone pinged. I clicked over to my e-mail in-box. It was from Luke. It read:
I took the liberty of signing you up already. Hope you don’t mind. Enjoy!
Underneath were what I assumed were my profile user name and password:

kate4eva

iluvpetruchio

Kate forever? I love Petruchio? Oh my God, Luke was calling me a shrew in need of taming. Ugh! So evil! Yet hilarious. I could tell he was just aggravating me for kicks. Still quasi-jerky, but I could let it go. I logged on and almost immediately a window popped up with an IM from someone called
profmarvel
. When I started to read it, though, my stomach started squirming. In a good way.

I exited the site and closed the browser. I checked my history anyway, just to make sure the web address wasn’t there. Then I trotted downstairs.

It was odd sitting at the dinner table with my dad, knowing that I had entered into an act of subterfuge against him. I tried to pick apart the threads of emotions that had balled themselves up inside me. There was fear, sure, but there was a deliciousness about it. I think it came from the bond of secrecy I shared with Luke and the other juniors now. Yet I also felt an edgy anticipation, like when I was a kid on the country club swim team and I stood on the blocks getting ready to dive into the water. Was I feeling competitive? I didn’t consider myself competitive. Mom believed that a competitive spirit was highly undignified in a young woman. All that bravado and trash talk of opponents were at cross-purposes to the humility and graciousness she believed a young lady should exemplify.