How to Ruin Your Boyfriend's Reputation (11 page)

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Just when I finish lunch, I hear Ronit's
small-yarnean-small
chant getting closer and closer.

"Amy, bring your tray to the eating area," Ronit says. "Miranda, go with her. Vic, you're in charge of guarding the
bittan
now."

I pick up the tray and start walking to the kitchen. Miranda walks with me... although she's actually a few paces behind. I have the feeling she's doing that on purpose.

"You okay?" I ask, glancing back at her.

She shrugs. "Sure."

"Because you're acting like something's wrong. Want to talk about it?"

"Nope."

Could it be that the Israeli army has broken Mirandas sweet-tempered spirit? I'm always crabby, but I thought I could count on Miranda to smile no matter what sucky situation she's in. I glance back again. The girl is definitely not smiling.

Maybe she's constipated. Seriously, talk to a group of teen girls in private and I guarantee they've all got pooping issues. Considering the lack of a decent toilet in this place, I wouldn't blame her.

But what if Miranda isn't constipated? What if she's upset with me? While I couldn't care less if Tori hates me, I do care if somehow I've caused this alienation between me and Miranda.

I wish Jess was ordered to accompany me, too. She'd know what to say to Miranda to make everything okay again.

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As we walk into the cafeteria and I scrape the leftover food off my plate and into the big garbage bins, I realize Miranda isn't behind me anymore. She's waiting by the doorway with a pissy look on her face. I place the tray on the moving belt.

"Why aren't you smiling?" I ask her as we head back into the scorching Israeli death-heat.

"Because I don't feel like it. Why do you care, anyway? You hardly ever smile."

"Yeah, because I count on you doing it for me."

Miranda stops and puts her hands on her hips. "Amy, that doesn't even make sense."

"Neither does your pissy attitude. It reminds me of
me
and, to be honest, I wouldn't be able to stand a friend like me for very long."

"Are you saying I shouldn't be friends with you anymore?" She starts walking away, so I jog to catch up with her.

"When you smile, the world smiles with you, you know," I tell her.

I think she's about to laugh, but she doesn't. She starts walking faster. "You got that off of a greeting card or something."

"Well, if I was back home I'd run to Walgreens and get you a real card."

"What would you write in it?" she asks, challenging me to come up with something on the fly.

"I'd write... I'd write...
Don't be upset, Miranda. If I did anything to upset you, please forgive me. 1 know I'm not

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always a good friend to you. But if you share with me, I can try and fix it. Your friendship is really important to me, which says a lot about you because I cant stand most people. Being friends with you makes me a better person. So please don't give up on me. Love, Amy. P.S. When Nathan buys me another white chocolate KitKat, I'll give the entire thing to you."

I have to give myself kudos. That was a damn good speech if I do say so myself. Any moment now sweet, shy-at-times/bubbly-at-times Miranda will turn back to her old self again. I stop and give her a look that says I know she's about to cave and envelop me in one of her big, embarrassing bear hugs. This time, I'm actually looking forward to it.

"I'll think about it," she says, then tosses her hair to the side and leaves me standing alone as she walks inside the barracks. No smile. No forgiveness. No bear hug.

Whoa. I just got a dose of Miranda the Diva dissing me.

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Chapter 13

There's a point in time when even the strongest person cracks underpressure.

The next morning our unit marches across the large courtyard and doesn't stop until we get to what's obviously an obstacle course. There's no doubt in my mind that this will be a challenge for me.

"We'll be testing your strength and stamina," Sergeant B-S says to us. "This course should be completed in less than three minutes."

I tell myself not to look over at Avi, but as usual I have a serious lack of self-control. My gaze wanders to him and I find him looking straight at me. So now our eyes are locked. My insides are melting, but I'm still angry and hurt. Even though it's scorching hot outside and I can

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feel the sweat running down my back and in between my boobs, a chill runs down my spine.

Sergeant B-S orders Nimrod and Avi to stand at the start of the obstacle course. Both get ready to race. "When the sergeant blows his whistle, they take off faster than Mutt when he spots a new dog at the dog park.

I watch Avi whiz through the course as if he's been doing this his entire life. I can't help but admire the muscles that bulge from his arms as he jumps to the monkey bars and grabs the first bar, then skips two bars at a time until he's done. Then he crosses the balance beam.

When he gets to the high rope, he uses his thigh muscles and arms to pull himself to the top, rings the bell, then grabs a handle that brings him down to the ground. Nimrod is right behind him. At the half wall they're neck and neck.

I'm holding my breath, wondering who will win. They reach the part of the course where you duck low under a set of entwined ropes. Avi gains a little ground as he slithers on the ground, not hesitating one iota.

In the end, Avi is the one who crosses the line first. Nimrod is close behind him. Both are breathing heavily as Sergeant B-S tells us that Avi clocked in at thirty-eight seconds and Nimrod at forty-one.

Liron and Ronit line up next. When Sergeant B-S signals them to go, Liron blows Ronit away as she effortlessly does each obstacle. Ugh, no wonder Avi is attracted to her; not only is she pretty, but she can scale walls and shimmy

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up ropes. It's probably more impressive than being double-jointed. Liron clocks in at one minute one second while Ronit lags behind, finishing at one minute thirty seconds.

"Get in the same groups you were in yesterday," Sergeant B-S calls out.

I try to act cool as I walk over to Avi. Unfortunately, I'm not paying attention and trip over something or someone. Oops, it's Tori... I've stepped on the back of her foot again and her shoe came off.

"Ouch!" Tori yells out. "That's the second time you've done that, you spaz."

"Well maybe if you walked faster I wouldn't step on you.

Nathan grabs my shoulders. "Stop getting in fights with Tori," he says as he steers me away from her.

"She's rude."

"She's hot."

"So am I," I say as I wipe away another sweat drop that's falling down my forehead.

"I didn't mean hot as in sweaty. I mean hot as in--"

"I know what you meant," I say, cutting him off. Seriously, ever since Nathan finally stopped being obsessed with Bicky, he's been acting like a
Bachelor
reality show contestant. Since our third kiss and his breakup, he's gone out with more girls than I can count on two hands. And it doesn't help that he's been lead singer for Lickity Split, because lately he's been taking his groupies backstage and making out with them. He hasn't gone out with anyone

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twice yet. It's like he wants to make sure he doesn't get involved so there's no repeat of what he went through with Bicky. I wonder why the change in tactic since he met Tori.

I grab Nathan's hand while we wait for our other team members to assemble. Nathan pulls his hand loose, but I know Avis watching so I grab his hand again and squeeze my nails into his skin as a warning not to snatch it back.

Avi growls, "Wait here" and walks away to talk to Liron and some of the other Israeli team leaders.

"You're getting me in trouble with Avi," Nathan says through gritted teeth and a fake smile which makes him look like a marionette on Prozac.

"Do you remember when you had me fake-kiss you in front of your ex-bimbo Bicky, to let her know it was over between you guys?"

"Yeah. I seem to remember you biting me."

"Nathan, that was because your tongue crept into my mouth."

"I was making it authentic. Besides, don't deny you were getting into it."

"Because I was fantasizing you were my boyfriend." It's the honest truth: When I started kissing Nathan that last time, in front of Bicky, I was totally imagining he was Avi when we were last together--which was seriously the best night of my life. After fooling around in the car didn't work, Avi and I moved onto the deserted beach. His touches and kisses and caresses were more than OMG!

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"He's looking at me like he wants to kill me," Nathan complains.

"Good. Now that he's watching us, kiss me," I whisper softly, moving my lips closer to his for a repeat performance.

Nathan pries his fingers loose and steps away, although we're far enough from our other team members that nobody can hear us. "Are you kidding? First of all, didn't you sign the
Sababa
rule sheet attached to the brochure? It said, specifically, no fornicating. We're in Israel. For all I know fornicating might include kissing."

"No. It said
no going off in private
and fornicating. You really need to read the details more carefully. Anyways, nobody under the age of fifty knows the actual definition of fornicating so it won't hold up in a court of law."

"I told you I'm not doing this, Amy. "Well, unless we
pretend to
date, and then after we're done with the Israeli army portion of the trip I
pretend
to break up with you and you
pretend
'to be devastated in front of Tori. You can tell Tori after the fake breakup that I'm good at
everything.
You know, make me sound like the stud you know I am. You have to promise to set us up, without her knowing you're setting us up. Then you've got what you want, and I've got what I want. Deal?"

I don't mention that if he was a real stud, he wouldn't need me pretending he's one. I also don't mention that Tori hates me, so the last person she'll listen to is me. But whatever. "Fine."

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Before I can think twice about my deal with Nathan, he takes my hand and leads me to the middle of where our group has assembled around Avi. Avi is standing with his arms crossed, waiting impatiently. His jaw is clenched as he watches us walk up.

"No hand holding," he barks.

Nathan gazes at me with love and tenderness, then kisses the back of my hand before letting it go.

Avi explains that we'll be racing against another team, and it's up to us to make sure everyone participates in each obstacle.

"What if I can't scale that wall?" Miranda asks.

"Have one of your teammates help you over it," Avi tells her. "You're a team. Nobody is left behind. Everyone finishes or everyone loses."

I hate races. They cause me too much stress. But Avi is a pro at this, and I'm ready to prove I'm not all talk and drama. I can kick some serious obstacle course butt when it comes right down to it.

I think.

The first heat is our team against Liron's team. I want to beat her team so bad, I can taste victory in my mouth. If only I paid more attention when they explained how to climb up that rope.

Sergeant B-S blows his trusty whistle.

We all run to the balance beam. One after another we walk across it. Next up are the monkey bars. I haven't done them since third grade, when I caught Michael Mat-

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thews looking up my pink-and-white plaid skirt. When I fell right on top of that little perv, and my knee connected with his face, I was secretly glad he went crying to Mrs. Feinstein with a bloody nose.

Tori is first. She maneuvers across the monkey bars easily enough, although she skipped the last three bars because she fell. David goes after her, skipping every other one and finishes effortlessly. Mirandas next.

"I can't do this," she tells us.

"Try," I say.

"Why try when I know I can't do it?"

She sounds more and more like me every day--it's scary. Avi said we have to do it, and work as a team, so how can she do it without actually
doing it?
I'm trying to think outside the box. It's a little hard to think when I see that four people from Liron's team have already successfully crossed the bars.

Ah, I've got it!

"What if we get on all fours and you step on our backs?"

Miranda shrugs.

I tell the team my plan. Me, Jess, Nathan, and the rest of the guys kneel down. Miranda walks on our backs while holding onto the bars above. I catch Avi nodding in approval and pointing to us as he talks to the sergeant. Miranda finishes with the bars really quickly, then profusely apologizes to the rest of the group as we each maneuver across the bars and head to the next obstacle.