Ex-Rating (9 page)

b
he has to get home in time to watch Championship Bowling.

c
he left his anti-cootie spray at home.

Scoring:

Mostly a’s: His excuses sound pretty plausible, for the most part. He’s probably telling the truth, unless he’s a really good
liar (sorry, but you can never really know).

Mostly b’s: Keep an eye on him. His excuses lean to the lame side, and he might be dodging you.

Mostly c’s: Sorry, but he just doesn’t like you. Forget about him. He’s certainly forgotten about you.

The next day, at the end of the day, Lina spotted Walker again. Standing in front of the school building, talking to some
guy. Getting ready to go home.

The night before she’d rehearsed in her mind what she was going to say. She’d even dreamed about it. All day she was jumpy,
thinking he’d be lurking around the next corner and then she’d have to muster up her courage and do it. Get it over with.

But he’ll say yes, she thought. Why wouldn’t he? He’d wanted to go out with her before, when they first met. She’d said no,
too preoccupied with Dan to give any real attention to a boy her own age. But that was all over now. She’d changed. Had he?

The guy he was talking to went back inside the school. Walker started down the front path toward the street. She took a deep
breath.
Here goes
.

“Walker! Wait!” she called, running after him. “I want to ask you something.”

He stopped and turned around to see her. “Hey Lina, what’s up? Is this about that interview? Because I don’t have time to
do it right now—maybe later this week?”

“Um—sure,” Lina said.

“Well, see you.” He started to walk away.

“Wait—that’s not what I wanted to ask you about,” Lina said.

He stopped again and waited.

“Um, Walker, I was wondering if you’d like to go out with me this Saturday night,” Lina said. She paused to steady her nerves.
She had never asked a boy out before. It was scary. Really scary. How would he react?

He looked surprised. Pleasantly surprised. That was good. She pressed on. It had to be crystal clear.

“Not a group hang, just you and me,” she added. He blinked. The pleasant surprise on his face was souring now.

“On a date,” she said. “To see a movie. Or whatever you want to do.”

Her heart was pounding so hard, she could barely breathe.
Please say yes, please say yes
, she prayed. What was taking him so long?

“Thanks for asking, Lina,” he said at last. “But I can’t.”

“You can’t?” Now her heartbeat was lighter but quicker, a mouse running a hamster wheel in her chest. “You mean, you’re busy?”

“Not really,” he said.

The mouse in her chest was slowing down, losing spirit. If Walker didn’t clear this up soon, and in a good way, she thought,
her heart would stop altogether.

“You can’t—or you won’t?”

“I—I can’t,” he said. He looked uncomfortable now, as if something had come up that he really didn’t want to talk about. But
what could it be? “It’s really nice of you, but I can’t go out with you. I’m sorry.”

He hurried away, down the path, onto the sidewalk, and down the street. Lina stood staring after him in shock. The mouse in
her chest was gone, replaced by the heavy pounding again.

He’d said no. Definitely, unequivocably no. But why?
He just couldn’t?
What was that supposed to mean?

Ramona was right
, Lina thought.
This really does hurt
.

HERE IS TODAY’S HOROSCOPE: VIRGO: They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But what do “they” know? Who are “they,”
anyway?

Y
ou guys are the best!” Alison Hicks whispered. Mads, Holly, and Lina were clustered around a table in the library, pretending
to be studying history but really reading magazines. Alison sat down with them. They’d set her up with Derek Scotto, based
on his X-Rating by Claire Kessler.

“I really like Derek,” Alison said. “We’re going out this weekend. Claire called me to give me all the inside dope on him.
She said I should brush up on obscure rock bands or I won’t know what he’s talking about. But otherwise he seems cool.”

“Let us know how the date goes,” Holly said.

Alison got up from the table. “I will. See you.”

“She’s our third happy customer this week,” Mads said. “X-Rating is our greatest invention yet! If only Rod could see how
much happiness it brings, he’d never want to censor us or shut us down.”

“He’d make us an official school site,” Lina said. “Required reading.”

“Yeah,” Mads said. “He’d keep the site going even after we graduate. He’d get some new IHD students to take over. The Dating
Game would be a Rosewood institution. If only he were cool.”

“I don’t think he cares about
our
happiness,” Holly said. “His deal is the parents board’s happiness.”

“It’s the classic struggle of the underclass against the ruling class,” Mads said.

Holly and Lina stared at her, then burst out laughing. “What?” Mads said. “We’re the underclass—literally, since we’re sophomores—and
the administration—”

“We get it, Mads,” Holly said.

“We’ve got tons more X-Ratings to sift through,” Lina said. “Want to do it at my house later?”

“I can’t,” Holly said. “I’m supposed to go check out caterers with Julia.”

“She’s really got you working for her,” Mads said.

“Yeah,” Holly said. “It’s fun, though. Pretty fun. Most of the time. It’s usually fun.”

“I’ll come over,” Mads said.

“Good,” Lina said. “That way I won’t be tempted to waste the whole evening write sad love poems.”

Mads felt bad for Lina. She couldn’t believe Walker had refused to go out with her—and wouldn’t even give a reason. Not even
a face-saving white lie.

The intercom crackled to life. “Will Holly Anderson, Madison Markowitz, and Lina Ozu please report to Mr. Alvarado’s office
immediately,” Rod’s secretary’s voice said.

Mads looked at Holly and Lina. “Uh-oh. What now?”

“I can’t think of anything we’ve done wrong,” Lina said. “We didn’t publish any of the dirty X-Ratings.”

Like the one by the girl who said her ex-boyfriend liked to do it in the car
, Mads thought, her heart sinking.
And only in the car, even though his parents were never home
. She knew enough not to put that on the blog. But could something have slipped through the cracks?

“Hello, girls,” Rod said as they sat down in his office. “I’ve been seeing a lot of you these days.”

“If you’re sick of us, we can leave,” Mads said.

Rod cracked a tense smile. “I wish it were that simple. Do you recall the warning I gave you the last time we met?”

The girls nodded. Nothing controversial on the Dating Game or he’d shut it down.

“Good,” Rod said. “Did you understand it? Was it somehow not clear?”

“We understood,” Mads said. “Though we might have a different definition of ‘controversial’ from yours.”

“I’m sure you must,” Rod said. “Otherwise, I assume an item like this would not have appeared on your blog.” He picked up
a printout. “I believe this is what you call an X-Rating,” he said. “A young man named Dashiell Piasecki wrote it about his
former girlfriend, Arabella Caslow. I happen to know Dashiell; he’s a behavior challenge. And a frequent visitor to this office.”

Mads tried to remember what Dash had written about Arabella. He was an obnoxious jerk, and Arabella had said so in
her
X-Rating of
him
. But his of her hadn’t seemed so bad; in fact, Mads had the impression he still liked her.

“I’ll skip the preliminaries and go straight to the highlights,” Rod said. He read from the printout. “‘Arabella is a bangin’
chick. And that booty! I like girls with a little meat on their bones.’”

Mads looked at Holly and Lina, shrugging. What was the big deal?

“Mr. Alvarado, all he’s saying is that Arabella is attractive,” Holly explained. “It’s a good thing.”

“That’s not the point,” Rod said. “Her parents happened to see this—I should warn you that since you’ve received so much publicity
recently, many parents have been reading our school site quite carefully. The Caslows were offended by the word ’bangin and
‘meat’ in reference to their daughter.”

“’Bangin’ just means she’s good-looking,” Mads said.

“But in a sexy way, correct?” Rod said.

“I guess,” Mads conceded.

“But when he says he likes meat on her bones,” Rod said. “Isn’t that like calling her a piece of meat?”

“My grandmother says that,” Mads said. “‘You could use a little meat on your bones,’ she says. And the witch in Hansel and
Gretel uses that expression. It doesn’t mean he’s calling her a piece of meat.”

“But the witch is fattening up Hansel to eat him,” Rod reminded her.

“Was Arabella upset?” Lina asked.

“I don’t know,” Rod said. “But her parents certainly were. They don’t like having their daughter’s attributes discussed online
this way, and I don’t blame them. It’s crude.”

“But Dash was just trying to say she’d make a good girlfriend,” Mads said. “Sure, he’s crude, but that’s the way he is. It’s
not our fault.”

“Some parents don’t want their children to see crudeness at school,” Rod said. “I believe that parents have a right to control
what their children are exposed to.’”

“But we’re only exposing ourselves to ourselves,” Mads said. “What’s wrong with that?”

“Listen, girls,” Rod said. “I refuse to get into an argument with you over this. You were warned, fair and square. Since then,
the complaints from parents have only become louder. I have no choice. I’m removing the Dating Game from the school site.
I’m sorry.”

“But, Mr. Alvarado, that’s not fair!” Mads’ blood was boiling. He was dumping their blog completely! For nothing! “What good
is the site if we can’t express ourselves naturally and say what we really think, in the words we normally use? It’s—”

Rod cut her off. “Enough. I said I won’t argue about it. This is the way it is, period. Please leave my office now.” He started
shuffling papers around on his desk as if he were busy. Mads felt like spitting at him. She got up and left the office, followed
by Holly and Lina.

“I can’t believe it!” Mads cried once they were out in the hall. “What are we going to do now?”

“We could move the Dating Game to a site of our own,” Lina suggested.

“Or one of those blog sites like Autumn uses,” Holly said.

Mads stamped her foot. “No. It’s not right. It’s the principle of the thing. The Dating Game is a special RSACE feature. It’s
only open to us and is protected from infiltration by anyone outside the school. It’s part of the community. It brings us
all together, gives us a common place to say what’s on our mind. That’s what’s cool about it. And, anyway, this is totally
unfair. We can’t let Rod and those control-freak parents do this to us!”

Holly and Lina stared at her in surprise. “Wow, Mads, you’re really fired up. I’ve never seen you like this,” Lina said.

“We may be kids, but we have rights! They can’t tell us what we can and can’t write!” Mads said. “There are things we can
do. We’re not beaten yet.”

HERE IS TODAY’S HOROSCOPE: CANCER: You will solve a mystery using dubious methods. If you don’t like what you find out, that’s
your problem.

T
hat blows!” Ramona said. “Rod is a total fascist.”

Lina and Ramona were walking to the lunchroom, and Lina had just told her how Rod had shut down the Dating Game. She and Ramona
didn’t agree on everything, but she knew Ramona would be sympathetic to any resistance to authority.

“I know,” Lina said. “It’s so unfair.”

“You’re not going to let him get away with it, are you?” Ramona said. “Typical, you three are such goody-goodies. Always doing
as you’re told—”