Kiss & Sell (19 page)

The lounge had been the Class of 97’s gift to the school and every senior class since then had added another accessory to the space. In the last three years,
graduating classes had donated a popcorn machine, cappuccino station, flat screen TV, Nintendo Wii and a pool table.

The area was more impressive than your local arcade and 100% free to students. I had to assume that ours was the only school where the students didn’t actually
mind
being there. Not in here, at least.

I spotted Bree right away, and made my way over to the corner where she and about six others were lounging around. There were three other girls with her, all whom I recognized, but didn’t know personally. A bunch of guys sprawled around, looking all different levels of bored. I smiled as I recognized one of the faces.

Cade Jones.

The good-looking, brooding, hunk of a hero who’d come to my rescue after I’d given Dan the old chair tip-over. As happy as I was to see him, I was confused by it, too. I wouldn’t have thought this was his scene. Not that it was exactly mine, either.

“Hey guys,” I said, sitting down on a beanbag breathlessly. “Sorry I’m late.”

“No problem, A,” Bree chirped happily.

A? When did we move into nickname territory?

“Okay, so now that we’re here, I’d like to call our Homecoming meeting to order,” Bree said, taking her role as committee president seriously. “The dance is only three weeks away and we don’t have a theme. In case you weren’t aware, the theme we choose can totally make or break the dance. If the motif sucks, then no one will come, and that means the dance will suck. And I will
not
throw a sucky Homecoming.”

“Because
that
would suck,” Cade whispered just loudly enough for me to hear.

I glanced over at him and saw that he was looking at me out of the corner of his eye. I smiled at his comment before forcing myself to focus on Bree as she continued.

“So, any ideas?” she asked the group, looking from one face to another expectantly.

The brunette closest to me raised her hand and then lowered it back down when she realized we weren’t in class. She covered this up with a blinding smile and pushed forward. “How about ‘Star-Crossed Lovers?’ People can dress like their favorite doomed couples. Romeo & Juliet. Bonnie & Clyde. Brad & Jen.”

“Sounds a little…depressing. I don’t want anyone going home after the dance and offing themselves,” Bree said. “Think more upbeat.”

“Depending on who it is, that
could
be upbeat,” Kyle Gambit joked. He erupted into laughter and leaned over to hi-five his friend whose name I couldn’t place.

Ugh. Boys were so disgusting sometimes.

“Not funny, Kyle,” Bree said in response. “Next.”

A bleached-blond with pink streaks in her hair, popped her gum loudly to get our attention. “Rock & Roll,” she said with a devilish smile. “Lots of black, pleather and spikes. It’ll be
hot
!”

“Not everyone looks good in skin-tight gear and I don’t want to have to stare at some girl’s jelly-rolls because she thinks it’s her right to wear spandex. Next.” Bree was getting frustrated now.

“Ooh, ooh, ooh!” Kyle’s hi-fiving friend said as he jumped up and down in his seat.

“Yes, Jake?”

Jake Pritchard. For some reason I remembered that he was on the wrestling team. And that he liked to hit the bong on occasion.

“Let’s do ‘Pimps & Ho’s!’ It’ll be so cool. Guys dress up like pimps—like my man snoop Dogg—and chicks dress up in tiny, little…”

“Absolutely not,” Bree said cutting him off. “As much as I’d like to channel my inner Britney, Principal Howard has already made it clear that the theme can’t be clothing optional. Anyone else?”

“Heaven on Earth?”

“Been done.”

“Under the Sea?”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Secret Lovers?”

“Come on, guys! We have to come up with something that’s actually
good
and
won’t
get us kicked out of school. It shouldn’t be this hard,” Bree said, gripping the bridge of her nose like she was getting a headache. “Think, people! We just need one good idea.”

“Opposites Attract?” I said, surprising myself when it rolled past my lips.

Bree looked like she was thinking this over. I waited for her to shoot down my idea just like she had all the others. Instead, after about thirty seconds, she reached over and gave me a squeeze.

“Opposites Attract…it’s
brilliant
, A!” Bree squealed. “Thank God you’re here, otherwise we’d have absolutely nothing.”

I saw the others roll their eyes as Bree threw out the backhanded comment. If this had been class, they’d all be calling me Teacher’s Pet right about now. And from the looks of it, they wouldn’t be wrong.

“Okay, so now that we’ve got the
perfect
theme,” Bree announced, turning to me and winking, “We need to assign people to teams to make this dance happen. Let’s see…we’ll need a group on decorations, someone to book the music, another person to figure out refreshments and a few to get the word out to the student body.”

“I’ll handle the music!” Kyle shot up out of his seat excitedly. “My cousin has a sweet music collection and he can do this thing with his computer that will blow your mind—”

“Fine. Kyle, you’re on music,” Bree said. “But no country or rave.”

“No problem,” he answered, a smirk on his face. “What kind of loser listens to that stuff anyway?”

I frowned. I loved country. Well, okay, so maybe I mostly liked pop-country, like Carrie Underwood, Jessica simpson and Taylor Swift, but still. What was so wrong about that?

“I’ll take refreshments,” the pink-streaked girl said.

“And since I do the morning announcements, I guess I could spread the word,” Jake chimed in.

“Good. And since I’m out there talking to the student body anyway, I guess I can make sure everyone knows the details of the dance, too,” Bree said. Then she turned to look in my direction. “I guess that just leaves Cade and A to manage the decorations. That cool with you two?”

“Uh, yeah. Sure,” I answered, surprised to be partnered up with Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome. “Happy to help out wherever.”

I looked over and watched Cade shrug easily. “It’s cool with me.”

“Great!” Bree said, stepping down from the director’s chair she’d been sitting on. “Why don’t we meet again on Friday to touch base about how far we’ve all gotten. Now let’s get going. We’ve got less than three weeks to get this together. And failure is
not
an option.”

The group broke up then and I gathered my stuff slowly, trying to time my exit with Cade’s. I was secretly hoping for a chance to talk to him. As I watched the last of our group leave, I fell into step beside my new dance partner.

“So, guess it’s just you and me,” Cade said softly as we exited the student lounge and started making our way down the nearly-empty hallway.

“Looks like it,” I said, hoping I was coming across as somewhat cool.

“So…can I get your number?” he asked me.

I nearly tripped over my own feet as he said it. Was it possible that he was feeling the same butterflies I was?

I must have looked as surprised as I felt, because Cade broke out into a sheepish grin before turning forward again. “I mean, we should exchange numbers so we can set up a time to meet to talk decorations.”

“Oh. Right…yeah, okay,” I said, embarrassed. Somehow I managed to give him my number and programmed his into my phone, too.

“So, I’ll call you,” he said as we arrived at a crossroads in the hallway.

I nodded and studied him as he walked away. When I was sure he was gone, I let out a shaky breath. “God, I hope so.”

When my cell phone went off a few nights later, I raced across my room before my mom could hear it. We had a phone curfew in our house, one of the few things my mom was strict about. She claimed that electronics led to restless sleep at night. I was supposed to turn mine off after 8pm. It was totally weird, but you have to pick your battles.

I put the phone to my ear as I looked over at the door for any sign that my mom had heard it ring. I hadn’t even bothered to look at the caller ID to see who was on the other line before picking it up. Which meant I was answering blind.

“Hello?” I whispered.

“Is this Arielle?” a guy’s voice asked.

I blinked. The voice wasn’t Phin’s. So who was calling me this late at night?

“Yeah,” I answered curiously. “Who’s this?”

There was a pause on the line.

“Hey…it’s Ryder. Ryder Diggs? We met on
Snooze
back in—”

I rolled my eyes. This
had
to be Phin playing a prank on me. He’d imitated others before. Well, fool me once, shame on you, Phin. Fool me twice, shame on me.

“Yeah,
Right
. You’re such a butt-munch, dude. Why don’t you call McCartney and bug her? Maybe she’ll fall for your crap.”

Silence fell over the phone line again, as I waited for Phin to fess up. I was just about to hang up, when I heard a voice chuckle on the other end.

“Um, I’m not sure who you think this is, but I actually
am
Ryder. You gave me your number, told me I could call you to get an update on your
Plan de Smooch
?”

Frack. Frack. Frack.

I couldn’t believe I didn’t recognize his voice before. And now I was going to have to kill myself because I’d just called Ryder Diggs a butt-munch. Holding the phone away from my face, I screamed loudly into my pillow. It didn’t change what had happened, but it did make me feel better. Brushing my hair out of my eyes, I placed my cell back up to my ear.

“Oh, hey, Ryder,” I said as breezily as I could. “Sorry about that. My friend’s been pranking me all night. It’s this whole silly thing he does. Kind of childish if you think about it…anyway, it’s so good to hear from you!”

He let out a chuckle that vibrated through the phone, and I silently thanked the universe that he hadn’t hung up on me yet. Because I would’ve understood if he had.

It would’ve broken my heart, but I would’ve understood.

“I just thought I’d give you a call, say hi, see how the whole eBay thing’s going,” he said. His voice was low and soft, and I imagined he was serenading me as he spoke. I couldn’t believe I’d thought for even a second that it was Phin I’d been talking to before.

“Well, ‘hi’ to you, too,” I said, grinning. I began to pace around the room to try and get rid of some of the nervous energy I was feeling. Walking over to the window, I glanced out at the street below, and then turned around and walked back toward the other side of my room. “To be honest, I haven’t even checked my account lately. I’ve been so busy at school. Suddenly everyone knows who I am, and wants to hang around me all the time. And there’s this girl, Kristi, who’s pretty much the Devil incarnate and thinks it’s her job to humiliate me as much as humanly possible. Oh, and I was talked into being on the Homecoming dance committee, which is ironic because I’ve never been to a school dance before.”

I took a deep breath, and realized that I’d just basically unloaded all my stress onto this beautiful boy who’d been calling just to say ‘hi.’ I faintly recalled that an article in
Seventeen
had mentioned that guys weren’t into girls with too much baggage. Well, if that was true, this might be my first and last phone conversation with Ryder.

“Okay, let’s see if I can help you out here. First off, I have to admit that I just checked your eBay listing and you’re up to $879,” he said, sounding impressed. “Second, I’ve totally been in your shoes with the newfound popularity thing. After my first movie came out, people started stopping me on the street, asking me to take pictures with them and autograph stuff. It really freaked me out at first, but after a while, you sort of get used to it. Just be polite, and keep your
Real
friends around you to help you stay grounded. Next, it sounds like this Devil-girl—Kristi—is just jealous. I mean, I can see why, but I’m sure that’s all it is. Ignore her and it will drive her nuts,” he said.

“Wow. I’m impressed,” I said. And I was.

“Don’t be. I memorize stuff for a living,” he said easily. Then he laughed. “And lastly, Homecoming committee? What are you in charge of?”

“Decorations.”

“Isn’t there usually a theme for those things?” he asked.

“Yep,” I answered. “It’s ‘opposites attract.’”

Ryder laughed again. “Seriously? Who the heck came up with that?”

I grew silent. Ryder noticed this and after a moment he coughed uncomfortably.

“
You
came up with it, didn’t you?” he asked sounding embarrassed by his faux pas.

I didn’t want to admit that I was responsible for the lame theme and give Ryder yet another reason to think I was a super dork. But I also didn’t want to lie to him.

“Guilty as charged,” I finally answered. Okay, so I was Queen of Dorkonia. If we were going to be
talking
—or whatever this was—Ryder was just going to have to deal. And if I was too outside-the-box for him, well, then better I find out now, right? “But in my defense, the other suggestions were way worse.”