The Boy Project (19 page)

I had the perfect opportunity to be
alone
with Chip today! When I walked into the lunchroom, he was at a table by himself. So I walked right over there and sat down with him! But he didn't ask me to the dance like I thought he might once we were
alone
. Still, what he did ask wasn't all that bad.

He wants me to make four duct tape wallets for him to give as gifts. When I asked him what colors, he said, “I'll leave it up to you. Everything you do turns out really cool.” Then, suddenly, I couldn't think of anything to say.

My predictions were true. The Sponge did have her eye on one of the twins. She actually asked Jake to the spring dance. Jake is the one with a
slightly
thinner face and
slightly
longer hair and he's
slightly
less cute than Josh. (But he's still as hot as Tabasco, believe me.) It's like The
Sponge knew that if she wanted to date one of the twins while Maybelline dated the other, she'd have to take Jake because Maybelline would, of course, get the cuter one.

But get this: Jake said he was bringing his girlfriend from his old school to the dance. Then Josh, who was standing right there, said he'd be glad to go with The Sponge
.
You could almost hear The Sponge's brain whirring, trying to figure out if she should take the cuter one or leave him for Maybelline. In then end she came to her senses. She said “Great!” and walked away giggling.

It's like
everyone
else is connected by some invisible network on Planet Boyfriend and I'm out in space. A moon connected to no one. Orbiting alone.

I mean, how can someone with no personality get two decent dates and I can't even get one? (Evan no longer qualifies as decent.) I ask this because while we were sitting in science waiting for the bell, Alex Langford knelt down beside Tiffany's desk and said, “Don't go to the dance with that twin. Go with me.” (!)

Then The Sponge said, “Oh, Alex.” She got tears in her eyes, and she and Alex started hugging right behind Ms. Sabatino's back. But it wasn't the kinda hug that says
Gee, it's great to see you, Uncle Mel
. The hug between The Sponge and Alex said something more like
Don't get on that plane! Don't do it! I can't live without you!
Then Ms. Sabatino turned around and they were suddenly hugging right in front of her face. Ms. S is cool and all, but she still wrote them up and sent them to the office, referral slips in hands.

Yet Alex L and Tiffany didn't look like two kids in trouble when they walked out of the room. They looked really happy. In fact, I've never seen happier faces on kids holding referral slips. And I have to wonder, if The Sponge really cared for Alex (and she had to after that mega hug), why didn't she tell him a long time ago? Did she really break up with someone she liked just to be like Maybelline?

Oh well, no matter what the answers are, I think there might be more to The Sponge than I thought.

I just gave Chip his wallets. I felt funny making him pay for them, so I tried to give him a two-for-one deal, but he wouldn't take it. Which isn't all bad —
cha-ching
— sixty bucks! I made two red ones, a green one, and a pink and black one (just to see what he'd say). I made about ten of them before I got four that I thought were perfect. It's okay though. I uploaded pictures of the other six to my new blog. I've gotten great comments!

Anyway, Chip opened all of the wallets and turned them over carefully in his hands. He really got into examining them and he asked a lot of questions about how they were constructed. He laughed when he saw the pink and black one. He said he knew just who to give that one to. He thought it was cool. He thought they were all cool. The boy seems to like anything made out of duct tape.

That's it! I
will
cover myself with duct tape to get Chip to notice me. Not literally, of course. Well, almost literally. I had the idea when I was thinking about how to dress for the dance. I tried to get Mom to take me to the mall to get me a new outfit, but she refused. She said, “Last time you begged for something new from the mall, you only wore them ten times before pushing them to the back of your closet. Don't think I didn't notice.”

She was talking about the running shoes. Okay, I admit it. I
did
think she hadn't noticed. I got tired of wearing them to school every day trying to wear them out, and Julie never came up with a better plan that allowed us to stop running together,
like she was supposed to
, so I just tried to make the shoes disappear.

This meant I was stuck with no date AND no cute dress to sport! Until I came up with a great idea . . .

I remembered seeing those prom dresses made out of duct tape when I was researching bag styles! So I figured if you can make a prom dress from duct tape, why not a party dress? I did a little more online research and found that you can make duct tape clothes in four easy steps:

1. Cover big sheets of paper with duct tape.
   
2. Lay pieces of selected pattern on top of duct tape sheets.
   
3. Cut out pattern.
   
4. Following pattern directions, tape pieces together instead of sewing.
   

I went back to Mom and asked her if she could take me to the hardware store instead of the mall. Then I told her my plan. She LOVED it.

Mom always goes for us experimenting with creative expression. Really, the woman's never met a craft she didn't like. She even helped me search online for a pattern. (We chose a simple sleeveless dress from
Teen Vogue.
) Tomorrow we shop for duct tape!

Mom and I've been working on the duct tape dress for two days. I bought three rolls of black tape, one pink, and one green. My idea was to make the dress all black but to add some pink and green flowers to the shoulders. It is spring, after all.

We'd almost finished the dress when Julie decided to barge into the room with Lyle and Phillip in tow. Apparently, Lyle is Phillip's ride to baseball practice. The good news is that they went nuts over the dress. They thought it was the coolest, especially the zigzag pattern I'd cut along the hemline.

The bad news is that now someone at my school knows. And I wanted it to be a surprise. I told Phillip NOT to tell anyone about it. He said, “Who'd I tell?”

I resisted the urge to mention Anna, who I know would tell Tabbi, who would then know I was up to something. BUT I tried to play it cool, so I just shrugged. (I used the
I can't be bothered with such trivial details
variety.)

I have to confess that Phillip's and Lyle's reactions made me feel pretty good about my latest creation. I think the dress will “show my style” in a big way! (I hope Bebe's right about that last tip.) I'm a little worried, though, because my mimi always says, “There's a fine line between an outfit and a costume.” And in the back of my mind, I've been wondering: Does duct tape clothing cross that line?

It seems like Bebe is giving me a little nudge in the direction of a certain Chip Tyler. Right in time for the dance, too.

To: Kara M

From: BebeTruelove

Subject: Tip #10

Dear Soul Mate Seeker,

Afraid of rejection? Don't be. Everyone faces it from time to time. But the more times you try, the greater your chances of success. Don't let fear keep you from approaching a possible soul mate.

Tip #10: Banish fear!

Good Luck in Love,

Bebe

Try Fear-Catchers!

Modeled after Native American dream catchers, these Fear-Catchers will hang from your key ring and keep fear at bay.

An ancient spell is spoken over each Fear-Catcher

before it leaves the factory!

Click here to order now!

♥ Fear-Catchers ♥

(Must be 18 years of age to order.)

Chip asked me if I am going to the dance!

Okay, it isn't as good as if he'd actually asked me
to
the dance. But it does mean he cares whether I go or not. Doesn't it?

At least there is still hope that maybe there's a boyfriend for me somewhere out there even if things don't work out with Chip. Because today I discovered an important fact that will help me with my research: There are quiet, inconspicuous guys just waiting to be noticed. I found this out after school because Anna, Tabs, and I ended up being partners for Mrs. Hill's “magazine project.”

Luckily, Anna invited us over to her house to work on it. I quickly accepted. (I did NOT want to have them do it at my house, in case Lyle and Julie were there. If Lyle said something about my “date” with Phillip, I'd die.)

Anyway . . . we got to Anna's and it turns out she has an older brother named Paul. I asked her why she hadn't told us her brother was so cute. She said, “You wouldn't think about him that way if you ever saw him play those online battle games with his friends. Total geek fleet.”

But Paul was really nice. Quiet, like Anna. He has a cleft chin that makes him look movie-star-ish. And he's in ninth grade, which means he was at my school last year and I never noticed him. This made me wonder if there are a lot of other quiet, cute guys out there that I haven't even considered yet.

When I got home, Mom asked me how the project was going. Since Anna, Tabs, and I ended up chatting the whole time instead of actually working on it, I tried to distract Mom — for some reason — by bringing up Anna's cute but geeky older brother.

Mom's comment was: “Don't count out the geeks! They usually have better earning potential than your run-of-the-mill jock.” She smiled. “Dad was a geek and look at him now.”

I looked. Yeah. I think this is the last time I'll be writing about Paul.

Okay, it's too bad that my redo science fair project was due after the actual science fair because it totally would have beaten The Sponge's lame-but-first-place project involving strawberry smoothies! Oh well. The important thing is that Ms. Sabatino loved my new science project! She erased the F+ from the grade book and replaced it with a B. Which, of course, isn't as good as the A I might have made if not for Mr. DeLacey, but still. Here's what I presented to the class:

I felt pretty good about it, even though right in the middle of my presentation Maybelline sneered, “That survey is bogus. What does Kara know about love?”

“A lot more than I used to,” I said. I wished I hadn't. Everyone started making those “wooooooooo” singsongy sounds that aren't actually words but can be translated as
I've just found out some great big secret about you.

“That's not what I mean!” I said, blushing. “But if you look at the data collected from 2,188 teens, you'll see that even though guys and girls are attracted to each other, they are basically looking for different things in relationships.”

The room got pretty quiet while I explained the results. (Told you, Mrs. Willis, that we were more interested in relationships than the Civil War!)

The most important thing I learned is that most guys aren't even looking for a soul mate yet. And that seventy-five percent of guys really do like girls with confidence! I need to work on that.

After class, a lot of people stood around asking questions, like I'm suddenly some kind of authority on love. Move over, Bebe Truelove!