The Secret Crush (11 page)

“But thanks to you, I'm not the new girl anymore,” Chloe pointed out.

“
You
were the new girl?” Missy sounded surprised. “You look like you've been going to Brookdale forever.”

“I moved here from Atlanta over the summer.”

“That explains your accent,” Missy said. “It's really cute.”

“It's just normal to me,” Chloe said. “Nothing special.”

“What's it like living in the South?” Missy asked her.

Chloe shook her head slightly. “Normal, I guess—like here.”

“Really?” Missy asked. “It must be totally different.”

“It's not,” Chloe told her. Zee detected a not-very-happy tone in Chloe's voice—the same one she used with Kathi sometimes.

If Missy heard it, she didn't let on. Instead she leaned forward and said, “You guys need to tell me who's hot and who's not.”

“You can't tell?” Zee asked.

Missy shrugged. “Well, all the guys are cute. I just don't want to have a crush, then find out he's a nose picker.”

The table broke out in laughter. Even Chloe joined in.

Kathi sighed. “Well, if you're worried about immature boys, I would avoid all of the students.”

“Huh?” Zee said. “Then who's left?”

“The teachers, of course.”

“I'm afraid to ask who,” Chloe said.

“Whatev,” Kathi said. “If you don't want to know…”

“We do!” all the girls shouted at once.

“You have to tell us.” Missy sounded desperate.

Kathi looked off to each side, then behind her to make
sure the coast was clear. “I think Mr. P is cute.”

“Ooooooooh!” the girls groaned.

“He's so old,” Jen said. “He must be thirty!”

“The word is
mature
,” Kathi corrected her.

Mr. P! That explains Kathi's total lack of interest in Landon,
Zee thought.

“Well, I think Marcus is a total cutie!” Chloe spilled, giggling excitedly.

Again the whole table erupted. Even though Chloe had never actually confessed her crush on Marcus to Zee, Zee had figured it out a while ago.

“Marcus?” Jen said indignantly. “You're not exactly his type.” It was no secret to most of the group that Jen had a crush on Marcus, too.

Chloe stopped laughing. “What's his type?”

“Someone more feminine.”

“Pull-ease—”

“Who do you like, Missy?” Zee cut her off. The girls couldn't fight, or they wouldn't be able to work together on the musical. Plus, this was the perfect opportunity to find out if Missy liked Landon. Zee took a long drink of soda so she wouldn't look too anxious.

“I thought it was obvious,” Missy said. “Jasper.”

Soda shot across the table before Zee could stop it.

“You like Jasper?” Chloe asked.

“Yeah.” Missy got a worried look on her face. “You're just friends, right?”

Chloe nodded. “Uh-huh.” She turned to Zee and bit her lower lip.

“What?” Zee said.

“You might want to wipe off your shirt,” Chloe said, handing her a napkin.

Zee took it and dabbed at the soda droplets. “Uh…yeah…Jasper's a really great guy,” she said.

“Do you know if he likes anyone?” Missy said.

“He hasn't said anything to me,” Zee told her.

Zee was feeling kind of weird. But why? She was definitely happy that Missy didn't like Landon that way, so what was bothering her?
Am I jealous that Missy has a crush on Jasper?

“These jeans aren't the only cool costumes Zee and I found at the thrift shop,” Kathi said, changing the subject.

Zee was happy to move on. “Yeah, Kathi and I were thinking that she and I could wear hoodies and everyone else would have cool T-shirts in the same color.”

“We'll do something similar for the boys, too,” Kathi added.

“That's cute,” Missy said. “But don't you think that's
done too much? At my old school, we put on a play, and everyone put together their own costume.”

“But Mr. P likes our ideas,” Zee said defensively.

“You could suggest my way to him,” Missy said.

“What do you think, Zee?” Kathi asked. “Should we ask Mr. P if everyone could create their own costume?”

“No!” Zee said loudly. “Everyone has a job. Ours is costumes.”

“You can still be in charge of coordinating everything,” Jen suggested.

“That wouldn't be very interesting,” Chloe said, looking angrily at Jen. “Besides, no one is butting into anyone else's job.”

“That's right!” Zee said. “Because Kathi and I are doing them. No matter what!” First Landon, then Jasper…and now costumes. Was Missy going to take
everything
from Zee? “I'm leaving!”

“I'm outta here, too,” Chloe said, glaring at Jen.

The girls got up and walked away from the group.

“N
ow what do we do?” Zee looked around the noisy ISC. She was so upset, the strobing lights and loud music made thinking hard.

Chloe planted her fist on her hip. “I'd like to go back and give them a piece of my mind.”

“I think you already did,” Zee told her.

“Well, I don't feel like skating anymore. And we can't go to Missy's house now,” Chloe said, taking her phone out of her pocket. “I guess I should call my parents to come get us.”

Zee suddenly had an idea. “Wait!” she said. “You don't want to bother your parents in the middle of their dinner.” Zee felt horrible, but she knew who could make her feel
better. Landon.

Chloe slipped her phone back in her pocket. “You're probably right. What now?”

Zee peeked into the arcade. Conrad and Marcus were playing a video game. Jasper sat at a table reading a book. Landon was watching cartoons on the TV in the corner of the room.

“Can you hang out with Jasper while I talk to Landon for a minute?” Zee asked.

“But you're not supposed to be alone with Landon,” Chloe told her.

“I'm not breaking my parents' rule at all. You'll be right there with me,” Zee pointed out.

“That's true,” Chloe agreed. “Okay, I'll do it. I'd rather be with Jasper than those girls anyway.”

“Thanks!” Zee didn't know what exactly she was going to say to Landon, so she was a little nervous. She walked to the corner of the room and sat down next to him.

“Hi,” he said, surprised.

“You looked kind of lonely sitting here all by yourself,” Zee said.

“What?” Landon said, leaning closer.

“How's the party?” Zee tried again.

“I'm not really having fun,” Landon said.

Nearby an air hockey puck clacked against the sides of the table, and a group of boys playing foosball shouted.

“It's kind of noisy here,” Zee said. “Do you want to go somewhere quieter?”

“Okay. Sure.” Together Zee and Landon walked out of the arcade, right past Chloe and Jasper, who were playing Ping-Pong and didn't see them leaving. As soon as they passed through the door, it got quieter. Missy, Jen, and Kathi were still sitting at the table in a huddle.
Gossiping about
me,
probably,
Zee figured.

“Why don't we go outside?” Zee suggested. “I'm done skating anyway.”

“Sure,” Landon said.

They headed out the front door. Suddenly surrounded by quiet, Zee breathed a sigh of relief. Now she could think more clearly. “We can sit on that bench,” she said, pointing to a spot slightly around the corner of the building.

Landon and Zee sat down. “So why aren't you hanging
out with the girls?” he asked.

“We had a fight,” Zee said.

“No way! About what?”

“Well, mostly about the costumes,” Zee told him.

“Really?” Landon turned to face Zee. “With Kathi?”

“No, she's being cool about it,” Zee explained. “But Missy just wants us to do it her way.”

“Missy? I didn't know she was like that.”

“Well, she is.”

Landon scooted closer to Zee. “But it's your job.”

“I know,” Zee said. “But it's not only her. Everyone wants to tell me what to do.”

“Like who?”

“My parents. And my brother.” Zee sniffled. She could feel tears puddling in her eyes.

“What are they saying to you?” Landon asked.

“Being a singer is my dream, but they're always telling me it's not as important as other things.”

“Yeah, your mom can be pretty intense,” Landon agreed.

Tears rolled down Zee's cheeks. “Except for you, no one thinks the musical is as important as I do. Even Chloe and Jasper don't get it. I feel so lonely.”

“I know what you mean—you know, when your best
friends aren't there for you.” Landon put his arms around Zee. A hug was just what she needed.

Zee looked into his blue eyes. Her heart pounded as they moved closer to her face. Before she knew it, his lips were nearly touching hers.

“There you are, Zee!” Chloe said, coming around the corner.

“With Landon!” Jasper said.

Wiping her tears, Zee quickly stood as Landon slid back to the other end of the bench. “Chlasper and Joey!” Zee shouted. “I mean, Jaspy…uh…Chlosper. I mean, you surprised me.”

“I didn't know where you were,” Chloe said.

“And I didn't know where Landon was. Nobody did,” Jasper added. “It wasn't very polite of you to leave Conrad's party without telling him.”

“It wasn't Landon's fault. I was really upset, and he was just helping me,” Zee defended him. “We lost track of time.” When she looked over Chloe's shoulder, she realized that she was definitely going to need to defend herself, too. “Ohmylanta! My parents!” Zee said. “What are they doing here?”

J.P. and Ginny Carmichael were walking across the parking lot toward the group, and judging by the looks on their faces, they weren't happy.

“When I couldn't find you, I got desperate,” Chloe
explained. “I asked Missy if she had seen you. We were worried, so she called her father.” She bit her lip and looked at Zee's parents, who were getting closer. “I guess he called your parents.” Chloe handed Zee her purse. “You left this at the table.”

Zee rolled her eyes to keep from crying again. She knew she was in big trouble. She never imagined her first kiss would be such a disaster. In fact, it was such a huge disaster that it wasn't even a kiss!

Zee waved to her friends and started walking toward her parents. “I'll see you when—I mean,
if
—I get out of prison.”

 

Zee filled Ally in on the fight.

 

Zee reread the IM. It was totally cool of Ally to help her out with her problem, but her comment about the thrift shop stung. Did she mean to make Zee feel so bad? Zee thought she'd always be able to count on Ally, but she desperately wished they could hang out together in person. Too much was getting lost over IMs and email. She needed Ally here.