White is for Virgins (12 page)

Splendid. More white articles of clothing covered in un-washable, staining substance.

“Actually, Emery was being unreasonable.” Fox spoke up, looking innocent as ever. “She’s unwilling to do her job and do what the daycare asks her to.”

Nina gave me a questioning look. I glared menacingly at Fox before explaining myself.

“Fox wants me to look after his little sister while he runs a race for the school team on Saturday, but I’ll have to work two extra hours on top of my eight at the daycare. I need a break, and Holly’s his responsibility,” I said speedily, trying not to whine.

Nina stood there for a moment, evaluating.

“Ok, I have the perfect idea.” She smiled as she continued, “Emery, you will watch Holly and take her to Fox’s race.”

My jaw basically detached from my face and fell to the ground while Fox grinned victoriously.

“And I’ll drive the van over and we can begin commercializing for the Blood Drive. It’ll be great publicity, with so many young people around,” she finished.

I shook my head and sighed, knowing there was no way I could get my ass out of this mess.

“Yay,” I muttered, “Now if you’ll excuse me.”

I hoped Holly was in a good mood. I’d much rather preferred to be in the presence of a cute little two-year-old than spend another minute with that manipulative, conceited, annoying womanizer.

I didn’t understand how they were related. Holly was such an angel and Fox was such a beast. I meant that in a bad way.

The worst way possible.

Chapter 8

“Emery!” I heard someone shout, “Emery Price!”

I spun around, bumping into someone in the process, and headed back into the direction of Mrs. Sawyer’s room. Of course, her room was on a different lane of the hallway. I was going in the opposite direction of everyone else and trying to dodge traffic, which took me some time.

“Yes?” I asked, fixing my basically windswept hair.

“I just wanted to let you know beforehand that you scored highest on the exam last week,” she started, leaning against her desk. But before I could jump for joy, a giant box of irony fell from the sky and ruined my moment of glory.

“I would like for you to know that your participation in this class is crucial, and I’ve yet to see you raise your hand and say what is on your mind,” Mrs. Sawyer stated, folding her hands in her lap as she remained on the edge of her desk.

I could feel my cheeks turn pink as we stood there in silence.

“I’ll work on it, Mrs. Sawyer, I just – it’s not… particularly easy for me to speak out in class,” I told her weakly.

“Well Ms. Emery, you’d better fix that before both your grade and your self-confidence suffer greatly,” she said sternly. “That is all. I expect a little more from you next week in class. We’ll be
discussing
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
.”

I caught her emphasis on the dreadful D word.

Another thing to add to my To Do List: work on social and public speaking skills.

***

.FOX POV.

POW! The gun went off, and did we.

With a quick burst of energy, I established my position at a comfortable and temporary 2nd place.

I could feel the ground beneath me moving, like I was on a treadmill. Following the tiny little guy that was in the lead, I waited for just the right moment to claim victory.

60 meters in; he’s still going strong. Impressive, but not good enough.

He was breathing hard, and his legs weren’t moving as swiftly as before. I took advantage of this fault. As he slowed down, I took the liberty of speeding up.

The checkered flag waved as I crossed the finish line in 1
st
, Nick took 2
nd
, little man – 3
rd
.

“Too easy,” I breathed, giving Nick dabs.  

We sprinted back over to Coach D, where we had water waiting for us.

“Excellent boys,” he commented, slapping us on the back with his meaty hands, “We’re going all the way again this year, I can feel it.”

“Hell yes, we are!” Nick laughed, spraying water all over his sweaty face.

I turned to the bleachers, where girls were screaming by the hundreds.

“This will never get old,” I laughed, waving to some of the blondes by the track. I ran my hands through my sweaty hair and winked at them, sending three girls into a fit of giggles.

“How do you do it, man?” Nick sighed.

“You just wink, and they flock to you,
Nikki
. It’s simple,” I shrugged, humoring his stupid question, while scanning the crowds for more girls.

“No – I mean, how do you not get bored?” he asked, stretching for the next race.

“Bored?
Of girls
?” I asked incredulously, thinking I had heard him wrong.

“Of
so many
girls. You’ve never met one that stuck out to you? One that was better than all the rest?” he asked, messing up his brown, shaggy mop.

“Nope,” I scowled, “And if I did I’d never-”
let her go.
I didn’t finish the sentence, because Nick didn’t need me to rag on him anymore than his parents did.

Someone’s incessant shrills caught my attention, and I scanned the bleachers for the source.

Gorgeous blonde, gorgeous redhead, cute blonde, no, no…

My eyes landed on a relatively short girl – in Red Cross attire - jumping up and down with a poster in her hands, shouting, “Donate Blood! Save a life!”

Good Lord.

***

.EMERY POV.

I was jumping up and down, frantically advertising the Blood Drive. In the midst of it all, I ended up making a complete fool of myself. These people went to my school.

Despite my flushed face, my sore throat, and my need for punching Fox in the gut for dragging Nina into this, I continued my shouting.

After a while, I got used to the strange looks people were giving me. Even though I was still dreading Monday’s Creative Writing class, I sucked it up and put on a brave face. Donating blood was a serious thing. I was old enough to donate this year, and if I could save a life, or help someone out, then hell yeah I would do it.

“Think of the others!” I said, holding Holly in one hand while I waved the small poster board with the Red Cross sign on it.

I almost resulted in bribing them with a free slice of pizza, like all the other major hospitals were doing, but Nina said it was a last resort. Pizza cost a lot of money, and we were not sure if we could pay for it since we were a
nonprofit
organization.

“Guilt trip, huh?” a husky voice asked behind me.

“Yep - oddly enough, embarrassing myself didn’t work,” I huffed, facing Fox with what I hoped was a cold glare.

He smirked, eyeing the brunette approaching us. She was a carbon copy of Megan Fox, except she had more Botox.

“Hey Foxtrot, nice legs,” she said, biting her bottom lip seductively.

Foxtrot
? I stifled my laughter as I turned to Fox. He seemed distracted.

“Thanks, Teresa,” he responded, struggling to focus on her face rather than her exposed chest.

“Call me
Ree
,” she giggled, twirling her straightened and fried brown hair with a bony, manicured finger. She was
so
pushing her chest out.

“Not in front of the children!” I scolded, cradling Holly close. I gave Teresa a disapproving look before moving on to the next set of bleachers.

What a ho.
Both of them were, actually.
What hoes.

“Racers to the starting line!” a voice announced.

I saw Teresa squeeze Fox’s butt, sending him towards the others.

I shook my head and walked back over to Nina. We had a little bench in front of the tennis court, where we hung the giant banner over the tall fence. She was sitting with her legs perched up against the little wooden table we’d set up. Her ankles were nowhere in sight.

“Any luck, honey?” Nina sighed.

“Not really - even annoying them isn’t working,” I shrugged, taking a seat on the bench beside her.

“Well at least we got you and me so far. That counts for something. And all the staff at the hospital too,” she pointed out, gesturing for me to give her Holly.

“Yeah, but we could use an extra hundred donors.”

We sat there, watching the race for a while. The sun was slowly starting to set as autumn was drifting in, but God, was it humid.

I watched Fox as he sped off, leaving hopeful competitors in the dust. He was smart when it came to a game plan, that was a given. Sly, too.

His hair flopped in his face as he crossed the line and came to a halt, placing his hands on his thighs as he caught his breath.

Everyone in the bleachers stood and chanted his name as he smiled and poured water all over his face and hair.