Biggest Flirts
Page 23
“When are you going to turn in the rest of these photos?” he asked me. “The deadline to send this section to the printer is two weeks from today.”
“Yeah,” I said doubtfully. “It’s been harder than I thought. I mean, taking the pictures isn’t hard,” I clarified quickly, before he reassigned some of my responsibilities. “We’ve had so many tests. It’s tricky to get out of class. And convincing some of our classmates to show up at a scheduled time is like herding cats.”
“Harper!” he exclaimed. “This is important. You’ve got to get organized.”
I opened my lips, but nothing came out. I was stunned. I prided myself on my organizational skills. Kennedy should have seen the schedule on my laptop. My arrangements for these photo shoots were difficult but, in the end, impeccable. If the people who were supposed to pose for my pictures didn’t meet me, how was that my fault? I couldn’t drag them out of physics class by the ears.
“I need these shots on a rolling basis so I can design the pages,” Kennedy said. “You can’t throw them all at me on the last day. If you make us miss the deadline, the class might not get our yearbooks before graduation. Then the yearbooks would be mailed to us and we wouldn’t get to sign them.”
My cheeks flamed hot. What had seemed like a fun project at first had quickly turned into a burden. I’d been trying to schedule these appointments during school, around my classes. At home, I selected the best photos and touched them up on my computer. But I also had other responsibilities. I’d signed on to photograph a 5K race at the town’s Labor Day festival on Monday. And of course I had to help Mom. She ran a bed and breakfast. I was required to contribute to the breakfast end of it. I didn’t see how I could produce these finished pictures for Kennedy any faster.
“Is everything okay here?” Mr. Oakley had walked up behind Kennedy.
“Of course,” Kennedy said. From his position, Mr. Oakley couldn’t see Kennedy narrow his eyes, warning me not to complain. Mr. Oakley had said at the beginning of school that he wanted the yearbook to run like a business, meaning we students reported to each other like employees to bosses, rather than crying to him about every minor problem. That meant Kennedy had a lot more power than a yearbook editor at a school where the advisor made the decisions.
For better or for worse.
Mr. Oakley looked straight at me. “Can you work this out yourselves?”
“Yes, sir.” My voice was drowned out by the bell ending the period.
As Mr. Oakley moved away and students gathered their books, Kennedy rolled his chair closer to mine and said in my ear, “Don’t raise your voice to me.”
Raise my voice? He was the one who’d raised his voice and caught Mr. Oakley’s attention.
The bell went silent.
Kennedy straightened. In his normal tone he said, “Tell Ms. Patel I’ll miss most of study hall. I’m going to stay here and get a head start on the other Superlatives pages, now that I know we’re in trouble.”
“Okay.” The argument hadn’t ended like I’d wanted, but at least he didn’t seem angry anymore.
I retrieved my book bag and smiled when I saw Quinn waiting for me just inside the doorway. His big grin made his dyed-black Goth hair and the metal stud jutting from his bottom lip look less threatening. Most people in school didn’t know what I knew: that Quinn was a sweetheart. We wound our way through the crowded halls toward Ms. Patel’s classroom.
“I overheard your talk with Kennedy,” Quinn said.
“Did you see his designs?” I asked. “I understand why he’d want to angle some photos for variety if the pictures themselves were boring. Mine aren’t.”
“He’ll change his mind when he sees your masterpieces,” Quinn assured me. “Speaking of the Superlatives, Noah said Brody’s been talking about you.”
I suspected where this was going. Noah and I hadn’t been as tight this school year, since I’d started dating Kennedy. In fact, if I hadn’t checked his calculus homework every day in study hall, we might not have talked at all. But last spring when we’d gone out, he’d told me what great friends he and Brody were. Brody’s dad had been their first football coach for the rec league in third grade. They’d played side by side ever since. Now Noah’s position on the team was right guard. His responsibility was to protect Brody from getting sacked before he could throw the ball. Friends that close definitely shared their opinions of the girl one of them had been teamed with as Perfect Couple.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Echols has written many romantic novels for teens and adults. She grew up in a small town on a beautiful lake in Alabama, where her high school senior class voted her Most Academic and Most Likely to Succeed. Please visit her at www.jennifer-echols.com.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
TEEN.SimonandSchuster.com
authors.simonandschuster.com/Jennifer-Echols
Also by Jennifer Echols
Endless Summer
The One That I Want
The Ex Games
Major Crush
Going Too Far
Forget You
Love Story
Such a Rush
Dirty Little Secret
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SIMON PULSE
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This Simon Pulse edition May 2014
Text copyright © 2014 by Jennifer Echols
Cover photographs copyright © 2014 by Michael Frost
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Cover design by Regina Flath
Interior design by Mike Rosamilia
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Echols, Jennifer.
Biggest flirts / Jennifer Echols. — First Simon Pulse edition.
p. cm. — (The Superlatives)
Summary: Tia likes to flirt, but she isn’t looking for a serious relationship. Will is the same way—
at least, that’s what Tia thinks. But Will wants a real girlfriend, so despite their chemistry,
he starts dating someone else. Then Tia and Will are elected their yearbook’s
Biggest Flirts, and things get really complicated.
[1. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 2. Flirting—Fiction. 3. Self-perception—Fiction.
4. High schools—Fiction. 5. Schools—Fiction. 6. Florida—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.E1967Bi 2014
[Fic]—dc23
2013027781
ISBN 978-1-4424-7446-8 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4424-7445-1 (pbk)
&
nbsp; ISBN 978-1-4424-7447-5 (eBook)