Dexter turned to the vocabulary section and began reading off a list. But every word he quizzed Eden on, she got wrong. After ten minutes, he closed the study guide.
“You’re not concentrating.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t,” Eden wailed. “I keep thinking about Keith and Miss Braids.”
“Miss Braids?”
“Deena!” Eden spat out. “His new girlfriend.” A thought suddenly occurred to Eden. “I bet it was her idea to have Keith text me! Oooh, she better hide the next time she sees me because I’m going to yank every single one of those braids out of her head!”
“Why are you letting them get to you this way?” Dexter asked. “Okay, Keith dumped you. And maybe his new girlfriend helped him. They’re nasty and they deserve each other. You deserve better.”
“I do?”
“Yes, you do. But you can’t sit around feeling sorry for yourself.”
Dexter began packing up his bag.
“Where are you going?” Eden asked.
“We’re not going to get anything done this morning,” he said, pulling his book bag back over his head. “Why don’t we meet after school and try again? Maybe by then you’ll have gotten this out of your system.”
“Out of my system?” Eden snapped in disbelief. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing! “Have you ever been in love?”
Dexter shook his head. “No, I haven’t.”
Eden pointed a finger at Dexter’s chest. “Until you do, don’t tell me what I should and shouldn’t be feeling. It’s not easy getting over a broken heart!”
Then Eden gathered her books and stormed out of the library.
“We need to go to the mall after school,” Claudia announced as she sat across from Natalie and Eden in the cafeteria.
“We do?” Natalie asked. “Why?”
“Shopping! Not only do I want to buy a new outfit for my party on Saturday night, but I want to find a dress for the Valentine’s Day dance. We’ve only got a week to shop and if we don’t find anything at the mall, then I want to go into Manhattan this weekend.”
Natalie popped a straw into her can of Diet Pepsi. “Any idea what kind of dress you want?”
Claudia shook her head. “I just want it to be pink.”
Natalie vaguely recalled Claudia saying something the day before about wanting a pink dress but she couldn’t remember why. Half the time, she tuned Claudia out, which was risky, since you didn’t want Claudia to think you weren’t hanging on to her every word. Natalie decided to take a chance. “Pink? How come?”
“Pink is the perfect color for Valentine’s Day.”
“Don’t mention that day to me,” Eden moaned as she took a bite of her grilled cheese sandwich.
Claudia turned to Natalie. “What’s wrong with her?”
Eden pushed away her sandwich. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’ve been dumped!”
Claudia opened a bag of barbecue potato chips. “Are you still boo-hooing over it? Please! It’s time to move on!”
“Claudia!” Natalie exclaimed, putting an arm around Eden and giving her a hug. “Can’t you be more sensitive? Eden’s hurting.”
“And whose fault is that?” Claudia bit into a potato chip and started crunching. “Are you going to mope around because Keith broke your heart? He’s not worth it. That’s why you have to come shopping with me this afternoon.”
“I do?” Eden asked.
Claudia nodded wisely. “The best revenge is looking hot. Plus, it’ll help you find a new boyfriend.”
“I’m through with dating,” Eden vowed.
Claudia laughed. “You say that now. But you’ll go running the next time a hunky jock flexes his muscles at you. Wait and see.”
Eden stared at Claudia in disbelief. “Are you saying I’m superficial? That I only care about what a guy looks like?”
Claudia began counting off on her fingers. “Let’s see. Keith was on the basketball team. Luther was on the baseball team. Malcolm was on the football team. What did they all have in common? Muscles, muscles, and more muscles.”
“That’s not my fault,” Eden snapped. “I’m a cheerleader! We ride the same bus with the guys to the games. It’s how we got to know each other.”
“Enough with the jocks!” Claudia exclaimed, opening a bottle of peach Snapple and taking a sip. “You need to start looking elsewhere for dating material. The mall is the perfect place!”
“You have a point,” Eden grudgingly agreed. “But I can’t go today.”
“How come?”
“I rescheduled my tutoring session with Dexter for after school.”
Claudia turned to Natalie. “I guess it’s just you and me.”
Natalie shook her head. “I can’t go either.”
Claudia pouted. “Why not?”
“I promised my neighbor Lisa that I’d babysit Bonnie.”
“Ugh! How can you stand being around that rug rat again? My ears are still ringing from all that wailing she did yesterday afternoon.”
“It didn’t last very long.” Of course, that was because of Leo. Natalie hoped that Bonnie didn’t decide to throw another tantrum once her mother left the house.
As if reading her mind, Claudia said, “Better remember to bring a set of earplugs.”
Jennifer was busy working on her Most Romantic Couple essay when a voice asked, “Is this seat taken?”
She looked up and saw Will standing above her with a lunch tray.
“What do you want?” she asked in surprise.
“Is that any way to greet your boyfriend?” Will scolded as he slid into the seat opposite Jennifer and unwrapped a ham-and-cheese hero. “Don’t you think we should be seen having lunch together? After all, we are dating.”
Jennifer leaned across the table. “Go away! I don’t want anyone to know about us until Saturday night.”
Will took a bite of his hero and started talking with his mouth full. “Why’s that?”
Jennifer peered over Will’s shoulder and across the cafeteria to the table where Claudia was sitting with her back to them. “I want the element of surprise. Claudia isn’t going to expect me to come to her party with you.”
Will followed Jennifer’s gaze. “Relax. She can’t see us. Contrary to popular belief, not all demons have eyes in the back of their heads.”
Jennifer ignored his joke. “Still, you should leave. Just to be on the safe side.”
“Where’s your sidekick?”
“If you mean Violet, she’s in the library studying. She’s got a test in American History next period.”
Will pointed to the pages in Jennifer’s hand. “What are you working on?”
“Our essay.”
“Our essay?”
“For the Most Romantic Couple contest,” she explained.
“Mind if I take a look?”
Jennifer grudgingly handed over the pages she’d been working on. “It’s very rough,” she warned him. “I still have to polish it up.”
She watched as Will read the pages. From the face he was making, she could see he didn’t like them.
“What’s wrong?” she asked in a panic.
“It’s so, so . . .” Will struggled to find the right word. “Ooey-gooey. And sappy!”
“Don’t you mean sweet and romantic?”
“No, I mean ooey-gooey. You’re giving me sugar shock! We met on New Year’s Eve and I asked if I could give you your first kiss of the new year?”
“I already told Claudia that, so it has to be part of our story.”
“We talk on the phone every night? We like snuggling on the couch watching TV? We go to pet shops and look at the puppies in the window, giving them names? We like walking through the snow holding hands?” Will gagged. “This isn’t me!”
“Then who are you?” Jennifer asked.
“You tell me,” Will challenged.
“Fine,” Jennifer said. “You’re a bad boy. You like breaking the rules. You like doing your own thing and not answering to anyone else. You like s
hocking people and catching them off guard. You never expected to go out with a ‘good’ girl like me. You only go out with girls who are as bad as you.”
“That’s an urban myth. I go out with lots of nice girls.”
“But you only go out with them once,” Jennifer reminded him.
Will shook his head. “That’s not true. Sometimes I go out with them twice. Same with the so-called bad girls, who really aren’t so bad, just so you know.”
“You’re hard to figure out,” Jennifer continued. “You don’t want anyone to get too close, so you keep them at a distance.”
“What’s so hard? I’d rather hang out with my friends, do my own thing. I don’t need some girl constantly harping at me, asking me where I am, where I’m going, telling me when to call her and freaking out if I forget. I already have a mother. I don’t need another one.”
“Do you think all girls are like that?”
“I don’t think you are.”
“You don’t?” Jennifer was surprised.
Will shook his head. “Nope. I think you’re your own person. Look at the way you’re standing up to Claudia. You’re not sucking up to her the way everyone else does. You’re not afraid of her the way they are. I like that.”
“You do?”
“Sure. It takes guts.”
“Either that or stupidity,” Jennifer admitted. “I’m still not sure which.”
“And you don’t need to be defined by the person you’re dating. I don’t see you as the clingy type. You don’t have to be Will’s Girlfriend. If anything, you’re the kick-butt type! That’s why we’re attracted to each other. We do our own thing and we respect that. We’re not trying to change each other. And because we’ve just started going out, we’re still learning about each other and that’s the most romantic thing of all. Because we keep discovering how much we have in common.” Will leaned back in his seat, giving Jennifer a smug smile. “There’s your essay.”
Jennifer hated to admit it, but it was good. Very good. It was simple and honest and straight from the heart. She crumpled up the essay she had already written and began writing furiously on her notepad.
“You better be careful,” she warned him. “I think we may have gotten ourselves a nomination.”
After her last class of the day ended, Eden headed for the school library.
When she got to the table where she and Dexter usually studied, she found a surprise waiting.
A bouquet of red tulips.
They were wrapped with a yellow ribbon and the note attached had two words printed on it: I’m sorry.
The sight of the tulips put a smile on Eden’s face. Only one person could have left her the tulips. Keith!
Instantly, Eden started wondering. Did he want to get back together with her? Why else would he have left her the tulips?
She was deep in her thoughts, trying to figure out what the flowers meant, when Dexter pulled out the chair next to her. “Before we get started, I just want to say I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings this morning,” he said. “I was being insensitive. I should have been more aware of what you’re going through. It can’t be fun going through a breakup. I hope you’ll forgive me.”
Poor Dexter! He looked so serious. Like he was afraid that she was going to snap at him again. If anyone was owed an apology, it was him. He’d been the target of all her anger this morning. She’d been mad at Keith. At Deena. Even at Mindy. And she’d taken it all out on him.
“I’ll forgive you if you forgive me,” she said. “I wasn’t so nice myself. Deal?”
Dexter gave Eden a smile. “Deal.” He pointed to the bouquet she was holding. “I see you found the tulips.”
Eden held out the bouquet. “Aren’t they pretty?”
“I wasn’t sure if you’d like them.”
Eden stared at Dexter in shock. She couldn’t have heard him correctly. “What did you say?”
“I said I wasn’t sure if you’d like them.”
“You left me the tulips?”
“Yes. Why? Who did you think they were from?” As soon as the words were out of Dexter’s mouth, realization dawned on him. “You thought they were from Keith. Oh, Eden. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“That’s okay. It’s not your fault,” she assured him, fighting against the devastation she felt. Keith wasn’t sorry. He didn’t want to get back together with her. He was still with Deena. “You were trying to do something nice for me. It’s not your fault that I jumped to conclusions.”
Eden stared at the tulips. Now that she knew they were from Dexter, they weren’t as special as they had seemed. She pushed them to one side and pulled out her SAT exam book.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Dexter asked. “I feel awful. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I’m fine,” Eden insisted. “Really. Start quizzing me.”
As Dexter started asking her vocabulary words, Eden wondered if her day could get any worse.
Right now, all she wanted was for it to be over.
Once she was finished with Dexter, she was going to go home, get into bed, pull the covers over her head, and cry her eyes out.
The smell of tomato sauce and garlic was heavy in the air as Jennifer walked into Marinelli’s Pizzeria. She inhaled deeply and heard her stomach rumbling.
“Can I get you a slice?” Will asked from behind the counter. He stared at her stomach. “Sounds like you’re hungry.”
Jennifer blushed in embarrassment. “I’ll have a slice.”
“Pepperoni and mushroom?”
“Plain is fine,” she said as she reached into her shoulder bag for her wallet.
“Keep your money,” Will said. “It’s on me.”
“Thanks.”
“Why don’t you grab a corner table? I’ll be with you in a couple of minutes.”
As Jennifer waited for Will, she looked around the pizzeria. It was warm and cozy, decorated to look like it was actually in Italy. The walls were made of brick and they were strung with tiny white lights. The tables were covered with red and white checked tablecloths and on top of them were melted candles stuck in wine bottles. There was an Italian flag hanging on one wall and posters of Italian soccer players on another.
Jennifer watched as Will twirled a ball of pizza dough around one hand. It kept getting bigger and bigger until it was a flat circle. Then he placed it back down on the marble countertop, tossed some flour on it, added a swirl of tomato sauce with a big spoon, and sprinkled a handful of mozzarella. Then he slid a wooden spatula underneath the pizza and popped it into one of the four ovens behind him.
Jennifer left her seat and walked over to the counter. “I didn’t know you made the pizzas.”
“I’m a guy of many talents.” Will opened one of the other ovens and pulled out Jennifer’s slice. “Here you go. Piping hot.”
Jennifer blew onto the slice so she wouldn’t burn her mouth and then took a tiny bite. “Mmm. Good!”
“Want to try making one?” Will asked.
“How hard is it?” Jennifer asked, taking another bite of her slice.
“You won’t know until you try.”
Jennifer studied Will. “If you can do it, I can do it!”
Will laughed. “We’ll see! It’s not as easy as it looks.”
Jennifer stepped behind the counter next to Will and tried to imitate what she had seen him do earlier. But she was unable to twirl the ball of dough covering her hand. It was so heavy! It kept falling off her hand with a thud, scattering flour everywhere.
“Can’t I just flatten it out with a rolling pin?” she asked.
“You’re making a pizza pie, not an apple pie!” Will stood behind Jennifer, holding her arm straight. “You’re concentrating too much. Just go with the flow. Little twirls. As you keep doing it, the dough will start to grow and stretch.” Will began turning Jennifer’s arm. “Pretend you’re twirling a hula hoop around your wrist.”
Jennifer tried again and this time the ball of dough began to grow.
“I’m doing it!” she exclaimed.
“Keep twirling,” Will encouraged.
Jennifer tried to focus on her twirling, but it was hard with Will standing so close to her. The space behind the counter was small and she could sense him right behind her.
“Very good,” he whispered in her ear.
Chills traveled down Jennifer’s spine and she shivered. For a second, she wondered if Will was going to touch her, but he didn’t. Instead, he stepped away to wait on a customer and left her to twirling her dough. When she had a circle as big as the one Will had made, she added the other ingredients. As she did, she watched Will talking to the girl on the other side of the counter. She was the same age as them, but Jennifer didn’t recognize her from school. It was obvious that she was interested in more than just a slice of pizza. She kept batting her eyes at Will and asking him all sorts of meaningless questions. She was flirting with Will and he was flirting right back!
When she paid, the girl wrote her phone number down on a piece of paper and slipped it into the front pocket of Will’s shirt. “Call me,” she said.
Will gave her a smile. “I love making home deliveries.”
Will watched the girl leave the pizzeria before turning back to Jennifer. “How’s your pie coming?”
Jennifer stared at Will in disbelief. She couldn’t believe what she had just seen!
“What was that?” she demanded.
“What?” Will innocently asked.
Jennifer reached into Will’s pocket and pulled out the girl’s number, waving it in his face. “This!” she proclaimed before shredding the slip of paper and tossing the pieces into the garbage.
“Hey!” Will protested. “What did you do that for?”
“In case you’ve forgotten, you now have a girlfriend,” she reminded him. “Me! Your days of playing the field are over.”
“I wasn’t going to call her.” Will crossed his heart and gave Jennifer a sweet smile. “I swear.”
Jennifer was tempted to peek behind Will’s back to see if he was crossing his fingers. Oooh, he was good. A natural-born charmer. Always ready with a smile. He knew how to wrap girls around his little finger, but she wasn’t going to be one of those girls!
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