April Fools' Joke (Holiday High Series Book 3)

by Kellie McAllen

  “Based on what I’ve seen so far, most people have the capacity to be pretty awful, including me.”

  Kerri wrinkles her forehead and frowns. “I guess I’m gonna have to prove you wrong then.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jake

  She might as well be naked.

  My eyes bulge out, and I bulge in other places, too, the minute I see KC walk into 1st period in a skirt that would probably expose her panties if she bent over even a little bit.

  It’s black, and so is the tight tank she’s wearing with it and the high-heeled ankle boots with suede fringe, but she doesn’t look goth today. She looks smokin’ hot.

  Sure, it’s unseasonably hot outside today, but the only time I’ve ever seen KC show that much skin was the day we went to the beach. Man, that was a good day. My mind plays back the image of her slathering suntan lotion all over her bare skin, and I get hot and sweaty just thinking about it.

  I’ve been dying to see her in that little clothing ever since, but seeing her like this today puts me on red alert. Why is she dressed like that? Is she trying to impress somebody? It’s working, that’s for sure. Every male in class is sneaking peeks at her today, including me. Although, for me it’s more like unabashed gawking. I literally cannot take my eyes off her. The building could burn down around me and I wouldn’t notice.

  Two days ago she wore jeans. Not a big deal except they weren’t baggy and they weren’t black. They looked designer, and they hugged her ass in a way that made my hands jealous. Yesterday she wore a burgundy tunic and black leggings that skimmed her body like a second skin. Again, a departure from her typical wardrobe. Today, the skirt that leaves nothing to the imagination. What gives?

  I spend the rest of the morning alternating between fantasies about her and worries about why she decided to dress like that. Is she into someone? Guys seem to be coming out of the woodwork to talk to her lately, and every time someone approaches her I tense, wondering if she’s into him. She smiles and chats with all of them which surprises me even more, because I’m sure some of them are making crude comments. I know these guys too well.

  I don’t know why it matters to me; it’s not like I have any claim on her. Besides, I have someone new in my life. I have an amazing connection with Kaitlyn, the girl I met on Tinder. I never expected that, but Kaitlyn is awesome. She’s smart and sassy and we always have something to talk about. We talked for hours on Saturday and again on Sunday about everything and nothing. She turned me down when I suggested we met up, but I was probably just moving a little too fast. I really think there’s potential there.

  So why can’t I stop thinking about KC?

  I see Kerri talking to KC in the hall before lunch, and the two are smiling and laughing in a way that makes my chest ache. It’s not that I don’t want KC to be happy. Of course I do. I just want it to be because of me.

  She doesn’t scowl at me anymore or make efforts to avoid me, she just pretends I don’t exist, which I think is even worse. Meanwhile, she’s perfectly willing to make conversation with a dozen other guys. Every time I see her, she’s talking to a different one. What is up with that?

  I can’t stand it anymore; I need the scoop from someone in the know. I corner Kerri in the hallway after lunch, demanding information.

  “Okay, Kerri, spill it. What’s up with KC?” I put my arm on the wall above her, blocking her in, but she’s not intimidated by me. All she does is lick her cupcake and blink at me.

  “What are you talking about?” Her words sound ignorant, but the look on her face tells me she knows exactly what I mean.

  “Why is she dressing like that, for one?” Okay, I sound a little freaky. I should probably tone it down.

  Kerri isn’t fazed, though. I guess she’s used to standing up to blustering males with all those brothers she has. She takes another lick of frosting before she responds, making me want to strangle her.

  “Maybe she’s just ready for a change. She wasn’t always goth, you know. It’s just a defense mechanism. I guess she doesn’t need it anymore.” Kerri shrugs and takes a bite, getting frosting on her nose.

  Okay, yeah, that makes sense. It stands to reason that she’d come out of her shell eventually, once the trauma had worn off. I wince as I remember that some of that trauma was on me. But still. “Why is she talking to so many guys?”

  Kerri can’t stop her frosting-coated lips from spreading open in a devious smile. “Maybe they’re complimenting her on her new look… or maybe they’re talking to her because I told them she was looking for a date.”

  “What! Why would you do that?” My voice echoes down the hallway, and a couple people stop to gape at me. I back up a little so they don’t think I’m trying to attack Kerri.

  She puts her hand on her hip and glares at me. “Because she’s a great girl, and she deserves a nice boyfriend! And a lot of guys need a little nudge to work up the courage to talk to a girl. And because she has an amazing dress for prom and no one to go with.”

  My anger deflates a little. “She does?”

  Kerri bobs her head. “Uh huh. She showed it to me. Uh-mazing. She wasn’t even going to go, but her mom bought her the dress and she loves it so much she’s thinking about going stag. Lots of girls are going stag because half the guys in this school are douche bags.” She glares at me, and the guilt piles up higher, like a mound of shit sitting on my chest.

  “But KC deserves better than that, Jake. I just want her to be happy, for once.”

  “She looked a little too happy talking to all those guys, if you ask me,” I grumble. I can’t help it; I’m an ass.

  “If you’re so jealous, why don’t you ask her?”

  I give her a deadpan stare. “Uh, because she hates my guts, remember?”

  “Well, you deserve that. But maybe she’d be willing to give you a second chance. I think she was starting to like you, you know… before.”

  I wince and run a hand over my face. “Yeah, I thought so, too. I can’t believe I ruined it. You know I didn’t mean to hurt her, right? You know I’m a good guy. Would you put in a good word with her for me?”

  Kerri stares at me for a minute with narrowed eyes, the serious expression out of place on her normally bubbly face. “Do something to prove it, Jake, and we’ll see.”

  She ducks under my arm and walks away, leaving me even more flustered than before. She’s right, though. I’ve earned a lot of bad karma with the stunts I’ve pulled. Maybe I need to do something to make up for it. But what?

  When I get to PE, the guys in the locker room are bragging about the girls they’ve met online, comparing photos and boasting about how hot the girls are for them.

  “Look at this one.” Mikey holds up his phone, a set of giant boobs filling the screen, and half the guys press in to gawk at it.

  “She sends me a different one every day.” He flips through his camera roll, flashing pic after pic.

  How can he be so crude? If a girl was sending me tit pics, I sure wouldn’t be showing them to my friends. Wouldn’t you want to save that for yourself? Kerri is right. The guys at this school really are douche bags, and the worst part is, I’m the one that inspired them.

  “I’ve already been dropping hints about prom with Lexie, and she’s totally into it,” Alex says, yanking off his shirt. “I think I’m gonna ask her tonight to go with me.”

  “Yeah, I think I’m gonna ask the girl I’ve been chatting with, too. Can you believe a chick like this loves hockey just as much as me?” Devon shows a picture of an Indian girl with the face of an angel and the body to match.

  “What I can’t believe is how many hot girls there are in this town! I swear, every one of you found someone 10 times hotter than any girl at this school. Why don’t any of these babes go here? The girls here are dogs compared to them — woof!” Luke holds his hands on top of his head like dog ears.

  “They’re worse than dogs. They’re like the vomit that comes out of a dog after eating a bowl of rotten food!” anothe
r guy adds.

  I can’t help it. All I can see is KC and every other girl without a date, standing there alone at prom in an expensive dress and uncomfortable shoes, trying to pretend they’re having the best night of their lives when inside they’re hurt and broken.

  “Guys!” I bellow out, my voice bouncing around the concrete walls and reverberating off the metal lockers.

  They freeze and gape at me like I said there was a monster about to eat their balls.

  I drop my volume a bit now that I have their attention. “Listen to yourselves. You sound like assholes. Don’t some of you have sisters who go to this school? How would you feel if somebody talked that way about them?”

  Some of the guys make faces at me like I’m being a killjoy, but a few of them have the decency to look embarrassed.

  “I know you’re psyched about these hot chicks you found, but do you realize how many girls at this school don’t have dates to prom?”

  “That’s because they boycotted us! They don’t want to go to prom with us,” Aiden complains, slamming a locker.

  “Yeah, because you invited them to a dogfight!” I rake a hand through my hair, leaving it sticking up all over.

  “Look, I know I don’t have any room to talk, I’m just as guilty, but what we did was wrong. We were cruel to those girls, and now they’re suffering again, missing out on prom, just so they can teach us a lesson.”

  “So, what do you suggest we do, Dr. Phil? They’re still mad at us. They’re not gonna say yes, even if we ask them.” Matt pouts.

  “We can start by saying we’re sorry. How many of you apologized to the girl you kissed at the party?” As I’m saying this, I realize I never truly apologized to KC, either. Sure, I made an effort to talk to her, but I was always trying to make it look like I didn’t do anything wrong. But the truth is, I did, and it’s time I admitted it.

  A lot of heads wag, but nobody speaks up.

  “That’s what I thought. I think we owe them that, at least. Maybe if we all apologize they’ll forgive our loser asses and end the boycott. If you really want to make it up to them you should offer to be their date to prom.”

  A lot of the guys blow me off, but a few of them seem to take my words to heart. All I can do is hope what I said sinks in eventually.

  I want to go talk to KC right away and offer her a real apology, not just a bunch of excuses for my behavior. Maybe that’s what Kerri meant when she said I needed to do something good.

  Chapter Seventeen

  KC

  Okay, so maybe I understand why Jake likes pranking people so much. Torturing him is kind of fun. He’s cute when he’s jealous.

  It didn’t have anything to do with him at first. I just decided it was time to be myself again, or at least a version of myself that was somewhere in between bratty, spoiled princess and moody, emo girl. I toned down the goth makeup a little more each day and started mixing some of my old clothes in with my goth wear.

  I don’t think too many people noticed at first. I never talked to anyone, so they were used to ignoring me. But Jake sure did. I could feel his eyes boring into me all day long the first day, and all I did was swap my cargo pants for jeans.

  Then guys started talking to me. At first I thought it was because of the wardrobe change, and all that did was piss me off. Like I’m not worthy of attention unless I dress a certain way? But then one of them spilled the beans and said that Kerri had told him I was interested in him.

  I wanted to be mad at her, but I knew she was only trying to help. And when I saw how Jake reacted, I didn’t mind the attention one bit. He was curious when Trent came up to me in 1st period one day. I could see Jake craning his neck, trying to see what was going on.

  Trent made up some excuse to talk to me, asking me about the homework assignment and offering to help me study for the next test. He’s cute, and he seems like a nice guy, but he’s not my type, so I gave him a vague answer, saying I’d text him some time. He didn’t notice that I didn’t ask for his number. But the way Jake glared at him, you’d think he was a second-class citizen who had no business even looking at me.

  In third period, Marcus complimented my plain, black leggings, which was totally lame because literally every single girl in the whole school wears the same pair at least once a week. But when Marcus bent down to inspect them, Jake’s eyes bugged out and his face ignited, so I couldn’t resist prolonging Marcus’ focus for just a bit longer, rambling on about where I got them and how comfy they were.

  At lunch time, a guy named Aaron struck up a conversation with me in the cafeteria line, and I could feel Jake glaring from across the room. I made a point of smiling and touching Aaron a couple times, and I’m pretty sure I could see smoke coming from Jake’s ears. When Aaron invited me to sit with him, I was this close to saying yes, but I didn’t want to lead him on, so I told him I’d already agreed to sit with someone else. I went to a table with a couple guys at it, though, just to see what Jake would do. I don’t think he ate anything for lunch that day; he was too busy watching me.

  By the end of the day, it was obvious that Jake was jealous of all the attention I was getting, and I have to admit it was satisfying to watch him squirm. It gave me a naughty idea.

  That night, I chatted with him online again, as Kaitlyn, subtly steering the conversation towards fashion to get an idea what turned Jake on. By the end of the night, I knew just what to wear the next day to drive him wild. I even had an all-black version so it wouldn’t look too out of character for me.

  Who am I kidding? The old KC wouldn’t be caught dead in something like this, but the new KC is totally rockin’ her skater skirt and ankle boots. I feel kind of like Kaitlyn again, the center of attention, the girl that every guy wants to date and every girl wants to be.

  Kerri catches me in the hallway before lunch and waves me over. When I get there, she tugs on my skirt and winks at me. “I like the new look, KC, super fab. Trying to snag a date?”

  “Nah, just ready for a change. But I am getting a lot of male attention lately, thanks to you, I think.” I raise an eyebrow, and she blushes and grins.

  “I just thought you might like a date to prom, so I gave a few guys a little nudge your way. I hope you’re not mad at me. Mia told me I was meddling.” She scrunches her nose, making her freckles squish together.

  “It’s okay, Kerri. I don’t really mind. I’m trying a new thing where I don’t push everyone away.” I smirk and bite back a smile.

  Kerri’s green eyes get big and start sparkling like gemstones. “So, are you interested in any of them? Or is there someone else I should send your way?”

  Just then, Jake passes by, gawking at me and Kerri. We both crack up laughing at the irritated look on his face.

  “What’s that about?” She makes a goofy face in response.

  “He’s been staring at me for days. I think he’s a little jealous of all the attention I’ve been getting.”

  Her face softens. “He really likes you, KC. I know he can be an idiot sometimes, but he’s not a bad guy.”

  “Yeah, I know.” I sigh, and Kerri quirks an eyebrow at me. I don’t say anything, but I think she knows I’m still not completely over him.

  To be honest, all the time I’ve spent catfishing him has only made things more confusing. I’m trying to get revenge, but that doesn’t explain why I’m so eager to text with him every day, and why I’m starting to feel sympathetic instead of mad. Bit by bit, he’s chipping away at my armor.

  As soon as school lets out, I’m minding my own business, cramming my books in my locker, when Jake rushes up to me, scaring the bejeezus out of me. I throw my arms up in the air and yelp, dropping half my books in the process.

  I start to bend over, and Jake’s eyes flit from my books to my skirt then down the hallway behind me. He holds out a hand to stop me, his eyes bugged out. “I’ll get it!”

  He kneels down and scoops them up into a messy pile then hands them back to me with a grimace. “Sorry, KC. I didn’t m
ean to scare you like that.”

  “Then what did you come here for, Jake?” I shove the books in my locker one by one, trying to avoid making eye contact. Looking him in the eyes does weird things to my belly.

  He sighs and leans against the locker next to mine, trying to look me in the eye. I haven’t been this close to him in a long time, and his presence is overwhelming. Dark hair, eyes that change color depending on what he’s wearing, and an ever-present smile. There’s no denying his attractiveness, even when his methods and motives are in question.

  “I wanted to apologize. Can we go somewhere for a minute and talk?”

  Okay, that wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but I have to admit he got my attention. I raise an eyebrow at him. “Okay.”

  He grabs my hand, startling me again, and pulls me towards our first period classroom then guides me to sit in his usual spot. I give him a weird look, wondering why he brought me here.

  “I wanted to start over, and this is where we first met. Remember?”

  How could I not? Jake sits down in the seat next to me and hangs his head for a moment. “I was kind of a jerk to you that day, and I had no reason to be.”

  His words make me blush with embarrassment. I was kind of a jerk that day, too.

  “I’m sorry for how things started off between us, KC, and I’m sorry for everything I did since then, too. For the hot sauce, the party, and anything else I did that I’m too stupid to even realize. I’m not trying to make excuses, but I want you to know that I never intended to hurt you in any way. The dogfight was Dylan’s idea, not mine. I never wanted any part of it; I just wanted to be with you. I think I’ve liked you since I first laid eyes on you, sitting in my chair.”

  He finally looks up at me, a jaunty grin quirking one side of his sad face, and my own lip quivers, wanting to lift.