by Judy Corry
I sighed, relieved. "Do you have a brother, by chance?"
He was quiet for a moment before he answered slowly, "Yeees? Why do you ask?"
"Just wondering." Okay, good. This guy was probably the older brother of the one I'd seen at the football game. Maybe he and his dad were at the game cheering on British Boy.
I wanted to ask him if he played football but resisted the urge because he'd probably feel his identity was being threatened. Plus, if I asked him that, then I'd have to answer more narrowed-down questions of his. And there were only twenty of us on the drill team, so it wouldn't be that hard to figure out who I was. And that would totally ruin the fun of these secret meetings.
But I still needed to be smart about this, because he could be a serial killer with a knife in his hand and I wouldn't even know it. Which reminded me of what Eliana had said. "You're not Janitor Earl, are you?"
He laughed, a deep chuckle that rumbled up from his chest. "Do I sound like our dashing janitor?"
I smiled. Dashing and Janitor Earl didn't belong in the same sentence. But the way British Boy said his name almost made it sound exotic. "You never know who's going to be hiding in a dark room these days." I unzipped my lunch box and pulled out the turkey sandwich I'd made. Having to eat breakfast at six in the morning made it impossible to skip lunch.
After taking a bite, I cleared my throat and said, "I know we're not supposed to tell each other who we are exactly, but I was wondering if we could give each other more info. I mean, it's cool that I know you're from England, but I want to make sure I'm not talking to some little freshman boy…not that it would be bad if you're a freshman. I can still talk to you if you are."
Why did I say that? But I knew why. I was intrigued by him and it wasn't just because he was nice. His voice sounded hot and so I figured he might be hot, too. But I couldn't see myself thinking about a freshman boy that way. I may only be a junior, but I still didn't want to date anyone much younger than me.
Wait. I wasn't interested in dating anyone at all. Wasn't I supposed to be taking some time for myself? That's what I told that freshman boy last week anyway.
Okay, slow down, Ashlyn. You don't even know this guy. You need to be smarter this time.
"What grade are you anyway?" I asked as nonchalantly as I could.
"I'm a senior."
Senior.
Nice.
Not that I cared.
"What about you?" he asked.
"Junior." I shifted against the cupboards, trying to get more comfortable.
"Now that we've gotten that out of the way, how about we learn a few other things," he suggested with a smile in his voice. "I'd love to know more about you."
6
Luke
Ok, Luke. It's time to set your genius plan into motion. Operation "Get Back at Ashlyn" was ready to go. I'd have to ease her into it, of course—ask the easy questions before nailing down the juicy ones. But before I realized what I was saying, I asked, "What's your most embarrassing moment?" Great job, Luke. That's not suspicious or anything.
She was quiet for a moment, and I figured she might have realized something was up. Definitely should've eased my way into that question.
"My most embarrassing moment?" She said the words slowly. "If I tell you that, it would probably give away my identity."
Dang it. Wrong question. I should've guessed those "boyfriend wanted" posters would be high up on her list.
Well, if nothing else, I guess I could be proud I had succeeded in creating the most embarrassing moment for Ashlyn Brooks.
I cleared my throat. "Okay, so if you don't want to tell me your most embarrassing moment, what about telling me your biggest fear?" If she was afraid of mice or snakes, I could use that to my advantage.
"You want my real answer, or the one I tell everyone?" she asked.
"The real one, of course. That's the whole point of meeting in the dark, right?"
She was quiet again as she messed around with something in her lunchbox—which wasn't full of tarantulas after all. I wished I'd been smart enough to bring something to eat. She crumpled something like a plastic wrapper and said, "I guess I have to say that my biggest fear is that I'll never be good enough for the people in my life."
I hadn't expected that. It took me a moment before I could speak. "What makes you say that?"
"My mom, for example, is always trying to keep me on a super strict diet because she's worried I'll gain weight like she did at my age. And if it's not my diet, it's how well I'm doing in school. Or she worries she should get me a tutor because I got a C in Biology last year. It just feels like I'm never good enough for her. And then there's this guy I dated last year who made me feel like I could never do anything right. He was always getting after me about something, or worried that I was cheating on him just because I talked to a guy in class. It was like he was looking for the perfect, obedient girlfriend, and I just never matched up no matter how hard I tried. And believe me, I tried. I practically made myself crazy trying to keep him from getting angry."
Wow, I had no idea. Not only was her mom super controlling, but Noah had been crazy possessive. I always knew there was something up with him, but I didn't know this was what was going on with them last year. My heart went out to her with those words. And they also made me mad. I wasn't supposed to feel sorry for Ashlyn. She humiliated me in the absolute worst way at the football game. She wasn't supposed to make me feel a warmth of compassion in my chest.
But maybe I could work with this secret of hers. I wasn't just trying to find juicy details about her, I was also trying to make her fall in love with a fake guy.
"You shouldn't have to feel like you need to be good enough for someone," I said. "Anyone who treats you like garbage doesn't deserve to have you in their life."
"Are you a real guy?" she asked, amusement in her tone. "Because I've never met anyone as deep and understanding as you."
I smiled. This was so going to work. "Yeah. This is me. In the flesh. Maybe it's just my London breeding, and the fact that my mom raised me jolly good."
"Jolly good?" She laughed. "Do you guys actually say jolly good over there still? I thought it was just something from old movies."
I had no clue what I was doing. "Yeah, uh, me and my buddies used to joke around, saying old phrases like that while we had our afternoon tea and crumpets."
"That's still a tradition? What are crumpets anyway?" Ashlyn asked. "I've never had them."
Why was I saying all these things? I was in way over my head. "A crumpet is like a cracker?" My voice went up at the end, giving away how unsure I was about my answer. I really needed to study up on my English culture if I wanted to have a chance at pulling off the biggest prank of all time.
"Are they any good?" she asked.
"They're delicious." I think. Change the subject, Luke! My leg bounced up and down as I tried to figure out something to say. What had we been talking about before the crumpets? Oh, yeah. Noah. "So this boyfriend of yours, does he go to school here?"
"Yep. But thankfully, he's graduating this year. He's been a pain ever since we broke up. He's actually the reason why I was crying the last time we met.”
She hadn’t been crying because of me?
"It's my experience that if the guy is still giving you a hard time after you've broken up, he probably misses you." I put as much British passion in my voice as I could to make it come across even sweeter.
"Thanks for saying that. I want to believe you but—I don't know, I guess part of me has a hard time not believing that what he said was true. Like, maybe I really was a waste of time."
Noah told Ashlyn she was a waste of time? I might not be the nicest guy, but I would never say that to a girl I dated. Sure things didn't always end well, that was high school. We weren't meant to be forever. But I'd never call one of my girlfriends a waste of time.
"I'll just say this, I've only spent a short amount of time with you, and none of those moments seemed like a waste. In fac
t, they're probably the best moments I've had in a long time." I clapped my mouth shut after admitting those words, because they were true. Even though they shouldn't have been after everything we'd done to each other. Ashlyn might be hard to deal with sometimes, but there was something about her I couldn't get enough of. She was sweet and fun, and she had helped me out a ton last year even if she didn't know it.
When my mom was in the final stages of cancer, I had needed something to keep my mind off the future I knew was coming. It was gut-wrenching watching my mom die slowly before my eyes. So I'd come up with a plan to mess around with Ashlyn during Foods class. And even though it had probably been annoying to her to have her recipes screwed up, she'd played along and helped keep me sane. It wasn't the healthiest way to deal with my life, but it was therapeutic in its own twisted way. Which was why I had started our prank war again on the first day of school.
But maybe I’d gone too far, especially now that I was hearing how bad the people in her life had made her feel because of it. I may not have been the reason why she was crying last week, but I was responsible for it in a way. Noah wouldn't have had a reason to say whatever he said to her if I hadn't posted those stupid flyers everywhere.
"So now that you know my biggest fear," Ashlyn said, breaking me away from my thoughts. "What's yours?"
"My biggest fear already came true."
Why did I say that? I wasn't supposed to be opening up to her for real.
"It did? Was your biggest fear about moving here?"
Sure. I'd go with that. I didn't feel like talking about my mom today anyway. "Yep. Moving away from good old England was my biggest fear."
"Have you been able to make many friends yet?" she asked.
"Yeah, I have a bunch of friends." Did she think my British persona was a loner?
"Good." Her tone sounded relieved. "I just wanted to make sure everyone here in Ridgewater was treating you well."
"I'm getting along fine now." Yeah, she thought I was a loser who didn't know how to make friends. I guess it made sense, since she found me hiding here on the first day of school.
"That's a relief. Being new to a country must be hard, so I totally understand if you spend a lot of time in here alone. But just in case you ever wonder, I'm here to tell you that the people of Ridgewater welcome you."
I chuckled, somewhat touched that she cared that much about a guy she didn't really know. "Thank you for telling me that, Mystery Girl."
"You're welcome. I hadn't heard your voice around school yet, and no one else seemed to know about a new British boy…so I just wanted to make sure that you're doing okay."
"You were asking around about me?" That couldn't be good. It wouldn't take her long to figure out that my accent was fake.
"Don't sound so smug. I was worried about you." She sounded embarrassed, as if caught at being curious about me. Could it be possible that she was already interested in British Boy? This plan was going even better than I thought.
"I'm doing okay. I have a lot of friends. I was only hiding that day because the school counselor had her minions coming to befriend me." Befriend me, console me. They were close enough.
"Why?"
I definitely couldn't answer that question. I didn't think Ashlyn knew about my mom dying, since I hadn't told anyone besides Kellen and Jake. But if she did hear about it somehow, there was a chance that she'd connect the dots if British Boy's mom had died this summer as well. So I'd have to lie.
"The school counselor was worried about me fitting in, but like I said, I'm fine." Part of me wished I could tell her the truth. Kellen and Jake had gotten super awkward when I told them about my mom, but there was something about Ashlyn and these secret conversations of ours that made me think I might be able to open up to her.
Too bad I'd started this strange friendship on a foundation of lies.
"Our school counselor can be pretty pushy sometimes."
Ashlyn had to meet with our school counselor too? She didn't seem the type. "You have much experience with her?"
"Oh, um," she said nervously. "My grades started slipping last year when I was dating my ex. She just wanted to make sure everything was okay."
That didn't seem right. Was she not telling me everything about her and Noah's relationship? I wanted to ask more but figured I should wait for another time. I didn't want to spook her after our second meeting. If I wanted this prank to work, I needed to take my time.
So I readied to stand and said, "That's all I have time for today. I wasn't smart enough to bring my own lunch."
Her lunchbox scraped against the floor as it slid across to me. "You can have the rest of mine if you want," she said. "I made enough for two."
She made enough for both of us? Her thoughtfulness caught me off guard. I'd never met a high school girl who would do something like that.
"That's so thoughtful of you. Really, really thoughtful. But I need to meet up with my friends for lunch. Because I have friends, you know." I couldn't keep the smile out of my voice when I remembered how she assumed I didn't have any friends. How lame did she think I was?
I pushed the lunchbox back to her.
She cleared her throat. "Thanks for meeting me again. You're so easy to talk to, and honestly, I haven't even told my best friends about No— I mean about my ex-boyfriend and his temper."
I gritted my teeth at the thought of Noah treating her so terribly. I probably wouldn't hold off tackling him today at football practice. He deserved to be crushed by someone.
"Do you want me to go out first?" Ashlyn asked. "Since I was smart and brought my trusty scarf, that is." There was a cute laugh in her voice, and I couldn't keep from smiling at it.
"That would probably be a good idea. I'll make sure to bring my super cool Batman mask next time or something."
She giggled again. "You have a Batman mask? Batman is my favorite superhero."
"You like superheroes?" I asked. "Does that mean you prefer superhero movies over cheesy chick flicks?"
"Cheesy romance movies are kind of my thing. But I do watch a good superhero movie now and then. I mean, me and my best friend do let my brother have a say sometimes."
"It was nice talking to you again, Mystery Girl."
"You too, British Boy." She paused for a moment, hesitating. "Do you want to try to meet again sometime? If we don't set up something now, we won't know when to meet."
"How about Thursday?" The words were out before I had a chance to stop myself.
"Thursday is perfect. I will not see you then." And with that she went out the door and into the light, and I was left feeling as confused as ever.
7
Ashlyn
The next two days dragged on as I anxiously awaited my next secret meeting with British Boy. Our last conversation had been so good—I'd never been able to talk to anyone like that before. He was deep and understanding, and I didn't know how he did it but he knew just the right things to say to me. It was like he was the perfect British gentleman that I'd dreamed up from years of watching my favorite BBC movies, and he had magically come to sweep me off my feet when I needed him most. I would be absolutely crazy not to jump at the chance to meet with him again.
I tried to do my best to keep with our agreement of not trying to figure out who he really was, but it was so hard not to perk my ears up everywhere I went, with the off chance that I might get to hear his silky-smooth, delicious voice again.
"Great practice today, girls," Coach Meyer said after we'd finished going through our military routine during Thursday morning practice. I still didn't know how she could be so happy and energetic at this time of day. But I guessed that's what happens when you get paid to do something you're passionate about. And boy was she passionate about dance. I almost thought she'd become a Math teacher just so she could be the drill coach as well.
She waved for us to gather around her. "I have one item of business to go over before you ladies head to first period."
I took a sip from my water bo
ttle and sat on the dance lab's wooden floor to give my legs a rest after our hour-and-a-half practice.
"Principal Baker approached me yesterday about an opportunity for some of you girls. One of our students here at Ridgewater High was diagnosed with leukemia and the faculty thought it would be great if our school did a fundraiser to help pay for the treatments."
"Who is it?" our drill captain, also known as a professional busy-body, Kelsie Perkins interrupted.
"Lacey Sparling," Coach answered. "She's a freshman this year."
Kelsie made a show of frowning, which looked totally fake. "Aww, that is so sad."
"Yes, it's very sad." Coach nodded. "Anyway, Principal Baker suggested we could do our own version of Dancing with the Stars since Lacey is a dancer as well and loves that show. He also wanted to know if you girls would be willing to choreograph a dance and teach it to one of the stars of our school."
"Stars of the school?" Kelsie interrupted again. "Like the drill team captain, perhaps?"
I rolled my eyes. Kelsie was insufferable.
Coach gave Kelsie an annoyed look. "Possibly, though you'll have to talk to the principal and student body president to find out who exactly they have in mind."
"They better not just pick guys, because that would be so unfair," Madison, Kelsie's sidekick, said.
"I have no idea what they're planning." Coach looked sternly at Madison. "I was just asked to find a few girls to help. If you're worried about it, you can talk to the people in charge and offer suggestions. But if they happen to only pick guys since it's hard to find male partners who can teach a girl to dance, go ahead and think of yourself as the stars of the night. You'll be dancing and showing off your choreography in front of a lot of people, so you'll be in the spotlight just as much as the dancers they ask. This is not about who is more popular, it's about raising money to help Lacey."
I checked the time on my phone. The bell was about to ring, and I still had to change out of my dance clothes and fix my hair. I would be meeting British Boy during lunch after all—not that it mattered what I looked like. He shouldn't be seeing my face anyway.
