Queens of Geek
Page 21
When I sit down, she looks up from the book she has propped open against a pile of other books and frowns at me, hand pushing at an errant lock of red hair that has escaped from her ponytail. “You’re late!”
I shrug. “Sorry. Had to stop by my locker.”
It’s not exactly the entire truth. Well, I did have to go by my locker to get rid of my disgustingly heavy physics book. But I would have been here faster if I hadn’t spent an extra few minutes pretending to sort through some papers while I was really very secretly watching Danny talking to someone a few lockers down. He is just so cute when he talks, waving his hands around wildly when he gets excited about something.
“I’m sorry,” she says, and sighs. “I didn’t mean to be rude or anything. I guess I just have separation anxiety after—you know.”
I smile and try to look as reassuring as I can manage. “You know I wouldn’t leave you without a heartfelt text message consisting of at least one hundred characters and a really vague emoticon.”
She puts a hand over her heart. “Stop it, you’re too good to me! You’re going to make me cry!”
“Maybe I would even slip a note in your locker.”
“As long as you didn’t write me a poem.”
“Not even if it’s a really moving one about the power of friendship and the optimistically idealistic message that no matter where we are in the world, we’ll always totally be besties for life, exclamation point, smiley face, less-than-three?”
She laughs. “Especially not if it’s anything like that.”
I sigh deeply and shake my head at her. “Your strange aversion to poetry is really baffling. What happened to you as a kid that makes you reject beautiful, emotional word imagery?”
She rolls her eyes at me and kicks me under the table. “Shut your face and eat your lunch before it gets cold.”
“I’ll actually have to open my face for that, though,” I point out.
“Besides, I am not categorically against poetry per se,” she tells me. “I just like it better when it’s set to music.”
I nod. “That’s what we call a ‘song’ among experts.”
“Smarty-pants.”
“I’m just trying to help!”
“By the way,” she says, “have you given any thought to your extracurriculars for this year? Because I thought we could maybe sign up for something together.”
“I like that idea.” I take a sip of my soda and consider all the clubs at this school, and then I catch a glimpse of familiar spiky black hair a few tables over, right in the middle of the usual drama club crowd, and I can’t control the way my face heats up. It just makes me wish I was a little less fair-skinned so that not everyone could see me blush all the time. “I was thinking of maybe trying something new this year,” I blurt out before I can stop myself.
Meg squints at me and I know she can see the way my face has turned red. I’m just hoping she’ll let it go.
“New?” she asks. “Like what, for example? Drama club?”
I pretend to think about it, even though that was exactly what I was going to suggest. She must have seen me glancing over at the drama club lunch table just now. I nod slowly so that I won’t seem too excited about this. “Yeah, why not? That could be interesting.”
She stares at me for a bit and I try to keep my face as blank as possible so that she won’t guess at my true motivation. Which she can’t, because she doesn’t know about Danny. Well, she knows there’s a guy. She even knows where he works because I can’t help it, he’s so cute, I couldn’t keep it all inside all summer, I had to mention him to her eventually. Repeatedly. But … it’s not like it matters. Nothing’s going to happen with him anyway.
I know I should tell her I want to join drama club because of him. I feel weird not telling her. But I do know that I have set my sights way too high with this, so … I guess it’s going to stay my little secret.
Of course, just at that moment I hear him laughing over at his table with the people I assume are his new friends, and my eyes have already darted in his direction before I can stop myself. Have I mentioned yet that he has a really cute smile? Because he has. It’s the kind of smile you don’t want to miss seeing, because it’s like Lembas bread—one tiny morsel of it can sustain you for quite a while.
I quickly look back at my lunch tray as soon as I realize what I’ve been doing, but it’s too late—Meg has already turned her head to see what captured my attention and when she looks back at me, there’s this little gleam in her eyes that rarely means anything good.
To make matters worse, I can feel myself blushing quite furiously.
“I see,” she says, sounding very smug about it.
“No you don’t,” I try, but she just smirks widely.
“He’s cute.”
“I really hadn’t noticed.”
The way she is able to raise one eyebrow almost to her hairline has always been slightly frightening to me, and it’s even worse when that look is directed at me.
“Meg—” I start, but she interrupts me.
“Can it. Is this the coffee shop guy? He’s joining drama club, and you know it, don’t you? He’s sitting with them. And I saw him signing the sign-up sheet this morning. Your secret plot has been revealed.”
“There is no secret,” I assure her. “Please, just let it go? Maybe joining this particular club isn’t such a great idea after all.”
“No, we should totally join the drama club,” she says. “Trying new things is good. And it would give you the perfect excuse to talk to him.”
That makes me laugh. “Like he’d be interested in talking to me.”
She frowns at me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I shrug. “I’m kind of chubby and a bit boring and he is, like, really good-looking and probably has a million friends—”
“Okay, what does his number of friends have to do with anything?” she asks, confused. “And he’s a drama geek; they’re not exactly popular, either, are they? Plus, he’s the new kid. How could he already be popular? He’s definitely not popular yet! He’ll be happy to make new friends!”
“He’s more popular than we are. Plus, those drama club kids are actually pretty cool. Aren’t they?”
“Sophia was in drama club,” Meg reminds me. “And she still dated me. For two years.”
“All right, but—”
“Also, you’re cute as a button,” she continues. “He’d be lucky to have you!”
“I’m not—”
“And since when are you boring? When have you ever been boring?”
“My idea of a perfect Friday night is rewatching Firefly and then reading until I fall asleep on the couch.”
“So?”
“I own not only a pair of Star Trek pajamas but also Batman pajamas.”
“Which are both awesome.”
“The Batman pajamas have a cape attached to them.”
“Even more awesome!”
“I actually like going to class.”
She groans and throws both hands up in frustration. “Because you actually like most things! You’re one of the most passionate and intelligent people I have ever met in my life—how is that a bad thing?”
I stare sullenly at my pasta that’s slowly getting cold and scowl just to prove her wrong, even if all the nice things she is saying about me just make me want to get up and hug her. “Meg, can you honestly see someone like him even looking at someone like me? If he even likes guys, which I doubt he does!”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JEN WILDE is a writer, geek, and fangirl with a penchant for coffee, books, and pugs. She writes YA stories about zombies (As They Rise), witches (Echo of the Witch), and fangirls (Queens of Geek). Her debut series, The Eva Series, reached over three million reads online and became an Amazon bestseller. When she’s not writing, Jen loves binge-watching her favorite shows on Netflix, eating pizza, traveling to faraway places, and going to conventions in Marty McFly cosplay. Jen lives in a sunny beachside
town in Australia with her husband and their cheeky pug, Heisenberg. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1: Taylor
Chapter 2: Charlie
Chapter 3: Taylor
Chapter 4: Charlie
Chapter 5: Taylor
Chapter 6: Charlie
Chapter 7: Taylor
Chapter 8: Charlie
Chapter 9: Taylor
Chapter 10: Charlie
Chapter 11: Taylor
Chapter 12: Charlie
Chapter 13: Taylor
Chapter 14: Charlie
Chapter 15: Taylor
Chapter 16: Charlie
Chapter 17: Taylor
Chapter 18: Charlie
Chapter 19: Taylor
Chapter 20: Charlie
Chapter 21: Taylor
Chapter 22: Charlie
Chapter 23: Taylor
Chapter 24: Charlie
Chapter 25: Taylor
Chapter 26: Charlie
Chapter 27: Taylor
Chapter 28: Charlie
Chapter 29: Taylor
Acknowledgments
Swoonworthy Extras
About the Author
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by Jen Wilde
A Swoon Reads Book
An imprint of Feiwel and Friends and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
swoonreads.com
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wilde, Jen, author.
Title: Queens of geek / Jen Wilde.
Description: First edition. | New York: Swoon Reads, 2017. | Summary: “Three friends go to a convention and find love—and themselves”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016022454 (print) | LCCN 2016043437 (ebook) | ISBN 9781250111395 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781250111388 (ebook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Friendship—Fiction. | Love—Fiction. | Self-realization—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.W533 Qu 2017 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.W533 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016022454
Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945 ext. 5442 or by e-mail at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
First trade paperback edition 2017
eBook edition March 2017
eISBN 9781250111388