Shawna’s eyes traveled around the classroom, zeroing in on just the girls, as if trying to figure out who had left Connor’s gift. Her gaze would linger for a few seconds and then move on. Watching her, Lily kept expecting laser beams to come shooting out of her eyes. When Shawna’s gaze fell on her, Lily tried not to squirm in her seat. Luckily, Shawna spent no more than a second looking at her.
Connor entered the classroom then and Shawna flung the box at him. “Guess who got a present from their Secret Santa?”
Walking behind Connor was a smirking Amber, looking equally fab in a black leather miniskirt, silver-link belt with a jeweled buckle, and violet boatneck top. She took Shawna by the arm and led her to her seat. As they walked by, Lily could hear Amber whisper in Shawna’s ear, “Jealous, much?”
Jealous? Shawna was jealous? About what? Lily wondered. She wasn’t going after her boyfriend. All she was doing was participating in the Secret Santa game!
She turned her attention back to Connor. He had slid into his seat and was unwrapping her box. Then he lifted the lid and looked inside.
Lily expected him to reach into the box for a cookie and take a huge bite.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he made a face of total disgust.
That was the last thing Lily expected him to do. She couldn’t understand it. She and Noelle had sampled the cookies last night. They were delicious! The yummy chocolatey smell of the cookies had wafted out of the box even after it was wrapped. What could have gone wrong?
∗ ∗ ∗
Connor hated chocolate chip cookies. He was more of a peanut butter cookie or oatmeal raisin kind of guy.
“Do you want these?” he asked Simon, holding out the box. “I hate chocolate chip cookies.”
Never one to turn down free food, Simon snatched the box out of Connor’s hands. “Sure!” He began stuffing cookies in his mouth. “Thanks. These taste great! Why couldn’t my Secret Santa have left me a box of cookies?”
“What did yours leave you?”
“Soap on a rope! Is my Secret Santa saying I smell?”
“If it’s after a track meet, the answer is yes!”
Simon punched Connor in the arm. “Very funny!”
Connor looked in Shawna’s direction, but she wouldn’t look at him. She kept staring directly at the blackboard. He could tell she was mad, but about what? What had he done wrong? All he’d done was unwrap a gift left by his Secret Santa.
He was tempted to send her a text message, asking if everything was okay, but he knew if he got caught, Mrs. Baxter would confiscate his cell phone. He’d have to talk to her after class. Hopefully she’d tell him what was going on because some days he just couldn’t figure her out.
∗ ∗ ∗
I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous.
Shawna kept repeating the words to herself, but there was no escaping the fact.
She was jealous!
She knew Connor’s Secret Santa was a girl. Only a girl would wrap a package so perfectly and only a girl would make a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies. Luckily for her, Connor hated chocolate chip cookies.
But that didn’t mean the next gift wouldn’t be a success.
And if it was, she could be in trouble.
She was already getting the sense that Connor was drifting away from her. He’d been so busy the last couple of weeks with basketball practice, basketball games, studying for classes, and working his part-time job that she barely saw him outside of school. If she meant something to him, wouldn’t he make time for her?
She was feeling neglected. And unwanted. She was Shawna Westin! She could go out with any guy at North Ridge High and Connor was the guy she had chosen to go out with. Connor was the guy she had been falling in love with, but Connor was acting like he didn’t want her anymore and she resented it.
Big time!
She could still remember the first time he’d asked her out. It had been this summer at the beach and she’d been wearing an adorable pink polka-dot bikini. He’d asked if he could borrow her sunscreen, and after slathering his arms, legs, and chest, he’d asked if she wouldn’t mind putting some on his back.
Mind? Why would she mind?! He was a chiseled hunk!
Before she could answer, he had plopped down on her blanket and inched closer to her.
As she’d added the sunscreen to his back, they’d started talking and when she was finished, he asked if he could buy her an ice-cream cone. When they walked to the concession stand, he also asked if she wanted to go to a movie that night.
She instantly accepted, knowing that if Amber had been there, she would have freaked out. When it came to dating, Amber’s first rule was never to accept at once. She believed in keeping guys dangling and getting back to them with an answer. But Amber hadn’t come with her to the beach that day so Shawna had done what she wanted.
That first date had led to a second date and a third and before she knew it, she was spending the rest of the summer with Connor when she wasn’t hanging out with Amber and Celia. That all ended when classes began again in September, but she had been busy, too, adjusting to her new class schedule and after-school activities. Still, she and Connor had made time for each other.
That is, until the last couple of weeks.
What had suddenly changed?
She had never gone chasing after a guy before and she wasn’t about to start now.
But that didn’t mean she was going to make it easy for Connor’s Secret Santa.
She was going to find out who she was.
And then she was going to tell her to back off!
“Were the cookies a success?” Noelle asked at lunch as she took a seat next to Lily.
“That depends on who you ask.” Lily sighed as she began peeling an orange.
“Huh?”
“Connor hated the cookies, but Simon loved them.”
“Simon?”
“Connor hates chocolate chip cookies so he gave them to Simon,” Lily explained, popping an orange slice in her mouth.
“Oops!”
“Big oops! I’m going to have to do better with my next gift although there might be a little bit of a problem.”
“A problem?”
“Named Shawna.”
Noelle started shaking a container of raspberry yogurt. “What’s Shawna got to do with this?”
“She didn’t seem too happy to see Connor getting a gift from his Secret Santa. I think she was a little jealous. She gave Connor the deep freeze before class, and when he tried talking to her after class ended, she wouldn’t.”
“Yikes!” Noelle exclaimed, peeling the lid off her yogurt.
“The last thing I need is for her to be coming after me because she thinks I’m after her boyfriend, so I’m going to have be extremely careful when I leave Connor his gifts.”
“What’s going to happen the night of the dance when you reveal yourself?”
“I’ll worry about that on Friday. So, how did things go with your cookies?”
“I’m not sure,” Noelle said, spooning into her yogurt. “I left them on his doorstep along with a note. I’m assuming he found them when he left for school.”
Lily popped another orange slice into her mouth. “What did the note say?”
“The first bite always tastes the best.”
Lily gave Noelle a puzzled look. “What does that mean?”
“Remember when we were in Girl Scouts and we had to earn our cooking badges?”
“Don’t remind me.” Lily groaned. “It took me two days to clean up my mother’s kitchen. I made such a mess. What made me think I could make a pineapple upside-down cake?”
“For my badge, I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies. And they were the worst cookies in the world. I think I forgot to add the sugar. When they came out of the oven, Charlie was dropping something off. I offered him a cookie, and he said when it came to chocolate chip cookies the first bite always tastes the best. Well, not that day! It was al
l he could do to swallow the first bite.”
“Aha! A clue!”
“That’s right!” Noelle exclaimed triumphantly. “Beach Girl might take credit for the cookies, but I’ll expose her by reminding Charlie of what I wrote in the note and when he said it to me.”
“Don’t you mean Celia?” Lily teased, echoing Noelle’s words from the day before.
Noelle stuck her tongue out.
“I almost forgot to tell you!” Lily exclaimed, reaching into her shoulder bag. “My Secret Santa left me a gift.” She pulled out a green ribbon. “What do you think?”
“Very pretty. It goes great with your red hair.”
“I figured I’d wear it to the dance. Sort of as a clue to my Secret Santa.”
“My Secret Santa left me a gift too,” Noelle revealed.
“Really? What?”
“A Christmas angel. And I think it was left by Charlie!”
“Why do you think it was Charlie?” Lily asked.
Noelle explained her theory and Lily shook her head. “Don’t you think that’s wishful thinking?”
“Why do you always have to be such a downer?” Noelle huffed.
“I’m just trying to keep you grounded,” Lily said.
“Burst my bubble is more like it!”
“There’s still three more days leading up to the dance. Maybe I’m wrong. We’ll just have to wait and see!”
∗ ∗ ∗
Celia’s first class after lunch was Art. The class was an elective so there was a mix of sophomores, juniors, and seniors. It was her favorite class not only because she loved painting and sketching, but also because Jake was in the class with her.
All morning she’d been running their conversation through her mind. She couldn’t wait to see him again. Lunch had once again been Amber- and Shawna-free, because today there had been a meeting of the Fine Arts committee, which they were both members of. Could her day get any better?
When Celia got to class, she looked around for Jake but didn’t see him anywhere. When the second bell rang, he still hadn’t arrived, much to her disappointment. He hadn’t cut the class, had he? Mr. Catini had just started discussing that day’s project when an out-of-breath Jake arrived, along with Eva Digiorno.
“Sorry I’m late,” he apologized. “I hit traffic on my way back to school.”
“Me too.” She giggled.
Celia knew that seniors were allowed to have lunch off campus. From Jake’s windblown hair and clothes, it looked like he had been speeding back to school. With Eva probably on the back of his motorcycle.
Celia tried not to feel jealous. She knew Jake and Eva weren’t dating. But Eva had gotten to spend time alone with Jake!
“Apology accepted, but you’re both still late,” Mr. Catini said, filling out two detention slips and handing one to Jake and one to Eva. “After school today.”
That was so unfair! Celia thought. Jake had apologized. What more did Mr. Catini want?
Jake crumpled up the detention slip and put it in his back pocket on his way to his desk, which was right next to Celia’s.
Mr. Catini went back to explaining that day’s project, which was to sketch a still life. Looking around the classroom, Celia decided she was going to sketch a budding African violet on the windowsill.
“Know what you’re going to sketch yet?” Celia asked.
Jake pointed to a soda bottle that was also on the windowsill.
Celia began sketching with her black pencil. She kept looking up from her sketch pad and back to the plant. As the image formed, she started using her colored pencils. First green for the leaves, then purple for the flowering buds, then red for the pot the plant was in.
“How come you decided to sketch the violets?” Jake asked.
“Purple is my favorite color and I’ve always been drawn to things that are purple,” Celia said, taking a peek at Jake’s sketch. What she saw startled her. Jake had sketched a soda bottle, but it didn’t look like any soda bottle she’d ever seen before! It looked like a soda bottle from another planet.
“Pretty cool, huh?” he said. “It’s very surreal, don’t you think?”
As Jake was showing Celia his sketch, Mr. Catini reached her desk. He took a look at Jake’s sketch and sighed. “Mr. Morrisey, that is not the class assignment.”
“But it looks good, doesn’t it?” Jake said.
“That’s beside the point. You were supposed to do a still life. That means sketching what you see.”
Jake rolled his eyes. “That’s boring. Doing the sketch my way keeps my interest.”
“And it gets you an F unless you redo it.”
“You can’t give me an F,” Jake complained. “I did the assignment.”
“Incorrectly!”
Jake crumpled up his sketch and threw it on the floor. “Fine! I’ll redo it!”
“Thank you.”
“Why do you always fight with Mr. Catini?” Celia asked after he walked away.
Jake gave Celia a cocky smile. “I like to keep him on his toes, Ceel. Besides, it’s the only bit of fun I get to have in this place.”
Celia picked up Jake’s crumpled sketch and smoothed it out. “You’re a really talented artist, Jake. You should listen to his comments. Maybe you could become an artist one day.”
“I don’t want to be an artist.”
“What do you want to be?”
Jake shrugged. “I don’t know. All I do know is that I hate this class and I can’t wait until June when it’s over!”
June! Celia didn’t even want to think about June. June meant Jake would be graduating and then she’d never see him again!
∗ ∗ ∗
At the end of the day, Froggy was waiting for Jake outside of detention. He knew Jake was working later that day at Icing on the Cake, but he was too impatient to wait until then. Besides, he had a feeling Jake would wind up heading this way and he wasn’t wrong.
“Don’t you ever get tired of this room?” Froggy asked as he followed him inside.
“It’s my home away from home,” Jake said, plopping down in a chair and propping his boots up on a desk.
“You better take those off before Mrs. Bedford gets here.”
“What’s she going to do? Give me detention?”
“Yes!”
“Loosen up, Frogster!”
“Look, I can’t stay very long. I’ve got to be somewhere else. Were you able to find out anything about Celia?”
Jake nodded. “A ton of stuff.”
“Really?” Froggy’s face lit up. “Like what?”
Jake handed him a slip of paper. “I wrote it all down. This should help you out.”
Froggy couldn’t help himself. He threw his arms around Jake and gave him a hug.
“Whoa!” Jake exclaimed, pulling back. “Watch it with the warm and fuzzy stuff!”
“Sorry!” Froggy apologized, racing out of the detention room. He was so excited! Thanks to Jake’s list he was going to have a chance with Celia. The candy cane had been a no-brainer, but now he had what he needed. He’d be able to get Celia gifts that were really personal. Gifts that showed he cared.
He couldn’t wait to show her how much he cared!
No matter how old she got, Celia would always love toy stores.
The first thing she noticed whenever she walked into one was the smell. She could never figure out what it was, but she loved it. It was very sweet, like a combination of baby powder and hot wax. Then there were the bright lights. The colorful packages. The shiny plastic. She could spend hours walking from one aisle to another, wanting to buy everything she saw.
That afternoon she was going toy shopping. Ryan Grant, who was in her Spanish II class, had told her he was heading up the school’s Toys for Tots program and needed help buying toys. She’d immediately volunteered.
As she approached the toy store, she could see some other familiar faces from school waiting outside, stomping their feet in the cold, puffs of air coming out of their mouths. It w
as a small group: Noelle Kramer and Lily Norris, Connor Hughes and Simon Larson. And Freddy.
“Everyone’s here!” Ryan announced, catching sight of her. “Let’s go shopping!”
∗ ∗ ∗
“What’s she doing here?” Lily hissed into Noelle’s ear as they followed Ryan into the toy store.
“The same thing we are,” Noelle answered, unwinding the teal scarf around her neck and pulling off the pompom hat she was wearing. “Buying toys for underprivileged kids.”
Lily unbuttoned her red duffel coat, pushing the hood off her head. “I thought popular girls only cared about themselves.”
“Be nice!” Noelle said. “Besides, it’s good that she’s here.”
“It is?”
“Uh-huh. If we talk to her, maybe we can find out what she’s got up her sleeve for Charlie.”
Lily groaned. “Charlie, Charlie, Charlie! Why does everything always come back to Charlie?”
“Because it just does!” Noelle insisted as Ryan started clapping his hands to get everyone’s attention.
“We’ve got a thousand dollars to spend thanks to the generosity of our classmates and teachers,” he announced. “I think the best thing to do is grab some shopping carts and start filling them up. Remember, we’re buying for all ages.”
“Why don’t we divide ourselves into groups?” Celia suggested. “Lily and Noelle and I can shop for the girls and you guys can shop for the boys.”
“Great idea! Very organized,” Ryan said. “I like the way you think, Celia.”
“He likes the way she thinks,” Lily hissed under her breath. “Is she going after both Grant brothers?”
“Shh!” Noelle whispered as she grabbed a shopping cart and headed in the direction of the doll aisle.
∗ ∗ ∗
“What is it about guys and toys that make loud noises?” Celia asked Froggy as Simon and Connor aimed ray guns at each other, pulling the triggers so a loud zapping sound filled the toy store.
Froggy just shrugged as he and Celia walked down the game aisle.
Say something! he scolded himself. Say something!
But he didn’t say anything. He just walked alongside her. Every so often, she would pick up a game like Scrabble or Monopoly or Sorry and put it into the shopping cart she was pushing. He wondered what it would be like playing a board game with her. Would she be playing for fun or was she one of those players who had to win?
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