I watch her go, wondering what’s going on between the two of them. They’re obviously not together, because she wouldn’t have been hanging out with him in a group on a Friday night. On the other hand, she did kiss him on the cheek, so… she must be interested, right? But is he? I’m not sure. He’s too hard to read. Not like it matters. I have my own problems to worry about.
The bell rings then, and Campbell turns around and starts heading down the hall.
He walks backwards, staring at me as he goes. “Catch you later, Brit,” he says.
“My name’s Natalia,” I yell after him.
But he just grins and keeps going. And then I get it. He’s calling me Brit because of my accent. I sigh, then readjust my purse and head into homeroom.
Chapter Four
Campbell
I’m about to take a jump shot when an all-too familiar voice calls out from nearby.
“Pass it, pass it!”
I stop and pump-fake the ball instead of making the shot even though I had an open look.
Brody waves his arms. “Hey, I’m open—what are you, blind?”
I throw a blisteringly fast pass right at Brody’s chest but someone from the opposite team picks it off.
Brody glares at me.
I glare back at him.
Aiden comes up and pats me on the shoulder. “Nice try, Kobe.”
“Shut up.” I shrug him off.
“It’s only gym class,” Aiden says as I keep walking up the court. The other team has just scored an easy layup.
Brody runs toward me. “What the hell, man? I was so open.”
“I missed a perfect shot because of you,” I tell him.
“Since when are you a shooter?” he says.
Brody’s a pain in the ass but I keep him around because once in a while he can be pretty cool. Like, he’s the one who convinced me to start playing football, he helped me sort out my gym routine and got me on all the right supplements and stuff. But then he kind of gets a big head about it and always talks about how he’s the reason coach is giving me so much playing time this year. Which is bullshit.
“If I see a shot I’m taking it,” I say.
“You can take a shot, but not the FINAL shot. That’s reserved for people who are great under pressure, like me,” Brody says. “You best remember that, son.”
“Guys, can we stop arguing about a gym class b-ball game and focus on the important stuff?” Aiden says.
“Like what?” I reply. Of course he’s talking about The Triad. Raine and company.
“Did you tell him yet?” Aiden asks Brody. Brody just looks at me with a knowing smile.
“Did he tell me what yet?” I ask, instantly suspicious.
Brody grins. “Most random thing ever. Becca Knowles asked me to hang out with her and her friends tomorrow. At Raine’s place.”
“Really.” I fold my arms.
“Yup. Guess I must be the hot ticket around here.”
The game is over and all the kids are heading to the locker room so we follow along.
Aiden nudges me.
I glare at him.
He nudges me again. “Now it’s your turn to spill the beans.”
I sigh. “Fine. Raine asked me to come over to her place tomorrow, too.”
Brody’s confident smile slowly fades as he takes it in. “You?”
“Why not me?”
“I don’t know. You just don’t seem like Raine’s type.”
We get to our lockers and start changing back into our school uniforms. White shirt with the school crest embroidered in the left pocket, gold and blue ties, navy blue pants and black dress shoes.
“You guys are both totally missing the point here,” Aiden says. “We’re in!”
“Ummm, last I checked you had nothing to do with any of this,” I tell him, straightening my tie. Brody pulls the back of my collar down for me.
“Of course I do,” Aiden says. “Everyone knows that we’re a team, just like Raine and Becca and Teri. We’re the male triad.”
“Bullshit we are.”
“Come on, take me with you.”
“I don’t even know if I’m going,” I say.
“You’re going,” Brody says. “You can’t turn down Raine, man. You’d be the biggest screw up in history if you didn’t try and see what was up with that. She’s the hottest girl in the whole school—the whole damn town.” He shakes his head. “I still can’t believe she asked you to go. What the hell is this world coming to?”
It’s sort of an unspoken agreement among all guys that Raine is the best looking, most popular girl in town. She’s considered untouchable, like if Taylor Swift actually came and moved to Randolf. And started attending Santa Anna.
The bell rings, and we rush out of the locker room, Brody and Aiden splitting off to go to Chemistry class while I have a study period.
When I get to my classroom, the new girl’s there. Natalia. Sitting in the back row of the room, reading some book. Just leave well enough alone, I tell myself. Leave HER alone and focus on studying. But I don’t really feel like studying. There’s an empty seat next to her, and before I know it, I’m going right over and sitting down.
Her eyes shift and widen for a split second when she sees me, and then she goes right back to reading. I get a little kick out of seeing her react when I just sit down next to her.
I crane my neck to get a glimpse of the cover. “What’s that?”
She looks up. “What?” She stirs as if suddenly uncomfortable, takes the book and puts it back in her purse.
“Why’d you put it away?”
“Because. You were being nosy.”
I snort. “Just curious. Is that like a crime or something?” She shrugs, so I try a different tact. “Hey, you want to know something?” I fake whisper, like I’m letting her in on some big secret.
“What?” she fake whispers back.
I lean in. “Don’t tell anyone this. But I like to read, too.”
“Sure you do.” She laughs like she doesn’t believe me, but it’s true. I like reading scary books. Horror and zombie type stuff. But still. It counts as reading even if it’s not Charles Dickens.
“Anyway, are you really coming to Raine’s house tomorrow?” I say, changing the subject.
She shrugs and runs a hand through her dark hair, tucks it behind one ear, thinks for a bit. “I don’t know if they really want me to go.”
“Of course they do. We all do.” I’m not sure why I said that. I mean, I don’t care all that much if she goes. But it might be funny to see what she’s like outside of school.
Now she flashes a real smile. “You think?”
“I do. In fact, I’ll even pick you up and give you a ride.”
She hesitates. Which is good, actually. I mean, giving her a ride might not be the best idea if I’m planning to try and hook up with Raine. I’ve got to stop being such a nice guy and just let it be.
“Okay,” she says after a long moment. “I’ll go.”
“Cool. It should be fun.” There’s a second of silence, and now I’m wishing I hadn’t said anything about going together. What will Brody and Aiden think when they find out?
I sit back in my chair and Natalia starts twirling her hair around one finger. Then I glance down at her purse and happen to notice the title of that book she was reading when I first came in. I almost fall out of my chair.
I start pointing at the book. “Wait a second—“
“What?”
“You can’t—“
She looks down at her purse, mystified. “What? What?”
“That book! That’s like, my favorite book of all time.”
She reaches down and closes her purse. “You shouldn’t snoop.”
“I wasn’t snooping, it was staring me in the face.”
“Shhh!” she says. “People are looking.” And they are, too. Tanya Hawk is giving us a dirty look, and Mrs. Johnson, our teacher, raises her eyebrows at us. I sit back and shake my head. “Sorry,
” I whisper, “I just can’t believe you’re reading Day By Day Armageddon.”
“Shhh. Don’t announce it to the whole class!”
I lower my voice. “Girls don’t read zombie books. I mean, maybe Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or something…”
“That is a completely sexist statement,” she says, “And I don’t appreciate it. Not every girl is exactly the same.”
“Guess not,” I say.
She gives me another of her funny little smiles. And suddenly I’m glad that we decided to go to the party together.
Chapter Five
Natalia
“What do you know about Campbell?” I ask Adrianna at lunch. When I walked into the cafeteria, I saw Raine sitting at a table with a couple of other girls, and I know this morning she told me to find her at lunch so she could give me the info about hanging out, but there was no way I was actually going to do it. So when I saw Adrianna over at another table, I immediately glommed onto her. I mean, she’d invited me to sit with her this morning, and I figured risking humiliation by assuming she meant it was better than being the loser that was sitting alone on her first day of school.
“Campbell Elliott?” Adrianna asks. She trades a look with her friend Chelsey who’s also at our table.
“Forget it,” Chelsey says, obviously not into the idea of sparing people’s feelings.
“Everyone wants him. He, like, came back from summer vacation even hotter than before, and rumor has it he’s had sex with like, seven girls since the beginning of the year.”
“And besides, Raine Marsden likes him,” Adrianna says. She points to Raine.
“And if Raine wants him, she’ll get him.”
“Raine gets everything she wants,” Chelsey says, sighing.
Hmm. I look over to where Raine is sitting. She pushes her long blonde hair back from her face and giggles at something that one of her friends is saying. She catches my eye, and I look away. But before I do, for some reason a shiver starts at the bottom of my toes and slides all the way up my spine.
“Hey, don’t feel bad,” Adrianna says, seeing the look on my face. She forks up a piece of lettuce from her cobb salad. “Cam’s off limits. But there are a ton of hot guys who aren’t.”
“What are you talking about?” Chelsey says, “No, they’re aren’t.” She turns to me. “This school is sixty percent girls, forty percent boys. Which means the odds are not in our favor.”
“How do you even know that?” Adrianna asks.
“I looked it up when I was working in the office last year.”
“They have that kind of information in the office?” I ask.
“Well, they have the class lists broken down by male and female,” Chelsey says, shrugging. “And after that, it’s easy to come up with a ratio.”
“Don’t listen to her, Natalia,” Adrianna says. “There are plenty of guys here.”
“Like Luke Janefri?” Chelsey asks with a sly smile.
Adrianna blushes. “What’s the deal?” I ask.
“We went out last weekend,” she says, “And I think we’re hanging out again this weekend.”
“He didn’t even kiss her,” Chelsey reports. “Which probably means he’s gay.”
“Chelsey!” Adrianna exclaims.
“What? You were wearing red high heels! Nothing says ‘I want you to get me naked’ more than fuck me heels. And he didn’t even kiss you!” She shakes her head sadly, like she can’t believe the state of the male population. “Don’t you think that means he’s gay, Natalia?”
“Nah,” I say, “He was probably just being nice.” Although it is a little weird.
“Which one is he?”
“Over there,” Adrianna says. “The one with the blonde hair.” She points to a table over near the windows, and I let my eyes wander around the caf, pretending I’m looking for Luke. But what I’m really doing is looking for Cam. And then I spot him.
He’s joined Raine’s table, along with a couple of other guys. Raine’s being all flirty, pulling on Cam’s tie while he pretends to try and get her to stop. I think about how he was with me in study hall, how he saw me reading Day by Day Armageddon and made a big deal about it. At the time I thought maybe he was flirting with me, but now that I see him being all touchy-feely with Raine, I realize I was wrong.
I quickly avert my eyes before he can catch me looking.
But Chelsey and Adrianna definitely notice.
“I don’t even like him,” I say defensively.
They exchange a “yeah right” look.
“I don’t! I was only asking about him because he asked me to hang out this weekend.” I don’t tell them how he sat next to me in class. I don’t tell him how he loved the exact same book that I was reading. I don’t tell them how he smelled super delicious and how when his eyes looked into mine I couldn’t help but feeling like I wanted to kiss him.
Chelsey drops her fork into her blue cheese dressing. “Shut up.”
“Wait,” Adrianna says, “Campbell Elliott? Asked you on a date?”
“Not a date,” I say, “He, um, asked me to come over to some girl named Becca’s house? With him and Raine? Or actually, maybe it’s Raine’s house. I’m still a little fuzzy on the details.”
“Oh,” Chelsey says. She picks her fork back up and looks disappointed. “He was probably just being nice.”
“Cam is super nice,” Adrianna agrees. She thinks about it. “I’m not sure why, since he’s so hot.”
“Yeah,” Chelsey says, “But now that he’s even hotter he’ll probably be a total asshole by the end of the year.”
“Anyway,” Adrianna says, “I wouldn’t hang out with them if I were you, Natalia.
What’s the point of being friends with Cam if you can’t hook up with him?”
“Not to mention that if Raine thinks you like him, she’ll do her best to make your life a living hell,” Chelsey adds.
The bell rings then, and we gather up our trays and throw out our trash. But my lunchtime conversation echoes through my head for the rest of the day. And after the final bell rings, I realize that Chelsey and Adrianna are right. And that’s because inside my locker, on top of my math book, someone’s left me a note.
“STAY AWAY” it says in computer print-out lettering. And since I haven’t talked to anyone else pretty much all day, and I can’t imagine that Chelsey wants me to stay away from Adrianna or vice versa, it has to be from Raine. Warning me to stay away from Cam.
“See you later, Brit.”
Cam pulls my hair as he walks past me down the hall and up the stairs.
No, you won’t, I think. I sigh and slam my locker door shut, ready for this day to finally be over.
Chapter Six
Campbell
Ever since I told the new girl I’d give her a ride to the party, I’ve been out of sorts. After all, it’s one thing to maybe see her at Raine’s house and strike up a convo, but it’s totally different to actually drive her over. I don’t want anybody getting the wrong idea. Including her. And then to top it all off I had to go and pull her hair on the way out of school. Why the fuck did I do that?
“Shit, she’s coming over!” Aiden whispers to me as we’re about to get in my car at the end of the day. I give Aiden rides because a) he’s been my best friend since we were like two years old and b) he lives three houses over from me.
When he says ‘she’s coming over’, the first thing that goes through my head is Natalia. But then I turn and see that it’s Raine.
For a split second, I’m almost annoyed that it’s Raine instead of Natalia, which is totally ridiculous. And maybe it shows on my face, even though I try to cover it up by pretending to be really happy to see her.
Raine gives me a look, a look almost like she can read my thoughts or something.
“Hey, Cam.”
“Hey, Raine.”
“Something wrong?” She smiles and cocks her head.
“Not at all. Why would anything be wrong?” I lean against my ca
r, flexing my bicep. Girls keep telling me I have great arms so I might as well show them off.
“Wrong?” Aiden says. “Hell no. Cam over here is just so stoked about tomorrow he can’t stop blabbering about it. All day long it’s Raine this and Raine that. I can’t shut him up.”
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