25 Roses

by Stephanie Faris

  “You’re still on that?” Ashleigh asked. She rolled her eyes.

  “What do you mean, I’m ‘still on that’?” Kaylee asked. “Of course I’m ‘still on that.’ I have a secret admirer out there somewhere. I want to know who it is.”

  “We don’t know,” Ashleigh said. She had to be lying, but it was her lie, not mine.

  I couldn’t help but wonder why she was lying, though. What was the big deal? If Ashleigh knew who had sent the chocolate rose—and she had already said she did—why didn’t she just tell Kaylee?

  “You have to know,” Kaylee said. “Mia said you knew.”

  “Who do you think it is?” Alex asked. He still had this silly starstruck look in his eye, but at least he could talk to her.

  Kaylee glanced over at him then. She gave him a look that seemed to make him shrink back in his chair.

  “Was it you?” she asked.

  The question was put harshly. Of course it wasn’t him. Even if it had been, though, he wouldn’t tell her. I knew him.

  “It’s a secret admirer,” I said. I couldn’t help it. I wanted to help him out. I wanted to save him. “That’s what the word ‘secret’ means. It’s supposed to be kept a secret.”

  Kaylee turned that stare on me now, but I refused to shrink back in my chair. I sat there, staring back at her without flinching.

  “There are no secrets about me,” Kaylee said. “I know everything.”

  Ashleigh snorted. I shared that feeling. This was silly, this whole thing. Why didn’t Ashleigh just tell her who sent the rose and make her leave us alone?

  “I want to see your lists,” Kaylee said. She looked from me to Ashleigh and back again. “I want to look at every name until I find the person who bought my rose.”

  I looked at Ashleigh, who just rolled her eyes and picked up her sandwich and took a bite of it. Kaylee nodded to her friends, and all of them stood at once. They didn’t even look back at us as they pranced back to their table in one big group.

  “Just give her the list,” Alex said. “She’ll leave you alone.”

  “I don’t have the list anymore,” I said. And that wasn’t a lie. I’d thrown it in the trash after the committee gave it back to me.

  Ashleigh shrugged. “She can’t order you around.”

  “No, but she can keep bugging us like this until we agree,” I said. “I don’t think any of us want that.”

  “I don’t mind,” Alex spoke up to say. When we all turned to look at him, he gave us a sheepish grin. “What? They’re cute.”

  “You think everyone’s cute,” Ashleigh said.

  That was exactly what I’d been thinking. “Not everyone,” Alex said without looking at either of us.

  “Not you,” Ashleigh said.

  My eyes widened. Not me? What kind of thing was that to say?

  “Not me, either,” Ashleigh said. “So don’t feel bad.”

  Alex was suddenly very, very quiet. He didn’t want anything to do with this conversation.

  “You’re frowning,” Ashleigh said to me. “Do you like Alex or something?”

  Silence. One of those long, awkward silences that made you wish you could just disappear out of sheer embarrassment. Even worse, Alex looked up as though he’d just snapped back to the present and realized what was going on.

  “Does who like Alex?” Alex asked.

  “Nobody,” I said quickly, before Ashleigh could speak up. Maybe he hadn’t heard. Maybe he couldn’t piece two and two together and figure out I was the only person here she could have been asking, now that Kaylee and all her friends had taken off.

  Then he looked at me. His eyes widened just barely. I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t been looking at him so closely. I suddenly realized I was staring at him closely and quickly jerked my gaze away.

  “I was just kidding around,” Ashleigh said. “Come on. Time to go.”

  I hadn’t realized it, but the cafeteria had started clearing out while I was staring down at my lunch. The bell must have rung and I hadn’t even heard it. Whatever. I used the excuse to get out of there before Ashleigh could embarrass me further.

  For the first time that I could remember, Alex didn’t follow us.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  To: Kurt

  From: Mia

  Someone likes someone who likes you.

  I didn’t mean to walk out of school with Kurt Barnes. Really, I didn’t. He was walking through the exit right ahead of me, and he held the door for me. It was totally random and surprised me, but what surprised me more was when Sun Patterson cornered me about it on the bus.

  She actually got up from her seat and came back to sit next to me. This was after she’d gawked at me while I strolled past.

  “Hey,” she said.

  I looked around, even though I knew there was no way she could be talking to someone else. She hadn’t spoken to me since fourth grade, though, so it was weird she was suddenly sitting next to me like I was her longtime best friend or something.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “I wanted to ask you something,” she began.

  I groaned, not even bothering to hold it in. I rolled my eyes, too. I knew exactly what this was about.

  “I don’t know who sent the rose,” I said, exasperated. “There were a lot of people, and I was just trying to collect enough money for us to win the competition.”

  The whole “secret admirer” thing was something I’d done to be nice, but this was getting ridiculous. If I’d known everyone would be bugging me about it for the next few weeks, I might have thought about it a while longer.

  “Huh?” Sun asked. She was looking at me like I was crazy or something. “No, I don’t care about that. I wanted to ask you about Kurt Barnes.”

  Kurt Barnes. He’d gotten a rose too. Was she asking who sent him the rose? Because I didn’t have an answer for that, either.

  “Do you like him?” she asked.

  That caught me off guard. I tried to figure out where she was coming from with that, but I couldn’t. Maybe she’d noticed my handwriting on the card attached to his rose and thought I was his secret admirer or something.

  “Why would I like him?” I asked. I wanted more information before I gave an answer.

  “I saw you with him a few seconds ago,” Sun said. “I thought you guys might be going out.”

  The weird thing about all this was the look on her face. She had this hopeful expression, like she was desperately clinging to everything I said.

  She liked him. Wow. Sun Patterson liked Kurt Barnes.

  “I’ve never even talked to him,” I said. “But do you like him?”

  I guess I expected Sun to deny it, but not even close. She looked down, a big, silly smile on her face.

  The really strange thing about this conversation was I was relieved that she liked someone who wasn’t Alex. Why was that? I didn’t get it. Shouldn’t I be happy that Alex might find someone he liked who liked him back?

  “What are you doing about it?” I asked.

  Her head snapped up. “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “I mean, are you talking to him? Do you even know him?”

  “I’ve never met him,” she said. “I’m too shy.”

  “He might like you back, though,” I said. “I don’t know him, but I could introduce you if you’d like.”

  Her eyes lit up for a second. Then, seeming to realize something, she looked down again. “I don’t think so. I’d just make a fool of myself.”

  So she was just going to keep liking him without talking to him … ever? What sense did that make?

  I thought about it. That was what everyone did. They all seemed to get some crush on someone and never, ever talk to the person, going months and even years without getting to know the person they were thinking about all the time. It was an incredible waste of time. There had to be a better way.

  They needed a matchmaker. And who better … than Cupid?

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  To: Mia


  From: Your Secret Admirer

  You won’t get away with it.

  I stared at the words on the card in front of me, blinking several times to see if they’d change. They didn’t, so I looked around to see if anyone was watching. Nobody was.

  I got to school early to track down Kurt and talk to him about Sun. But when I’d opened my locker, a chocolate rose had fallen out. It was just like the ones we’d handed out on Valentine’s Day, only it had a card attached—for me.

  Somebody knew what I’d done and was trying to let me know everyone would eventually find out. But … who? My locker didn’t have a lock on it, so it could have been anyone.

  I looked around. Nobody was paying any attention to me, but that could be the trick. If the person who had put this rose in my locker was nearby, of course that person wouldn’t want me to see someone was watching. I decided the best thing to do was shove the rose deep into my locker, cover it up with my coat, and close the door as quickly as possible. I’d figure it out later.

  I slammed the door closed and rushed off down the hall. I was halfway to my class when I remembered my mission. Find Kurt and talk to him. I couldn’t go to class until I did that.

  I was still looking for Kurt when I saw something that stopped me in my tracks. No. It couldn’t be.

  Sure enough, it was. Gillianni was just a few feet away. Only her hair wasn’t hanging down in her face and her head wasn’t down. She was looking around with a paranoid expression, but she was looking. She usually never lifted her head and paid attention to what was around her.

  Her gaze landed on me, catching me staring at her, and she quickly looked down and shuffled off. It was like she suddenly remembered she was supposed to not look at people.

  “What’s up with you?”

  I’d know Alex’s voice anywhere. He was, after all, my BMFF. Before things had gotten so weird between us, he’d sometimes call just to say hi. Now I was lucky if I got a text from him to ask some form of What’s up?

  “Nothing,” I said. “I’m the same as I’ve always been.”

  He gave me a strange look. “Then why are you staring at Gillianni Carter?”

  Oh. That was what he’d meant by, What’s up with you? I’d thought he was talking about how we hardly talked anymore.

  I could have said that. This was my chance. If we were BFFs, we should be able to talk about anything. But this weirdness between us was like a big brick wall.

  “She looks … different,” I said. “She wasn’t staring down at the ground like she normally does.”

  My first thought was that now he’d decide he liked Gillianni instead of Sun Patterson. That bothered me too, and I didn’t understand why.

  “You’re weird,” he said.

  That was it. That was how things had gotten between us. He never spoke more than he had to, and now, it felt like he always worked in some way to insult me. He either called me weird or strange or a dork.

  It hurt my feelings, but I knew what he’d say if I told him that. He’d tell me to quit being a dork.

  “Gotta go,” he said. “See ya.”

  And that was it. That was probably the longest conversation we’d have all day. I sighed and started toward homeroom. I couldn’t worry about it now. I had too many other things going on.

  I was halfway there before I remembered what my original goal had been. I was supposed to be playing matchmaker for Kurt and Sun. Did I have enough time?

  I quickened my step and took off toward Kurt’s homeroom. I’d just have to make it work. Luckily, the later it got, the better the chance I’d find him in homeroom.

  He wasn’t in homeroom. I paused in the doorway, looking around the class. I saw plenty of familiar faces, but none of them were Kurt’s. I turned and leaned against the wall next to the entrance to the classroom. He’d show up eventually. He had to.

  A minute or so later, I started worrying that maybe he wouldn’t show up. He could be home sick today, after all, and there would be no way I’d know it. Nobody even knew I was standing out here waiting for him. But just as I was starting to think about giving up, I saw him off in the distance.

  The good news was, he was alone.

  I’d considered the possibility that he might come walking up with a crowd of guys and there would be nothing I could do about it. I wouldn’t talk to him if there were people with him, so I’d just have to walk off and find him later. But he was walking all by himself, a totally serious look on his face. He looked more confident than ever, though, and I swore he looked like he was dressing better.

  I bit my lip and stepped forward. This was a lot easier in my head. Face-to-face with him, I suddenly worried he’d think I was crazy or something.

  This wasn’t for me, I reminded myself. I had no interest in him. So this should be a breeze. But walking up to a boy you didn’t know to tell him someone liked him wasn’t as easy as it seemed like it would be.

  I wasn’t sure what to say as he approached, so instead I did something a little nutty. I stepped into the doorway of the classroom, blocking his path.

  Understandably, he was thrown. He blinked at me, not speaking. He didn’t seem to know what to say.

  “Do you have a girlfriend?” I blurted. It was the first thing that popped into my head.

  I realized as his expression changed even more—to one of wanting to run away—that he thought I was asking for myself. Like I was some kind of crazy stalkerish person who had tracked him down to demand to know if he had a girlfriend. I could see why that would be a little scary.

  “Not for me,” I said quickly. Wait. That didn’t make sense. “I mean … someone else wants to know.”

  “Oh,” Kurt said. He didn’t look disappointed, just confused. Then he asked the question that more people should have asked when they found out some mysterious person liked them. “Who?”

  Maybe it wasn’t so bad that most people didn’t ask who liked them. Should I tell him or keep it a mystery? I wasn’t sure which would be better for making him walk a little straighter.

  Then I remembered the point of all of this. I was trying to get Kurt and Sun together. The problem was, Sun was starting to look better—as Alex put it, she looked great. If she could get Kurt to take a long look at her, this could be phenomenal.

  “Sun Patterson,” I said. Then I waited for his eyes to light up.

  He frowned. “Who?” he asked.

  He really had no idea who she was. I thought about it a second. I guess that made sense. Sun had never really stood out like some other people around here. Same with Gillianni and, actually, same with Kurt. The rose had brought them out of their shells. Well, sort of.

  “Sun Patterson,” I said. “Long, dark hair and the prettiest eyes you’ve ever seen.”

  He looked even more confused. I guess it was good he didn’t remember her. Maybe he’d see her and have no idea how she used to look.

  “Oh, wait,” he said. “Sun Patterson. Yeah. I think I know who she is.”

  Someone was standing behind Kurt, waiting to get into the classroom. We moved off to the side to stop blocking the entrance, and I considered my next words. I couldn’t tell by looking at him what he thought of her.

  So I asked.

  “Do you think she’s cute?” I asked.

  He made a face; I’ll just say it wasn’t a yes face. It was the opposite. This wasn’t helping.

  “Have you seen her lately?” I asked. “She looks awesome. And she is a great girl.”

  He didn’t look like he believed me. I couldn’t blame him. But if I was going to play matchmaker for them, I needed to somehow get Kurt and Sun in the same place so he could see what she looked like. The question was … how?

  “I have to get to class,” Kurt said. He was looking pretty uncomfortable. All squirmy. I had to think fast.

  “Lunch,” I blurted excitedly. “I’ll make sure you see what she looks like at lunch, ’kay?”

  He wasn’t even looking at me at that point. His attention was focu
sed on that doorway. He looked really uncomfortable, too, like he couldn’t wait to get away from me.

  I was about to give up and walk away when suddenly I saw her in the distance. Sun Patterson. I didn’t even stop to think about it, just shouted her name.

  She was so far away, I had to yell pretty loud for her to hear me. That, of course, caught the attention of everyone in the area. Sun slowly turned, saw me, and waved. She even started toward me, but as she drew closer, she obviously spotted Kurt behind me, because her footsteps faltered.

  “That’s her,” I said to Kurt. I spoke quickly, in case she decided to turn and run off in the other direction. “I can introduce you.”

  I turned to look at him and found him staring directly at her. He seemed impressed. His eyebrows were arched, and he had a very serious expression. I’d done it. My first match, all thanks to my rose trick. If I’d never sent the fake rose, Sun never would have started looking around at guys to decide she liked Kurt. She would have still been walking around, slumped over, her hair in her face so no one was able to see her beautiful eyes.

  The bell rang, and I turned to start toward class. They’d seen each other. I could introduce them later. Now on to the next problem.

  Who had put that rose in my locker?

  CHAPTER NINE

  To: Ashleigh

  From: Mia

  It wouldn’t hurt you to be nicer to people you don’t know.

  “Loser … and loser,” Ashleigh said of Kurt and Sun. I’d been telling her and Alex about how I was trying to get Kurt and Sun together. She’d just labeled them “losers” and was taking a deep breath in preparation to move onto the next subject.

  “Sun isn’t a loser,” Alex said.

  “Neither is Kurt,” I said, a little annoyed that Alex was defending Sun, probably because he thought she was “hot.” Instead, though, they were now looking at me.

  “Oh no,” Ashleigh said. “Tell me you don’t like Kurt. You can totally do better.”

  She rolled her eyes. Alex just stared at me as if he’d never seen me before. I, meanwhile, was staring at Ashleigh as if I’d never seen her before. Since when had she gotten so mean? What was going on here?