by Jaclyn Weist
“We can’t either, considering we didn’t really try out.” I sat next to her and slouched down so I could rest my head on the seat. “We came to help a friend out, and the next thing we knew, we both had parts in the play.”
Max leaned forward so he could look at me. “Hey, how’s the thing going?”
“Awesome. Way better than I’d hoped.” I put a finger to my lips as Mrs. Carrington clapped her hands to get started.
“Welcome to musical theater. If you’re here, you have a part to play, and I want to congratulate each and every one of you. We only have a few months of practice, so I expect you to dedicate yourselves to memorizing lines and music. Those of you who have small lines will be dancing in the ballroom of the castle, so I hope you brought your dancing shoes. Both figuratively and literally.”
I glanced over at Heather. Her eyes were wide, but I knew she had nothing to worry about. She was an amazing dancer, even if she didn’t like being up on stage. I leaned over. “You dance as a cheerleader all the time. You’ll do just fine.”
“Unless I puke on my partner.” Heather grimaced.
Max patted her on the arm. “You’ll be great.”
“Now, we’re going to do a quick run-through of lines from beginning to end. I expect you to pay attention as we don’t have a lot of time in class. Everyone come up on stage and either find a chair or sit on the floor.”
There weren’t many chairs, so it was easier just to sit on the stage floor. It was a little odd to read through the script without any actions, and giggles broke out more than once at the lines that were read. I had to admit getting into character as the baker’s wife was a lot of fun. She had a lot more lines that I would have thought, and I was still surprised she’d given me the part. The baker was a cute junior named Ethan who blushed every time he talked. Hopefully that would go away by the time the play was supposed to happen. Cinderella was played by Anna, which Max was pretty happy about. I had to admit I was a little less excited. I was glad she was good to Max. I really was. But I personally thought he could do so much better.
The bell rang just as we reached the second act, and I had to admit, I was actually pretty bummed. This whole acting thing was fun.
Heather, Max, and I walked to lunch together. Anna had second lunch on B days, so she headed off to whatever class she was in.
Brandon saw me as we entered the cafeteria and shot me a smile and head nod. Heather grabbed my arm.
“How does Brandon Martin know you exist?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Okay, first of all, ouch. It’s not like I’ve been hiding for all of high school. And second of all, he’s in my math class. I helped him with test corrections.”
Heather shook her head. “You know I didn’t mean it that way. I meant, you two are in completely different circles.”
“I don’t think that sounded much better.” I grabbed a tray and moved over to choose the side dishes. Fruit, salad, a roll. I hesitated before going for mixed veggies instead. There, something different.
“Seriously, what’s with you today?” Heather glanced down at my tray. “It’s like I don’t even know you.”
“I just decided to mix things up a little. We’re seniors and I’ve done the same thing every day.”
Max handed me a strawberry milk. “If you’re going to change things up, you might as well go big.”
I stared at it for a moment before taking it from him. “Sure. I can do strawberry.”
“That’s my girl.” Max clapped me on the back almost knocking me over.
“I still think aliens abducted her.” Heather sat at our usual table and picked up her fork. “If you break into song, I’m calling NASA.”
I laughed. “I don’t think they’d do anything. Besides, it’s not like I don’t change things up.”
“Alayna, you’ve worn that bracelet for four years. You wake up at the same time every day and rush out the door. You write in your dream journal as soon as you get to school. Lunch is exactly the same every day. The newspaper was pretty much the only thing that changed in your life, and that’s only because you get different assignments that sometimes take you out of your comfort zone.” Heather smiled.
“You make me sound boring.” Was I really that predictable? Probably.
Max glared at Heather. “It’s not that bad.”
Heather held her hands up in surrender. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. It’s actually comforting knowing that you’re the same every day. Having you change all this stuff is seriously throwing off my mojo.”
“Your mojo? You realize that means I’m your good luck charm, right?” I took a bite of my casserole.
“See, now that’s the Alayna we know and love.” Max nudged my elbow. “The day you stop correcting our grammar is the day we know you’ve been abducted by aliens.”
Heather sighed. “I meant what I said. If you keep changing, I won’t know what I’m supposed to be doing.”
“You’ll just have to figure it out as we go, I guess. Besides, the whole fixing your grammar thing will never go away.”
Max tossed his milk carton in the nearby garbage can, earning a glare from the lunch aide. “It’s too bad. That’s the one thing I could do without.”
I punched him in the shoulder. “Yeah, well, you’ll miss it when you go for your first interview and have typos all over your resume.”
“Nah, I’ll just be my own boss. That way I can live happily in my grammatically incorrect world.” He stood. “Speaking of which, I better get to my marketing class. See you two later.”
Heather got up as well. “I need to catch Mrs. Walker really quick. I have a question on one of the problems in math.”
I waved and stared down at my food. Eating lunch by myself wasn’t nearly as fun, and I was dying to see if anymore emails had come in. I stood to throw away my tray and came face-to-face with Brandon.
“Oh, hey. What’s up?” I sidestepped and tossed my lunch in the garbage.
“Whoa. Nice shot. You should play basketball.”
I laughed. “Believe me. You wouldn’t want to see me on any court.”
“I don’t know. I say that was pretty impressive.” He shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. “Hey, can we talk? Not . . . here?”
I shrugged. “Sure.”
The look Ellie was giving me was one I wanted to avoid, anyway. I turned in the direction of my next class and Brandon caught up to me.
“This is embarrassing, but I was wondering if maybe you could tutor me. I’m totally lost in that class. What you taught me was way easier than what Mr. Reynolds said. And if I don’t get my grade up, I don’t play this week.”
Oh, Ellie was going to love having me tutor him. But his puppy dog eyes made it impossible to say no.
“Sure. But it might be fun trying to find a time that will work. I have the newspaper and play, and you have basketball.”
“And work.” He ran his fingers through his hair, which of course looked good.
If I’d done that, my hair would have stuck out in every direction. “Oh? Where do you work?”
“Bowling alley. Not the greatest, but they were the only ones willing to work around my sports. I could always get you a lane at the alley and we could work during my break.”
Free bowling? Worked for me. “All right. What day works for you?”
“What about tonight? I have practice until three thirty and then work until eight.” He nodded toward one of his teammates that walked by.
“Sure. I’ll be there around five.”
Brandon shot me another one of his dimpled grins. “Thank you. Seriously. You’re the best.”
He took off running, leaving me in his cologned wake. It wasn’t a bad thing that I was helping him, right? I’d be the hero of the school for helping the star basketball player get his grades up just in time for the big rivalry game.
Oooh, that was good. I needed to write that down.
The bell rang, yanking me from my writing-induced daydream and I had t
o jog the rest of the way to class. Darn cute boys and their dimples.
I should have known the bowling alley would be loud and filled with basketball players. Perhaps trying to study for math here wasn’t the best idea. Brandon was busy going between working the register and laughing with his friends.
Meanwhile, I sat off in a corner and worked on my homework while eating the fries and nachos he’d bring me every so often. Guilt was awesome sometimes.
The crowd finally dispersed as it got closer to the end of Brandon’s shift. My homework was completely done, I’d gone through all the emails—another thirty had rolled in—and I’d written down both the pirate and basketball player story ideas by the time he finally came over to sit next to me.
“I’m so sorry. Coach let us out early today and when they found out I had to work, they decided to come and keep me entertained.” He set his backpack on the chair next to him. “Do you need to leave?”
Mom was probably wondering where I was, but knowing I was helping a guy with homework would make it all better. I shook my head. “I’m good.”
“All right.” He pulled out his worksheet and scooted his chair closer to me. “I get this part thanks to you, but I’m completely lost from here on out.”
It took all my concentration to focus on the work in front of me instead of the way his shoulder brushed mine, the way his hair fell into his eyes, so he had to push it back, and his adorable gasps of exasperation when he’d get something wrong.
We were almost done when the manager started turning off the lights. Brandon looked up from his paper in surprise and checked his watch. “Man. I didn’t realize it was so late. We’d better go.”
“Okay. Do you think you can do the rest on your own?” Part of me wanted him to say no.
“I think so. Can I call you if I need anything else?” He shoved his worksheet into his bag, making me cringe.
Gee, let me think about that for a second.
“Sure.” I typed my number into his phone and handed it back. “Mom doesn’t let me answer after ten, so if I don’t get back, that’s why.”
“Wow. Harsh.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, but at least she doesn’t take my Kindle.”
He chuckled. “I guess there’s that. What do you like to read?”
“Mysteries, romance, fantasy, horror. Pretty much anything.” I picked up my bag and slipped it over my shoulders. “You?”
“Mysteries and fantasy mostly. Horror sometimes.” He set his chair on top of the table and turned to see me staring. “It shocks you that I read, doesn’t it?”
I nodded. “And you totally ruined my chance to tell you how offended I am that you don’t read because I’m a writer.”
Yeah, I totally just said that.
Brandon brightened. “Seriously? That’s awesome. My aunt writes, but I’ve never read any of her books. They’re the sappy romance kind.”
“Ah.” I pulled my keys out of my coat pocket.
“You’re going to tell me that you write sappy romance, aren’t you?”
I grinned. “You guessed it.”
“That’s cool. I probably won’t read it, but that’s cool.” He opened the door to his truck. “Thanks again for saving my bacon.”
I waved and climbed in my car. This was why I didn’t have a boyfriend. Not the car. It was fine. Because I didn’t know when to keep my mouth shut. I grumbled and headed toward home. At least he had my number. He could call if he needed anything, or maybe for some other reason if he felt like it.
Mom sat in the living room when I got home. I dropped onto the couch next to her and leaned my head on her shoulder.
“Long day, sweetie?” She turned off the news.
“Yeah, I went to help someone with math, but it took longer than he thought it would.” I pulled my shoes off and let them drop on the ground.
Mom pulled away. “He?”
“Yeah, he. Brandon. New kid.” I sat up. “We were partners in math yesterday and apparently I explain it better than the teacher does.”
Mom smiled. “Or that was just an excuse to talk to you.”
I wish.
“If you’d seen his test score, you’d know it was definitely about the math.” I yawned. “I’m going to bed.”
“Dinner is in the kitchen.”
I stood. “He fed me the whole time I was at the bowling alley. I’m good. But maybe we can pack it up for lunch tomorrow.”
“Sounds good, sweetie. Sleep well. Don’t stay up too late reading.” She smiled and went back to whatever movie she’d been watching.
She knew me too well. I stopped by the kitchen and checked to see what she’d made. Potatoes, chicken, and veggies. A stab of guilt went through me. I took the plate to my room and ate while I went through emails.
One of them caught my eye.
You don’t know me,
But I know you.
I have something
I need to ask you.
It wasn’t signed, and the email was some generic email that could have been any guy from the school. I moved to delete it, but couldn’t. What if they’d just forgotten to sign it? I started a new folder and marked it as anonymous.
Several other emails had come through while I was helping Brandon, and I wasn’t sure how we were going to be able to show each of them. Especially if we were only posting them on Fridays. I needed to come up with an idea and fast. Otherwise I’d have almost a hundred rather unhappy guys lining up to see why their questions hadn’t shown up.
Maybe we needed a special edition just for the ads. That way people would know the questions would be in that one . . . I pulled up the formatted article enlarged each post until there were four to a page. That way it would be easier for people to skim through. Then I put them in alphabetical order by the person who was being asked so people could just skip to their own names. There was one more spot by the time I got done, so I decided to add the anonymous post. I sent it off to Mr. Reynolds for approval and shut down my computer. It had been a really long day, and I was looking forward to a good nights’ sleep.
The news hit as soon as I walked through the door of the school first thing in the morning. No, literally. A paper airplane flew through the air and hit me. I picked it up and unfolded it, wondering where they’d even gotten one from. It wasn’t supposed to come out for another two days.
Cupid’s Special Edition was splashed across the top, and all of the ads I’d put together the night before stared back at me. I grinned and ran for Mr. Reynold’s office.
Mr. Reynold’s looked up from his desk. “I see you found our special edition.”
“More like it found me. I didn’t think you’d print it so quickly.” I flattened the paper on the desk. “It looks great.”
“I didn’t change much. I just added the heading. If you keep this up, you’ll be adding formatting to the rest of your job.” He smiled and leaned back in his chair. “Did you see there are more emails this morning?”
I shook my head. “I haven’t had a chance to look. Anything good?”
“Yep. We’ll do another run with the paper on Friday. I’m guessing you’ll start getting answers soon, so be ready for that.” He tapped his pen on the desk. “We’d better get to the meeting. Great job, Alayna. We could make this a regular thing if you want.”
Seriously? I grinned. “That would be great. I mean, there’s only prom after this, but yeah. I say we do it.”
“This year, yes. But we could continue it into next year as well. That is, if you’re all right with it carrying on after you graduate.”
“I’d love that.” If it worked, at least. Everything could still flop. What if the girls thought it was lame and no one answered back? Or what if there were two girls with the same name and they both thought it was them the ad was talking about?
Mr. Reynolds pointed at the paper. “Time will tell, but I think you have a hit.”
We walked to the newspaper office where the rest of the staff sat around our worktable. My paper was
open in front of most of them and the conversation was animated. We took our place and I pulled out my own copy, proud of how it turned out.
“All right, everyone. If you haven’t noticed, we had to put out another edition today. Depending on how many more responses we get, we’ll send out two next week as well. Now, I assume you all helped put up posters in the school, so you also most likely know it’s Alayna who is in charge. We’d like to keep that within this office. Please go by Cupid otherwise.”
The others nodded. Ellie held up her pen. “Are we going to point out the typo in the paper? There was no one listed on the last ad.”
I cleared my throat. “It wasn’t a typo. That’s how it came. I put it in there so that hopefully whoever wrote it will realize they forgot to add the names.”
“So, it’s kind of like a secret admirer. Cool.” Ellie smiled. “It’s a good idea.”
She could have slapped me, and I would have been less surprised than I was right then. “Really?”
“Of course. I just don’t envy your job when you have to sort out mistakes with names or heartbroken girls who didn’t get dates.”
There it was. She wanted it to fail.
“That’s going to happen anyway.” Ephraim, our formatter, leaned forward. “Girls will be sad they weren’t asked, guys will be too nervous to ask, it’s the same. This is just a fun new way to invite someone to the dance, and people are going to jump at the chance to try it.”
Ephraim was my new best friend. But from the look on Ellie’s face, he needed to watch his back.
“All of you will keep the same jobs you had this week so get started on next Friday’s paper. Ellie, you have the game tonight. Alayna will be busy with her own article.” Mr. Reynolds tapped his fingers on the table. “Let’s get everything in early just in case we need to do another edition.”
I had to admit I was a little sad to miss out on the sports section, but that meant I could concentrate on the play and my other work. Besides, I could always go to the game for fun instead, right?
We dispersed so we could work on our individual assignments. Several emails had come in, most of which were answers to the ads in the post that morning. I started a new article and formatted it in the same way. I made sure to put them in alphabetical order again. I’d thought of separating them into questions and answers, but that would have made it more complicated.
