"That kid has balls for walking in here," Kai said, leaning toward Eva from the desk to her left.
Riley wiped his hand against the back of his baggy jeans, cracked a heart-melting smile, and looked around.
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"Sorry I'm late," he said, with that easy confidence that never ceased to amaze Eva. If she'd walked in late, she would have ducked her head, fallen into the nearest chair, and been mortified for at least ten minutes. Riley simply sidestepped into the room, looking around for a good seat.
"Are you sure you're in the right place, Mr. Marx?" Mr. Simon asked, his bushy eyebrows coming together behind his glasses.
"Is this for the Treemont scholarship?" Riley asked.
"Yes, it is," Mr. Simon replied.
Riley's smile widened. "Then I'm in the right place."
A few girls in Eva's vicinity giggled, eyeing Riley as he continued to scan the room. His gaze fell on the empty chair next to Eva's and her pulse quickened.
Riley took a step toward the center of the room and Eva held her breath. He was heading toward her. He was going to sit next to her.
Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.
"Riley! Over here!" a voice called. Eva turned around to see Debbie waving at him from her perch on the wide shelf that ran along the back of the classroom, where she sat. Riley lifted his chin in Debbie's direction and turned sideways to slide along the wall. As he approached, Debbie pushed her hair forward and rubbed at the back of her head. Eva knew this was Debbie's patented move.
"It looks like I just have an itch, but what I'm really doing is fluffing my curls," she'd told Eva a few months ago.
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As Riley sat down next to Debbie, she crossed her legs at the ankle, bit her lip, and smiled coyly up at him.
Ugh. She's like a peacock flashing her feathers, Eva thought. Except only male peacocks do that, I think. Or something.
Eva wanted to hurl. Her skin burned with a sudden flash of anger toward her best friend. So far, Riley had somehow escaped Debbie's seemingly inescapable claws, but if Eva knew Debbie, all that was about to change. She'd fooled around with Sam on Friday, was going to Danny's tonight, and Riley was next. One more frog in the boy-crazed marsh of Debbie Patel's existence.
Eva pulled out a pen and started to vent into her notebook, crooking her arm to hide her work from Kai. Couldn't Debbie leave just one guy for the rest of the world?
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Chapter 3
There was just something about Riley Marx that Debbie liked. Ever since the first day of junior year when she'd seen him--the new guy--unabashedly playing his guitar out on the steps to the parking lot in front of the school, she'd known there was something different about him. Tall and lean, with perfectly scruffy blond hair and a heart-melting smile, Riley Marx was an enigma. Plus he was totally sexy, with those unbelievable eyes, those guitar- calloused fingertips, and that tiny mysterious scar to the left of his mouth.
He was also one of the very few guys at this school who had never come on to Debbie--never even flirted with her. So she was pretty sure he was gay.
Up at the front of the room Mr. Simon was just finishing up his Treemont speech, which, like most of his speeches, contained no information that everyone in the
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room didn't already know. "So, I think that covers everything. I'd like to have everyone fill out this form, and then if you have any questions, I'll open the floor. Now, this is just a preliminary form so we can get an idea of who's applying. You'll get the actual application in homeroom later this week."
Debbie grabbed two forms when Liana Hull passed them back. Liana eyed her and Riley, then leaned across the aisle to her friend Melissa Bonny and whispered just loud enough so Debbie could overhear.
"I guess some people didn't realize that the Sexaholics Anonymous meeting is being held down the hall."
Debbie rolled her eyes. Liana was just pissed that Debbie was hooking up with Danny, Liana's ex. But so what? Debbie didn't care. Let Liana and Melissa say what they wanted to about her. Debbie knew that she didn't have sex, and so did all the guys she hooked up with. That was all that mattered.
Debbie smiled at Liana and then waved and blew her a kiss. Liana made a disgusted face and turned around again. To Debbie's left, Riley was patiently filling out his own form, completely oblivious to anything else. Left- handed, Debbie noticed. That meant he was artistic. Not surprising.
Debbie flipped her hair so it brushed against his arm. He looked up.
"So," Debbie said, smiling. "Pretty thrilling meeting, no?"
"Yeah, totally," Riley said with a smirk. "Hey, are you
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going out for this and that Math and Science competition thing?" He tapped his pencil against the biology textbook that Debbie was leaning on and raised his eyebrows.
"Not if I can avoid it," Debbie replied. "Science isn't exactly my thing."
"Could've fooled me," Riley said.
"What do you mean?"
"You get A's on everything," Riley said.
Debbie, to her surprise, flushed. "How do you know that?"
"Everybody knows it," Riley said, lifting his shoulders. "The Science Club has spun off a radical we-hate-Debbie- Patel faction because you're always throwing off the curve. They have T-shirts and everything."
"Shut up. You're not serious."
"Okay, fine, I'm not. But they'll definitely be psyched if you don't compete. They'll probably throw a party."
"Well, then I'm happy for them," Debbie said.
"So what is your thing?"
Debbie's heart unexpectedly skipped a beat. She couldn't remember the last time a guy had asked her a question about herself other than, "Got a pen?"
"Are you busy tonight?" and her all-time favorite, "When girls change together after gym, do they ever, y'know, shower together, too?"
"Fashion," she said, the word sounding foreign to her. "Fashion is my thing." She was fairly certain she'd never
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mentioned her true passion to anyone other than her closest friends. It felt good to say it.
"Cool," Riley said. "Not that I know much about clothes or anything, but you certainly seem to have a unique thing going on." He motioned to her outfit--a black T-shirt she'd cut up and resewn into a halter top and a flouncy knee-length skirt covered in multicolored diagonal stripes.
"Thanks."
Debbie was glad when Riley went back to his application, because she felt herself blushing. And Debbie never blushed.
Riley tapped his pen against his form. "See, this is where I run into trouble. I haven't volunteered at anything since I moved here. I helped with the spring cleanup at my church last year, but that's not gonna cut it."
"My mom makes me go with her to this soup kitchen in Harrisburg every Saturday," Debbie said. "I guess it looks like it's about to pay off."
"Ah, the grand benefits of do-gooding." He smirked. "Too bad my parents never felt so compelled."
Debbie smiled. Riley talked like an adult and it wasn't even irritating. How the hell did he pull these things off?
"You should talk to Eva Farrell," Debbie said. "She's like a goddess down at 4-H. Maybe she can get you a job there."
"Oh, yeah?" Riley asked. Debbie glanced across the room at Eva, who was hunched over her own form, scribbling away. Her clothes were baggy and her hair was in bad need of a brushing.
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What am I going to do with her? "Yeah. She's a little shy, but she'll definitely help you out," Debbie told him.
"Thanks," Riley said, gracing her with one of his incredible smiles. "Good thing I sat next to you then, huh?"
Debbie's heart did that weird skipping thing again-- something it only ever did when she was kissing somebody for the first time. But she and Riley weren't even touching. Weird. "Yeah," she said, smiling back. "Good thing."
Debbie went up to the front of the room and turned in her form. Just then Mandy walked in. What the . . . ? Debbie and Eva exchanged a look. What the hell
was Mandy doing here? She needed a scholarship like she needed another brand-new VW.
"Hey, Mr. Simon. Sorry I'm late," Mandy said.
"Well, knowing you, I'm sure you had a good reason, Mandy. Just complete this application." He handed her a form and pulled her aside to fill her in. Soon Mandy slipped into a desk and Debbie waited for her to turn around and make eye contact, but she didn't.
Well, that's odd.
Mandy kept her head down and started filling out the paperwork. Debbie bit her lip. Mandy was really doing this. And if she was really doing this, she was definitely going to win--just like she always won everything else.
Suddenly Debbie couldn't wait for the meeting to be over. Someone had some explaining to do.
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Okay, this is so not good, Kai thought as she stared down at her nearly empty form. She'd done a lot in her seventeen years, but in print she looked like the underachiever of the century. Her family had only moved to Ardsmore a couple of months ago. There was simply no way she could have racked up all the activities and hours of community service this scholarship required. Plus it had just occurred to her that her intense lack of class participation probably wasn't going to help when it came to asking teachers for recommendations. She was going to have to do some major butt kissing to fix this.
Better stock up on lip balm.
"So! Any questions?" Mr. Simon asked, clapping.
Kai's hand shot up.
"Yes, Kai," Mr. Simon said, his expression amused. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the large metal desk at the front of the room. Simon was Kai's guidance counselor, and he seemed to find everything she said to be knee-slappingly hysterical.
"Yeah, I was just wondering how, exactly, they're going to decide how pure we all are," Kai said.
Right on cue, Simon laughed uncomfortably. As did most of the other people in the room. Kai simply raised her eyebrows and looked around. All she'd done was ask the question the rest of them were dying to ask.
"Yes, purity was one of Mrs. Treemont's more, well, interesting requirements," Mr. Simon said. "In fact, we're
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still trying to decide exactly how to handle that one, Kai. But we'll let you know as soon as we do."
He stood up straight and looked around, waiting for more raised hands. "Well, if that's it, just hand me your forms on the way out and we'll keep you posted about interviews. Thank you, everyone, for coming."
Mandy quickly slipped out the door, followed by a clearly blood-seeking Debbie.
Kai gathered up her things and handed her form to Simon, wishing he had given her a better answer to her question. But as long as they didn't subject everyone to an invasive gynecological exam, which just had to be illegal, she would be fine.
I have to join a few more clubs and volunteer somewhere ASAP, Kai thought. Especially now that Mandy appeared to be in the running. Kai needed this scholarship, and she would do whatever it took to win.
"Mandy! Wait up!" Debbie called out.
Mandy stopped, her stomach churning, wondering how she ever could have thought she was going to get away with this without an explanation. When she turned around, Debbie, Kai, and Eva were all rushing to catch up with her.
Here goes nothing. "Hey, guys," she said brightly.
"Hey," Debbie said, pausing in front of her. "So, you're applying?"
"Yeah." Mandy forced herself to shrug. "It's open to everyone, right?"
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"Well, yeah, but some of us actually need it," Debbie said.
Mandy swallowed hard.
"You're definitely going to win," Eva said quietly. "Look at the qualifications. They might as well have been written specifically for you."
Mandy felt a hotness prickling the back of her neck. She knew how this must look to them. Here she was living in one of the biggest houses in Ardsmore and driving around in her own car.
If only they knew.
"Mandy, what's going on?" Kai asked suddenly, almost gently. "Is everything okay?"
Mandy gazed into the faces of her three best friends, all looking so concerned. Maybe she could tell them. After all, it wasn't like her father was guilty. Maybe they could all have a big laugh about it.
But then, if he wasn't guilty and it was all going to blow over, why spill it and leave it up to speculation? The whole thing was just so . . . embarrassing. Poor little rich girl's father is being investigated by the government.
"Okay, there's a reason I'm doing this, and . . ." Mandy closed her mouth. She paused. And then opened it again. "I just . . . can't tell you what it is." She looked Debbie in the eye. "I'm sorry, I just can't." Mandy's heart was pounding in her chest.
"Since when do you not tell us stuff?" Debbie asked, sounding almost more offended than before.
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Mandy looked away, wishing this part of the drama could just be over already. It wasn't like she wanted to have to apply for this thing.
"Look, you guys, Mandy has her reasons. We all have our reasons. Let's just drop it," Kai said. Her voice had adopted a commanding tone that no one would argue with. Mandy felt a sudden warmth toward Kai. Clearly Kai understood that there was something here that shouldn't be pried into. Kai had her back. Mandy could have kissed her.
Mandy exchanged a look with Debbie and lifted her eyebrows hopefully.
"All right, Walters," Debbie said with a sigh. "But sooner or later you've got some serious explaining to do."
"I know," Mandy said. "I will."
"Okay, fine, so we'll all apply," Debbie said, starting down the hallway toward the cafeteria. "Besides, it's not like we have anything to worry about. Mandy's never gonna make it through the deadline without having sex."
Her friends laughed and Mandy tried to smile, but it took some effort. She hadn't told Eric about this scholarship thing yet, and she had no idea how she was going to deal with the whole purity issue. If she went ahead and made love with him on her birthday, would that really make her impure? And if the guidance office decided that actual virginity was the deciding factor, did that mean she'd have to tell them she'd done it? It all seemed so fundamentally wrong. Her sex life was nobody's business, right?
"Aw, we're just kidding." Debbie wrapped her arm
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around Mandy's shoulders and gave her a squeeze. "You've been a pillar of virtue this long. What's another couple of months gonna do to ya?"
Mandy pushed through the doors of the cafeteria and caught sight of Eric emerging from the lunch line across the room. Her heart skipped, then thumped extra hard. His blue eyes found hers as he smiled that special smile that was only for her. For a split second her vision actually went hazy. She pushed her hands through her bangs to wipe up the beads of sweat along her hairline and took a deep breath.
Another couple of months? By then they might have to mop her up off the floor.
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Chapter 4
"Hey, Eva! Eva! Wait up!" Eva's toe hit a bump in the sidewalk the second she heard a male voice calling her name. She tripped forward, stumbled a few graceless steps, and then, thank God, caught herself before she could hit the ground.
"Hey, are you all right?" Riley Marx asked. He put a warm, steadying hand on her arm.
Omigod, I just tripped in front of Riley Marx. Omigod, Riley Marx is talking to me. Omigod, Riley Marx is touching me. Her mind swam. Her ears pounded. "I'm okay," Eva said. Was this what a person felt like before they fainted? She really, really hoped not.
"I'm Riley," he said.
"I know," Eva said, blushing.
"Oh . . . well . . . good," Riley said. "So, listen, Debbie told me you work at 4-H and--"
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He's talking to me. Riley Marx is talking to me, Eva thought fuzzily. And now he's looking at me like I'm a lunatic.
"So would that be okay?" he asked.
Oh. There must have been a question in there somewhere. "Uh . . ."
"My working at 4-H?" he prompted.
"No. I mean
. . . yes. I mean . . . they're always looking for people, so I'm sure you could . . . you know ... be one of those . . . people."
Yep. There I go. Might as well be talking Portuguese.
"Great! So when are you working there next?"
I know the answer to this one. I do.
"Uh . . . tomorrow afternoon?"
"Cool. So I'll meet you there?" he said with a hopeful smile.
"Yeah."
Holy crap.
Riley Marx was going to meet her somewhere.
Riley Marx had jogged to catch up with her right in front of the school. He'd shouted her name in front of dozens of people. And smiled at her and put his hand on her arm. And it was all thanks to Debbie! Where was that girl when Eva needed to offer to be her slave for life?
"Oh, hey, and I wanted to tell you that I read that poem you had in the last literary magazine. It was intense," Riley said, his blue-green eyes sparkling. "The bubbles were a metaphor for us, right?"
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Us. He said the word us.
"Like, people in high school . . . fighting to get to the top?" Riley prompted. "And then when they get to the top they always burst?"
He actually understands my poetry. Daydream number one is coming true, right here, right now!
"Um . . . yeah," she said.
"You're really good," Riley told her.
"Really?" Eva blurted, then flushed over the squeaking sound of her voice. "I mean, that's so cool that you get me. I mean, got. . . it. The poem."
Okay, this was not what she said in the daydream.
"I didn't think anybody read the lit magazine," she rambled against her will. "Except the people who are in it, you know, and our parents, of course. I mean sometimes my nana reads it too--"
Shut up shut up shut up.
Riley's smile widened. "Yeah, well, there are some intelligent people at this school."
"Yo, Marx!"
A pack of Riley's friends trudged down the pathway toward him and Eva. They walked in almost a perfect triangular formation with Scot Gibbins front and center. He was the biggest, richest, most self-satisfied one of the crowd. Eva wondered if they practiced moving together like that or if it just happened naturally.
"Dude, Melissa just told me that you went to the Treemont scholarship thing," Scot said, drawing to a stop