Page 81 of True to You

“Well, don’t do me any favors. Jeremy McCormick is a bigger jerk than Oscar. If they were talking about me, it probably wasn’t all that flattering.”

“But, what if?”

“What if what?”

“What if I put it out there, that you’re free for prom. If he asks you and Matt finds out? You think that might change things?”

I chew on my lip, aimlessly doodling on my paper. I’ve never been a fan of playing dating games. Even with my last boyfriend, I didn’t get all flirty to try and impress him or anything. He asked, we went out and dated for a little bit. But maybe Veronica is right? Maybe Matt would think twice about my prom proposition. And even if he doesn’t dress up as Spike, it might still make him think about it. And as far as I know, he hasn’t and wasn’t going to ask anyone else.

“I’ll take your silence, to mean yes.”

“No.”

“No?” She raises an eyebrow.

I wrinkle my nose. “I don’t know.”

“Let’s just see what happens,” she whispers back, and I don’t reply.

I don’t have any classes with Oscar, so if Veronica did put her plan into action, he’d have to go out of his way to find me either today or tomorrow. I keep debating with myself whether or not it’s a good idea, and that internal argument grows even louder when Matt walks into our sociology class.

“Ready for the scavenger hunt?” he whispers to me.

Again, a simple question. Just like he’s done a number of times before. But just like all those times, goosebumps cover my arms, my breath catches, and that burning sensation tears through my chest.

“Ready,” I say over my shoulder, but don’t look back at him.

He doesn’t whisper anything else during class. When the bell rings for lunch, we walk side by side towards our meet-up location for the scavenger hunt.

“Everything okay?” he asks.

“Yeah, why?”

“You seem … quiet.”

He stares at me through the corner of his eyes, and I want him to ask about prom again. Or, who cares if he doesn’t ask me. Aren’t I always telling Veronica a girl can ask a guy just as easily? I don’t want to see what Veronica’s up to; I just want to go with him. But bringing it up again, means we might argue about it again and I don’t want that either.

“I’m fine,” I answer as we meet up with the others.

“All right, we can start,” Greg says, standing next to Mr. Garrison.

Yvette flashes me a dirty look, as Matt stands close to me. I never understood the hate some girls give to others over a boy. But I’m not about to step away from Matt either.

“Okay,” Mr. Garrison starts. “Greg and I have set up the scavenger hunt since some of you on court are in student council. Each team has the same riddles, but inside the envelopes, there are different starting spots for each couple.” He holds up five envelopes. “We tried to make them challenging, but not so much that you can’t solve them. They’ll be taking you around campus, and at each spot, there will be either a person there with your next clue, or it will be posted to the answer.”

“This is my cell number,” Greg points to the dry-erase board. “When you solve all four riddles and get the clues, text me a picture of all four. The first team that texts me the picture of all clues that are correct will win the votes. Questions?” Everyone looks around at each other, but no one asks anything. “Good. Here are your envelopes.”

Greg hands out the envelopes and Matt takes ours, looking at me with a nervous smile.

“Okay, open your envelopes on Three … Two … One … Now.”

There’s a low chattering among everyone, but I can’t hear what everyone else's riddle says, as Matt reads ours to me.

“Don’t you worry, don’t you fret. Just shoot straight, nothing but net.” Matt looks at me.

“Nothing but net?”

“Gym. It has to be the basketball hoops in the gym,” he whispers. “Let’s go.”

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