Page 107 of Drama Queens Don't Fall For Charming Boys

He looks at all of us and smiles. “For sure. I’ve never been to a masquerade ball before. It sounds pretty neat.”

“Do you have a date?” Rylee prods.

I want to kick her, too.

“Declan!” a girl calls.

He waves at her, turns to us to say something, maybe to answer the question, but the girl calls again.

“I’d better go,” he says. Before he leaves, he faces me. “We’re still on for Operation Love Birds after rehearsal today?”

“Yep.”

“Cool. I’ll—”

“Declan!”

He flinches, then pastes on a smile. “I’ll see you. Bye, guys.” With another smile, he saunters down the hallway, to the girl who’s dying to get his autograph.

Kade lifts a brow at me. “Operation Love Birds?”

“Yeah. Declan and I are on a mission to help his brother Chase and Miss Lane rekindle their love flame.”

All four of them stare at me like they have no idea what I’m talking about.

I explain that Chase and Miss Lane dated in high school but broke up. And we suspect they still have feelings for each other. “So because neither of them wants to make a move, we decided to give them a bit of a push. Miss Lane is so nice and she’s one of my favorite teachers and she deserves to be happy. If I can help make that happen, it’ll make me happy too.”

“Weird. Small world, huh?” Zoey says.

“Yeah. Anyway, we’re going to play matchmaker. I’ve never done that before, but it sounds like fun. The plan is to go to Mikey’s Diner, where Miss Lane eats at every Friday night. We’ll ‘happen’ to end up there as well. And then hopefully everything will go smoothly and they’ll fall madly in love with each other again.”

“Sounds awesome,” Rylee says with a smile. “Mia the Matchmaker. A future career for you?”

I hold up my hands. “They haven’t even gotten together yet. And no, thank you. I’ll be acting even when I’m old and gray. No, even when I’m dead, I’ll haunt movie sets to make my presence known.”

They laugh just as the bell rings. We head to Ally’s class.

***

Play rehearsal goes well and then it’s time for Operation Love Birds to commence. Declan and I get in his car and he drives to his house. Chase is on the phone with someone who seems important.

Declan freezes in place, his ears perked as he tries to overhear the conversation. I’m not sure, but I think I hear his name mentioned, but it’s too far to make out the exact words.

“Is something wrong?” I ask him.

He seems a bit worried and curious—maybe hopeful—but he shakes his head, giving me a bright smile. “Yeah, everything is fine.”

We go to his room, settle down at his desk, and pretend to work on our nonexistent project. A short while later, Chase knocks on the open door.

“Hi, kids. Still working on that project? What’s it on?”

“The solar system,” I blurt. Then I mentally smack myself. The solar system? Are we in elementary school?

Declan chuckles. “It’s very complicated,” he lies.

Chase narrows his eyes as he looks from Declan to me, then to his desk that is devoid of any materials for our “solar system.”

“O-kay,” he says. “So what would you kids like for dinner tonight? Pizza again?”

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