Page 47 of Celebrities Don't Date Bookworms

“That we did,” Sloane said, shaking his hand. “I told you that you’d be seeing a lot more of us soon.”

“Indeed.” Hudson nodded. “I hope you don’t mind that I took your spot. Megan here just insisted that I sit with her. I was going to wait to find an empty desk, but she practically forc— Ow!” He rubbed his arm where I’d punched him. He looked at Sloane and shook his head. “You see how she treats me?”

Sloane grinned. “You get used to it.”

I looked at Sloane over Hudson's shoulder. “He won’t tell me what class he’s supposed to be in now.”

“Well, I guess he’s in this one now, then,” Sloane said with a happy shrug. Like in our last period, she moved to the desk behind, and sat down. I sighed in annoyance—what was the point of rearranging my whole schedule to be the same as my best friend’s if I didn’t even get to sit with herin every class?

“We were just discussing the reasons Megan doesn’t like me,” Hudson told Sloane. “So far on the list is that I spilled coffee on her.”

“She does take her coffee very seriously,” Sloane said with a small nod. I glared at her. It was like she was trying to flirt by proxy for me, which I did not ask for at all.

The class bell rang, and Mrs. Kavinsky stood up from her desk, making her way to the front of the class.

“Okay, everyone, let’s settle down,” she said. She held her hands out palm down, and slowly lowered them to signal to everyone to be quiet. She did a lot of stuff like that, which made me think she was more used to teaching kindergarteners than high schoolers. When all the noise in the room tapered off, she smiled. “Fantastic, thank you. So, I hear we have a new student in the class today.”

Her gaze landed on Hudson, and I frowned. Did that mean he was actually supposed to be in here? Why hadn’t he said anything? Or was she just assuming he was supposed to be because he was sitting here and acting like it?

“Yes, ma’am,” Hudson said politely. It was the same persona that had won over my mom at the mall on the weekend. “And English is my favorite subject, so I’m looking forward to this class.”

The girls who had been looking at us before practically swooned. Over what, I wasn’t sure—maybe his accent? There were a lot of kids at our school with the same accent, so I wasn’t sure why they thoughtHudson’s was so great. Besides, after talking to Bay a few times, I felt like I was immune to the magic of a British accent. Nobody’s would be hotter than his, so I didn’t care how good Hudson’s sounded.

Mrs. Kavinsky smiled, and nodded, then broke into her beginning of class spiel. Hudson smiled at me cheekily.

“You think you’re so slick, don’t you?” I whispered.

“What do you mean?” he asked, his smile not faltering at all.

“You’ve convinced everyone you’re so perfect,” I said. I narrowed my eyes. “But I know it isn’t real. You’re just a publicist’s dream.”

“You really think so?”

“I know so.”

Hudson’s smile turned into a bit of a smirk. “I guess I’ll just have to prove you wrong.”

“I guess you will.”

eleven

As always,Mrs. Kavinsky finished all the class content about twenty minutes early. But today, instead of telling us to talk with our desk partner about something like she usually did, she told us we could do whatever we wanted for the rest of the period. For a second, I was worried that Hudson was going to strike up another conversation with me, but he didn’t even get the chance to open his mouth before the fangirls descend. I swear, they must have been waiting on the edge of their seats for the lesson to be over because one second, they were sitting, and the next they were surrounding Hudson’s side of the table.

“So, Hudson…” Lily Pletsch said. She was standing right in front of him, and his face would have been to her stomach if she wasn’t practically bent over at the waist, putting them eye-to-eye. She lightly brushed his bicep with her hand. “How are you liking Summerfield?”

I knew for a fact that her voice was not normallythat high or airy. While I was no stranger to putting on a customer service voice when talking to a stranger, I was pretty sure she was actually aiming for (and epically failing at) a seductive one instead. The other girls seemed to be going for the same attitude as well. The girl who had been glaring at me earlier had unbuttoned, so much of her blouse that she might as well have just opened the whole thing, another girl was trying to perch herself on the edge of the desk without actually sitting on his binder, and yet another one was stroking her hand through his hair like he was a dog. I scrunched up my face as second-hand embarrassment coursed through me. I could understand the idea of having a celebrity crush, but surely, they didn’t think this was the way to win him over, right?

“Oh, I’m loving it,” Hudson said. He flashed them his perfect, mega-watt smile that I was sure his publicist made him practice in the mirror every morning. He had to be ready to win people’s hearts at any moment. “Everyone here is so friendly. Like Megan here.”

Suddenly, a bunch of eyes were on me, and not a single one of them was friendly.

“She has been so nice,” Hudson continued. I couldn’t tell whether he was being sarcastic or not. “I really appreciate her showing me around the school.”

“You know, you could probably find another one who…” Lily looked at me distastefully, “…smiled more.”

“Or actually likes your music,” the girl stroking his hair pitched in.

“And did I hear you call her Starbucks girl in first period?” Christina asked. She flipped her hair over her shoulder, showing off her perfect manicure, before saying, “Does she, like, work there or something? Because you shouldn’t have to mingle with the poor students. Some of us actually have parents that can provide.”

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