Page 6 of Operation Prom Date
I opened my mouth, because this was my chance to cross talking to him off my list. A strand of hair fell in my face and stuck to that extra coat of lip-gloss I’d slicked on. I quickly swiped at it, trying to pull it off as more of a sexy hair-flip, and went for try two of making words.
“Hey, Kate!” Isaiah, one of the guys in my AP Calculus class, approached. “Did you do the bonus problems for calc? I wanted to see if we got the same answer.”
Oliver Queen, I totally understand the struggle now.Secret identities are really hard to keep up.Okay, so mine might be slightly less detrimental to my continuing to be alive and stuff, but with Mick now headed away from me, all the air in my lungs stuck in there, making it hard to breathe.
I’d never ignore someone who’d been a real friend to me, though, so I shot Isaiah the smile I’d been preparing for Mick. “Yeah, I did them all. What did you get?”
As he pulled out his homework, I tried to tell myself that some problems took more work to get right.
I’d try again.
But my brain hated me, because a countdown flashed through it, and I wondered how I’d ever land Mick as my prom date when I couldn’t even manage a simple hello.
Chapter Five
Cooper
I leaned against the sun-warmed hood of my truck after school as I waited for Kate. I checked the time on my phone again. What was taking her so long? I wanted to get out on the lake so badly I’d practically sprinted through the double doors.
Finally I spotted her trailing out with the other people who were clearly not in a hurry to leave the place, mostly thanks to the orange shirt that stood out in the crowd. I waved and she started over to me. The sun glinted off her necklace and she squinted at me, putting a hand over her eyes to shield them.
“Operation Prom Date did not go so well today,” she said with a sigh.
“You asked him to prom?” I’d thought we were going to build up to that.
“No! Do you think I’m crazy?”
“You probably don’t want me to answer that.”
She smacked me. She seemed to do that a lot, especially considering we were two for two in as many days.
I opened the door for her, partly because I liked to think I could be a gentleman sometimes, but mostly because I was in a hurry and wanted her to get her butt in my truck so we could leave already.
As soon as she was seated, I rushed around the front, climbed in, and fired up the engine. I glanced over at Kate as I turned out of the parking lot and headed toward Massabesic Lake. “Sometimes Jaden and I drive into Manchester and practice with the Central Crew Club on the Merrimack River, but I think it’ll be better to start you in the lake.”
“Isn’t that where the Spring Festival race is going to be anyway?”
“Yeah, but if I practice against the current in the river, I’ll kill it on the lake—or say it’s windy, it won’t be a big deal.”
“Where does Mick practice?”
“It depends on the day. It’s not like I ask him.”
“Well, how am I supposed to get his attention if he’s at the river and I’m at the lake, or vice versa?”
Of course I hadn’t given a second thought to where Pecker might be training today, or if he even was. I hoped he wasn’t, and that he was wasting time playing football instead. Then again, it’d be more satisfying to beat him if he’d given his all. “Trust me, we’re going to get him to notice you. The training is only one part of my plan.”
She spun to face me, the green scenery blurring in the window behind her. “Oh, good, so you actually have a plan. I was starting to think you just needed a boating partner and I was a sucker.”
I froze, then did my best to smother any trace of guilt that might’ve crossed my features when she hit a little too close to the truth. I didn’t have a solid plan for her crazy scheme—or operation, as she’d chosen to call it. That’d require giving thought to it. I’d been far too focused on my relief over finding a temporary fill-in to train with. But I didn’t think Kate was a sucker. Now, thinking she had shitty taste in guys, on the other hand…
Realizing that her arched eyebrows must mean she wanted me to explain my grand plan, I turned down the radio as if I were about to say something super profound. “Remember how you’re supposed to be playing it cool? Stop stressing. Just leave the planning to me.”
There. That should buy me at least a night to come up with something.
“Playing it cool and being clueless are two different things,” she said. “In order to even relax enough to fake the blasé attitude that comes so naturally to you, I need to know there’s a plan.”
“Blasé attitude? That’s how you think about me?”
