“Now you’re getting it. See how smart you are?” she teased back.

“Aw, you think I’m smart? That’s so nice of you to say.” I crossed my arms, waiting for her next comeback.

“No, I think you’re cocky.”

“Yeah, that’s what’s Stephanie said, too—ouch!” I covered the family jewels as she attacked me with her other shoe. “Settle down, woman. You’re violent!” I chuckled as her dainty, little shoe hit me in the thigh.

“Men,” she mumbled. “I’ve had about enough of conceited guys today.”

She stopped hitting me, and I sat up next to her, nudging her with my shoulder. “What’s wrong, Woodstock?”

She used to hate it when I called her that, but over the years, she’d gotten used to it. I couldn’t help it. Her parents were tree-hugging hippies. Not that I had anything against that, but they were always telling us stories about their peace and love adventures. They’re not old enough to have gone to Woodstock or anything, but it made for easy jokes.

“Nothing.”

She tried to stand up, but I pulled her back down by the wrist. I gave her crap, but if any other guy did it, I’d kick his ass. If he was bigger than me, Jaden would help too. That was what our group did. We always backed each other up. “Seriously. Did something happen?”

Her cell phone beep cut off our conversation. Aspen flipped it over. “It’s Jaden.” Half her mouth kicked up in a smile. Obviously, she was just as excited about going out tonight as I was. “He wants to know what’s taking us so long.”

And just that easy, I forgot all about what we’d been talking about. Standing up, I held my hand out for her. “Come on. You sneak down first. I’ll have your back. James Bond has nothing on me.”

Chapter Two

I didn’t hear from PA the rest of the weekend. Monday morning I was still flying high from the party Friday night with Alexandra Maple and her killer legs that I had a feeling she showed off that night just for me. As I pulled myself out of bed for the last week of school before three months of freedom, I hit the power button on my computer to let it warm up while I showered. Not that I expected her to get back to me. If she waited this long, she’d probably punked out. Which sucked for the wallet, but I didn’t really want to work with someone who wasn’t sure anyway.

With my hair still wet and dripping on the collar of my shirt, I sat down at my desk and fired up my Hook-up Doctor account. One new message. “Hell, yeah.”

Dear Know-it-All,

Well, looked like I’d lost my “Mr.” title already.

Okay, I don’t know who you think you are, but you know nothing about me. I happen to know exactly who I am! You can’t blame me for being a little nervous. I mean, you’re not even willing to let anyone know who you are, so obviously that tells me you’re not as confident about this whole thing as you want everyone to believe. Hmmm? Could I be right?

I stifled a laugh. This chick didn’t play around.

That being said, I’m willing to give you a try. Just like a guy needs money, a girl could use a little help. You were right about the whole double-standard-thing. I figure I’ll take all the help I can get.

So, about me. I DO know who I am. I’m the friend. I’m not shy, but I’m not real forward when it comes to guys either. I’ve um… well, not really had a lot of experience. I mean, I had a boyfriend for a couple weeks once, and I’ve played my fair share of spin the bottle, but I’ve never really done the dating thing. I’ve definitely never done the seducing-a-guy thing. I’m your basic girl. I do well in school. I have friends, play sports and all that stuff. I’m not one of those girls who wear shirts two sizes too small so guys stare at their breasts.

THE GUY (I can’t think of a name) is the kind of guy who goes for those girls wearing shirts two sizes too small. He’s not really a relationship kind of guy. Well, let me rephrase that. I think he would be, if he found the right girl. I know him and I know there’s more to him than he shows everyone. He’s funny and sarcastic. Umm, likes music. Everyone loves him. He’s one of those guys who have a ton of friends, but he doesn’t realize how much people like him. Deep down, he’s a really good guy.

“Sounds like you got yourself a chump,” I said to my computer. What was it with girls? He has a ton of friends, but he doesn’t realize how much people like him. Yeah right. He realizes it, he just doesn’t want you to know he does. It was all about how you played the game and it sound liked her chump knew how to play.

Even more important than her “he’s-sensitive-on-the-inside” issue was the fact that she was blind. She tried to see something in this guy that wasn’t there. I’d seen the mistake made a million times. My mom had made it a million times herself. If you have to use the words, “deep down” all that means is you’re fooling yourself. You’re seeing what you want to see and not what’s really there.

But she wasn’t paying me to tell her that. Not that she’d paid me anything yet, but when she did, she’d be paying me to hook her up, not tell her that even though she’d get the guy, it wouldn’t last. It never did and I wasn’t just talking about the people I hooked-up, either.

A honk sounded from outside. I closed down my email, picked up my backpack and ran for the stairs. Jaden sat outside in his beatermobile that had about ten different colors of paint on it. I used to give him shit about it until he pointed out that a piece of crap was better than no car at all. So now I sucked it up and rode with him to school every day. I could always ride with Aspen. Her car’s a lot nicer. One of those electric things that she has to plug in every once in a while, but she picked up Pris every day. It made no sense because Priscilla had her own car. Whatever. Girls were weird that way. Anyway, I don’t like to get up any earlier than I had to, so Jay and the beatermobile it was.

“What’s up?” I asked, wincing as the door creaked and stuck when I tried to pull it closed.

“Yeah, it’s doing that now. Gotta pull hard, Rambo.” Jaden scratched his bleached hair as I jerked the door closed. “There ya go. I knew you had it in you,” he said, sarcasm dripped from his words. “You ride in my car enough, you could help me work on it, you know.”

“Whatever. I’m too pretty to work on cars.” I teased him.

He rolled his eyes at me and backed out of my driveway before he started for the school. “So, Alexandra… Hot, huh?” he leaned back in his seat, one hand on the stick-shift and the other on the wheel.

“Yep,” was all I said. I didn’t do the whole kiss and tell thing. What I did was my business. Well, and the girl’s. I hadn’t kissed her too much, anyway. I planned on rectifying that soon.

Jay didn’t ask anything else, because he knew I wouldn’t tell. We were at school about ten minutes later. As I closed his ghetto door, the bell rang. Perfect timing. “See ya later, man,” I called out to him. While jogging to my locker, I looked around, but didn’t see Pris or Aspen, so I headed straight to class. I didn’t pay much attention all morning, trying to formulate a plan for my little do-gooder who obviously had it in her head to save a sap. Ha. Save a sap. I could use that one again.

By the time lunch rolled around, I had a rough game plan set out for her. I met Jaden, Aspen and Pris by our table under a tree. Pris’s long, black hair was curly today. It was crazy how she did that. Some days it would be straight as a board and others it looked like my Grandma’s poodle, only longer. Of course, I never told her that. Pris would start yelling in Spanish at me and then proceed to try and kick my ass. She rocked, though. Pris and Aspen were both cool girls.

“Hey, ladies.” I walked up and put my arm around Aspen’s shoulder. She bumped me with her hip before mumbling a “what’s up”.

“What? You can’t say hi to me? See if I give you any more rides to school.” Jaden jumped on the picnic table, much more awake than he’d been this morning.

“There’s only four more days. I don’t need any more rides. Plus, I did say hi to you.”

“No, you said--” his eyes widened. “You don’t have to make excuses for thinking I’m pretty. I won’t tell anyone you swing that way.” We all laughed.

“Boys are so weird. I really don’t understand how their brains work,” Aspen mumbled to Pris before pulling away from me.

“That’s because girls think too much.”

Pris shook her head at me while Aspen’s eyes bugged out of her head like I’d said something that surprised her. Just as quickly as the look flashed on her face, it was gone. The three of us walked over to the table, and sat down with Jaden. The sun beat down on me, making little beads of perspiration cling to my forehead, teasing of the summer that sat right around the corner.

“I can’t wait to be out of this place for three months.” I grabbed a chip out of Pris’s bag and popped it into my mouth.

“Why? Aren’t you going to spend the summer slaving away at some minimum wage job so you can save cash for your car? I think you need to skip the whole job thing, Bastian. It’s summer. It’s a time for lakes, parties and girls in bikinis.” he held up his hand and I didn’t leave him hanging. “Plus, I have the car. Mi beater es su beater.”

Pris threw her apple at him, which Jaden caught and bit into. She narrowed her eyes at him. “Usted es un idiota.”

We didn’t study many insults in Spanish class, but I was pretty sure she just called Jaden

an idiot.

Jay took another bite and then spoke around the food in his mouth. “I have no idea what you just said, but thanks for the apple.”

I laughed, before moving down to the bench seat on the same side of the table as Jaden. He continued to munch on the apple. I ignored him and looked at Pris and Aspen because they were much better at solving problems than Jay was. “Despite the offer to share Jaden’s POS, I want my own wheels. Woodstock, can you hook me up with a job at the hippie shop?”

She smiled at me, not at all bothered by my teasing. I’d known these guys my whole life; we were cool to give each other a hard time without anyone getting their feelings hurt. That was what I loved about them. “I can’t. The economy sucks right now. My parents can’t afford to pay anyone. Sorry, Bastian.”

“Maybe if you got a haircut, someone would hire you? You’re looking a little shaggy these days.” Pris put her elbows up on the table.

I ruffled my wavy, black hair. “I happen to like my hair.”

She shrugged. “It’s your summer shacked up in the beatermobile. Not mine.”

“Can’t you hook me up with a job at the mall? Put in a good word with your boss or something?” I asked her. The money I brought in as The Hook-up Doctor was good, but it wasn’t enough. I figured with both gigs, I’d have a car in no time. I tried the lip-poking-out-thing like my mom did.

“Sebastian, I work at a girl’s clothing store, remember? You’re not metro-sexual enough to work there.”

I raised my eyebrows. “No, I didn’t remember because you still haven’t hooked me up with one of the hot girls who work there.”

“You’re such a cerdo.” She turned to face Aspen and they started girl talking about clothes and that British guy who sparkled in all those vampire movies. Jay turned and plopped down beside me, tossing Pris’s apple core into her bag. We did study animals and I totally disagreed with her. I wasn’t a pig. I just happened to like girls. A lot.

“Are you still holding out on me about the party?” Jaden asked.

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t ask you about your hook-ups. Don’t ask me about mine.” This time, it was only partly because I didn’t care. The other part was because I already knew. Alex told me her friend Dana had it bad for Jay. I’d seen them talking and hanging all over each other at the party. Another lesson I could give PA. Two plus two always made four. Talking at a party, plus a crush equaled some kind of hook-up. Or at least the prospect of one.