My Know-It-All Nemesis - Maggie Dallen Page 0,14

over her chest, and I couldn’t deny it. It was most likely one of the guys from the football team, and I already had a suspicion about who it was.

Her lips pursed again, this time in a superior look that said, See? I knew I was right. You were behind this.

I drew in a deep breath to temper my annoyance. “I don’t feel guilt, all right? This wasn’t my fault.” I met her gaze evenly. “But you weren’t...entirely wrong the other day.”

Admitting she was right, even in a roundabout sort of way, felt like shards of glass moving through my throat.

She tilted her head to the side like a brat, making me spell it out.

“Maybe it’s not altogether fair that I have certain...benefits.”

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Admit it, you have it easy.”

“I... I…you think I have it easy?” The words came sputtering out of me in open disbelief.

She glared at me, and apparently that was her response.

The bell rang, and I was grateful because my head was spinning from her blatant hypocrisy.

“So,” I said, shifting the poster so I could adjust my bag on my shoulder. “Are you going to help me host the party or not?”

Her lips worked like she was debating saying no but couldn’t quite bring herself to.

Ha! Miss High and Mighty I-don’t-need-to-buy-my-classmates’-votes wasn’t above showing them a good time, after all.

5

Kate

“So wait,” my friend Bella said, her brow furrowed as she leaned across the aisle separating my lab table from hers. “You’re co-hosting a Miller Hardwell party?”

Her best friend, Gigi, leaned over too. “The Miller Hardwell party?”

I bit the inside of my cheek as I nodded. I couldn’t blame them for gaping at me like that. I was just as stunned by this new turn of events.

Bella tilted her head to the side. “Kate, have you ever even been to a Miller Hardwell party?”

I shook my head. “No time like the present, right?”

Bella and Gigi shared a look I couldn’t quite interpret. It was the kind of look that passed between besties, which meant it was outside my realm of experience. I had friends—lots of friends, actually—and even more friendly acquaintances. But I’d never had a best friend.

Unless you counted my sister.

Something told me sisters didn’t count.

When our teacher came in and started class, I was actually kind of grateful. I mean, I was having a hard enough time wrapping my head around the fact that I was now hosting this weekend’s biggest event. What did that even mean? Was I supposed to bring something? Appetizers, maybe? Punch?

I had no idea what one brought to a party let alone what one was supposed to offer as a host.

I mentally added it to the running list of questions I had going.

More questions came at the end of class when I was hit with a stream of inquiries, first from Bella and Gigi, and then from some of the other girls in our class.

Why’d Miller ask me to help him?

That was asked with more than a hint of a jealous glare from Claire Muncy, one of the mean girls—better known as the MG’s of Sweet Mountain High. A lot of girls had a crush on Miller, but he was a renowned player—never with the same girl for long. Claire, apparently, hadn’t gotten that memo. I briefly recalled them being attached at the hip and swapping saliva at the end of our junior year, but from the glare I was getting from Claire, it seemed she was hoping for another turn at being Miller’s other half.

He’s all yours! That’s what I wanted to say, but I figured the less said the better. I had zero interest in involving myself in Miller’s love life, thank you very much. He was doing a perfectly awful job of going through the girls of this school on his own.

The most terrifying question came from a girl in PE later that day.

“What are you going to wear?”

“Um…” That was my oh-so-eloquent response. The party of the century was less than twenty-four hours away, and I had no clue what to wear.

Later that night my sister tried to help me via videocall. “No. Just, no.”

I scowled at her on the screen, shaking her head so fiercely her glasses looked like they might fall off.

“What’s wrong with it?” I looked down at the pale blue poodle skirt that was swinging around my shins. “This was what I was going to wear to help Mom pass out candy tonight.”

Her groan had me frowning at my