in your favor—”
Nora’s eyes gleamed. “—then so be it.”
I crossed my arms but rolled my eyes playfully. “You guys are the worst. Would you like to hatch up any evil plans while you’re at it?”
Nora grinned wide. “That’s actually not a bad idea… Maybe fate could use some prodding, if you catch my drift.”
Audrey and Scarlett laughed.
I flicked her forehead with my fingers. “No! No evil plans,” I insisted. That girl was the youngest of all of us, but she had the brains of an evil genius. I knew not to underestimate her.
She rubbed the spot where I’d flicked her. “Ow. Okay, okay. Noted. But I mean, if you two happen to come closer as a result of your brother’s injury… I’m just saying. Maybe this is all happening for a reason. A reason we’ve all been waiting for,” she said, her voice trailing off in a fake innocent, hilarious way.
Audrey snorted from trying to keep her composure.
“Friends!” I reminded them, holding back a grin myself.
Scarlett ate some more of her sandwich. “Friends. Fine. But how’d the ride home go yesterday?”
She had to bring that up.
I gave her a stare, but Scarlett gave me her best innocent look. That girl knew what she was doing.
Meanwhile, Nora gave me another one of her wicked grins. “You’re giving him a ride home? Like every day? What a neighborly thing to do. I love it. I’d bet money you guys will be stealing kisses in between classes within a month.”
Scarlett and Audrey began giggling.
I felt my neck turn hot at the thought of that. No way. “I’ll take that bet!”
Nora glanced back at where Aaron sat several tables away. “I’m telling you. The universe is pushing you two together once and for all. Since you two won’t go willingly…”
I grabbed one of Audrey’s napkins, rolled it up, and threw it Nora’s head.
She dodged it like a pro, though, yelling, “Ha!”
Instead, it hit our vice principal just as she happened to walk by.
Not only that, but I quickly realized the napkin had gotten caught in her impossibly high up-do.
She froze and slowly turned my way, clearly feeling something in her hair but too shocked to do much else.
I gasped, covering my mouth. “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Karev. Total accident.”
I jumped out of my seat and carefully plucked the balled up napkin out of her hair.
She looked at the napkin in my hand, jaw still open and eyes wide. Clearly too disgusted to speak, she left without another word.
All I could hear was my friends’ peals of laughter.
I sat back down, heart pounding knowing I could’ve ended up in some serious trouble. “You guys are the worst! You’re lucky I didn’t land in detention.”
Nora was still laughing like a hyena. “I mean, what are the odds?” she said in between laughs. “There’s a reason you became a cheerleader and not a softball player.”
I couldn’t help it. I started laughing too. “Remind me why we’re friends again when you guys constantly harass me and make me resort to acts of violence to get you guys to stop.”
Audrey nudged me playfully. “Because you love us.”
Scarlett winked. “And the idea of you and Aaron together. We’re not about to let you pass him up that easily when you guys are obviously crazy about each other,” she said.
I glanced down. What she was talking about, I wanted too, but they just didn’t get how impossible it was.
Nora reached across the table and touched my hand. “Seriously, Rach, what kind of friends would we be if we didn’t do something about this?”
I was going to cry if they kept saying stuff like that. I didn’t want to cry, though.
So I leaned toward her. “Just you wait, Nora Webb! I’m sure there’s SOMEBODY you like too. And when I find out, get ready because payback’s coming.”
She laughed. “What can I say? High school boys… eh. I’ve got my drums. I’m good.”
I studied her and gave her a skeptical look. “Uh huh. We’ll see. One day you’re going to crush hard on someone, and I’ll be there. Just you wait.”
She crossed her arms and gave me her most confident smile. “I’ll take that bet.”
7
Aaron and I only had a couple of classes together this semester.
In English, we had assigned seats so we never really talked in there anyway.
However, we also had chem together, and Coach Collins let us sit anywhere.
Usually, Aaron sat near the back, and I sat in the front corner desk. I didn’t have any close friends in the class,