or buttoned-down blouses with skirts that went to her knees. She dressed like a girl from another era, with her hair always pulled back in a tight ponytail, sporting those skirts and dresses all year-round, no matter what the occasion or the weather.
“Cute,” I muttered as I dropped my head back against the seat. “She looks like she stepped out of one of the Beach Blanket Bingo movies. She’s like…a modern-day Gidget.”
“Gidget!” Tim repeated, letting out an obnoxious laugh from the front seat, and I rubbed a hand over my eyes. Odds were, Tim had no idea what I was talking about. I’d bet that Tim’s mom hadn’t made him watch old movies for a year after his father set up house with his secretary.
“Her style is definitely…unique,” Logan said.
I scoffed. Unique, that was one word for it. I’d once been in the same PE class as Kate, and while every other girl was wearing short-shorts and tight T-shirts, Kate was sporting polo shirts and a skirt-shorts combo thing that I’d never even knew existed.
But whatever. I could handle her weird style of dress, her uber-competitive nature, and even her huge beaming grins that were directed at everyone but me…I could handle all of that just fine—if she had a sense of humor.
That was what I couldn’t stand about her. She took everything so seriously, herself included. Once upon a time, I’d tried teasing a smile out of her. But for a girl who was so quick to dole out smiles to everyone on earth, she was beyond stingy when it came to me.
One look in my direction, and her smiles fell flat. Sometimes they even turned into outright sneers.
I flattened out the sheet of paper and got my pen ready in case inspiration was about to strike on this long trip from our rival’s stadium back to Sweet Mountain High.
“I’m starving, man,” Logan shouted out to Tim.
Tim, who would get the job of student council president if Kate and I didn’t follow the rules and play nice. It was my moral duty to save Sweet Mountain High from Tim’s apathetic leadership.
Right?
I glared down at the sheet of paper. Somehow, writing I want to be student council president so that Tim is not, didn’t seem like the answer Gentry or anyone else was looking for.
So that Kate Andrews doesn’t win and become even more unbearable.
Nope. That probably wouldn’t work, either.
What had Kate written?
“Dude, turn off here,” Cal called out. “There’s a fast food place we can hit up.”
Everyone else was on board with the stopping and eating plan, so who was I to complain? Just the second-string party host who had hours of cramming ahead of him for Monday’s AP Calculus quiz and a student council application to fill out.
I followed the others out of the van and headed into the A-frame chicken shack called—I kid you not—Hot and Wild. Next to the sign was a picture of buffalo chicken wings, but the double entendre was not exactly subtle. And when we walked into the dive, it was clear that the gross attempt at sexiness didn’t stop with the name of the fast food joint. There were a few waitresses wandering around, and their uniforms involved tiny shorts and halter tops.
“Aww yeah, man,” one of the guys behind me said. “Check this place out.”
I was already elbowing my way past the guys in front of me, since odds were I’d end up paying for everyone.
“Welcome to Hot and Wild, may I take—” The hot blonde behind the counter stopped talking, her eyes growing wide.
I was frozen in place. No way. This could not be—
“Kate?” Cal bounded past me, apparently not nearly as stunned as I was by the sight of Kate—Kate Andrews—dressed in a halter top and...and…were those skinny jeans?
My mind was still reeling, my chest feeling oddly like it had been struck by a boulder, as the rest of the guys rushed the counter to greet a rapidly recovering Kate. “Hey, guys!” Her cheerful smile touched on every single football player...except me.
She seemed to be studiously avoiding eye contact with me as she laughed and joked with the others, a little white cap atop her head with a picture of a cartoon chicken on the side.
“I didn’t know you worked here,” Logan said.
She shrugged. “Yeah, well...we can’t all live it up by the pool at our home in The Heights, right?”
A few of the guys laughed. I felt the blow even though she didn’t look my way. I lived