Playing Hooky with the Hottie - Maggie Dallen Page 0,17

her lips. There was no denying the amusement in her eyes, and I could only sigh as I shifted my backpack. “Okay, fine, maybe it is like that. I think she’s cute. I wanted to get to know her better…”

“But?” she asked, her brows hitching up.

I cleared my throat. Man, this was embarrassing. “She likes someone else. So….you know. No big deal.”

She tipped her head to the side, her brows drawing together in confusion. “So, let me get this straight. Rather than just man up and risk rejection, you’re going to actively help the girl you like get the attention of another guy.”

I blinked and clamped my mouth shut when I realized I had no good response. When she said it like that...

“You said it yourself,” I said. “The photographs came out great. It’ll be perfect for my portfolio.”

Her brows arched, and her eyes widened behind her glasses in obvious eagerness. “Does that mean you’ll be entering the competition?”

I just barely held back a groan. “No. This is just for fun. I know that concept is lost on you, but trust me, sometimes people just do something because they enjoy it.”

She hitched her lips to the side, unamused. But she knew I had a point. She and everyone else on this newspaper staff took it so seriously. Like it actually meant something. It was a high school paper, for crying out loud.

No one was about to win a Pulitzer.

But by they way Max and her buddies treated this contest, you’d never know it was just a dumb regional competition for newspaper dorks. Sure, photography was one of the categories, but I hadn’t even thought about entering.

“Alright then,” I said, backing away toward the door. “Good talk.”

“Wait,” she called.

I tipped my head back with a sigh. Again, I’d been so close.

“If you change your mind on the competition—”

“I won’t.”

“The deadline is this Friday,” she continued as if I hadn’t interrupted.

“Okay.”

I heard her chair screech as she came to a stand. “I really think you should enter. You have so much talent.”

I turned to look at her over my shoulder. “Have you been talking to my mom lately?” I teased. “Next you’re gonna tell me how much potential I have.”

Her lips curved up in amusement, but she wasn’t about to be thrown off.

This stubbornness right here? It was what made her an excellent reporter.

It also made her a pain in the butt.

She glanced toward the darkroom door, where I’d admittedly spent way too much time, considering the last bell had rung. “I’ve never seen you put so much time or energy into...well, anything. So if you’re passionate about these photos of Hazel—”

“Ugh, again with the sounding like my mom. I’m not passionate, she just...she’s great to photograph.”

Mischief sparkled in her eyes as she said. “So she’s your new muse?”

I rolled my eyes, but I didn’t reply because...maybe, yeah. I couldn’t help it that she was fun to watch, exciting to capture. That was why I’d had a crush on her since the moment I’d spotted her in history class last year.

It had been crush-at-first-sight the moment I saw her some-might-call plain features light up over something her friend Emma said.

The expression had been there and gone so fast I’d wondered for a second if I’d imagined it. In the next second, I’d cursed myself for not having my camera handy to catch that moment.

From that point on, I’d been paying attention. Watching. The girl was fun to watch. Interesting, intelligent, with a sense of humor few people noticed aside from her closest friends.

She was also crazy driven, and something about her fierce, competitive edge was so freakin’ sexy.

Weird? Maybe.

Maybe I was the crazy one for feeling that way, but it annoyed the crap out of me that Justin didn’t.

I was also selfishly relieved that he didn’t.

I knew he didn’t feel that way about Hazel because I knew people. I studied them with a critical eye. Call it a side effect of my hobby, but I tended to view the world like I was looking at it through a lens, and nothing about Justin’s expressions or his body language said ‘I like you.’

At least, not as anything more than a teammate.

But would I tell her that?

No. It wasn’t my place.

“You okay, Will?” Max asked. That was when I realized I was still standing there, close to the door but not quite leaving, my thoughts distracted by Hazel.

“Yeah, fine.”

Her look said she didn’t believe me.

I shifted and wet my lips. “I just don’t want