Playing Hooky with the Hottie - Maggie Dallen Page 0,3

all that stuff. But right now, I had other priorities.

Sure enough, when I reached my friends, Emma looked up at me with wide eyes and a big smile. “Hazel, you’ve got to check this article out. This one has everything you need to catch your crush.”

“Emma,” I hissed, my cheeks already burning as I looked around to see who might have overheard.

A few students were talking amongst themselves several rows away, but Will, the hot newspaper photographer, was lounging back against the row behind him a few feet from where we were. He was looking at something on his camera, seemingly not paying attention, but still...

I shot Emma a meaningful look, but she was too excited to notice. “Lulu agrees. There are two tips here that are perfect for someone like you.”

I widened my eyes and gave my head a little shake that said ‘seriously? You told Lulu I have a crush?’

I should have expected it, I supposed. Emma was the very best friend a girl could ask for, and she knew how to keep her mouth shut when it was something that mattered.

The problem was, Emma decided what mattered.

The fact that I had a crush did not rank high on Emma’s list of secrets to keep under wraps. She thought crushes were all fun and games. My best friend had no idea how unpleasant it actually was because, as Emma would be the first to admit, she’d never actually had a crush.

Lucky girl.

Lulu was giving me a sweet smile like she knew what I was thinking. I loved Lulu, I really did. Our resident artistic dreamer, the redhead was as sweet as could be. But the point was, I didn’t want anyone knowing.

At least I hadn’t told Emma who I had a crush on. I knew better because if Emma got it in her head to play matchmaker, I would never know a moment’s peace.

“Come on, just give me a hint,” Emma said. “If you tell me who you like, I can help.”

“That’s exactly what I don’t want.” I snuck a glance at Will out of the corner of my eye. He looked thoroughly engrossed in whatever he was looking at. One lock of his floppy brown hair hung into his eyes, making my hands itch with the need to shove it away.

Who could focus on anything with hair in their eyes?

One side of his mouth was hitched up in the start of a smile. Was he listening?

Was he laughing at me?

Ugh. Paranoid much?

This was why Will Lansing made me uncomfortable. He’d transferred to our school last year when we were juniors, but every time I looked at him, I got the feeling he was laughing about something. The paranoid part of my brain seemed convinced he was laughing at me.

I moved closer to my friends and lowered my voice. “Could we please just drop this topic?” I asked, more than a little pleading in my tone.

“Oh, come on, just take a look,” Emma said, thrusting the magazine in my direction so I was forced to grab it or have it fall at my feet. I glanced down. Ways to Land Your Man.

Ew. I cringed at the headline alone.

“I’m not trying to land my man,” I said, forgetting for a second to keep my voice to a whisper as I handed it back to her. “He’s not mine to land. He doesn’t even like me like that.”

It hurt to think it, let alone say it, but I was nothing if not pragmatic.

“How do you know?” Lulu asked. If it was anyone else, I might have huffed or rolled my eyes, but she was all sweetness and innocence with those big blue eyes, so I managed to say evenly, “I just do.”

“You can’t know unless you’ve tried,” Emma argued.

The other students were leaving now, so it was just us.

And Will.

Who was inexplicably not going anywhere.

And Emma was inexplicably not letting this go.

“Hazel, you’re a lot of things, but you are not a quitter,” she said, her voice growing louder with enthusiasm.

I scrunched up my nose at the ‘you’re a lot of things’ comment. “What does that mean?”

But my bestie was on a roll, and she ignored the question. “Once you set your mind to something, you don’t let anything stop you from achieving it. That’s one of the things I love most about you.”

I shifted my gym bag and looked around nervously. Emma was starting in with her motivational speaker voice. If I didn’t shut this down quick, she’d be