Nate was hot no matter what, but when he played, his hotness went off the charts. His spiked hair fell across his left eye as he bent over his guitar. Shadows played over the sharp angles of his face. His eyes, which were so distant normally, filled with emotion.
The more I watched Nate play, the more fascinated I became not just with his music but with him. I followed his fingers moving over the guitar strings, and I imagined running my thumb over their calluses. I listened to his songs and imagined he was singing them to me. I imagined the two of us cuddled together on a couch somewhere, Nate strumming chords and making up lyrics to try to put into words everything deep and wonderful he felt about me.
I was a good student. I was totally falling for Nate Wetherill.
Eventually Archer noticed. We'd be talking and I'd see Nate out of the corner of my eye and lapse into fantasyland, losing track of our conversation entirely. Sometimes Nate would look our way and nod or even give a sly half smile. I'd melt a little, imagining the look was for me ... but of course it was meant for Archer. Archer always caught me when I got dazey like that, and he'd scrunch his face at me, but I'd snap out of it pretty quickly. I didn't want to let him in on my plan until our friendship was rock solid again.
It took about two weeks.
"Archer," I said as we split a massive sundae at Friendly's, "we're friends, right?"
"Only if you let me have the peanut butter cup," he said.
"Done."
He plucked it out and took a bite.
"And friends help each other," I said.
"I believe that is indeed part of the Webster's definition, yes," he said after another bite of the candy—which looked really, really good.
"You're totally giving me the last bite of that, right?"
He pondered a moment, then handed it over. I popped it in my mouth, looked around to make sure no one from school was in earshot, then leaned across the table. "I want you to help me go out with Nate Wetherill."
Archer grimaced like I'd just told a bad joke. "What! Since when do you like Nate?"
"Shhh!" I looked around again to make sure no undercover gossip hounds were texting this information to the entire school. "I just do," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "He's ... you know ... hot. Like ... rock-star hot." Yeesh, that sounded lame when I said it out loud.
Archer thought so, too. "'Rock-star hot'?"
"Whatever. I like him."
"So, what, you want me to tell him or something?" Archer asked, digging back into the sundae.
"No! You can't tell him. Not until I'm ready."
"Ready? Ready how?"
Ugh, how was I going to explain this? I couldn't tell him about the Ladder. There was no way he'd ever understand.
"You spend time with Nate in jazz band," I said. "You know him. You know what he likes to talk about, where he likes to go, what he likes to do ... maybe even the kinds of girls he's into."
"Yeah. Not girls like you."
"Ouch. Blunt much?"
"You asked."
"I did. For a reason. That's why I need your help. I want to know everything about Nate. Everything he likes—especially everything he likes in a girl. Then once I know it, I can become it."
"Kind of Fatal Attraction meets The Talented Mr. Ripley. Classy."
"Archer..."
"What? You don't turn yourself into someone else to get a boyfriend. If it's the right person, it's supposed to just happen naturally. You meet, you click, you hang out..."
Did he not realize what he was saying? That's what had happened with us, and it had ended in disaster.
"I know, but I can't let it happen naturally with Nate. You said yourself that wouldn't work."
"Because you're not right for each other."
"Haven't you heard of 'opposites attract'?"
"Yes, but they attract as opposites, not because one changes for the other one. What do you even like about Nate? Aside from his 'rock-star hotness'?"
"I don't know yet! I don't know him! Maybe when I do, I won't like him, but I can't even get to know him if I seem like ... you know ... me."
"I think it's a dumb idea," Archer said.
This was going nowhere. Obviously, Claudia thought I had far better recruiting skills than I actually did.
But did I need recruiting skills for the Ladder? Sure, it would be easier to go after Nate with Archer's help, but I could conceivably do it