Sometimes Gemma felt sorry for the guy. It was like
he
was the third wheel in this threesome. He didn't mind, though. He knew what he was getting into when he started dating Maria. The night he asked Maria to make their relationship “official,” Maria had called Gemma. That wouldn't have been so bad, but Manny was still standing there waiting for Maria's answer. He figured it out, though, when Maria screamed
Manny and I are now exclusive!
into her cell phone.
“How gorgeous you are,” Maria told Manny. He reached over and tickled her. That was the type of relationship Gemma longed for. Manny was cool, good-looking, and smart. He had an adorable brother with the same handsome features and easygoing attitude. Unfortunately, Gemma didn't date twelve-year-olds.
Gemma's attention turned back to the court as the final buzzer sounded. The guys had pulled out a tough win. The crowd rushed to the floor to congratulate the players. Gemma watched Angela Rattner head for Ethan. Angela was on the girls' team but, due to her lack of skills, very rarely got the chance to play. Angela kissed Ethan's cheek.
What was up with that?
Gemma wondered. Rumor had it they broke up months ago.
Ethan and the rest of his team slapped high fives as Angela, now standing behind him, wrapped her arms around Ethan's waist and gave him a peck on the back of his neck. Gemma felt an inexplicable pang of jealousy. Still, she couldn't tear her eyes away.
“I think someone wants a piece of Mr. Ethan Jackson,” Maria said mockingly. “Were you just staring at him?”
“Girl, please. I was checking outâ” Gemma searched the crowded court and pointed to the first person she saw. “I was checking
him
out.”
Maria peered down at the court. “You were checking out Lyle Lundsford, the band geek?”
“Yeah,” Gemma said, determined to keep her lust for Ethan under wraps. “If hot guys have no character, I'll just have to start dating dorks.”
“Okay, whatever,” Maria said. “Let's roll.” They all stood up and gathered their stuff.
Gemma took one last look at Ethan, dismissing her infatuation tonight as temporary insanity. Tomorrow she would return to normal. Ethan the playerâon and off the courtâmay not be the guy for her, but someone with his physical assets just might be. If, and only if, he had the rest of the equipment: a heart, a mind, and a soul.
“Hey, don't forget we still have to check out that website,” Gemma said.
Surprised, Maria turned to face her. “What made you think about that?” Maria followed the direction of Gemma's gaze. “Ohhhh, I get it now. Don't worry, we'll definitely find you your own personal Ethan Jackson.”
Gemma frowned. “I never said I wanted Ethan.”
Maria grinned slyly. “You didn't have to,
mi amiga
.”
Chapter 3
Prince Charmings
“T
here she is, Ms. Michael Jordan herself.” Seth Cole, Gemma's biology lab partner, applauded as Gemma walked into class the next day.
“What are you, best friends with my dad or something?” Gemma asked, plopping down onto the lab stool next to him.
Seth waggled his pale eyebrows suggestively. “Would making friends with your dad improve my chances?”
Gemma raised an eyebrow. “Chances of what? Getting an internship at his firm?”
Seth squeezed her elbow and grinned. “That's not the firm I had in mind.”
Gemma smacked his arm. “You're crazy, you know that?”
“Sure. But that's just part of my charm,” Seth laughed, rubbing his arm.
Gemma had met Seth this year when Mr. Sandler paired the two of them together for bio lab. At first she wasn't too thrilledâhe was even worse at biology than she was. But he was cute, despite his messy strawberry-blond hair and scattering of frecklesâand always made her laugh. In the high school clique handbook, she would have placed Seth in the handsome nerd category. Or was that an oxymoron?
“I swore you were going to dunk on that East Wellington Amazon, number thirty-three,” Seth said. “I would've paid good money to see that.”
“Not quite there yet,” she admitted. “But I'm working on it.”
One by one, the class began filing in. “So how was the party the other night?” Seth asked. “I was going to go but changed my mind.”
Gemma rolled her eyes. “I wish I had been that smart. It was totally lame,” she finished in her best valley girl voice.
“Really?” Seth asked. “You went with Nick, right?”
Gemma's face burned with embarrassment. Most of the time she appreciated the fact that Seth was an honorary girlfriend, someone she could talk to about her guy problems. But sometimes she regretted it. “Unfortunately, yes.”
Seth shook his head. “That bad, huh?”
“Worse.”
Seth picked up the lifeless frog lying in a small metal tray. He shoved it in Gemma's face. “Kiss me,” he said in a Kermit the Frog voice. “If you do you'll find your Prince Charming.”
Gemma smirked. “You ever read the original version of âThe Frog Prince,' the one in
Grimm's Fairy Tales
?”
Seth's face scrunched up while he thought about it. “No. I guess not. Why?”
“Because the princess doesn't kiss the frog. When he tries to get in her bed, she throws him as hard as she can against the wall. And
then
he turns into a prince.”
Gemma grinned at the look of shock and horror on Seth's face.
As class was about to begin, Maria peeked in the doorway. “Gemma,” she called in a hoarse whisper, motioning for her to come to the door. Maria had two minutes before her gym class, and Maria was never late. She'd had a hard enough time doing well in school when she was first learning English. Now that she had the language down, she took school very, very seriously. Anything that brought her to Gemma's class this late had to be important.
Gemma hurried across the room, concerned. “What's up?”
“Don't forget, I'm coming over to your house today,” Maria said quickly. “We've got to get you signed up to go boy shopping.”
“
That's
what you had to tell me?” Gemma asked, astonished that Maria would risk being late just to remind her about the website. Did Maria consider her that desperate? “Fine. Now go before you're stuck in detention and miss my next game,” Gemma warned.
When she returned to her seat, she was surprised by how excited she was about signing up for the website. When Seth saw her grinning, he pulled the tray on which their frog lay closer to his side of their shared lab table.
“You aren't throwing this frog anywhere,” he warned her. “I don't care how bad your date with Nick was. I'm already getting a C in this class.”
“Kermit has bigger things to worry about than just getting tossed around,” she declared, pulling a scalpel from their drawer. “And I have a better way to find my Prince Charming.”
Â
After school, at Gemma's house, Maria lay on Gemma's bed with her bare feet propped up against the wall that was covered with pictures of Chris Brown and Justin Timberlake. She was studying her new nail polish. They had just painted their nails a matching coral color.
“Think this is dry?” Maria asked, holding out her foot toward Gemma.
Gemma lightly tapped Maria's toenail and checked her finger. No smears. “Yup.”
“Cool,” Maria said. “Then let's get online. Maybe you'll find a date for this weekend.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Gemma swung around in her chair and flicked on the computer. Her fingers hovered above the keyboard. She felt a strange mixture of anticipation and apprehension. “Is this crazy?” she asked Maria.
“What's crazy is a hottie like you going dateless. Now start typing!”
“You're right,” Gemma declared, turning back to the screen. “Time to go shopping!”
Gemma filled out the profile information and then clicked the
join now
button. The girls looked at each other, sat back and waited for the computer to make the selections.
Is my perfect guy in there
? Gemma wondered. Her heart sped up a little.
Slowly, four names with active links appeared.
“Here we go!” Maria said.
Gemma clicked on the first name. “Huh. No photo,” she said as a new window opened.
“Uh-oh, dude must reside in ugly town,” Maria said.
“Let me check out his written profile before we kick him to the curb.”
Name:
| Drew
|
Age:
| 17
|
Birthplace:
| Orange County
|
Height:
| 5'11
|
Weight:
| 185 lbs
|
Likes:
| Romantic poetry.
|
My lady's presence makes the roses red, Because to see her lips they blush for shame. The lily's leaves, for envy, pale became, And her white hands in them this envy bred. The marigold the leaves abroad doth spread, Because the sun's and her power is the same. The violet of purple colour came. Dyed in the blood she made my heart to shed. In brief: all flowers from her their virtue take; From her sweet breath their sweet smells do proceed; The living heat which her eyebeams doth make Warmeth the ground and quickeneth the seed. The rain, wherewith she watereth the flowers, Falls from mine eyes, which she dissolves in showers. âHenry Constable
|
I am looking for a girl who loves to be treated rightâsomeone I can pamper and spoil. I want to be a knight in shining armor, a swashbuckling hero. Ladies should be treated like ladies, and chivalry should not be dead, IMHO.
|
To me I look like: Not sure.
|
“Hey, I like this one,” Maria said. “I think Manny could take some lessons in being a gentleman from this guy.”
Gemma frowned. “He sounds okay ... but it's like he's trying too hard to impress. And what's with the poem?”
“What's wrong with the poem?” Maria demanded. “It shows he's no dummy. He can actually read.”
“Let's just check out the next one,” Gemma suggested. She returned to her main selections and clicked on the link for guy number two.
Name:
| Dan
|
Age:
| 18
|
Birthplace:
| Laguna Beach
|
Height:
| 6'3
|
Weight:
| 225 lbs
|
Likes: I paint every day. It's all about seeing, and then sharing what you see with the world. I have been accepted to USC on a full art scholarship and have had several gallery showings of my paintings. I like a girl who is confident in herself. I paint nude models to capture a person's essence, and I don't like the distractions of remedial “body art” like piercings or tattoos. I also prefer a girl who loves to read as opposed to watching reality television all day long.
|
To me I look like: Omarion
|
Gemma glanced back at her friend, who was peering over her right shoulder. “Sounds good, but I have a question. Does this mean he has a bunch of nudie pictures of girls lying around?”
“Who said anything about girls?” Maria said, laughing. “He just says he likes to paint nude models. There could be a bunch of pictures of nude men. Maybe he's on the down low.”
“I didn't think of that!” Gemma exclaimed.
When Maria saw the concerned expression on Gemma's face, she quickly recanted. “Chill out, chica. I was only kidding. It says right there that he prefers a
girl
that is confident. Relax, will ya?”
“Check out that picture, though,” Gemma told Maria. Dan's picture was some sort of abstract drawing. Gemma could barely make out his face. “Just like Drew. No way to know what the guy looks like.”
“Leave it up to ze artiste to post ze crap picture,” Maria said.
Gemma shook her head and turned back to the screen.
“Next!” Maria screamed in Gemma's ear. Gemma hit the next link. Slowly the picture loaded. Both girls' jaws hung low as the photo came into focus.
Name:
| Ethan
|
Age:
| 18
|
Birthplace:
| Laguna Beach
|
Height:
| 6'1”
|
Weight:
| 220 lbs
|
I am looking for a girl who enjoys sports as much as I do. I frequent salsa clubs because I love to dance although I'm
|
not the best at it. I am, however, a quick study and would love to learn. I am a power forward for a HS basketball team and considered one of the best in the league (I'm not bragging, my record tells all). I'm looking for someone who likes to work hard as well as play hard. I am into sports all year round and work out six days a week so if you can keep up, let's hang out.
|
To me I look like: the singer Chris Brown
|
“I don't believe it.” Gemma murmured, staring at the screen. Ethan Jackson posted his profile on a dating site? Not possible. And not only that, the computer picked him out as a good match for her.
“This is it!” Maria shouted again.
Irritated, Gemma whipped her head around. “Would you stop yelling in my ear, please?” Gemma turned back to gaze at Ethan's photo. “And if you please, do not have chili cheese fries for lunch,” she added.
Maria punched her on the shoulder. “Don't you get it?” she squealed. “This could be a sign. Out of all the guys in this county, the computer picks Ethan Jackson for you.”
Gemma nodded. “You have a good point there, my friend. The only thing is, I'm on this site to get
away
from dogs. Isn't he the biggest one of them all?”
“Touché,” Maria said. “But remember, those may be just rumors. Next profile.”
Name:
| Christopher
|
Age:
| 19
|
Birthplace:
| California
|
Height:
| 5'11
|
Weight:
| 200 lbs
|
Likes:
| Surfing all day long
|
I like a hot girl that looks good in a bikini. If she doesn't surf, she must be willing to learn. I'm not into games, I like a laid-back life, and going with the flowâand the waves.
|
To me, I look like: Eminem and Justin Timberlake
|
The girls looked at each other, surprised to see a blond, blue-eyed surfer-type pop up.
“But he's white,” Gemma announced.
“Good observation, Sherlock. Did you deduce that from the big color photo attached to his profile?”
“You know what I mean,” Gemma said.
“Yeah, but hot always outweighs race,” Maria said. “Besides, he looks like Justin Timberlake with longer hair. And you know you love you some Justin.”
Gemma cocked her head to the side, peering at the photo. He did kind of resemble Justin. “That's the final one,” she announced. “And I think the choices are pretty good.”
Gemma saved the page in her Favorites, and clicked off the computer. Maria plopped back down onto Gemma's bed and propped her feet up against the wall again.
“So who's it going to beâDrew, Dan, Ethan or Christopher?”
Gemma thought for a minute. “Good question.”
“Drew sounds nice,” Maria said. “Totally unlike the previous jerks you've run into lately.”