Next Door to a Star (17 page)

“Char, I wish you told me about liking Nick before, but honestly, you and Will have lots of stuff in common. You both like to hike and watch sci-fi stuff.”

“It’s okay, you go out with him. I’ll wait for Lance Cunningham to get sick of Madison and Chandler,” she said. “Did you see today’s show? Leocadia hinted she and Lance are related to Chandler and Madison’s father. I think the truth might come out next week.”

Asia called me later to tell me how her conversation with Will went.

“He said you seemed ‘pretty cool’ and he was hoping to hear from you,” Asia said.

“I have no idea what to write in my e-mail to him.”

“Just be yourself and tell him you’re not into college football, but you watch other sports.” Then she told me to ask him what kind of movies he liked. Seemed easy enough.

***

I set my alarm to wake me up a half-hour earlier to get ready for school. I curled my hair with Mom’s curling iron and tried using an eyeliner pencil Simone let me borrow. I had to wash it off three times before I got it on semi-okay. Simone and Asia thought it was cute when I got to school, but Charlotte didn’t say much. Simone had tried to get Charlotte to wear some lip gloss, but so far she had refused to put on anything more than Dr. Pepper Lipsmacker lip balm.

Asia had told me where Will’s locker was and she wanted me to walk by and say “hi” to him. I didn’t want to, but she and Simone said they’d go with me. We walked past him and I managed to squeak out a “hi.” He had this weird look on his face when he answered me. I knew I shouldn’t have tried to wear eyeliner. Maybe the boy-decoding handbook everybody else seemed to have also had a section on how to put on eye makeup.

Will didn’t even come over to our table at lunch. Asia waved to him, but he waved back and stayed where he was.

“I don’t get it. He told me he was excited you wrote him back and now he won’t even come over here,” she said.

“Maybe he’s embarrassed because everybody knows he likes her,” Charlotte said.

Asia shrugged. “I guess.”

I was worried he changed his mind about me. I mean, I obviously tried to look better today too. I curled my hair and wore makeup. Maybe I didn’t curl it right or something.

I ran into Nick after school while I was waiting for Charlotte. She had to stay after to work on a lab assignment since Deidre had messed up their experiment.

I almost never saw Nick at school because his classes were all on the other side of the building.

“So…how are your classes going?” he asked.

“Um, okay. Yours?”

“All right, I guess. Hold up, I need to stop by my locker here for a minute,” he said. He opened it and I saw a picture of the new Tigers catcher taped to the back of the door.

“Nice picture,” I said. “I like the new guy too.”

“You seem a lot different today,” he said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I dunno. Different somehow. I’ll see ya around,” he said as he walked away.

Charlotte met me at her locker and asked what was wrong.

“I do not get boys at all,” I said.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The next day I didn’t even bother to curl my hair. I put my hair in a braid, pulled on Simone’s sweatshirt and went to class. Simone let me borrow her pink lip gloss because my lips felt dry.

“You’re so lucky to have thick, dark lashes. You don’t even need mascara,” she said. “I have to glop it on before anyone notices I even have lashes.”

I never wore mascara because it felt weird and was hard to get off. I did start curling my lashes recently because they stick out weird otherwise. Will waved to me in the hall and I gave a little smile. I didn’t want to look overeager since he didn’t seem interested in me anymore.

At lunch, Asia told us how she had a sneezing fit in the hall right in front of Wyatt Rogers.

“I always have allergies in the fall, but this was the worst. I almost sneezed on him,” she said.

“I have bad allergies too,” Charlotte said. “You should try using Angold allergy drops. They help me out.”

Asia wrote the name inside her lavender binder. “Thanks, Char. Maybe it will help me keep my snot off Wyatt.”

Will walked over and sat down next to Asia. “I like your shirt, Hadley,” he said. I started to say it was Simone’s shirt, but she kicked me under the table. Asia sneezed and her eyes got watery.

“I hate fall,” she said, grabbing a handful of napkins.

“Well, I was gonna ask if you guys wanted to go outside, but I guess not,” he said.

“Yeah, we’ve all got allergy problems,” Simone said. “But Hadley doesn’t. Why don’t you guys go?”

I asked Charlotte to go along with us, but she picked up a napkin and pretended to blow her nose. She stuck her tongue out at me as I walked to the door with Will.

I thought I’d have nothing to say to him, but he was pretty easy to talk to. He asked what kind of music I liked and he made a face when I said, “Jack Brogger.”

“He’s okay, I guess. I kinda liked the song he did for the
Thunder and Steel
movie,” he said.

“So do you like to read or…anything?” I asked, wondering if that sounded as lame coming out of my mouth as I thought it did.

He said was into the futuristic sci-fi series Charlotte loved. I mentioned I was going to ask my friend to let me borrow her books, but he told me he’d lend them to me.

“I probably don’t have any books you’d be interested in,” I said.

“Actually, I’d love to read the fantasy book I saw you with in the cafeteria the other day. The one with the dragon on the cover.”

“Oh, that’s Charlotte’s. I’ve never read any of that series.”

“Oh.” We ran out of conversation and it seemed like the harder I tried to come up with something to say, the more my brain betrayed me. I couldn’t come up with a single topic, but he didn’t seem to mind.

Later, Simone asked me how everything went when I got to science class. I told her he was easy to talk to and she said the three of them watched us out of the cafeteria window.

“Charlotte said she thinks he’s cute,” she said.

“She did?” I asked, and Simone nodded.

After school, Will waited for me at my locker. “Want to walk home together?”

“As long as you don’t mind if Charlotte comes with us. We always walk together,” I said.

“No problem.”

However, not only did he end up walking with us, but Nick was headed in the same direction, and it was super awkward with him alongside. Will and Charlotte talked the whole way about a movie they had both seen. The actor who played Lance Cunningham had been a mutant in it and Will thought he stunk in the film.

“Well, he’s good on
Charmed Lives
,” Charlotte said.

Will wrinkled his nose. “You watch that show?”

“We live for it,” I said, and Charlotte nodded.

He shrugged. “Isn’t Valerie Jackson on the show? She’s hot.”

“It’s
Valeria Joseph
,” Charlotte said. “Do you know who Valeria is, Nick?”

“Yeah, but she’s kinda fake-looking,” Nick said.

His comment surprised me and I tripped—right in front of him. He put his hand out to steady me. Way to be graceful. Ugh.

“Well, this is me,” he said. “Uh…see you guys later.”

We dropped Charlotte off and went to my house. My mom was in the garden and we went inside to watch TV and have some grape juice. Will said Charlotte seemed pretty cool and I waited for him to say he liked her now, but he helped himself to a brownie. Valeria’s new shampoo commercial came on and she whipped her head around so her blonde hair fanned out. She had on a ton of dark eye shadow, which made her eyes look all sexy and smoky.

“Nick’s right, she is kind of fake,” he said. “Like she’s trying too hard.”

“I don’t think Valeria needs makeup at all, but I do,” I said.

“Nah, you look better without it,” he said.

My face got warm. Will left after we watched the video countdown show. My mom had a million questions about him when he was gone. I went over to Grandma’s house to get away from her.

Simone was helping her mom rake leaves in the front yard and she called me over. I grabbed a garbage bag and helped her bag leaves.

“So, Will came over to watch TV at the house,” I said.

She screamed and threw her arms around me. I dropped the leaf bag and her mom laughed at us.

“Aw, you guys are going out,” Simone said.

I pointed out he hadn’t asked me officially, but she waved her hand like it didn’t matter. I told her what Nick and Will had both said about Valeria.

“Oh, I get it now—why Nick was acting so weird the other day. He made a comment that you seemed so down-to-earth when he first met you, but then he thought maybe he had read you wrong. I didn’t know what he meant, but this explains it. I guess he doesn’t like the whole overly girly-girl thing,” she said. “Anyway, I called my Grandpa Hendrickson.”

I asked her what happened and she said he wanted her to come out for a visit some weekend.

“Mom said I could go, so I think I might spend next weekend with him,” she said.

Will messaged me later. He kept going on about some stupid show he watched about if aliens existed. It was the kind of thing that would have fascinated Charlotte, but I was bored.

***

The next day, Charlotte and Will talked about the alien show the whole way home.

“The guy from Roswell totally convinced me,” Will said. “I mean, why else would the government need coffins tested to make sure they didn’t leak?”

“Duh, who wants a leaky coffin?” Charlotte said.

“Um, you guys? Can we talk about something else?” I asked. “Something that doesn’t involve bodily fluids oozing out of caskets?”

Will seemed like he forgot I was still there. I started talking about the U of M versus Michigan State football game going on Saturday. I thought it would get Will’s attention, but things got worse because Charlotte knew a lot more about football than I realized. The two of them were off talking and I was left out—again. It seemed Will had way more in common with Charlotte, and it was getting on my nerves. I didn’t mind if they got along, but if he was supposed to like me, then shouldn’t he want to spend time with me? What was worse was the way Charlotte was looking at him. It was the same look Asia got on her face when she talked about Jack, or the look I got when I thought about Nick—except Charlotte had a much better chance with Will. I kept hoping it was my imagination and Will still liked me, but I had a bad feeling when Charlotte called me at night.

“Did you study for the math test?” I asked.

“No, I was busy chatting online,” she said.

Maybe she was talking to Deidre, but I had bad vibes, so I asked who she was talking to online. She got quiet for a minute and then said, “Will.”

I couldn’t get mad since he technically wasn’t my boyfriend and she had liked him first, but I wasn’t thrilled.

“I didn’t know you had his e-mail address,” I said.

“I don’t. He checked my profile online. It’s no big deal. We talked about
Aliens Amongst Us
. Are you mad?”

How could I be? I pretty much stole the guy from her. I told her I didn’t mind, but I mentioned it later to Simone who thought it was a bad idea.

“If you like him then you’re going to have to get interested in the alien crap he watches,” she said. “Never let your boyfriends get too close to your friends. Look what happened with Pilar and me.”

I thought Charlotte could be trusted, but then I realized she had trusted me not to tell anyone about her crush on Will and I had blabbed. She had also trusted me not to go after him and I had done that too. If there was anybody who couldn’t be trusted then it was me. I decided to call Charlotte back and tell her I thought she and Will would make a better couple. It was obvious he liked her anyway.

“He’s your boyfriend,” Charlotte said.

“But he never technically asked me out,” I said. “I know you still like him and I think you should go for it. And I know it’s over, but to be honest, I still have feelings for Nick. Anyway, I’ll walk home with Simone after school tomorrow so you two can talk alone.”

***

Will didn’t come near either one of us at lunch the next day. Charlotte hadn’t said anything to me, but I knew something was up when she asked to borrow Simone’s lip gloss. Simone’s eyes almost fell out of her head as she passed Charlotte the tube. I couldn’t say anything since I had encouraged her to go after him…only the second guy (other than Nick) who had ever paid any attention to me unless you counted the guy at my old school who threw gum in my hair.

I didn’t even bother to wait for her after class. I went straight to my locker so I could avoid watching the two of them together. Simone came over to my locker and tried to make me feel better by telling me Will had crappy taste in shoes. Even Asia said he was kind of a loser and he always smelled like foot powder.

We walked outside and started to head to Scoops when I heard Charlotte calling after me. She was probably going to tell me he had asked her out—something he hadn’t bothered to do with me. Her cheeks were flushed when she caught up to us. I didn’t know if it was because she had been running or if Will had kissed her.

“Aren’t you walking home with Will?” I asked.

She shook her head while she tried to catch her breath. “No, he waited for me, but I told him I had to meet you.”

“Why?”

“Because I know you liked him and I wouldn’t go behind your back,” she said.

“I sorta did that to you.”

She shrugged. “He’s only some guy. I mean, he’s fun to talk to, but whatever. And he said Lance was a bad actor. I could never like someone who didn’t like Lance Cunningham. But um, I also ran into somebody else.”

“Who?”

“Nick.”

“Oh?”

“I asked him if he knew Morgan had lied about you having a boyfriend. He said Asia told him, but he wasn’t sure what to think.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” I said. “He’s with Reagan now anyway.”

“Yeah, well at least he knows the truth.”

“Oh my gosh, I forgot to tell you guys what I read about Lance.” Simone interrupted. “Valeria and the girl who plays Madison
both
used to like Lance and they got into a big fight over it at the studio. Madison almost got fired for pushing Valeria, but they worked it out and they’re friends, and he’s the one they’re not speaking to.”

I thought Valeria would have had better taste in men than to date Lance. It was one thing for Valeria’s character, Chandler, to like Lance on the program, but for Valeria to like him in real life? He was too much of a player for her.

“Lance is dating the girl who plays his twin now,” Asia said. “I saw it online.”

“I’m glad they decided Lance wasn’t worth ruining their friendship over,” Charlotte said.

“Well, don’t get upset, but Valeria caught him flirting with the makeup artist on the set, so she got mad and dumped his sorry butt,” Simone said. “Char, I’ll give you the magazine when I’m done because your grandpa will want to read it.”

“Still, they didn’t let Lance come between them,” Char said. “Even if they only dumped him because he was a pig.”

“Yeah, I mean, he’s still cute, but he’s no Jack Brogger,” I said. “Of course, now I know that even Jack Brogger doesn’t look like Jack Brogger.”

“You guys, I have some news,” Simone said. “I’m going to sign with a local agent. I won’t be doing any TV shows from here obviously, but maybe I could do some commercials or whatever.”

“That’s awesome,” I said.

“I miss acting, and I’d like to do some plays or something. I guess there’s a theater around here I might be able to try out for, and Mom talked to the producers of my old show and they might write me back in for an episode where I come back from boarding school. It wouldn’t be a permanent thing, but it would be fun to come back even if it was only for a day,” Simone said.