The Hot List (17 page)

And what was even more annoying was that the entire time I was shopping, I didn't hear from Squid. I checked my phone to make sure the ringer wasn't off. Nope. No calls, except a message from my network provider. It had been a little over an hour since I had seen Squid. I texted Nicole and Heather and complained about how slow the hair place was.

Then I decided to check in on Squid and surprise him. When I breezed back into Hair Cutz a ton of people clogged the sitting area. But they were all different people and there was no Squid.

I rushed up to the hairstylists with the blue stripey hair. “Where is he?”

“You mean your brother?” She nudged a woman next to her, sweeping up hair.

“He's not my brother,” I said. “He's my friend.” Was Squid my friend? I guess so. Yeah. “Kind of.” I looked at my phone. “It's been over an hour.”

“Well, your ‘friend'—she used her fingers to make quotes—“is done. I fixed him up awesome.”

“Before he got a haircut, he was supposed to call me.” I stared at the woman's snake tattoo crawling up her neck. I peered at the blue stripes and her double nose rings. What exactly did “awesome” mean to her? Okay, I was fully frightened.

The hairdresser lady cupped her mouth and whispered confidentially to me. “I think he wanted it to be a surprise. He said he was going to the Apple Store.”

He wanted it to be a surprise?

Oh, snap, I didn't like surprises, especially not when it came to Squid Rodriguez. I charged past a sunglasses hut, the cell phone hut, a restaurant where you pick out
your own meat and veggies and they grill it for you, and, finally, the Apple Store, not that was hard to find, since there was a line snaking out of the place into the breezeway.

I stepped inside where hundreds of people were testing iMacs, iPods, iPads, and every iProduct imaginable. But most of the action was toward the back of the store where there were two long lines, one for support and another to make new purchases.

Where did Squid go?

And then I saw a guy, with bleached blond hair clipped shortish with a side part and long bangs that brushed into his eyes.

He was sitting on one of the long tables, fooling with the latest version of the iPad Touch. This guy was kind of cute, although a little short.

This guy was Squid.

No. Way. No, no way!

Couldn't be, but he was wearing Squid's clothes. So it had to be. Two girls flanked Squid's side. They seemed about our age, maybe a year older, and they were laughing and playing some game involving glowing creatures.

“Hey, Squid!” I called out.

He didn't turn to look at me.

“Squid!” I tried again.

He turned around, but stared right through me. The girls on either side scooted closer to him. What was he playing at? How could he ignore me? I made him. Who picked out his outfit? The cool one? Who took him to Hair Cutz? Me. That's who! That's when I screamed, “SQUID, C'MERE!”

Although I was standing about twenty feet away, I got my point across.

Squid gazed at me and twisted his mouth like maybe I was crazy. Maybe I WAS crazy.

This made me feel doubly irritated.

“Eww,” said one of the girls. “Someone's in trouble.”

“Someone is ticked,” said the other girl.

Squid shrugged and stood up, but not before the two girls hip-bumped him. Then he made his way back over to where I was standing.

It was only when we were outside of the store, away from the groupies, that I got a really decent look at Squid. I had to do a double take. I mean it was Squid but it wasn't Squid. He had on the same T-shirt and jeans he had on earlier but with the haircut, it was like he was being possessed by the spirit of a cool boy. When he glanced at me, the expression on his face was bored. He has become the definition of “whatever.”

I led Squid farther away from the perimeter of the
Apple Store and pointed to a bench next to a Hallmark store, and we both sat down.

“Squid,” I said. “Why didn't you call me when you were getting your haircut?”

He shrugged. “I dunno. I thought it'd be fun to surprise you.”

“Oh!” I clenched my fists so I didn't strike him, the new-improved-but-still-frustrating version of Squid.

Suddenly I realized that Squid looked great and that those girls were actually flirting with him. That I should be overjoyed, bursting with happiness with his new looks and personality. I appraised the haircut, the bleached blond streaks and the lack of a mullet hairstyle.

The two girls who were swarming him earlier in the Apple store did a “drive by” in that they yelled, “Bye.” They strolled away giggling. These could possibly be the most annoying girls ever.

I waited for them to pass before speaking again. When they did, I said, “You're ready for school on Friday. And then on Monday, for the Hot List.”

“Cool.” With a bored expression, Squid stared at his fingers.

O
n Friday, I was standing by my locker, when Nicole
rushed up to me and cuffed me by the arm. “Look over there. Is that for real?” She was pointing to where Squid, the hotified version, stood by his locker.

Then Heather latched onto my shoulder. “Can't be, right?”

“Nope,” said Nicole, shaking her head.

“Is,” I said. “Told you.” I had texted both of them in the mall right after Squid debuted with his new haircut.

We walked up to Squid, who was now shutting his locker and getting lots of stares from the kids passing by in the hall. There was no way that he wasn't getting onto the Hot List on Monday.

Nicole was the first one to speak to Squid. “Is that really you?”

“Uh-huh.” He barely glanced up at them as he
shouldered his backpack. Down the hallway, I could see Elio and Gabriel, nudging each other and rolling their eyes.

“You look so different, right?” said Heather.

“Definitely,” said Nicole. “It's hard to tell it's you,” she said. “With the mullet gone.”

“Whoa,” said Heather. “Squid, you're kind of cute.”

“Whatever,” he said and turned away to strut down the hall.

I felt like a proud parent, watching her kid succeeding in kindergarten or something. But I was also watching him acting kind of mean to Heather, who was so sweet. And I was seeing Elio and Gabriel being ignored.

More girls approached, including a bunch of sixth graders who I didn't really know. And Maddie.

Squid flicked his hair back so it swept across his face.

Maddie patted Squid's hair and then pulled on it.

“Ouch!” shrieked Squid. “What are you doing?”

“Just checking to see if it's a wig,” said Maddie, giggling.

“I want to check to see if it's a wig too!” said Heather.

“Me too,” said Nicole.

“Us too,” chorused some of the sixth-grade girls.

Soon a mob of girls were digging their hands into Squid's hair.

“OW! OW! OW!” hollered Squid, pulling away and putting his head between his knees, moaning.

Maddie held up a lock of Squid's hair and cast a glance at me like,
Congratulations, you did it.
How weird that Maddie thought I did a good job on my Squid makeover. I mean, wasn't she on Nia's team in terms of the bet?

“Not a wig,” declared Maddie. “See!”

“I could've told you it wasn't a wig,” said Squid, massaging his scalp.

At that moment, Hayden passed by twirling his lacrosse stick. And right behind him was Nia, Sierra, McKenzie, Ava, and Amber.

“Squid, is that you?” Hayden asked.

Squid grinned. “Uh-huh.”

I turned to look at Nia's face. It was as white as Squid's blond highlights. Her mouth dropped open. She was blinking hard but, at the same time, trying to maintain her cool.

“Dude,” called out Hayden. “You just had, like, a hundred chicks all over you.”

“Definitely.”

“I envy you, man,” said Hayden.
Okay, rock my world! Hayden envied Squid Rodriguez. Whoa!

Nia wrinkled her nose and scrunched her eyebrows.

Her nostrils flared and I could hear her huffing. Oh, she was mad.

Oh, my life was perfect!

Nia glanced at Maddie. “Coming?” she asked. For the past three months, Maddie always walked Nia to homeroom. I wasn't sure what happened to my brain, but I whispered to Maddie. “Stay.” Just like that. Maybe it was because she seemed genuinely happy that Squid was succeeding, which meant I wasn't such a loser. Or maybe it was because I was in such a good mood.

“You go on,” said Maddie to Nia. “I'm good.” She turned to me as Nia sashayed away down the hall. “I guess she's a little mad.”

“Guess so,” I said.

“Even though Squid's only been hot for a day, I think he's getting on the List. Don't you?”

“You think?” I asked, my heart pounding.

“I do,” said Maddie. “I really do.” Then she leaned in to me and whispered. “I have a little confession to make. You know how on my original Hot List, there was a name crossed out?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Well, it was Squid.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Nope.”

“Oh, c'mon.” I squinted my eyes at her. “Would you swear on truth candy?”

Maddie held up her hand. “I swear on all of the red M&M's in Colorado.”

“Wow. Okay. Explain.”

“Just right after you starting saying how weird he was, I crossed him off.” She shrugged. “I felt a little embarrassed. You can be a little judgmental sometimes. But”—she grabbed my sleeve—“it's understandable. I mean he's a little bizarre. Or was. I mean he used to make me laugh and stuff.”

“Used to?”

Maddie bit her bottom lip. “I don't know. He looks good. But he's different. Kind of like a lot of other guys.”

“Sort of like you,” I said. “Like how you changed when you got in with Nia and all them.” Suddenly, Maddie shut her eyes, and she sighed.

“Did you have bring that up? Can you let that go?”

I shrugged. Could I? I wasn't sure.

In the hallways, during the break, Hayden gave me a long stare. I wasn't quite sure what it meant. But, maybe, just maybe, it was a good thing, or maybe not.

A moment later when Squid approached me, I was feeling so full of Hot List hopefulness that I decided to
make his day and tell him about Maddie, which meant that I had to tell him about me—that I had started the Hot List with Maddie.

“We've got to talk,” I said to Squid. I motioned for him to follow me under the stairwell.

“What's up?”

“Well, remember I promised I'd tell you a Hot List secret.”

“Yeah?”

“Well, I'm going to tell you now.” I took a deep breath. “Maddie and I started the Hot List. So, that's why, when I said that I knew a lot about the Hot List, I wasn't joking. I really do.”

“Whoa.” As if he was seeing a ghost, Squid looked both frightened and awed. “So you're the Listmaker. Like, you could put me on the List on Monday. I can't believe you didn't tell me on day one.”

“Shhhh, keep it down. I'm not still doing the List. I have no actual idea who's doing it. But they're using my pen, which I threw away in the bathroom, that's for sure. Anyway, the point is the whole thing started when Maddie and I wrote up our own personal hot lists.”

“And your number one was Hayden.”

My face reddened. I could feel the heat in my cheeks.

“Go on,” said Squid.

“Maddie put you down on her personal hot list.”

“What number?”

“I dunno. Maybe like number seven or something. But the point is that you got on.
Before
your makeover or whatever.”

“Awesome,” said Squid. “Maddie,
the
Maddie, thought I was hot.” It was funny, but Squid was sounding like me. How I talk about Blue/Hayden.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Thanks for telling me, Sophie. You're going to be all right,” he said, as he sloped away down the hall.

I'm going to be all right.
What did that mean? I was already all right. I've never been more all right in my life. Sometimes, despite all of the changes, Squid could be so weird.

Texts sent and received on Sophie Fanuchi's phone:

Before Homeroom

Travis Middle School

Boulder, Colorado

USA

Monday, December 5

Between 8:17 a.m. and 8:21 a.m.

Central Time

Sophiegrl
8:17 AM
December 5

Im so nervous

Cadieme
8:21 AM
December 5

No reason 2 be Squid iz hot ☺

All weekend I had thought about this day. Hot List Day. As I walked to my locker, I practically expected to see a giant banner strung across the hallway:
HL DAY
. But pretty much everything seemed normal except for the chatter, of course.

It was the usual stuff. “Do you think Nia's staying at number one?”

“What about Teddy?”

“I heard that Savannah might get on.”

The usual stuff, except for one little thing. I heard Squid's name, and when I heard what was being said by a couple of sixth graders, my stomach squeezed up.

“I think the whole thing was, like, some kind of drama class experiment.”

“I dunno, something. Because, look at Squid.”

Okay, I didn't like the idea of the words “experiment” and “Squid” being uttered in the same sentence. I strolled over five rows to where Squid stood around with Elio and Gabriel. Whoa! What was going on? I thought that Squid had promised me he wouldn't hang out with them. They all had yo-yos in their hands and were performing weird and elaborate tricks.