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I’d be fine, even if it took Dad a little while to cool off after I signed the Pledge. Krista had to go to her father’s for the weekend, but I could stay with her until Friday if I needed to.
    I stuffed my dance clothes into my bag and fluffed my hair one last time. I still looked pale under my makeup, and dark circles ringed my eyes, but boys don’t notice that stuff. At least, I hoped Josh wouldn’t. I still hadn’t seen him today, but he never missed lunch.
    In the cafeteria, I found Krista and Liz poking at their hot lunches—a gray lump floating in brown gravy. I decided to opt for the salad bar. “Why are you guys eating that?” I asked when I got back to the table.
    “She dared me,” Liz said. “I don’t know why she bought it.”
    “Death wish.” Krista stabbed the meat loaf with her fork. “Calculus test next period.”
    I speared a limp lettuce leaf. “So did you guess right?” I asked Liz.
    Krista had outdone herself this morning when we were getting dressed, and we’d made a bet Liz wouldn’t be able to figure out her inspiration. Today she wore slinky tights, a short skirt, and about four layers of torn-up T-shirts in neon colors. She also had a ton of metal and rubber bracelets weighing down her arms, and she’d pulled all her hair back on one side and teased out the other.
    “At first I thought a young Madonna,” Liz said. “Because of the neon. But then I remembered that chick with the shaved head on one side.”
    “Cyndi Lauper,” Krista reminded her. “It was kind of both of them anyway.”
    Liz rumpled Krista’s hair. “Our friend is whacked,” she told me. “Totally.”
    “Hey! Don’t touch the ’do!”
    “At least she doesn’t listen to the music,” I said.
    Krista wrinkled her nose like she’d smelled something even worse than the food. “As if. Give me some credit.”
    I scanned the cafeteria, looking for the football players. “Have you guys seen Josh?” I asked.
    They exchanged frowns.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “Rumor is you two broke up,” Krista said. “But we know that’s not true because you would’ve told us.”
    I swallowed back my surprise. “News to me.”
    “We figured,” Liz said. She pulled the chopstick out of her bun, shook her hair loose, and retwisted it up into a knot, which she does about fifty times a day. “Megan told me she heard it from Ashleigh Robertson, who heard it from her brother. Never trust little sisters.”
    I forced myself to smile and tried not to think about how Josh hadn’t returned any of my calls or texts. “We didn’t break up,” I said firmly. “I’ll go find him.”
    I hadn’t even stood up yet when Josh and Derrick strolled into the cafeteria. Josh looked great in jeans and an old University of Oregon football jersey. My heart literally raced at the sight of him. He was so gorgeous. Sometimes I could hardly stand it. I know every girl’s supposed to fall for his type—friendly, tall, blond, straight teeth, and all that—but usually I was attracted to his total opposite. The skinny, dark-haired, moody, and dramatic types. Or loud, funny, and kind of awkward. And yet, every time I laid eyes on Josh, I turned to jelly, just like stereotypical girls in books.
    What was kind of weird, though, was Derrick had the exact same big build, blond flattop, and blue eyes, but he wasn’t attractive at all. I think it was the sour look he always had. He didn’t like school very much. They headed over to the pop machine, shoving each other out of the way to get to it first. Then they fed dollar bills into it while they laughed and joked around.
    I snuck up behind Josh and put my arms around his waist. As soon as I did it, his whole body stiffened and he pulled my hands apart. Derrick stood there watching us, his arms crossed like those guys on that
Iron Chef
TV show…the one where they try to look all hardass, but all you can think is,
Really? A tough chef? How stupid.
    “Uh, Jamie,” Josh said, “let’s talk