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“I don’t need it. Our teacher gave out candy to everyone already, so I’m full. Go on. Take it.”
She hesitated, then accepted the dollar bill. “Do you want anything?”
“I’ll share a Skittle or two,” I replied, smiling. “Go on, hurry up and get it. Then we can talk about all the other boys who are better than Jason.”
Brandi threw her arms around me, then got up and went running off toward the school. I smiled after her. She was always taking care of me, so it felt good to return the favor for once.
A shadow darkened the ground in front of me. “What’s up her butt?”
I turned to see Jack Franco standing there. Great. The last person I want to see.
“If you poke me again,” I warned, “I’m going to scream to the teacher. Mrs. Wallace is right over there, and she’ll believe me.”
Jack sat on the ground next to me. “She doesn’t have a valentine, does she?” he sneered.
“Mind your own business.”
“You don’t have one either.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I don’t need one,” I said curtly. “There’s nobody at this school good enough for me.”
Jack snorted. “It’s embarrassing not having a valentine. Everyone who’s cool has one. It’s a big deal.”
“If you say so.”
Jack brushed his mop of sandy blond hair away from his face. The sun was at just the right angle to make his blue eyes really shine. He definitely would have been cute if he wasn’t such a jerk.
“What if we made a truce,” he said slowly.
I frowned. “What kind of truce?”
“We’ll stop picking on each other,” he explained. “No more throwing your dog’s poop at my window, and I’ll stop poking you and flipping you off during class.”
“I’ll stop whenever you stop,” I shot back at him. Wherever Jack was going with this, I didn’t trust him.
“Like I said, it’s embarrassing to not have a valentine. It’s Valentine’s Day. It’s a big deal.” For a moment, his sneering expression disappeared, and I saw a different side of him. “I was thinking we could pretend to be valentines. Not for real, just pretend. So neither of us get made fun of.”
I blinked at him. This boy had made my life miserable for the last year. After I had left a bag of dog poop in his mailbox, he’d told everyone in school that I used to be a boy named Allen, and we moved down here so I could start a new life. He had constantly teased me in class, getting me in trouble with the teacher even when I ignored him.
Yet his offer was tempting. We could pretend to be valentines, which would keep us from looking like losers. Maybe people would even think we were popular. Nobody cared about Stacy Hendricks until she started dating Braden Smith, and then she had lots of boys whispering about her.
I looked at Jack with new eyes. He was smiling hopefully. And he was more popular than I was, so being his valentine would raise my own popularity at school.
But then I remembered Brandi, and how heartbroken she was over Jason Yannis. It would crush her to learn I had a valentine, even if it was Jack Franco, and even if it was just pretend. I couldn’t do that to her.
“I would never be your valentine,” I said, barking a laugh. “People would know we can’t kiss because of your braces.”
His eyes flared with surprise, then anger. “I can kiss with these!”
“I doubt it! And even if you could, I don’t want people thinking I kiss you, metal-mouth!”
Jack stood up angrily, then snatched my notebook out of my hand. “Joe Jonas, Nick Jonas… You like the Jonas Brothers?”
“Give that back!” I said, reaching for the notebook.
“Alyssa Jonas?” He started laughing. “Hey, Shawn! Get a load of this! Alyssa wants to marry the Jonas Brothers! All three of them at the same time!”
I screamed and chased him across the soccer field. “I hate you, Jack Franco! I hate you!”
