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“That’s because you’re a delinquent who punches people,” said Kami. “Not because you’re not smart.”
“I’m not smart like you are.”
“You’re not dumb.”
“I was put in the year below you after they took one look at my records. I have to take some horrific exam called the GCSEs, whatever they may be. You sure about that?” Jared murmured.
“Yes,” said Kami. “Keep up the pace. Angela moves like a jungle cat when she’s riled.”
“So, my class is over that way,” Jared commented, making a vague gesture in the opposite direction to the one they were heading.
“So go to it,” Kami advised.
Jared continued to head the wrong way.
Kami blinked and said, “I’ll see you at lunch? Angela and I are meeting up at the headquarters.”
“Okay,” said Jared, and stopped. “No, wait. This hot girl with a bike. She asked me to have lunch with her on Monday.”
“This hot girl with a bike,” Kami repeated. It certainly sounded better than “this creepy Asian girl.” Then she realized who he meant. “Holly. I’m an idiot.” She looked up to see Jared had his arms crossed over his chest and was frowning.
“She seemed different than the way you think about her,” Jared said.
“I imagine a guy would see Holly a bit differently than I do, yes,” Kami said. “All the guys love Holly.”
“See, like that,” Jared said, and thought, Dismissive. “Like she’s not important.”
“As opposed to ‘this hot girl with a bike’?” Kami said. “That was a deep observation.” She heard her own voice rise and saw people passing by on their way to class glancing at them with interest.
Jared shrugged and scowled. “I barely know her. It’s just …”
Thought and memory hit Kami, in a tangled rush, of being the kid in class with less money, being the one who people thought of as rough, dumber than the others.
“No, wait a second,” Kami exclaimed, outraged. “I like Holly. And I’ve never thought about her having less money. I mean, I know she does, but I don’t think about it! It’s just she’s more—sort of more a boys’ girl than a girls’ girl, if you know what I mean. She’s not like you.”
“I should hope not, I’m not anybody’s girl.” Jared raised an eyebrow. “If you’re calling her a floozy, I’m by way of being a bit of a floozy myself.”
“Oh, Jared,” said Kami, who was well aware of his romantic experience, or total lack thereof. “You are not.”
“Well, I have floozy ambitions.”
Jared was leaning against the lockers now. Kami wondered if she should remind him that she was actually there, and he didn’t have to pretend not to be talking to someone. She also wondered how his floozy ambitions tied in with the fact that he’d said they should go out. But it was becoming clearer by the minute that that wasn’t really what he wanted.
“Maybe you could try sitting with Holly in this class, instead of letting her stick around by the door so she can watch you go off and sit with Amber again?”
Kami snorted. “You’re ridiculous. And I am going to class.” She headed toward her classroom like a homing pigeon for learning, and did not give Jared a backward glance. She gave him a backward thought, though. You should go to class too.
If you insist, Jared grumbled. Kami? Try not to undress for anyone else today.
Oh, hilarious, said Kami, and bumped into Holly at the door.
“Hi, Kami!” Holly turned in a sunburst of curls and wide eyes. She had been standing by the door, Kami noticed. “I haven’t found Jared today. But I asked him to have lunch, on Friday. I was thinking if you wanted to catch us in the cafeteria, you could interview him then. I mean, if you don’t have lunch plans.”
“Don’t worry about it. I found him,” said Kami.
“Oh,” said Holly.
“He said you guys were having lunch together,” Kami went on, and thought, Hot girl with a bike. “You could both come up to headquarters and have lunch?”
