Free Rhymes With Cupid by Anna Humphrey

streaky. “I can clean it and watch at the same time,” she said, getting up for the Windex and paper towels. By the time the couple was getting to the bottom of the whole similar-sweaters/mistaken-identity thing via a shouting match in Central Park followed by (surprise) a romantic kiss that cut to (surprise) their wedding day, my mother had moved on to dusting. So much for getting her to take a break. I sighed and picked up a dust rag as the credits rolled. If I couldn’t beat her, my only option was to join her. We cleaned until ten that night and both fell into bed exhausted.
    In a way, it was almost a relief to go back to school the next morning. At least in class I could sit down and have a quiet moment to myself.
    But the quiet didn’t last long. Dina started shrieking the second I saw her in the hallway between math and chemistry. “Look!” she said, pulling a scrap of paper out of her pocket. “I got it. On Saturday. You’re making that cheesecake now. No excuses. And the pinwheel cookies. You can pay me out of your next check for the twenty-five-dollar donation to Panda Rescue, if you want. Or even the one after that. I was so nervous I thought I was going to pass out. I wanted to tell you, but you guys left together for your driving lesson. So I decided to wait until I saw you in person today, but it’s been killing me.” I took the piece of paper she was waving excitedly and examined the phone number written across it in crisp black ink. “I gave him my number, too. He said he’d call me tonight if he didn’t get a chance to see me at the store first.”
    “Really?” I handed back the paper, a strange, heavy feeling filling my chest.
    “Yeah. We’re going to talk more about the party.”
    “Dina, that’s great!” I said, biting my lip. I gave my head a shake. Seriously? What was wrong with me? Like I’d told Patrick, I didn’t date; plus, even though he was a nice guy, Patrick got on my nerves every time he teased me (which was often); plus, I wanted him to like Dina. Everything was going completely according to plan for once. “That’s really, really awesome.”
    It was so awesome, in fact, that I felt awesome about it all day long. I moped my way through chemistry and barely picked at my Caesar salad at lunch while Dina and her friends Carly and Cara planned decorations and came up with cheesy panda-themed party games. (Panda piñatas, pin the tail on the panda, and pass the panda present were just a few of the things I had to look forward to on Valentine’s Day.)
    And I felt about ten times more awesome when, halfway through our shift at the store, Dina’s pocket started buzzing and, for once, it turned out not to be Damien. “Patrick!” Dina said, her eyes going wide—a huge smile breaking across her face. “How are you? Are you calling from the Keyhole?” She listened for a few seconds. “Oh no! Oooooh. Poor you,” she cooed into the phone. “What’s wrong? Un-huh.” She twirled a lock of hair around one finger. “Oh my God. Un-huh.” She switched the phone from one ear to the other. “Okay, I’ll tell her. Feel better. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay? Bye.” She flipped her cell shut.
    “That was Patrick,” she said, like it wasn’t blindingly obvious that I’d been hanging on every word of her end of the conversation. “Your driving lesson’s canceled tonight. He’s sick.”
    “Oh,” I said. “Yay! No driving! Or, I mean, oh no. That sucks that he’s sick. What’s wrong?”
    “He caught Lyme disease.”
    “You’re kidding.”
    “No, that’s what he said. It sounds really serious. Elyse, I’m worried about him.”
    “Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, me too.” Except that I was actually more confused than worried. I’d never heard of anyone in Middleford getting Lyme disease before, and I’d definitely, definitely never heard of anyone getting it in February. Wasn’t it spread by deer ticks? There weren’t any deer in town, and even if there were,