Free Summer's Desire by Olivia Lynde Page B

Rockford—how come there are
so many hot guys in this school?
    Still, the fact that this one is obviously
buds with Jessica kind of overshadows all his hotness. Plus, I'm getting a
weird vibe from them with the way the two of them are staring at me, Jessica whispering
feverishly and the guy listening with a cocky grin.
    I turn away and walk into the school
building.
     
    * * *
     
    I still have one class before lunch and
I've stopped at my locker to change my books when out of the corner of my eye I
see a guy leaning on the locker next to mine. I turn my head slightly and see
the hot black-haired guy from this morning aiming a searing smile at me. If I
were a slightly weaker girl, this smile would probably set my panties on fire.
    Good thing that I'm a hard-edged foster
girl who well knows that nothing in this life comes for free. Especially not
the smiles of hot guys.
    Still, I let myself sneak one quick look
at him as I open my locker. I was curious earlier about the color of his eyes.
Well, they're blue. In fact, now that I see him closely, he looks a bit like
Seth, though definitely in a watered-down kind of way. He doesn't have even a
tenth of Seth's effortless charisma. But then again, who does?
    "Hello, Summer," says the stranger.
    How does he know my name?
    "How do you know my name?" I
blurt out and instantly want to bash my forehead against the locker door. I've
broken my ignore-rule; now it'll be more difficult to get rid of him.
    His sexy grin becomes wider. "I
have my ways of finding out things I wanna know."
    "Why would you want to know my
name?" I mean, really. He's gorgeous and obviously a player; why would he
be interested in me? I check to see if I'm still wearing my off-putting getup.
Yep, I am.
    And the thing with my "uniform"
is: it doesn't just make me unattractive—the awkward clothes make me uncool
besides, and cool kids don't mingle with uncool kids since they consider them
inferior and possibly contagious. So why would this boy approach me ?
    Carter, yesterday... well, he clearly wanted
to jerk Seth's chain but he wasn't really interested in me, I know that. I
never draw the hot guys' attention when I'm dressed like this and makeup-free,
only of guys who are maybe a small notch above unattractive.
    Not to mention that the usual dark
circles below my eyes look more like bruises today; I'm a complete wreck after
last night.
    "Maybe I wanted to know your name
because I wanted to know you ," Mr. Player replies, leaning closer to
me. "And it fits you—a pretty name for a pretty girl. By the way, I'm
Josh." Again with the sexy grin.
    Okay, this encounter has now gone way
beyond surreal. I know this guy can't really like me, so what is the true
reason for him approaching me like this, out of the blue? And for flirting with
me like mad? God, I'm so tired I can barely stand upright, much less think. I
take a minute to fumble with my books in the locker, and my light bulb lights
up at last. Of course. He was with Jessica earlier this morning, and in
retrospect, I'm almost positive that they were talking about me.
    "So," he finally says when I
don't react to his compliment, "I was thinking we should have lunch today.
We can go to a cool place off-campus."
    Naturally. That way, nobody sees you
with the dowdy frump and your cool reputation doesn't suffer.
    All right, I've had enough of this. I don't
know what Mr. Player wants from me but he's obviously in cahoots with Jessica somehow,
so it cannot be anything good. Safest to nip this in the bud; it's time to make
use of the ignore-strategy. Better late than never.
    I finish organizing my books, shut my
locker, and without deigning him with another look, head for class. Unfortunately,
I hear him following me. Drat!
    "Summer? What do you say? Where
would you like to go?"
    Where would I like to go? Gosh, he's
modest! So it's a given that I'll go out to lunch with him, the only detail
still to be decided is the destination. I walk faster.
    "Summer!" I suddenly feel