Free Strange Girl by Christopher Pike Page A

minutes you’ve glanced at her locker six times. You’ve got a thing for her.”
    I stiffened. “If I do it’s none of your business.”
    Nicole pulled away. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way. I’m doing this all wrong. I shouldn’t have talked about Rick. He’s not why I’m here. She is.” Nicole paused. “I need to warn you, Fred.”
    “About what?”
    “Aja. She’s playing you.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Bobby Dieder and James Caruso. They’ve both been talking to her. Bobby’s in her psych class and Jimmy’s in her English class. They’ve both asked her out.”
    A cold wave swept over me, the kind of cold that can only be felt on a really hot day when your brain’s so cooked a single stroke of bad news can freeze a billion neurons.
    I cleared my throat. “What’s the big deal? She’s a pretty girl. Half the guys in the school probably want to go out with her.”
    “You don’t get it. They’ve both been to her house. They’ve both already gone out with her.”
    I shook my head and backed up a step. “When?”
    “Bobby went to the movies with her last Friday. Jimmy—I don’t know when they went out. I just know he took her to dinner.” Nicole came close, put a hand on my chest. “I hate having to tell you this. It’s just that I know you. I know how sensitive you are. I don’t want you to fall for—”
    I interrupted. “You don’t want me to fall for Aja the way I fell for you? Is that what you’re saying?”
    Nicole nodded. “I still care about you. I care about you more than you know. I don’t want to see you get hurt again.”
    I stood very still. “Thank you.”
    “If there’s anything I can do. . . .”
    “Right.”
    Nicole was no fool. She knew when it was time to walk away. “Take care of yourself, Fred,” she said and turned and left.
    • • •
    I decided not to talk to Aja that afternoon at lunch. Instead I ditched class, walked home, and took a nap. I needed the extra rest, I told myself. I had to put in a six-hour shift at the hardware store that evening and, besides, I wanted to work on my demo. I decided to take the next day off school as well, which I did.
    I couldn’t simply drop out, though, and when I did return to school, on Wednesday, I watched from across the courtyard at lunch as first Bobby Dieder and then James Caruso walked up to Aja. Plenty of smiles all around. I couldn’t tell which one she liked more and I suppose it didn’t really matter. Janet stood beside me and tried to be reassuring.
    “So she has guys hitting on her,” she said. “That’s no surprise.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Talk to her. She’s probably waiting for you to talk to her.”
    “She has eyes. She can see where I am. If she wanted to talk, she’d walk over.”
    “You could be wrong. Maybe I should bring her over.”
    “No.”
    “I’m just talking about checking out whether she—”
    “No,” I repeated.
    “All right. But I still have a good feeling about Aja.”
    “Screw your feelings.”
    Janet sighed. “They’re not always accurate.”
    Somehow, I managed to avoid Aja the rest of the week, or else she managed to avoid me. It was shocking how miserable I was. I mean, I hardly—no, I won’t say it again.
    One thing that helped distract me, though, was a last-minute gig Janet set up in Aberdeen, the third-largest city in our beloved state. A major sci-fi convention was taking place over the weekend in the town’s swankiest hotel and Janet told our band that it seemed even nerds needed loud music to help break the ice with nerds of the opposite sex.
    What she didn’t tell us—at least not until we were driving toward Aberdeen—was that their first choice in entertainment, a famous hypnotist, had been stabbed to death a few days ago by his stage assistant. It appeared she’d discovered she’d only been having sex with her boss because he kept putting her in a continuous trance. Janet warned us we were the convention’s second