Free Switched by Amanda Hocking Page A

looked a little startled by my speed at answering the door but quickly grinned broadly at us. I could feel Matt behind me, doing everything but growling at Patrick, and I tried to smile apologetically at him.

    “Hey, Wendy,” Patrick said easily and gave me a quick look over. “You look really nice.”

    He was a bit surprised, but I think it was because he hadn’t expected me to dress up so much. If it had just been the two of us, without any possibility of Finn, I wouldn’t have, but I didn’t want him to know that so I just kept smiling. Patrick had just put on a white tee shirt with dark wash jeans, but he looked pretty good.

    “You look good too,” I nodded. Matt was still seething behind me, so I opened the door farther so I could introduce them and then I could get out of there. “Um, Patrick, this is my older brother, Matt, and that’s my aunt, Maggie.”
    Patrick didn’t look the least bit intimidated Matt, who shook his hand much more forcefully than necessary. Maggie got up off the couch and hurried over to say hello.

    “It’s nice to meet you,” Maggie gushed, shaking his hand.

    “Likewise,” Patrick assured her.

    “They’re painters,” I said when I saw him looking over their paint covered clothing. “Well, I guess we should get going.”

    “Have her back by ten,” Matt demanded, staring harshly at Patrick.

    “Midnight,” Maggie said over him.

    “The dance doesn’t go til midnight,” Matt snapped incredulously.

    “I know.” Maggie kept smiling and started ushering me out the door.
    “Have fun guys!”
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    “Midnight at the very latest!” Matt amended as I shut the door behind me.

    “Sorry,” I smiled sheepishly at Patrick. “Insanity runs pretty heavily in my family.”

    “Good to know,” Patrick grinned as we walked to his car.

    My only experience with dances was what I had seen on TV, but it really wasn’t that far off. The theme appeared to be “Crepe Paper in the Gymnasium,” and they had mastered it perfectly. The school colors were white and navy blue, so white and navy blue streamers covered everything, along with matching balloons. For romantic lighting, they had strung everything with white Christmas lights. A table to the side was covered in refreshments, and the band playing on the makeshift stage under the basketball hoop wasn’t that bad. Their set list appeared to only include songs from the films of John Hughes, and we came in the middle of a “Weird Science” cover that was quite a bit more electronic than I remember it being. When the song ended, they announced their name as “Shermer, Illinois.”

    The biggest difference between real life and what films had taught me is that nobody was actually dancing. A group of girls stood directly in front of the stage, swooning at the foxy lead singer, but otherwise, the floor was mostly empty. The refreshment table had a small crowd, and people were scattered all over the bleachers.

    “The cool kids come later,” Patrick explained when he noticed me looking around.

    “So we’re not the cool kids?” I asked.

    “Nope. We’re the punctual kids,” Patrick quipped.

    Like a gentleman, he got me a cup of punch, and then we went over to the bleachers to sit. We sat on the first row because I had stupidly worn a pair of strappy heels that I didn’t trust myself to make it to the top in. As soon as we sat down, I kicked them off anyway, because for the most part, I hate shoes. We people watched and spent a lot of time mocking the other people that had bothered to show up on time.
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    As the night wore on, I found myself getting increasingly nervous. Finn still wasn’t here. Patrick hadn’t asked me to dance either, and other kids were actually starting to. The band had moved onto some kind of Tears For Fears medley about the time Tegan arrived, and she was arguably the coolest kid in school. She had used a gallon of concealer and lipstick to try to fix her lip, but she still looked like hell.