Free Taking Flight by Siera Maley Page A

me. “I guess that means you think I’m wrong, then?”
    “A knack for accurate first impressions, you do not have,” I confirmed. “Way off.”
    She eyed me for a moment, analyzing me in a way that was more than enough to convince me she was her father’s daughter. “Okay. So no bet. But why don’t you tell me what you think of me, then? Let’s see if you can do any better.”
    “Fine,” I agreed. It seemed easy enough. I looked her up and down for a moment, and she stared back at me almost defiantly. I smirked. “Okay. You said you’re a cheerleader, so you’re probably pretty popular. But not too popular… just enough so that every now and then a guy asks you out. But you turn them down because you’re saving yourself.”
    She rolled her eyes at that, taking offense to it for some reason. “Oh, c’mon. You don’t have to say it like that.”
    “Like how?”
    “Like... in that condescending tone. Plenty of people wait.”
    “So I’m right, then?” I guessed, and she shook her head at me in disbelief. I ignored her and pressed on. “You don’t have a rebellious bone in your body, you do everything your parents say, you’re a straight-A student with maybe a couple of B’s every now and then, and you love it here in Collinsville because like every popular kid, you love high school and you pretty much have your entire life together here… or at least you feel like you do. And you never want to leave. Oh, and you never curse, of course, because that wouldn’t be very lady-like.” I took a deep breath. “There. Done. Did I cover everything?”
    She pursed her lips and stared back at me, but I could see the corners of her lips threatening to turn upward. “Not quite.”
    “Awesome.” I pointed to the building we’d parked in front of. “So you said these burgers are good, then?”
     
    *   *   *
     
    They were. Really good. I ate all of mine and then some of Cammie’s, who was so amused by my appetite that she even offered to get a couple more burgers to go. I turned that down for financial reasons, feeling self-conscious. I knew my dad had more than covered the cost of taking care of me when he’d written a check to David, but I had a strong feeling Cammie was using her own money to pay for us, and I felt bad about that. Especially given that she didn’t know I had a lot of money waiting for me back in Los Angeles. Maybe I’d reimburse her if I ever got the chance.
    We went to one of the local parks after that. It stretched about a half-mile long and housed seven or so fields, some of which were used for baseball, others for soccer. There was a gas station across the street from the park, so we left the truck there, went inside and got ice cream from a bin near the cash register, and then walked to the park. There, we circled the perimeter of the track for a while, occasionally stopping to watch at some of the fields where amateur baseball games had been started.
    “Did you ever play sports?” Cammie asked me as we walked. I shook my head. I’d done a little gymnastics at around four years old, but that didn’t really count.
    “Not really. Did you?”
    “Just cheerleading.” She cut my next statement off before I could even open my mouth. “It is a sport.”
    She looked so indignant that I couldn’t help but grin, so I hid my mouth behind a frozen Snickers bar on a stick. “Of course it is.”
    “George Bush was a cheerleader,” she told me, as though this was supposed to sway my opinion. I chuckled.
    “Well, that wasn’t exactly the best strategy if you wanted to try and change my mind. If he can do it, anyone can.”
    She scoffed, but I could tell she wasn’t actually upset. “Right. I forgot you’re from Los Angeles. Well, my parents voted for Bush and for Romney.”
    “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to talk about politics when you’re first getting to know somebody?” I asked, and regretted it as soon as I’d said it. Cammie didn’t really react, but I