Free Daisy's Back in Town by Rachel Gibson

year dating boys that neither Steven nor Jack approved of, but she didn't care. Like most girls her age, she learned how to make out and drive boys crazy. And more important, she learned where to stop before things went too far. As a result, she developed a reputation for being a tease.
    Which she didn't think was fair at all. Boys kissed her. She kissed them back. As far as she could tell, a girl was either a prude, which meant she didn't kiss at all. A tease, meaning she kissed and perhaps a bit more, or was a slut. And everyone knew what that meant.
    That summer, she'd let Erik Marks touch her breast on the outside of her T-shirt. Jack and Steven heard about it and made a special trip over to her house to talk to her. She'd gotten mad and slammed the front door in theft faces.
    The hypocrites.
    She made varsity cheerleader her junior year. Her hair had grown out to her shoulders and she got a spiral perm.
    Steven was still in football and basketball, and of course, student government. Jack was racing his Camaro on the flat Texas roads, and she was still telling herself that she wasn't attracted to him. She told herself that she loved him but she wasn't in love with him, and that her heart didn't pinch when he drove by with his arm around some girl. He was her friend, just as he'd always been. Nothing more. And she wouldn't allow herself to feel anything more either.
    All that changed a few weeks before Christmas her senior year when she got asked to the Christmas prom by J.
    T. Sanders. J. T. was gorgeous and drove a new Jeep Wrangler. Black. Daisy worked nights at the Wild Coyote Diner, and she'd managed to save enough money to buy the prefect dress. White satin. Sleeveless with tiny rhinestones on the tight fitting bodice and tulle skirt. It was the most beautiful thing she'd ever owned. The night before the dance, she picked up J.t's boutonniere on her dinner break. When she got home, he called and canceled. He said his grandmother died and that he had to go to her funeral in Amarillo. Everyone knew that he'd actually started dating another girl the week before. Daisy had been dumped. Flat.
    And everyone knew it.
    The Saturday of the prom, Daisy worked the lunch shift at the Wild Coyote. She kept it together and acted like she wasn't humiliated. She pretended she wasn't sad or hurt. She joked with her coworkers about J. t being a loser anyway.
    No one bought it. Getting dumped the night before the prom with some lame-o excuse was the worst thing that could ever happen to any girl.
    And everyone knew it.
    After her shift, she went home and locked herself in her room. With her dress hanging on her closet door, she threw herself on her bed and had a nice long cry. At four, her mother stuck her head in the room and asked if she wanted some mint chocolate chip ice cream. She didn't. Lily made her a cowboy pie sandwich, but she couldn't eat it.
    At five-thirty Jack knocked on her bedroom door, but she wouldn't let him in. Her face was splotchy and her eyes puffy, and the didn't want him to see her that way.
    "Daisy Lee," he called through the door. "Come out of there."
    She sat up on her bed and pulled a Kleenex from the box. "Go away, Jack."

    "Open up."
    "No." She blew her nose.
    "I have something for you."
    She stared at the door. "What?"
    "I can't tell you. I have to show you."
    "I look really bad?
    "I don't care."
    Well the did. She slipped from the bed and opened the door a crack. She stuck her hand out.
    "What is it?" He didn't answer and she was forced to peer out the crack Jack stood in the hail, the light from her sister's bedroom shining on him like a dark angel or at the very least a choirboy. He wore his navy blue Sunday suit, and a cream-colored shirt. A red tie hung loose around his neck. "What's going on, Jack? Did you go to a funeral?"
    He laughed and brought his hand out from behind his back He laid a wrist corsage of white and pink roses in her palm. "Will you go to the prom with me?"
    "You hate school