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YA),
Nerd,
teen,
hockey,
Sports,
Entangled,
Sports Romance,
opposites attract,
Forbidden Love,
Forbidden,
crush,
Cate Cameron,
opposite
have any reason to think he is gay?”
Oliver shrugged. “Sometimes there’s just a feeling .”
“And do you have that ‘feeling’ about Chris?”
“I don’t know. It was a bit hard to really open my gaydar receptors up without getting blasted away by the waves of lust rolling off your virginal shores.”
“Waves roll onto shores, not off them.”
“Don’t quibble with me. You want him; you want him bad .”
I tried to brush it off. “Well, damn, I have eyes .”
“You had eyes all last year, too, but I don’t remember you even noticing the guy, let alone choking on your own desire in the middle of chemistry class.”
“I was not choking on—” I stopped. “No. I’m not going to have this conversation with you. I came down here to invite you to join a group I think you’d have really enjoyed. I think you’d have fit in well, and it would have been a chance for you to make your last year of high school just that much more awesome. But you have yipped your way right out of an invitation, my friend. Sorry about that.”
I turned to go, but I didn’t move too fast. And sure enough, before I was two steps down the hall, Oliver jumped in front of me. “What group?”
“Never mind,” I said. “There’s no point torturing you with a description when I’m not going to be inviting you to join anyway.”
“No, you’re going to invite me,” he said, trying to sound confident as I sidestepped him and continued to class. “I was just teasing. That’s what we do, you and me. We tease. We’re teasers. That’s the kind of friends we are.”
“Is it?” I asked. I let him get back in front of me so he could get the full effect of my arched brow.
“Yes. It is. Now…tell me about the group you’re going to invite me to join.”
“I don’t know,” I said. The warning bell rang at the perfect time. “I’ll have to think about it.”
“Claudia!”
“Gotta go,” I said. “Time to learn. Just put this out of your mind for first period. Oh, and second period, too. And lunch, I guess, because I think I’ll be busy this lunch break. Maybe I’ll see you in chemistry? But we might not have time to talk…”
“Claudia!” he said again, with a bit more whine this time.
I smiled to myself as I headed down the hall. I’d hooked him, no doubt. He was in. I started wondering what his challenge should be.
When I walked into English, Karen was waiting for me. Instead of slinking over to my desk and waiting quietly for the class to begin, I grinned at her and she stood up and headed toward me. “I want to tell Ms. Coyne,” she said quickly. “I don’t think we can ask her to join; there might be some stuff we challenge people to do that a teacher couldn’t technically approve of. I’m not sure. But I want to tell her about it. She’ll think it’s cool, I bet, and she might have some good ideas for us.”
“Yeah. Sounds good.” The truth was, I wanted to tell everyone about the sisterhood. I wanted to put out a full-page ad in the newspaper and stop strangers on the street to share it all. I was alone , I’d tell them. And then I found a sisterhood. One that takes boys. And it’s awesome!
…
I hadn’t really expected the call to the office. Most of the time when I get in trouble, I know it’s coming, but this time was a surprise.
Ms. Walker was the principal, and she and I generally got along best by avoiding each other. I’m sure she was a nice lady and was good at her job or whatever, but she was a really, really serious person. And not serious like Claudia seemed to be, with that vein of humor running beneath it all. No, Ms. Walker was serious all the way through, and I think it made it hard for her and me to understand each other.
So when I was called into her office, I knew I needed to keep my mouth shut and reveal as little of my natural personality as possible. She sat and stared at me like she was trying to read my mind, and it made me nervous enough that I almost