Free The Heartbreakers by Pamela Wells

when she got home, after she finally talked to Drew. Because he had to call, didn’t he?

EIGHT
Rule 10 : Do not think about your past with The Ex. If you feel yourself thinking about it, snap a rubber band against your wrist.
    Raven pulled her crumpled schedule out of her jeans pocket to check her next class. It was the first Monday after the breakup and the first day of the new semester at school. Could things get any worse?
    Yes, they could, if she had any classes with Caleb. Hopefully, her day would be Caleb-free.
    She perused her schedule. The only thing that’d crossed over from last semester was band. Next hour was US History.
    Boy did that sound like fun. Yeah, right.
    Although, she had to admit, it was kind of sexy that George Washington was a colonel in the US Army and led 300 men by his early twenties. There was just something about a man in a position of power. Like Caleb being the captain of the football team.
    â€œAw, crap,” she muttered, remembering the breakup and The Code.
    I just broke a rule, she thought.
    Which rule was it? She pulled her new Breakup Code journal out of her locker. She’d bought the white notebook yesterday at the dollar store then decorated the cover with some of her mom’s scrapbooking stuff.
    She’d cut a cardstock heart in half and glued that on the front. Then, using a purple acid-free marker she wrote, The Breakup Code in curvy letters. It was simple but cool.
    Inside the front cover, with the same purple marker, she’d copied the code. Running down it now with her finger, she stopped at Rule 10. Do not think about your past with The Ex. If you feel yourself thinking about it, snap a rubber band against your wrist.
    After checking her backpack and her locker, she came up empty-handed, which wasn’t surprising. She hardly ever wore her hair up. It was either messy and down or half up in a barrette. She always thought her ears looked too big when she wore her hair in a ponytail.
    â€œHey,” Kelly said, coming up behind Raven, green plastic bangle bracelets clanking on her wrists.
    â€œI broke a rule,” Raven said, slamming her locker shut as Sydney sidled up. “I need a rubber band to snap when I think of Caleb.”
    Sydney leaned against the bank of lockers, hugging her bag to her chest. “The only one I have, I’m using,” she said, as she tucked a loose strand of black hair behind her ear. She pursed her thin lips, which accentuated her high cheekbones.
    It was unlike Sydney to look so disheveled for school. Not only was her hair in a bumpy ponytail, but she had on sweatpants and a hoodie. There was nothing wrong with that; Raven saw Sydney in those clothes all the time, but out of school. In school, she was strict with her appearance and wore polos and sweaters and stuff. As if college recruiters were lurking around every corner waiting to catch her out of the prim character she portrayed at Birch Falls High.
    â€œI have one,” Kelly said. “I bought us all special rubber bands, actually. For this very rule, since it seemed absolutely impossible not to think about The Ex.” She pulled a small Wal-Mart bag from her purse and dug inside. She handed a green hair tie to Raven. “Here.”
    Raven took it. There were four-leaf clovers printed on the thick material.
    â€œFor good luck,” Kelly added.
    â€œRight.” Raven slid the hair tie on her wrist and pulled it back, then let it go. “Ahh, God, that flippin’ hurts.” She rubbed the already red skin.
    â€œI know,” Kelly said. “I’ve already snapped it like fifteen times since Saturday. But I think it’s starting to work.”
    Sydney snorted and pushed away from the lockers, straightening her back. “You’re going to have welts if you keep doing that.”
    â€œNot if I stop thinking about He-Who-Shall-Remain Nameless,” Kelly said. “Which is the point, right?”
    â€œI