Free Love-Struck by Rachael Wing

said.
    He jumped up and offered his seat to Emily, and the other boys leapt up too.
    â€œOh, thanks!” Emily said as she sat down, smiling.
    They stood there like Charlie’s Angels for a second, and then Matt nodded to Wes.
    â€œCatch you later, Wes.”
    Then he looked from me to Emily, and murmured in what he obviously thought was a sexy way:
    â€œLay-deez…”
    He would have tipped his hat at us if he was wearing one.
    Â 
    Throughout the day, I kept on trying to catch Emily unawares; in English we had to work in pairs, so I asked her to go with me before anyone else could. We were working on A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare, and she was a little bit fascinated.
    â€œSo what, like, exactly happens in it? It looks a bit complicated.”
    â€œIt is!” I pouted and she laughed. She really did have a cute laugh. Some people get all the luck. “So, OK. There are four regular Athenians: Helena, Hermia, Lysander and Demetrius; The Duke of Athens and the Queen of the Amazons, who are about to get married; Hermia’s angry dad; a group of actors; and a bunch of fairies with their king and queen.” Emily nodded. “Here’s the dealio: in four days, the Duke is getting married. The actors are getting ready to perform at the wedding, but they are terrible and they provide most of the comedy in the play. The story that goes alongside that is of the four Athenians: Hermia’s dad says that she has to marry Demetrius because he’s handsome and rich –”
    â€œâ€“ sounds like my kind of guy!” Emily exclaimed, grinning.
    RESULT!
    I carried on.
    â€œâ€“ and he’d been promised Hermia. But she loves Lysander, and so they run off into the forest outside of Athens to get married, and they tell Helena of their cunning plan. Big mistake, because Helena is in love with Demetrius because they’ve already slept together – ‘Ooer!’, I know – and so Helena tells Demetrius and he runs after Lysander and Hermia into the forest, so Helena runs after Demetrius. Both lots of people, the actors and the Athenians, all end up in the forest where the fairies are at play, and they mess everything up for everyone, but manage to put it all right again by the time the play ends!”
    Emily nodded again. “You were right when you said it’s complicated!” She looked back at her book and studied it intently.
    â€œSo what’s your type, then?” I asked slyly. “Rich, gorgeous…? Anything else?”
    She looked up from her book and grinned at me. “Erm … I guess … I guess he’d have to be tall! Tall and with dark hair?” I nodded encouragingly. This was exactly what we needed!
    â€œAnything else?” I implored. “I like funny guys, guys that make me laugh?”
    I was improvising, but she seemed to lap it up.
    â€œYeah, yeah, ditto! I like to laugh. But I don’t know … what gets me every time is a bad boy.”
    Oh no. The one thing I was hoping she wouldn’t say was ‘bad boy’. Wes isn’t really the bad boy type, is he?
    â€œHmm, yeah. I get you.” I trailed off, enthusiasm lost.
    â€œLike, that guy,” Emily continued, gesturing out of the window next to us.
    I followed where she was pointing to a guy walking up the front path, a guy wearing dark jeans and a light T-shirt—
    â€œJonah?!” My voice came out a little higher than I would have liked. I cleared my throat. Stay calm, Holly, take deep breaths. “Ahem, sorry; you mean Jonah?”
    Emily looked back and nodded. “Yeah, he’s so amped! I dropped a textbook yesterday and he picked it up for me. I said thanks for the help and he gave me this little smile – he has a lip ring, it’s so hot! – and he said that he’d help me anytime.”
    I watched Jonah walk over the car park and frowned. Why was he being so helpful to Little Miss Perfect when he