Free Andrea and the 5-Day Challenge by Cindy K. Green Page A

is really weird because I hardly ever get mad…well, except when my friends embarrass me horribly.
    “I guess I’ll see you after school,” Luke said.
    “Yeah, after school.”
    I watched as Luke walked down the hallway toward his locker.
    Amy came up beside me. No doubt, she’d observed the whole scene as it played out. “Yep, he’s definitely wooing you,” she whispered near my ear.
    “Amy!”
    As if to prove her point, Luke glanced back at me and smiled.
    “And I have to say, they sure know how to do it in California, like the way he led you down the bleachers.” Amy covered her heart with her hand and had a starry-eyed look about her. “So sweet. Must be the Hollywood influence.”
    “Amy, he’s from one of those beach cities, not Hollywood. Get over it, please.”
    As I stared down the hallway at Luke’s retreating form, the question I had for myself was—could I?
     
     
     
     

7
     
    With school ended for the day, I collected my bouquet of daisies from my locker and inhaled the aroma. Amy was right; they smelled fresh. Not a glorious eruption of sweetness like a rose. Instead, they made me think of a big, open field with a huge, cloudless blue sky overhead. Boy was I waxing philosophical, but I couldn’t help it. A boy had given me flowers! And the boy who had given them to me…well, I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
    “Who are the flowers from…Andrea? It is Andrea, right?”
    Stephanie Ruiz appeared before my eyes. Just terrific. A confrontation was so not what I needed. She had a hand on one hip, and her expression wasn’t what I would call friendly. No, it looked more like she smelled the garbage the day after my mom made chicken for dinner.
    She’d asked me two questions without even taking a breath. I wasn’t sure which one to answer. I decided to ignore the first and answer the second. It wasn’t even her business who had sent the flowers.
    “Yes, it’s Andrea.” I moved my bouquet to my right hand and slung it down near my side.
    “I see you’ve been spending a lot of time with Luke Ryan these days.” Her nostrils flared as she made the statement.
    I almost laughed out loud, but that might have been social suicide. Not that I had any real social status in this school, other than being friends with Alisha Andrews, who is the most popular girl in our class—though Steph would probably argue that point.
    The action of her nose made me wonder if I had her worried. Me ! As if I could ever compete with Miss Handstand. I straightened my chin and looked right in her eyes. For the first time, I felt totally undaunted. My Bible reading this week had stated over and over to trust in the Lord and have faith and courage in Him and not ourselves. If he could help Daniel with voracious lions, He could help me with the skinny mean girl, too.
    “Luke and I are friends. We’ve been studying for Geometry together.” I tried to keep my tone friendly, but still—what had come over me? I’d never spoken to the student body secretary and cheer squad co-captain like that before. Wait—I’d only spoken a couple sentences to her in my entire life, and she’d never instigated a conversation.
    “Has he asked you to homecoming?” She pursed her lips together, which was not becoming. It made her look all shriveled up with her thin face and nose.
    I didn’t want to be mean to her. Two wrongs don’t make a right and all that. But was it right for me to lie down like her doormat and let her treat me like a second-class citizen?
    My mouth twisted into a lopsided contortion. Then I crossed my arms while still holding my flowers. “Why do you want to know?”
    “No reason.” Keeping a hand on her hip, she took a step closer to me. “It’s nothing personal; just business. Do yourself a favor and avoid homecoming. You’ll save yourself some grief, trust me.”
    Was she serious? Had I somehow hopped into a demented version of the cheer squad fronting for the mafia? Actually, that’s not much of