Free Jane Jones by Caissie St. Onge Page A

my strictly classified past. Maybe it would even have tons of
pizzazz
.
    “Okay, fine, let’s do it. I like the video diary idea, butcan we just do it with old photos and narration? I think that would work better for me.”
    “Why, are you afraid you won’t show up on camera?” Eli laughed.
    “No! I’m not afraid of that. Why would you say something like that?” I shot back.
Why would he say something like that?
I wondered. Does he think he knows something about me that he absolutely shouldn’t think he knows? Of course vampires
can
be photographed, but most people don’t know that. Does he know about me? Is that what he’s getting at? My eyes darted from side to side as I worried that my secret was about to be exposed. Then I looked at his face and his sheepish expression told me there was no reason to panic.
    “Well, you are very … pale,” he said. “Your skin is fair. I thought maybe you were worried that you’d be too washed-out for video. It was dumb, a bad joke. I’m sorry.” He wrinkled his forehead like he was slightly afraid I would punch him, but I was too relieved. He’d only been teasing.
    “You
should
be sorry. If it weren’t for your squillion freckles, I don’t know if I’d even be able to see you right now!” I teased. Eli smiled and flexed his bicep, the better to display his spotted white skin.
    “Oh, you like those, huh? You should see them insummertime. They merge into one giant freckle and it looks like I have an awesome tan!”
    I rolled my eyes at him, but then gave in to a giggle I’d been trying to suppress, before remembering that I am
not
a giggler. I cleared my throat and Eli became serious for a moment too.
    “For real, though? I think this project would be okay if we did it with photos, but I sincerely and truly believe that if you let me put you on video, we could take it to a whole other level. You could tell the entire story with just your eyes.” Right when he said that, his own watery blue eyes locked on mine for a second. Nobody in all the decades of my life had ever said anything like that to me, and I responded the only way I could, by looking down at my sneaker, which had a piece of rubber peeling off the toe that needed to be addressed right away.
    Eli left soon after that, saying, “Promise you’ll think about it, okay? I gotta go. Thank your mom for me.”
    I believe I said, “Yup.”
    Well, I did what he asked. I thought about it over and over again until I was finally able to fall asleep. Now I’d thought about it all morning and the whole time I was walking to school and I still thought it was a bad idea. I also thought that if he made a corny joke or smiled at me or complimented my eyes just one more time, I wouldprobably agree to whatever he wanted to do for this stupid project. I would never have admitted it to anyone, but the guy kinda grew on you. Ugh.
    “Good morning, Jane.” I’d been gazing at the sidewalk for I don’t know how long, but now my head whipped up from the cement like I’d been caught doing something weird.
    “You look very … pink … today.” Timothy Hunt, one hand in the pocket of his expensive cashmere coat, held the school door open for me with his other hand. Inside, I was swooning over his chivalrous gesture, but outside, I’m sure it just made me look even more gawky by comparison.
    “Do I? I guess I must. It—it makes sense,” I stammered. What made sense? Certainly not me.
    Timothy smiled. He was probably very accustomed to females tripping over themselves in front of him. As we entered the hall and walked toward our lockers, I concentrated very hard on not tripping literally.
    “Pink suits you,” he said. Timothy paused briefly but not long enough for me to think of a clever reply like “Thank you” before he said, “Listen, Jane, I’ve been looking over that article you gave me, and I find it very intriguing. I’d really like to discuss it further.”
    “Oh, sure,” I said, and then dumbly