Free Click Here (to find out how i survived seventh grade) by Denise Vega Page B

I kick your butt next? Baseball field? Football?”
    “The soccer field,” I said. “Where else?”
    “No way,” Mark said. “You’d kick my butt.”
    “I know.” I picked up my basketball as we headed across the gym toward the water fountains. Placing it on top of my index finger, I spun it, smacking it to keep it going.
    “You’re the first girl I’ve ever seen do that,” Mark said. He started spinning his, and pretty soon we had dueling spinning basketballs.
    “My brother taught me,” I said, glancing at the clock. “We can time ourselves. Best two out of three?”
    “You’re on,” Mark said.

Saturday, October 12
    Things That Make Me Think Mark Is My Friend
    • He talks to me 1st. I’m not always going up to him.
    • He plays basketball with me.
    • He makes fun of me in a good way.
    Things That Make Me Think Mark Is Using Me
    • Boys have used me B4 to get to Jilly.
    • Not so long ago, I was a puppet.
    • Not so long ago, Mark saw me almost pull a table down on top of myself.
    • Not so long ago, Mark gawked at my best friend at play practice.
    I can’t help it. I keep thinking he’s trying to get to Jilly. I’ve never had a friend that’s a boy B4, just boys I play sports with, not talk to about stuff.
    Today I went really crazy. Mark said he wanted to ask me something and suddenly I was convinced that there was a hidden camera nearby and any minute some hyper announcer with a banana-wide smile would jump out of 1 of the Y restrooms and shout, “Erin P. Swift, You Fell for It!” I would find out that I was the subject of a new TV show where losers were approached by people who would never talk to them in their wildest dreams and act like they were friends. Just when the Losers were about to fall down and kiss the feet of the person who was talking to them, the announcer would break their cover and shout, “You Fell for It!”
    I could see it now, like the opening of the show was being played out in front of me.
    “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to ‘You Fell for It,’ where we track gullible losers with a hidden camera, watching them make fools of themselves as they believe someone cool would actually talk to them! Today’s unsuspecting contestant is Miss Erin P. Swift, also known as Pinocchio, who will be approached by Cute Boy himself, Mark Sacks!” Applause, applause, applause as they project a 6-foot copy of the Erin-Pinoccho-Ped picture up on the screen behind the announcer. Then they cut to a shot of the YMCA hallway, where an unsuspecting Erin Swift (that’s me) is walking down the hall with the Cool Person (Mark Sacks). He’s there in all his cuteness, lulling her with that 1-eyed gaze, making her swoon, and just B4 she drops to her knees, ready to kiss his feet—
    But then he just wanted to know my opinion on using software that creates web pages or just using HTML.
    I think I’m being paranoid. I hope I am. PLEASE let it just be paranoia.
    I may or may not kiss his feet, it would depend on whether they were clean or not…wouldn’t mind kissing his lips…never kissed a boy I liked B4, only boys I didn’t like when we played spin the bottle. 1 guy stuffed his tongue down my throat like he was trying to lick my tonsils …GROSS OUT. But Mark and I were THIS close to kissing on the basketball court. I know we were…and it would not have been disgusting.
    I hope we get another chance.
    In the meantime, I think I’ll practice kissing my pillow.

chapter 11
    Erin Swift, Scout
    “So who did you play basketball with yesterday?”
    We were lying across Jilly’s bed, flipping through her latest issue of
CosmoGIRL!
while we waited for her mom to get off the phone so she could take us to the mall. Jilly wanted (she said “needed”) a new shirt. More competition with that blonde.
    I squinted at the page in front of me, pretending not to hear. “Was it Rosie?”
    “Huh?” I closed the magazine. Looking at those glossy girls made me feel like a total