Free Rachel's Valentine Crush by Angela Darling

upcoming party at the Chocolate Bar, she had to force a smile so nobody could tell how disappointed she was. Rachel wasn’t alone—lots of kids who didn’t know Brody hadn’t been invited—but that didn’t make it any easier for Rachel to know that she could’ve gone to the party.
    But Rachel wasn’t entirely miserable. By Thursday, the day of the party, Rachel found herself caught up in all the excitement anyway. After all, even though she wouldn’t be seeing Brody tonight, she’d be seeing him soon enough! As she sat in math class after lunch, Rachel wondered, Is Brody still on the plane? Has the plane landed yet? Will he go straight to his old house? Or check out the arena? Or maybe he’ll even surprise everybody by coming to school!
    That didn’t happen, but Rachel didn’t really expect it to. After all, Brody couldn’t exactly walk anywhere anymore without being mobbed by crazy fans. While Rachel and Taylor walked home from school, Rachel kept scanning the cars that passed them, just in case Brody happened to be in one. Somehow just knowing that he was back in Archer made Rachel feel tingly all over. It had been a long time since she had daydreamed about running into Brody around town—and now the possibility that she might see him at any moment made living in Archer a lot more exciting than it had been just a day ago.
    That afternoon, even though Rachel hadn’t quite finished her homework, Grandma Nellie gave her permission to go over to Taylor’s house. Rachel had never seen Taylor look quite so excited. Her cheeks were pink before she put on any makeup, and even her eyes seemed more sparkly than usual.
    â€œWhat should we do first?” Rachel asked. “Hair or nails?”
    Taylor bit her lip as she thought about it. “Nails, I guess,” she replied. “But only if you’ll do my hair. Then my nails can dry before I have to get dressed.”
    â€œOf course I’ll do your hair!” Rachel said with a laugh.“That’s why I’m here. So what color nail polish are you thinking about?” Rachel didn’t know a whole lot about makeup, since she wasn’t allowed to wear any, but when she’d turned twelve her dad gave her permission to start wearing nail polish. She had quite a collection of polishes now, and she had brought some of her favorites over in case Taylor wanted to borrow any of them. “I’ve narrowed it down to these two,” Taylor said, showing Rachel a midnight-blue polish and a sparkly gold one. “What do you think?”
    â€œI like the sparkles,” Rachel said. “But I think the blue will look better with your top. Oh, I know!”
    Rachel dug around in her bag and pulled out a clear polish with specks of silver glitter. “How about the blue polish with a coat of this on top?”
    â€œPerfect!” Taylor squealed. “Thanks, Rach!” She laid her hands flat on the desk as Rachel shook the blue polish in her palm. When she started painting Taylor’s nails, Rachel concentrated so hard that she forgot to talk.
    â€œSo . . . ,” Taylor began. “Something kind of exciting happened last night.”
    The way that Taylor’s voice trembled a little made Rachel look up right away. “Tell me,” she ordered.
    â€œShane texted me!” Taylor exclaimed. “He’s never done that before!”
    That’s the exciting news? Rachel thought. A text message didn’t seem like a huge deal to her . . . unless there was something special about the message. “What did he say?”
    â€œHe asked me to go to the party with him tonight!”
    There was something surprising about Taylor’s reaction—something that Rachel hadn’t expected. She’d been sitting right there when Shane and Taylor agreed to go to the dance together as friends. It had been as basic and boring as asking somebody when