Free A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl by Tanya Lee Stone Page B

are puffed up by it too.
We’re the freshmeat girls.
    Not loving that name,
but I’ll let it slide for now.

THE DEEP END
    After school
if the swim team isn’t using it
the pool is open to anyone.
    We could just go down to the beach I guess,
but it’s a little too chilly now
and besides, there aren’t any
sharp mussel beds to slice your feet on here.
    Swimming was his idea.
He has half an hour to kill before football practice.
    I’ve spent half my life
messing around with my friends
in the Sound.
    But playing in the water with them
was never like this.
    First of all, I’m extremely aware
that I’m practically half-naked
even though I did pick out this ratty old one-piece
instead of a
make-his-tongue-hang-out bikini.
I was trying not to send any mixed messages—
but he’s still looking at me like he wants to
eat me alive.
    He says things like “You’re so soft, you feel so good,”
lame things
that shouldn’t work on anybody
but actually work on everybody.
    I’m concentrating more on
dodging his hands
than swimming,
since I don’t think there’s a spot on me
he hasn’t grazed
in the name of good old-fashioned water-play.
    He pulls a dolphin move,
popping up again near the diving board.
“C’mere, babe. There’s no one around.
Come get me in the deep end.”
    I shake my head and climb out
on the edge,
sticking only the tips of my toes
in the water.
That’s as far as I’m going
today.

PUSHING MYLUCK
    I said I didn’t want to
cut class
but he was whispering in my ear,
chipping away at
my common sense.
“Yeah you do, honey.
You
really
do.
We’ll have a blast. I
promise.
”
    Down the hall
around the corner
through the doors
and out.
    We’re OUT!
We run behind this gargantuan oak tree
ducking out of sight.
He lifts my whole entire body right up in the air
slides me down him
pulls me in
kisses me hard
we stumble to the ground.
    But as I fall
I hear a voice rise from deep inside,
hurtle closer, faster,
then slam into my ears,
“What are you
doing
?
This isn’t you.”
    I untangle myself from his arms,
and run.
    I reach the doors
as the bell rings,
slipping into the seat
that is expecting me.
    Safe.
    But the knot in my stomach
betrays me
to me.
    I know
I’m
pushing my luck.

NO-MAN’S-LAND
    High school has its own terrain.
When you’re in class,
you’re in class.
You know where you’re supposed to sit.
    But when there’s free time,
it’s harder to know who’s supposed to go where.
    The caf is the trickiest minefield to maneuver.
Especially when you’re a freshman.
The cool kids usually take up the center
and various groups line the edges.
Freshmen need to figure out where they fit in fast,
before people claim spots.
Once that happens, you’re pretty much
stuck where you are,
or left out completely,
so you’d better choose well.
    Kim, Caroline, and I had a plan.
We would stick together—
under no circumstances would we let any of the team
fend for herself
and end up stranded in no-man’s-land.
    But when he came over to our table
and leaned in to kiss me
and asked me to join him for lunch,
it was really, really, really, really hard
to say
No.
    But I did.
No soldier left behind, right?
Or is it: All’s fair in love and war?
I can’t remember.

ALL’S FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR
    Yeah, that’s what I’m going with.
I mean, Kim and Caroline
should understand.
Shouldn’t they?
When a hot guy invites you to lunch,
you go, right?
    Well, I did.
The very next day.
Left them sitting there.
    And I was friendly,
it’s not like anyone snubbed them.
We walked past their table to say Hi
and even waved a couple of times during lunch.
They didn’t wave back.
    And they didn’t seem to care
when I told them he said,
“Your friends are hot.”
    I’ll catch up with them later.
    I’m sure it will be
fine.

HOT WATER
    My parents back out of