Free How to Meet Boys by Catherine Clark

things usually do with me. But then it turned a corner somehow and we started having a real conversation. And it was easy.”
    “Wow. So what’s his name?” I asked.
    “I don’t know . . ,” Mikayla said slowly, sort of in a daze.
    “You didn’t get his name ?” Claire asked.
    “No,” she said, slowly shaking her head.
    “Well. That sounds promising,” I teased.
    Mikayla laughed. “I screwed that up, didn’t I? But there was a big group, and everyone kind of knew each other, and—gosh. How did I not get his name? You know what? I don’t think he got my name either.”
    “So how are you going to find him?” Claire asked. “Wait for him to leave a shoe behind and then you can track him down and see if it fits? Although, seriously, guys’ shoes? Not something you want to carry around.”
    “Just my luck, right? I meet someone and it turns into a Cinderella situation. Although I doubt he’d appreciate being compared to Cinderella,” Mikayla said. “It’s weird. I almost ran into him on my bike earlier this week. And he tried to give me his phone number then, but I didn’t want it, because he was making too big a deal about whether I was hurt or not. Now, I need it,” she said. “Of course then I’d have to get up the nerve to call him, but . . ”
    “Not really,” said Claire. “Just text.”
    “Same difference,” Mikayla said.
    “So you’ve seen him twice, then?” I asked.
    She nodded. “I totally know this might just be in my head. It probably is. But it feels like we have this connection, like . . . I don’t know. There’s something there. I can’t describe it.”
    “Maybe it’s one of those pheromone deals I saw on Dr. Oz ,” Claire said.
    “You watch Dr. Oz ?”
    “Only when I’m home with the flu. You can’t believe how much this one secret mysterious substance controls your whole entire life.”
    “Sorry,” Mikayla said. “I don’t listen to anyone who goes on TV in his pajamas.”
    “They’re not pj’s! They’re scrubs. He’s a surgeon, you know. Half the reason I want to go to med school and help people is because of him. Well, and his TV deal,” Claire said.
    “Since when are you going pre-med?” I asked. “Last I knew you wanted to major in French.”
    “Last year, yeah. Before I knew better,” said Claire.
    Mikayla sighed. “I wonder where he’s staying this summer.”
    “He who? Dr. Oz? I think he’s a bit old for you—”
    “No! The guy I met tonight,” Mikayla said, laughing at Claire.
    “Well, when you don’t know someone’s name, it’s hard to actually talk to them about anything like where they live, isn’t it?” Claire teased her.
    “I talked to him a lot,” Mikayla said.
    “You?” I said.
    “Well, yeah. He was even flirting with me. At least, I think so.” Mikayla’s eyes were shining with excitement. I had a feeling she wasn’t going to get much sleep that night. “I’ve got to text Ava right now. Oh, and by the way, Sarah picked me up, she came in for a tour, and she wants to use our house as, like, Party Warehouse.”
    I didn’t get it. “Party Warehouse? Like, we have to sell balloons and plastic forks and graduation tablecloths and Halloween costumes?”
    We all started laughing. “No! I meant . . . I meant . . ” Mikayla was laughing so hard she couldn’t spit it out. Finally she said, “Party Central . Since we have the place to ourselves. I don’t know where the warehouse part came from.”
    “You have boy brain,” Claire said. “It’s okay. And I guess we know what this means.”
    “What? Dr. Oz was right?”
    “No. We should have gone to Earl Grey’s instead of the tennis courts!”
    “I missed tennis?” Mikayla asked, looking up.
    “No, not really,” I said, laughing, thinking that you couldn’t really call our game tennis . More like five-is.
    Maybe my summer hadn’t gotten off to the start I wanted it to, but I was definitely excited for Mikayla. And maybe the guy she’d met had a