am down
on his hand with mine。
“Dude！” he says。 “What's your problem？”
“Sorry；” I say； tuning in to the fact that he was only going for lined paper； not newspaper。
“Dude；” he says again。 “You know you've been really spaced lately？ Anyone else tell you
that？” He rips a piece of paper out of my binder； then
notices the edges of the newspaper。 He eyes me； and before I can stop him； he whips it out。
I pounce on him and tear it out of his hands； but it's too late。 He's seen her picture。
Before he can say a word； I get in his face and say； “You shut up； you hear me？ This is not
what you think。”
“Whoa； kick back； will ya？ I wasn't thinking anything…。” But I could see the little gears go
click…click…click in his brain。 Then he smirks at me and
says； “I'm sure you've got a perfectly reasonable explanation for why you're carrying a picture
of Juli Baker around with you。”
The way he said it scared me。 Like he was playing with the idea of roasting me in front of the
whole class。 I leaned over and said； “Zip it； would
you？”
The teacher hammered on us to be quiet； but it didn't stop Garrett from smirking at me or
doing the double…eyebrow wiggle in the direction of my
binder。 After class Darla tried to act all cool and preoccupied； but she had her radar up and
pointed our way。 She shadowed me practically all day；
so there was no real window of opportunity to explain things to Garrett。
What was I going to tell him； anyway？ That the paper was in my binder because I was trying
to hide it from my sister？ That would help。
Besides； I didn't want to make up some lame lie about it。 I actually wanted to talk to Garrett。 I