Just one more facet of my personality that made me oh so desirable to the opposite sex.
“All right, the first thing you need to know is that it’s all about confidence,” Rose said.
I nodded and reached for my pencil, looking for the first clean page in my sketchbook so I could take notes.
“What are you doing? Are you…” She started to laugh. “Are you taking notes?”
I huffed. “This isn’t just for me. I promised to report back to my friends .”
I could literally see her struggle to contain her amusement, and then she was giving me the most condescending smile I’d ever seen. “That is so cute.”
I groaned. “Rose…”
“Sorry, sorry.” She waved a hand like she was erasing what she’d just said. “I hereby vow to help you and your friends.” She grinned. “The boys of Lakeview will have no idea what hit them.”
I sighed a little at the patronizing air but let it go. “Okay, so…confidence,” I said, making a note.
“Absolutely. You need to exude confidence, but also…no matter how cocky a guy acts, how cool he seems to be…never assume that he’s actually confident.”
I arched my brows. “Really?”
She nodded. “He might be, but even the most confident person in the world is afraid of rejection.”
I nodded. “That makes sense.”
“So if you like a guy, you need to make it clear that if he makes a move, you’ll be receptive. Or, if you really want to be brave, you could just make the first move yourself and save you both the trouble.”
I stared at her, and whatever she saw in my eyes, it apparently convinced her that I was not that brave. “Right. Let’s start with the basics then, shall we?” She faced me again as the boys started up the next song. “Smile at me.”
I smiled.
“No, smile at me like I’m a boy you like,” she instructed.
I hesitated and then widened my smile until it hurt my cheeks.
She winced and shook her head. “Okay, clearly we have a lot of work to do.”
“And that was when I got my first lesson in smizing.” I looked around at the group of girls, each of whom was watching me with rapt attention.
After Rose’s lessons last night, I promised the girls that I’d share what I’d learned at school today so we’d all gathered in the quad after the last bell. It was an unseasonably warm afternoon and no one seemed in a rush to go home right after school because the outside area was filled with groups of people talking and laughing.
Some were probably waiting for rehearsals or practices, but the rest, like me and my friends, were just enjoying the sunshine and good vibes.
“What else did she say?” Avery asked. Her eyes were wide with expectation and I started rifling through my notes to see what other gems I’d written down.
“Ask her yourself,” Max said.
I looked up, and sure enough, Rose was strutting toward us, her arms piled high with...something. “Ladies,” she said in that over-the-top tone that only Rose could pull off. “I come with all the study guides you’ll ever need.”
I blinked up at her, taking note of the smug smile she wore as the others gaped at her. She was eating this up. Not that I should have been surprised. Unlike me, Rose lived to be the center of attention.
With a flourish, she dropped the stack she’d been holding and we all looked at the pile before us. “Magazines?” Hazel said.
“What are we supposed to do with these?” Max asked.
Avery was already reaching for the one on top, Emma and Lulu right behind her.
“I’ve earmarked the pages you should read,” Rose said, crossing her arms as she presided over us. “This right here is all the information you’ll ever need on the topic. These are filled with all the tips that make up my bag of tricks.” She gave a saucy little wink to the others as she grabbed me by my upper arms and steered me away.
“Good luck, ladies,” she called over her shoulder.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“You need to practice.” She led me toward a group of jocks hanging out by the parking lot. I spotted a few of the guys I was lunch-table buddies with, including Ryan, Pete, and Andrew.
Her words registered a heartbeat too late and I skidded to a stop three feet away.
“What?” I turned to her. “You can’t be serious.”
She widened her eyes in surprise. “Of course I’m serious. One of Jax’s Fairmont friends is throwing a party tonight and all the guys from the band are going.” She widened her eyes even further. “All of them.”
I blinked a few times, an anxious pit opening in the depths of my belly. “Tony’s going?”
She nodded. “This is your chance. He’s going to be there, letting loose and having fun, unlike at band practice, and you need to be prepared to talk to him.”
“But I’m not ready,” I said. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Precisely why you need to practice,” she said. She started steering me again, half-pushing, half-dragging me those few feet toward the guys. “Trust me when I say that it takes practice, and you don’t want to be practicing on the guy you actually want.”
She was on a roll, not seeming to notice that my feet weren’t cooperating.
This was one of the major downfalls of being short. I was easily transported by taller folks.
“First of all, it adds too much pressure,” she was saying. “And second, if you mess up and start to look like an idiot, you could ruin your chance with the guy you want.”
“But…but…” I turned to face her as we reached the outskirts of their group. “I don’t want to look like an idiot in front of these guys, either.”
She rolled her eyes. “Relax. I’m not throwing you to the wolves.”
She turned to face the guys who were now paying attention to us. Well…they were paying attention to Rose. Half of them already wore
