Dare nodded. "But we're on the right track."
"What does that even mean?" I asked.
"Why do you sit in the corner anyway?" Dare said, completely ignoring the question. "No one really sits over here."
"To be anti-social," I said deadpan, "and to avoid people gawking at me—like they are right now thanks to you."
"Ah well." He sat back, gesturing to himself. Even in the crappy cafeteria lighting, his blue eyes sparkled. "Can you blame them? I'm pretty fun to look at."
And then he winked.
At me.
Right there in front of everyone.
My face heated. "Could you not do that."
"Do what?" he said.
"That." I ran a hand through my hair, trying to cover my face a little and hide. "People will think you're flirting."
Dare stared at me. "And?"
Ugh, it felt like I was in the freaking Twilight zone. "You know, maybe I sat over here because I didn't want to be found," I said. "Did you ever think of that?"
"Too bad," he said with a cockiness I hadn't heard in a while. "I already found you. And now, we're having lunch. Deal with it."
Before I could say anything else, a second tray was placed next to his and Tyson sat down beside Dare.
"Hey man," he said, looking around. "Why are you sitting all the way over here? I couldn't find you for a minute, thought you'd be at our usual spot."
"Yeah," Dare said, "I decided to change it up. This is Viola's secret hideaway."
Ty moved his eyes to my face, and he smiled. "Oh, I see. It's kind of cool over here, less crowded anyway. Hey Vi, I didn't know you had lunch this period."
As usual, I got a little tongue-tied when confronted with Tyson's beauty. "Yeah hey," I laughed nervously. "Dare just came over. I'm not sure why."
"She was trying to get me to leave again," Dare added.
"I was not!" I said but Dare just gave me a look. "Well, maybe I was," I conceded. "But this is weird." My eyes went to Tyson's. "Don't you think it's weird?"
"Eh, it's different," he said then shot me a smile that had me blushing to the tips of my ears. "But not bad different."
"I'm sorry about the whole confession thing," I blurted. "If it made you feel uncomfortable."
"Nah, don't worry. I'm used to it."
He was used to girls telling him they loved him out of the blue? Okay, awesome. That meant I was one of many. Maybe then I shouldn't be so embarrassed in his presence.
"Seriously," Tyson added, "we're cool."
I blinked. "Okay, if you say so…"
Dare didn't say anything, but I could almost feel him taking in the interaction between me and his friend.
Soon more girls and guys came over, filling up the table until there were no seats left. They were mostly popular kids I'd noticed hanging around Dare before. We'd gone to school together for a while but had never talked much. Actually, I thought, this was the first time I'd eaten with other people since middle school. I could feel eyes on me and looked across the way to see Whitney staring from where the popular crowd used to sit. They'd migrated from her table to mine. And she did not look happy about it.
Not happy at all.
CHAPTER 5
But the weirdness didn't stop there.
Oh no, lunch was only the beginning. Dare's peculiar behavior escalated after that until it felt like I was living in what I mentally came to refer to as my life's version of Stranger Things.
In Literature, when Mr. Carville asked us to pair up into fours for a project, I had a moment of anxiety. I'd always hated working in groups. It forced interaction between my classmates and me, and though other people may have liked working with their friends, I was often left out, waiting to be assigned to a group by the teacher.
Today, that wasn't the case.
"Hey, want to work together?"
Dare didn't wait for my answer, just pulled his chair over to mine and sat down, walking right by Whitney, who'd looked like she was about to ask to be in his group. She glared at me as if it were my fault he'd passed her by. Sheesh.
"Um okay," I said, my brow furrowed. "Then we just need a couple of other people—"
"Got room for two more?" another voice asked.
"You know it," Dare said as Jovonte, one of Dad's starters from the team, joined us along with his girlfriend, Estelle.
"I'm feeling very good about this group," she said with a big smile. "There's good juju over here for sure."
Jovonte rolled his eyes. "You and your juju."
"Hey, just because you're blind to cosmic energy doesn't mean we all are." Estelle held out her hand to me. "Hi, I'm Estelle. Are you a new student?"
Dare choked back a laugh as I winced. "Yeah, no. I've gone to Durham all four years. I'm Viola. Nice to meet you."
"Ooh, like Viola Davis," Estelle said, shaking my hand. "I love her. And you'll have to excuse the dumb question because I actually am new, have only been at DHS since last year. You and me, we're going to be friends. I can already tell."
I forced a laugh. This girl was kind of kooky, but in a nice way.
"Maybe," I said.
"Oh no, we will be," she said matter-o-factly. "I can feel it."
Jovonte sighed. "Sorry about her," he said then turned to his girlfriend. "Estelle baby, Viola is super smart, which is what makes this a solid group choice." Ah, and there was my other reason for not liking groups: nine out of ten times, I usually ended up doing all the work. "She's also our coach's daughter," he added.
"Oh." Estelle's brow was pinched. "How come I've never seen
