birthday the past November. She always wore it around him, for good luck. It was just a
strand of small red glass beads, but she liked it.
She brushed her hair—dark brown, down to her shoulder blades, and way too
fluffy—and scrunched her nose at the reflection. Well. She looked pretty much the same
as she did every day, so if it hadn’t worked yet, it probably wouldn’t now.
Lexie found Colin and Jake, as usual, in the basement. Colin was playing with the
zoom on the secondhand video camera he’d borrowed from Dad. Jake was still standing
by the door, and when Lexie walked in, he threw open his arms and went, “Lexie!” in this
big dramatic excited voice.
This was their new joke. The week before, Colin had asked them to act out a
scene for his camera, and when Jake started doing everything all over-the-top and
melodramatic, Lexie had followed along. They thought this was the most hilarious thing
ever, and they couldn’t get through three lines without falling over laughing. Colin didn’t
think it was quite so funny.
“Jake!” she cried now with the same dramatic enthusiasm.
“Oh, shut up,” said Colin.
Jake held up his hand and Lexie high-fived him. As he walked back to the couch,
she curled her fingers over her palm, holding in the warm, tingly feeling his hand had left
behind.
“So, what’s the new crisis, Jake?” Colin said, setting the camera on the coffee
table and kneeling to peer through it. He never seemed all that interested in Jake’s girl
problems, but Lexie thought it made Colin feel better to hear that even if you could get a
girlfriend, it wasn’t always easy after that. He still hadn’t dated anyone, and as far as she
knew, he’d never liked anyone, either. At least she’d dated Dave Mitchell for a week in
seventh grade, if you could call holding hands and awkwardly slow-dancing at one party
“dating.”
“It’s the end of the world,” Jake said as Lexie sat down on the other end of the
couch from him. “I’m totally doomed. Hey, Lexie, did you know that Ewan McGregor,
Brad Pitt, and Will Smith were all offered the role of Neo in The Matrix before Keanu
Reeves got it? They turned it down. Isn’t that crazy?”
“It would have been much funnier with Will Smith,” she said. Some days Jake’s
eyes were really blue, but today he was wearing a mossy green T-shirt that made them
look a stormy gray color.
“Colin, you should make a movie like The Matrix,” Jake said. “Lexie could play
Trinity.”
“No problem,” Colin said. “I was wondering what to do with that two hundred
million dollars just lying around in my bank account.”
“Oh, but,” Lexie said, snapping her fingers, “I’m afraid my leather catsuit is in the
laundry. Too bad.”
“That is too bad,” Jake said earnestly. “I had this whole series of you-in-black-
leather movies planned. X-Men, Catwoman, King Kong . . . I’d be Naomi Watts and
you’d be Kong, of course.”
“Shut up,” Lexie said, flinging a throw pillow at him.
“What?” he said with a grin. “It’s the grandest love story ever told.”
Luckily Colin interrupted before Lexie had to respond to that.
“Hello?” said her brother. “Crisis? Aren’t we here for a reason? You don’t sound
all that doomed.”
“I am,” Jake said. “I’m totally doomed.”
“Why?” Lexie asked. As far as she knew, Jake had been single for a couple of
months, ever since Amy Sorrento had broken up with him for not calling her every single
day. So it was probably a “girl-he-wanted-to-date” category of a problem.
“Bree McKennis,” said Jake.
Lexie’s heart sank. Bree was the classic popular girl—blond, beautiful, and
blissfully mean. Once she got her hooks into someone, they stayed hooked, even after she
dumped him. If Jake had fallen for someone like her, Lexie didn’t stand a chance. In fact,
if Jake had fallen for someone like her, maybe Lexie didn’t know him that well after all.
“Bree McKennis?” Colin said. “She . . . isn’t she kind of out of your league?
She’s, like, really popular.”
“Sadly, apparently not,” Jake said. “She wants to go out with me. Maybe she sees
some untapped popularity potential in me. If so, I vote for not tapping it. It can stay right
where it is, thanks.”
“Bree wants to go out with you”? Colin said.
Lexie was relieved, but she did not appreciate Colin’s shocked tone of voice. Why
wouldn’t anyone want to go out with Jake?
“Yup,” Jake said. “She informed me of this in an e-mail.”
“No way,” Lexie said.
“See for yourself.” Jake pulled a piece of paper out of his back jeans pocket,
unfolded it, and slid it over to her.
Jakey,
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to date the hottest girl in school? I
bet you have. I could tell you were thinking about it when I got lemonaid from you at my
sister’s graduation ceremony. You were thinking, “If only Bree would ever date me.”
Well, it’s your lucky summer. I have decided that I need a boyfriend and here are the
reasons we would be the perfect couple:
(1) our heights would match perfectly,
(2) we’ll both be at Summerlodge this summer,
(3) we’re both cute and popular,
(4) and so we’d be like the Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt of Summerlodge, only
without the smelly orphans.
I imagine this feels like winning the lottery, doesn’t it? Not that I’d notice if I did,
since I’m already so rich, but I’m guessing you would, and it would be like just as way
exciting as this. I’ll meet you tomorrow at the front gate of Summerlodge so we can make
our entrance together. Then I’ll also debrief you on the Rules of Dating Bree. How
awesome will this be?
Kisses,
Bree
“Oh, Jakey,” Lexie said, passing it on to Colin. “How can you resist?”
“I know,” Jake said. “It’s better than winning the lottery. It’s like winning the
lottery and falling down a well and being vomited on by a llama all at the same time.”
Lexie laughed. “So she’s going to be at Summerlodge, too? Does she play
tennis?” Lord, please don’t let her be in the Beginners class with me. Please find some
other horrible way