“Nope, she’s working at the pool—training to be a lifeguard. So hopefully we
won’t have to see her too much.”
Colin flattened out the printed e-mail on the table and videotaped it. “This is
crazy,” he said. “I didn’t know girls ever did this kind of thing.”
“Bree McKennis does anything she wants,” Jake said. “Which is why you guys
have to save me. I can’t date her! First, it’ll be painful and agonizing. She’ll make me
carry her things and bring her sodas and buy her stuff, and then she’ll yell at me when I
do anything wrong, and then she’ll make fun of me to all her friends behind my back, and
then she’ll dump me and tell everyone what a dork I am and I’ll never get a date in this town ever again. I may not be the world’s most popular guy, but this will ruin me for the
rest of high school. Remember what she did to Kevin Barkett? Or Alvaro? No, you don’t,
because once she was through with them, they disappeared from everyone’s minds.
Forever.”
“However,” said Colin, “she is really hot. Like, Angelina Jolie-type hot.”
“Ew, Colin!” Lexie said, smacking his shoulder.
“She is!” Colin said. “Right, Jake?”
Jake shrugged. “I guess she’s okay. Not my type.”
“Not your—seriously?”
“Personally, I would’ve stayed with Jennifer Aniston,” Jake said. “And did you
miss the part about the ‘Rules of Dating Bree’? Does that sound like fun to you? Man, I
knew I shouldn’t have met her eyes when she came up to get lemonade. I shouldn’t have
agreed to work the concessions stand at graduation in the first place. Now it’s going to be
the worst summer ever.” He slid onto the floor, lay down, and crossed his arms over his
face.
“Can’t you just say no?” Colin asked.
“Even I know the answer to that,” Lexie said. “Nobody says no to Bree.” Lexie
understood exactly what Jake was worried about. She’d been avoiding Bree since
elementary school. If you stayed far under her radar, you could slip by unnoticed and
unharmed, but if you popped into her line of sight in any way, she would rip you to
shreds with one flick of her French-tipped nails.
“Doomed,” Jake muttered. “Doooomed.”
“All right,” Colin said. “Tell her you already have a girlfriend.”
Jake thought for a moment. “Like, long-distance? I don’t think she’ll buy that.
Plus it’s only been a week since school ended. Where would I have picked up a girlfriend
in a week?”
“I dunno.” Colin shrugged. “You could tell her you’re dating Lexie.”
Lexie was so, so, so glad that Colin had his eyes glued to the camera controls and
didn’t see her expression. Jake kept his arms over his face, so he didn’t notice, either. She
felt like she might faint. There was a really awkward pause, and Lexie wondered if she
was supposed to make a joke here.
She started to say, “As if—“ at the same time as Jake said, “Well, I—“ and they
both stopped.
“what were you going to say?” he asked. He put his arms down and tilted his head
back to look at her.
“Um, just . . . as if she’ll believe that.”
“Why?” Colin said. Lexie wished Jake would say something, but he just kept
looking at her.
“Well, if you think Bree is out of his league, then I’m in another solar system,
aren’t I?” she tried to joke.
“Actually, it might work,” Jake said. Lexie bit her tongue, she was so surprised.
“Sure it will,” Colin said. “Lexie will be at Summerlodge, too, so Bree can see
you’re together. And it’s only for a little while, until Bree gets over you. And it’s not like
there’s anyone Lexie wants to date, so you’re hardly putting a dent in her love life. Right,
Lexie?”
That’s nice. Thanks, Colin.
“What do you say, Lexie?” Jake asked, rolling over onto his stomach and
propping his elbows on the floor and his chin in his hands adorably. “Want to be my
pretend girlfriend?” His eyes were like store clouds, big and unstoppable and irresistible.
Lexie, this is what you’ve been dreaming about.
Correction: This is a strange parody of what you’ve been dreaming about. Is this
what you really want? Being Jake’s pretend girlfriend?
Yeah, sure, okay. Close enough!
“Okay,” she said, feeling dizzy. “I mean, it’ll be tough pretending to like you, but
I guess I can take one for the team. Right?”
“You’re my knight in shining armor,” Jake said, getting up and kneeling on the
couch next to her. Right next to her. “My hero, my warrior princess,” he said, taking her hand. “My King Kong.” He pressed her hand to his heart. She could actually feel it
beating through the soft fabric of his shirt. It was going really fast. Nearly as fast as hers,
but he was an athlete, so it probably went that fast all the time.
“Okay, here are the Rules of Pretend Dating Lexie,” she said. “You need to stop
comparing me to a giant gorilla.”
“What are the other rules?” he asked. He was still holding her hand against his
chest.
“That’s the only one,” she said. Was her voice shaking? Could he tell? “So far.
I’ll keep you posted as others come up.”
He grinned. “I’ll look forward to it.”
“Okay,” Colin said, standing up. “I think I’ve figured out how to change it to
night recording. Let’s go test it in the shed.” He picked up a flashlight and headed for the
stairs. Lexie couldn’t believe her own twin hadn’t noticed how much she was blushing.
She wanted to stay where she was forever, but she pulled her hand free and scrambled off
the couch.
“Great, okay,” she said. “Sounds like fun.” She looked back from the doorway.
“Coming, Jake?”
“You bet,” he said, standing up and stretching. “Where my girlfriend goes, I go.”
Lexie shivered.
I always thought my first boyfriend would be Jake. But I never thought it would be
pretend . . . .
Copyright © 2007 by Tamara Summers. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic, Inc.
