Holly frowned. “Including me.”
“Well, I can,” Sean said. “If I do it, will you admit I’m the King of Parking?”
“I guess so,” Holly said.
“Great,” Sean said. “When do you want your master class, kid?”
“How about tomorrow?” Mads couldn’t believe this was happening. Her day had gone from terrible to fantastic. Sean was going to teach her to park!
“Okay, tomorrow afternoon,” Sean said. “I’ll pick you up. Holly knows where you live, right?”
“Right. Actually, you’ve been there before. You came to a party at my house once.” So he didn’t remember. So what? This time he wouldn’t forget.
“I did? Oh. Well, I guess I can find it. See you around four.”
He and Holly walked toward the swim center. Mads went to get her bike. She felt like running and squealing with joy. Sean himself was going to teach her to drive! She was going to be all alone with him—in his car! It was too much.
She tried to walk normally, to stay calm. She didn’t want Holly to look back and see how thrilled she was. After all, Holly was dating him now. And Mads was cool with it. Totally cool.
14 The Price of Nice
* * *
To: From: linaonme
From: your daily horoscope
HERE IS TODAY’S HOROSCOPE: CANCER: When you’ve got a pest, you call an exterminator. When that doesn’t work, you move. Start packing.
* * *
How did she like the tarot card deck?” Lina asked Rex. She’d gone to the lower level of the library to find a book and found Rex instead, leaning against a stack.
Rex had made a set of personalized tarot cards for Ramona, hoping to impress her. He spent hours drawing and painting the cards. He even made the Empress look like her.
“Here’s how she liked it.” Rex showed Lina the cards. Ramona had sent them back, ripped up, with a note that said, I’m not the Empress. I’m the High Priestess.
Lina sifted through the ruined set. “Ouch. Are you okay? You put a lot of work into these.”
“I knew getting her to like me wouldn’t be easy,” he said. “I’m starting to think it’s impossible.”
“Maybe it is,” Lina said. “There are lots of girls around who’d love a custom-made tarot deck. Why waste all your energy on someone who’s so mean to you?”
The stricken look on his face made her backpedal. “I mean, someone who’s so not worth it?”
“I still think she’s worth it,” Rex said.
“Okay,” Lina said. “But you’re a nice guy. You should be with someone who’s nice, too. Nice to you, I mean.”
A kind of A-ha! look flashed across Rex’s face. He finally gets it, Lina thought. Time to give up on Ramona.
“You’re nice,” Rex said.
“Thank you,” Lina said.
“I mean, you’ve been really nice to me,” Rex said. “You’ve done so much to help me….”
“I really haven’t done that much,” Lina said.
“So… are you saying I should be with a nice girl… like you?” Rex said.
No, no. This was not going the way Lina had hoped.
“Sure, a nice girl like me,” she said. “As in, similar to me. But not me.”
Rex took a step toward her. Lina took a step back.
“Why not you?” Rex said. “You’re very pretty.”
“Thank you, Rex,” Lina said. “But you know, I’m actually not all that nice. Just ask any of my friends. And I have no soul at all—not compared to Ramona. She’s the one with tons and tons of soul.”
“That’s not true.” Rex took another step toward her. She took another step back. This guy wanted a girlfriend in the worst way. “You’ve got soul. You wouldn’t have helped me if you didn’t.”
“No, really, I don’t,” Lina said. “You know what I like? Great big shopping malls. And parking lots full of shiny cars. And fast food! I love fast food and canned, predictable music and remakes of remakes of cheesy movies and McMansions, and anything plastic and—”
He laughed. “See? Your sense of humor proves you’ve got soul.” He took another step forward. She was backed up against a stack with nowhere to go.
“Forget it, Rex. I have a boyfriend. His name is Walker. I like him very much.” Very, very, very, very much. More than ever, now that she saw the alternative up close.
“Lina, will you go to the Hap with me?”
“Did you hear what I just said? I have a boyfriend. I’m going to the Hap with him.”
Rex drooped. “Oh, why do I always like girls who don’t like me back? Is it some kind of curse?”
“No,” Lina said, “it’s—”
She froze. It was human nature. To want something you can’t have. Some people wanted the unattainable more strongly than others. Still, it was a human trait. And Ramona was human. Sort of.
“You still like Ramona, don’t you, Rex?” she asked. “Deep down? Tell me the truth.”
“Sure, I do,” Rex said. He began to quote “Wheel of Death” from memory.
“That’s enough,” Lina said. How could Ramona not love a guy who memorized her awful poems? It seemed impossible. “Don’t give up on her yet. I have a new idea.”
“But we’ve tried everything. She doesn’t like me.”
“She might like you if she thinks she can’t have you,” Lina said. “If you pretend to like me, maybe she’ll get jealous.”
“That’s game-playing,” Rex said. “She’s above that.”
Lina laughed. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“Hey, Lina, I was thinking about the Hap,” Walker said. He found Lina later that day, sitting with her laptop in the courtyard, checking her e-mail. “Am I supposed to get you a corsage or something? My mother said I should, but to me it’s totally… Hey, what are you reading?”
There was no point in hiding it. It was a message from Rex.
Lina—My heart bleeds for you. It’s like a bloody piece of steak. Not the kind you buy at the supermarket, wrapped in plastic. The really super-bloody kind that you buy at a butcher shop.
“Isn’t Rex the guy you were fixing up with Ramona?” Walker asked.
“Yes.”
“What is he, some kind of weirdo?” Walker said.
“Yes,” Lina said.
“So, what, he’s into you now? Or he’s just hungry for a steak? I don’t really get it.”
“It’s my new matchmaking plan,” Lina said. “He’s pretending to like me in order to get Ramona jealous. At least, I hope he’s pretending.”
“But how will she know he’s e-mailing these freaky messages to you?” Walker asked.
“I’ll show you.” Lina pressed FORWARD, then put Ramona’s e-mail address in the SEND box.
“Whoops,” she said. “My finger slipped.”
Then she sent Ramona another e-mail, which said:
Sorry! I forwarded that last message to you by mistake. Just ignore it.
“Seems like a lot of trouble to go to for a couple of freaks,” Walker said.
“I know,” Lina said. “But if I don’t keep Rex busy chasing Ramona, he’ll come after me. I can’t handle that.”
15 Slurpees
* * *
To: mad4u
To: From:your daily horoscope
HERE IS TODAY’S HOROSCOPE: VIRGO: Five-star day! To be followed by a negative-five-star day. What goes up must come down.
* * *
Okay, the first rule of driving is: You’ve got to look good in your car. Right? I mean, what’s the point if you don’t look cool?”
Sean, sitting in the passenger seat of his mother’s Honda (“The Jeep’s too hard to handle for a beginner,” he told Mads), studied Mads’ cool quotient. She was sitting up straight in the driver’s seat, hands at ten o’clock and two, trying to see over the wheel. And desperately trying to steady her shaking hands.
Sean was sitting right next to her. In a car. So close, she could feel his breath on her neck.
 
; “See, this is all wrong,” Sean said. “You can’t look so perky in your car. You’ve got to cruise.” He pressed a lever, making the seat rise. “Now you’re sitting higher, so you can slouch. Lean back in your seat. Right hand on the steering wheel, left arm resting on the open door window. There you go.”
He touched her hand! Stay cool, stay cool. “Hey, you’re right. I do feel cooler.”
“What did I tell you?” Sean said.
The moment had finally arrived: Mads’ driving lesson with Sean. The twenty-four hours between his offer to teach her and picking her up at her house had felt like twenty-four years. And she’d spent the whole time deciding what to wear. She tried on every outfit in her closet. She spent three hours on her makeup alone. She was torn between looking fabulous and looking effortless. She ended up somewhere in between.
Now she was alone with him in the car, his attention completely focused on her. The school parking lot had never looked so beautiful. The asphalt seemed to sparkle with stars. From this day forward Mads would always have a soft spot for silver Honda four-door sedans.
“Now, what’s the deal here? Parallel parking?” Sean said. “Unfortunately you need to use two hands for that. But you can still look cool.”
“Show me,” she said.
“I’m about to do that. Let’s do a little warm-up drive first. Once around the parking lot. Show me what you’ve got.”
Mads carefully accelerated and chugged around the lot in a long, slow circle.
“Let your arm hang slack. Relax.” Sean leaned against her to adjust her arm. He rested his hand on her leg for a second. After he lifted it, the spot felt hot.
“Give it a little gas, girl,” he said. “There’s no traffic. You’ve got the road to yourself. Let’s see some driving.”
Mads stepped on the gas and the car sped forward. “That’s right. Feel the wind in your hair,” Sean said. “This is what driving is all about.”
Mads went faster. She was headed straight for the wall of the school. What would she do when she got there? She didn’t know. She couldn’t think.
“Okay, slow down, slow down.” Sean pressed on her leg to indicate that she should brake. “Head-on collisions with brick walls are not cool. That might pop the air bags, which would really piss off the old lady.”
He draped his arm over her seat. He was doing it so he could see her feet and make sure she was pressing on the right pedal. But Mads didn’t care. She sat still for a minute, just to absorb the feeling of Sean’s arm around the back of her seat.
“Take us over to the curb, and we’ll do the parallel thing,” he said.
She drove to the curb where she’d practiced and failed so many times before and got into the pre-parking position.
“Good,” he said. “You know how to start, anyway. This is going to be a cinch.”
“You don’t know what I’ve been through,” Mads said. “I’m such a screwup! I’m always running over the curb or backing up too fast or knocking out the muffler….”
“Hold on,” Sean said. “Now listen. You’re getting all worked up. We just started. Today is a new day. You haven’t screwed anything up yet. What did I tell you? Cool. Be cool. Even if you have no idea what you’re doing, don’t show it. Pretend you know. Make it look good. It’ll all work out.”
“But—”
He pressed two fingers to her mouth to quiet her. “You’re like a race car driver, see? The greatest girl driver who ever lived. And you’re parking in front of the Roadhouse because they’re throwing a big party just for you. ‘Cause you won the Indy 500 or something. So you take it to the curb, no problem. You don’t even think about it. Got it?”
Mads had no idea what he was talking about, but she nodded yes. His fingers were still on her lips. Without thinking she flicked out her tongue and licked them. She didn’t know what made her do it—an instinct took over.
“Hey!” He pulled his hand away and laughed. “That’s the right attitude. Now let’s park this baby.”
Unlike all her other tutors, he didn’t tell her which way to pull the steering wheel and when to put on the brakes. He just slouched back, one arm out the window, and waited for her to do it.
She backed up, pulled into the curb, and stopped. Then she moved forward, aligning the front end with the sidewalk. She backed up a little to straighten the wheels. And that was it. She did it. She parallel parked.
For a second she was too stunned to say anything. It had been so simple. She sat in the idling car, staring at the wheel.
Sean leaned out the window to see how close she was to the curb. “Awesome. You did it,” he said. “I don’t see what all the fuss was about.”
“I did it!” Mads shouted. “I did it!”
“Yeah, I said that.”
She threw her arms around him and gave him a hug. It wasn’t a full-body hug because her seat belt held her back. Sean laughed and patted her on the back. “Way to park, kid. I knew you could do it.”
“I did it!” Mads shouted again. “You don’t understand—that was the very first time!”
“Told you I was a good driver.”
“You’re the best,” she said.
“Do it a couple more times, just to make sure,” Sean said.
She pulled into position and did it again. And again and again. She got it. She couldn’t understand why it had been so hard for her before. It was just a matter of getting the hang of it.
“Got any other driving problems you need to solve?” Sean asked.
She wished she could think of one. She wanted to stay there with him all day. But on the other hand, knowing she could pass her test now was a good feeling.
“All right then,” he said. “Let’s go get Slurpees to celebrate. You want to drive to the 7-Eleven?”
“I don’t have my learner’s permit yet.”
“Oh yeah. I guess that would be illegal. Well, I don’t need any more trouble in traffic court, so let’s switch seats.”
She moved to the passenger seat. “Thanks again, Sean. You really saved my butt.”
He patted her leg and said, “Glad I could help. There’s nothing like saving a cute girl’s butt.”
He kept his hand on her leg all the way out of the parking lot and down Rosewood Avenue. Mads was afraid to move. She didn’t want to do anything to make him take his hand away.
He pulled into the 7-Eleven. Mads felt as if her heart would jump out of her chest. As jittery as if they planned to rob the place. Sean got out of the car and loped to the front door. She scrambled out to follow him.
Inside the store it was cold and smelled like stale candy. Sean poured himself a root beer Slurpee, and she got cherry. She liked the way cherry ices stained her lips red. When it was time to pay, she pulled some bills out of her jeans pocket, but he pushed them away and said, “I got this.”
A gift from Sean. She wished she could save that Slurpee forever. She’d definitely keep the cup.
Back in the car, he clinked his plastic cup against hers. “Here’s to another wack chick on the road,” he said. “Just kidding. You’ll be great. How’s that Slurpee?”
“Good. Want a taste?”
“Yeah.” He leaned over and sipped from her straw. He made a face. “Cherry doesn’t taste good after root beer. Here.” He held out his cup for her to taste. She took a sip.
“You’re right. Root beer’s better,” she said. Then she checked her reflection in the side door mirror to see if the cherry was doing its work. Yep, there it was, a red ring around her lips. Better than the best lipstick and worth it even if it wasn’t her favorite flavor.
“Let’s blow out of here.” Sean started the car and headed for Mads’ house. He turned up the radio. Rock music blasted through the car, so it was hard to talk. But every once in a while he looked over at her and gave her that heart-stopping smile. It was even more killer close up than at the usual distance.
“I saw you playing basketball the other night,” she shouted over the music. “At Fortuna Park.”
“Oh, yeah? I was on fire that night.”
“You were great! Um, did you ever play on a team?” She was struggling to come up with things to say, to keep his attention on her. She wished this drive could last forever.
“Not since junior high,” Sean said. “Swimming’s year-round, pretty much. And I’m not tall enough to be really good.”
“I think you’re tall.”
“That’s ‘cause you’re a shrimp,” he said, but not in a bad way. He rested his elbow on her head to demonstrate her shrimpiness.
Before she knew it they were on her street, chugging up the hill toward her house. Sean stopped the car but left the engine running. He turned the radio down.
“So, are we cool?” he said. “You got your parking down?”
“Thank you so much, Sean,” Mads said. “You really helped me.”
“Hey, it was fun.” He unbuckled his seat belt. Then he unbuckled hers. “You’re a cute girl, you know that?”
“I am?” she whispered.
He was slowly, steadily, moving closer. “Yeah, you are. Come on, you know it. Those pinchable little cheeks.” He lightly pinched one of her cheeks. Her pinchable cheeks had always been one of her least favorite features, since, until that moment, they had been admired only by aunts and grandmas.
He touched the dimpled spot right under her nose. “You’ve got a little red Slurpee over your lip. Let me fix that for you….”
And that’s when he kissed her. He kissed her fully and deeply on the mouth. This was no friendly peck. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. She sighed. His breathing got heavy. Her left leg slipped into the gap between the two seats. She half-sat on the emergency brake. She didn’t care.
He pulled away slightly, holding her head between his two hands. He touched her hair as if it were silk. She stared at him, wide-eyed and stunned. She couldn’t think.
“Good driving today,” he said. He ran a hand down her spine and back up again, as if to give her a shiver for the fun of it, because he could. “See you later.”