How to Rock Braces and Glasses by Meg Haston

Author:Meg Haston [HASTON, MEG]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316192897
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2011-10-24T04:00:00+00:00

THREE’S COMPANY, SIX IS A CROWD

Tuesday, 12:06 P.M.

I rode my hard rock high all the way into lunch period the next day.

“And after we were done, we tried out a few trackth from the Bob Dylan album I borrowed,” I told Paige. “No lithp there, either. Can you believe it?” I cracked open my açai berry smoothie and surveyed The Square from my new lunch spot: an ivy-infested iron loveseat shoved in the corner between Silverstein and Hemingway.

The Square was starting to fill, but the old stone bench I used to share with the girls was deserted. Directly diagonal from our corner, Quinn, Jake, and Aaron were lounging next to the sixth graders’ dead Earth Day garden, playing paper football.

“Sounds fun.” Paige bent over with her head between her knees, digging for something in her backpack. “Wait ’til you see this.” Her voice was muffled.

“Mm-hmm,” I said absently, momentarily hypnotized by the way the sunlight seemed to pour through the greenhouse ceiling and land in a perfect halo around Quinn’s head. He leaned against the brick wall and flicked a field goal, laughing at something Jake had just said. His teeth were so white, I had to close my eyes for a second. I fantasized that Quinn hadn’t laughed at the YouTube spoof the week before. I imagined that instead, he’d told off the entire class and we’d stormed out together, then headed to Sugar Daddy for our first official date.

Paige snapped her fingers in front of my nose. “It took a little bargaining with the features editor, but…” She produced a folded newspaper and rattled it excitedly.

“Wait.” It took a few seconds of staring into Paige’s giant, unblinking eyes to jog my memory, but our conversation at Sugar Daddy finally came flooding back. “We made the front page?” I lunged for the Gazette, but Paige leapt up, holding it just out of my reach. “I can’t believe you waited to tell me!”

“I can’t believe you forgot to ask!” Paige laughed, making the paper dance just inches from my glasses.

Well, I wasn’t completely sure you were gonna be able to pull it off. I managed to swallow the words.

Paige cleared her throat. “Marquette’s Broadcast Queen Down with Gravity.”

“No way!” I stashed my smoothie under the bench and commandeered the paper before she could stop me.

“Read the part about how you overcame hardship!” Paige screeched. “That’s my favorite line.”

“Hey! It’s Gravity’s newest supah-stahhh!” I glanced up from my promo to see Zander slinking across the courtyard. He was wearing slouchy brown cargos, a thin waffled orange hoodie, and a T-shirt with icons of a baby chick and a horseshoe magnet on it.

I waved, then went back to the piece.

“What’s going on?” When Zander raised his palm, his leather cuff bracelet peeked out from beneath his henley.

“Hey. I’m Paige.” Paige gave him a high five.

“Yeah. I’m voting for you.” He grinned. “Zander.”

But Paige had already refocused on the promo. “Let me read it. Nobody can understand you with that lisp, anyway.” She snatched the paper and smoothed it against her thigh.

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