The President's Daughter by Ellen Emerson White

Author:Ellen Emerson White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Published: 2011-10-16T16:00:00+00:00

PEOPLE KEPT ASKING her out. Knowing that Linda was right, albeit something of an alarmist, Meg said no to almost all of them, giving in only to Rick Hamilton, because she still had a wild crush on him and didn’t care what his motives were.

She was on her way to her biology class one day when Carl Lehman, a guy she knew from the Ski Club, but almost never saw otherwise, stopped her, wanting to know if she’d go to the movies with him.

She didn’t want to be rude to him—necessarily—but—“I’m sorry, I can’t. I promised I’d—”

“Yeah, sure.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, rocking back on his sneakers. Carl was pretty good-looking, in a scruffy way, but was the kind of guy who took pride in underachieving—and also made a point of abusing the school’s already fairly liberal open campus policy. “Heard you went snob on us.”

“I didn’t,” Meg said. “I just—”

“Yeah, sure.” He opened a piece of gum, putting it in his mouth and crumpling the piece of paper. “Well, see ya.”

“Wait a minute,” she said after him.

He turned.

She looked him straight in the eye. “How come you never asked me out before my mother won the election?”

“Don’t know.” He had the grace to blush. “Guess I never thought of it.”

“Oh, please, you flatter me,” Meg said.

He smiled a little. “You sound like her. A lot like her.”

“I do not,” Meg said. “I sound like me.”

“Yeah, sure.” He opened another piece of gum.

Christ, she was sick of this. Meg scowled at him. “If you want to go out with my mother, don’t ask me, okay? And tell your stupid friends! I don’t go out with people who don’t ask me.”

“How come you said yes to Rick?” he wanted to know.

“It’s none of your business,” she said.

Carl shrugged. “Why you think he asked you out?”

She held tightly to her biology book, not looking at him.

“You’re in AP everything, and you can’t figure it out?” he said.

There was really no way to respond to that, so she just hunched her shoulders and headed down the hall.

He caught up to her, putting his hand on her arm. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. ’Sides, it’s not why I asked you out.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Sure.”

“Well, think what you want,” he said. “Only, I asked you out, ’cause I always thought you were kinda—I don’t know—quiet and stuff. Only, you got up and made that speech, and looked really beautiful and everything—you were kinda something else.”

Well, at least it was a creative attempt to dig himself out. “I was being my mother,” she said.

He shook his head. “Naw, you were just wearing her blazer.” He tossed his crumpled ball of gum paper and foil at a wastebasket farther up the hall. “F’you don’t want to go out with me, don’t go out with me.”

“What if you were only telling me that so I’d go?” she asked.

“Hey, think what you want.” He went down the hall. “Maybe I’ll try again sometime.”

“Maybe I’ll say yes,” she said.

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