Even the Score by Belle Payton

Author:Belle Payton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Spotlight

CHAPTER

Seven

I hate this, Ava thought. I really hate this.

But for the plan to work, she had to keep moving. Keep smiling. Keep tossing her hair.

She was so not a girl who tossed her hair!

Yet here she was, Wednesday morning in the school hallway, tossing away. And everyone was watching her.

Deep breath.

She heard the whispers. And not just from the boys. The girls were staring too. A cell phone camera clicked, and she cringed. In seconds, everyone in the school would have an eyeful of her.

In her new outfit. The new Ava.

Leopard-print jeans, black sequined tank, and black heeled booties. Big silver hoop earrings and a stack of bangle bracelets jangling on her wrist. Glitter plum lip gloss and thick brown eyeliner.

She’d undergone an extreme makeover, courtesy of Alex.

“I look like a little kid playing dress-up,” she’d complained to Alex early that morning, as her twin carefully applied the eyeliner.

“You look great!” Alex exclaimed. “A bit much, maybe, but plenty of girls get this dressed up for school. You’ll be one of them today.”

Now, with the shellacked gloss weighing on her lips and the booties pinching her toes with each wobbly step, she wondered why any girl would dress like this. She debated ducking into the locker room and changing into her practice jersey and cleats. That would be heaven.

No, she told herself. She was a team player, and she was doing this for the team. And for Kylie, too.

She’d spent a lot of time last night feeling guilty and sorry for herself. Then she’d realized that everything was happening around her. It was as if she were upset about not scoring a touchdown when she stood frozen in the middle of the field while the ball was run and passed around her.

“You’ve got to be part of the action,” her dad always coached.

Today she was following his advice.

If Owen can suddenly decide he likes me, then I can make him unlike me, she’d decided. She wouldn’t be mean. She’d turn herself into the kind of girl he didn’t like and let him do the rest.

She forced herself not to look his way when she entered math class. With a confidence she never knew she had, she strutted across the room. Thankfully, Mrs. Vargas was facing the board, writing out problems.

“Holy moly, Sackett!” Jack cried.

“Hi there, Jack!” she called, her voice purposely high. She wiggled her fingers in a wave and giggled. So very unlike her. She was not a giggly girl.

Waves of confusion rolled across Jack’s face. He looked like he was trying to decide whether this was a joke or she’d truly crossed to the dark side.

Ava felt bad. She wished she could have clued Jack in, but Alex had told her she couldn’t risk someone spilling to Owen. She edged away from him, afraid she’d lose her nerve, and stopped at Bridget Malloy’s desk.

Bridget was one of the girls who dressed up every day in skirts and sparkly shoes. A force field of perfume surrounded her. Ava barely

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