It's a Mall World After All by Janette Rallison

Author:Janette Rallison
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2009-09-21T21:00:00+00:00

As it turned out, the decorating was the easiest of the two to arrange. Maybe hanging out with my mom during her Martha Stewart moments has rubbed off on me, because by the end of the day, I had not only planned the decorations but given out the assignments. Rebecca and her friends agreed to wrap an assortment of large empty boxes with Christmas paper. Twenty helpful seniors (okay, people I cornered in my classes) promised they'd make two dozen paper snowflakes each. I would take batches of pinecones, glue them together in the form of Christmas trees, and then spray-paint them gold for the table centerpieces. I'd seen my mom do it before. They'd be pretty, cheap, and prickly enough to discourage being tossed across the room.

Talking to Wesley was harder. He took a couple of honors classes with me, but he sat across the room, so we didn't talk much. And now I was supposed to somehow walk up to him, smile, and say, "Hey, would you like to take out my friend?"

I stared at him all through English, hoping an idea would present itself. Right before class ended, one did. Specifically, our teacher told us we had a test on Macbeth tomorrow. Half the class groaned, but I didn't. After the bell rang, I made a beeline to Wesley.

I caught up to him as he walked out the door. "Hey, Wesley."

"Hey," he said back.

"You ready for the test?" He shrugged.

"You want to get together and study after school?"

"I've got wrestling practice after school," he said.

"Oh yeah." I'd forgotten he was on the team with Colton. Occasionally during our study sessions the two of them would lapse into wrestler-speech. We'd be talking about the driving forces behind the Civil War, and they'd be discussing the benefits of turks, guillotines, and other things we didn't understand but sounded sinister. "How about after wrestling practice then? At my house. I'll have plenty of celery on hand."

Celery may seem like a strange thing to lure a teenage boy to your home with, but throughout wrestling season wrestlers watch their weight in a way that would put anorexics to shame.

Wesley smiled over at me. "Celery would be great—just as long as you don't leave out any donuts to tempt me."

"No donuts," I said. "I'll see you at four."

After that, we went different ways in the hallway, and I let out a sigh of relief. That hadn't been so hard. Now if only the rest of my plan went as smoothly. I pictured the two of us talking about Macbeth. I would casually bring up the topic of Kelly. Subtly—so subtly he wouldn't notice my influence—I'd mention he ought to ask her out. In my vision he liked the suggestion. How closely my vision and reality would resemble each other remained to be seen.

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