Oh, he was good. He was very, very good.
There was no way to get my name off that ballot, and I could only hope that April’s well-established popularity would guarantee that she got more votes than me and therefore won the princess title. But if Jack was serious, and he started telling people to vote for me …
Not good. So not good.
“You wouldn’t,” I said.
Jack leaned forward, until our foreheads were almost touching. “Wouldn’t I?”
Damn it, I thought. He totally would.
“Won’t the senior members of the squad be thrilled if you win?”
Okay, now he was just gloating. If I somehow managed to defy tradition and win queen as a sophomore, I was a dead girl. Brooke and Chloe would beat me to a pulp with their bare hands, and who knew what kind of psychological torture Zee could heap upon me if she really tried? His plan was evil, and it was genius, and given his background, neither one of those things should have surprised me.
“I hate you.” I glared at Jack.
He moved forward again, until there was virtually no space between his lips and mine. “Right back at ya, Ev.”
For a split second, I was terrified that he would kiss me right there, in front of everyone, but at the last instant (and right before I either grabbed him, flipped him, and hurled him to the ground or pinned him to the wall and kissed him so hard it hurt), he pulled back.
“It’s a date.” He smiled again, and then walked away,leaving me in his wake trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.
Less than an hour ago, all I’d wanted was detention. Now, I was nominated for homecoming court and going to the big dance with the hottest guy in school. Somewhere out there, God was laughing at me. I was sure of it.
CHAPTER 7
Code Word: Smile
“Go ahead,” I told Tara. “Ask me what happened.”
She arched one perfectly plucked eyebrow at me. “What happened?”
There was something in the tone of her voice, some trick to the words that made me narrow my eyes. “You already know.”
She smiled slightly and merged onto the highway. I’d finally made it out of the gym, and now the two of us were on our way to the Marymount Hotel, where our mark, Jacob Kann, had checked in earlier that week. We’d picked up bugs and tracking chips from the guidepost, our loading center, and then—thankfully—the two of us had hightailed it out of there before any of the others had a chance to ask a single question about my interaction with Jack.
About that time, I realized how strange it was that none of the others had managed to get a question in. These were girls who were trained to get information out of people. Plus theysingle-handedly ran our school’s rumor mill. So why hadn’t they asked about Jack?
The answer was simple. “The others already know, too, don’t they?”
How was that even possible? The gym had been crowded and noisy, and even Tara had been too far away to hear our exchange. Jack and I had kept our voices low. And yet …
“There’s a slight chance that I read lips,” Tara admitted.
Well, that answered that question.
“And the others?” Somehow, I couldn’t imagine Tara ratting me out.
Tara sighed. “I’m not entirely sure, but if I had to venture a guess, I’d say there’s a very good chance it has something to do with your body language and Zee’s ability to read people.”
And there you had it. Between a linguistics expert and a profiler who could read people like one of thoseSee Spot Runbooks, I had no hope for keeping any aspect of my personal life private.
“I don’t like him,” I told Tara.
She remained silent, but allowed the edges of her lips to twitch slightly.
“You suck.” I wasn’t feeling very forgiving of twitchy lips and half smiles.
