“No!” Hailey yelled, and she slammed the door in his face, but she opened it again with a giggle.
“That wasn’t funny,” he said dead-pan. Making a quick lunge into her room, he tossed her over his shoulder.
“Oof,” she grunted. “I thought it was hysterical,” she laughed.
“You’re gonna pay for that one!”
With her slung over his shoulder, Fin ran down the stairs and out the door. He tossed her kicking and screaming into a six-foot snowbank.
“I’ll pick you up at noon tomorrow,” he called as he left her struggling to extract herself, giggling and spitting out snow.
Noon on Friday couldn’t come quick enough, and Hailey practically skipped to her 9:30 class. She had just taken her usual seat in the first row when something unusual happened.
David, one of the few students at Bear Towne brave enough to even look at Hailey, plopped down next to her.
“Hey, Hailey,” he said groggily as he opened his notebook.
“Hi,” she answered, confused. Nobody ever sat in the first row with her. She was more than a little suspicious when she saw David had actually combed his hair that morning.
“Are you going to Seven Trumpets?” he said out of the blue.
“Yes—with Asher.”
“Do you know if your roommate’s going?”
Aha! This was too perfect.
“Yes,” she said smiling. “I mean—no, Giselle does not have a date, yet… And I know that,” she explained. “But she wants to go…”
“Really?”
Hailey couldn’t tell if he was surprised or disgusted. She went with surprised. “Yeah. I know. It’s hard to believe. She’s so…um…she has such pretty eyes…”
“Yeah,” he raised his eyebrows and nodded. “But—”
“—but she hasn’t accepted an invitation, yet.”
“You think I should ask her?”
“Well, why wouldn’t you? She’s very…interesting—and really fun…” That was stretching the truth a little.
“She’s a little scary.” He came right out and said it.
“She’s not scary.”
Okay. That was a flat out lie. Giselle could scare the hair off a cat.
David drew a doodle on his notebook.
“I guess I could try asking her,” he said hesitantly. “Maybe I’ll ask her in class—”
“No!” Hailey yelled. “—I mean, you should wait until lunch. She’s much more likely to say yes on a full stomach.” Especially if Hailey got to her first. She’d have to warn her. And coach her. “…and she’s usually all business in class,” she added.
That seemed to make sense to David.
“Oh. Alright,” he said shrugging.
Hailey hoped he wouldn’t lose his nerve before lunch—or try to ask her in class. She’d have to run to catch Giselle in the Pre-Med leaf, and then she’d walk with her to ParaComm while she prepared her for David. And hopefully, she’d have the whole class to convince her to say yes.
