Devon Delaney Should Totally Know Better

By Lauren Barnholdt

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ALADDIN M!X
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

First Aladdin M!X edition September 2009
Copyright © 2009 by Lauren Barnholdt

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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Designed by Tom Daly

The text of this book was set in Arrus.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

Library of Congress Control Number 2009922830

ISBN 978-1-4169-8019-3

ISBN 978-1-4169-9679-8 (eBook)

For my grandparents, Angeline and Charles Brauchle, for their generosity, kindness, and wonderful example

Thank you so, so, much to:

My amazing editor,
Kate Angelella
,
for her awesome suggestions, enthusiasm, and advice

My agent,
Alyssa Eisner Henkin
,
for always working tirelessly on my behalf

My
mom
, for always being there
My
sisters
, for being my best friends
My
dad
and
Beth
, for their support
Jodi Yanarella
,
Kevin Cregg
,
Scott Neumyer
,
and the
Gorvine family
for their encouragement

Everyone who bought The Secret Identity of Devon Delaney,
and e-mailed me to tell me they loved it—thank you so
much for loving Devon as much as I do!

And last but not least, my husband,
Aaron
, for supporting me
no matter what, loving me no matter what, and making
me believe that anything is possible. . . .

I think I have figured out the bane of
my existence. The bane of one’s existence, in case you don’t already know, is the thing that is driving you the craziest. The thing that makes you absolutely totally nuts, the thing that if it did not exist, you could just relax and have a perfect life.

But the bane of my existence is not a thing. The bane of my existence is a person. And that person is Bailey Barelli.

Take right now, for example. Bailey Barelli is sitting one row over and three seats ahead of me in English. Which is fine. What is not fine, is that sitting in my
row, and three seats up, is my boyfriend, Luke. Which means that Luke is sitting
right next
to
Bailey Barelli.

Which would not be so bad, except two minutes ago, I saw her pass a note to Luke. Then I saw Luke open it, give Bailey a smile, and then write something on her note and
pass it back to her.
This is very unacceptable behavior, in my opinion. Plus, the bell has just rung. Which means all this unacceptable note passing started as soon as the bell rang, like she couldn’t even wait one second. What was so important that she had to tell Luke, anyway? They’re not even friends.

“Please everyone put your desks in a circle,” our teacher, Mrs. Bancock, says. She grabs her grade book off her desk and walks to the front of the room. “We’re going to get started.”

I stand up and push my desk into the circle, right between Cassie Schafter and Michael Ronson. We’re reading
Romeo and Juliet
, and Mrs. Bancock thinks we’ll “absorb more Shakespeare” if we act out the parts. So every day, we put our desks in a circle, and spend the period reenacting
Romeo and Juliet
. Well, not actually reenacting. We just read out loud from our desks.

“Now,” Mrs. Bancock says. She pushes her glasses up on her nose, and settles into a student desk at the head of the circle, her long skirt billowing around her.
“Today is my favorite day of
Romeo and Juliet
, because we are going to be reading the balcony scene. And,” she goes on, “as a special treat, this time we will be acting out the action!”

A nervous laugh goes through the class. The balcony scene. That’s the most famous scene of the play— where Romeo and Juliet declare their love for each other, and Romeo climbs up the balcony and I think he might even kiss Juliet. That could actually be kind of fun, since Romeo is played by Gabriel Warren, this slightly annoying guy in our class who has a Mohawk.

“I’m ready whenever you are,” Bailey Barelli says, and flips her long, dark hair over one shoulder. Bailey Barelli is, of course, Juliet. This is because when Mrs. Bancock called for volunteers, Bailey Barelli shouted out, “I’LL DO IT!” really loud and raised her hand and was practically jumping out of her seat. You’d think teachers would be smart enough to realize that this kind of behavior is annoying and that whoever’s doing it is obviously just sucking up, but they totally don’t, since Mrs. Bancock just smiled and said, “Your enthusiasm is refreshing, Bailey. Let’s put you down for the part of Juliet.” Sigh.

I open my book to the balcony scene, and catch Luke’s eye across the room, where he’s sitting on the
other side of the circle. He shoots me a smile, and I smile back before returning my eyes to my book. I’m still not exactly sure how I’m supposed to act around him. I mean, yeah, he is my boyfriend, but he’s only been my boyfriend for two weeks.

And he’s my first boyfriend. So it’s not like I can say,
Oh, right, when my last boyfriend and I were going out for two weeks, this is how it was.

“Oh, except,” Bailey Barelli says, “Gabriel’s not here.” She reaches into her bag, pulls out a lip gloss, and smears some on her lips.

“Oh,” Mrs. Bancock says. She looks around the room. “Well, I guess we’ll need a replacement Romeo for the day.” She peers over the top of her glasses. “Now, who would like to play Romeo? Of course you’ll receive extra credit.”

To my horror, I see Luke raise his hand on the other side of the room. What? Why? Is Luke crazy? Has he lost his mind? Does he not understand that when you have a girlfriend, you do not decide to be the Romeo to someone else’s Juliet? I do my best to send him a look that says,
Why are you doing that, please put your hand down immediately.
But he doesn’t seem to understand. I close my eyes and open them again, sure I have imagined this. But no. There he is,
calmly sitting there with his hand in the air, like it’s totally normal.

And then I think about how Bailey was just smearing that lip gloss all over her lips. So I do the only thing I can be expected to do in a situation like this. I pull a Bailey Barelli. “I’ll do it!” I say, waving my hand around. “I’ll play Romeo!”

Mrs. Bancock looks at me, surprised. I don’t usually volunteer for things with such, uh, enthusiasm. And definitely not for something like playing Romeo. “Devon Delaney,” she says.
“You
want to play Romeo?”

“Oh, yes, please,” I tell her, nodding my head up and down furiously. “I really need the extra credit.” This isn’t really true. I mean, of course I could
use
the extra credit, but I’m not in trouble with the class or anything.

“Well,” she says, “I don’t see any reason why we have to be sexist! You shouldn’t be discounted from getting the part just because you’re a woman.” And that’s how I end up down on one knee, spending first period reenacting the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet with Bailey Barelli.

Whatever. Luke probably just needed the extra credit. He’s very smart, and always trying to do extra work.
It’s one of the things I love about him. And passing notes is so not a big deal. I pass notes with people all the time. Besides, I’m a confident, mature woman. I’m not threatened just because Luke got passed a note by some other girl. I mean, he’s waiting for
me
after class, not Bailey. He’s going to be walking
me
to science class, not Bailey. He likes
me,
not Bailey. In fact, I’m sure he’s going to tell me all about it. Including all the pertinent details, like why the note was passed, what was in it, why he wrote her back, etc. And then maybe he’ll even talk about how annoying she is.

“Good job,” Luke says as we walk.

“At what?” I ask. I’m weaving through the crowd of kids in the science wing, and it’s taking all my strength not to trip in the new shoes I’m wearing. I got them at the consignment shop with my BFF, Lexi—totally cute, and black with a little heel. They’re half a size too small, but they were five dollars! Pain is totally worth it for five dollars.

“At playing Romeo.” Luke reaches through the throng of kids and takes my hand, and a rush of heat slides up my arm. I’m still not used to holding hands in public like this. Although I guess it’s not really public. It’s school. But still. People can see. Anyone could just
be walking down the hall and go, “Oh, look, there’s Devon holding hands with Luke.”

“I never thought I’d be able to imagine you as a guy, but you really pulled it off.” He shoots me a grin.

“Thanks,” I say, a little uncertainly this time. What does he mean, he never saw me as a guy before? I mean, I’m flattered that he thinks I’m a good actress. (Actor?) But does Luke think of me as masculine now? That would be rather unfortunate, since I totally wore my cutest outfit today (black and gray dress over black ribbed tights, and the aforementioned new shoes).

“Well, here we are,” I say, stopping outside of my science class. “Thanks for walking me to class.” I give him an expectant look, waiting for him to mention the fact that he and Bailey were passing notes at the beginning of the period. Well, one note. That I saw.

“Yup, here we are,” he says. He shifts his book bag from one shoulder to the other.

“Almost time for you to get to math,” I remind him, in case he’s forgotten that we’re on a time schedule here.

“Yup,” he agrees. “Almost time.”

I practice putting an “I’m your girlfriend and you can tell me anything” kind of look on my face.

“Oh!” Luke says, “I almost forgot!”

Aha! I knew he would never keep anything from
me. Luke and I have a very honest relationship, one built on mutual trust and—