How To Be A Perfect Girl (7 page)

“Alright.”

Dad walked back to the front door while Val
changed quickly into fresh clothes. She went with the most readily
available outfit—a lime green shirt and a pair of ‘stressed’ jeans;
as a last minute decision, she decided to put her hair up in a
quick ponytail.

When Val arrived at the front door it was to
find Dad in the midst of a staring contest with Keenan and Alex;
Alex was smiling, as per usual. Keenan looked nervous, however.

“Well, here she is,” Dad said, “What was it
that you wanted to study again?”

Keenan gulped; “Algebra,” Alex looked from
Dad to Val and back, “We—uh, that is, I—am not doing so well and so
we’re forming a study group.”

“Uh huh,” Dad continued staring he worked
his jaw slowly.

“Great!” Val interjected, “I could use some
help too. Let me just get my binder, ok?” She left to look for
it.

“Sounds good!” Alex called after her.

In a few moments Val had her schoolbag; she
decided to take the whole thing, instead of wasting time looking
for her Algebra binder. She kissed Dad on the cheek; he embraced
her, but didn’t break his stare with the Alex and Keenan. “Back by
ten,” he said.

“Alright!” Val bounced toward Alex’s car;
she stopped after a few steps. “Are you two coming?”

“Oh yeah,” they shook like they’d just
awoken from a spell. Alex climbed in the driver’s seat; Keenan
opened the passenger door and gestured for Val to get in, “You get
a seat all to yourself this time.”

“Great!” Once Alex had backed out of the
driveway, Val asked the question on her mind, “Alex, you’re a whiz
at Algebra. You don’t really need help, do you?”

He shook his head, “My boy here just needed
some help getting a certain blonde from her father’s clutches.”

Val laughed, “Your ‘boy’?”

“Yeah, he’s my dawg, yo.”

It was too much, “Are you trying out for
world’s whitest gangster or something?” Val asked.

Alex grinned, “Nope. I do feel pretty
gangster after staring down your father, though. That is one scary
dude.”

Val giggled.

“What?”

“
It’s just that I’ve never
thought of him as scary. I dunno, maybe it’s just cause he’s always
been my dad.”

“Trust me, Val, I’ve had a lot of girls’
fathers stare me down, and your dad is the scariest.”

“Alright, I guess I’ll just have to take
your word for it.”

“You should.”

“So—“ Val began.

“So?”

“You said you just wanted to get me from ‘my
father’s clutches’. Why’s that?”

“You and Keenan are going on a first date.
My treat.”

“What?” both Keenan and Val asked at the
same time.

“I know, I know, it’s so magnanimous of me.
But you don’t have to say it. I know how much it’ll mean to you
both.”

Val cleared her throat, “So you came over to
my house, made me lie to my dad, and now you’re gonna make me go on
a date with Keenan? I hardly know him!”

“Well, geeze,” Keenan remarked from the back
seat, “I didn’t think I was that bad.”

“Nobody made you do anything, sweety. You
lied to your dad all by yourself, and if you back out now that
means you lied to Keenan too.”

“I did?”

“You did if you don’t actually want to date
him. You said earlier today that the only reason you didn’t want to
date Keenan is cause your parents won’t let you date until you’re
old enough to drive. Well this ‘study group’ is the perfect excuse!
No one but us has to know you two were sucking face instead of
sucking at math,” Alex laughed at his own joke.

“I didn’t say that was the only reason!” Val
protested, “It was just the main one. There’s also—other things.
Like I said, I barely know him.”

“Well that’s why you go on
a date, sweety. So you can
get
to know him.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,”
Keenan said. He sounded so dejected Val wanted to hug him, but
there was still the matter of this date ambush to deal with.

The whole car was silent for several moments
as Val thought; “What if my parents find out?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Keenan said.

“They won’t,” Alex assured her.

Chapter 7

“So, how’d your date go?” Alex’s smug smile
greeted Val as she entered their algebra class.

“It went really well,” Val replied, “But
there was this weird boy who kept popping up every five minutes and
asking if we needed anything.”

Alex laughed, “Oh yeah, sorry about that.
But since I was y’all’s ride I didn’t want to leave without making
sure you two could get along.”

“We got along just fine,” Val smiled, “As a
matter of fact, I think we might try to get along next week as
well.”

“Oh,” Alex smiled his classic mischievous
grin, “Oh, I see. Where did you guys ‘get along’? Back alley behind
the restaurant? In the bathroom?”

“Gross. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Then how’d you mean it?”

“I just meant like we literally got along.
Very well. And so we decided we should go on another date
sometime.”

“Sometime?” Alex frowned, “Well that’s
vague. How about you make plans for next week? Say, Monday?”

“Uh, isn’t this between Keenan and I?” Val
asked.

“Yeah yeah, of course. But remember, I’m
gonna be the one doing all the driving, so we have to fit anything
you two do in with my schedule as well.”

“Ok. Well what all do you have on your
schedule next week?”

Alex leaned back in his chair, “Absolutely
nothing. Except ‘receive lap dance from Val’.”

Val groaned, “You can’t possibly still think
there’s a remote chance of that actually happening—“

“Why not?”

“For one, I wouldn’t ever do that. Two, I’m
dating your best friend, and that would pretty much be cheating,
so—Yeah, not gonna happen.”

Alex snapped in mock frustration, “Oh well,
it looks like my schedule’s empty now.”

The bell that signaled the start of class
rang and Miss Stevens started in on her lesson. Val was always
amazed at how easy her teacher could make something sound; when she
did her homework, it was as if all the numbers that had seemed so
friendly and easy to manipulate that morning had turned suddenly
hostile. Though Alex tried to distract her throughout the class,
Val tuned him out. Miss Steven’s lesson lasted all hour; by the
end, despite the fact that she’d taken notes on every important
concept, Val couldn’t remember what the lecture had been about.

“Hey Carrie,” Val said, “Did you get all
that?” Carrie nodded. “Do you think you could come over to my house
after school today and help me do the homework?” Miss Stevens was
handing out an intimidating packet; Val was worried if she had to
do it by herself that it would take all night.

Alex overheard, “Wouldn’t you rather study
with our ‘study group’?”

“I didn’t know you guys ever actually
studied,” Val retorted.

“We’ve been known to—on occasion. If you
need help, I’m sure Keenan would be happy to provide it. And I’ll
tag along so things stay light.”

“Hmm, I’ll think about it.” Val turned back
to Carrie, who was zipping up her backpack, “Would you wanna hang
out with Alex and Keenan and I? And we’ll study algebra and finish
this homework and stuff?”

“Yeah, I guess. Where would we meet?”

“Um, my house. Right?” Val directed the
question to Alex.

“Your dad scares me,” Alex laughed, “But
alright. Maybe if he sees us doing some actual studying he’ll
believe the whole ‘study group’ cover.”

“Yeah, I hope so! Alright, that sounds like
a good plan then. Do you know where my house is Carrie?”

The brunette shook her head.

“Oh, well I’ll text you the address.”

“You don’t have my number.“

“Right—“for a moment Val had felt like she
was back at Walker, but the reminder of how new she was to Palm
Lake hit like a cold slap. “Well, what is it?” she asked
awkwardly.

Carrie told her, and Val sent a text to her
phone to make sure she’d gotten the number correct. By the time
they were squared away, Val, Carrie, and Alex were the last ones in
the room; students in Miss Stevens’ next class were filing in,
waiting for the three of them to vacate their seats.

Val’s next few periods flew by; her Italian
class didn’t meet on Fridays, which left a free period right after
Geography. Third hour was an awkward time for a free period, since
there were so few students who had it off. Val spent the whole time
in the library, hoping someone she knew might drop by and disturb
the tedium of her geography homework (the teacher, Mr. Andrews, had
assigned a list of fifty terms to be defined and organized into
categories by the following Monday). No one broke her
concentration, however, which helped to make the free hour almost
as bad as one spent in class would have been.

Val was one of three freshmen in her Drawing
class; surprising, since it was the lowest level drawing class. She
had signed up for it in the hopes it would be an easy class, but
the teacher seemed intent on turning it into a technical analysis
of color theory and drawing techniques. Miss Andrews always wore
huge spectacles, so large that they dwarfed the rest of her face;
the glasses magnified her puffy eyes, making Miss Andrews look like
nothing so much as a frightened owl. The first day of class, she’d
yelled at Val for doodling in her notebook; Val tried to pay better
attention after that, but found it difficult.

Miss Andrews had assigned seats for the
entire class; the seat to Val’s left was occupied by an older boy
named Miro. He seemed laid back; every once in a while he would ask
Miss Andrews a funny question or crack a joke, but for the most
part he was quiet.. Sophia, the vulpine-cheeked girl from the Trio,
had the seat to Val’s right. She had a habit of answering questions
Miss Andrews directed at Val, which was great for the most
part—except that it allowed her to zone out almost entirely.
Already she’d had a few scares when Miss Andrews threatened to give
quizzes on her lessons; all Val had gotten from the first few
lessons was that colors could be arranged on a wheel and if you
chose certain colors they matched better than others. Hardly novel
concepts, but Miss Andres acted like she was teaching a college
course on the matter.

The bell brought fourth
period to a close; Val almost cheered, but decided against it. No
use irritating a teacher whose class she’d have every weekday for
the rest of the semester. She almost went to the cafeteria, but
remembered Young’s—Porter’s—promise to take her to lunch.
How am I supposed to know where to find
him
? She wondered. It would be easiest to
go to the parking lot and try to find his car—if only she knew what
it looked like. But still, there was no harm in trying to find him.
Palm Lake wasn’t such a large school; if Val waited in the parking
lot she figured there would hardly be any way for Porter to leave
without her noticing.

Val was waiting for nearly five minutes when
someone tapped her on the shoulder, “Hey, how’re you doing?”

Porter smiled; his smile was crooked, flawed
in a way that only made it look better. “Derrick, this is Val.”

Porter’s black-haired friend smiled
cordially at first, but when he locked eyes with Valentina, he did
a double-take. “Holy shit!” he exclaimed, “You’re the forty dollar
girl!”

“Huh?”

“You’re the one who gave me forty dollars
for that eighteen dollar order,” the boy explained, “Very
generous.”

“You go here?” Valentina asked,
surprised.

Valentina stared at the two; Derrick was
cute, as Mckayla had mentioned a few days ago, but not anywhere
near as handsome as Porter. “Wait, if you go here, why do you work
at a pizza place?” she couldn’t help but ask.

Derrick shrugged, “Partly for the life
experience, partly for a little extra spending money.”

“Why would you need extra spending money? I
thought everyone had rich parents here.”

“Derrick’s parents are loaded, but they’re
on this self-sufficiency kick,” Porter explained, “They started
putting his allowance in a trust fund and told him he should get a
part-time job.” He laughed, “And besides, not everyone’s parents
are loaded here. My dad makes like thirty-thousand a year; I get to
go here because my mother’s the principal, so she didn’t have to
pay the entry gift or the tuition.”

It suddenly clicked in Val’s mind how alike
Keenan was to this handsome senior; they shared the same crooked
smile and carefree attitude, although Porter was obviously a lot
stronger than his brother. Just to be sure she hadn’t heard wrong,
Val asked, “Wait, are you Keenan’s brother?”

Porter laughed, “Yes ma’am. You know
him?”

“Know him? Of course, he’s like one of my
only friends here. We’re in the same chemistry class.”

Porter smiled knowingly,
“Ah, so you would be
that
blonde. How’s your algebra studying
going?”

Val was flattered Keenan would mention her
to his brother, “It’s going well. Well, not really—it’s going
horribly, but I really love my study group.”

“Okay, I am officially no
longer a part of this conversation,” Derrick cut in, “Feel free to
keep talking, but can we please go somewhere to get food? You
know,
before
the
period ends?”

“Oh yeah,” Porter ducked his head
sheepishly, “Well, let’s go get my car.” He led the way to a red
mustang parked as far away from the school as possible.

“Well that was a bit of a hike,” Val
joked.

“Sorry about that,” Porter replied, “The one
con of having first hour off.”

Val tried to climb into the back seat, but
Derrick held a hand out, “You can sit up front if you want,” he
said. Val gave him a smile and maneuvered herself into the
passenger seat.