How to Seduce a Band Geek (6 page)

Pick a what?

He brings the stick up to his lips, and every single bone in my body goes through the floor. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone looked over and just saw a pile of mushy skin where I’m sitting. And drool. Yes, I’m pretty sure I’m drooling. It’s a high-pitched little stick he’s got there, but he’s playing it with his eyes closed, fingers a little shaky on the small knobs along the side. And his lips, holy sweet mother of band gods, I never thought I’d see lips move like that. It pulls me into silent fantasies of how those lips would be if they were up against mine. My body rushes with heat. I need an ice cold bucket of water. Bathroom break. But I can’t pluck myself from the floor. And I don’t think I want to.

He finishes, leaving the room echoing with that last note which was really high. If I could, I’d stand up and clap because
holy amazing
.

But as I look around the room with this big love-crazed smile on my face, it looks like I’m the only one who feels that way.

The teacher clears her throat. “That was good. An improvement from yesterday.” Then she nods at Blinky. There’s this weird silent conversation between the two of them, and Levi slumps in his seat, patting the stick thing against his leg. He rubs his eyes with his thumb and forefinger before blinking them back open. When he does, his gaze locks on me.

I guess he didn’t realize I was in here, because there’s this look of shock for a brief second, then his face goes so red I can practically feel the heat from way across the room.

He sends a little wave at me, then his eyes close again. His eyebrows are pushed in, almost as if he’s struggling with a headache.

I gulp and go back to doodling all over my notebook. Even though I’m supposed to be studying or doing homework or something, I write a list of things I want to learn so I can get closer to Levi—things to maybe ask Brea when I mentor her. I have to find out what that instrument is, and why he traded the drums in for it.

I also noticed while Levi was playing, he does have a label, I just never saw it till now. He’s definitely passionate about music, and he can play more than one instrument. He’s friendly with everyone, but he tends to float toward the other band players.

Cliques. As much as I hate them, they are what define us in high school. And as I look around the room, taking in all the instruments and the people who play them, I bite on my bottom lip so my cheeks don’t burst and write one sentence underneath an elaborate doodle of Levi’s name with a bunch of hearts around it.

How can I seduce a band geek?
 

Chapter 6

It’s a good thing I know how to handle bitchy sisters.

Jameson Middle is the dirtiest school I’ve ever seen. I went to a charter during middle school, and we wore uniforms and the lockers didn’t look like an ad for spray paint.

Someone covers up an insult with a cough when I adjust my off-the-shoulder tee. I don’t catch it, but when I turn around, one of Kevin’s monkeys does that little kissy face at me and eyes my chest. I tug my shirt up so there’s not much of a cleavage shot and turn back around. I hate that they make me uncomfortable in anything I wear. It’s like they want me to come to school in turtlenecks and sweat pants. Granted, this shirt used to be one of those things.

“You shouldn’t let them get to you,” Adam whispers in my ear.

“I’m not,” I lie, then try to pay attention to the middle school principal. I’ve already forgotten his name, but he’s really tall. Like giant. Probably has to duck under door frames.

Adam bumps into my arm, and I’m about to tell him to forget it, but he was just turning the page in his book and his elbow hit me. He keeps cutting glances down the line at Sydney, and whenever she looks over, he finds the book very interesting and shuffles his feet.

“That’s it. You’re telling me what the hell happened between you two after this.”

His mouth pops open. Then closes. Then opens again. I point a disciplining finger at him so he knows I’m not going to drop it. I don’t care if it’s “girl talk” or whatever. They’re probably just being stupid, and I need to give them both a smack upside the head.

“If you’ll all follow me,” Giant Principal Man says with a wave of his hand, “I’ll take you to meet the eighth graders now.”

Some ass knocks into Adam so hard his glasses fall off. I snatch them up before someone smashes them to pieces and hand them back to him. His face is burning red. I feel like tackling the random dick and beating his face in. But like I’d have the guts to do that.

Instead, I link arms with him and we follow everyone into the library. Us virgins and prudes and whatever other label they give us, we have to stick together.

“Everyone has name tags. Please find who you’re assigned to quietly.”

Giant Guy waves his arm again like he’s dismissing us, and we all tentatively disperse. Eighth graders sit at round tables in the center of the library. Some have computers in front of their faces, others books, and some nothing. But I can tell they’re texting under the table.

I walk through, wishing my eyesight was better or I’d have the nerve to tell Mom and Dad I need new contacts because I swear I have to come up so close to read their nametags I’m invading personal space.

After most everyone has found who they’re partnered with, I go for the process of elimination tactic and wait till there’s only one girl left in the room.

Doesn’t take too much longer. When I catch her lounging with her feet up on an opposite chair, smacking her gum and doodling in a big yellow notebook, I can’t believe I didn’t figure it was Levi’s sister right away.

She’s got the same blond hair, longer of course, hanging down almost to her waist. Her face is rounder than Levi’s, but they have the same nose. Hers is more feminine, but it’s the same shape. I take the two steps to her table and sit down across from her.

“Hey! Brea, right?”

She doesn’t even look at me. Her fingers swipe over her name tag, and she says, “No shit, Sherlock.”

Oh wow. She may look like she’s related to her brother, but she’s
nothing
like him.

“Well, I’m Sierra. Nice to meet you.” Pleasantries. I’m actually kind of scared to meet her now.

“I know who you are.” She laughs and rips the page she’d been writing on out of her notebook. She crumples and tosses it on the table. “You’re that girl that rammed her car into a tree.”

A hollow laugh escapes my throat and I say, “I guess my reputation precedes me.”

“In your case, it’d probably be better if it didn’t.” She slams her feet on the floor and sets the notebook down. I watch her tap her pencil against it while she stares at me.

“Uh…” I mumble because the silence is awkward, and I have no idea how to fill it but to sputter out noises.

Brea laughs, flips her hair around, and starts braiding it. “Look, I get we’re supposed to be friends and shit. After this month of mentoring, we’ll skip off into the sunset and look back on this time as one of the ‘best moments ever!’” Her baby voice pinches my nerves, and I have to blink a few times to make sure I’m not having some horrible nightmare. This is so not how I pictured this going. I actually pictured what she just described. “But listen. My brother forced me to do this. I’m playing along because I don’t want to fight with him. But I am
not
going to be your friend. I’m not going to ask questions or pretend like I give a rat’s ass about high school.”

Maybe it wasn’t snark on her get-to-know-me sheet. Maybe she was just being a bitch.

I straighten my back and cross my arms.

“Well, I only agreed to do this to impress a guy.”

“What kind of loser would be impressed by a mentorship program? Was it that dorky kid you walked in with?”

She nods to Adam who’s paired with a kid who’s about five inches taller than him. And that’s sitting down. He gives me a half-smile before going back to his mentoring. At least his partner looks friendly.

“Adam’s not a dork.” I refuse to let air fill my cheeks as I glare at her. “That ‘loser’ I’m trying to impress is your brother.”

Her eyebrows go up, and she gives me a once over, then bursts out laughing. “Unless you play the saxophone or something, you’re shit out of luck.” She finishes her impromptu braid and swings it around her shoulder.

I lean across the table. “I’m trying to offer you a deal here. Otherwise, I can make your life pretty miserable for the next month.” It’s an empty threat, but I have to sort of improv here.

“Yeah, right. I’ll probably cause more hell than you would.”

I don’t doubt her. Snatching her crumpled piece of paper, I toy with it just for something to do with my hands. “I can be a pretty chipper person. I can be smiles and all cupcakes and glitter. In your face all day every day for the next month, raining down nothing but unicorns and puppy dogs. If you think you can handle that, then by all means, don’t listen to what I have to say.”

I put on my best baby doll smile and bat my eyes, oozing fifties show barf. She wrinkles her nose at me.

“What kind of deal…?”

Triumph!
I let go of the sweet and replace it with business. “You can do whatever the heck you want to do. I just need access to your house. I need deets on your brother. Anything that I can use to help me snag him. And if you cooperate, I’ll tell him we spent all day together, doing all that sweet crap we’re supposed to.”

She cocks an eyebrow. “So, if I want to make out with my boyfriend all day instead of hang with you, you’ll say we were together as long as I give you dirt on my brother. Do I have that right?”

“That’s one example, yes.”

She taps her notebook, snapping her gum. I’m hoping she doesn’t run straight to Levi to tell him what a manipulative and desperate fool I am. But she seems to be the kind of person who only cares about herself.

Unless this was some sort of test and I totally failed! Oh no. What if Levi told her to be all bitchy to see if I’d still be nice and instead I throw bitch right back at her?

No wait. He still doesn’t know I’m mentoring his sister. I’m being paranoid.

She stops smacking her gum and looks at me. “You know, you’re not too bad, Sierra. I say you’ve got yourself a deal.”

***

Four in the morning and again I’m woken up by that buzzing. It doesn’t make me mad anymore though. It sends rockets through my stomach, and I leap up to catch a glimpse of Levi on his cute little scooter.

I need to get a grip on my thoughts when I’m around him. I always forget to ask about the four in the morning drives and the pick-a-whoozit instrument. But I have Brea now to help with all of that.

Plopping back down on my mattress, I let out a super girly I’m-totally-crushed-out sigh. Is it possible to feel your entire body floating just from seeing the most adorable and beautiful boy in the world? I close my eyes and fantasize about his lips, about his hair, about his khaki shorts.

Thump

“Ouch! Dammit.”

“Shh, you’ll wake my parents.”

“You pushed me out of the bed!”

“I was sleeping. It’s not like I meant to.”

Giggle, creak, slurp.

“Maybe I’ll sleep right here”—
Oomph—
“so you don’t kick me out again.”

Ugh. I slam my fist on the wall a couple times so they know their conversation isn’t private.

They go silent. Well, I think I hear Zoe giggle a few more times, but I’m almost asleep again. Maybe one day Levi will be my Zak. Oh, wouldn’t that be all sorts of amazing?

I start going into fantasies again, cuddling with my big body pillow, pretending it’s actually Levi, and he’s the one making me giggle like a blissed out fool.

Chapter 7

It’s official. I’ve become a stalker.

My cheeks may explode into oblivion. Why did I sign up for Debate when I hate making speeches? I don’t know what possessed me to do such a stupid thing. Was I daydreaming when I filled out the form? I really want a time machine. Take me back to my very first speech a year ago so I’m reminded of this crap, and I don’t sign up for it again.

There has to be some whispering or snickering or something from my classmates, but I don’t hear any of it. All I hear is my thundering heart. To make my embarrassment ten times worse, Levi’s standing next to me, having already delivered his part of the argument. We’re behind the huge podium together, and I can feel his eyes on my balloon face, and I want to cry.

I slowly let the air out from my mouth, blowing the brown strands of hair that have fallen from my ponytail. “Uh…” I clack my teeth. “Um… vending machines… they, um…”

Someone save me!

Now I hear the laughter because it’s getting louder than my heartbeat. Ms. Young yells a loud, “Shh!” then waves back at me as if the laughter is what’s interrupting my speech. It’ll be puke in a second. I should warn the people in the front row they’re in the splash zone.

Levi shuffles next to me, and I close my eyes. Maybe if I can’t see anything that’ll stop the panic attack.

Warm fingers touch mine behind the podium, and I jolt back. I open my eyes to Levi’s blue ones, and he’s doing that cute half-smile, but I’m too freaked out to appreciate what it does to my insides.

He goes for my hand again, and I let him. His thumb runs along my knuckles, rubbing soothing circles. With each stroke, he pulls out a line of nerves going through my body, and after a few breaths, I’m able to deliver more than two words.

The bell rings in the middle of my argument. Ms. Young says we’ll pick up tomorrow with the rest of my speech, and that makes me want to cry all over again. But Levi’s still rubbing my hand, so I guess it’s not all bad news.

“Did you picture everyone in their underwear?” he asks, bending over to pick up his little instrument case. He’s still holding my hand.

“No. Maybe I should do that next time so I don’t fumble all over myself.”

“You did great.” He squeezes my fingers, then drops them. I almost snatch his hand back. “Tomorrow will be nothing now that you’ve passed the scary stuff.”