Second Skin (12 page)

"Whatever," Jules said, raising her perfectly tweezed eyebrows. "I totally saw it coming. I mean, come on. Kylie's pretty, but she's no Angelina. And Tanner's way too cool to be-" Her mouth snapped shut as Kylie and Ella walked down our row. "Okay, shhh," she warned, like I'd been the one gossiping. "To be continued."

Kylie and Ella sat down. Despite her snide remarks, Jules adhered to her regularly scheduled suck-up session, kicked off by edging her desk as close to Kylie's as possible.

"So," she said, dropping her voice to a loud, conspiratorial whisper. "You have to tell me what happened. I'm
dying."

Kylie ran her fingers through her hair, which, I couldn't help but notice, was looking sort of flat. "Nothing to tell," she said. Her voice sounded weird, I decided. Like she was trying really hard to sound upbeat. "We got into a fight but then talked it out and now everything's back to normal."

Jules shot me a look that, thankfully, Kylie didn't catch. "Well," she said. "If that's true, I'm really glad."

Jules's smile was pure innocence. "Of course it's true, sweetie," she said. "You said it is, so it is." She waited for Kylie to turn around, then turned to me with a "Yeah, right" look on her face.

I didn't have time to respond. Mr. Martino walked into the room and flipped open the roll book, and that was that. My friendship with Jules Johnston had begun, about as subtly as her perfume.

The next day started much the same way. And the next. After a few more homerooms passed, the image of Jules already seated, smiling and waving at me like Miss Universe, didn't cause me to freeze in my tracks. I was even able to enjoy it-and wave back.

"Great coat. Is that Miu Miu?" she asked one morning in early February.

"Uh, no," I said, distracted. What was up with her hair? The Born Blond she'd been sporting for the last week was gone, replaced by a dark chestnut. And she'd definitely spent some serious time with a curling iron that morning. The burned-looking strands had been coaxed into chunky half-spirals that extended from her scalp in stiff

Jules Johnston wanted dark, curly hair. Just like mine.

"Well, what is it? Marc Jacobs?" Jules guessed, staring at my down parka like Gore-Tex was the new gold. She lurched forward and grabbed it off the back of my chair. Not a single hair on her shellacked head moved.

"No," I said again, trying to pull it back.

Too late. Jules's hands ran alongside the coat's interior toward the label.

" 'Lands' End,' " she read out loud.

My stomach dropped. My short-lived friendship with Jules Johnston was definitely over. The rewrite of my life was composed in disappearing ink.

"Omigod, how cute are you?" Jules squealed. "I completely forgot about that catalog. I'm gonna check it out tonight."

"Uh-huh," I said absently as Ella and Kylie made their way down the aisle and slid into their chairs.

Kylie turned around and I waited for Jules to scoot forward. Only this morning, she didn't do much of anything. Other than raising her hand in a wave so weak and painfully fake it made my toes curl, she didn't move at all.

Kylie's smile wilted. Her gaze shot between Jules and me, taking in our kissing desks and the "We're so friendly!" tilt of our heads. Her eyes settled on me and narrowed shrewdly, as if to say "You're so busted." Then she whipped back around, facing front.

Still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited. I couldn't help it. The Skin was working. I was on my way.

"Hey! Whatcha doin'?" asked the unbelievably perky voice on the other line.

I frowned. It definitely wasn't Alex. Or Gwen. Nor was it the video store, the dentist's

"Um, a little geometry," I said, wondering if this was a wrong number and if I shouldn't just hang up now.

"Ugh, you have Slater, right? I hear he's the worst."

"Jules?" I guessed. I'd never given her my phone number, but there was always the school directory.

The mystery caller laughed. "No, but I just got off the phone with her. It's me. Heidi. Adrienne's here too."

I blinked. The only Heidi I knew, or at least knew of, was Heidi Zapler. She and her best friend, Adrienne Scott, were members of Kylie's worshipful chick clique. I'd never spoken to either of them and now they were calling me.

"Uh, hi," I managed to squeak. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing," Heidi answered, but there was excitement in her voice. "We were just wondering if you heard."

"Heard what?" I asked as my phone clicked. I pulled it away from my ear, puzzled. Was that the battery dying?

"Kylie and Tanner are over," Heidi squealed. She sounded beyond delighted.

I swallowed. "Wait, what? I don't think I-"

It was the other line, I realized with a start. Someone else was calling for me. I had two callers. Wow.

"Hold on," I said. I spent the next few seconds staring blankly at my phone. Unsurprisingly, I'd never used call-waiting before.

"Hello?" I said, after several clumsy beeps and a few "still me"s from Heidi.

"They broke up!" cried a voice in a loud staccato burst.

"I know," I said automatically, then added: "Who is this?"

"It's Jules. How do you know?"

"Heidi's on the other line."

"Oh," said Jules, miffed at being outscooped. But she seemed to recover after a few seconds, offering a generous "Want to conference her in?"

"That's okay," I said quickly. If call-waiting was tough, I was pretty sure conferencing would kill me. "She can wait."

Jules giggled, clearly delighted. "I guess he dumped her right after final bell," she continued. "I called it, didn't I?"

"Yep," I agreed. I wasn't sure if this was actually true, nor did I care. I was too busy trying not to shout
"Yes!"
at the top of my lungs.

"I can't
believe
she tried to pretend everything

"I know," I said, my head swimming. "Listen, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure," Jules said. I could hear the disappointment in her voice. "I'll tell you more in homeroom."

Dazed, I clicked back over to Heidi and told her I had to go too. Then I flipped my phone shut and flopped onto my bed.

My phone rang again.

It's Tanner,
I thought, snapping it open. "Hello?"

"You did this. I can't believe it!"

Oops. This time around I didn't have to ask who it was.

"Hey, Kylie," I said, trying to stay calm. "Listen, I told you the truth before, I swear. I don't know a thing about-"

"Just shut up, okay?" she seethed. "How else can you explain what's happening? Jules is suddenly your new BFF and Tanner dumps me? Please."

"Uh, I don't know," I said.
Just
get off the phone and you can go back to dreaming about Tanner Mullins,
I thought. "Look, I swear I-"

"I have to go," I said quickly. "I'm really sorry you're so upset."

"Give. It. Back."

I took a deep breath and hung up.

I brushed my teeth, washed my face, plastered one of my new pore strips across my nose and stripped it off (I hadn't completely lied to Kylie). Then I crawled into bed, closed my eyes and tried not to imagine tomorrow.

It was hard.

I kept waiting for the panic to hit. Kylie was beyond furious. Still, my excitement about Tanner's new bachelor status combined with the multiple phone calls outweighed my anxiety. In the Skin, I felt protected. Except for bathing, I never took it off. (The practice might not win me any good-grooming awards, but why waste a drop of popularity?) And it was working.

If you're expecting some sort of amazing, romantic story about what happened the next morning, you're in for a serious disappointment. I know I was. I woke up half (okay, three-fourths) expecting to find Tanner Mullins waiting in the

I didn't even see Tanner that day. Or the next. By Thursday, I was contemplating skipping his lacrosse game when I finally caught a glimpse of him walking down the hall. He was with a few of his teammates and didn't stop to talk, but when he saw me, he smiled and-I think--winked.

A
wink.
That had to be huge, right? My own history of flirtation was nonexistent, but even so. A wink was a wink. And okay, maybe it was a little slimy, considering he and Kylie had just broken up, but that was hardly my problem, I reasoned, and therefore wasn't my place to judge.

Besides, when the captain of the lacrosse team winks at you in the hallway, you have to attend his game. I was pretty sure that was a law in several states.

So I went. I sat in the front row between Heidi and Adrienne, who, a week before, would never have made room for me on a crowded bleacher. But that afternoon they were all too eager to squeeze me in. If I'd asked, I bet they'd have built me an extra bench, too.

Heidi ran a long, thin hand through her long, thin hair, reminding me of Gwen's nickname for

"We take up, like, half the tables," Adrienne added proudly, like booth hogging was an art.

"I'll think about it," I promised as the players trotted onto the field. I saw Tanner gaze up and into the crowd, his eyes moving down the bleachers in a businesslike manner. When he saw me, he smiled and gave a thumbs-up.

My mouth went dry.

A whistle blared, signaling the start of the game. Whenever Tanner stole the ball I clapped. When he scored, I stomped my feet and screamed his name. And even though I had absolutely no idea what was happening on the field about ninety percent of the time, I figured I covered all the really important stuff.

When the game was over (I was pretty sure that, again, Woodlawn had won, but made a mental note to do a little online lacrosse research when I got home), I really wanted to hang back and talk to Tanner-or even head over to Friendly's and wait for him-but decided against it. Kylie Frank had arrived midgame and was sitting