Spring Fling (2 page)

“I‟m not mad at you. I‟m mad at them. You will not believe what they did to me!” Jade took off her oversize sunglasses and perched them on top of her head. “If you‟re mad, it can only be something that they needed to do.”

“How can you be taking their side when you haven‟t heard my side?”

“Because you always overreact.”

“I do not!”

“You do, too!”

“No, I
don’t
,” Danielle insisted through gritted teeth.

Jade sighed. “Okay, you don‟t.”

“Where are your bags?” Crystal asked.

“Back in New York,” Danielle answered.

“Why are they in New York?” Jade asked, sounding puzzled.

“THAT‟S what I‟m so mad about!”

Danielle quickly updated Jade and Crystal on Ava and Lindsey‟s latest scheme.

“The worst part is that Mom and Dad were in on it with them!” Danielle finished.

“If you want my opinion,” Crystal said, “I don‟t know why you‟re so mad. After all, you‟re getting a shopping spree! What‟s so bad about free clothes?”

“Can I give you some sisterly advice?” Jade offered.

“What?” Danielle asked.

“They did the right thing.”

“Thank you, Jade!” Lindsey exclaimed.

“I
knew
you were going to take their side!” Danielle hissed.

“I‟m not taking sides,” Jade insisted. “You can‟t always be studying, Danielle. You need to give yourself some downtime. Otherwise you‟re going to burn yourself out. Why are you worrying about your SATs anyway? You‟re going to ace them and get into any college you want. Besides, you‟re taking the exam twice, right? If you‟re not happy with your score from the May exam, you‟ll be taking it again in the fall. Forget about being Danielle the Bookworm. For the next couple of days, try being Danielle the Party Girl instead!”

Aren’t you the party girl in this family?
Danielle wanted to say. But she didn‟t. She could see there was no way she was going to win this argument.

“Well, let‟s head out to the car,” Jade said, taking one of Ava‟s bags while Crystal reached for another.

“Need any help with those?” a deep voice asked.

Danielle turned around and saw two guys, wearing University of Miami T-shirts with cutoff sleeves, standing behind them.

Crystal gave them a warm smile. “Thanks, sugar. You‟re so thoughtful. Follow me.”

“So what‟s the plan for this afternoon?” Lindsey asked as they headed for the parking garage.

“Why don‟t we go to the beach house first, drop off the bags, grab some lunch, and then head to the nearest mall so we can get my baby sister some new clothes,” Jade suggested. “I‟ll even buy her some new things.”

“Count me in!” Crystal called over her shoulder. “I never say no to shopping!”

“Okay with you, Danielle?” Jade asked. “Or would you rather do something else?”

“That sounds fine,” Danielle said, pasting a smile on her face while secretly counting down the days until they left Miami.

When the girls got to the beach house, they met Crystal‟s aunt Sharla, who was on her way out the door. Sharla was in her early thirties and just as gorgeous as Crystal. She almost looked like her older sister.

“Feel free to make yourselves at home,” she said after introducing herself. “I‟m afraid the cupboards are a bit bare. I only opened the house yesterday and I haven‟t had a chance to go shopping.”

“Don‟t worry, Aunt Sharla. We‟ll do it,” Crystal offered. “We‟re heading out to the mall in a little bit and we‟ll stop at the supermarket.”

“Great!” she said as she slid behind the steering wheel of her car, a vintage 1969

cherry red Mustang. “Have fun!”

“Your aunt is beautiful,” Danielle said as they walked into the house.

“She used to be a model, but now she works as a photographer. She does a lot of traveling. There‟s a gallery in downtown Miami that shows her photos. That‟s why she‟s in town this week. She‟s getting ready to do a new show.” Crystal turned to everyone. “Ready for the grand tour?”

The beach house was gorgeous. Walking around from room to room, Danielle felt like it was something out of a design magazine. The floors were blond wood and the furniture was all super comfy, in bright ocean colors with huge cushions and pillows. The walls were painted a sky blue, and the curtains and drapes were all sheer. Seashells were scattered everywhere, and there were tons of plants and bouquets of flowers. The whole interior of the house felt as if a little bit of the beach had been brought inside.

After the tour, the girls headed upstairs and divided themselves into bedrooms. Ava and Lindsey decided to share a room while Jade and Danielle took another and Crystal had her own. Once everyone had finished unpacking, they headed outside to go to the mall.

“Don‟t look now, but I think we have some admirers,” Lindsey whispered excitedly as they walked to the car.

“Where?” Crystal asked, her head spinning around as her eyes darted everywhere.

“Tell me where!”

“Don‟t mind Crystal,” Jade explained. “She‟s a little guy crazy.”

“The house next door,” Lindsey said. “I saw a guy peeking out of the window. I think he was checking us out!”

“Cute?” Crystal asked as she casually gazed over at the house.

“Not sure. I couldn‟t tell.”

Crystal slid into the front seat next to Jade. “We‟ll have to introduce ourselves once we get back. After all, they‟re our neighbors.”

As everyone got into the car, Danielle glanced over her shoulder, trying to see if anyone was still peeking out at them. She didn‟t see anything.

As she buckled up her seat belt, she listened to the conversation in the car. There was no mistaking the excitement in everyone‟s voices. They were all looking forward to having a good time this week. It got Danielle to thinking.

Maybe, just maybe, she would try to loosen up and have a good time, too.

Cooper St. John was trying not to be seen as he stared out the window at his next-door neighbors. He‟d push the drapes to one side, take a quick peek, and then let the drapes fall back into place, before doing it again.

A voice from the couch asked, “Who are you spying on?”

“I‟m not spying on anyone,” Cooper said as he walked over to the couch and plopped down next to his best friend, Ethan Moore.

“Uh-huh,” Ethan answered, not lifting his eyes from the issue of
Sports Illustrated
in his hands.

Damian Marsala, who was sprawled across a brown leather armchair, playing a handheld video game, murmured, “Were you checking out girls? Maybe some
hot
girls?”

“Maybe I was,” Cooper said.

Damian instantly pulled his eyes away from his video game. “How many were there?”

“Five.”

Damian pumped a fist in the air. “Score! One for each of us! What did they look like? Details. I want details!”

“Have you decided which one you want?” Ethan asked, eyes still glued to his magazine.

“It doesn‟t matter which girl Coop wants, because they‟re all going to want him,” Damian said. “They always do. That‟s one of the perks of growing up in the lap of luxury.”

“Are you saying girls only like me for my family‟s money?” Cooper‟s family‟s wealth was a sore point with him. It wasn‟t that he didn‟t like being rich. He did. It gave him lots of nice things. Vacations. Great seats at concerts and sporting events. An iPhone and an iPod. His own car and motorcycle. But sometimes…and he would
never
admit this to his friends…sometimes he did wonder if one of the reasons girls liked going out with him was because his family was so rich.

“Of course not!” Damian exclaimed, cutting into his thoughts. “You look like an Abercrombie & Fitch model and you dress like one, too. Based on that alone, you‟re a catch. But girls also like guys who can treat them like a princess, and you always treat your girlfriends like princesses.”

“When he
has
a girlfriend!” Ethan cracked.

It was no secret that Cooper was a serial dater. His classmates at South Ridge High had nicknamed him Smooth Operator because he was always going from girl to girl to girl.

He knew his friends thought he grew tired of the girls he dated, but that wasn‟t it.

Whenever he dated a new girl, there was always a feeling of excitement. Maybe this girl was going to be
the one.
At first, things would be great. They‟d go out, have a fun time, get to know each other.

But then…

Then something would happen that would make him wonder if the girl he was dating was really into
him.

He wanted to be liked for who he was and
not
his family‟s money.

This winter, he‟d been dating Sherry Mulligan. For Valentine‟s Day, he‟d gotten her a small box of chocolates and a bouquet of daisies. When he showed up on her doorstep, there was no mistaking the disappointment on her face. She‟d quickly covered it up, but instinctively he had
known.
She‟d been expecting a bigger box of candy. A bigger bouquet of flowers. And when he plugged himself into the South Ridge High gossip grapevine, he learned that Sherry had been expecting a dozen red roses and a five-pound box of Godiva chocolates.

He ended things with Sherry the weekend after Valentine‟s Day.

Then there was Lisa Lonigan. Last spring, he‟d invited her to the sophomore prom.

As the night of the dance approached, she asked him if he was going to rent a limo to take them. When he told her he wasn‟t, she pouted, saying that everyone else was going in a limo and it wasn‟t like he couldn‟t afford it!

Cooper stood Lisa up the night of the sophomore prom and went with another girl.

Another time, he was dating Hillary Benson. He‟d taken her to a movie, and afterward he suggested they grab a quick bite. Everyone at South Ridge High usually went to the Burger Hut, a local diner, but that wasn‟t good enough for Hillary. She wanted to go to the North Ridge Country Club. When he explained that he wasn‟t a member, she seemed shocked.

“But your family is so rich!” she had exclaimed.

That had been his last date with Hillary.

He didn‟t know why, but he always seemed to go out with girls who wanted to date a rich guy. They might not be obvious about it at first, but eventually it came out. Just once, he‟d like to go out with a girl who was into
him.
A girl who didn‟t know that his father was an international banker and his mother was a stock investor. A girl who didn‟t know they lived in the biggest house in their town—okay, it was a McMansion—and that they had four cars, a vacation house on Martha‟s Vineyard, and a ski house in Denver.

Sometimes he wished he could be someone else.

“How about we pay a visit to our next-door neighbors?” Damian suggested. “The sooner we get to know them, the better!”

“They‟re not home,” Cooper said, picking up a basketball and spinning it on his finger. “They went out. I saw them getting into their car.”

“Were they wearing bikinis?” Damian eagerly asked. “Maybe they were headed to the beach. We could track them down.”

Cooper shook his head. “They weren‟t dressed for the beach. I guess we‟ll just have to wait for them to get back.”

“Bummer,” Damian said. “So which one are you going after?” Cooper shrugged and stopped spinning the basketball. “I don‟t know. They were all pretty, but two of them seemed a little older. I think they‟re in college like Steve and Howie.”

Cooper and his friends were sharing the beach house with Damian‟s older brother, Steve, a college sophomore, as well as Damian and Steve‟s cousin, Howie, a freshman.

They were still waiting for them to arrive from the airport. Once they showed up, they planned on heading to the local supermarket so they could stock up on groceries for the week.

“Well, Ethan and I will stand aside while you work your magic. We‟ll take the ones you don‟t want.”

“You know, he really doesn‟t have an advantage,” Ethan said, still glued to his magazine. “These girls don‟t know anything about Cooper. For all they know, he‟s just like us.”

As soon as the words were out of Ethan‟s mouth, Cooper realized something. Ethan was right.

The girls next door
didn’t
know who he was.

They knew nothing about him!

Only seconds ago, he had wished he could be someone else.

Now he had that chance!

“Let‟s prove it,” Cooper said.

“Prove what?” Damian asked, picking up his video game and starting to play again.

“That I can get one of those girls to fall for me. And she‟d be falling just for me.”

“How?”

“By switching places.”

“With who?”

“Ethan!”

“What?” Ethan exclaimed, finally pulling his eyes away from his magazine.

Cooper nodded. “For the next week, you‟ll be the rich guy and I‟ll be the poor guy.”

“I‟m not poor!” Ethan exclaimed.

“No,” Damian agreed. “But you‟re not loaded the way he is.”

“We‟ll switch places,” Cooper exclaimed, getting excited by his idea. “I‟ll give you all my credit cards.” He reached into the pocket of his jeans and dangled the keys of the Mercedes convertible he had driven them down in. “My car, too. While you‟re living it up, I‟ll just be the average guy next door.”

“Let‟s really make this interesting,” Damian said, tossing the video game back on the coffee table and rubbing his hands together. “Let‟s make it into a bet.”

“A bet?” Cooper asked. “What kind of bet?”

“I don‟t think I‟m going to like the sound of this,” Ethan groaned. “Especially since it involves me!”

“You switch places and you each romance one of our next-door neighbors.

Whoever gets kissed first wins.”