Spring Fling (3 page)

“What does the winner get?” Cooper asked.

“Yeah,” Ethan said sarcastically. “Mr. Moneybags is the guy who has everything, in case you‟ve forgotten. I don‟t have much to offer.”

“Let‟s see,” Damian murmured as he thought about it. Then he snapped his fingers.

“I‟ve got it! If Ethan wins, he gets to drive Cooper‟s Mercedes for the rest of the school year. And if Cooper wins, then Ethan washes the Mercedes every week for the rest of the school year.”

“Sounds fair to me,” Cooper said.

“I don‟t know about this,” Ethan said, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck.

“What if they find out?”

“They‟re not going to find out,” Damian said. “How would they? Unless you blab it to them! Besides, after this week, we‟re never going to see them again! We‟re on spring break! Romances start and end here. They don‟t come back home with you.” Cooper dangled his car keys again, waving them in front of Ethan‟s eyes like a hypnotist. “What do you say, Ethan? Are you up for it?” Ethan was tempted.

Very tempted.

He wanted to say yes.

The words were on the tip of his tongue.

He was dying to get behind the wheel of Cooper‟s Mercedes. He‟d been jealous ever since Coop had gotten the car for his sixteenth birthday last year. It wasn‟t an evil/bad jealousy but more a wistful
I wish my parents could afford to buy me a Mercedes for my
birthday
envy. Ethan‟s own car was a 1996 Toyota that he‟d inherited from his uncle. It needed a new paint job as well as an updated stereo system. It was definitely
not
a car that girls noticed. Unlike Cooper‟s. But Cooper didn‟t even need his car. Girls flocked to him.

It was as Damian said. Coop looked like he had stepped out of the pages of an Abercrombie & Fitch ad. He had straight dirty blond hair that was always falling across his forehead, ice blue eyes, and sculpted arms, legs, and abs. Not to mention his killer smile bracketed by two dimples.

Damian wasn‟t hard on the eyes either and always had plenty of girls to choose from, too. He was over six feet tall, muscular, with green eyes, jet-black hair, and a swarthy complexion that made it look like he was tan all year round.

And then there was Ethan.

The average guy.

His hair was always out of control. It was a springy mass of brown curls that never did what he wanted it to do. His eyes were a plain brown, and no matter how many hours he spent in the gym, he couldn‟t add any muscle. Whenever he was standing next to Cooper and Damian, he felt like a ninety-eight-pound weakling.

It wasn‟t that he didn‟t have dates. He did. But Cooper and Damian were
always
surrounded by girls. They were
pursued.

Ethan had never been pursued, and sometimes he wondered what that would be like.

Maybe he could find out this week.

Washing Coop‟s car would be a small price to pay, even if he had the car only for spring break. He‟d ask out one of the girls next door, just to make Cooper and Damian think he was taking the bet seriously, but he wouldn‟t make her think he was interested in anything long-term. First of all, he didn‟t like the idea of leading someone on. Second, he wanted to do his own thing this week. He didn‟t want to hang out with some girl he was never going to see again.

Besides, he was going to have all the perks of being Cooper St. John. That meant driving around Miami in a Mercedes, seeing how the other half lived.

And dated!

This was one bet he didn‟t mind losing.

What could possibly go wrong?

“You‟re on!” Ethan exclaimed, snatching the car keys out of Cooper‟s hands.

“Stop staring at the clock! It‟s one minute later than the last time you checked the time.”

At the sound of her family‟s live-in housekeeper‟s voice, Mindy Yee turned away from the clock.

“Where are they, Carmela? They should have been here thirty minutes ago.” Carmela shrugged as she walked into the living room with a tray of snacks. “Maybe their plane was delayed or they hit traffic on the way from the airport,” she said as she began taking bowls off the tray and placing them on the coffee table. “Don‟t forget, it‟s the first day of spring break. The roads are going to be crazy.” There was no way Mindy could forget that today was the first day of spring break. It was because of spring break that she finally had a chance to become friends with the North Ridge High Princess Posse. Of course, no one called them that to their faces, but it was their nickname and everyone knew it.

The North Ridge High Princess Posse consisted of Wanda Wong, Lacey Ramirez, and Vivienne Oleson. They were pretty and popular and had ruled the North Ridge High social scene since freshman year.

And ever since freshman year, Mindy had wanted to be friends with them.

No, she wanted to be more than just friends.

She wanted to be a part of their group.

Because everyone at North Ridge High belonged to a group. Except her. There were the slackers, the rockers, the sci-fi nerds. Amber Davenport and Shawna Westin had ruled the school for a while, until Amber went off to boarding school and Shawna started spending all her time with her boyfriend, Connor. Claudia Monroe was another queen of the North Ridge High social scene, although she was no longer friends with Eden Atkins and Natalie Bauer, who used to hang out with her. Eden and Natalie now spent most of their time with Jennifer Harris and Violet Wagner. The four of them had bonded after the Valentine‟s Day contest for Most Romantic Couple. And then there were Noelle Kramer, Lily Norris, and Celia Armstrong. They had been joined at the hip ever since the Secret Santa exchange in December.

It wasn‟t that people didn‟t know Mindy. They did because she was always throwing parties, and her guest list was always long. Mindy‟s motto was, the more, the merrier! But at the end of the night, when the party was over, she was usually all alone to clean up the mess. No one ever offered to stay and help.

There was also
another
reason everyone at North Ridge High knew her…

And not a good one.

She was North Ridge High‟s queen of gossip.

Its very own Gossip Girl.

Only without the cloak of invisibility.

Was it her fault that she was always in the wrong place at the wrong time? Could she help it if she saw or overheard things that were supposed to be secret?

She knew the
right
thing to do was not to repeat the info she stumbled upon, but Mindy wanted people to like her. She needed a way to work her way into conversations. To get their attention.

So, whenever she saw or heard something she wasn‟t supposed to, she repeated it.

She couldn‟t help herself. She liked being the one who knew something before everyone else, casually dropping clues and hints until her classmates were begging her to share what she knew. When she dropped her bombshells, she liked seeing the shocked expressions on the faces of her listeners. She liked hearing their gasps of surprise. For just a few minutes,
she
was the center of attention.
She
was the person everyone wanted to be with. It gave her hope that maybe—just maybe—this time she‟d be able to form a friendship with someone.

And once forming a friendship, she could stop gossiping. She wouldn‟t need to do it anymore because she‟d be too busy being a friend.

Of course, that never happened. Once she shared what she knew, her listeners ran off to tell their friends.

Leaving her alone again.

Being a gossip backfired on her.

After all, friendship was about trust, and how could you trust someone who was a blabbermouth?

But there was a difference between gossiping and keeping secrets.

If she had a close friend and that friend told her something in confidence, she would never, ever repeat it.

Of course, no one had ever given her the chance to prove it.

Mindy knew gossiping was wrong and she didn‟t want to do it.

But after three years of being North Ridge High‟s queen of gossip, how could she stop?

It was her identity.

It was how people knew her.

It was all she had.

If she stopped gossiping, she‟d be no one.

And that scared her.

She was the girl who had everything except what she wanted the most.

All she wanted was a friend.

Just one friend.

There were times when Mindy felt sorry for herself, and she knew she shouldn‟t.

Her parents were rich and successful and gave her whatever she wanted. Within reason, of course! They owned a popular restaurant, House of Yee, in her hometown, and it looked like the restaurant might be going national. The whole reason behind the trip to Miami was to meet with potential investors. Because they were going to be busy during the day, her parents told her she could invite three friends to come along and they would pay for their plane tickets. Immediately, Mindy had invited Wanda, Lacey, and Vivienne.

She‟d been nervous extending the invitation—what if they said no?—but they had instantly accepted when she called them, and Mindy had been thrilled. She finally had the chance she‟d been waiting for and she wasn‟t going to blow it. Ever since freshman year, she‟d tried to be friends with Wanda—she knew Wanda was the one she had to win over—but for some reason, Wanda resisted. Maybe it was because Wanda
knew
that Mindy wanted to be friends with her and she didn‟t want to give her what she wanted. There was no denying that Wanda could be mean. If you crossed her, watch out! Your social life at North Ridge High was over! But so far, Mindy hadn‟t done anything to get herself on Wanda‟s bad side. Then again, she wasn‟t exactly on Wanda‟s good side. That was why she was going to make sure this week was perfect so that when they returned to North Ridge High, she would be the newest member of the Princess Posse.

Mindy tore her eyes away from the clock and peered over Carmela‟s shoulder. “Did you get everything I asked for?”

Carmela pointed at the bowls. “Peeled baby carrots for Wanda, yellow M&M‟s for Lacey, and Pepperidge Farm cheddar Goldfish for Vivienne. And just so you know, I had to buy three bags of M&M‟s to pick out all the yellow ones to fill that one bowl. Why won‟t she eat the other colors? They all taste the same! I should know; I was busy popping them into my mouth!”

Mindy shrugged. “Lacey says the yellow ones taste the best. Are we all set with drinks?”

“The refrigerator is stocked with Diet Pepsi, Snapple peach lemonade, and Perrier.”

“Thanks, Carmela.”

“Stop worrying. You‟re going to have a great week.”

Carmela Dellaguzzo had been the Yees‟ live-in housekeeper since Mindy was five years old. She was a fortysomething Italian woman from Brooklyn with a teased blond bouffant who always said what was on her mind. She had come along to Miami to prepare all their meals as well as act as unofficial chaperone when Mindy‟s parents weren‟t around.

“I don‟t know why you‟re so nervous,” Carmela stated.

“I want these girls to like me. I want to be friends with them.”

“Just be yourself,” Carmela advised. “That‟s all you can do. And if they don‟t want to be friends with you, then they‟re crazy.” Carmela tilted her head. “I think I hear a car coming.”

Mindy raced to the window and saw a black limousine pulling into the driveway.

When the limo stopped, the back door opened and Wanda stepped out, followed by Lacey and Vivienne. Wanda was always first, front and center, with Lacey and Vivienne trailing behind her.

Mindy instantly noticed the way the girls were dressed, and panicked. Had she underdressed? All she was wearing was a pair of white shorts, flip-flops, and a violet tank top, her long dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. She hadn‟t gotten herself all glammed up the way the others had.

Wanda was wearing black leggings with knee-high black boots, a black V-neck T-shirt, and a short black leather motorcycle jacket with the collar turned up. She wore a heart-shaped pendant on a chain around her neck and oversize sunglasses. Tossed over one arm was a leopard-buckle satchel.

Vivienne was in gray skinny jeans with yellow high heels, a sleeveless white turtleneck, and gold cuff bracelets embellished with glittering white stones, while Lacey had on a simple pink shirt with a pink-and-white fringed skirt and high-heeled sandals.

Vivienne looked like a California beach girl with her long blond hair and cornflower blue eyes, and Lacey resembled the actress who played Adrian on
The Secret Life of the
American Teenager.
She had the exact same pouty lips and dark, sultry eyes.

Compared to the three of them, Mindy felt like a Fashion Don‟t. Well, it was too late to do anything about her outfit. She‟d just have to make sure she found out what the girls were wearing the rest of the week and dress the way they did.

“Hi!” Mindy greeted them, waving a hand as she came out of the house.

Wanda breezed past Mindy without even a hello, Lacey and Vivienne following after her, while Carmela went to help the limo driver unload the trunk. Mindy hurried back inside and found Wanda taking off her sunglasses and perching them on top of her glossy black bob.

“Is this the place?” Wanda asked, her dark almond-shaped eyes traveling from room to room, her ruby red lips puckering up.

There was no mistaking the unspoken tone in Wanda‟s voice:
What a dump!

“Yes, this is the house.”

Mindy wanted to ask what was wrong with it. She thought the house was great. It was huge and airy, with tons of windows and ceiling fans that brought in the scent of the ocean. The furniture, while not exactly new, was comfy and perfect for a beach house.