NORMAL (4 page)

Plastering on my "everything is okay" fake smile is too much right now, so I take great effort just to keep my lips from slipping into their default frown. Two honks let me know that Carl is here to pick me up. I don't panic, but I am shaking with anxiety.

September, Last year

I
am literally shaking with excitement. Finally, finally, it's junior year. I am an upperclassman. Everything changed this past summer. I was never the kind of girl who had a lot of
girl
friends. As a kid, I was more of a tomboy. I didn't want to paint my nails and attend slumber parties, I was always more likely to seek out a street game of kickball or a pickup game of basketball at Cam's driveway hoop. Cam's been my best friend since his family moved next door when we were both three, and we've been inseparable ever since.

It wasn't all that strange when I was a kid. By the time I'd started high school, it was a little unorthodox that I hung out with mostly guys, but it was what it was, I was mostly carefree and still saw the guys as just my friends, and not romantic interests. Soon enough though, I started to feel like I was missing out on something. I love Cam, he's a great friend, the best, but while we mostly hung out and listened to music, or played video games, I increasingly started to wonder if I shouldn't be at the mall or just doing something to bond with girls my age. It wasn't as if I didn't know them. Linton is a small town; we've all known each other our whole lives. And it wasn't like I was an outcast or anything. Everyone was always nice enough to me, even the girls who weren't all that nice in general.

Then, this past summer, after passing the lifeguard test, I got a job at the local pool. It gets hot as hell in Linton during the summer, and we're far enough away from the gulf that there's no ocean breeze to cool us down. Most of us spend our time either at the lake, or if our parents can afford a membership, the pool at the country club.

I'd known Lacey Forbes forever. Of course, everyone in Linton knows her and her family. Her dad, who's the town's mayor, has been friends with mine since they were kids. She and her friends, Courtney, Emmers, and Stella, are the closest thing Linton has to a "popular clique". So when Lacey approached me at the pool in July, I saw it as my chance to make some girl friends - to work on becoming less of a tomboy and more of a normal girl.

I had always been considered pretty enough in our small town, but when a girl hits about fourteen, what makes her attractive has less to do with her face, and more to do with how fast she develops. This new rating system, along with my being seen as one of the guys, always had me left off any "hot" lists. Until now. Sometime at the end of the last school year, I sprouted breasts. Not especially big ones, but I was just happy not to be flat as a washboard anymore, and according to Cam, who grimaced when he reported it, my necessary quota for breast size was significantly lower due to my attractive face. Again, Cam's words, not mine. According to the guys in my grade - guys who had been my best friends but now suddenly saw me as a sexual object - my large B's were equivalent to double D's on a plain girl. This news sent me into a fit of laughter, and caused Cam to rub his face red with his palms. He's like a brother to me, and can't stand it when his friends - our friends - talk about me like this, but it has become clear to the both of us over the past year that this is the way of things, and we would both have to get used to it.

The truth is I know Lacey's sudden interest in me wasn't random. Popular girls like to keep girls that are considered
pretty
as close as possible. I would be an ally instead of competition. That, coupled with the fact that I'm best friends with Cam and the other desirable guys in our grade, made a friendship with me appealing. Inducting me into her clique would be mutually beneficial. Lacey has a crush on Cam, this isn't a secret, and though Cam has hooked up with her twice, he isn't a relationship kind of guy. Lacey is just one of many to him. As many as there are in Linton anyway. And fortunately, it's common knowledge that my friendship with Cam is one hundred percent platonic, otherwise, Lacey may have chosen me as a target instead of an ally.

But none of this really matters to me. So what if she's basically using me? After all, I'm doing the same. I'm using Lacey to fulfill my curiosity about what it would be like to have girl friends, and so far, it's been going great for me.

We hung out a lot over the summer, and though I still spend a lot of my time with Cam and the guys, I've become pretty tight with Lacey and the girls, too.

Now, the first week of junior year is over and Lacey is having the girls over to celebrate. It's the first time I'm sleeping over her house, but she's not the reason I'm excited.

Lacey's older brother is a senior. Not just a senior, but
the
senior. Quarterback of the football team, the town's golden boy - handsome, popular. I've admired him from afar - from the bleachers at his football games, from the lifeguard chair at the pool - but since I've become friends with Lacey, I've had opportunity to admire him from a little closer. Though he hadn't been around the house much when I'd been over at Lacey's over the summer - he's way too popular and always has something to do, somewhere to be - tonight I know I'll get a glimpse. He can't stay away from his own house all night.

My dad drops me off around dinner time. He couldn't be more pleased with my new friendship. He and Mayor Forbes golf every Sunday, and not only have they been friends since childhood, but with my dad being the town's district attorney, they have professional dealings as well. No doubt our families would have spent a lot of time together if my mother could stand Lacey's.

Cindy Forbes is everything my mother can't stand about small southern towns. Self-important, self-absorbed, and status obsessed. Her haughty attitude irked my mother at their first meeting almost twenty years ago and my mother has been making excuses to avoid associating with her ever since.

The truth is my mother is really a fish out of water here in Linton. Even all this time later. She grew up on Long Island and met my father at NYU when she was an undergrad and he was in law school. They fell instantly in love, so the story goes, and when they each graduated, my mother agreed to accompany my father back to his hometown where they got married and she attended law school at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She practices as a public defender and mostly volunteers her services, much to my father's chagrin, being the DA and all, but whenever my dad tries to pressure my mom to do anything she doesn't agree with, she reminds him that she'd made the ultimate sacrifice: giving up New York for Linton.

Linton is all I've ever known, so though I keep my opinion to myself - not that anyone's ever asked me - I'm stuck somewhere between understanding Mom's disdain for the frivolity of what our community considers important - social statuses, golf and football - and my father's desire to play the game. After all, what's so wrong with wanting to be popular? With wanting to have friends?

"Have fun, Sleepin' Beauty," my dad says as I climb out of the passenger seat with a wave. He calls me that when he's pleased with me, and "Aurora" when he's not. Never Rory. My parents couldn't agree on a name when I was born. It'd been three days before the maternity nurse mentioned something about how I was the best sleeper in the nursery and my father took to calling me Sleeping Beauty. This is how they decided to name me after the fairy tale princess.

Dad drives off before I'm halfway up the Forbes' flagstone walkway. Our house isn't exactly small, but this house is huge. White with navy blue shutters, columns, and a wraparound porch. The lawns are perfectly manicured,
as are the rose bushes that line the walkway. It isn't just a house, it's a statement.
We are better than you are.
And I suppose it's not untrue. A mayor, his perfect blonde botoxed wife, a football star, and Miss Popular. Some family. Mayor Forbes must be proud.

My dad had wanted a son. Instead he got Sleeping Beauty. Mom couldn't have any more kids - something about scar tissue from the C section that brought me into the world, and though he'd never say so, I know my dad resents me for not only being a girl, but for ruining his chance at fathering any future sons. When I was younger I was as much a son as any girl could be, but the older I got, the further my father and I grew apart from one another. It was easy enough to please him when all I wanted to do was to throw a baseball around the yard with him and Cam, but now... he barely even looks at me.

Only when I mention something about spending time with Lacey does he even ask about my day, about my life. He's always asking Mayor Forbes - or Bobby as Dad calls him - about
his
son. He goes to the football games - everyone in town does - and cheers for the quarterback as if he were his own. And Mayor Forbes is all too happy to share the glory. So when I asked my dad for a ride here for the sleepover since my jeep is being serviced, he spoke to me for the first time all week. Idly I wonder who golden boy-quarterback Robin Forbes' biggest fan is. His dad, or mine?

Or maybe me. And every other girl in town.

I'm only a few steps from the front door when I hear voices. Or just one voice. I pause and turn to the side as Robin comes jogging around from the side door.

"Dude I'm on my way, chill out. She'll wait on me, don't you worry," he says confidently into his cell phone, and silently I agree that whomever "she" is will certainly wait on him. I sure would.

I'm frozen as he notices my presence and changes directions.

"I'll call you back, bro," he murmurs before sliding his phone into the pocket of his jeans, then slows to a stop a few feet in front of me.

I swallow nervously as his gaze slowly and purposefully trails me from head to toe, then back again as if my cutoff shorts and tank top are something special.

"Rory," he says, then smiles.  

My breath catches in my throat.

"H- Hi," I stutter like an inexperienced little girl rendered dumb by a cute boy. Which, of course, I am.

"You sure look nice," he drawls like the southern gentleman he's been raised to be. I blush bright red. He's looking at me expectantly, and I realize he might be wondering what the hell I'm doing at his house.

"I... I'm here for Lacey," I mutter hastily.

"Well that's disappointin', but I figured as much. Didn't realize you girls had gotten so close."

I shrug. Wait... did he just say he was disappointed that I was here for Lacey?

What does he mean by that?

"Um, yeah, I guess. She's just havin' a bunch of us over," I explain.

"Well I knew that, but I didn't know the guest list extended to the prettiest girl in school, I mighta cancelled my plans," he drawls with a wink, exaggerating his southern accent.

It takes me a second to even realize he means me, which he notices. He smirks when I blush again, and I look down, away from his hazel eyes full of mirth. He's flirting with me. I have no idea how to flirt. I've spent my whole life with boys and I've never been flirted with. Maybe if Robin wasn't so handsome, his boyish good looks beyond distracting, I'd be able to come up with some witty response.

"I am not," I say instead, meaning to call him on his bullshit, but sounding somewhat like I'm back in elementary school.

I gasp when his toned arm reaches towards me and pushes a wayward strand of hair out of my eyes, tucking it carefully behind my ear.

"Oh, but you are, Miss Rory Pine. And everyone knows it. In fact, my boys and I were just talkin' about it after practice yesterday. Pissed off my best wide receiver some, too," he replies with a half smirk. His best wide receiver is Cam, and if Cam got pissed off, then whatever was said wasn't exactly innocent. "Now, he tells me you're just his friend, but that doesn't ring true to me."

What?

"What do you mean? Of course I'm just his friend, why wouldn't that be true?" I ask, completely confused. This boy is the most handsome boy in town, in the whole damned county probably. Everyone knows who he is. He's a freaking football star who will undoubtedly ride a scholarship to Gainesville, and from what my dad says, will go pro after that. He gets any girl he wants with the snap of his finger, and he's never said two words to me. That made sense. Now, here he is, telling me I'm pretty and questioning my relationship with Cam. This makes no sense whatsoever.

"
Why wouldn't that be true?
Well, sweet Miss Rory," he says, clearly making fun of my naivety, but I can't take offense, because it's true - I
am
naive. "Your buddy Cameron Foster is a bit of a ladies' man, from what I hear. They sure are drawn to him." Robin is right. Cam's good looking as hell. He’s one of those guys who never went through an awkward phase, and I might resent him for it if he weren’t my closest friend in the world. Girls have always been attracted to his laid back personality, but he's a total player. He has no problem getting any girl he wants to hook up on his terms, but the description is just as fitting for Robin, perhaps more so. Robin's a senior, so he's got a year on Cam and me, but even so, Robin is a freaking magnet for pretty girls. But he's never noticed me before, I didn't think, and I'm surprised he's even aware of how much I hang out with Cam.

"The same could be said about you," I hedge, finally finding my wits.