Shark Bait (The Grab Your Pole Series) (6 page)

“Being homeschooled was really great…I mean that’s why I’ve gotten to take as many dance classes as I have, you know? When you’re homeschooled you don’t really have P.E. and my parents wanted to make sure my sister and I got plenty of exercise. My sister’s a pretty talented dancer, too, but she just never got hooked on any one thing…she experimented with all kinds of stuff like gymnastics, karate, even boxing,” I said, leaving out my sister’s true talent, which I swear is counter-intelligence. “But I fell in love with dance when I was six and I’ve been doing it ever since. And yeah, I was pretty freaked out about having to come here. Honestly, I had a long list of reasons why it was gonna suck, but, my classes are pretty easy so far, I still get to take dance, and some of the kids are a lot cooler than I thought they were gonna be so my list is rapidly dwindling,” I told her, ending with my own round about way of giving Kate a compliment which she, of course, picked up on and laughed about.

After we stopped laughing though, Kate pulled into a parking space at the very back of the huge park where there was no chance we’d be interrupted. She shut the engine off and shifting to face me, I could see the cogwheels begin to turn in her head as she gave me a long, considering look. And with that look, the energy in the car shifted from being the friendly conversational atmosphere it’d been, to one that felt considerably like it was filled with intrigue and conspiracy. The whole thing felt very clandestine to me, kind of like we were taking part in espionage. Which if you think about all that was about to be imparted, that comparison wasn’t very far from the truth. It made me a little nervous and sort of paranoid in the beginning but still, my sister—Jillian the spy—would be so proud of me.

“Thanks, I think I’m kind of awesome too, but now that we’re not being watched, let’s talk about one of the other cool, or shall we say,
sizzling hot
reasons why Grossmont doesn’t suck as much as you thought it was gonna.”

It didn’t escape my attention that Kate had just implied we were being watched before, but that little piece of information only aided my sudden suspicious train of thought. I mean, although I’m not all that socially savvy, I’m pretty certain that if I put one foot out of line, the implications could be devastating to my life whilst I’m matriculating at this school. Why I think playing dumb won’t damage me even more, I’ve no idea. I
do
want to trust her but I don’t really know Kate yet, and to say that I was questioning the wisdom of admitting how much time I spent thinking about Tristan today would be a gross understatement. What’s weird is that I’m not normally suspicious. It’s not in my nature. Jillian’s, yes, but not mine. I don’t know, maybe I’ve just seen too many movies where the popular cheerleader and her crew befriend the new kid, who of course is blind to the danger of admitting she likes the same guy the cheerleader or one of her friends does, so she falls victim to her new friends’ sadistic pranks, which inevitably ends up being more embarrassing than if she were to just trip and fall flat on her face in front of half the school.

So in thinking about all of that and trying—futilely it turns out—to not let on that I know that she knows that I have the hots for a guy who’s not only way out of my league, but sounds like he might be a man-whore,
and
, just so happens to be her so-called ex-boyfriend’s best friend, I stammered through my lie and tried to not bite my lower lip or fidget in the seat. “Wh—I don’t know what you mean. I umm, I just really appreciate you being so nice to me.”

It sounded convincing enough to me, however, I discovered my innocent act was in vain when Kate rolled her eyes and gave me the most elementally “oh please” look I’ve ever seen. Then seeing my hesitation and guessing at the reason behind it, she gave me a reassuring smile and said, “Camie, if I had a Bible handy, I’d raise my right hand and swear on it…this isn’t a setup and I’m not gonna stab you in the back. You can trust me…just, I don’t know, tell me what you think about him.”

Shoving scenes from the movie
Mean Girls
from my mind and giving up my charade of ignorance, I sighed and took a leap of faith by answering with the naked truth. “What’s not to like? I’d be mental if I didn’t admit how completely mouth-watering he is. Not only that, but I’d also be lying through my teeth if I said I haven’t been thinking about him non-stop since I first laid eyes on him this morning before school and that those thoughts are generally accompanied by the sound of mental wedding bells. Oh and he put the smell of chlorine at the top of my most favorite scents list. Seriously, I wanna go home and beg my dad to swap out the saltwater system on our pool for one that needs chlorine.”

I was feeling pretty proud of my fledgling flight with blind trust and honesty, however and unbeknownst to me, Kate was about to reply in kind while at the same time, dropping the biggest bombshell of my teen life squarely on my unprepared head.

“Yeah, I know what you mean, Jeff smells like a pool too. But good news, it fades over time and you get used to it…I don’t drool at all anymore,” Kate said confidently and winked at me. “Okay, so now that we’ve established that your olfactory senses are topnotch and you’re one hundred percent non-mental, lemme just say this...Tristan is in huge demand and a really tricky guy to figure out, but if you play your cards right and with my help, you might just be able to pull off one of
the
biggest high school coups a girl can hope for.”

Crickets. That’s what her statement was met with. The sound of crickets chirping away like crazy in my head. I mean, don’t get me wrong, this is outrageously great news; I was just
so
not expecting it! I really wasn’t…even though it totally fits in with the stereotypical plot of a cruel joke played on the new girl like I was just being paranoid about. And yeah, I know I’ve been nauseously going on and on about him all day long, but I never really took my ramblings
seriously
. I was honestly just thinking I’d spend the next couple years obsessing meaninglessly over him, so I really don’t know how to react or what to do with this information, you know?

“Is that a good thing or bad thing?” I asked, displaying my currently serious lack of brainpower. Of course it’s a good thing, I’m just still shell-shocked that’s all. It might take me a moment but I’ll get there.

This time Kate looked at me the same way Paul did this morning, like I was from outer space. Then, she asked if I was. “Do you live on another planet or something?
If
Tristan Daniels is really and truly interested in you, and I’m not saying he is for sure because he’s really hard to read sometimes, even for me, but if he is and you go about it right, not only will it be a very good thing, but you can pretty much call it a miracle.”

A miracle? Why a miracle? Is it because I’m not all that pretty, or because I’m younger than he is, or is it something else? For the love of all that is
holy
…tell me
why!
I decided to take a deep breath before I tried again and asked, “Okay, aside from the obvious fact that he’s ludicrously hot, I don’t get it. So I have two—no, three questions… Why do you think he might even be interested in me in the first place, why did you say it’d be a miracle, and why are you being so nice to me?”

See, I told you I’d get there.

“Thank God! Jeez Camie, I thought you were gonna try to tell me you wouldn’t wanna go out with him or something ridiculous like that…I was gonna have to tell the alien freak to get outta my car,” she said with a touch of relief before continuing. And when I say she continued, I mean that she more or less ranted an abridged version of
Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
in her explanation of why she was being nice to me.

“And I can understand your skepticism about why I’m taking you in without even knowing you, but I really don’t have much of an ulterior motive. It’s a little silly really but, I think a lot of girls are jealous of me because I was born into an incredibly tight threesome with two super popular, not to mention gorgeous guys…I mean even when we were little those two were the kings of the playground. All the boys wanted them on their team and all the girls chased them, and I’ve literally grown up with Jeff and Tristan filling all the roles a best friend would, so, I’ve never really had that kind of close friendship with a girl. Plus, ever since Jeff and I split up this time, I feel like I’ve been missing out and I kinda think I might like a best friend who isn’t a guy for once.

“You know, someone who understands girl stuff like the fact that when a girl says “rag” it doesn’t necessarily mean she’s talking about her menstrual cycle. Someone who doesn’t need me to explain for the umpteenth time that lavender is
not
the same freaking color as purple, or someone who already understands that not every girl appreciates having her weight broadcast at lunch only to be lifted in the air over and over again to see who can do more reps bench-pressing her body, someone who knows that just because a girl typically keeps gum in her purse and she told you to help yourself
one
freaking time in fourth grade, doesn’t mean it’s okay for you to rummage through it whenever you want, and that there’re
some
girls who’d really rather not rate the crescendo of a burp on a scale from one to ten for crying out loud! I mean, I love them and everything, but they make me nuts. I don’t know, Camie, I guess that even though we just met, I feel like we might really get along, and since you’re basically new here I thought maybe you’d have an opening in the friend department.”

“Wow, Kate, I don’t know what to say…I mean who
doesn’t
know a girl’s purse is sacred? Oh and yeah, I totally have a vacancy,” I told her with a big smile. But really, can I just say how relieved I am to know that my initial appraisal of Kate was more than accurate? I can’t even imagine how bad it would’ve sucked to find out she was playing me, and just so you know, paranoia about such things isn’t much fun either.

Kate returned my smile with a pearly-white grin of her own and then said, “One time, Camie, I told Tristan to help himself to my pack of gum
one
damned time, like seven years ago, and now whenever he runs out of his own gum, he digs in my purse without permission…I mean who the hell
does
that kind of crap?! Ugh…I could just throttle them both sometimes, but the only one I have any control over whatsoever is Jeff. Although in some ways, that makes his crap even more frustrating than Tristan’s...and speaking of, let’s move on before I go off on a tangent of crap...seriously, you wouldn’t believe some of the crap I’ve had to put up with over the years and I can tell you all about that later if you want, but right now let’s get to the good stuff.”

“Okay by me, as long as you promise not to forget to tell me all about the crap later on…I mean crap is important between friends and I wanna hear the crap. No, as your friend, I think I
need
to hear the crap, Kate,” I said, teasing her about her mini-outburst and the idea that she could go on endlessly about, well, crap.

“I promise I won’t forget. I’ll make sure you get a hefty dose of crap daily,” she said and giggled with me for a minute before getting serious again. “Okay, now I want you to take what I’m about to tell you with a grain of salt, because I could be way off base here, but I really don’t think I am… I believe Tristan likes you.
A lot
. I mean a lot a lot.”

Kate then proceeded to say many several things that’ll go down in public record as an example of her uncanny perception and cognitive abilities. Well, in my hopeful opinion anyway.

I love Kate.

4.

The Events Of Today Pertaining To Tristan Daniels

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to land one of
the
most popular and best looking guys in the school. Let’s start with you telling me everything you
think
you know about him,” she said, shifting to get comfortable in her seat.

“Well, I’ve heard he’s kind of a womanizing gigolo, but other than that I really don’t know much about him…” Then I told Kate everything Paul and Michele had said about him and felt myself fidgeting as I did. I don’t know if I’m ready to be getting into such heavy public affairs, it is my first day after all. Plus, all of this is coming from way out in left field and here I am without a glove. I mean aside from having had friends who are girls, I have NO experience with any of this. But this is also “My Tristan” we’re talking about here, like I’m gonna pass on the opportunity. Yeah right.

She laughed again and nodding agreement she said, “That’s actually a fairly astute observation but doesn’t exactly paint him in the best light, now does it?”

“No, not really. I was kinda hoping Michele had missed the mark on him,” I said with a little disappointment. I like the guy and he’s magnificent to look at and everything, but I don’t know him and I don’t want to be a statistic either. You know, another notch on the proverbial bedpost. I’d like to think I have more sense and self-respect for that.

“Well, just because she’s not far off, doesn’t mean he’s only looking for a series of one night stands or that he’s completely untouchable, because really, he’s not…especially in regards to someone who might’ve unknowingly caught his eye. And, there’s a lot more to him than most people realize… As far as the masses are concerned, they’re gonna end up languishing away waiting in line, but you’ve got a few advantages that no one else has. I’m pretty certain he’s interested and since he knows nothing about you, that’ll work in your favor too.”

Apparently Kate has a lot of confidence in me and for some reason, she wants to see this happen, and because of that, I’m feeling a little better about liking him now. I mean I really don’t think Kate would lead Camie the lamb to Tristan the wolf for him to play with before devouring whole.

“Okay, so, yay me…but um, tell me why you said it’d be a miracle if I can pull this off.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot you asked me that. Okay well, he practically
never
shows actual interest in anyone. I mean he shows
real
interest in a girl about as often as Haley’s Comet passes, if you get my drift. I’ve known Tristan my whole life and your friend that told you all that stuff about him is only partially right. There
is
a horde of girls who’d kill for a date with him, but the truth is, he really doesn’t go out with all that many of them like it may seem…she’s right about him never having an honest to God girlfriend though.