The Secret Identity of Devon Delaney (5 page)

“Your sister?” Jared asks, looking at me with new interest. “How old is she?”

“Uh, my sister?” I repeat, still not using my Devi voice. I seem to have lost the voice somewhere. Although, since this is the first time I can remember Jared actually speaking to me, except for that time in English when he asked to borrow a pencil, which totally doesn’t count, I can’t really be blamed. The Devi voice takes a certain level of concentration.

“Jared, knock it off,” Kim says, rolling her eyes. “She’s a kid.” She looks back down at the menu. “They never have any good low-carb flavors here.”

“She’s a kid?” Jared asks, not letting it go. “Why’d you bring a kid to the mall?” He looks surprised, like children under ten have never been allowed shopping before.

I take a deep breath and concentrate on being Devi. On doing the same stuff I did this summer. How hard can it be? I had Lexi fooled. “I totally got stuck babysitting,” I say. “So I had to bring her. No way I was gonna be stuck in the house all night doing nothing.” I look over my shoulder anxiously for Lexi and Katie.

Jared nods. Luke, who’s on the other side of me, has said nothing so far. “Hey,” I say, turning to him. “You’re Luke, right? I’m Devi.” It’s best to make sure all my bases are covered and that everyone at this table knows I’m Devi, so that there’s no confusion later. Even though my heart is beating about three million times a minute.

“Yeah, I know,” Luke says. “You’re in my social studies class.” I try not to show my shock. Luke knows who I am? I don’t have time to dwell on this development because at that moment, Lexi comes back to the table. Katie’s trailing along behind her, practicing what she calls her “toe flip” but which, as far as I can tell, is really just Katie jumping into the air and twirling around in a circle.

“I’m back!” Lexi declares, plopping into the chair across from me. She looks at the menu Kim has spread out on the table in front of us. “Did you guys order yet?”

“I don’t even want ice cream,” Jared says, looking bored. “I want to get over to the arcade and try out the new Modcon Five game.”

“I heard it was sweet,” Luke says.

“You guys are so corny,” Kim says, rolling her eyes.
“We’re getting ice cream. I saved up all my carbs just for this.”

“Come on, Kim,” Jared teases. “You can play Dance Dance Revolution just like you love.” He looks at Lexi. “She loves DDR, but she pretends she thinks it’s lame.”

“I do not!” Kim screeches. She reaches across the table and tries to hit Jared on the top of the baseball hat he’s wearing, but he blocks her arm and they fake wrestle for a second. Lexi raises her eyebrows and shoots me a look across the table. I can tell what she’s thinking:
Why is your boyfriend flirting with another girl right in front of you?

Before I can think of an answer, Luke stands up. “Come on,” he says. “We can get ice cream after, if you still want it.” Kim rolls her eyes, but she gets up too.

As we walk to the arcade, Lexi pulls me behind the rest of the group. “So what’s the deal with Kim and Jared?” she asks.

I swallow. “What do you mean?”

“Why was he flirting with her so bad?”

“Was he?” I ask. “I didn’t notice.” Then I realize that if Jared really were my boyfriend, I would be more upset, so I backtrack. “I mean, they’re good friends and
everything, and they’re always around each other, so maybe I just don’t—”

“Hey” Jared says, dropping back to where we are. “Are you going to play DDR?” It’s obvious that he’s talking to Lexi, but she’s looking down at the ground for some reason (I think it’s because she’s wearing these completely ridiculous shoes, and so it’s hard for her to walk—the heels are seriously five inches tall), so I make it out like he’s talking to me.

“Of course,” I say, acting like Jared should obviously know this. Since, you know, he’s my boyfriend and all.

“Cool,” Jared says. He smiles and heads back up to the rest of the group, where Luke and Kim are fighting over what time Kim’s mom is supposed to pick them up.

“I hate these shoes,” Lexi mumbles.

“Then why did you wear them?” Katie asks, twirling around us. I almost forgot she was there.

“Because they’re hot, Katie-Kate,” Lexi says.

“Lexi has a boyfriend, Lexi has a boyfriend!” Katie sings. More glitter falls out of her “warm-up” and onto the floor. Katie mistakenly thinks that if you get dressed up, use the word “hot,” or hang out with boys, that means you have a boyfriend.

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” Lexi says.

“Lexi and Jared, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” Katie sings.

Lexi looks horrified. “Oh, no, honey,” she says. “I would never move in on Devi’s boyfriend. I’m not that kind of friend.”

Katie stops twirling and looks at me, interested. “Devon, you have a boyfriend?”

“Yes,” Lexi says. “Jared is Devi’s boyfriend.”

“No, he isn’t,” I rush on, but it’s too late.

“Devon and Jared, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” Katie amends her song, but keeps up with the twirling. I look fearfully ahead, trying to gauge how much distance is between Katie’s voice and Jared.

“Oh, Devi, I’m so sorry!” Lexi says. “Your family doesn’t know?”

I’m about to start crying. Deep breaths. What would Devi do? “My mom would flip out if she knew Jared and I were together,” I say, rolling my eyes. “She’s way overprotective.”

“That sucks,” Lexi says, nodding. “I hope I didn’t get you in trouble.”

“Nah,” I say, “Katie will forget about this by the time we get home.” I’m not sure if that’s true, but I have bigger problems right now, i.e., shutting Katie up before someone hears her song.

“Katie,” I say sweetly. “Don’t you want to play Skee-Ball or something?”

We’ve reached the arcade now, and Jared, Kim, and Luke are at the cash machine a few feet away, changing dollars into quarters.

Katie nods. I pull a bunch of bills out of my pocket and hand them to her. This trip is going to be expensive. With the babysitting money I’m getting tonight, I’ll probably just about break even. Katie scampers off into the arcade.

“Come on, Jared,” Kim says. “You have to DDR with me.” She grabs his arm.

Lexi shoots me a “Why is she hitting on your boyfriend?” look.

“Maybe later,” Jared says. “I want to check out the new Modcon game.”

“Luke?” Kim asks, giving him a smile and a coy look. “You wanna DDR with me?” She leans toward him. I shoot Lexi a look as if to say, “See! She wasn’t hitting on my boyfriend, she’s just a flirt.”

“Maybe later,” Luke says, taking off after Jared.

This is going beautifully! Not only is the A-list not making a big deal about me being here, but now the boys are going to be in a completely different section
of the arcade, and Katie will be busy playing Skee-Ball! I am so good at this! Seriously, if I had known it would be this easy to pull off a fake relationship, I wouldn’t have been stressing so much earlier.

For the next hour, Lexi, Kim, and I play DDR while the boys check out Modcon Five. Luckily, the Skee-Ball game is right next to us, so I’m able to keep an eye on Katie. Kim turns out to be surprisingly cool, and the arcade is so loud that it’s almost impossible to talk, so I don’t have to worry about dodging any conversation bullets.

When it’s time to leave, I have four quarters left over and I put them in the DDR machine on our way out.

“Sweet,” Jared says, jumping up onto the game next to me. The music starts playing, and I’m so thrown off by the fact that I’m actually DDR’ing with Jared Bentley that I mix up some of the steps.

“Come on, Devi,” Jared says. “You gotta clear this level.”

This almost messes me up more, but I force myself to concentrate, and when Jared and I both clear the level, he hugs me, which makes Lexi smirk like she’s in on some kind of secret. And it makes my face feel so hot that I’m afraid Lexi will notice how red I am.

By the time we walk out of the mall, I’m starting to think that maybe I can pull this off. All I have to do is mooch off of Lexi’s newfound popularity for the next week or two, and then I can stage a breakup and forget this whole thing ever happened.

“Hey,” Jared says to me, when we’re all standing on the curb, waiting for our respective rides. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” He grabs the sleeve of my sweater, and I almost faint.

“Um, sure,” I say, praying Katie doesn’t chose this moment to break into another round of K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Thankfully, she’s silent, holding Lexi’s hand and playing with a small blue plastic pony she got by turning in her Skee-Ball tickets.

“Listen,” Jared says, once we’re a safe distance from the group. I can see Lexi over his shoulder, trying to see what’s going on. “I have to ask you something.”

“Sure,” I say, trying not to become mesmerized by his blue eyes. Is it possible that Jared is in love with me already? That it took one night of hanging out for him to realize we’re supposed to be together? This means I totally won’t have to even make up any more lies! Because Jared and I will ACTUALLY BE TOGETHER.

Jared leans in close to me, and for a second, I think
he’s going to kiss me. “Do you think Lexi likes me?” he whispers.

“What?” I ask, taking a step back.

“Lexi,” he says. “Could you talk to her for me, find out if she likes me?”

“Why?” This is not happening.

Imagined Conversation:

Jared:
Lexi, will you go out with me?

Lexi:
Aren’t you going out with Devi?

Jared:
No, why would you think that?

Lexi:
Because that’s what she told me.

Jared:
What a liar. Let’s tell everyone in school and ruin her life.

“Because she’s totally hot,” Jared says now, smiling. He must mistake my shock and silence for agreement, because he pats me on the shoulder and says, “Thanks, Devi. You rock.”

He heads back to where everyone else is standing, and it takes all my strength not to collapse onto the pavement. Things just got three hundred times more complicated.

Okay. This is not that big of a deal.
I’m standing by my locker at school the next morning, thinking about how people have figured out problems way worse than this one. Like the Cuban Missile Crisis, for example. The country was on the brink of nuclear disaster, and it all worked out. So there is definitely a solution to the ridiculousness that is now known as my life. I just have to figure out what it is.

“Ooh-la-la,” Mel says when she sees me. I’m wearing a pair of cute jeans and a tank top with a beaded sweater over it. My hair has been blown straight, and I am wearing pink lip gloss. This is my new look. I have
decided that I can take my old, cute summer wardrobe and update it a little to make it warmer. “Dressing up for the boyfriend, are we?”

“Not funny,” I say. I grab my math book out of my locker, slam it shut, and look around nervously. If I’m going to pull this off, I’m going to have to stay on top of every situation. Which means knowing where Lexi and Jared are at all times. I have no idea where they are right now. I’m obviously off to a very bad start.

“Here,” Mel says, handing me our BFF notebook. Our BFF notebook is a blank, pink-and-purple-bound book that we use to write notes to each other. We keep passing it back and forth. We’ve done this since the fifth grade, and we’ve gone through at least eight or nine notebooks. Mel must have written in it last night.

“Thanks,” I say, sliding it into my bag. I feel like a fraud. How can I deserve to be part of our BFF notebook when I told Lexi that Mel likes Jared? I slide my finger along the top of the notebook, wondering how I’m going to tell Mel about her crush on Jared. Maybe I’ll just die from guilt and no one will ever find out what a huge liar I am.

“So how did it go last night?” Mel asks. “You had your away message up all night, and I tried to call, but no one answered.” A second wave of guilt starts
to slide up inside me. Last night when I got home, I ended up on the phone with Lexi until ten o’clock, when my mom finally caught me and made me get off. I noticed Mel beeping in on the caller ID, but I didn’t answer it. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to talk to her. It was just that I needed to do damage control. Well, as much as I could, anyway, given that the situation is a total disaster.

“It went … okay,” I say slowly. “Except for the fact that Jared told me he has a crush on Lexi.”

Mel gasps. “No!”

“Yes,” I say.

“After one day?” She frowns.

“Yes, after one day,” I say.

“So, wait.” Mel’s confused. As she should be. I mean, I was there and I don’t even really know how this all happened. “How did you pull off making her think the two of you were a couple?”

“I have to find him,” I say, ignoring her. Eventually I am going to have to tell Mel that she supposedly has a crush on Jared, but I can’t right now. If she’s going to get mad at me, I need to have a clear head to deal with it. Besides, I read this thing somewhere about how if you want to be an effective person, you have to do the thing that’s the most important first thing in the morning.
And right now, the most important thing is finding Jared and Lexi and keeping them away from each other. Far, far away. In another state would be okay, even.