The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back Read online

  Jake got in the driver's side and closed his door. Somehow I had managed to follow him and now stood on the opposite side of the car. I could do this. I would just pretend that everything was fine, and soon it would be. Fake it 'til you make it, right?

  His car smelled new and leathery and Jake-like. I got in, sat down, and my knees folded up into my chest. The seat was way too far forward, as if the last person who sat there had been tiny and delicate, like Ella. I fumbled around for the release in the front to scoot it back, trying not to think about who had sat there last. I snapped my seatbelt into place and looked over at Jake. He put his arm behind my seat and turned toward me. Every sense snapped to attention and I held my breath.

  He gave me a small smile and then looked over his shoulder. Oh. He was just backing up. Not making a move.

  I was so stupid.

  I usually only felt that dumb when I was doing calculus.

  Oh my Buddha, calculus!

  The events of the last twenty-four hours had totally distracted me. I had calculus homework due first period and I had totally forgotten about it.

  I started mentally cursing as I dug through my backpack, looking for my math folder.

  "You okay?"

  "Fine, just forgetful." I'm pretty sure I started saying some unkind things about calculus's mother under my breath because Jake raised one eyebrow and looked over at me. "Jeez, what did calculus ever do to you?"

  "Here's the thing. Math and I broke up two years ago, and now whenever we get together it's just weird and awkward for both of us."

  He laughed. Laughed and laughed and I couldn't believe that I'd made him laugh like that. It made me feel all bubbly and warm inside and suddenly I didn't want anything but to make Jake Kingston laugh over and over again. His laughter was contagious and I started laughing along with him.

  Calculus, shmaculus. How could I ever need math when Jake's laugh existed?

  When his laughter finally died down, he glanced over at me for probably a tad bit longer than was safe considering he was driving, and said, "You have a nice smile, Mattie. I never noticed before."

  Probably because it had been obscured by a sea of metal, but I wasn't about to remind him. What was that thing Ella always said about compliments that I ignored because I knew no guy would ever compliment me? Oh yeah. I was supposed to just say thank you instead of trying to talk him out of it by convincing him that my appearance was in fact heinous and he was obviously delusional. "Thanks," I croaked out. I couldn't believe it. Jake Kingston had just given me a compliment. He thought I had a nice smile! We would have such beautiful babies with his eyes and my smile.

  No, I had to focus. Had to finish this up. I couldn't be that girl. Even though I totally already was that girl.

  I managed to concentrate just enough, but I won't lie, it was really hard. I didn't realize just how distracting he could be in close quarters.

  All too soon the ride was over. Jake turned his car off, undid his seatbelt and looked at me. I saw a lot of kids in the parking lot, but not the one I most wanted to see me at that moment. I stayed put.

  "Are you, uh, getting out of the car?" I could hear the amusement in his voice.

  "Can we just wait one minute?"

  "For what?"

  How do you explain the delicate and crazy intricacies of teenage mean girls? "For…Mercedes Bentley to get here."

  I kept scanning the parking lot, refusing to look him in the face. When he looked at me, I sort of wanted to spend the rest of the day just staring into his eyes. Which was both weird and time-consuming. I couldn't afford the distraction. I had a mission.

  "Again I say, why?"

  Did he honestly not know about the Riding in Jake Kingston's Car Award? He had to know. Or maybe he wasn't full of himself like another guy would be and it wouldn't even occur to him.

  I sighed. He was so amazing. Focus! We were talking about Mercedes. I had to explain myself.

  "Let's just say it'll wipe that perpetual smirk off her face."

  "Okay." He sounded like he thought I was crazy. I realized that this was, for lack of a better word, his friend. But I was sure Mercedes was very careful not to show Jake her true self. I tried to think of a diplomatic way of telling him how awful she really was.

  "She's not always so nice."

  Jake let out a chuckle. "You don't have to tell me. She can be kind of a witch sometimes."

  "I'm pretty sure if you look up the word witch on Wikipedia, Mercedes's picture will be there." I did not tell him that I was the one who posted it.

  Off to my right I saw Scott's silver sedan pulling up. He and Mercedes got out of their car and started walking toward school.

  "There she is. We have to get out. Hurry!" I struggled with my seatbelt, too anxious to exact some well-deserved payback. "What is wrong with this stupid thing?" Jake calmly leaned over and pushed the button, instantly releasing it. I had no time to be embarrassed. Mercedes had to see us together.

  I shoved the door open and jumped out, slamming it shut behind me. I'd hoped the noise would get her attention. It didn't. "She doesn't see me. Oh no. I'm missing my chance!"

  Jake called out, "Scott! Mercedes!" and waved.

  A bag of chips and a two-liter soda while playing poker yesterday with Jake: $6.98.

  One deck of cards to play poker with: $1.99.

  Winning the poker bet and seeing the look on Mercedes Bentley's face as I stood with Jake Kingston next to his car? Abso-freaking-lutely priceless. Mercedes had her arm through Scott's, but now she dropped her arm slowly and just stared at us. She looked totally shocked.

  This was where I admit to being greedy and a tad manipulative and just a little ruthless, but it was Jake Kingston! I had to be forgiven for what I was about to do.

  I don't know where this insane courage came from, but I actually said, "Can I ask you for a weird favor? You can totally say no and don't have to, but would you mind hugging me for a second?"

  By now I think Jake found the whole thing hilarious. "Sure."

  He enveloped me in a mixture of strong arms, warmth, and that insanely awesome Jake smell. I could have died. A little part of me wanted to turn and see Mercedes's face now, but all the rest of me wanted to cling to him like this was the Titanic and he was my life preserver.

  Then the most amazing, incredible, unbelievable, fantastic thing happened.

  Jake kissed me on the cheek. Actually put his lips against my cheek. My skin flamed up where he touched me and my knees threatened to buckle. I felt his warm breath against my ear and shivered. "How's that for icing on the cake?" he whispered.

  He pulled back with a huge amused smile and I worried about my ability to stay vertical.

  "Same time tomorrow, right?" he asked, throwing his bag over his shoulder. He smiled again and walked over to join his friends.

  I wished I could have made some clever comment over my shoulder, tossed my hair saucily and sauntered off. Instead I made a sound like, "Gagrsnarf," and for the second time that morning, stood frozen in complete shock with my hand over my cheek and my heart racing.

  I continued to stand there long after the parking lot had emptied, reliving the moment over and over again.

  I told myself that if I didn't move soon, I was going to be late to first period.

  Chapter 11

  I was late to first period.

  After calculus I went and officially declared my candidacy. The advisor already knew that I planned to run thanks to Ella's hard work. She hadn't been kidding when she said she had already started. In the main hallway, she managed to charm a janitor into hanging up signs from the rafters. The first one in each series would say "Vote," the second one "for" and the third "Mattie Lowe." I noticed people pointing at them.

  She had also gone out into the courtyard and covered the entire ground in different colored chalk with "Mattie Lowe for President."

  Then she had put up posters we had worked on together that had this picture of me that is one of the few that I actually
liked where I sort of resembled Jennifer Garner in that show she used to be on where she was the spy and had the fuchsia hair (admittedly, where I got my current hair color inspiration from). We kept it simple. No clever little catch phrases (which I always found annoying)—just vote for Mattie.

  Ella was amazing.

  Then I would think again about that morning and the feel of Jake's lips on my cheek and get all fluttery and flustered.

  Jake was amazing.

  Everything just seemed so right, so perfect.

  Life was amazing.

  I couldn't remember the last time I had felt this happy.

  Unfortunately, the universe had no intention of letting things stay that way.

  At my locker I felt Mercedes Bentley staring at me. Usually she looked at me in this condescending, sneering way. But today she looked royally confused, like I was some alien who had just landed and she couldn't figure me out. I grabbed a pile of fliers I'd made up and smiled as I closed my locker.

  I walked down the hallway, passing out fliers to everyone who would take them. Jake's kiss had given me a confidence I'd never felt before. I even managed to tell people, "Vote for Mattie." I couldn't stop myself from smiling at everyone, and lots of people smiled back.

  I stopped short when a freshman that looked like a Mercedes Bentley-in-training stood directly in front of me. She was pulling along a mousy, quiet-looking girl who stood two steps back with her head ducked down. The quiet one didn't even make eye contact with me. The other one just stared at me.

  I found myself wanting to say something snide to this girl as she stared at me, but I couldn't let all my hard work go to waste. I was running for president. I needed to behave. "Is there something I can help you with?"

  Mercedes's Mini-Me said, "Are you, like, dating Jake Kingston?"

  I could feel my face flush. I knew my cheeks were bright, cherry red. Curse my stupid ghost-colored skin! "What?"

  "We heard about what happened in the parking lot. Did you, like, steal him from your sister?"

  "Stepsister," I absentmindedly corrected as I tried to take in this new information. People thought Jake and I were an actual couple? I had noticed people looking at me earlier, but I figured it was because of the campaign posters and the fliers. What if they were talking about Jake and me? My heart thrilled at the idea that people believed it was possible. That Jake could like me. I wondered what it would be like to have the satisfaction of telling this little twit that yes, Jake was my boyfriend and we were dating.

  Wait, what if he thought I was the one telling people that we were together? After all, I had asked him to hug me. Maybe he would think I was trying to take advantage of the situation. He would think I was so pathetic. I had to set the record straight so it wouldn't fall back on me.

  "Um, no, we're not dating."

  The first girl looked smug, the second crestfallen. The mini-Mercedes turned to her friend and said, "See, I told you he'd, like, never date someone like her. He only goes out with girls like Ella. Come on."

  My good mood totally evaporated. I wanted to protest, to call her back and tell her she was wrong. But I had the uncomfortable, sinking feeling that she was right.

  Jake did date girls like Ella. He never dated girls like me.

  * * *

  Jake continued to drive me to school, and we spent the time working on our manga Pride & Prejudice project. He would give me dialogue for the story, and I would edit it and insert it into the scenes I had already drawn. We worked well together, and his words went perfectly with my pictures. We would sit in the parking lot until we absolutely had to leave for class.

  We talked mostly about the project, but we did talk about other stuff too. There was the day I discovered he was a Dodgers fan too. But when he told me he didn't like Clayton Kershaw, I gasped and said, "Inconceivable."

  "I do not think that word means what you think it means," he shot back.

  "You like The Princess Bride too?" He nodded. Other than John Hughes's films, it was one of my favorite movies ever. "Very quotable."

  "Agreed," he said.

  Over the next few days I also found out that, like me, he was not a vegetarian, had a dog named Scooby due to his childhood love of cartoons, and we even argued back and forth about the best manga and anime series.

  I couldn't believe how much I looked forward to the time we spent together. I tried not to read too much into it, because my imagination could very quickly go to an unreal place.

  Although I never imagined a weekend could be so freaking long. Every minute felt excruciating. I wondered what Jake was doing, wondered if he wondered what I was doing, if he thought about me at all. I had never been so excited for Monday morning before.

  Ella asked how things were going, and while I felt a bit more comfortable talking to her about it, I explained that there was honestly nothing to tell. Jake just saw me as a project partner. He hadn't asked me out or acted like he wanted to spend more time with me. My head knew this, but my heart overanalyzed the tiniest inflections in his voice and every little expression hoping that I was just misunderstanding and that by some great miracle, he felt about me the way I felt about him.

  "It's not going to happen," I told her for the millionth time.

  She gave me that Ella shrug and said, "You never know."

  Oh, to be blonde and beautiful and totally delusional.

  I sat in study hall and drew some pictures of Ella as a mellower version of Sailor Moon in my sketchbook. I heard a noise and glanced up. Mrs. Putnam was looking at me and quickly turned her gaze toward the window. I put my head back down and resumed my drawing. I used to like having Mrs. Putnam as both my art teacher and study hall supervisor, but now it was awkward. I did my best to not make eye contact or ask any questions. My dad had been gone frequently in the evenings and Mrs. Putnam seemed to be avoiding me just as much I was avoiding her, which pretty much confirmed my theory that they were still seeing one another.

  Halfway through class the phone from the office rang. After she answered it, Ms. Putnam raised her eyebrows and looked at me. "Mattie, they want you to go to the office."

  I could feel the eyes of every kid in study hall on me. "Oh, busted," Mercedes said and then whispered something to one of her minions that made them both giggle.

  The silvery, bitter taste of fear filled my senses. I racked my brain trying to think of what I could have done to warrant being in trouble yet again. I had been so well behaved! "Should I take my things with me?"

  "They said it would only take a few minutes. Just leave them there."

  Having dismissed the possibility that I had done anything to get myself in trouble, I started worrying that something had happened to my dad or to Ella. Why else would they want me to come down?

  I did a running/walking mixture trying to get there as quickly as I could without being caught running in the hallways.

  I yanked the door open and found Ella standing next to the secretary's desk. "What's going on? Is Dad okay?"

  "What? He's fine. Everybody's fine. Angie Ferber had to go home early and she was supposed to record you and Jake today and I told her I would take care of it. I would have just texted you, but they wouldn't let me."

  Malibu Prep had recently instituted a strict no electronics policy during school hours. Another thing that annoyed me and I wanted to change if elected. "Record us? For what?"

  Ella looked pensive. "Maybe I forgot to tell you. You guys were supposed to make a video announcement reminding the school about the upcoming speeches and to get them to vote in the elections."

  She handed me a one-page script and I read it through quickly. It was kind of lame, but I thought I could muddle through it.

  "When and where?"

  "In the recording studio after school today. But you have to meet me so I can let you in and record it."

  Oh, that would be cozy. Just Jake, Ella and me in a tiny little soundproof room. But I didn't really have a choice. "Okay."

  "I have cheerleading pr
actice, so come out to the field and find me."

  She must have noticed that I looked worried, because she added, "Just be yourself in the video and everything will be fine."

  I don't know why she thought that. So far being me hadn't worked out all that well.

  The bell rang just as I got back to study hall. I had to stand aside for the tidal wave of people exiting the room. I entered the class and went to my seat. I grabbed my bag off the floor, and started to leave until I noticed my pencil on my desk.

  Right next to where I had left my sketchbook.

  I put my bag down on my desk and opened it up to make sure I had the sketchbook inside.

  I rifled through my folders and didn't see it. I looked again, slower this time, thinking I must have missed it. Not there.

  I picked the bag up and looked at the floor, under my chair and on the desks around me. It was gone.

  "Is something wrong, Mattie?" Mrs. Putnam asked.

  I could hear my heartbeat thundering in my chest. "Did someone turn in my sketchbook? I left it right here on the desk." My sketchbook could not be gone. Especially since it had all my pictures of Jake, with my signature at the bottom of each and every one. I blamed my parents for instilling that sense of vanity when it came to my art.

  "No one turned anything in. You may want to try the lost and found box. If someone brings it to me, I'll be sure to let you know. Okay?"