Chapter
Forty-two
Hot
pursuit
Paige checked her messages before gym class.
She’d just received some awesome and unexpected news that she’d been hoping
for. She’d applied for a newly devised scholarship to UCLA and was in the final
selected group. If all went well during her senior year, the scholarship was
hers.
In light of this good news, Paige had
resigned herself to dealing with Darcy later. She had a smile on her face as she
got ready for gym class, pulling on her dad’s old sweater. As she walked
outside, she collided with Darcy.
“Hi,”
he said, he wasn’t dressed for sports.
“Hi,” Paige said, confused.
“You were great in our final debate.”
“Thanks, but Mackenzie nailed it.”
“Well, she had a better topic…”
Paige wondered if Darcy had slept. She would
have brushed past him by now but he’d cornered her in a confined space and
there was nowhere else to go – except class. Paige just couldn’t work Darcy
out. He was so prideful and changeable and then he’d go and do something nice,
like compliment her out of the blue. This didn’t hide the fact that he’d done
something so not nice she never wanted to speak to him again. He’d talked Ryan
out of dating her sister.
Of course, this was the moment Darcy unwisely
chose to speak to her.
They had their seconds alone and it was now
or never.
Darcy cleared his throat.
“Paige, I was wondering…”
“Yes?” Paige said as she pulled back her
hair. Paige had no idea why Darcy was even talking to her now.
“Um… Well… I was wondering…”
“Uh huh,” Paige was already half way out of
the room and on her way to gym practice
before Darcy caught up with her.
“Hey, wait up.”
“What do you want Darcy?”
“Well, a moment… with you. Alone, if you’re
not too busy.”
Paige looked at the half empty gym. The
crowd gathered on the other side of the room. Once again, there was no getting
out of this.
“What do you want, Darcy?”
Darcy ushered Paige to the side, where the
walls were covered with various freshman projects. Paige noticed Rebel’s name
all over one of them, it was her kind of art work too – modern, random.
“I’m wondering, I’ve thought about it a lot
and I’d like to know if you would come to the prom with me.”
Paige stalled.
“Uh… What did you say?”
“I’m asking you to go to the prom with me.
That’s the way it’s done here in America right? You have to ask someone? It’s
my last chance to go to a high school prom. My family are heading back to
Australia, so…”
“Oh...”
“So, are you going with anyone?”
“No.”
“Me either. I want to go with you.”
“Is that the way you ask girls out Down
Under?”
“What do you mean? I’m new to this. In
Australia we just hang out in groups. Besides, girls mostly approach me. They think I'm the hot one. I don’t have to ask them out. It's the other way around. It took a lot of courage to even attempt this... connection. You didn’t exactly give me any encouragement.”
“It’s always about you, isn’t it Darcy?”
“What do you mean? I’m trying to be nice. I
want to be friends. I thought we were becoming friends. Besides, you haven’t given me an
answer.”
Paige paused for a moment, suddenly
believing in the sincerity of his question. She was conflicted about the boy, but not about her answer.
“No Darcy, I don’t want to go with you.”
“Why not? C’mon it’ll be fun.” Darcy's face was red. He couldn’t
believe he was being refused.
“I… I’m thinking of going by myself. Maybe I
don’t need a man to make me feel whole.”
“Huh?”
Paige turned and ran off down the hallway. On
the way out, she ran straight into Mackenzie and Ryan, who looked quite
sheepish.
“Hey Paige. Why are you crying?” Mackenzie
asked.
“Oh, just motor!” Paige said brushing
Mackenzie aside.
“I told you what she’s really like,”
Mackenzie sniped to her brother as they walked down the hall to find Darcy.
