Sample Chapter from CHOICES

Hey—U R So Hot!

            I picked a few earrings out of my jewelry box and held them up to myself in the mirror one at a time. The peridot dangles were perfection with my lime-green sweater and black jeans.

            Oh yeah I was ready.

            Mel, Dakota, Jenna and I were going to Cherry Creek High’s basketball game. It took several days, but Mom finally convinced my father that I’d be safe going out to a night basketball game. Jeez. She was all smart about it too, deemphasizing the coed environment factor and playing up the fun I’d have going to the game with my girlfriends from school. Just Innocent—with a capital I—fun.

            Getting all A’s on my report card didn’t hurt either.

            I dabbed a little of my new lip gloss on and read the label: “hot stuff.” I smoothed on some more and dusted my cheeks with blush. I wanted to look just right. With a father like mine, it might be a year until I got to go out at night again.

            “Kara, Mel’s here!” Mom called.

            I grabbed my leather jacket from the bed and raced downstairs.

            The parental gauntlet was lined up by the front door. I had to pass inspection to get out of my own freaking house. Thank God there were only two of them. My father would typically say I had on too much makeup or tell me to change my sweater because it was “too small.” All I ever got to do was go to church, school, or dumb sleepover parties.

            Mel was standing beside my father. She winked.

            Dad gave me his usual stern once-over. His face was a mask of sadness or some kind of weirdness. I swear, he never wanted me to look too pretty. Why couldn’t he just be proud of me or engage in some other normal fatherly reaction?

            “Don’t be late,” he said, all serious.

            “Fab earrings,” Mel said.

            I smiled at Mel and scooted by my father.

            “You look great, sweetie. Do you have your cell phone?” Mom asked.

            I nodded and patted my jacket pocket.

            Mom touched my shoulder as I passed her. “Have a good time.”

            And Mel and I were out the door.

            Free!

            Dakota and Jenna had already been picked up. I climbed in the back with them, and Mel sat up front with her mom.

            What a pitiful foursome we were: stuck in an all-girls school, none of us had boyfriends or driver’s licenses. Pathetic. We laughed, talked and squealed the whole way to the game. Our excitement filled the Subaru and gushed out of us like we were a bunch of first-time nominees on the way to the Academy Awards. Or something bigger, something unimaginable.

            I swear, I felt so alive, like my whole life was about to begin. I was really out, at night, with tons of other kids, a part of the real world.

            It was about time.

            The front of Cherry Creek High was a swarm of kids. Luckily, we already had our tickets.“I’ll meet you by the entrance to the parking lot at nine thirty . Have fun!”

            Mel’s mom called. We burst out of the car a few minutes before game time. The air in the overcrowded gym had a moist, sweaty smell. The bleachers were jammed, pulsing with noise and energy.

            “This is so awesome!” I shouted to Mel. Mel nodded and pointed to a place in the second row on the Cherry Creek side. There were no open seats, but we all followed Mel anyway; we usually do.

            “Can’t you guys squeeze in? Jeez!” Mel yelled as we climbed over some Cherry Creek girls. They grudgingly moved over, letting the four of us wedge ourselves into a space on the bleachers barely big enough for two.

            The snotty Cherry Creek girls sneered, and Mel sneered back. Mel had the best sneer. She could make anyone feel like dirt in a flash.

            The gym was sweltering hot. I took my jacket off, shoved it under me, and smiled to myself. Not only had I wrestled permission from my parents to go to a night game, now Mel had scored us great seats.

            “JAKE, JAKE, JAKE!!!”

            And then I saw him. Jake Dodson, charging down the court full speed, dribbling the ball so fast I could barely see it. All muscled and lean, Jake’s thick hair moved up and down with his giant strides.

            In a word—gorgeous.

            He was totally amazing. Jake stopped short and hit a perfect shot before I could let out my breath. The crowd went wild.

            “JAKE, JAKE, JAKE!!!”

            The four of us screamed and clapped along with everyone else.

            “Isn’t he so awesome? His picture is in the paper all the time!” Dakota shouted over the excited crowd.

            I never read the Denver Post or the Rocky Mountain News unless I had to cut out an article for current events in global studies class. No way did I ever read the sports page. But I would now. No doubt.

            Dakota knows everything about public school stuff. Her mother is a counselor at one of the middle schools, and her father is the assistant football coach at Cherry Creek. Even though this game had been sold out, Dakota’s dad was able to get us tickets.

            In between Jake’s scoring about a million points and the crowd’s screams, Dakota told us he was a senior and the captain of the basketball team. She said he was the coolest boy in the coolest crowd of any school in Denver .

            No duh.

            Cherry Creek slaughtered the other team, a total massacre. They won by sixty-three points, and Jake scored most of them.

            The bleachers emptied.

            Jenna, Dakota, and Mel went to wait in the long bathroom line. I hung out by the concession stand waiting for them in a total happiness trance.

            Kids shrieked and screamed at the Cherry Creek guys when they left their locker room. Girls and boys were pushing and shoving to get closer to the team; it was like they were celebrities. Boys high-fived Jake, and girls reached up to pat him on the back. Some nervy blond girl even touched the back of Jake’s hair.

            Jake’s eyes grazed the room. Then he saw me, and his eyes kind of locked on me. Intense. I smiled and glanced over at the bathroom, a slight panic thumping my heart.

            Where was Mel? My friends?

            I looked back to see Jake still smiling, big—right at me.

            He said something to the rest of the guys and started toward the concession stand. He was headed toward me.

            I glanced behind me and next to me. Jake had to be heading for someone else, not me. Maybe he wanted a Frito pie or a hot dog?

            Then Jake was there, standing right in front of me—all six feet, three inches of him. “Hey. Like the game?”

            “It was awesome. You were awesome!” Ugh. Why did I say that? I felt my face getting all hot.

            “Thanks. Haven’t seen you around. You go to Cherry Creek?”

            “No.”

            “East High?”

            “Saint Ursula’s.”

            Double ugh. Admitting that I went to Saint Ursula’s Academy for Girls was sure to end the most incredible moment of my life before it even began.

            “Cool. I hear that’s a pretty good school. What’s your name?”

            “Kara.”

            “Mine’s Jake.”

            Oh yeah it is. Like everybody didn’t know; like he wasn’t famous, a superstar.

            Mel and Dakota walked out of the bathroom, blabbing away. Then Mel saw me. She stopped and grabbed Dakota’s arm. They froze midstep—wide-eyed and drop-jawed. Jenna was last out. Mel pointed in my direction and pulled her over beside them. The three goggle-eyed girls stood there, gawking at Jake talking to me.

            Thank God Jake had his back to them.

            “There’s a party after the game, at a friend’s house. Want to go?”

            Omigod. Me? Me? “Um, I can’t.”

            For a second, Jake seemed blown away. No sane girl in Denver would say no to him. The only girl stupid enough to say no would be a pathetic girl from Saint Ursula’s, a girl with a ten o’clock curfew.

            “Oh. You here with someone?”

            “Yeah, sort of,” I muttered. I was unable to arrange two coherent thoughts.

            Jake took a program from a pile on the concession stand and reached into his jacket pocket for a pen.

            “What’s your last name, Ms. Kara? Give me your number, and I’ll call you

sometime.”

            My hand trembled, and my writing was pathetic scribble, but I wrote “Kara MacNeill,” my IM screen name, and my cell phone number on the program and handed it back.

            “Cool. Thanks.” Jake smiled. He nodded to me and walked off. I had one single thought; he has the best smile on the planet.

            Mel, Dakota, and Jenna ran over to me, and turned into one huge blurt of questions.

            “Did he just, like, walk over to you?”

            “Omigod, was that Jake? Jake Dodson?”

            “What did he say?”

            “Did he, like, ask you out?”

            All I could manage to say was yes. I was in a daze, staring at the floor where Jake had stood before he’d left like it was holy ground. My whole life had changed in a nanosecond.

            “Oh, WOW. Really?”

            “Omigod! He’s gorgeous, an absolute god!”

            “Jenna, please. Let us not blaspheme.” Mel’s imitation of our homeroom teacher, Sister Elaine, was perfect. We all laughed.

            My mind was a blur, afloat in an ultimate dreamworld instead of my usual boring reality. My friends were really excited for me, and maybe just a little jealous.

            My feet kind of glided across the front lawn after Mel’s mother dropped me off. I bounded through the entryway, down the hall, and into the den. All I could think about was Jake’s face, his smile, his deep voice.

            My parents had the television tuned to CNN. My mother was sitting on the edge of the beige sofa working on a needlepoint; her brow was set in a squint of concentration.My father sipped his scotch, making notes on a legal pad he was balancing on his lap. He glanced at his watch. “You’re late.”

            The ice tinkled, the amber liquid in his glass created a little cyclone as he swirled his drink and rested it carefully on the arm of his chair.

            Mom looked up from her stitching and smiled. “Did you have fun?”

            “Yeah, it was pretty great. Cherry Creek killed them.”

            My father tapped his finger on the face of his watch. “Your curfew was ten.”

            “Sorry, Dad. It’s only ten minutes. We dropped Jenna off first.”

            “She knows, Bill,” Mom said. “Next time she’ll ask to be dropped off first, won’t you, hon?”

            Next time. If my mother weren’t around, there wouldn’t be one.

             “Yeah, I will, promise.”

            My father sighed, sipped his scotch, and went back to his paperwork.

            Phew.

            “OK, ‘night,” I called and took the stairs two at a time up to my room. I couldn’t wait to get away from them so I could think about Jake in the quiet of my room. I wanted to remember every detail about him, our conversation, the way he’d zoomed into my eyes with his crystal blue ones.

            I needed to figure out a way to see him again, to go out with him. The idea of actually going out with a guy seemed impossible. My parents could never know.

            I closed my bedroom door and sat down at my desk to check e-mail. An IM popped up. From Jake!

            Jakeman: hey. party a total bore. left early, thinking about u. ur so hot!

            Karissimo: ur not bad either

            Jakeman: party after my game next friday? can u go?

            Karissimo: when/where?

            Jakeman: 10 or so. at dell’s house. he’s on my team.

            Karissimo: maybe. i’ll get back to u. g2g. nite

            Jakeman: ok, l8r. hey, ur so hot!

            I signed off. My fingers were all jittery on the keyboard. This was real. Jake was asking me out. He wanted to see me again, to take me to a cool party with all his cool friends.

            Omigod. Omigod.

            I was so jazzed I thought I might burst into a zillion pieces.

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