Page 10 of The Do-Over
Thea packed her things into her backpack, wondering what she was doing. It was senior year, and nothing was more important than sticking to her plan of keeping her grades up, focusing on her studies, and getting accepted into a good college. How many times was she going to allow Rob Honeycutt to distract her from those priorities?
He held out his hand. “Can I take your bag?”
“I—” She hesitated. “It’s not too heavy.”
“I’ll bet it is, with all those books I just saw you pack in there,” he countered. “And I could use the strength training for basketball.”
“Well, if it helps you out.” She handed him the bag.
He slung it over his shoulder. “You said the other night that it wasn’t far to your house,” he recalled.
“That’s right,” she agreed as they left the library. “Just a few blocks. I’m lucky because I don’t need to worry about commuting to school. How about you?”
“I drive,” he said.
Of course he did. All the kids in Rob’s social circle were wealthy. All of them had their own cars, shiny ones purchased for them by doting parents.
Thea knew her own parents would have bought her the nicest car in the world if they could have. But it wasn’t the kind of thing their family could afford. They had one car, shared among the four of them, and because Thea could walk to school, she was usually the last one given the opportunity to drive anywhere.
“If you drive to school, won’t you be ditching your car by walking me home?” she realized.
Rob shrugged. “I’ll come back for it after you get home,” he said. “No big deal.”
“If you say so.”
They left the building and set off down the sidewalk.
“So what did you want to talk to me about?” she asked. “I know it wasn’t American Lit.”
“No,” he agreed. “Not that.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I had a good time at the Waffle Shack.”
“Well, so did I.”
“That’s why I asked Stephanie about you,” he said. “Don’t you think it’s weird that we’ve gone to school together for three years and never even spoken?”
“Not that weird,” she said. “You talk to other basketball players, and to the girls who date the basketball players. I talk to the members of the debate club, and the kids in my Latin study group. And Stephanie, of course. We just never really overlap.”
“Still, you’d think our paths would have crossed by now.”
“It’s a big school. Don’t tell me you’re taking the time to talk to every single member of the senior class that you’ve never had a conversation with.”
“No, I’m not,” he agreed. “But with you…I don’t know.”
“What?”
“I’m interested, I guess. There’s something about you that…interests me. Is that okay?”
It was weird. That’s what it was. Suddenly one of the most popular guys in school found her interesting? Why?
“I guess it’s okay,” she said. “But I’m really not that interesting.”
“To me you are,” he said.
“Why?”
