Page 16 of The Do-Over
THEA
“So,” Rob said, “what’s the verdict?”
It was Saturday night, and they were in Rob’s car, driving back to Thea’s house after dinner at a small but fancy Italian restaurant a few miles from school. Thea was impressed by the amount of effort Rob had put in. Not only had he chosen the place and paid for her dinner, but he had also changed into nice slacks and a button-down shirt after the ball game. Thea could only imagine that it must be a lot of trouble to carry an outfit like that around and hang it in a locker room without it getting wrinkled. She wondered what the other members of the team had said to him when they’d seen it.
“Did you tell anyone else we were going out tonight?” she asked, the thought suddenly occurring to her.
He glanced at her, then returned his eyes to the road. “Was it supposed to be a secret?”
“No,” she said. “It’s fine if you told people.” Actually, she found that she liked the idea that he might have said something. She liked the idea that, on Monday, the gossip about Rob Honeycutt would also be about her.
She had never anticipated that she would like such a thing.
“Well, a few members of the team asked me about my plans,” he said. “And I told them.”
“What did they say?”
“Why are you asking me this?”
“I’m curious.”
He hesitated.
Thea laughed. “They didn’t know who I was, did they?”
“Well, no,” he admitted. “I mean…a couple of them did after I described you to them. Or at least, they thought they did.” He frowned. “Does this happen to you a lot?”
“How could it happen to me? Everyone who talks to me knows who I am.”
“That’s a good point.”
“You just really have no idea what it might be like not to have every single member of the student body recognize you by name, do you?”
He sighed. “That isn’t my fault.”
“No, it’s not,” she agreed. She paused. “The first time we met, you introduced yourself.”
“What?”
“You said I’m Rob,” she reminded him.
“It’s just good manners.”
“And you did know my name. You knew who I was before we spoke. How did you know?”
He hesitated for a moment. “You’re going to laugh.”
“I promise not to.”
“You performed in the freshman class talent competition our first year,” he said. “You sang.”
It was true. “You remember that? That was ages ago.”
Rob shrugged. “I thought you had a nice voice,” he said. “I thought you should have won instead of Beverly Culpepper.”
“Bev did fine.” But secretly, Thea was flattered.
“Lip-syncing is not a talent. Especially not when the competition is actually singing. She just won because the winner was chosen by popular vote. It was rigged.”
