Art Geeks and Prom Queens Read Online Free PDF

because every school has them. It’s like, you can’t just walk up to some random table and take a seat, since everyone is so segregated into such carefully designated groups, that you can’t just assume you’ll be welcomed.
    Not to mention that my mom made lunch for me today, and I’m not sure if that’s cool or not. I mean, how embarrassing would it be to sit at the wrong table and pull out a sandwich made by Mom’s carefully manicured, self-tanned hands when everybody else is hitting the vending machines. It may sound paranoid, but it’s those little moments that label you forever.
    And I’m not used to worrying about stuff like this, ‘cause at my old school it was just me, Paige, and Hud (I know, you already know that, but please play along), and we didn’t really care what everyone else thought. I guess you could say we were geeks, but it didn’t matter. But now that it’s just me, I admit, it kind of matters.
    But I’m also hungry.
    And how stupid would it be to not eat my lunch when I’m hungry? So I grab the bag out of my locker and figure I’ll just go sit in some shady spot near the lunch tables so I can check out the action without actually putting myself on the front line. And as I’m walking over there I hear someone go, “Hey, Rio!”
    And I turn to see Jas waving at me. So of course I immediately change direction. As I’m walking toward him he’s looking right at me and it makes me all nervous, so I look up for a moment at this banner that’s hanging overhead that says in turquoise-and-green letters:
    Winter Formal!
This Saturday!
Don t miss it!
    And when I’m right in front of him he asks, “Do you like movies?”
    Ohmygod! He’s asking me out! I knew it! Deep down inside, I
knew
he wasn’t dating Mason!
    So I go, “Um yeah, I
really love
movies!” As I mentally prepare for the best (okay, first), date of my life.
    “Great,” he says, smiling and wrapping his arm loosely around my shoulder as we walk down the hall, with me acting all casual, like I’m totally used to having gorgeous guys who smell amazing ask me out on dates.
    And when we get to the end, he opens the classroom door and goes, “We’re having a film club meeting and we need more members. Are you interested?” He looks at me, waiting for an answer.
    “Uh, sure,” I squeak, clutching my lunch bag and following him into a room filled with five other people who
really love
movies.
     
    I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to get through the rest of the day (including detention), without doing anything majorly stupid. But mostly because I stayed very quiet, and I didn’t look at Jas.
    So as I was walking to the parking lot, where my mom was supposed to be waiting, I turned on my cell phone just in time to listen to a message from her telling me how she was running late, and that I could either: a) wait
or
b) call a cab.
    A cab? Is she kidding? There are no cabs in Newport Beach. ‘Cause from what I’ve seen you can’t even live here unless you own a Mercedes, a Jag, or a Hummer. So I sit on the curb, deciding to wait, and just as I’m calling to tell her that, Kristi walks up.
    “Hey, Brazil,” she says, standing in front of me, holding a Louis Vuitton bag with one hand and shielding her eyes from the sun with the other, so as not to disturb the Chanel sunglasses that are carefully placed in her hair.
    “Um, it’s not Brazil, it’s Rio,” I say, pausing between numbers.
    “Why are you still here?” she asks, looking at her watch, then back at me.
    “I had detention,” I tell her, even though it’s really none of her business.
    She raises an eyebrow and looks me over. “So what are you doing now?”
    “Waiting for my mom. She’s late.”
    “Don’t you have a car?” she says, eyes going all wide like she just found out something really juicy.
    “No.” I shrug. “I don’t have my license yet.”
    “You’re joking.” She says it like a statement not a question.
    And I press my lips