Boy Swap Read Online Free PDF Page A

Monday afternoon, and I’m in art class. Today we’re supposed to work on sketching people so our art teacher, Mr. O’Dell, told us to partner up with someone else in class. This is just the opportunity I’ve been looking for. Amanda Montgomery, fellow Boy Swap Club member, is in my class and she doesn’t have a partner yet. I sprint across the room to where she’s sitting. Normally, when asked to partner up, Amanda would work with one of the football players. She can’t be seen mixing with the semi-popular, the slightly popular, or any other unimportant people so she’d never normally work with me. But hey, I have a scarf now, so it should get me into places I didn’t get in before, right?
    I stand before Amanda’s desk and she raises one eyebrow at me. I yank my scarf out of my purse and wave it in the air, like a white surrender flag. Amanda shakes her head and smirks. “Sit.”
    I grab a nearby chair and sit down next to her. “Hi Amanda.”
    She flashes a glance at me.
    “I’m in— ”
    “I know who you are,” she cuts me off. “You don’t have to announce it.”
    “Oh. Well, do you want to sketch me first or shall I sketch you?”
    “You can sketch me first,” she says. I open up my sketchpad and pull a pencil from my purse. I study Amanda’s face for a moment to see what I can find out about her. She’s pretty expressionless right now and her blue-gray eyes are staring back at me, unblinking. She has long, straight, honey-blond hair carefully tucked behind her ears and her skin is absolutely perfect, which is completely unfair. She’s like an after picture for Proactiv. I start drawing her eyes first.
    “So,” I say, trying to think of some way to break the ice between us, “how long have you and Cassie been friends?”
    “Long time. Since grade school,” she says.
    Kinda like Delaney and me. Except they stayed friends and Delaney acts like she barely recollects me.
    “She seems nice,” I say, working on Amanda’s right pupil.
    “Uh huh.”
    Hmm, Amanda isn’t so talkative.
    “She likes my boyfriend huh?” I venture.
    Amanda chuckles a little in response.
    “How long have you been in B—”
    “Shh,” she interrupts sternly, then looks around to see if anyone overheard.
    “What?” I blink hard, taken aback a bit.
    “Listen,” she says, leaning in, “we don’t talk about it. It just is.”
    “That’s just it. I don’t get how it works. Are we going to have more meetings or something?”
    “Oh my God!” Amanda draws out her words, clearly irritated. “Did you not just hear me tell you not to talk about it?”
    “But—”
    “No! I’m going to go work with Tony. Later.” She scoops up her things and walks away from me and toward the school’s quarterback.
    I’m trying hard not to cry. Amanda was way harsh. And now I don’t have a partner to sketch. Which means I’ll probably have to work with Mr. O’Dell again and I hate working with Mr. O’Dell. I already have an abstract watercolor and a clay bust of him at home.
    *      *      *
    I stop at my locker after math class to drop off my books. There’s a note sitting at the bottom of the locker waiting for me. Uh-oh. I pick it up, unfold, and read, “4 p.m., Bookends Bookstore, Travel section. See you then.”
    Oh no. Amanda must have told Cassie that I was talking about Boy Swap in public. They probably want to meet me so they can kick me out of their club and take my scarf back. I’m sure Delaney will get a big fat laugh out of this. She’ll be all, see C2? I told you Brooke was a total nerd and we shouldn’t have invited her into our club. That’s why I dumped her dorky butt in 6th grade. Blergh. I wish I could win for once. I want Delaney to be jealous of me .
    What am I going to do? Maybe I should preemptively quit? I’m not too keen on this whole flirting with Chris thing anyway. But I do love the scarf. Maybe I’ll tell them I lost it?
    I arrive at Bookends at five to four and walk slowly