How To Be A Perfect Girl Read Online Free PDF Page B

She gulped, “I’m sure it’s a great game and all—“ she
said.
    “But you don’t want to learn how to play.”
Aiden finished for her.
    “I’m sorry, I’m just really busy and—“ Val
held out the starter deck for Aiden to take.
    “And you have much better things to do than
play card games. Like give me a lap dance,” Alex raised his
eyebrows suggestively.
    “Keep it. I have fifty more at home,” Aiden
replied, waving away Val’s hand and the cards; he grabbed his
backpack and walked from the room.
    “You’re a jerk!” Val glared at Alex; she
tried to chase after Aiden, but Alex blocked her way.
    “Come on,” he said, “do you really want
people to associate you with King Nerd and his card game? Here’s
what you should do with those,” he took the cards from her hand and
tossed them into the nearest trash can.
    Val was so mad tears were coming to her
eyes, “Why are you so mean?”
    “I’m not mean,” Alex laughed, “I’m the
nicest person at Palm Lake. I just saved you from ruining your high
school experience by getting mixed in with the wrong crowd.”
    “Who says he’s the wrong crowd?.”
    “I do—and everyone else does. It doesn’t
take a genius to figure out that, if you wanna be class president,
you don’t hang out with the unpopular kids.”
    Val scowled, “And I suppose you think you’re
popular?”
    “I know I am,” Alex’s whole entourage
nodded, “I’m funny, and attractive, and yes, a little mean, but at
least I’m honest. If you want to get ahead at Palm Lake, you should
mix with the people whose dads run Fortune Five-hundred companies,
not the ones whose parents design card games.”
    “What does it matter what your parents do?”
Val asked.
    “It matters because that’s one of the ways
status is determined. Look, sweety, you have a choice here. You can
choose to be friends with me and be popular or you can choose to
play card games with King Nerd and disappear from this school
without leaving the faintest trace. And that would be a shame.”
    Val was torn; she knew that at least part of
what Alex was saying was true. At Walker she’d lived it; social
rules that regulated who she could be friends with if she wanted to
be popular. She’d hoped that high school would be different. “I
hate this place.”
    Alex smirked, “Me too. Now, how about that
lap dance?”

Chapter 5
    Wednesday was a little better than the two
previous days, since Val only had to sit through a couple of
teachers going through their syllabi. Geography class was the first
of the year, so Val expected a syllabus session in that class, and
her English Composition teacher hadn’t finished on Tuesday, so
she’d expected that class to be boring as well.
    Mr. Phillips hadn’t let the first class take
any of the wind out of his sails; he had started Tuesday’s class
off with a “magical” fruit punch experiment, in which he challenged
the students to mix different colored punches to get a specific
color of purple, which he swore would taste like grape, “but only
if you get it exactly right.”
    Today the class commenced with a
demonstration of the effects of liquid nitrogen upon various
classroom objects. Mr. Phillips dunked one of Jenny’s pens; when it
came out and he smashed it with a hammer she whimpered like he’d
hit her instead. Keenan raised his hand; when Mr. Phillips called
on him he asked, “So where can I get some of this?”
    “Well, you can’t. But if you were a chemist,
you could order as much as you wanted.”
    Keenan grinned mischievously, “How do they
know if I’m a chemist or not?”
    Val thought she knew the answer, “They must
do a background check to find out if you have a chemistry degree or
something,” she whispered.
    Mr. Phillips smiled, “Best not to say. I
don’t want to give anyone ideas, after all. The point is—“ he
segued into the day’s lesson.
    Val was surprised when Keenan took out a
pristine notebook and cracked it open. “What are you