Make It Count Read Online Free PDF Page B

Tara? When I told you to guess who it was, I was being rhetorical!”
    Tara looked affronted. “You don’t have to get all huffy.”
    Kat blew out a breath. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m stressed. My tutor is Alec.”
    Tara stared at her blankly.
    “Alec?” Kat said. “You know . . . Max—”
    “Oh!” Tara’s eyes were wide. “ That Alec.”
    “Yeah, that Alec. Nerdy Alec.”
    Tara waggled a finger. “You know, nerd is the new black. I read that in Cosmo .”
    Kat fell onto her back again and stared back at the egg-carton ceiling. “Deliver me. Please. Just put me out of my misery.”
    Tara laughed and smacked Kat on the thigh. “You’re so dramatic, you know that?”
    “Yep.” Kat rolled her head to face Tara and grinned. “It’s my schtick.”
    “So what’s the big deal?” Tara shrugged. “I mean, I know you’re kinda private about your studying and all of that. Is it because you don’t want Max to know?”
    Kat laced her fingers on her stomach and twiddled her thumbs. “I guess that’s part of it. I don’t know. There’s something about Alec that gets me all defensive. I don’t want him to think I’m . . . stupid.”
    Tara’s face fell. “Kat, you’re not—”
    “I know! I know. I just . . . I don’t know.”
    “Do you . . . are you attracted to him?”
    “Have you seen him?”
    “Yeah.”
    “What do you think?”
    “Well, I think he’s hot, but he’s not your type.”
    Kat sat upright again and braced herself with her hands behind her. “What’s my type?”
    “Are we seriously having this discussion?”
    “Clearly, we are.”
    Tara ran her tongue over her upper teeth. “Your type is Max. Muscled jocks who have no intentions of a long-term relationship.”
    “What? That’s not true. There was . . .” she trailed off as she tried to remember one guy who wasn’t a shallow jock. Names and faces drifted through her mind. “Wait, what about . . . ?” She frowned when she couldn’t find an example to contradict Tara’s statement. “Shoot,” she muttered.
    Tara stood up and walked to her desk. “Your relationship with Max is getting close to its expiration date anyway.”
    “Expiration date?”
    Tara turned around and laughed. “What’s it been, like two or three months? That’s about the shelf life of a Kat Caruso boyfriend.”
    Kat shook her head and opened her mouth to deny that, too. But she snapped it shut when she couldn’t think of one boyfriend she’d had for longer than three months.
    “Shoot,” she said again.
    Tara picked up her book bag and shrugged on her heavy ski jacket. “Why is that?”
    Kat hated lying to people. But sometimes it couldn’t be avoided and this was one of those times. This was something she didn’t want to admit out loud, so she turned away from Tara. “I don’t know.”
    Tara heaved a sigh. “Well, I gotta get to class. We’ll talk later?”
    “Yep,” said Kat, not really paying attention. “Oh wait!” she called after her friend. Tara stopped in the doorway and looked over her shoulder expectantly.
    Kat hopped off of the bed and grabbed a notepad from her desk. She ripped off the top paper and handed it to Tara.
    She looked up and raised her head questioningly. “Alisa Dombrovski?”
    “You said Amy wanted to take dance, right?”
    Tara, the oldest of five, had told Kat her youngest sister wouldn’t stop talking about ballet after seeing The Nutcracker last year. But her parents couldn’t afford it and Tara had been saving money from her retail job for lessons.
    “Alisa is the sister of the ballet instructor I took lessons from when I was a kid. I called Irina the other day and told her your sister really shows talent but . . . um . . . funds are tight. So she called her sister, whose studio is about a half hour from your parents’ house, and Alisa agreed to take on your sister. No cost.”
    Tara blinked at the paper and then at Kat. She opened her mouth, but Kat cut her off.
    “I know it’s a