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and jammed it into my notebook as I raised my voice again. “That’s exactly what I needed to know. Thanks so much, Riley.”
    “You’re welcome, Char—Attie.”
    “I’ll be sure to tell your dad how nice you were to help me out. You know, going out of your way to find me and point me in the right direction. I know you have a lot of better things to do. Probably a girl or two waiting around for you somewhere.”
    “Anytime. Well … try to have a good day.”
    “I’ll do that.”
    “Maybe we’ll see each other at lunch or something?” he said. “Yeah, it’d be best if I found you at lunch. That way I can see if you need anything or have any questions or anything.”
    “You’re so darned sweet, Riley. I’m sure you’ll make a girl very happy one day.”
    A full-blown chuckle escaped before he could stop himself, so he turned it into a fake cough. “Gotta go.”
    “Toodles.”
    I turned toward my locker as he bolted down the hallway.
    “Jaws are dropped all around.” Much like a ventriloquist, Tammy talked through nonmoving lips. “You both deserve an Oscar, and I think I need a cold shower. That was hot. “
    “It was fun.”
    “How on earth did you control yourself? If I were dating him, I’d be kissing him ten times a day and sixty times on Sunday.”
    “Shame on you. Don’t you know Sundays are a day of rest?” I exploded into a fit of giggles and dragged her through the hall. “Come on, get me to my first class.”
    “Attie!” Jennifer raced up and threw her arms around me.
    “Hey, girl. Where’s your golfer boy?”
    “He had so many girls stalking him it was crazy. He couldn’t get anywhere near me.”
    “He couldn’t get anywhere near you?” Tammy asked.
    “Be nice. Not all of us have a Riley Bennett to pine away after us. Where is he, by the way?”
    Tammy’s head quickly occupied the space between Jen and me. “They aren’t together,” she announced.
    “What?” Jennifer gasped. “You broke up?”
    “Shh!”
    “You broke up?” she repeated in a whisper.
    Tammy exaggeratingly winked several times. “They were never together.”
    “You weren’t? I thought—”
    “Good gravy, Jen. Did you not see the winks I threw your direction?”
    “I thought you were having an eye spasm.”
    “An eye spasm? What the … ?”
    “So shoot me.”
    “I’d like to.”
    “Okay, you two, knock it off.” I pushed them away from each other and walked to within inches of my bubbly blonde friend. “For the sake of high school entertainment, Riley and I are acting like we aren’t together.”
    Her eyes grew wide. “Oh.”
    “Yeah,” Tammy interrupted again. “The plan was to torture all the busybodies, but the only person being tortured at the moment is Riley. You just missed Attie literally driving him out of his mind. If he wasn’t crazy about her before, he sure is now. I practically had to wipe the boy’s chin.”
    “Always leave them wanting more,” I instructed.
    “You definitely did that. He probably can’t even see straight right now. For an angelic little thing, you sure do have a bit of a devious side.”
    “It’s harmless fun, Tammy.”
    “Uh-huh.” She threw her arm around Jennifer’s shoulders. “So anyhoo, we gotta play along with the act.”
    “I get it. I’m not gonna ruin it. If anyone’s gonna ruin it, it’ll be Tess and Anne. They couldn’t lie to save their souls.”
    Tammy grabbed our elbows and started leading us toward class. “Well, we’re just gonna have to give the girls some acting lessons then, aren’t we?”
    My first few classes of the day went smoothly. Tess was in my first class, Tammy and Anne were in my second, and Jennifer and Curt were in my third and fourth. One of the girls made sure to escort me to my next class so that I wouldn’t get lost and to protect me from unknown predators—or so Tammy said.
    Riley passed me in the hallway four times, and each and every time, he was surrounded by a group of people. I was quickly