The Girl Who Invented Romance Read Online Free PDF Page B

falling in love with Lulu. Would Octavia kill Lulu or Brandon?
    Wendy has a very intense voice, as if somebody is holding a gun to her head while she reads.
    “Brandon slouches against the tall brick column in the library. His eyes drift past Allegra, for whom he has nothing but scorn, and land longingly on Octavia. No matter how drawn Brandon is to Lulu, Octavia has his heart. But Octavia is being cruel to him. ‘Brandon,’ says Octavia, lips curled, ‘I want a real man with a real name. Dirk, perhaps. Or Lance. Someone on a mission, saving those he loves from certain doom. And you, Brandon, worry only about whether to have a cappuccino or a latte. Do I care about you? Do I care whether you have a Gucci jockstrap? No. Does your body or your mind—’ ”
    And Wendy was off the air.
    It had happened once before when Brandon and Octavia shacked up together. Dr. Scheider got rather fierce about that. I guess Dr. Scheider did not care to have Wendy mention jockstraps, even designer models, overthe school sound system. Perhaps there were school board members in the building, something that did happen once or twice a year.
    Everybody in my history class got a kick out of the silence, waiting to see if Wendy would come back on with a revised underwear statement. But she didn’t. The next announcement was from a guidance counselor about a deadline for applying to something or other. It is a rule of mine never to listen to guidance counselors.
    School was over.
    Everyone raced out of class but I was fastest. Parker is allowed to drive Mom’s car one day a week and this was the day. Parker tried hard to leave without me so he could be alone with Wendy. I sympathized with them but I’d rather be a pain than take the school bus. My romantic ideals apply more to me than to others.
    The crosswalks were jammed with parents in cars coming for their kids. As I stood in the crowd waiting for a chance to rush to the parking lot, Wendy and my brother emerged hand in hand from the office complex, laughing. Whatever objection Dr. Scheider had to that episode, Wendy had won. Parker leaned down a little toward Wendy and she stretched up, and their heads rested against each other.
    The person standing next to me sighed. It was Jeep, his eyes fastened on my brother and Wendy. His handsome mouth turned down sadly and his head tilted wearily. He still wanted to supply the shoulder on which Wendy rested.
    Wendy never glanced our way. She was completely absorbedin Parker, and when they kissed, their intimacy quotient was as high as it gets. Jeep sighed again. He didn’t glance my way either. Whatever Wendy had, I did not.
    But what did I expect? Me with my intimacy quotient of forty-seven? Me in need of professional help because I couldn’t relate to boys? Did I really think Jeep would spot me and suddenly forget all about Wendy and want only me?
    I reached our car just as Park and Wendy did.
    Wendy glared at me. Did the little sister have to show up right now? Couldn’t she just drop dead somewhere?
    “I could drive,” I offered brightly. “Then you could have the backseat.”
    “No,” said Parker firmly. “The backseat is your territory, kid. Always has been, always will be.”
    Kid? He was ten months older.
    He opened the front door for Wendy. I got in back by myself.
    This is my life, I thought. Alone in the backseat. When I sighed heavily, nobody heard. Parker and Wendy were having their pre-driving-out-of-the-parking-lot kiss.
    On the great board game of Romance, I was still on square one.

CHAPTER
3
    I nterlocked hearts are hard.
    They have dead ends. You can’t get your players from one heart to the next. If you add connector strips, you get this jumble of left and right turns and you can’t tell where to go next, and now they don’t even look like hearts, but really bad interstate systems.
    My original attempt of six interlocked hearts turned into gridlock. It was a traffic jam instead of a game.
    My second design had six