“That sounds awesome,” Jake says. I can see his mind running wild about being in a hotel room alone with Whitney.
The girls next to her all giggle, hold hands, and look at Whitney in awe, like she just announced she discovered a cure for cancer, not suggested a weekend away.
Peyton says, “Somewhere with a spa sounds incredible.”
Whitney says, “Of course, that’s how we’ll relax.”
Bryce and Tyrese say at the same time, “I’m in.”
Whitney turns to Dawson. “What about you, Dawes? You in?”
Dawson cocks his head and shrugs his shoulder. “Sure, why not.”
Whitney smiles and clasps her hands together indicating that it’s a done deal. “Mark your calendars and I’ll take care of everything else.”
I finish my lunch quickly and go off to do more campaigning.
When I hand out all the candy in my bag, I find Katie, Annie, and Maggie sitting with Riley and Dallas and some other guys.
I sit down next to Dallas.
“We’re going to the cave tonight,” he whispers to me. “I don’t care how much homework you have or how tired you are. You’re going. You, me, and Riley. Don’t invite anyone else. I mean, we can’t stop people from being there, but, you know, we don’t have to tell them we are going, and we don’t have to invite them. And that includes your boyfriend.”
“He’s not my boyfriend. Stop calling him that.”
“I don’t care what you call him. I just want to talk to you without him sucking on your face.”
“Okay, fine.”
“Tonight, baby.” Riley grins at me.
“How’s the campaigning going?” Dallas asks me, Katie, and Maggie.
“It’s going great,” Maggie says. “It’s a great way to talk to everyone. We handed out a ton of candy, and I had three seniors ask for my number.”
“What do you think of my competition?” I ask Annie, who is probably the most informed.
“Well, I’d say your only real competition is Benjamin. He wants to be President someday, he’s very serious, and he would probably do a really good job. He’s talking about all sorts of important issues, like funding and economic change.”
“It’s freaking Student Council, people, he’s not going to affect funding or economic change here.”
“Well I don’t know, he just sounds good when he talks, and he’s kinda sexy, in that nerdy kind of way.”
Great.
I silently curse Bill Gates and all the other rich internet techno whiz geeks for making nerds in vogue.
Riley’s like, “The guy’s a douche.”
Dallas interrupts, “Riley and I have an idea that could get you more votes than the douche.”
“Really, what’s that?”
“Let’s shoot a video promoting your campaign. We can dress you all sexy, and then you can look like you’re going to undress, like those web domain commercials, and say if you vote for Keatyn, you will get a special access code to get on the web to see what happens next. All the guys would vote for you for sure. And most of the girls, too, just because they would want to see what you did.”
Riley’s like, “It’s a good plan, Kiki. YouTube’s where it’s at.”
“So, basically, I could vote for Benjamin, tell you I voted for me, then you’d give me the code?”
Dallas scrunches up his nose. “Oh, yeah, well, we might have to rework that.”
“And what would I do in the access code video?”
Riley says, “Well, uh, we thought maybe take your shirt off.”
“ARE YOU NUTS?!”
“Calm down, it was just an idea. We’re trying to help you here.”
“I’m not buying votes with nakedness. I’d probably get kicked out of school for that.”
Riley leans over and whispers in my ear, “Wouldn’t be the first time you did something that could get you kicked out.”
I punch him.
Dallas scratches his head. “We didn’t really think of that either.”
“How’s your speech coming?” Annie asks. “I think the speeches will be important.”
“My speech sucks.”
“Let me see it; I’ll work on it.”
So I give her my little cards.
Dawson comes up behind me and says, “If you’re done, let’s go outside.”
And I happily do.
We sit on our bench.
He kisses me sweetly and then a little not-so-sweetly.
“Dawes, we can’t kiss like this out here, or we’ll get in trouble.”
Kissing is pretty much okay, but sitting around seriously making out in public is sorta against school rules.
“I can’t help it. God, you’re sexy. I’m the luckiest guy at school. The library was amazing. Like, crazy amazing.”
“Yeah, I don’t know what got into me. Well, actually I do. That was payback for what you did to me during the game last week.”
“When I had my hands under your sweatshirt?”
“Yeah, you know exactly what I’m talking about.”
He kisses me. “You liked that, huh?”
“I did, obviously.”
“So, I talked to my parents last night.”
“Oh, what about?”
“About you.”