Andrea and the 5-Day Challenge Read Online Free Page A

men.”
    “No, Andrea, boys. Aubrey boys. But Luke hasn’t proven himself to be a total sleaze-ball. There may be hope for him yet.”
    “Luke’s great,” I replied. From the looks on their faces, that was totally the wrong response, especially as I sighed afterward. It seemed to make them salivate for more of me exposing my innermost heart and soul. “Uuh, you guys.” I covered my face with my books. “There isn’t anything going on, so forget it.”
    Amy lowered the books in front of me. “Trust me, you want to ask Luke.” She arched her sandy blonde eyebrows resolutely. What did she know?
    I frowned at her. “I believe we had a similar conversation this morning when you encouraged me to ask Luke Ryan to homecoming and my response hasn’t changed. It’s still…” And then I spied Luke coming up between Angie and Amy. Dear Lord! I was going to be sick. A buzzing erupted in my ears. “I’ve got to go now.”
    I pushed past them and darted through the crowd to the girl’s bathroom. I knew I had to be quick. Luke played sports so there existed a definite possibility he could catch me even with my freakishly long legs. I pushed through the door and leaned against the wall.
    Shoot! He’d heard everything. Everything—including the part where I’d contemplated asking him out. I could never talk to him ever again. It was over. Humiliation snaked down my back. I felt completely nauseous with my stomach churning my frustration over and over. Good thing I was already in the restroom. Well, I would just have to hide out for now because no way could I face Luke. Ever!
    Even if that meant I had to miss English, even if it meant I flunked The Scarlet Letter test, even if I got detention for ditching class—it would be worth it.
    Of course, Mom would never understand why I got detention for hiding out in the bathroom, or the F, for that matter. She’d want to know the whole embarrassing story, and I’d dealt with enough mortification for one day, thank you very much.
    I cracked the bathroom door open and peeked out. No sign of Luke. Uh, I’m such an idiot. He heard and he doesn’t care what I said. Either that or he was avoiding me as if I were Chuck Willis—who wears socks with his sandals.
    This is what I got for contemplating change. I should know better. Like the last time I took it into my head to be adventurous. On the other hand, maybe I was just making this out to be something bigger than it really was. I’m sixteen years old and here I was acting like a middle schooler.
    Luke definitely wasn’t Jeff. He would never treat me like that, would he?
    Possibly, Luke had waited but he’d had to get on his way to Senior English. How pathetic was it that I had his entire schedule memorized? OK, I might have a teeny bit of a crush on him after all, and it just took my kooky friends to open my eyes.
    Still, I’d been much happier being blissfully ignorant of my heart’s condition.
     
     
     
     

3
     
    I entered AP Junior English and sank into a seat three seconds before the bell erupted. My heart continued to hammer from the necessity of running the entire way from my locker so as to avoid one of the infamous tardies given out by Mrs. Holloway.
    “Where have you been?” Amy whispered from her seat behind me.
    “Bathroom.”
    “Are you OK? What happened back there?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Did you know Luke was looking for you?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    At that moment, Mrs. Holloway quieted down the class and instructed us to take the next five minutes to study The Scarlet Letter notes.
    I felt pretty good about the test. I’d spent all last night studying for it, but for good measure, I pulled out my notes and let my gaze skim down the page. It had the secondary benefit of possibly detracting Amy from talking to me.
    My ears, however, couldn’t help but take in Stephanie Ruiz whispering rather loudly to her friend, Julie Chung, sitting diagonally across the aisle from me. Stephanie sat sideways in the desk