Speed Dating Read Online Free Page A

something to Quintana, who didn’t seem to react. She just shrugged and walked
     away, as if saying, “Your loss.”
    “Those bitches,” Holly said.
    “She doesn’t look too upset about it, though,” Lina said.
    “I’ll go get her,” Mads said. She imagined Quintana scurrying for the door, ready to dump her uneaten lunch in the trash and
     spend the rest of the period in the bathroom, crying. At least that’s what Mads would have done. But Quintana just looked
     around for another table with another empty spot. Mads walked up to her.
    “Hey.” Mads tapped her on the shoulder. “We’ve got room at our table. Want to sit with us?”
    Quintana smiled, as if she’d been expecting this all along. “Thanks,” she said. She followed Mads back to the table. Mads
     introduced Lina and Holly.
    “Rebecca can be cold,” Holly said. “But she’s not as scary as she tries to make herself look.”
    “Yeah, she’s like a blowfish,” Lina said. “She puffs herself up to intimidate you, but she’s as insecure as anybody else.
     If not more. She just doesn’t want you to know it.”
    “That blowfish technique works pretty well,” Quintana said. “But I’m used to it. I’ve moved so many times, I’m an expert at
     being the new girl. This is my third school this year.”
    “Wow,” Lina said. “That’s rough.”
    “It’s not so bad,” Quintana said. “I like living in different places. Before L.A. we lived in Honolulu, and beforethat, Dallas. My dad’s a business consultant. He works for a new company every six months or so.”
    “I still think it would be hard to change schools all the time,” Mads said.
    “You learn to be tough,” Quintana said. “Every school has its little quirks you have to adjust to. I’ve adopted so many quirks,
     I’m getting to be kind of quirky myself.” She laughed, low and throaty. An oddly adult laugh for a tenth grader.
    “People are pretty friendly here, once you get to know them,” Mads said.
    “We’re a little lacking in cute boyage, that’s our biggest problem,” Holly said.
    “Oh, I don’t know,” Quintana said. “I met some pretty cute guys this morning. Let’s see, there was Mo, and Alex, and David,
     and this extreme hottie who offered to share his muffin with me… Sean? I think it was Sean.”
    “You met all those guys in your first three hours?” Lina asked.
    “You met Sean?” Mads was impressed—and a little jealous. Sean Benedetto was a senior and the school’s major hottie. As a ninth
     grader, Mads had taken one look at him and vowed that someday he would be hers. Now, a year and a half later, she still had
     a long way to go. But the goal was always there in the back of her mind. Sean. Hewas her ideal guy. It took her a year and a half to get him to notice she was alive. And he was offering Quintana a muffin
     on her first day? Why was life so unfair?
    “Why, is he a big deal?” Quintana took the top off her hamburger bun, smothered the meat patty in ketchup, then cut into it
     with her knife and fork.
    “Kind of,” Mads said.
    “To Mads, he is,” Lina said.
    “Not just to me,” Mads said. “He’s the sex god of Rosewood.”
    “Granted,” Holly said. “But that’s only because there’s so little competition.”
    Quintana laughed that low laugh again. “Madison, you can’t let boys intimidate you. If you give them too much power, they
     get so out of hand.”
    She finished three-quarters of her hamburger, wiped her mouth with her napkin, and took a tube of lip gloss from her bag.
     She swiped it across her lips. It was a bright magenta color with gold sparkles in it.
    “I love your lip gloss,” Mads said. “What kind is it?”
    “Munchies,” Quintana said. “Try some.” She handed the tube to Mads. “I don’t wear it for the color so much as the flavors.”
    Mads dabbed the gloss on and licked her lips. “It tastes like… what is that? Chili pepper?”
    “Jalapeno,” Quintana said. “It comes in regular