tell her you would, but your mom already bought you your picture-day ensemble and she’d be mad if you didn’t wear it. (That isn’t entirely true, but your best bud doesn’t need to know that.)
agree to wear the same outfit, but bring an extra set of clothes to change into right after so that you don’t have to go around looking like twins for the rest of the day.
go with her idea, even though you spend the whole day feeling pretty silly.
Give yourself 1 point for every time you answered A, 2 points for every B, 3 points for every C, and 4 points for every
—If you scored between 5 and 12, go to Chapter 23.
—If you scored between 13 and 20, go to Chapter 15.
You are a slacker with a capital S. If there is an easy way to do something, you choose it every time. And you’ve never met a couch you didn’t like. Not that slacking is always a bad thing. After all, your body and your brain do need a certain amount of rest to function properly. But you’re getting enough rest for an entire soccer team! Once in a while, why not try to put in a little extra effort? You might be very proud of what you can accomplish when you challenge yourself.
By the looks of this library, it hasn’t been cleaned since the wheel was invented. There are piles of books and paper everywhere, mounds of dust are collecting on the bookshelves and windowsills, and there are stacks of encyclopedias that need to be put back in order. Truth be told, it makes you tired just looking at it!
You sigh at the unfairness of this punishment. But hey, that’s what you get for letting Mona trick you into texting in class. Oh well. You guess you’ll start with the easiest thing: the pile of paper spilling over the reception desk. You halfheartedly gather a pile and stack it neatly before trying to figure out where each piece should go. You start to make separate piles, but pretty soon you forget which pile was for what, and you end up just moving the same pieces of paper from one pile to the other. You try to focus, honest. But you’re much too busy fantasizing about all the ways you’d like to get back at Mona. Planting a hive of bees in her locker? Nah, too dangerous. Posting an ugly picture of her on Facebook? Eh, that wouldn’t work. As evil as Mona is, she is also annoyingly pretty, with jet-black hair, deep blue eyes, and flawless skin. Even her teeth are perfectly straight. And the fact that she’s a model makes it hard to catch a bad picture of her. She seems to always be prepared for the camera. Maybe if you—
“You’re not going to get much done that way,” a voice says from behind one of the stacks, interrupting your daydream. You realize now that for the past few minutes, you haven’t even been shuffling paper. You were just resting your cheek on your hand and staring out the dusty window. According to the clock, you’ve already wasted most of your lunch period.
“Huh? Who said that?” you cry, a bit embarrassed at being caught slacking on the job.
“I did,” the voice says again. Finally, you hear the squeak of a book cart being pushed by Joey Cruz. You couldn’t be more shocked if you tried. Joey is a total rock star on the baseball team and is an all-around popular guy. The fact that his deeply tanned skin makes him look like he just got back from a sun-kissed beach certainly doesn’t hurt. Not to mention he has a tall, lanky build, short black hair, and unusual light brown almond-shaped eyes. Even his eyebrows, which are a little bushy, and his slightly crooked bottom teeth make him seem mysterious. The best part about him, though, is that he seems completely unaware that half the girls in school are into him. You’re used to seeing him walk around the halls with long, easy strides, in oversize T-shirts and baggy jeans, iPod earbuds in his ears, casually nodding to friends as he passes by. He always seemed friendly, just way too cool to ever be in the same place at the same time as you. You don’t even have any classes with him. So what is he doing here in this dirty library—pushing around a book cart no less?
“H-hey,” you stammer, caught completely off guard. “Were you texting in class too?”
“What?” he asks, tilting his head in confusion. Then you see understanding dawn on his face. “Ooh, I get it. You were sent here as some kind of punishment, yeah?”
“Yeah,” you confirm. Being identified as a small-time criminal is not exactly the first impression you hoped to make if you ever actually had a conversation with Joey. So much for that. “What about you? This isn’t some weirdo form of baseball practice, is it? Because if I were you, I’d quit the team.”
Joey throws back his head and laughs at that. To your surprise, even though he looks more like Derek Jeter, he has a deep, full laugh that makes him sound like Santa Claus. It’s contagious. You can’t help laughing too. As his laughter fades away, he shakes his head and points at you. “You’re funny.”
You raise your eyebrows in surprise. I am? you think. Sweet!
“Actually, I’ve been volunteering here a few times a week to take care of the library while Mrs. O’Donnell is on maternity leave.”
“Really?” You don’t mean to shout, but you never thought that really popular guys did nice things for others unless they were forced to.
“You don’t have to sound so surprised,” Joey says, seeming only slightly offended. “I know I’m a jock, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like books. Actually, Mrs. O’Donnell is the one who got me into science fiction. Some of it’s really good. And she helped me out when I was having trouble with Shakespeare.” He pauses, looking down quietly at his cartful of books, as if he is remembering all the kind things Mrs. O’Donnell has done for him. You never noticed before how cute a boy can be when he’s being thoughtful and not so loud. Even the uneven dip in his chin suddenly seems more appealing. You only realize that you’re staring at him when he turns his caramel eyes to the floor and starts rubbing the back of his neck.
Joey shrugs suddenly, snapping out of his thoughts. “Anyway, she’s just always been really cool with me, so I figured the least I could do is try to keep the library in some kind of order while she’s out. But”—he glances at the mess that is overwhelming the desk where you are sitting—“it’s kind of a two-person job, yeah?”
You look down guiltily at your shuffled papers. “Ha-ha…yeah. Sorry about that. I guess I haven’t exactly pulled my weight.”
He laughs softly this time. “That’s all right. Why don’t you just help me reshelve these books?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
For the next few minutes, you put books away in relative silence.
“You have a lot on your mind, yeah?” Joey asks after a while. “You’re pretty quiet.”
You reach to put a history book back on a shelf. “Sorry, I guess I’m just worried about this audition.”
“That choir thing? Cool. Are you going for the solo?” For a moment, you’re floored by the fact that Joey knows—or cares—about the choir auditions.
“Well, I was going to, but now I’m not sure.”
“How come?” Joey asks. Wow, he actually seems interested in how you feel. Maybe you’ve been really wrong about the popular cliques.
“Well, you know Mona, right?”
Joey holds his hand up to his shoulder. “About this high, pretty face, mean streak?”
“That’s the one!”
“Sure, I know her. Who doesn’t?”
You kind of wish you didn’t. But since you do, you go on to tell Joey everything that has happened since this morning: from signing up during homeroom, to history class, to ending up in the library—leaving out the part where you consider putting a hive of bees in Mona’s locker. You might be guilty of misjudging Joey, but you know for a fact that you’re not that far off base when it comes to Mona.
“Dude,” Joey says when you’re done. “Sounds like Mona really does have it in for you.”
“I know!” you cry, happy to have someone confirm what you already believe. “So that’s why I’m not even sure I feel like auditioning against her now. I’m thinking I might just skip it, you know?”
You fully expect Joey to support your dropping out of the audition. What else could
he say after hearing your tale of woe?
“Not auditioning now would be so lame,” Joey says matter-of-factly. Huh? Wasn’t he supposed to be telling you how sorry he felt for you right about now, and saying that he would completely get it if you didn’t want to deal with going up against Mona?
Seeing the look of outrage on your face, Joey grabs a nearby footstool and takes a seat, resting his hands on his thighs. “Look,” he begins seriously, “Mona thinks she’s got you on the ropes, so now you’ve got to audition. Otherwise she’ll feel like she can scare you out of anything, yeah?” Jeez, even the way he says “yeah” all the time is cute. You wonder vaguely where he picked up that habit.
“Yes, but what if I do it and then she’s even more evil to me than she was before? Or what if she—”
Joey cuts you off with an exaggerated yawn. “Boooring,” he says.
Your mouth drops open. You’re not used to anyone being so blunt with you. You kind of like it.
He stands up, puts his hands on your shoulders, and looks deeply into your eyes, giving you a chance to notice the wiry muscles beginning to develop in his arms, probably from hitting all those home runs. “Coach always tells us that if we want to win, we have to make up our minds to do it. That’s what you’ve got to do!”
You peer at him, a little doubtful. “Just decide to win, huh?”
“That’s it. But if you need some extra motivation,” he says, leaning back, “how about I take you out after school if you actually go through with the audition?”
Joey never stops surprising you. You could be wrong, but you’re pretty sure he just asked you out. For a brief moment, you want to hug Mona for getting you in trouble during history class. But thinking about her sends your mind reeling again. Can’t anything today be easy?
The good news: You were brave enough to sign up to sing—even after you saw that auditioning meant going up against your archnemesis, Mona. The bad news: You let her bait you into a text-message war during class that got your phone confiscated and you sent to do hard labor in the library. And your inner slacker let the whole lunch period tick by without finishing the job, which means there was zero time to hunt down your teacher and beg for your phone. So you’re still phoneless and have no idea what’s going on with your friends. What you do know is that you’ve had baseball phenom Joey all wrong. Not only is Joey not a slacker (unlike some people you know), but he’s a really nice guy and he’s given you some much-needed tough love. He even asked you out, kind of. Sweet! It’s tempting. But you promised you would go by Jimmy’s art exhibit later, so you don’t know if you can take Joey up on his offer. Besides, you still aren’t sure you would stand a chance against Mona. Sometimes it’s hard to find the silver lining when all you can see are dark storm clouds. So what to do? Take the quiz to figure out if you’ll be able to see past all the problems and find the solution.
QUIZ TIME!
Circle your answers and tally up the points at the end.
You are going to the hospital tomorrow to have your tonsils taken out. How do you feel?
Great. It would be silly to feel nervous. The surgery you’re having is routine and no big deal. Plus you’re pretty sure you’ll get to eat your weight in ice cream and Jell-o over the next few days. You’ll be just fine.
You are understandably a little jittery. (After all, any surgery involves some risk.) But you know a bunch of people who’ve gone through it and they’re all okay, so you probably will be too.
You are kind of freaking out, even after asking your doctor a zillion questions. You trust him and all, but what if something goes wrong? (You may not be entirely sure what your tonsils do, but it can’t be a good thing to have them removed.)
You are in major panic mode. What if they take out your voice box instead of your tonsils and you can never talk again? Aaaaagh!
You’re reading an exciting new book and one of the chapters ends on a cliff-hanger with the main character in big trouble. Are you worried?
Not at all. You know she’ll find some brilliant way out of the mess. She always does.
A little. She’s in a real bind. But if anyone can find a way out, she can.
Definitely. You have no idea how you would get out of that jam. You doubt that she’ll find a way, but since there is a small glimmer of hope, you read on and keep your fingers crossed.
Very. No way is she getting out of this one. You don’t even bother reading the rest of the book because you can tell it won’t have a happy ending.
Your parents have planned a family cross-country trip in an RV. You think it’ll be:
awesome! You’ll get to ride around in an RV, spend lots of time with your fam, and see all the different states. Plus you can send your friends goofy postcards from each stop. You can’t wait!
okay. You’re a little worried about getting cabin fever (and taking regular showers), but for the most part it’ll be great. Anything that goes wrong will just make for some funny stories later.
fun part of the time, but really long car trips can be a drag. And to be honest, you’d rather lie out on the beach than see the Grand Canyon. But for your family’s sake, you’ll grin and bear it.
awful! You’ll probably get motion sickness, your little bro is bound to get on your nerves, and you’ll be away from your friends for weeks. If you could stay home, you would.
Your best friend just told you she’ll be moving away next month and is really upset about it. You tell her that:
you’ll end up writing and talking on the phone even more than you do now! There will be so much more to talk about since you’ll be at different schools. And you can always visit. Her move might actually bring you closer!
the two of you can keep in touch through Facebook and Twitter. It won’t be as good as getting to hang in person every day, but it’s the next best thing.
you’ll stay in contact for a while, but it’ll be too hard to keep in touch for long. So you’d better prepare yourselves for the inevitable.
you’ll probably never see or talk to each other again. People always say they’ll keep in touch, but they never actually do. You might as well say your good-byes now.
While riding your bike in the park, you fell and broke your leg—right before your prom! How do you feel?
Actually, you think it’s pretty cool. All your friends will want to sign your cast, and making up dances that you can do on crutches might be funny. (All the attention and sympathy you’ll get will just be icing on the cake.)
Not too bad. It is terrible timing, but you know your friends will help you get around. And if you sit most of the night, no one will even notice that your cast clashes with your dress.
It’s kind of a bummer. You were really hoping to wear your cute kitten-heeled shoes, but you’ll be wearing a huge clunky white cast instead. Still, it could have been worse. You could’ve broken both legs!
It stinks. There’s no way you’ll have a good time now, so you might as well skip it.
Give yourself 1 point for every time you answered A, 2 points for every B, 3 points for every C, and 4 points for every
—If you scored between 5 and 12, go to Chapter 18.
—If you scored between 13 and 20, go to Chapter 19.
Good for you! You’re no stranger to hard work and you don’t mind putting in a little extra effort if it means a bigger payoff. You tend to do more than what is expected, making you a favorite of your teachers and anybody you work for, which is great. Just be sure to relax once in a while too…. Everyone needs some downtime to recharge their batteries.
Glancing around the library, you see you’ve got your work cut out for you. There are books piled up everywhere that need to be put away, there is a mountain of dust on each bookshelf, and the reception desk is buried under an avalanche of paper. It has only been a few weeks since the librarian, Mrs. O’Donnell, went on maternity leave, but already the place looks more like an ancient ruin than a modern library. Good thing you’re always up for a challenge. This won’t be any di
fferent from the millions of times you’ve reorganized your own room.
First you take on the easiest job to get it out of the way. You grab all the loose books floating around and put them back on the shelves where they’re supposed to go. Thanks to the numbering system, that part is a piece of cake. Tackling the army of dust bunnies is tougher, but they’re no match for the rag and lemon Pledge you find behind Mrs. O’Donnell’s desk. With a little elbow grease, you have those shelves and the windows gleaming in no time.
Finally, you tackle the papers covering every inch of the reception desk, separating them into three piles: trash, file, or miscellaneous. Thankfully, the trash pile is pretty large, so you’re able to recycle a ton of paper. And Mrs. O’Donnell’s files are top-notch, so filing the second stack of paper doesn’t take long at all. You are just straightening out the miscellaneous pile and arranging it neatly in Mrs. O’Donnell’s in-box when you hear the squeak of a library cart. You’ve been so consumed in your work you didn’t even realize that you weren’t alone.
From inside the librarian’s office, Joey Cruz comes into view, pushing a cartful of books toward you. Joey is even more popular than Shawna, partly because he is one of the biggest stars on the baseball team, and partly because he happens to be one of the best-looking guys in eighth grade. For starters, he’s a little taller than most of the other guys, and he has caramel-colored eyes that really stand out against his tan skin. Despite the fact that his eyebrows are kind of bushy and his bottom teeth are a little crooked, he is a bona fide school heartthrob—not that he seems to know it. He’s usually too busy playing baseball, working on his batting stance, or listening to his iPod to notice anybody drooling over him. So what is he doing tooling around a dusty old library?
Your Life, but Cooler Page 10