Wallflower

by Cookie O'Gorman

  But Dare and I weren't a thing. I'd served my purpose. He'd given me a pity 'hey'. One car ride. That was the extent of our relationship. It was all good.

  I scoffed, prompting the Lab to give me a baleful glance. "Mark my words, Snape. That will be the last I hear from Dare Frost."

  He chuffed, laying his head on my leg.

  "Don't worry, big guy," I said, running a hand through his soft fur. "No more brushing. You look gorgeous. We're done."

  Just like me and Dare.

  #

  Apparently, I'd spoken too soon.

  The next morning, after I'd gone through my daily routine, I stepped outside—and lo and behold, there he was, waiting just like yesterday. I still had to do a double-take. Dare being at my house was anything but typical.

  I walked over to where he was leaning against my car and crossed my arms.

  "You're here again," I said, trying to mask my surprise.

  "Yep," he said with a shrug. "Car's still not fixed."

  "Oh."

  "It may take a while to get it up and running."

  I swallowed. "I see. I thought yesterday was a one-time thing."

  Dare stared into my eyes. "Is that okay? Me riding with you? I'd appreciate it. I can give you gas money, but I don't want to put you out."

  I found myself shaking my head. This was silly. Why was I making this so weird? We were classmates, both headed to the same place, and if nothing else, helping Dare would be good karma. "No…it's no problem," I said.

  "Great." Dare smiled then walked around and opened my door. "Let's go," he said.

  I frowned across Buttercup's yellow hood at him. "I thought we agreed to no more door opening."

  Dare snapped his fingers. "Aw shoot, that's right. I forgot. Sorry," he said, not sounding apologetic at all.

  I rolled my eyes. "'Aw shoot'?" I parroted. "Really?"

  Dare smiled. "What? It's a habit, Vi. A gentlemanly reflex."

  I laughed at that, and his smile grew.

  After we both were settled in, I sat there, keys already inserted but not starting the engine…uncertain. Ugh. Why was Dare being so nice all of sudden? Also, what was up with my heart skipping a beat just because he got the door for me again? And why was I over-thinking this?

  Dare noticed my hesitation. "What's up? Something wrong with the car?" he asked.

  "No," I said, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel, glancing at him out of the corner of my eye. "Buttercup's fine."

  "O-kay," Dare said. "Is it something else then?"

  Yes, I thought. This was supposed to be a one-off, and now, I'd be taking Mr. Popular to school for an indeterminate amount of time. Excuse me for needing a moment.

  Sighing, I reached into my bag, pulled out two packs of peanut butter crackers and two oranges, placing one of each on the console for him. I also placed my thermos and a smaller one in the cupholders. Dare looked at the items. When his gaze shifted to mine, his eyes were bright.

  "Are these for me?" he asked. "I thought you didn't know I was coming."

  "I didn't," I said, blushing. "But I brought two just in case…"

  "Ah flower, you shouldn't have." Dare grinned as he tore into the makeshift breakfast. "Now that you're giving me treats I may never leave."

  For some reason, his words paired with the delight he seemed to take in eating set off butterflies in my stomach.

  I shrugged. "I just don't like sharing."

  "Yeah, sure," he said. "Whatever you say."

  The drive went by in companionable silence except for the sounds of us enjoying our food. It was fast, and we got to Durham High in good time. Once we were outside of the car, Dare looked to me, but I waved him on.

  "Well, bye," I muttered, noticing several people eyeing us again. Whitney, Ingrid and a couple other girls were a few cars down, and they stared at us while whispering back and forth. Whatever they were saying, I knew it couldn't be anything good. "Hope you have a nice day."

  Dare shook his head in amusement. "You know, if you keep driving me, we'll have to walk in together at some point, right?"

  Yeah, but not today, I thought.

  "I have to go to the band room again."

  Dare shrugged. "You do you. Catch you later."

  Blowing out a breath, I walked in the opposite direction, my nerves releasing the further away I got from him. But after a few steps, I had the weirdest feeling. His parting words echoed in my mind. Catch you later. What had he meant by that—and why did he sound so certain?

  Maybe I was just hearing things, I thought.

  After all, people said that phrase all the time. No need to read anything into it.

  I shook my head. Don't stress over it, Viola. You're simply giving him rides to school. And this is only day two. It's still new. If people want to do a little staring, that's their prerogative. It was only to be expected.

  What was totally unexpected…was when Dare came and sat with me at lunch later.

  I had my earbuds in, listening to music, and was deep into reading a new release from one of my favorite authors, when suddenly a tray plopped on the table in front of me. Looking up, I caught Dare's gaze as he stood there, watching me. My jaw dropped, and I pulled an earbud out.

  Glancing around, I asked, "Did you need something?"

  "Yeah." Dare's eyes were serious as he frowned. "Nobody puts Baby in the corner."

  Oh my God, I thought. There really was something wrong with him. Dare Frost had totally lost it.

  Seeing the concern on my face, Dare broke character, laughing out loud and gaining some curious stares. "God, I've always wanted to say that. And your reaction made it so satisfying."

  "I'd never have taken you for a Dirty Dancing fan," I mumbled, part of me glad he wasn't cuckoo, the other part still wondering why he was speaking to me at all.

  "Said it before. There's a lot you don't know about me."

  "Yeah well, your delivery could use some work."

  "Noted." His laughter petered out as he took a seat.

  "What are you doing?" I asked.

  "Sitting with you," he said like it was obvious.

  "But why?"

  "Why not?" he said as he dug into one of the three burgers on his plate. He also ate some fries before swallowing, then added, "I would've been here yesterday if I'd known you had lunch this period. You're a hard one to find, Viola."

  My gaze narrowed as he took another bite of his sandwich.

  "Again, why? We've never eaten lunch together before," I said, putting a bookmark inside my paperback to hold my place. There were a lot more people here than in the parking lot, and Dare was drawing people's attention like he always did. He may have liked the spotlight. But I definitely did not. "Don't you want to eat with your friends?"

  After polishing off that first burger, he raised his gaze to mine. "You've taken me to school two days in row and even made me breakfast."

  "I wouldn't say I 'made' you breakfast" I muttered.

  "Whatever." He tilted his head, his dark hair falling over his forehead in the most distracting way. "Don't you think that makes us friends?"

  "No," I said in disbelief. "We don't even know each other."

  Dare nodded. "But we're on the right track."

  "What does that even mean?" I asked.

  "Why do you sit in the corner anyway?" Dare said, completely ignoring the question. "No one really sits over here."

  "To be anti-social," I said deadpan, "and to avoid people gawking at me—like they are right now thanks to you."

  "Ah well." He sat back, gesturing to himself. Even in the crappy cafeteria lighting, his blue eyes sparkled. "Can you blame them? I'm pretty fun to look at."

  And then he winked.

  At me.

  Right there in front of everyone.

  My face heated. "Could you not do that."

  "Do what?" he said.

  "That." I ran a hand through my hair, trying to cover my face a little and hide. "People will think you're flirting."

&
nbsp; Dare stared at me. "And?"

  Ugh, it felt like I was in the freaking Twilight zone. "You know, maybe I sat over here because I didn't want to be found," I said. "Did you ever think of that?"

  "Too bad," he said with a cockiness I hadn't heard in a while. "I already found you. And now, we're having lunch. Deal with it."

  Before I could say anything else, a second tray was placed next to his and Tyson sat down beside Dare.

  "Hey man," he said, looking around. "Why are you sitting all the way over here? I couldn't find you for a minute, thought you'd be at our usual spot."

  "Yeah," Dare said, "I decided to change it up. This is Viola's secret hideaway."

  Ty moved his eyes to my face, and he smiled. "Oh, I see. It's kind of cool over here, less crowded anyway. Hey Vi, I didn't know you had lunch this period."

  As usual, I got a little tongue-tied when confronted with Tyson's beauty. "Yeah hey," I laughed nervously. "Dare just came over. I'm not sure why."

  "She was trying to get me to leave again," Dare added.

  "I was not!" I said but Dare just gave me a look. "Well, maybe I was," I conceded. "But this is weird." My eyes went to Tyson's. "Don't you think it's weird?"

  "Eh, it's different," he said then shot me a smile that had me blushing to the tips of my ears. "But not bad different."

  "I'm sorry about the whole confession thing," I blurted. "If it made you feel uncomfortable."

  "Nah, don't worry. I'm used to it."

  He was used to girls telling him they loved him out of the blue? Okay, awesome. That meant I was one of many. Maybe then I shouldn't be so embarrassed in his presence.

  "Seriously," Tyson added, "we're cool."

  I blinked. "Okay, if you say so…"

  Dare didn't say anything, but I could almost feel him taking in the interaction between me and his friend.

  Soon more girls and guys came over, filling up the table until there were no seats left. They were mostly popular kids I'd noticed hanging around Dare before. We'd gone to school together for a while but had never talked much. Actually, I thought, this was the first time I'd eaten with other people since middle school. I could feel eyes on me and looked across the way to see Whitney staring from where the popular crowd used to sit. They'd migrated from her table to mine. And she did not look happy about it.

  Not happy at all.

  CHAPTER 5

  But the weirdness didn't stop there.

  Oh no, lunch was only the beginning. Dare's peculiar behavior escalated after that until it felt like I was living in what I mentally came to refer to as my life's version of Stranger Things.

  In Literature, when Mr. Carville asked us to pair up into fours for a project, I had a moment of anxiety. I'd always hated working in groups. It forced interaction between my classmates and me, and though other people may have liked working with their friends, I was often left out, waiting to be assigned to a group by the teacher.

  Today, that wasn't the case.

  "Hey, want to work together?"

  Dare didn't wait for my answer, just pulled his chair over to mine and sat down, walking right by Whitney, who'd looked like she was about to ask to be in his group. She glared at me as if it were my fault he'd passed her by. Sheesh.

  "Um okay," I said, my brow furrowed. "Then we just need a couple of other people—"

  "Got room for two more?" another voice asked.

  "You know it," Dare said as Jovonte, one of Dad's starters from the team, joined us along with his girlfriend, Estelle.

  "I'm feeling very good about this group," she said with a big smile. "There's good juju over here for sure."

  Jovonte rolled his eyes. "You and your juju."

  "Hey, just because you're blind to cosmic energy doesn't mean we all are." Estelle held out her hand to me. "Hi, I'm Estelle. Are you a new student?"

  Dare choked back a laugh as I winced. "Yeah, no. I've gone to Durham all four years. I'm Viola. Nice to meet you."

  "Ooh, like Viola Davis," Estelle said, shaking my hand. "I love her. And you'll have to excuse the dumb question because I actually am new, have only been at DHS since last year. You and me, we're going to be friends. I can already tell."

  I forced a laugh. This girl was kind of kooky, but in a nice way.

  "Maybe," I said.

  "Oh no, we will be," she said matter-o-factly. "I can feel it."

  Jovonte sighed. "Sorry about her," he said then turned to his girlfriend. "Estelle baby, Viola is super smart, which is what makes this a solid group choice." Ah, and there was my other reason for not liking groups: nine out of ten times, I usually ended up doing all the work. "She's also our coach's daughter," he added.

  "Oh." Estelle's brow was pinched. "How come I've never seen you at any games?"

  "I don't go to them." I shrugged. "Never really liked soccer."

  They all gaped at me.

  "You don't like soccer…and your dad is the head coach?" she asked.

  "He's more than that," Dare put in. "Becks Kent is a legend and not just by North Carolina standards. He went pro right out of college. He was brilliant, one of the best players ever." Shooting me a look, he added, "How can you not like soccer?"

  "Sports aren't really my thing," I said.

  Estelle shook her head. "No, no, Viola, this can't be right. You have to come to the games, sweetie. It's just bad juju if you don't."

  Dare smirked. "I'd have to agree."

  Jovonte nodded. "You should come see us play. Our team is killer—especially my man, Dare, here."

  The three of them looked to me.

  "I'll think about it," I said just to appease them. One of the main reasons I didn't like going to Dad's games was because it always reminded me of how dissimilar we were, and that no matter how much he loved me, I knew it had to be disappointing. I didn't inherit one shred of his athletic ability, unlike the guys on his team, and I wasn't a social butterfly like him either. The other semi-embarrassing reason was that I never had anyone to sit with. It may have sounded silly. But the truth was…it was hard being the only person alone in a crowd. Luckily, Mr. Carville pulled our attention back to the assignment, and they let the subject drop.

  In the hall between classes, Dare always seemed to find me and do that chin lift guys do, saying "hey" or "what's up, Vi?" as he walked past. It was surreal.

  But it wasn't just him who found me in the halls.

  A few members of the football team had decided that it was time to resume their immature ritual. I was walking to my last class, coming from the band room after my private music lesson, when Penn Cavendish, Rex Turley and Jimmy Valdez made their presence known.

  "Do you guys smell that?" Penn asked. He was their leader, the kicker of our lackluster football team, and he'd also been Whitney's on-again, off-again boyfriend since freshman year. "Man, it wreaks all of a sudden."

  "Oh yeah," Rex laughed. "I smell it."

  "Huh?" Jimmy said. "What are you guys talking about? I don't smell anything."

  Penn sniffed long and loud as I rolled my eyes and kept walking. "Oh, I know. It's the stink of wet animal. Looks like you're still as gross as ever, Dog Girl," he said, sidling up beside me. "Maybe you should wash a little harder, get rid of that disgusting stench."

  "Maybe you should grow up and stop being such a creep," I muttered, but it did no good.

  The barks followed me all the way to seventh period. Thank goodness, I didn't have it with those idiots, I thought. Study Hall was basically just a free period, but it was also one of my favorites. Some quiet alone time at the library was just what I needed after that encounter.

  Unfortunately, not five minutes after I sat down, Dare settled himself into the seat next to me.

  "Hey," he said as he pulled his notebook and phone from his bag. "Fancy meeting you here."

  I crossed my arms and stared until he finally looked up.

  "Did you hit your head or something?" I asked.

  Dare frowned. "What?"

  "It's a serious questio
n," I said, eyeing him suspiciously. "You've been acting very OOC, being way too nice."

  He chuckled. "No one's ever accused me of being nice before."

  "I know!" I said. "It's totally unlike you."

  "What am I like then, flower?"

  Cocky, arrogant, intimidating, self-assured, unattainable.

  Instead of answering, I said, "Aren't you nervous this will damage your rep? Being seen with me?"

  "I could give a damn about my rep, Vi."

  I shot him a look of disbelief, replaying what had gone down in the hall, the nickname Penn and his cronies had saddled me with simply because of some stupid picture Whitney posted years ago. "But you're popular. And I'm…not." The words Dog Girl flashed through my mind. "Don't you care what people think?"

  "Hmm, let's see." Dare pretended to be deep in thought for a moment then said, "Nope. I don't. Now can you keep it down? I'm trying to study here."

  "But—"

  Mrs. Reynolds, the librarian, shushed me, and my mouth immediately snapped shut. Looking from her to Dare, I couldn't believe it. This was the first time any teacher had ever reprimanded me. And it was all because of him and his odd behavior. As I watched Dare grin out of the corner of my eye, I just couldn't shake the feeling that something was up.

  The rest of the week was more of the same.

  I drove Dare to school each day. He sat with me at lunch (which meant Tyson along with a whole bunch of Dare's friends/followers were there as well), worked with me on the Lit project (along with Jovonte and Estelle, who was growing on me), continued to sit with me during study hall, though I blatantly refused to speak to him just to see if he'd back off.

  He didn't.

  Everything changed on Friday. It started as I was leaving my locker about to head to my first class.

  "Hey Vi, wait up," Dare called out.

  I froze as he strode toward me. Did he have to say that so loud? Like I said, I was not a fan of attention, but here he was pulling all eyes to the two of us again. When he was about a foot away, Dare stopped and put his hands on his hips.

  "Where's my treat?" he said. "You were in such a hurry you forgot to give it to me this morning."

  I had. We'd been running a bit later than usual because my hair drier decided to die. And yes, okay, I'd stayed up way too late watching this new K-drama, which resulted in me waking up later than usual. But hadn't everyone done that before? There'd been no time for breakfast or small talk. I'd zoomed here and went to my locker first thing. But for the past three days, without fail, I'd brought him something to curb his seemingly endless appetite.