Look at you, Carlin. You haven’t known her for a week and already you’re whipped, Jude sneered. Get a hold of yourself, woman!

“So should I be ready straight after school?” she wonders.

“Yes, how about three? We’ll leave right after last period,” I suggest.

“That’s fine. It’s a date then.”

My ears perk and eyes light up at the ‘D’ word.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the rest of the day, I’m practically bouncing off of the walls waiting for three o’clock to come. Of course today the clock seems to move twice as slowly. I hope the teachers aren’t saying anything important today (not like they do anyway) because today everything is going in one ear and out the other.

A watched pot never boils, Marty reminds me.

Miraculously, I make it to seventh period without loosing my mind. Every class was a fifty-minute session of torture, but now I’m here waiting for Ms. Davies to finish her chats with the other students. The other day when she finished with Aiden, they both looked weird as if they had just been in a heated argument. Her eyes were threatening to spill tears and he looked very uneasy, like a child who knew he was about to be punished. Either way, she ended her conferences early that day. Today she came out looking fabulous as usual, and called gym to a close letting us talk freely for the rest of the period.

“Come to my house after school,” Madison said approaching me. “My mom is working tonight so I figured we could go to the mall then come back and order pizza and rent some scary DVD’s. We need a girl’s night out…err. In,” she said, correcting herself.

“Can I maybe take a rain check on that?” I ask timidly. “I…kind of already have plans.”

“Plans? With who?

“It’s ‘with whom’” I say.

“Okay smart-ass. I mean with whom are you going with. And don’t lie.”

“Oh, you know…that girl… with the face. Her.” I pause for a long moment. “Ms. Davies,” I confess.

“I’m surprised Spencer. I thought you only preyed on innocent high school boys, but I guess you moved on to bigger, better, more challenging game, perhaps? Even unattainable? Maybe you’re just tired of being a top,” she said teasingly.