The '68 Camaro Between Kenickie and Me (Pacifica Academy Drama Book 2) Read online

  What had they ever done to him?

  “Don’t you think it’s weird you’re hiding, from your so-called best friends, the fact you’re doing the competition with your club?” His voice now held an edge to it. “I’m friends with most of those kids. They’re really cool and nice. And seem to love the real you.”

  His words stung parts of me I never knew existed.

  “And why don’t you want anybody in school to know the real you?” he continued. “A tomboy who loves and knows about old cars. A girl who has a...great smile and laugh and sense of humor.” He paused, then said, “I’ll bet if we’d run into anyone from school today, they wouldn’t have recognized you. You’re so different when you’re not with Ella and Quinn.”

  “Just stop!” I said, since I didn’t want to hear any of this. “You don’t know them. We’ve been friends forever. And everybody has different sides to their personalities.” I narrowed my eyes. “You’re a drama boy who knows how to drive and work on old muscle cars, but want to be a marine biologist who studies sharks? That’s three totally different sides to your personality.”

  He narrowed his eyes, too. “None of that’s a secret from my friends, Sunshine. And I don’t care who in school knows all that about me.”

  His words stung my eyes to the point they watered, followed by a long crack. The tightness in my chest made it hard to breathe again. I had to get away from him…his judgment I never expected…and I opened my door. “Thanks for everything.” I flung the words at him over my shoulder, not sounding at all grateful, and guilt made my stomach clench.

  I scrambled from the car, took a huge gulp of air and somehow stopped myself from slamming the car door behind me. It wasn’t the AMX’s fault this day ended as an epic failure. I then marched to the front door without a backward glance. But even in my fury of emotions I noticed he didn’t leave until I closed the door behind me.

  I blinked the tears from my eyes and caught my breath.

  If I didn’t get myself under control, I’d never get through FaceTiming with my parents. Or my birthday dinner with my grandparents. I couldn’t—wouldn’t—break down into a mess.

  So much for being just friends.

  Chapter 20

  “You look like something that would come out of your little dog,” Warren said.

  I replied with a nasty glare.

  “What’s its name?”

  “Chloe.” I grabbed her before she could dart out of the house, then straightened.

  He walked into the foyer and closed the door. “What happened to you, Madam Veep?”

  I set Chloe down and shrugged. “Rough night.” That included more tossing and turning than I had ever done in my life.

  Warren and I decided on Tuesday to work on the presentation for Mr. Yates. Grams planned to take us to rehearsal later. Something I wished I could skip.

  It had taken every ounce of my strength to drag myself from bed and pull on a pair of yoga pants, a sweatshirt, and pull my hair up into a messy knot.

  If my mother saw me right now, she’d faint from repulsion.

  “Are your grandparents here?”

  “No.” I headed down the stairs to my bedroom, and Warren and Chloe followed me. “They’re running errands.” I knew this because they’d left me a note in the kitchen.

  As far as they and my parents knew, I’d had an extraordinary birthday. But I’d left out him driving the car like he had stolen it. And amazing kiss. And everything that happened after our amazing kiss. But thinking about him caused my lower lip to tremble.

  “This is a nice house,” Warren said as I led him to my room.

  “Thanks,” I murmured before biting my lip to stop the trembling.

  I then realized he was the only other person from school, besides Ella and Quinn, who’d been in this house. I couldn’t count Shane—I stopped that thought and collapsed onto my messy bed. Chloe jumped up beside me, and I rubbed her sweet face.

  “I fully plan to be the nosy friend who looks at everything in your room.” He set down his backpack and sat in my desk chair.

  What really made my heart and soul throb was I had no one to blame but myself. Because he’d been right about me being scared. Yeah, I was the bitch almost everyone avoided. But it’d kept me from being the topic of any gossip for three years. How could I go from that to what would happen if we got together? What would happen with my friends? He obviously didn’t like Ella and Quinn. No, they…Ella…weren’t perfect, but we’d been friends for a long time. I couldn’t throw away our friendship over a boy. Not even a boy like Shane.

  But then, why would I have to choose them over…my heart?

  “Hello? What’s up with you?” Warren waved his hand in my face.

  I lifted my eyes from Chloe and focused on him.

  “Did you get your party on for your birthday last night and not invite me?”

  The other Natalie, if Ella and Quinn had been here, probably would’ve been somewhere she didn’t belong and partying with a bunch of strangers. I now seemed eons away from that girl. And it didn’t feel like a bad thing—my eyes widened.

  Ella and Quinn never texted or sent me Snapchats yesterday. On my birthday.

  I sighed. “No. I just…didn’t sleep well. And my friends are gone, remember?” I muttered. “They also still don’t know I’m not grounded.”

  I’d never, no matter what, forgotten their birthdays. And the guilt from not being honest with them about my grounding lifted off my conscience. I felt ten pounds lighter.

  He sat back in the chair. “Natalie, I think of you as one of my best friends.”

  We had become close because of the club, and his comment patched a portion of my cracked heart.

  “I know something’s going on with you. You’ve been way too nice lately. And smiling and laughing.” Warren tilted his head. “It’s not like you.”

  I remembered Shane’s…brutal honesty from yesterday.

  I’ll bet if we’d run into anyone from school today, they wouldn’t have recognized you.

  I frowned since, maybe, what he’d said wasn’t too much of an exaggeration.

  “I’m not the only member who’s noticed,” Warren continued. “And you’re telling us stuff you’re not telling your besties. Are you three on the outs right now?”

  I watched Chloe settle into a spot on one of my pillows, not sure how much to say.

  “And Meg’s convinced you’ve got it capital B-A-D, bad for a guy you won’t tell us about.” He smiled. “Which could explain your out-of-character good mood.”

  Damn Meg and her big mouth. But as much as I trusted Warren, and my other club members, I couldn’t tell them—or anyone else—I had it capital B-A-D, bad for Shane Easton. And Kassidy, being active in theater, was good friends with Shane and Maddie.

  So I responded the only way I could—rolled my eyes and lied. “There’s no guy.”

  “I’m just repeating what Meg told me.”

  “Well, she’s wrong. And we’re trying to save the club. We can’t do that if we’re divided.”

  Totally the truth and, feeling a bit more weight lift off my soul for being honest, I quietly added, “Ella and Quinn don’t know I’m doing the competition with all of you, and wanted me to be in their routine for Ella’s campaign.” I sighed as more weight lifted.

  Warren’s expression and eyes softened with sympathy. “Nat, you’re gonna have to tell them. They can’t be mad at you forever over something like this. And I know we’re trying to keep being in the competition on the down low.” He shook his head. “But too many boyfriends know about it. And Shane knows. I’m not saying they’d blab. But accidents happen.”

  Everything he’d said mirrored what I’d been thinking.

  “Is this really all that’s bothering you?”

  “Yes.” I stood and walked toward my desk where I kept my laptop. We—I— needed to focus on something entirely different. “Let’s get this done.”

  About an hour into creating our presentation, using a
s many of the positive comments as we could, I realized one idea kept showing up. Being able to talk to other students about stuff they didn’t feel comfortable talking about with their parents, or even their friends. But not serious enough to involve a teacher or our school counselor. And a lightbulb came on. As if what I’d read flipped a switch.

  Smiling for the first time since watching Shane limp back into the skating rink, I lifted my eyes from all the papers I held. “Warren, I think I figured out what our new name should be.”

  Chapter 21

  My heart picked up its pace as I headed for the stage.

  There were about the same number of kids working this morning as there had been a week ago, and I easily found him. He was with Paige and Liam, crouched on all fours with his back facing the auditorium, and working on the scoreboard I knew we’d finish today.

  His position gave me a great view of his butt.

  I remembered his Wednesday wipeout and wondered if he felt better.

  Mr. Lowry, talking to a couple kids near the front row seats, looked up when I tried to sneak by him.

  “Another late sleeper, I see.” He sounded more amused than irritated.

  I so hadn’t wanted to come today. But making up a half hour would be much easier than making up four hours.

  “Sorry. Not feeling well today,” I said, not lying, before heading for the stairs closest to where my three partners were working.

  I slowly walked up the stairs. My heart now wanted to explode from my chest.

  Paige looked up from painting the word HOME. I guess that meant I’d paint the word VISITORS. Liam paused from his painting long enough to give me a friendly smile. He and Shane were painting the bottom portion of the scoreboard.

  Shane, dressed almost exactly like he’d been a week ago, including the backward baseball hat, had his earbuds in with the cord tucked behind his sweatshirt. He’d never worked and listened to music before, which meant he didn’t want to talk to anyone. Namely me.

  He looked up and our eyes met. For two seconds. Then he went back to painting.

  I dropped to my knees.

  If this was how it would be for the remaining weeks of community service, it might be worth finishing my hours at one of my mother’s charities. On the plus side, I didn’t see or hear Theresa. Maybe she’d taken my advice from a week ago and flown back to her evil monkeys.

  “You don’t look any better than you did Thursday,” Paige said.

  Our rehearsal had been another rough one with the “dancing” while lip syncing. But I’d brought my laptop with me and everyone perked up when we showed them the presentation. Everyone also loved the new name. I’d gotten another group hug, which I’d needed and loved.

  “Are you getting sick?” Paige leaned backward, as if I were suddenly contagious with something that could kill her. “I catch everything. So keep your distance if you’re getting sick.”

  I did feel sick, but my sickness wasn’t contagious and a hundred times worse than the flu.

  I eyed Shane, still focused on his painting, and said, “Paige, I’m not sick. I just…haven’t been sleeping well.”

  “Well, it must be going around.” She pointed at Shane and made a sour face. “He’s in a really bad mood.”

  Just what I needed. More guilt.

  “Paige, I can hear you.” Shane lifted his head and yanked his right earbud out. “My music isn’t that loud.”

  I stared at the scoreboard.

  Had he heard what I said? But maybe he needed to hear he wasn’t the only one hurting.

  “Sorry,” Paige mumbled and focused on her painting.

  “Paige, don’t listen to him.” Liam gave his best friend a hard stare. “You’re not pissed at her, so don’t be a dick.”

  Wait…what did that mean? Had he told Liam about us? But if he had, Liam probably wouldn’t have given me a friendly smile when I got here. So had he been referring to Maddie?

  Shane’s expression became flat. Just like it did before we left the rink’s parking lot.

  He twisted his earbud back into place and continued painting.

  Liam glanced at me and mouthed “O-kay.”

  Guilt lowered my shoulders, and I picked up the extra paintbrush.

  He’d told me Maddie had a lot of personal stuff going on and was trying to be just friends with her again, but based on what Liam said, I had a feeling that wasn’t going well. And I’d all but ripped the car floor out from underneath him three days ago.

  I couldn’t really blame him for being in a rotten mood.

  We worked silently as we finished the scoreboard. Totally fine with me, too, because I, like Shane, didn’t feel like listening or sharing.

  Mr. Lowry walked over when we finally finished. “Looks great. Shane, can you and Liam lean it up against the back wall? Then I need to talk to you and Natalie. Paige, you and Liam can help with the backdrop. We need to get it done today.”

  I halted.

  Why did he need to talk to us? Had the tension between us—in our group—been that obvious?

  I peeked at Shane. He’d taken out his earbuds when we started cleaning and they were hooked over the collar of his sweatshirt.

  He, and with that flat expression, said, “Sure. I’ll be right back.”

  He and Liam carefully picked up the scoreboard and carried it to the back of the stage.

  Paige sent me a what’s-that-all-about frown, then walked away.

  I bit my lower lip.

  My heartbeat went back into overdrive as I searched my brain for a reason Mr. Lowry wanted to talk to us. Outside of our tension, we hadn’t done a thing to warrant his attention.

  Shane walked up to me and Mr. Lowry, and stood at least a foot away from me.

  Apparently, we now had The Great Wall of China between us.

  My heart would’ve cracked further. If it hadn’t been beating so hard.

  “You’re Kenickie and know what Mrs. Chaplin wants for the ‘Greased Lightning’ number.” Mr. Lowry’s eyes went to me. “You said you wanted to work on the car.”

  My breath slowed.

  Oh…shit.

  “You two also seem to work well together. So, I’m putting you guys on the car. Starting now. You’ll have three Saturdays to get it done. And that’s all you’ll be doing.”

  A week ago this would’ve been a gift from the car gods. But now? No. This could so not be happening. And I didn’t dare look at Shane to see his reaction.

  “Before you leave today, you’ll need to sit down and figure out what supplies you’ll need to build the car. I can have the supplies for you here next Saturday. Okay?”

  I shook my head, stepped forward and pushed some hair behind my right ear. “Mr. Lowry, I don’t know anything about building a car. Not like Shane does. It would be better if he and Liam—”

  “I need Liam on the backdrop and other things. You two will do great. I know it.”

  Mr. Lowry walked away, leaving us and our sickening tension behind. And there went my desperate thought about working with my mother.

  His continued silence caused me to sigh and say, “Shane, I’m really—”

  “It’s fine.” His eyes connected with mine for the second time. “We are just friends.”

  I clenched my teeth at the way he said that. And at his mouth curving into a smirk.

  He took a step back. “I’m going to go find some paper and a pen so we can get this done. I’ll meet you out in the house.”

  I gave him my back and marched toward the stairs.

  Okay. I’d made a…pretty bad choice picking up his phone…and hurt him on Wednesday. But we were somehow going to have to make peace.

  He walked up with a pad of paper and pencil, and flopped down in the aisle seat, two seats away from me. I guess that meant his butt felt better.

  I quietly said, “Shane, we’re going to have to be friends—or at least be friendly—to get the car done. We were friends before…Wednesday.” My voice hitched on the word, but I added, “There’s no
reason we can’t go back—”

  “And pretend like everything between us never fucking happened?” He faced me.

  The hurt and sadness and confusion in his dim eyes squeezed my soul. But I couldn’t look away from him.

  “What do you want from me, Sunshine? Besides friendship,” he muttered.

  I ignored that, took a shaky breath and whispered, “I want you to understand I’m doing you and us a favor.”

  “No,” he whispered back. “You’re not doing me any favors. That’s about you.”

  Oh…What was it about his honesty that made me feel like I’d suddenly been stung a million times? And I was protecting him. He deserved better than being judged and the topic of horrible school gossip. Why couldn’t he see it that way?

  He leaned forward. “I opened up to you on Wednesday because I’m crazy about you. You opened up to me for the same reason.” He shrugged. “But you care more about what everyone at school will think of you, and us being together, than being the awesome girl from Wednesday.” He stood. “I can’t do this with you right now. I’ll work on the list this weekend and give it to Mr. Lowry Monday.”

  He headed for the auditorium doors.

  I wanted to follow him and scream what did he want from me?

  But it’s not like I didn’t know the heart-clenching answer.

  Chapter 22

  I dragged myself into school Monday and wanted to turn around and drag myself out.

  The school buzzed with back-to-school-after-a-break commotion. The office looked busy with parents and students. The hallways were filled with loud, excited chattering and laughter. Kids talking to their friends about their trips or how they’d spent their break.

  A headache started on the right side of my head.

  I made my way upstairs and hoped I wouldn’t see him. I never did, but after everything that happened between us, I half expected to run into him. That would be my luck.

  I turned the corner and my steps failed at who I saw standing at my locker.

  Ella and Quinn were waiting for me. They looked the same and at the same time…different. Like they were strangers. I couldn’t remember the last time the three of us hung out together when we weren’t at school. It must’ve been right before I got grounded. But I couldn’t remember what we’d done together. I couldn’t remember that Natalie.