Part 24 (1/2)

She paused midstep. The red bandanna was in her hair today, and I was half tempted to reach out and touch it. ”What?”

I paused. Ever since that day last week when we'd climbed out of the well, our relations.h.i.+p had been in a holding pattern. We'd been together-but not officially dating, as if neither of us wanted to disturb the status quo. I had avoided asking her out again because I wasn't so sure she wanted to date a guy who was related to a creature that ate people.

I mean, that's not the kind of thing you put on the family tree.

But if there was one thing the past couple of weeks had taught me, it was that life was too short and too weird to spend it not taking risks.

”Do you a” I paused. ”Do you a”

She grinned and parked a fist on her hip. ”Don't tell me, Cooper Warner, that you're afraid to ask me out after all you've gone through?”

”Of course I'm not afraid.” But I hesitated again. Would she really want me after all this? Want to kiss me? Want to be with me?

”Well?” She arched a brow. The crowds of Maple Valley High kept moving around us in a wave. Faulkner came up behind me and bounced off my back.

On purpose. In the way only an obnoxious older brother could. Tor favor, hermano, ” he said, then looped an arm around Sh.e.l.ley.

”Hey!” I said to him.

He grinned. ”Check your pocket, dude. Su padre le dio un regalo.”

Him and the Spanish again. I was about to deport him. ”What?”

He rolled his eyes. ”Dad gave you a gift. Said if you flunk your Hamlet paper, he's taking it back. Told me to tell you that you, of all people in his cla.s.s, should get Hamlet.” Then he tugged Sh.e.l.ley closer and whispered something in her ear. She giggled and leaned into him before the two of them headed down the hall.

I dug in my back pocket, where Faulkner had reverse pickpocketed me, and pulled out a s.h.i.+ny new cell phone. A grin spread across my face so wide, I thought it might explode. ”I never thought I'd say this, but my father is cool.”

Megan smiled. ”He's always been cool. Your mom, too.”

”Yeah.” I nodded. ”They're not too bad for parents.”

The warning bell rang. Megan arched a brow again, still waiting for me to get to the point.

Oh yeah, that. I had, like, thirty seconds to ask her before someone else did. ”Will you go to the Freshman Fall Dance with me on Friday?” The words poured out of me in a jumble. ”And be my girlfriend again?”

She grinned. ”I thought you'd never ask, Cooper.” Then she stood on her tiptoes and gave me a kiss. And sent my world into a tailspin.

This had to be the best day ever.

I hurried off to my next cla.s.s, still thinking about Megan, not really paying attention to anything else. I headed down the hall by the front offices and nearly ran into Sergeant Ring.

”Cooper. A word?”

I ducked into the princ.i.p.al's office with Mike's dad while the gossip mill got busy in the hall. Seeing me get pulled into the office with a uniformed cop would be enough to keep people talking about me for a year.

”We found your stepfather,” Sergeant Ring said as soon as the door shut behind us, taking a seat on the corner of Mr. Hinkley's desk. Mr. Hinkley wasn't there-probably out busting tardies. ”At the bottom of the well.”