Bad Idea Read Free Page A

is
market-tested and ready to go.”
    “Wow.”
    That earned a giggle from Jo, and Daisy
laughed along uncomfortably. Daisy avoided conversations about boys
because she didn’t think she could manage them without giving
herself away, so Jo thought she was a prude. That wasn’t it
exactly, but Jo did seem so adult and experienced sometimes. Daisy
couldn’t help wondering how far she’d gone and how she felt about
it.
    The door to the classroom slammed again.
    “Ooh, check that out,” Jo said. “Riva’s going
after her. Or something.”
    “Yeah?” Daisy pretended to glance casually in
the direction Riva had gone. “Do you think she’s okay?”
    “I don’t know. Why don’t you go see?” Jo
giggled again like she was kidding, but there was something to
that. Daisy’s throat clenched.
    Could she actually follow Riva? What about
her carefully guarded secret?
    Jo caught Daisy’s sleeve. “He’s coming over
here. Can you clear out? I’ll text you if I still need to ride home
with you later.”
    Daisy shook her head. Jo worked fast, and her
confidence was supreme. Another time, Daisy might have lingered, or
argued with Jo that she shouldn’t angle for a ride home with a boy
she barely knew. She probably still should. Friends did stuff like
that for each other.
    On the other hand, Jo had just given her the
best push she was ever going to get to talk to Riva Corley in the
flesh, for real.
    “Yeah,” Daisy said, grabbing her stuff. “I
just remembered I…need something from my locker.”
    Now that she’d decided to follow Riva, Daisy
worried she’d taken too long. She rushed out the door and glanced
frantically up and down the hall. For a second, it seemed she was
out of luck. She didn’t see Riva’s familiar green backpack receding
in any direction. Then a flicker of motion caught her eye, and she
noticed the heel of a leather sandal just as the girls’ bathroom
door swung shut.
    If that had been anyone but Riva, Daisy
wouldn’t have stood a chance of recognizing her from that brief
glimpse. For all the time she spent avoiding looking at Riva,
though, Daisy had somehow memorized the complete catalog of her
clothing. She had absorbed, as if by osmosis, every fold of Riva’s
heel and freckle on her cheek. She took a deep breath and headed
for the bathroom.
    Daisy pushed open the door just as someone
else was heading out. The girl smirked and inclined her head toward
the still miserable Riva. Daisy nodded awkwardly and pressed
inside. It was close enough to the next bell that the bathroom was
now empty except for her and Riva, and likely to stay that way—at
least until the deans came through to check for people trying to
cut class.
    Gathering every shred of courage she
possessed, Daisy turned toward Riva and offered a tentative
smile.
    The moment just about did her in. Riva was
much lighter than Daisy, but just too dark to be fully white. She
wore video game T-shirts with sandals and capri pants, her outfits
sort of declaring that she didn’t care, but decorated with enough
girly touches to contradict that impression. Her short black hair
was meticulously styled into the controlled waves of a twenties
flapper, and she had big, dark eyes that both thrilled and
frightened Daisy. Riva was obviously smart, and Daisy worried
sometimes exactly how much Riva saw.
    Riva met Daisy’s scrutiny defiantly, though
her eyes were red. Her flowing tears carried streaks of mascara
down her face, washing away her foundation in the process. “Look,
if you came here to laugh at me, you had plenty of time to do that
in the classroom.”
    Daisy shook her head. “No. I—”
    “I’m not going to tell you anything,
either.”
    Though she hoped Riva would change her mind,
Daisy understood the sentiment. If she’d been outed in front of the
entire French class, she wouldn’t have wanted to talk about it
either. The fantasy she’d had earlier returned to her mind, and
inspiration struck. She fished her keys out of her