Bead-Dazzled Read Free Page B

tailored trousers. With her angular features and her slim hips, she pulled it off. Very clean, very no-nonsense. Emma liked a girlier look, but she admired that Ms. Ling owned her style with confidence.
    She didn’t admire the way Ms. Ling piled on the homework. The first day and she already had to read and outline two chapters.
    The homework kept coming as the day wore on. Emma had planned to use her holiday gift certificate to the fabric store, Allure, to buy a batch of yummy fabrics—she’d been feeling very ultra-suedy—and start draping some of the designs she’d been sketching. How was she ever going to have time for homework?
    She spotted Charlie’s white-blond hair, all spiky today, above the crowd as she made her to her locker after algebra. “Hey there!” she called.
    “Hey there,” came a voice from her other side. A voice softer and deeper than Charlie’s.
    She turned and smiled. Jackson returned her grin. His sky-blue eyes warmed as they met hers. He was even cuter than before the break, Emma realized.
    “I’ve been looking for you all morning,” he said.
    She smiled even wider, unable to think of something witty to say, unable to compose herself and look vaguely cool. She liked that he’d been searching for her. She liked the way his thick brown hair flopped across his forehead.
    “Finally!” Charlie pushed between them. “Em, I’ve got to tell you something.”
    “Can’t it wait?” She flicked her eyes toward Jackson.
    Charlie considered Jackson. “No.” Charlie wasn’t a fan of Jackson. Then again Charlie wasn’t a fan of any of the athletic guys at their school. He was hung up that they were all two-dimensional jocks. But Jackson was different. Emma wished Charlie could see that.
    Emma exhaled. “What is it?”
    “Not here. Private business, you know?” He nodded his head toward the door leading to the inner courtyard.
    “I’m kind of busy now.” She widened her eyes, hoping Charlie would get her hint to give it a rest. She didn’t want to sound mean, but she hadn’t seen Jackson for two weeks. She and Charlie had talked every day over break. Often two or three times a day. “And I’m going to be late for Bio.” The bell was ringing.
    “I’m headed that way, too.” Jackson started to walk and Emma walked with him. “I’ve got computers with Mr. Torrance. The man moves and speaks like a robot. Ever had him?”
    “No.” She turned to look over her shoulder. She felt bad about just leaving Charlie, but he did have English down the opposite hall. “Find me after school,” she called to him.
    Charlie shook his head. “Lame,” he mouthed.
    Emma groaned. Charlie could be way too judgmental.
    “Listen, hey,” Jackson began as they neared her Bio classroom. “We’re playing the Kirkwood Cougars at home in our gym tonight. I’m starting.”
    “Wow. Big game.” She knew Jackson was on the basketball team, and she knew that Kirkwood Academy was Downtown Day’s biggest rival, but she didn’t know much more. Sports weren’t her thing. Not even a little.
    “Yeah, you could come and watch.” He looked at her hopefully.
    They’d stopped walking. Emma sensed bodies flowing around them to get through the door, but she couldn’t move, especially when he was staring at her like that. He wanted her to be there for him! “Totally. When’s the game?”
    “At six.”
    “Okay, I need to go to work after school, but I’ll be there,” she promised.
    “Work?” He tilted his head, confused.
    “For my dad. I help out at his lace business after school. Remember?” Her stomach sunk a bit. Hadn’t he ever listened to her?
    “Right. But didn’t you say you were interning for that fashion designer? That Allegra woman?” Jackson stepped to the side to let Abby Diehl wiggle through the door.
    “Good memory, I’m impressed. Yeah, I do intern for her…sometimes…when she needs me.” Emma tried to keep it vague.
    That was the story she’d told. That she was an intern