Ex-Rating Read Free

when there’s nothing else to do, and I can talk to him
     about my crushes and stuff. He gives great boy advice
.
    What do you think of your ex as a boyfriend/girlfriend? (What was good and bad about him or her? Vices? Habits? Hang-ups?
     Family problems?)
He’s really nice and cute. He’s really into music—if you don’t like the bands he likes, he plays them over and over until
     you give up and say you like them. But overall, he’s a great guy
.
    What would a new person have to have (that you didn’t have) to make a relationship with your ex work?
She should love indie rock and hip-hop, and she should be nice and fairly together. Other than that, just chemistry, I guess
.
    On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, rate your ex:
10
    “Now that’s a good guy,” Lina said.
    “Wait—I saw a good match for this guy,” Holly said.
    She pawed through a pile of printouts—matchmaking questionnaires—until she found the one she remembered. “Here—Alison Hicks.
     She’s in ninth grade, she likes music, and she seems sweet.”
    “It could work,” Lina said.
    “Let’s see if she’s interested.” Holly forwarded Derek’s X-Rating to Alison.
    “Look” Mads said, scanning down to the next form. “Someone X-Rated Sean!” Mads had a giant, long-standing crush on Sean Benedetto,
     the handsome blond It boy of the senior class. Completely unreciprocated, of course.
    Your name:
Ashanti Burke
    Your grade:
11th
    Your ex’s name:
Sean Benedetto
    Your ex’s grade:
12th
    How do you know him/her?
school
    How long were you together?
two weeks
    Who dumped who?
I guess he dumped me, but he never said anything to me. He just stopped calling, and the next thing I knew he was seeing some
     blond named Jane
.
    Why did you break up?
Guess he lost interest
    Are you friends now?
Kind of. We joke around a lot, and he’s nice to me. Once I got over getting dumped, I didn’t hate him anymore
.
    What do you think of your ex as a friend?
He’s okay
.
    What do you think of your ex as a boyfriend/girlfriend? (What was good and bad about him or her? Vices? Habits? Hang-ups?
     Family problems?)
He’s so friggin’ sexy, it’s hard to say no to him. But so many girls like him. His eyes are always straying. He has a huge
     ego. But on the other hand—so cute!
    What would a new person have to have (that you didn’t have) to make a relationship with your ex work?
She’d have to be like a hypnotist who can put him under a spell to control him. Or she’d have to have something no other girl
     has—what, I don’t know. She’d have to be some kind of movie star or something
.
    On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, rate your ex:
2 (I was just writing in to complain about him.)
    “I didn’t know Sean went out with Ashanti Burke,” Mads said.
    “Or Danica Ball, or Shelby Smith, or Ariel Gruber?” Lina said.
    Mads scanned through the forms. “Oh my god, there are at least six X-Ratings of Sean here.”
    “And they’re all bad,” Holly said. “Listen to this: ‘Sean went to the bathroom in the middle of our date and never came back.’”
    Lina laughed and read another one out loud. “’Sean asked another girl out in front of me while we were at the Halloween Dance.’”
    “Wait—here’s a good one,” Holly said. “‘Sean came to pick me up for a date and hit on my mother!’”
    Lina and Holly keeled over laughing. Mads laughed, too, but it hurt a little. She loved Sean’s outrageousness. Maybe Holly
     and Lina thought it was obnoxious, but Mads wouldn’t change anything about Sean. Okay, one thing: She’d make him notice her—truly,
     deeply notice her. If only! Though she’d settle for being superficially noticed, too.
    “He’s still with Jane,” Mads reminded them. Jane Cotham was a tall, beautiful, hip, blond college student who seemed to have
     Sean in her power. Mads got to know her a little bit that spring when they both acted in a play Mads’ mother had written.