How To Be A Perfect Girl Read Free

across from her, the
only other one who hadn’t voted for the “real lesson” simply
watched as their teacher spoke. “What are you doing?” Valentina
whispered at him.
    “Staging a protest,” the boy replied,
flashing Valentina with a smirk.
    “But what if there’s a test on this?”
    “Then I’ll bs it. Besides, explaining the
experiments obviously wasn’t part of his pre-approved lesson plan,
so I doubt he’ll add it to any quizzes.”
    “Pre-approved lesson plan?” Valentina
asked.
    “Yeah, every teacher here has to submit
their lesson plan so the administrators can take a look at it.”
    “How do you know that?” Valentina leaned
forward onto the lab counter.
    “You learn a lot of things when your
mother’s the principle,” the boy smiled. “How else do you think a
slacker like me could get into ‘Palm Lake Prep’?”
    Valentina laughed; it was obvious this boy
wanted to seem cool, and his act was cute. “I’m Valentina, but you
can call me Val,” she offered her hand.
    “And I’m not shaking that,” the boy gestured
at her hand, “You just had it sitting in god-knows-what.”
    “Oh my god!” Valentina screamed; Mr.
Phillips turned to see what was wrong. “What was in that foam?”
Valentina asked, panicking.
    “Just hydrochloric acid. Don’t worry, your
skin will grow back in a week,” Mr. Phillips smiled.
    “I have to go to the nurse!” Valentina was
hyperventilating. “It burns!”
    Jenny shied away from Valentina as she got
up and rushed for the exit. “Wait!” Mr. Phillips called as she was
about to leave. She turned back to face him. “When was the last
time you got burned by water and soap?”
    “Huh?” was all Valentina could say.
    “I was just messing with you,” Mr. Phillips’
expression softened. “The foam decomposes into water after a minute
or two, and the solution on the table was just soap. The worst that
could’ve happened is some of the dye might have gotten on your
arm.”
    Valentina’s face flushed; the other students
were laughing. She slunk back to her seat and sat down awkwardly.
“Keenan,” the boy offered, a toothy grin set on his face.

Chapter 3
    Student Council met in the largest room in
Palm Lake—the cafeteria. Valentina had been surprised that it
started the very first day of school, but in a way it made sense.
At Palm Lake, the Student Council was a big deal—one in four
students was a member.
    Palm Lake’s Vice President, Raelyn Davis,
matched Valentina’s definition of a nerd perfectly; down to the
polo with a pocket protector. She spoke so quietly that everyone in
the cafeteria had to strain to hear; Raelyn didn’t seem to like
crowds, an assumption Valentina made based on the fact that the
senior girls’ bespectacled eyes seemed glued to the floor for her
whole speech.
    Even though several words were lost to the
quiet whispering of the seniors, who’d sat through similar speeches
four times now, Val got the gist of what Raelyn was trying to
say—running for a Student Council position at Palm Lake was more
than a way to measure your popularity; the winners would be
expected to lead their class and occasionally administrators would
call meetings with the four class Presidents and ask their opinion
before implementing policy. It all sounded great, but Valentina was
dubious that it was as important as Raelyn was saying; the
Principal might ask for class Presidents’ opinions, but that didn’t
mean she had to listen to what they thought. In all likelihood it
was simply a matter of making the Student Council feel like they
were important; but there was a chance that those meetings could
actually affect something, and that was what Valentina loved about
Student Council—the social aspect was great, and the opportunity to
affect real change was enticing.
    “So,” Raelyn was still talking, “Now we’re
going to divide into our class groups. freshmen will go over here,”
she pointed to one corner of the room, “Sophomores over