Secrets & Surrender 2 Read Free Page A

Just slap a pair of white gloves on her and call her Minnie.
    “That’s me. Oh my God! Mandi!” she squealed, running up to me. “Are you my tutor? That would be so cool.”
    She hugged me. The girl actually hugged me!
    Aww, hell no!
    I stiffened in her arms, looking around the room. This was a test. It had to be. Was I on Candid Camera or something?
    I had made it through most of the summer and fall semester without having to see the perky redhead. Even though I’d told Nic that I was okay with him seeing any of his friends, including Kristie, he’d kept true to his word. He never mentioned her. Now here she was, bouncing up and down in all her redheaded glory, endless squeaks coming out of her mouth.
    Wait. I think those sounds are words.
    “Bianca told me how smart you are with math and everything. And algebra is way harder than it was in high school. And I really don’t have anyone who can help me. I’ve been so busy trying to study, I haven’t been able to make any friends. And I don’t really know anyone around here. And I left Nic a few messages to see if you two wanted to hang out or maybe go tubing down the San Marcos River. Did you know they had tubes for that? I didn’t. Anyhoo, I guess you two have been really busy because he hasn’t returned my calls. And now you’re here. How cool is that?”
    I gazed into her way too happy baby blue eyes. Why did she have to look all innocent like that? It really looked like she wanted to be friends. Well, I wasn’t going to fall for it. She had to have some type of hidden agenda. No one was that nice.
    “Yeah, it’s cool,” I said, trying to keep the skeptical tone out of my voice. “Come on, let’s get started.”
    * * *
    I n about ten seconds, I was going to kill Kristie Stanton.
    The girl was driving me ape-shit. She was totally clueless. Okay, so maybe that was a little mean. But really, I had no idea how the girl had graduated from high school.
    We’d been working on the same algebra problem for an hour! The same one! For some reason, she couldn’t get it. Her tiny face would scrunch up, looking at me like I was speaking a foreign language. Maybe the weight of all her hair and that big bow on her head was preventing brain synapses from firing or something because for someone who went to one of the best private school’s in the country, she didn’t have a clue about basic algebraic properties.
    “Look, Kristie,” I threw down my pencil in frustration, “I don’t know how else to explain it to you.”
    “I’m sorry, Mandi. I’m trying. Really, I am.”
    I fought back the guilt that flashed through me when wet blue eyes met mine. She wanted me to feel bad. Yeah, that’s right. It was all an act. It had to be. She was totally bogus. 
    “You know what your problem is, Kristie?”
    “What?”
    She looked at me with wide eyes, like I was about to reveal the secret to algebra or something. I so wanted to tell her off, to tell her that her problem was that she was being fake and was only here to get her perfectly manicured claws into Nic. Yeah, I was going to tell her off and give her a piece of my mind.
    “You’re in the wrong section. I heard that Professor Thompson gets off on flunking over half his students at midterm.”
    Way to tell Kristie off. Even worse, I’d actually given her a tip to help her out.
    “You could switch sections. Professor Hall’s class is way easier, and he even gives extra credit for watching movies based on anything remotely related to math.”
    “No, I want to stay in Professor Thompson’s class.”
    Whoa! That was so not the answer I was expecting.
    “You’re kidding, right? I mean, why make it so hard on yourself. It’s just one class. Besides, you’re majoring in elementary education. You just need the basics.”
    “I don’t want just the basics.” Her voice shook as her cheeks reddened. “I know I’m slow, but I can do it. I want to do it. I’m tired of being treated like I don’t know anything.