Speed Dating Read Free Page B

what a worm is thinking while it gnaws on Ramona’s grandmother’s corpse.”
    “Ew,” Mads and Holly said together.
    “The journal is called
Inchworm,
and nobody ever writes about worms,” Ramona said. “The worm takes everyone after they die. No one is exempt. Except people
     who get cremated. I think. Do worms eat ashes?”
    “You think I know?” Holly said.
    “You have to admit it’s unusually precocious,” Ramona said.
    “Or just creepy,” Lina said.
    “It’s better than a sappy story about the county fair,” Ramona said.
    “At least that’s of local interest,” Lina said.
    “You are going to get busted for that story,” Ramona said. “Everyone will figure out who Pete and Tess are, eventually. And
     then you’ll know what it feels like to weather a storm of ridicule.”
    “Like you do every day?” Lina said.
    “Precisely.”
    Ramona had a knack for finding Lina’s sensitive spots—and a tendency to be negative.
It’s nothing to worry about,
Lina told herself.
Just Ramona being Ramona. That is, a pain.

3
The New Girl’s Got It Going On
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    To:     mad4u
    From: your daily horoscope
    HERE IS TODAY’S HOROSCOPE: VIRGO: You will encounter a sticky romantic problem, and you won’t be able to un-stick
     it until you get that glue off your fingers.
----
    Y ou look so cute on roller skates,” Stephen said. Mads snuggled against him in the compact backseat of his red Mini-Cooper.
     She wore jeans and a red cowgirl shirt that had actually come from a kids’ store. She was petite, still small enough to wear
     children’s sizes, though she preferred not to, unless it was something kitschy-cool, like the cowgirl shirt. She wore a red
     bandanna in her dark hair and looked upat Stephen with her small, sleepy eyes.
    “Who doesn’t look good on skates?” Mads said. “Especially under a disco ball, with Jed Cheatham on the Mighty Wurlitzer. It’s
     the equivalent of a camera lens smeared with Vaseline—makes everybody look great.”
    They’d gone to an old roller rink Stephen had found way out of town, where instead of dance music an old man played a Wurlitzer
     organ while couples waltzed on roller skates. The men wore 1950s Elvis clothes, and the women wore full skirts that swirled
     around their legs. Mads and Stephen felt awkward in their jeans and lack of waltzing ability, but still, it was fun. The old
     four-wheeled roller skates they rented were clunky compared with the Rollerblades they were used to. Stephen, tall and skinny
     and serious-faced, grinned goofily when he tried to waltz.
    “I love the way you’re always slightly off-balance,” Stephen said. “Just when I think you’re about to fall down, you wave
     your arms or grab the rail and save yourself. It’s the suspense. Like a horror movie. Will she fall? Oh, no!… she’s okay…
     no, wait… there she goes!… caught herself again—”
    “Yeah? Well, there’s no suspense watching you,” Mads said. “You fall on your butt every five minutes. I could set my watch
     to it. And yet, no matter how many times I see it, it’s still funny.”
    “Funny-strange or funny-ha-ha?” Stephen asked.
    “Funny-sexy,” Mads said.
    “Funny-sexy?” Stephen repeated. “What does that mean? It doesn’t really make sense—”
    “Quiet, you.” She stared at him in the dark for a second. The streetlight made his eyes glow. “I don’t have to make sense.
     I’m Madison, Queen of the Wild Frontier.” She closed her eyes, and he kissed her.
    They hadn’t been going out for very long, and Stephen had been away in Europe with his mother for several weeks, so they were
     still shy and tentative with each other. Stephen pressed his lips against hers, and her head tilted back awkwardly. She didn’t
     try to move or say anything. She didn’t want to spoil the moment.
    But she felt stiff, and her mind wandered. She remembered something she’d read in
Cosmo
that month, an article about kissing tips. Something about a