The Boy Project Read Free Page B

haven’t had a single one? It’s as if bad luck is following me around like that cat in
Bad Kitty
, which is a book about a girl whose life gets pretty crazy after a cat crosses her path.
    I mean Gina Johns isn’t even that cute. She does what my mom calls “overcompensating.” Too much flirting. Too much makeup. Too much giggling. Too much jewelry. She has very black hair. (It was brown last year.) She uses very black eyeliner. And she wears very black boots all the time. Even in summer.
    I just don’t understand what the attraction is. Well, maybe I do. But I can’t be like that. If James likes the kind of girl Gina is, he’s definitely off of my list of possibilities!
Homework time (According to my parents)
    I didn’t have a chance to take notes on anyone else during school. But I was determined NOT to let James Powalski be the last guy I studied. Let’s just say I’m hoping for sweet dreams tonight.
    So when I heard Chip Tyler laughing in the back of the bus, I decided to focus my powers of unobtrusive observation on him, even though he:
is not a huge improvement over James.
got on my very last nerve today.
cannot possibly be right for me, according to my mimi.
    I know Chip isn’t right for me because one time I asked my mimi how she knew to pick my grandpa, and she said:
You don’t pick who you love the most. You pick who annoys you the least.
Well, if that’s the gold standard, I can absolutely strike Chip Tyler off of my list! That boy is
so annoying
. He’s the type that taps your left shoulder if he is standing on your right. Then he snickers about it when you turn your head and look into the eyes of . . . no one. Plus, I still can’t forgive him for shaking my hand in that closet.
    If that isn’t enough evidence, what he did during Mrs. Hill’s class third period proves that he’s the most annoying guy on the planet. Or at least in the seventh grade. Today the sub passed around a sheet for us to sign to prove to Mrs. Hill that we were in class. Lucky for me, Tabbi was the last one to sign it — because she noticed my name wasn’t on it. When she passed the paper back to me, I saw that my name had been erased and
Anita Bath
was written in place of it.
    Chip was bent over, acting like he was tying his shoe, but I could see his shoulders shaking so I know he’s the one who wrote it. Typical. With his head down, I had the perfect chance to erase his name and write
Stu Pitt
instead. I did this quickly, before I could talk myself out of it, then ran the sheet up to the sub.
    I really don’t think Mrs. Hill will suspect that I wrote the phony name, because I never do anything wrong. Honestly. I’m
that
boring. I hope boring people can find love, too. Never mind. I know they can. Look at my parents.

    Taking notes on Chip is probably a big waste of time. But it will be worth it if I don’t see James in dreamland tonight.

Thursday, January 4
Waiting for first bell to ring
    Evan and I were walking into the building at the same time today and he said, “Hi,” and I said, “Hi.” No big deal, right? Wrong! I’m trying to get up the nerve to talk to him at lunch.
First period. After the test.
    I just turned in my test on the Battle of Gettysburg and I figure as long as I look down, Mrs. Willis won’t claim I’m not keeping my eyes on my own paper. If she
does
call me out, it’ll be totally hypocritical because Tiffany Davidson
never
has her eyes on her own paper. She always has them glued to Alex. Not Alex Brantley. Alex Langford. I took a good long look at him, too, while I was walking back to my seat.

    Alex Langford is like a watered-down version of Alex Brantley — just like his girlfriend, Tiffany, is a watered-down version of Maybelline. Tabbi and I call Tiffany “The Sponge”
because if Colleen is the makeup, then Tiffany is definitely the applicator sponge! She soaks up