Virtually in Love Read Free Page A

mysterious text from earlier. What had that been about? He hadn’t even mentioned it just now. For a second I was tempted to call back, but then I checked the time and realized it would have to wait. Hurrying to the booth, I slid back in next to Vanessa.
    â€œHow’s Mr. Wonderful?” Kaz asked, grabbing the last onion ring off the plate.
    â€œHey!” I protested.
    He grinned, leaned his head back, and opened his mouth, dangling the onion ring over it. Just before it touched his lips, he relented, tossing it over onto my plate.
    I smiled and popped it into my own mouth before he could change his mind and take it back. “Thanks,” I mumbled with my mouth full. “And since you asked, Trevor is great. I just asked him if his band can come play at your party, and he’s totally on board.”
    Obviously, that was a joke, and they both knew it, since Trevor lives, like, three hours away. But while Vanessa laughed on cue, Kaz faked a look of horror. “No boy bands allowed!” he said, making a little X with his fingers as if warding off a vampire.
    That made Vanessa laugh even harder. I just rolled my eyes. “Hey, what can I say?” I cracked in return. “I figured live music would be the best way to get people to actually come to your party.”
    Kaz just grinned and grabbed the coffee from Vanessa to take a sip, not looking too worried. He might be a classic nerd in some ways, but Kaz is surprisingly popular at school. And everywhere else, come to think of it. Oh, things hadn’t started out that way. Back in early elementary school, he got picked on by some of the bullies now and then. But he was such a nice guy that even the worst of the jerks seemed to feel kind of bad about it. It didn’t hurt that his cousin Maya is a popular cheerleader who’s a grade ahead of us. Or that I’m like a Chihuahua—always willing to bark in the face of a bigger, tougher dog, especially if that big dog starts messing with one of my friends.
    â€œSo, back to your birthday,” I said after swallowing the onion ring. “What do you want for your gift this year?”
    Kaz took a noisy slurp of the decaf and then pushed it over to Vanessa. “You guys don’t have to get me anything.”
    I picked up a fork and helped myself to some pie, which the waitress had delivered while I was gone. “You say that every year. Can we drop the charade this time? You know Van and I are getting you something. So what do you want? A year’s supply of oboe reeds? Tickets to that weirdo Gilbert and Sullivan group you like so much?”
    â€œNo, I’m serious. You don’t need to buy me anything like that. Just the party is enough.” Kaz reached across and picked a mushroom out of the omelet, which Vanessa was in the process of devouring. “Besides, you definitely shouldn’t spend any more money on me than you have to. We need to save up our spare cash so we can sponsor each other at the dance marathon. It’s only a couple of weeks away now, you know.”
    He had a point. The fund-raiser I’d mentioned to Trevor was rapidly approaching. Song & Dance was such an incredible group that our pep club had voted unanimously to have a fund-raiser to support them. At first we’d been looking at doing something like a bake sale or maybe a concert, since most of the school band was in the pep club. But then Kaz had come up with something much more fun—a dance marathon. He got the idea from some old movie.
    â€œOkay,” I said. “But if you don’t want us to spend money, what are you expecting? Homemade dandelion bracelets?”
    â€œNope. Just the pleasure of your company.” He grinned at both of us.
    Vanessa and I traded a dubious look. “We’ll see,” she said, scooping up one last bite of egg. “But for now, we should get going. We don’t want to be late.”

ChapterTwo
    T he community center was right