Page 50 of Driftwood Daffodil 2

“Yeah,” I nodded. “It’s pretty gross. You might want to go clean that up.”

“Oh my God, thank you.”

“My pleasure.” And I meant that in every sense.

She skipped down the hall and waved at me. “We’ll talk later.”

Talk later? I didn’t say anything about later. If I wanted to talk to people, I’d go to bridge games with Maw Maw. No one gossiped more than a bunch of old women with nothing better to do. What the hell was wrong with that girl? Did she not get the memo that this was high school? It was a miserable and lonely experience that no one wanted to relive. Not some slumber party.

Oh God, was she going to invite me to a slumber party? I could see the pink frilly pajamas and makeovers now.

Ugh.

School was really starting to suck. I hadn’t even made to lunch yet and I already wanted to stab a pencil in my eye, so people would think I was crazy and stop talking to me.

Sighing, I put the encounter behind me and opened the door to Home Ec. My mouth was practically watering at the thought of fresh baked goods. I was looking forward to it so much that the possible torture of a slumber party didn’t bother me.

Then I walked in the room and saw how many girls signed up for this class. All of whom shot me a smile.

Great. Now, I’d get a side of gossip with my snack. A pencil in the eye was looking better and better.

There was so much estrogen in here that I could taste it in the air. Only two guys mixed within the painted up faces. One was sporting a varsity football jacket, and the other was Mister I’m Everywhere himself. And guess who I was paired up with?

Our teacher apparently had a thing about alphabetical order. Hence Fiore and Ford. The only thing that stopped me from turning around and walking out when Atlee threw his arm over my shoulder, was the bag of chocolate chips sitting on our counter.

“Hey partner.” Atlee sang with a smile. “I hope you can bake, ‘cause I sure as hell can’t.”

He better not ruin my cookies. That would be cause for murder, and there were plenty of knives around.

“Do you want to learn how to bake?” It was possible. Maybe Atlee wanted to be able to make himself a midnight snack. Hell, I’d even be happy to teach him.

“Fuck no.”

Or I could happily stabhimin the eye with a pencil.

“If you have no interest in baking, then why did you sign up for this class?”

“The chicks.” He said as if I should’ve known this, which considering who I was talking to, I probably should’ve.

So not only did I have to put up with his annoying grin, but there was a high probability that he would ruin my snack. Fantastic.

“Okay first off, don’t touch me.” I shrugged his arm off my shoulder. “I don’t know where your fingers have been.” Though if I had to guess, I’d say in the blonde three rows up. She looked way too happy. “Also, I’m not going to carry you through this class, so you better do your work. And…” I snatched the bag of chocolate chips off the counter. “Don’t eat my chocolate.”

These delectable little drops were all mine.

“I would never mess with a woman’s chocolate.”

“Well, at least you're not stupid.”

Atlee let out a small chuckle as I crammed a handful of chocolate chips in my mouth. “Someone’s extra grumpy today.”

If he had to spend all morning around a bunch of chattering Betties he’d be grumpy too.

“Do you know how many shades of pink are in the Mac eyeshadow palette? Because I do.”

That was knowledge no one needed.

“Are you talking about their Luscious model or all that glitters?”

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