Page 18 of Wallflower

He was used to girls telling him they loved him out of the blue? Okay, awesome. That meant I was one of many. Maybe then I shouldn't be so embarrassed in his presence.

"Seriously," Tyson added, "we're cool."

I blinked. "Okay, if you say so…"

Dare didn't say anything, but I could almost feel him taking in the interaction between me and his friend.

Soon more girls and guys came over, filling up the table until there were no seats left. They were mostly popular kids I'd noticed hanging around Dare before. We'd gone to school together for a while but had never talked much. Actually, I thought, this was the first time I'd eaten with other people since middle school. I could feel eyes on me and looked across the way to see Whitney staring from where the popular crowd used to sit. They'd migrated from her table to mine. And she did not look happy about it.

Not happy at all.

CHAPTER 5

But the weirdness didn't stop there.

Oh no, lunch was only the beginning. Dare's peculiar behavior escalated after that until it felt like I was living in what I mentally came to refer to as my life's version ofStranger Things.

In Literature, when Mr. Carville asked us to pair up into fours for a project, I had a moment of anxiety. I'd always hated working in groups. It forced interaction between my classmates and me, and though other people may have liked working with their friends, I was often left out, waiting to be assigned to a group by the teacher.

Today, that wasn't the case.

"Hey, want to work together?"

Dare didn't wait for my answer, just pulled his chair over to mine and sat down, walking right by Whitney, who'd looked like she was about to ask to be in his group. She glared at me as if it were my fault he'd passed her by. Sheesh.

"Um okay," I said, my brow furrowed. "Then we just need a couple of other people—"

"Got room for two more?" another voice asked.

"You know it," Dare said as Jovonte, one of Dad's starters from the team, joined us along with his girlfriend, Estelle.

"I'm feeling very good about this group," she said with a big smile. "There's good juju over here for sure."

Jovonte rolled his eyes. "You and your juju."

"Hey, just because you're blind to cosmic energy doesn't mean we all are." Estelle held out her hand to me. "Hi, I'm Estelle. Are you a new student?"

Dare choked back a laugh as I winced. "Yeah, no. I've gone to Durham all four years. I'm Viola. Nice to meet you."

"Ooh, like Viola Davis," Estelle said, shaking my hand. "I love her. And you'll have to excuse the dumb question because I actually am new, have only been at DHS since last year. You and me, we're going to be friends. I can already tell."

I forced a laugh. This girl was kind of kooky, but in a nice way.

"Maybe," I said.

"Oh no, we will be," she said matter-o-factly. "I can feel it."

Jovonte sighed. "Sorry about her," he said then turned to his girlfriend. "Estelle baby, Viola is super smart, which is what makes this a solid group choice." Ah, and there was my other reason for not liking groups: nine out of ten times, I usually ended up doing all the work. "She's also our coach's daughter," he added.

"Oh." Estelle's brow was pinched. "How come I've never seen you at any games?"

"I don't go to them." I shrugged. "Never really liked soccer."

They all gaped at me.

"You don't like soccer…and your dad is the head coach?" she asked.

"He's more than that," Dare put in. "Becks Kent is a legend and not just by North Carolina standards. He went pro right out of college. He was brilliant, one of the best players ever." Shooting me a look, he added, "How can you not like soccer?"

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