Page 29 of Wallflower

But I shook my head.

Part of me understood that he was trying to help by giving me the only thing he thought would make me happy. Dad loved people, and they loved him. He'd even been voted Favorite Teacher of the Year by the students for three years running. He thought I was lonely—though I'd told him I wasn't. He thought I needed someone to talk to (a human, not the animals at the shelter). Which okay, yeah, maybe I did.

But this was just cray cray.

Dad needed a wakeup call. Badly.

I had to show him the error of his ways.

But how?

My eyes went to the notebook page in front of me. We'd been out here nearly an hour. I was starting to sweat under the heat, couldn't even imagine how the players were feeling with all the running back and forth.

And I hadn't been able to come up with a thing.

Well, nothing I could use.

My imagination was one of my best attributes. I'd watched too many movies, read too many books, for my mind to be idle. I was bursting with ideas. But of the possibilities I wrote down, I'd ended up crossing them all out.

Idea #1) Be wild.

Take a page from Dare's playbook and start partying, experiment with alcohol and smoking, hook up—heck maybe sleep around (all things I'd heard Dare had done his first year at DHS. Funnily enough, he'd never been like that before—but it hadn't been pretty.). There was even a rumor he'd dated and dumped the entire cheer squad. Though, I hadn't verified that.

I'd marked through that option almost instantly.

My uncle Ollie let me try his beer once, and I nearly puked. Also, smoking was just ew. Parties and hooking up involved interacting with people. Enough said.

Onto the next.

Idea #2) Date someone on the team.

Another no-go. The idea was good on the surface. I knew Dad would absolutely hate the thought of me dating anyone, let alone a player. There was just one big problem. None of the guys on the team knew I was alive—well, besides Dare, Tyson and Jovonte, thanks to Lit. But Dare was Dare, Jovonte was taken, and Tyson hadn't returned my feelings. Plus, if I were being honest, I didn't feel the same as I had when I'd made that confession. After eating lunch with Ty the past week, I realized I hadn't actually known him at all. He wasn't the dream guy I'd built him up to be in my head. Except for the nice part. He was definitely that. But now, he struck me more as friendship material.

And who would want to date me anyway?

Idea #3) Fake my own death.

That would show him, I thought. Granted it was a little out there, could even be the title of aLifetimemovie…but nah. Too dramatic.

Plus, I'd never do that to my parents. They weren't perfect (obviously). But I loved them.

Didn't mean I was giving up on my revenge.

I'd jotted down a few other notes, but none were right.

The plan hinged on me somehow convincing Dad that driving/being friends with Dare was a mistake, had resulted in an unforeseen and undesirable outcome. That much was obvious. I reached deep inside to find my inner Slytherin. Maybe I was quiet and introverted—but I was also cunning. Tapping the paper with my pen a couple times, my eyes narrowed. It felt like I was just on the cusp of a breakthrough…

If this were a rom com, right about now I'd be having some kind of epiphany.

"Hey!" A female voice startled me. Glancing to the left, I saw Estelle, whose smile grew as she saw my face. She trotted over with Ingrid Pinsky and two other cheerleaders I didn't know, stopping a few feet away. "Hey Viola, I thought that was you. How's it going, girl?"

"Hi," I said. Noticing their matching bows, I put two and two together. "Ah, I didn't know you cheered."

"Just wanted to try, thought it might be fun." Estelle lowered her voice. "Though besides being bubbly—according to Jovonte—and too loud—Mom calls me that all the time— I'm like the anti-cheerleader. I love the color black, and I'm more into dance than cheer. Shh," she added with a wink, "don't tell the others."

I gave a half-smile. "Your secret's safe with me."

"You're Viola Kent," Ingrid observed.

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