Page 23 of The Forever After Bet

“That. Was. So. Hot.” Bree fans herself.

“What did you say?” Melissa asks.

“I said, can we get this meeting started? I’m starving.” I look over at Hannah. She’s smiling, and her cheeks have turned red. I glance at Landon, and he nods and winks at me.

“Me, too,” Jack says. He turns to Hannah. “Clark, let’s get this party started.”

“Oh, sorry,” Hannah says, standing up.

“Uh, I’m in charge too.” Bree stomps up to the front of the classroom.

Hannah waves her arm. “Go ahead.” And she sits back on top of the desk.

Bree smooths out her shirt and clears her throat. She picks up a notebook, flipping through several pages until she finds the one she’s looking for. I stifle an eye roll. She’s going to milk this meeting to death. “I want to start by welcoming everyone and saying thank you to each of you for offering to volunteer your time.”

She stares directly at me while she talks. It’s unnerving, and I look away, pretending to examine my nails. “Some of you are extremely busy with school and sports, and I want you to know how much it means that you’ve taken the time to give service.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Hannah says, waving her hand and giving everyone a cheesy smile. We all chuckle.

“I decided that craft fair signup wasn’t going to work, so I assigned everyone specific times for the volunteer booth on Saturday.” Bree turns to Melissa and snaps her fingers. “Melissa,” she hisses. “Pass out those papers.”

“Why aren’t they going to work? We filled up all the time slots,” Hannah says, looking annoyed.

“Not all.” Bree walks up to Hannah, whispering something to her. “This will work better.” Bree turns to everyone with a smile. No one says anything as Melissa passes out the new volunteer schedule. I’m not surprised to see that Bree has put me to volunteer at the same time as her. I’m sure that’s why she changed it. There goes a perfectly good Saturday down the drain. “If there’s a problem, just let me know, and we can address it.” She turns back to Hannah. “Do you have anything to add?”

“On December ninth, we need everyone here by eight-thirty. I know that’s early for a Saturday, but we start taking donations at nine, and we need to do a bit of setup before people show up.”

“I meant did you have anything to add about volunteers at the craft fair?” Bree hisses and then rolls her eyes.

“No, you seem to have that all covered.” Hannah gives her a smug smile.

Bree rambles on about needing volunteers to help set up the craft fair on Friday night. “Do you think you and the guys could come to help us, Ford?”

“Uh—I’d love to, but we play Eagle High Friday night, and it’s an away game. We won’t be back in town until around midnight, maybe later.”

“Cory, Edison, and I can help,” Landon says, raising his hand. “We have a chess tournament here Friday after school. We’re usually done by seven.”

“That would be great, Landon. Thanks for offering,” Hannah says, writing something in her notebook.

“Well, could you come in the morning to help set up, Ford?” Bree asks, floundering.

I open my mouth, but Hannah answers for me.

“No, he can’t. He just said he won’t be home until really late, and you want him to wake up at six to help you set up. Everything is supposed to be ready to go by eight.”

“Uh—whatever,” Bree mutters, looking at her notebook.

Jack taps me on my shoulder, and I glance back at him. “Let’s go,” he whispers, nodding toward the clock. “It’s already four-thirty.”

“Yo, Clark, we’ve got to go,” Ty says as we head to the door.

“No problem.” She waves at us.

“But we’re not done,” Bree pouts, putting her hands on her hips.

“We’ve got to be back at the school at six. We need to go home and eat something,” Jack says.

“It was a great meeting,” I say, looking at Hannah and giving a thumbs up.

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