How To Be A Perfect Girl by Mary Williams Page B

staring he worked
his jaw slowly.
    “Great!” Val interjected, “I could use some
help too. Let me just get my binder, ok?” She left to look for
it.
    “Sounds good!” Alex called after her.
    In a few moments Val had her schoolbag; she
decided to take the whole thing, instead of wasting time looking
for her Algebra binder. She kissed Dad on the cheek; he embraced
her, but didn’t break his stare with the Alex and Keenan. “Back by
ten,” he said.
    “Alright!” Val bounced toward Alex’s car;
she stopped after a few steps. “Are you two coming?”
    “Oh yeah,” they shook like they’d just
awoken from a spell. Alex climbed in the driver’s seat; Keenan
opened the passenger door and gestured for Val to get in, “You get
a seat all to yourself this time.”
    “Great!” Once Alex had backed out of the
driveway, Val asked the question on her mind, “Alex, you’re a whiz
at Algebra. You don’t really need help, do you?”
    He shook his head, “My boy here just needed
some help getting a certain blonde from her father’s clutches.”
    Val laughed, “Your ‘boy’?”
    “Yeah, he’s my dawg, yo.”
    It was too much, “Are you trying out for
world’s whitest gangster or something?” Val asked.
    Alex grinned, “Nope. I do feel pretty
gangster after staring down your father, though. That is one scary
dude.”
    Val giggled.
    “What?”
    “ It’s just that I’ve never
thought of him as scary. I dunno, maybe it’s just cause he’s always
been my dad.”
    “Trust me, Val, I’ve had a lot of girls’
fathers stare me down, and your dad is the scariest.”
    “Alright, I guess I’ll just have to take
your word for it.”
    “You should.”
    “So—“ Val began.
    “So?”
    “You said you just wanted to get me from ‘my
father’s clutches’. Why’s that?”
    “You and Keenan are going on a first date.
My treat.”
    “What?” both Keenan and Val asked at the
same time.
    “I know, I know, it’s so magnanimous of me.
But you don’t have to say it. I know how much it’ll mean to you
both.”
    Val cleared her throat, “So you came over to
my house, made me lie to my dad, and now you’re gonna make me go on
a date with Keenan? I hardly know him!”
    “Well, geeze,” Keenan remarked from the back
seat, “I didn’t think I was that bad.”
    “Nobody made you do anything, sweety. You
lied to your dad all by yourself, and if you back out now that
means you lied to Keenan too.”
    “I did?”
    “You did if you don’t actually want to date
him. You said earlier today that the only reason you didn’t want to
date Keenan is cause your parents won’t let you date until you’re
old enough to drive. Well this ‘study group’ is the perfect excuse!
No one but us has to know you two were sucking face instead of
sucking at math,” Alex laughed at his own joke.
    “I didn’t say that was the only reason!” Val
protested, “It was just the main one. There’s also—other things.
Like I said, I barely know him.”
    “Well that’s why you go on
a date, sweety. So you can get to know him.”
    “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,”
Keenan said. He sounded so dejected Val wanted to hug him, but
there was still the matter of this date ambush to deal with.
    The whole car was silent for several moments
as Val thought; “What if my parents find out?” she asked.
    “I don’t know,” Keenan said.
    “They won’t,” Alex assured her.

Chapter 7
    “So, how’d your date go?” Alex’s smug smile
greeted Val as she entered their algebra class.
    “It went really well,” Val replied, “But
there was this weird boy who kept popping up every five minutes and
asking if we needed anything.”
    Alex laughed, “Oh yeah, sorry about that.
But since I was y’all’s ride I didn’t want to leave without making
sure you two could get along.”
    “We got along just fine,” Val smiled, “As a
matter of fact, I think we might try to get along next week as
well.”
    “Oh,” Alex smiled