Virtually in Love (2 page)

Kaz looked pleased. “Great, I'm in the mood for a serious sugar rush right now.”

“Me too,” Vanessa said. “My turn next?”

“Go for it.” Pulling my finger away, I took over spinning duty from Kaz. That's an important part of our game—we've been to Aesop's so often that we all pretty much have the menu memorized. The spinning keeps us from cheating by aiming in the general direction of the food we want.

Vanessa's finger came down on a line near the bottom corner. “Ugh,” I said. “Decaf coffee.”

“Nice going, genius.” Kaz rolled his eyes. “Let me at it. I'll get us some real food.”

“Be my guest.” Vanessa pushed the menu toward him.

As I started spinning it again, Kaz flexed his fingers and cracked his knuckles, making a big show of getting ready. Finally he closed his eyes.

“Round and round she goes,” I intoned.

“Where she stops, nobody knows,” Kaz finished, jamming his finger down on the last word.

I leaned forward, grabbing his finger to move it aside. “Mushroom and cheese omelet,” I read. “Gross. I hate mushrooms.”

“Want to pick one more, then?” Vanessa offered.

I nodded. That was part of the game. We had to order everything we chose at random, but if we wanted to, we could pick more than three things. This time my finger landed on onion rings, and I smiled.

“That's more like it,” I said, looking around for the waitress.

After we'd ordered, I shot a wadded-up straw wrapper at Kaz. “So listen,” I said. “Birthday boy, we need to figure out what to do for your party.”

“Definitely!” Vanessa's eyes widened. “I can't believe it's coming up so soon.”

“I know, right?” Kaz leaned back in his seat and sighed. “I'm already feeling so much older and wiser than you two.”

I laughed. “Older, maybe. Wiser? I think not.”

“Ah, the arrogance of youth,” Kaz said in a mock-serious tone, shaking his head.

I rolled my eyes. Kaz is exactly two months older than I am, which means we'd been going through variations of this same exchange forever. Or at least before we could walk, because Kaz and I have been friends since we were in diapers—literally. I inherited my energy from my mother, who can't sit still for more than two seconds at a time. So when I was born, it took Mom about a week to get bored sitting around on maternity leave, taking care of one baby. She was used to running a whole company, so I guess changing my diapers and feeding me strained peas or whatever wasn't that much of a challenge. Anyway, she decided to bring in a little extra money by starting an in-home day care, and Kaz was one of her first customers. His mother died when he was, like, six months old, and his dad works long hours as an orthodontist with his own practice.

Actually, Kaz's dad is so busy that he tends to forget little details, like his son's birthdays. So there was definitely no surprise Sweet Sixteen bash in the works at that end. Which stunk, since if anyone deserved a big blowout party, it was Kaz.

Then again what are best friends for? I figured Van and I could come up with something fun, even if it didn't look much like the fancy Sweet Sixteen parties on TV.

Vanessa seemed to be thinking along the same lines. “So, how are we going to celebrate such a momentous occasion?” she mused.

“It needs to be big.” I drummed my fingers on the table. “I mean, now that he's so old and all, who knows how long poor old Kaz has left to party?”

He snorted with laughter. “Right. They might not allow parties at the old folks' home.”

“Maybe we should have a movie party,” Vanessa suggested. “Play all Kaz's favorite monster movies or whatever.”

“We did that two years ago,” I reminded her. “I can't sit through
Creature from the Black Lagoon
yet again. Besides, turning sixteen is a big deal. We have to do something special.”

“Are you saying
Creature from the Black Lagoon
isn't special?” Kaz protested.

Any response was interrupted by the waitress, rushing over with our coffee and onion rings. “Resta yer order'll be out in a sec,” she mumbled, dropping the onion rings platter and extra plates in front of us and sloshing half the coffee out as she slammed down the mug.

“Thanks,” Kaz called to her departing back.

Meanwhile, I grabbed the biggest onion ring in one hand and my phone in the other.

“What are you doing?” Vanessa asked, dabbing at the spilled coffee with a napkin.

I snapped a photo of myself chomping on the deep-fried goodness. Then I inhaled the rest of the ring, wiped my fingers on my napkin, and texted the picture to Trevor. “I like to give Trev a taste of my daily life,” I explained as I hit send.

“Then you should send him a picture of you loading the dishwasher,” Kaz suggested.

Vanessa giggled. “True. Or maybe one of you snoring in history class.”

“You two are a laugh riot.” I stuck my phone into my pocket. “But back to party planning.”

Kaz helped himself to an onion ring. “Seriously, my birthday doesn't have to be a big deal,” he said. “It'll be cool with me if Chloe just promises not to spend half of it texting Mr. Big-Time Rock Star.”

As if on cue, my phone buzzed. Grabbing it out of my pocket, I smiled. “Speak of the devil,” I said. “It's Trevor calling. Better take this—be right back.”

I grabbed another onion ring and slid out of the booth, hitting the button to answer the call at the same time.

“Hi,” I said as I hurried down the hallway leading to the restrooms, where I'd have a little privacy. “I thought you were practicing all afternoon?”

“I thought so too.” Trevor has the best voice—soft and sweet but sort of gravelly and gruff, too. Totally rock star. “Zach forgot he had a dentist appointment, so we had to reschedule.”

“Bummer.”

“Sort of,” he agreed. “At least there's a silver lining—now I get to talk to the cutest and most talented girl I know.”

“That is a bonus,” I agreed, trying not to let on how much his compliments always made me melt.

“Cute picture, by the way,” he said. “Makes me wish I were there.”

“Me too,” I said with a smile. “Unfortunately, I can't talk long right now, though. My friends and I are just at the diner, fueling up for our S&D meeting—it starts in, like, ten minutes.”

“S&D?”

“Song & Dance?” I prompted. “It's that volunteer group I've told you about.”

“Oh yeah.” He sounded a little uncertain. “Something about poor kids and music, right?”

“Uh-huh.” Thinking about the group made me smile. “Our whole pep club volunteers with them—we're even doing a fund-raiser for them soon. Didn't I tell you about that?”

“Maybe,” he replied. “Is that what your meeting's about?”

“No, this is just the regular monthly meeting.” I leaned against the wall, twirling a stray curl around my finger. “Some people from the group's main office in the city gather up a bunch of kids and bring them out to our community center, and—”

“Oh right. And you guys teach them music. You did tell me about that. Sorry, guess I'm so distracted by this drummer thing, I can't keep anything else in my head.” He gave a little self-deprecating laugh. “I remember now, though. It always sounded pretty cool.”

“It is.” I stepped to the end of the hallway, peering across the diner to see if my friends had polished off all the food yet. “Anyway, I should probably go, I guess. Sorry. Maybe we can talk later?”

“Sure. Have fun, Chloe. Later.”

“Bye.”

As I hung up, I suddenly remembered his mysterious text from earlier. What had that been about? He hadn't even mentioned it just now. For a second I was tempted to call back, but then I checked the time and realized it would have to wait. Hurrying to the booth, I slid back in next to Vanessa.

“How's Mr. Wonderful?” Kaz asked, grabbing the last onion ring off the plate.

“Hey!” I protested.

He grinned, leaned his head back, and opened his mouth, dangling the onion ring over it. Just before it touched his lips, he relented, tossing it over onto my plate.

I smiled and popped it into my own mouth before he could change his mind and take it back. “Thanks,” I mumbled with my mouth full. “And since you asked, Trevor is great. I just asked him if his band can come play at your party, and he's totally on board.”

Obviously, that was a joke, and they both knew it, since Trevor lives, like, three hours away. But while Vanessa laughed on cue, Kaz faked a look of horror. “No boy bands allowed!” he said, making a little X with his fingers as if warding off a vampire.

That made Vanessa laugh even harder. I just rolled my eyes. “Hey, what can I say?” I cracked in return. “I figured live music would be the best way to get people to actually come to your party.”

Kaz just grinned and grabbed the coffee from Vanessa to take a sip, not looking too worried. He might be a classic nerd in some ways, but Kaz is surprisingly popular at school. And everywhere else, come to think of it. Oh, things hadn't started out that way. Back in early elementary school, he got picked on by some of the bullies now and then. But he was such a nice guy that even the worst of the jerks seemed to feel kind of bad about it. It didn't hurt that his cousin Maya is a popular cheerleader who's a grade ahead of us. Or that I'm like a Chihuahua—always willing to bark in the face of a bigger, tougher dog, especially if that big dog starts messing with one of my friends.

“So, back to your birthday,” I said after swallowing the onion ring. “What do you want for your gift this year?”

Kaz took a noisy slurp of the decaf and then pushed it over to Vanessa. “You guys don't have to get me anything.”

I picked up a fork and helped myself to some pie, which the waitress had delivered while I was gone. “You say that every year. Can we drop the charade this time? You know Van and I are getting you something. So what do you want? A year's supply of oboe reeds? Tickets to that weirdo Gilbert and Sullivan group you like so much?”

“No, I'm serious. You don't need to buy me anything like that. Just the party is enough.” Kaz reached across and picked a mushroom out of the omelet, which Vanessa was in the process of devouring. “Besides, you definitely shouldn't spend any more money on me than you have to. We need to save up our spare cash so we can sponsor each other at the dance marathon. It's only a couple of weeks away now, you know.”

He had a point. The fund-raiser I'd mentioned to Trevor was rapidly approaching. Song & Dance was such an incredible group that our pep club had voted unanimously to have a fund-raiser to support them. At first we'd been looking at doing something like a bake sale or maybe a concert, since most of the school band was in the pep club. But then Kaz had come up with something much more fun—a dance marathon. He got the idea from some old movie.

“Okay,” I said. “But if you don't want us to spend money, what are you expecting? Homemade dandelion bracelets?”

“Nope. Just the pleasure of your company.” He grinned at both of us.

Vanessa and I traded a dubious look. “We'll see,” she said, scooping up one last bite of egg. “But for now, we should get going. We don't want to be late.”

Chapter
Two

T
he community center was right
across the street from Aesop's, so about five minutes later we were walking into the big auditorium where we always had our S&D meetings. There's a stage at one end with a piano on it. The rest of the room is one enormous open space. A whole bunch of folding chairs were stacked at one end; they use them for plays and other stuff, but we usually leave the place mostly clear so the kids can run around.

Kaz's cousin Maya was over in front of the stage, her perky, glossy black ponytail bouncing as she laughed at something one of band's trombonists was telling her. Most of the other cheerleaders and probably half the band were milling around nearby.

“Oh good.” Vanessa's eyes scanned the place as we entered. “The kids aren't here yet, so we didn't miss anything.”

I smiled at her. “Don't worry,” I said. “They wouldn't dare start without you.”

Kaz laughed, and Vanessa rolled her eyes at both of us. But it's true. She was the whole reason our school got involved with Song & Dance. She'd found the group's website last year and almost single-handedly convinced everyone in the pep club that we should hook up with them, even though the city where they're located is almost an hour's drive away.

That was Vanessa for you, though. She seems quiet and kind of passive sometimes, but she's tougher than any of us when it comes to stuff she cares about. And she definitely cares about kids. She adores them all, from the brattiest eight-year-old to the drooliest, smelliest baby. She's been babysitting since she was eleven, and she's planning to major in child psychology in college.