PRIDE & PRINCESSES: A Pride and Prejudice (type) of teen story (Sunrise High #1)

The Lake House (chapter twenty)

Chapter 20

The Lake House

When I arrived at Mouche’s  house an hour later, Trey was fixing his car. He had his head under the bonnet. The sleek sports car was kind of like Trey – long, old-fashioned and lean.

    “Where’s Mouche?” I asked. I knew Mrs Mouche had either taken the weekend shift (rare) or decided to take Wednesday shopping.

     “She went out, with some guy...better be careful, Mouche is starting to get more than a little big for her boots...”

     “What do you mean?”

     “Well I’m not completely stupid, watching you two girls play whatever dumb little popularity game you’ve got going...you better be careful you don’t hurt too many feelings in the process...kids can be cruel.”

    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, and started to walk back to my place, reluctantly, to finish my paper.

    “Oh, by the way, Mouche has gone hiking or to play tennis or something with some guy...named after a plane....Jet. Yeah, that was his name: blonde hair, dorky smile...”

    “Thanks,” I said.

    I texted Mouche: need 2 talk now

    She  texted back immediately and I was shocked when she  sent me Jet’s address and also the words can’t talk, come over @ midday, bring swimsuit pls.

    I ran back to Mouche’s  house and ran upstairs to her room. Trey arrived and stood in the doorway going all big brother on me: “where are you guys going?” and “what are you doing?” and “be back before ten pm because you know what your mom’s will say if you are not...”

   “Oh, I’m so not twelve years old anymore Trey.”

   “Then maybe you should stop acting like you are...”

    He wandered off.  

   As I sorted through Mouche’s  belongings I was kind of shocked to discover a few pages of notes where the name Mark featured prominently, notes that Mouche hadn’t  yet added to the diary. At first I resisted reading them because I assumed that Mouche would tell me whatever she  had to say, whenever she  was ready. Then I changed my mind and took a quick snap of the loose pages, to read later. I felt like a spy. Help me. Was the Boy-Rating Diary encouraging me to become a person I may not like? I was certainly more pro-active than I’d ever been and that was surely a good thing.   

   Did I not trust Mouche to tell me about her date with Jet because I still hadn’t  told her about Ethan? Maybe she  just hadn’t  gotten around to it. Was it because Mouche was beautiful that the girls (I noticed the Princesses were trying to be more cosy with me than Mouche) had started to distance themselves from her as we began to integrate the game?