My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan by Seth Rudetsky Read Free Book Online

carry the same clout as, say, Versace. But it does have almost double the letters for maximum awkwardness. This time I spotted the
Lichtenstein
on the bottom left cuff of her flared pants. She was coming down the block perpendicular to us and we were all approaching the same corner.
    “Hey, Savannah!” Becky said as she waved.
    “Hey, Becky …”
    As Savannah walked up to us, I could tell she trying to decide whether to just say hello to Becky or if she also had to say hello to me. If I had just happened to walk by at thatmoment, she would have ignored me, but since I really was walking with Becky, she knew she had to acknowledge me. She looked back and forth between Becky and me and suddenly—
    “Hi, Justin,” she finally said.
    Wow. Already my social standing went up a notch. I don’t think Savannah’s spoken to me since the sixth-grade production of
Grease
. And that was only onstage because she was Frenchie to my Doody. Before “Hi, Justin,” the last words she spoke directly to me were “Sandy and Danny belong together!”
    Becky admired her outfit. “I love the flare in the pants, don’t you?”
    “My mom—” Savannah started to answer, but then realized that Becky was asking me.
    I let the moment of shock register on her face and then turned toward Becky and answered, “Yeah … very eighties.”
    Becky playfully hit my arm. “Seventies, you ninny!” She turned to Savannah and pointed at me playfully. “This one doesn’t know anything about fashion.” She grabbed my hand. “Thank God he’s so cute.”
    Savannah’s face was frozen, mouth agape and upper eyelids as far away from the lower lids as possible. Becky ignored the fact that Savannah’s eyes were now as flared as her pants and asked her, “You wanna walk to school with us?”
    “With … both of you?” she asked. She looked at our intertwined hands. “I didn’t know you guys were …” She faded out. She started again. “Are you guys …?” Needing clarification, she spoke slowly. “Shouldn’t we wait for Chuck?”
    “For what?” asked Becky, with a combination of innocence, sweetness, and a sprinkling of pixie dust.
    Savannah was now acting as if a gasket had blown inside her logic area. She kept opening and closing her mouth and finally sputtered, “Aren’t you …? Isn’t Chuck your …?”
    “My boyfriend?” Becky finished the sentence for her. “Not for a loooong time. Where have you been?” She laughed with a slightly mocking edge to make Savannah feel out of the loop.
    “But you faked—” Savannah lowered her voice. “I know you pretended to break up last year to get your father off your case.…”
    Becky nodded.
    “But,” Savannah continued, “I thought you were still dating.”
    Becky looked at me and rolled her eyes. “Savannah, Chuck and I broke up for real back in …” She let her sentence die off and then laughed. “I’ve been dating Justin for a while now. I can’t believe you didn’t know.” She gave Savannah a slightly pitying shake of her head.
    “I had no i— I mean, no one told me.…” Savannah didn’t know how to play it. Up until one minute ago, she had thought Chuck and Becky were still secretly dating. But now, if she acknowledged that she had no idea about Becky dating me, it would imply that she wasn’t hanging out with the “cool” kids who supposedly
did
know. I could see her make a decision in her mind.
    Savannah motioned toward both of us. “I mean, I
knew
about you and Justin.…”
    She did?
    “I just didn’t know how serious it was.” She smiled warmly.
    Becky kissed my cheek. “It’s very serious.”
    Savannah grinned. “Duh!”
    Wow. I was in awe of Becky’s technique. She just made a person claim they had always known something that had, in fact, never been true. I guess having a crazy father whom you’re constantly trying to trick has some benefits.
    We started walking toward school, and I could tell Savannah was super-happy to be included in