Revenge of the Geek by Piper Banks Read Free Book Online

make me feel better?”
    Hannah gave me an unusually sympathetic look. “That’s what normally happens, Miranda,”she said kindly. “Most high school couples break up when one or both of them goes off to college. They make new friends and only see their old high school friends on vacations. Dex going off to boarding school is basically the same thing.”
    “So you think he’s going to dump me,”I said as cold dread spread through my stomach.
    Hannah shrugged. “You never know. Maybe he’ll transfer back home before that happens.”
    “But he wanted to play lacrosse at Brown Academy. I think it would make him really unhappy if he doesn’t succeed there,”I said.
    “But you guys would keep dating,”Hannah pointed out.
    “So those are my two options? Getting dumped or staying together, but with Dex feeling like a failure?”
    “Basically,”Hannah said.
    I slumped back on her bed, feeling utterly dejected. Hannah definitely knew what she was talking about when it came to relationships.
    “Look on the bright side,”Hannah said.
    “There’s a bright side?”
    “Absolutely. If you and Dex do break up, I’ll take you on as a client and find a really nice guy to set you up with,”Hannah said brightly.
    “Lucky me,”I said grumpily.
    “I know, right?”Hannah agreed.
    Chapter Five

    T he next day, I looked for Nora before lit class, but she arrived just as the bell was ringing, and sat across the room from me. Then, after class was over, she disappeared while I was packing up my laptop. I did notice that Nora had traded her Doc Martens for a pair of flip-flops, the preferred footwear for most Geek High students.
    She’s making an effort to fit in , I thought.
    After lit class, I didn’t see Nora for the rest of the day, not even at lunch. This was unusual for Geek High. It was such a small school, you were constantly running into everyone in the hallways or at lunch.
    But thoughts of Nora were quickly swept away by my increasing nervousness over my first meeting with the staff of The Ampersand . It was scheduled for that afternoon after school. I really wanted to impress the editor in chief, Candace Ruckman. Candace was a senior, and I’d always found her incredibly intimidating. She had blue-black hair that she wore long with straight bangs, had piercing blue eyes, and was coolly self-possessed.
    It felt like butterflies were dive-bombing one another in my stomach as I made my way to The Ampersand office after the final bell rang. I must have been walking extra slowly, because by the time I got there, there were already a dozen staffers milling around. Some were just sitting and chatting together at the two rows of tables set up in the middle of the office, while others were buzzing around busily, making copies or paging through back copies of The Ampersand .
    I took a seat and looked for Candace. She was sitting at a long table set up in the front of the room, looking unflappable. One of the staff writers, Jimmy Torres, was talking to her animatedly, gesticulating with his hands as he made a point. Candace nodded serenely and murmured something in reply, and Jimmy turned and bounded away, a big smile on his face.
    Candace stood and gazed out at us with a pleasant smile. She was wearing a crisply ironed, blue button-down oxford tucked into cuffed khaki shorts. Her lips were the perfect shade of raspberry pink. I wondered whether this was natural, or if she was wearing lipstick. If Hannah were here, she’d know , I thought.
    “Can everyone please take a seat? Then we’ll get started,”Candace said. Even though she barely raised her voice—which was low and husky—she instantly commanded everyone’s attention. Candace waited for a moment while people took their seats at the long tables, and then smiled again. “Welcome to our first Ampersand staff meeting. I’m really excited about the upcoming year. Our theme this year will be”—Candace paused, allowing suspense to build—“the modern