Second to No One by Natalie Palmer Read Free Book Online

opened my locker by the time Drew was finished unloading her backpack and turned around ready to watch the football-player show across the hall. “I just pictured this day being so different. I think I always thought that Jess and I would have our first kiss on my sixteenth birthday. Not be a been-there-done-that couple.”
    Drew was antsy. “You need to stop thinking about him, Gemma. You’re whole birthday will be ruined if you keep dwelling on the past.”
    I glanced up at my looming locker. “The past? It was six days ago. Jess was supposed to be the one. The boy I’d marry. My happily ever after. I think I deserve at least a week to mourn the loss of our unborn children.”
    “I think you’re forgetting one vital piece of information here.” Drew turned to me with intense eyes. “I have two words for you…Trace Weston.”
    “What does Trace have to do with it?” I let my heavy head drop against my locker as I lazily turned the lock.
    “Trace has everything to do with it. He’s your breakup guy. He’s your fallback. Trace is your rebound.”
    “I couldn’t do that to Trace.” I turned my lock one last time and lifted the lever. When I opened the locker door, an avalanche of balloons, crepe paper, and heart-shaped notes fell to the floor in front of me. I smiled for the first time that day—that week actually. “What is this?”
    Drew watched with a satisfied grin as the red and orange contents of my locker drifted through the hall. “This is my birthday gift to you. It’s your new beginning, Gemma.” She handed me one of the heart-shaped notes. Written in her handwriting were the words, “Gemma Mitchell plus Trace Weston equals True Love.” I blinked at the words, then darted my head around looking at the hundreds of heart-shaped notes that were floating around the hall. I was mortified. “Do they all say this?”
    Drew shrugged. “There are variations, but they get to the same point.”
    Passing students caught on to the idea, and one by one were picking up the notes and reading them.
    “Trace and Gemma kissing in a tree,” read one girl.
    Then another said, “Gemma Weston. It has a nice ring to it.”
    “Drew. People are reading them. People I don’t even know.”
    “That’s the point, Gemma.” She rolled her eyes, annoyed at the fact that she had to explain it to me. “We’re giving you a new start. We’re initiating a whole new set of rumors. By lunchtime today, no one will even remember that you are the girl that Jess Tyler dumped. You’ll now be the girl that is hooking up with Trace Weston.”
    “But Trace and I—” I repeated through cringed teeth.
    “Are just friends?” She shook her head. “You liked him for years, Gemma. Years! You don’t just get over that. I know you’ve been sort of distracted by Jess, but think back to the time that your head span round every time Trace was in the same room as you. He’s great, Gemma. It shouldn’t be too hard to like him again.”
    Of course I knew she was right. I knew Trace was basically perfect, and over the summer, I grew to really love the person that he was inside as well. “But I would feel like I’m using him.”
    “Sometimes rebound guys turn into happily-ever-after guys.” She nodded behind me and when I turned I was staring Trace in the eyes. In his hand was a slightly crinkled pink note.
    He squinted at it with those cute, smiley eyes of his. “I don’t even remember kissing you in a tree.” He shrugged. “But I’m sure it was amazing.”
    “This was Drew’s idea.” I said pointedly.
    “I figured.” He stepped so close that a rush of tingles surged through my body. “Happy birthday,” he whispered. Then he continued on down the hall and around the corner to his class. The volume in the hall behind us was magnified as the passing students played with the balloons that were flying around our feet. Hundreds of voices were saying mine and Trace’s names like we were the main characters in a romance