Shark Bait (The Grab Your Pole Series) by Jenn Cooksey Read Free Book Online Page B

in her head as she gave me a long, considering look. And with that look, the energy in the car shifted from being the friendly conversational atmosphere it’d been, to one that felt considerably like it was filled with intrigue and conspiracy. The whole thing felt very clandestine to me, kind of like we were taking part in espionage. Which if you think about all that was about to be imparted, that comparison wasn’t very far from the truth. It made me a little nervous and sort of paranoid in the beginning but still, my sister—Jillian the spy—would be so proud of me.
    “Thanks, I think I’m kind of awesome too, but now that we’re not being watched, let’s talk about one of the other cool, or shall we say, sizzling hot reasons why Grossmont doesn’t suck as much as you thought it was gonna.”
    It didn’t escape my attention that Kate had just implied we were being watched before, but that little piece of information only aided my sudden suspicious train of thought. I mean, although I’m not all that socially savvy, I’m pretty certain that if I put one foot out of line, the implications could be devastating to my life whilst I’m matriculating at this school. Why I think playing dumb won’t damage me even more, I’ve no idea. I do want to trust her but I don’t really know Kate yet, and to say that I was questioning the wisdom of admitting how much time I spent thinking about Tristan today would be a gross understatement. What’s weird is that I’m not normally suspicious. It’s not in my nature. Jillian’s, yes, but not mine. I don’t know, maybe I’ve just seen too many movies where the popular cheerleader and her crew befriend the new kid, who of course is blind to the danger of admitting she likes the same guy the cheerleader or one of her friends does, so she falls victim to her new friends’ sadistic pranks, which inevitably ends up being more embarrassing than if she were to just trip and fall flat on her face in front of half the school.
    So in thinking about all of that and trying—futilely it turns out—to not let on that I know that she knows that I have the hots for a guy who’s not only way out of my league, but sounds like he might be a man-whore, and , just so happens to be her so-called ex-boyfriend’s best friend, I stammered through my lie and tried to not bite my lower lip or fidget in the seat. “Wh—I don’t know what you mean. I umm, I just really appreciate you being so nice to me.”
    It sounded convincing enough to me, however, I discovered my innocent act was in vain when Kate rolled her eyes and gave me the most elementally “oh please” look I’ve ever seen. Then seeing my hesitation and guessing at the reason behind it, she gave me a reassuring smile and said, “Camie, if I had a Bible handy, I’d raise my right hand and swear on it…this isn’t a setup and I’m not gonna stab you in the back. You can trust me…just, I don’t know, tell me what you think about him.”
    Shoving scenes from the movie Mean Girls from my mind and giving up my charade of ignorance, I sighed and took a leap of faith by answering with the naked truth. “What’s not to like? I’d be mental if I didn’t admit how completely mouth-watering he is. Not only that, but I’d also be lying through my teeth if I said I haven’t been thinking about him non-stop since I first laid eyes on him this morning before school and that those thoughts are generally accompanied by the sound of mental wedding bells. Oh and he put the smell of chlorine at the top of my most favorite scents list. Seriously, I wanna go home and beg my dad to swap out the saltwater system on our pool for one that needs chlorine.”
    I was feeling pretty proud of my fledgling flight with blind trust and honesty, however and unbeknownst to me, Kate was about to reply in kind while at the same time, dropping the biggest bombshell of my teen life squarely on my unprepared head.
    “Yeah, I know what you mean, Jeff smells