The Dating Game by Natalie Standiford Read Free Book Online

written by Ramona or her friends Siobhan Gallagher, Maggie Schwartzman, and Chandra Bledsoe. All charter members of the Dan Shulman Cult. It was very cryptic, so only they could understand it. There was a lot of blood, death, knives, skulls, and vampire and religious imagery … Emily Dickinson meets Night of the Living Dead. But since they all worked on the magazine, they controlled what was published.
    “Excuse me.” Ramona and Chandra brushed past her on their way into the office. Ramona’s thin red tie was knotted at her throat as usual. Chandra’s was black. Those stupid ties! Lina hated the ties. They mocked her. Imitating Dan’s dress was no way to pay tribute to his wonderfulness. The best way was Lina’s way—silent, painful worship.
    “Spying?” Ramona sneered.
    Lina was startled. “No! I’m not spying! Why would I be spying?”
    Ramona grinned like a jack-͋-lantern. She’d drawn an exaggerated lip line around her real mouth and painted it in with violet lipstick. A little lipstick trickled down from the corner of her mouth, as if she were bleeding, or drooling grape juice.
    “We’re planning an
Inchworm
reading for next week, if you want to come,” Chandra said. She was new to the goth thing and hadn’t quite gotten the evil down yet. “We’re going to make the office look a like slaughterhouse, with blood and body parts everywhere. The theme is ’death to the Normals.’”
    “Oh,” Lina said, nodding politely. “Sounds good. I’ll tell all my friends.”
    Ramona heard the sarcasm in Lina’s voice. She waited for Chandra to go into the office. Then she whispered, “I can see it in your eyes, Lina. You think you’re better than we are. But you’re not. Stop hiding from the truth. You’re just like us. Death to the Normals. Don’t worry, we’d spare you. You’re not normal.”
    “Great. Thanks.” Lina stood frozen in place, watching while Ramona went up to Dan with a sheath of hand-scrawled pages. She knew that was supposed to be a good thing, not being normal. To Ramona, at least.
    “I’ve had a breakthrough,” Ramona announced. “My soul has finally reached a higher plane. I stayed up all night documenting it in verse.”
    “You’re so prolific, Ramona,” Dan said. “What would
Inchworm
do without you?”
    It wouldn’t suck
, Lina thought.
    Why did she care what Ramona and her friends did? It had nothing to do with her. But it upset her. Everything about them. Especially the ties.
    She was a normal, popular girl, right? Well, popular-ish. She and Holly and Mads were friendly with the cool kids but they weren’t indisputably the cool kids themselves, not yet anyway. But Lina wasn’t like those fringe-dwellers. She didn’t pierce weird parts of her body or dye everything dyable or worship some made-up goddess of death.
    But she did love Dan. And so did they. Deep down, maybe she was more like them than she wanted to admit.

6
    Mr. Yuck
    To:     mad4u
    From: Your daily horoscope
    HERE IS TODAY’s HOROSCOPE: VIRGO: Someone is broad-casting geek rays—and you’re receiving them loud and clear.
    M ads scanned the parking lot at Vineland for Sean’s car. He drove a Jeep. No sign of it. He must not be here yet.
    She waved to Holly and Lina, who’d dropped her off. They waved back and drove off to wait out the date at Holly’s. Mads walked into the café and looked around. No Sean, and no one else who looked like a blond Ashton Kutcher, either. Mads went to the bathroom to check her hair, makeup, and clothes. This was the most important day of her life. Her first date with Sean!
    Holly and Lina had helped her get ready. Mads insisted she wanted smoky eye makeup for the mysterious look she believed appropriate for a blind date, even a blind date that took place at four in the afternoon. So Lina smudged black eyeliner around her eyes and Mads wouldn’t let her stop until she looked like someone had punched her. Holly was in charge of the red lipstick.
    Mads studied the