Winging It by Cate Cameron Read Free Book Online Page A

“I used to date Toby Cooper.”
    “Oh. Right. His mother’s a friend of mine. Dawn.” Now it was my mom’s turn to force a smile. She wasn’t being bitchy, just trying to hide her obvious confusion about the soap opera I was somehow involved in. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. Cookies are in the kitchen, or—”
    “We’ll grab some and take them upstairs,” I said quickly. And then I realized it was maybe kind of rude. I keep getting these annoying little flashes lately, moments when I realize that my mom is an actual human being, not just my chauffeur and housekeeper and guardian. She’d made those cookies so she and I could bond, and now I was going to eat them with someone else?
    It was probably a mistake, but I said it anyway. “We’re actually going to look at my clothes and try to figure out if there’s anything remotely cool I could wear tonight. I could use another opinion, if you have time to consult?”
    “Oh, no, I shouldn’t,” she said. “You guys don’t need my help with that.”
    “I need all the help I can get,” I told her, poking at the zipped, oversize hoodie I’d worn to school that day as evidence. “Comfortable I can do. But cool? Not my area.”
    “It’s not really mine, either,” she stage-whispered back.
    “That’s okay,” Dawn said breezily. “I have enough extra cool for everyone to share.” She looked at me and shrugged. “But we’re nowhere near the same size, so all I can offer is suggestions and maybe some accessories—no chance of sharing clothes.”
    No kidding. I was easily four inches taller and probably at least thirty pounds heavier than Dawn, plus she usually wore her clothes snug while I liked mine loose. But she was right that she had plenty of style to go around. I think she must have gotten most of her clothes mail-order, because they didn’t look like anything I’d seen for sale in Corrigan Falls, and she never talked about going shopping in the city.
    Me? I wore clothes from the big-box stores in town. Walmart, mostly. My mom usually bought me trendier stuff for my birthday and Christmas, so I had some lululemon yoga pants mixed in with my sweats, but that was about it. I wondered what Scott would think of my fashion choices, but didn’t have time to really worry about it right then.
    So we all trooped upstairs and I flopped back down on my bed to watch Dawn and my mom sort through my clothes, giggling as they worked. It was kind of weird, seeing them bond over trying to make me more presentable. I mean, I knew my mom loved me. She’d never left me in any doubt about that. But I never really felt like she understood me. When she had a baby girl, she was probably imagining ballet lessons and cute outfits and giggling over boys. Instead, she got hockey, jeans, and sweatshirts, and me never telling her anything about the very little boy experience I managed to come up with.
    So maybe I should have felt jealous, seeing her having so much fun with Dawn, but I totally didn’t. Instead, I felt happy for both of them. They were both getting something out of this, and me? Maybe, if I was lucky, they’d end up making me look less than completely hideous for the game that night. It could be a winning afternoon for all three of us.

Chapter Eight
    Toby
    I’d left a ticket for Nat at the arena box office. Not that she really needed one—almost all the ushers and ticket takers were kids from school, so I could have just told a couple of them to let her in. The Raiders are a big deal for Corrigan Falls, but we’re one of the smallest markets in the league—things really aren’t too formal at the rink. Still, it seemed like a nice touch to make sure Nat had an actual ticket.
    I wasn’t quite sure when I’d started worrying about “nice touches” in all this. Like, I was trying to be the best fake boyfriend I could be?
    Weird, and an unnecessary distraction from what I should have been paying attention to. The season was winding down and we were