Avalon High by Meg Cabot

petite, and blond…sort of like Jennifer Gold, actually.
    But she also looked kind of sad. Like maybe she missed her dead husband, or something.
    Or maybe she just didn’t want to be at some dumb high school party. It was hard to tell.
    Stacy and Liz and I did as the admiral told us to, and made our way out to the pool. We had had a little trouble finding the house, so Will and Lance and the rest of their teammates—not to mention the Avalon High cheerleading squad—were already there, high-fiving one another and jumping into the heated pool in the glow of about a million paper lanterns.
    Stacy and Liz and I went and got ourselves sodas and then stood by the guacamole—which is where tall girlsalways end up standing at parties—watching everyone. No one paid us the slightest bit of attention. No one, that is, except a Border collie who came over and thrust her nose into my hand.
    “Hey, there,” I said to the dog. She was gorgeous, her long, silky coat white with just a few black patches. She was well-behaved, too. She didn’t jump up and only licked me once.
    This, I knew, could only be Will’s dog, Cavalier. I found out I was right when Will managed to break away from the adoring throng around him and hurried over, exclaiming, “You came!”
    While Liz and Stacy both looked behind them, trying to figure out who he was talking to, I felt myself starting to flush.
    Because I knew he was talking to me.
    “Yes,” I said, as he stopped in front of me. He’d changed into baggy swim trunks and a Hawaiian shirt that was open to the waist. It was hard not to look at his abs, which were extremely six-pack–like. I tried to ignore them as I said, “Thanks for inviting me. These are my friends Stacy and Liz.”
    While the two girls looked on in total astonishment, Will said hi. Then he said to me, “I see Cavalier found you. She must like you.”
    It was true. The dog had kind of been leaning on me as I stroked her soft ears. At least until Will came over. Then all of her attention shifted to him.
    “She has nice manners,” I said lamely, because it wasthe only thing I could think of to say. Other than, I love you! I love you!
    Which wouldn’t, you know, have been too socially acceptable.
    Will just smiled, then asked us if we were going to swim.
    “We didn’t bring suits,” Liz lied, with a quick glance at Jennifer Gold, who was wandering around, looking perfectly angelic in a snow-white tankini.
    “Oh, we have plenty of spares,” Will said. “Over in the pool house. Help yourselves.”
    Stacy and Liz just stared at him, guacamole-laden chips forgotten in their hands. There was about as much chance of the three of us strutting around in our swimsuits in front of the cheerleading squad as there was of a giant meteorite plummeting from the sky and incinerating them.
    Not that I was wishing this would happen. Much.
    “Have fun,” Will said to me, with a grin, completely oblivious to our discomfort, as any guy would be. “I have to go do, you know. The host thing.”
    “Sure,” I said, and watched as he—Cavalier padding close at his side—went to go talk to a tall, good-looking boy who I’d never seen before. Dark-haired, like Will, he seemed vaguely familiar. But I knew he didn’t go to Avalon. Liz was only too happy to clear up the mystery of his identity.
    “That’s Marco,” she said, her mouth full of guacamole. “Will’s stepbrother.”
    I stared. Marco was chatting amiably with Will and some of the other team members. He didn’t look like he was too upset with the way things had turned out—you know, living in the home of the man who’d sent his father to his death, then married his mother. I mean, that kind of thing could mess a person up.
    He also didn’t look like the monster I’d been led to believe he was. He certainly didn’t look like someone who’d try to kill a teacher. It was true he had a hoop through both ears. And one of those tribal tattoos around one bicep.
    But that’s