Project Paper Doll by Stacey Kade Page A

here. Where are you?
    Where are you?!!!!!
    Ariane? You promised!
    I can’t believe you’d just leave me here!
    And finally…
Some friend you are.
    I sighed. Unfortunately for both of us, today was not our day.

I T TOOK R ACHEL UNTIL LUNCH to catch up with me. In line for food, I had my back to the rest of the cafeteria, but when I felt cool fingertips on my neck, I knew who it was.
    “Are you mad?” she asked in a pouty whisper.
    I sighed. At least she knew me well enough to know that I wouldn’t be happy at what she’d said to Trey. But my anger at her had faded over the last few hours into a low-level simmering resentment. I probably had Ariane Tucker to thank for that little wake-up call. I wasn’t sure what I’d been thinking or if I’d been thinking at all, going to her and proposing that wacked-out plan. I was lucky she hadn’t taken me up on it. Rachel was just being Rachel; it was better to ride it out.
    “Trey was being all sensitive, you know how he gets.” Ignoring the tray in my hands, Rachel slipped her arm through mine, which jostled everything, knocking my milk container over into my mashed potatoes. “I had to say something to get him to understand.”
    Or she could have not kissed me in the first place. That would have worked. I still didn’t know what was up with that. If she didn’t want to have to smooth things over with Trey, she’d have been far better off keeping her mouth to herself.
    She pulled my arm tighter between her breasts, and I could feel her warm, soft skin against mine, where the front of her shirt dipped low.
    Did she think that would work on me?
    “Come on, Zane,” she pleaded. “Don’t hold a grudge.”
    “Just because Trey has C-lunch doesn’t mean he won’t hear about this,” I said, looking down at my arm held hostage.
    Rachel let go of me with a sigh of disgust, confirming my suspicion that she was once again simply toying with Trey until it suited her to do otherwise.
    “Two veggie burgers, please,” I said to the woman behind the counter.
    “Real men eat meat, Zane,” Rachel said in a snippy, know-it-all tone.
    “What do you want, Rachel?” I said, mimicking the rhythm of her speech.
    She narrowed her eyes at me, suspicious that I was making fun of her. “I just wanted to find out if we’re going to have company this week. I heard you were talking to our special friend.”
    “I talked to her.” I took the plate of veggie burgers from the weary-looking lunch lady and nodded my thanks.
    “And?” Rachel persisted.
    “She said no.” In truth, it had been more than that and less. I wasn’t quite sure what had happened. For as much as Ariane had regarded my offer with cold disdain, I’d seen how she’d looked at Rachel yesterday—white-hot electric hate. Participating in this countergame of Rachel’s should have been the easiest decision in the world for her. But she’d refused. Some of it might have been because she didn’t trust me, and I couldn’t blame her. She had no reason to, and what she’d seen us do to her friend Jenna yesterday probably hadn’t helped.
    I winced at the memory of censure on Ariane’s face. She was right. Jenna hadn’t deserved it. Maybe I should have spoken up and tried to stop Rachel, but “Rachel on a mission” fits pretty much in the same category as “runaway train loaded with explosives.” Get out of the way or be counted among the dead.
    “She said no?” Rachel gaped at me as if I’d spoken words she’d never heard before.
    I took advantage of the momentary reprieve to pay for my lunch and head over to the table by the windows, where Matty and a few guys from the lacrosse team were already eating. Next year we’d be able to leave campus for lunch, even if it was only to go to the park across the street. But for now we were trapped, rats in the worst maze ever. The same corners, the same dead ends, the same boring cheese that had gone stale years ago. I’d enjoyed this once, hadn’t I? I’d been