The Dead List by Jennifer L. Armentrout

details later. Bye!”
    Tipping my head back, I groaned. “What in the hell?”
    Gavin chuckled as he draped an arm over my shoulders. “Well, that should be fun.”
    I slid him a dry look. “Last year I ended up being—”
    “The girl dissected on the table,” Gavin finished, grinning down at me. “I remember. You were so thrilled about being covered with corn syrup and food coloring.”
    Squeezing my eyes shut, I groaned again. “I refuse to play the stupid half dead chick this year.”
    There was a pause and then he said, “Too close for comfort kind of thing?”
    I smacked his arm and a sheepish look crossed his face. “Yeah. That.”
    #
    Spying the redhead I was looking for, I hurried to where Heidi Madison was sitting at the end of the table, her bag in her seat beside her. I picked it up, setting it aside, and then dropped my tray down.
    Heidi raised her chin as she pulled out her white ear buds. She dropped them into the lap of her flowery, flowing dress that was a multitude of pinks and purples. A headband pushed vibrant red hair back. With her baby face full of freckles, she looked like a freshman instead of a senior, something that bugged the hell out of her. I told her all the time that when she turned forty, she’d appreciate the fact she always looked younger.
    Linds and Heidi couldn’t be any more different. One was loud while the other only spoke when she had something to say. Linds loved the outdoors and hated animals. Heidi preferred books to people and wanted to be a veterinarian. Linds was a meat lover and Heidi was a holy granola roller. I was somewhere in-between the two, kind of like the glue that forced the two opposites together.
    “You’re late,” she said, closing the paperback she was reading. Her food sat untouched.
    Picking at the bottle of water I grabbed, I glanced over to the table full of jocks when I heard Brock laugh, and then there was the sound of a tray hitting the floor. I turned around just in time to see a smaller student bending down and chasing peas across the floor. Why did the guys have to be such jerks? And why did I even think for two seconds that Brock was cute? A sense of betrayal slushed through me, because Brock and his crew of boys had always acted like that, ever sense I knew them. This was nothing new, so it was more of a case of me forgetting.
    Forcing myself to forget a lot of things, actually.
    I flipped back to Heidi. “I couldn’t get my dumbass locker open.”
    “I don’t know why you have so many problems with it.” She slid her tray closer and picked up a fork. Interest sparked in her light green, almost hazel, eyes. “It’s like every year, the epic battle of the locker for you.”
    “I know.” I sighed, feeling pitiful. “Hey, did Linds corner you over the stupid haunted barnyard crap?”
    “She knows better than that.” She laughed softly. “She got you again, didn’t she?”
    “Yes!” I picked off a slice of pepperoni and then another, resisting the urge to beat my head off the table. “It’s not even September and I have to think about this.”
    She giggled. “And you know you guys will start building the props within weeks.”
    “Ugh. Don’t remind me.” Over my shoulder, I scanned the cafeteria. Not that I was looking for anyone in particular, but my insides twisted in a funny way when I stopped at Brock’s table.
    Wendy was sitting beside Monica, flashing super white and super straight teeth at the guy next to her, who just happened to be Jensen. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was leaning back with his arms across his chest and looking pisstastic, I’d be a lot less….
    That very second he looked over to where I sat, and I swear that even though there were several tables separating us and many heads in the way, our eyes met.
    One side of his lips quirked up.
    My cheeks flushed as I flipped back around, meeting Heidi’s look. “So,” she said, drawing the word out. “Were you just eye-screwing Jensen