Page 11 of Finding Her

poppy

“Tell her the plan is ridiculous,” I told Saylor, crossing my arms.

After Lilah had opened her big mouth in the cafeteria, I’d grabbed both her and Saylor and dragged them up here.

I wasn’t sure there was anyone in the world who could talk sense into Lilah, but I figured Saylor was the closest there was.

And I was sure she would have a lot to say about this one, because not only was she the last person to ever think an idea like this was good, she also hated love.

Something had happened last year that caused her to swear off ever falling in love and she’d warned me against it more than once as well.

She’d never told me exactly what had made her so pessimistic about it but I knew better than to poke the bear by asking.

But Saylor just smiled and said, “I don’t know. I think it sounds fun.”

I wished I had something to throw at her that wouldn’t hurt, but all that was sitting on my desk was my laptop (too expensive and would probably break her face) and my scissors (I didn’t want to take her eye out). I should have sat on my bed with them so I could hit her with a pillow.

“You’re kidding,” I said.

Saylor shrugged. “I think it could be a fun social experiment. What will it take to get the guy who never dates to ask you out?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Saylor,” I said. “This isn’t an intro to psych class project. This is Levi Barrett we’re talking about.”

Since Lilah told me everyone else was only allowed to call him Levi, I started doing it too. I didn’t want to give her any more ammunition for why this plan would work by calling him by a nickname.

“You’re being so dramatic,” Lilah said, crossing her arms. “This won’t be that big of a deal. The hardest part was getting him to notice you and we’ve already passed that hurdle.”

Sure, he’d noticed me all right, but I wouldn’t say it was in a good way.

“You just talk to him a little bit,” Lilah continued. “You flirt and dress cute. He’ll be drooling over you in no time.”

“I don’t want to do this,” I repeated.

“Well, you don’t really have a choice,” Saylor said. “Since you kind of announced in front of the whole school…” Her gaze jerked toward Lilah for a second, then back towards me. “You can’t really back out now or it’ll make you look like you…”

“Like I what?” I demanded.

“Like you don’t think you can do it,” Lilah finished for her.

I was tempted to say and whose fault is that? Because I hadn’t asked for any of this. But all that would accomplish was starting a fight between me and Lilah, and I didn’t want to do that.

“Because I can’t,” I said instead. “I don’t know this guy. And maybe he’s just not interested in dating. Isn’t that a possibility?”

“Nobody has sworn off dating completely,” Lilah said dismissively. “They’re just waiting for the right person to come along.”

I glanced at Saylor, waiting for her to combat that.

But she stayed notably silent, and I frowned.

I’d always assumed some guy had broken her heart so badly that she thought love wasn’t worth it anymore, but maybe there was a little more to the story than that.

Did she fit into Lilah’s theory that everyone was just waiting for the right person?

I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head. I can’t worry about Saylor’s love life right now. I had too much of my own to worry about.

“Okay,” I said. “I’m not saying that I’m going to do this, but if I was going to do it, what would you suggest?”

Lilah’s face lit up, telling me that she thought that I absolutely, one-hundred percent was going to be doing it.

“We’ll make a list!” She grabbed a notebook from her bag and a pen. I noticed that the notebook was still completely fresh and untouched, so she clearly hadn’t been using it for school.

“I’m so glad you found a use for your notebook,” I said dryly. “You know, since your classes don’t give you any reason to write in it.”

She glared at me, clicked her pen, and said, “How to make Levi Barrett fall in love with Poppy.”

For goodness sake, she even wrote it as the title on the top. This girl was ridiculous.

“Number one,” she said. “We update your wardrobe.”

“Hey!” I snapped. I prided myself on my good fashion. Not to mention we had to wear uniforms during the school day, which was the only time I ever saw Bear. Lilah, to nobody’s surprise, ignored me.

“Number two: you have to practice flirting.”

“I have to practice?” I repeated, sounding out the word slowly.

“Of course,” she said. “That way, in the moment, you know how to flirt properly.”

“I know how to flirt!”

She peered at me with narrowed eyes. “If you did, he would already be in love with you.”

I threw my hands up. “Lilah, he’s never asked a single girl out! And besides, I haven’t been flirting with him because I don’t like him.”

“And that’s what we need to change,” she said. I ignored her as she continued down the list, not even wanting to know what else she put on there. I was pretty sure I saw the word bikini and I didn’t even want to ask what she thought I would be doing in that .

I turned to look out the window, which overlooked the path toward the gym and ice rink.

And, of course, at that exact moment, some boys came walking out.

Well, not just any boys, but what seemed to be half the hockey team.

And without consciously doing it, my eyes immediately drifted to the boy in the middle.

His dark hair was wet like he’d just taken a shower, or maybe he’d just dumped a water bottle over his head.

That was something sports guys did, right?

He was walking with his hands shoved in the pockets of his varsity jacket even though it was still summer weather outside and seemed to be ignoring the boys on either side of him as he scowled at the floor.

I wasn’t sure if he even knew how to smile.

“Enjoying the view?”

I jumped at the sound of Saylor’s voice so close to my ear. When I spun around, I realized she was leaning over my shoulder and looking out the window as well. How had I gotten so distracted by Bear that I hadn’t even felt her come up behind me?

“No,” I lied. “I mean… I’m enjoying the sunshine.”

I awkwardly waved a hand at the blue sky outside. Saylor raised her eyebrows, clearly unimpressed by my lie. Luckily, Lilah chose that moment to interrupt us by asking Saylor for her phone number.

“I’ll make us a group chat so we can strategize,” she explained. She glanced at me with a light in her eyes that made me nervous. “Oh and we can Elodie too! She’ll love this.”

“We don’t need to drag her into this,” I said, rubbing a hand over my face. “The whole school seeing my humiliation is bad enough, let’s not spread it to Westwood too.”

Elodie was another one of our “sisters-in-law” as Lilah loved to call her.

She was the younger sister of my sister’s boyfriend, and went to our rival school, Westwood Academy.

Both Lilah and I had tried to convince her she should switch over to Hartwell but of course, her only response had been that we should switch to Westwood instead so we came to a stalemate.

“Too late!” Lilah said, just as my phone chirped with a text. I didn’t even want to look at it but curiosity got the better of me, and I almost threw my phone at Lilah when I saw the group name.

Operation Get Poppy and Bear Together

“One of these days, I’m going to kill you in your sleep,” I told Lilah.

She shrugged, undeterred. “As long as you get with Bear first. Then I can die happy.”