I'll say this once: Unless I'm such a cruel person to wait three years before adding a new book to a series, I'm not JP.

Recap: "Well, my friend has a football game tomorrow at Oakcrest. I'm going to watch him. There will be plenty of junior and senior guys there, and I promise they're better than the juniors at Westpoint." I looked at him. Fang, the hottest guy in the school, was willing to help an unpopular girl he just met find a date? Maybe boys weren't so bad after all. I felt weird thinking this, but Fang helped restore my faith in the male gender.

Why the hell not, I thought. I had nothing to lose by doing this besides a few hours of my time. I slowly nodded, looking Fang in the eye.

"That sounds good."


As much as I wanted to tell Nudge about him, I couldn't. Not yet, at least. She'd be hurt to see that I accepted some random guy's offer to set me up and blew Nudge off every time she tried. I would've had to tell her sometime, but maybe it could wait until I got a boyfriend. If I got one.

Speaking of Nudge, where was she? I hoped she didn't have any drinks while I was talking to Fang. I wanted to call out to her, but my voice wouldn't travel ten feet in this house before getting drowned out by the blaring music. As risky as it was, I took to exploring the house until I found Nudge.

As I turned a corner to leave the kitchen, I nearly bumped into someone. I stopped in my tracks, seeing Sam in front of me.

"Hey, Max," he said, grinning. "I'm free for the next half hour, and there's a room upstairs. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"If you're thinking that you should lock yourself in the room and sit in the corner, then yes."

"Come on, Max. It's just for fun, you know."

"Find someone who's dumb enough to accept your offer, Sam," I growled, pushing past him. See what I meant by not liking Westpoint's boys? And Sam wasn't even the worst of them. He was a player, and a jerk, but he wasn't strong or smart enough to cause me harm. If he tried anything with me, he'd wake up in a hospital bed.

"Max!" Nudge yelled. I looked up to see my best friend running towards me. "Where have you been?"

"In the kitchen."

"Who were you talking to?"

"Do you know who Fang Walker is?"

Nudge gasped. "YOU WERE TALKING TO FANG?"

"Yeah."

Her eyes widened. "ZOMG."

"What? What's so great about that?"

"Are you serious? He's, like, the hottest guy in the school! Please tell me you're dating him now!"

"Dating him? We just met, Nudge!"

Her face fell. "Oh. But you finally talked to a guy! I'm so happy for you!"

"Fang's not like most guys. He's actually nice, respectful, and not egotistical."

"Well, duh! He's the legendary Fang Walker!"

"The 'legendary' Sam Rothfleisch is an asshole."

"Yeah, you're right. But he is hot, you have to admit," Nudge said.

"He will be hot once I throw him into a pit of fire."

Nudge huffed, "Fine. But have you found any boys you're interested in dating?"

"Nope, but Fang is trying to set me up," I said, without thinking. My hands shot to my mouth. I looked at Nudge. Please don't be angry. Please don't be angry. Thankfully, Nudge was anything but angry. She grabbed my shoulders and jumped up and down, her dark, curly hair bouncing off her back.

"MAX! THAT IS SO AWESOME!" she said between jumps.

"Calm down, Nudge!" I said, shaking her off. "And yeah, it is pretty cool."

"Where's Fang? I need to talk to him."

"Not sure. He went off to find some friends."

"Looks like Ella and I will have help for once."

"Yeah, I guess so. By the way, you haven't drunk anything, right?"

Nudge laughed. "I'm not that stupid, Max."

"Just checking."

Nudge clasped her hands together. "So, what do you want to do now?"

"What do people even do at parties, again?"

"You forgot Ella's speech already?" she said, raising her eyebrows.

"More or less."

"Well, there's the living room for couples who want to make out. There are some rooms upstairs for 'serious' couples. There's a dance floor in the basement if that's your thing."

"Anything else?"

Nudge paused a moment, looking thoughtful. "There's a bar by the dance floor if you want drinks."

"Seriously? Is this all people do at parties?"

"Well, no. There's a group of people in the backyard smoking cigarettes, but I don't think you're interested."

"I'm out of here," I said. Why were people so interested in going to parties? They were so pointless. I mean, why would people want to make out in public? I was no expert in the topic, but I knew enough to know it should be done behind closed doors.

"No! Max! The party just started!" Nudge wailed. I groaned.

"What am I supposed to do, then?"

"You can do anything! It ends at midnight," Nudge yelled. Before I could respond, Nudge had disappeared into the crowd, leaving me alone. I checked my phone clock. It was barely 9:00. I could've been sleeping, reading, or doing anything at home, but no. Nudge had to drag me to this hellhole known as Sam's house.

I knew tonight was going to be the worst night of my life.