SEPTEMBER 12

"Ugh," I said, throwing myself onto Maddie's bed. "I can't believe I still didn't find you a boyfriend. After a whole summer of trying! I'm such a failure as a matchmaker." Not that it had been entirely my fault. My sister had resisted at every attempt I made. I was actually a bit impressed with how well she was resisting me.

Not that I'd ever tell her that.

"Mac, it's fine," my twin said. She was standing in front of her closet, trying find the perfect outfit for tomorrow. "I really don't care about a boyfriend."

"Yes, you do. You just won't tell me who your crush is," I grumbled. "How am I supposed to set you up with him if I don't know who he is?"

Maddie sighed, looking through her dresses. "I don't want you to set me up with him. He has a girlfriend."

I flapped a hand. I wasn't worried about the whole girlfriend thing. "Girlfriends can change. No big deal."

"Mac, seriously, stop."

I held up my hands in surrender – though I was not going to let it drop. Not by a long shot. I would just bide my time. "Okay, okay."

"Can you believe we're juniors now?"

"Ugh," I groaned. I grabbed a pillow and stuffed it over my face. "Don't remind me."

"Why do you hate school so much? You're smart. You could do well in your classes if you just made an effort."

I lowered the pillow. "It's the principle of the matter. It's kind of a waste of time, school. Think about it. Mom and Dad went to the same school, took the same classes. And yet, they can't remember a lot of it. Why? Because it's useless information. They don't need it. So why do we have to learn it at all?"

"Mom was only at Avalon for the last half of a quarter of school. She took most of her classes from Ealdor High."

"Still. It's a waste of time."

She just sighed. "We need to start thinking about our futures, though. What we're going to do after high school."

I shrugged. "I'm just gonna play it by ear."

"You should do something with computers. You're good with computers."

I scowled at her. "Computers are geeky. There's no way I'm going to do anything with computers." Even if I was an excellent hacker. I didn't really use my hacking skills very often, but I could get pretty far if I wanted to. I almost managed to hack into the school's administration system once, just because I was bored in English. Maddie was the only one who even knew about my skills because, as I said, computers were geeky. I was constantly making fun of Dad for being the CEO of a technology company - which focused on computers. Which was actually pretty interesting because Dad himself wasn't a computer geek.

"What are you going to do?" I asked. "Something that helps people, I'm guessing."

"I want to be an RN. I want to work in the Pediatrics department."

I nodded in agreement. She would be good at that. She wasn't as shy when she was working with kids. And she did like to help people, even though she was shy.

We fell quiet again for a few minutes.

"Wear the purple sweater dress," I said. "But without tights this time. Your legs will definitely catch the boys' attention."

Without a word, she pulled out the purple sweater dress and laid it over her desk chair. She moved to her dresser and pulled out a pair of pink polka-dotted tights.

I sighed. "Rebel," I muttered.

Once again, she ignored me.

"Fine, Maddie. I'll give up on the boyfriend thing. I won't try to set you up with some random guy. The only guy I'll try to set you up with is this mysterious crush, when I finally find out who he is. All right? Happy?"

"Yes, because you won't find out who he is," she answered. She looked over at me. "What are you going to wear tomorrow?"

I shrugged. "Whatever I grab first, probably. I already have a boyfriend, so I don't need to impress anybody. My guy doesn't care what I look like with my clothes on."

"Mac!"

I nearly cackled. Maddie was the kind of girl who wanted to save herself for marriage. Our parents had never exactly pushed for that – we all knew that they had lived together before they'd gotten married. But they did want us to wait until we were done with high school, at least. And they were very adamant about being safe and in a committed relationship before we took that step.

"Relax," I told my twin. "Jon and I haven't done anything. Well, other than crazy make-out sessions. I don't know if we'll wait until after high school or not, but we're not planning to take that next step yet."

Maddie shook her head. We were really close, best friends, in fact, but we disagreed on a lot of things. Sex before marriage being one of them.

"I'm pretty sure Harper lost her virginity before graduation night," I pointed out. "She'll never admit it, though."

"You're probably right."

I grinned. "Of course I am. I'm always right."

Maddie picked up a ballet-style shoe and threw that at me, grinning herself. Then she climbed onto the bed beside me and laid down.

"When do you think Jon will actually propose to you?"

I shrugged, fiddling with the promise ring on my left hand. "Probably not until after graduation."

"Can you see yourself with him forever?"

I smiled, picturing it. We'd live in a little apartment, perfect for just the two of us. We'd probably travel a bit, because Jonathan was a really good skateboarder, and had been in some competitions. Without having to worry about school, he could do a lot more competitions and make some decent money from it. And then, probably about ten years from now, we'd start a family. Two kids, probably. Maybe only one. I'd never been a big fan of kids. But we'd be happy. "Yeah, I can. I love Jon."

"You'll become Mackenzie Essiter. That will be weird."

I scrunched up my nose. "Totally weird. Essiter isn't exactly my favorite name. Not that Pendragon is really any better."

"I like Pendragon."

"You'll have to change it, too. Eventually."

"I know."

"Of course, that would require that you get a boyfriend first."

"Mac!" Maddie pushed at me, sending me to the floor. We both burst out laughing.