CHAPTER 12 – Perfect Match

No one was there when Connie got home that afternoon. Her father's still at work, her mom probably went shopping for their weekly ration of food, and Kyle should be playing basketball somewhere with his little friends.

Connie poured herself some juice, grabbed a cookie from the jar and went up to her room. She quickly changed her clothes and turned on the TV, but turned it off moments later when she can't find something good on.

Remembering the Special Personals Edition she had stacked in each of the third floor classrooms, she quickly grabbed her schoolbag and pulled out her copy. Connie settled back into her place and spread the paper out on her bed. Maybe this was her chance to find something better than what she'd already received. She planned to sit there until she'd read every ad on all twenty pages.

Connie couldn't believe how many people had run ads. And to think, she was the one who started it all and the whole thing ended up as a school craze! She took out a pencil and began slowly going down the first column. A lot of the ads were girls looking for guys. She smiled when she noticed Luis' ad. Then the one just below it caught her eye. "Rugged jock seeks fun-loving girl. Likes all types of music, especially rock, video games, and anchovies on pizza. Hates cheesy romantic flicks, lima beans, and not really fond of cheerleaders. Respond to Box #31."

Connie's heart skipped a beat. Someone else out there loved anchovies on their pizza? She thought she was the only one. Almost everyone she knows find it foul tasting. In fact, she had pretty much given up trying to talk people into ordering it. And it's also very rare to find a guy not fond of cheerleaders. Especially in Eden Hall.

She circled the ad and put a big star beside it before moving on to the next ad. But as she read, her eyes kept straying back to the ad from Rugged Jock. He sounded like her perfect match.

When she had gone through every ad, she went back to Rugged Jock's ad and read it over again.

"Connie! Could you set up the table for dinner?" Mrs. Moreau called from downstairs. Connie had been sitting there and reading every ad for an hour and a half that she didn't hear her mother come home.

"Be right there!" Connie said. She placed the paper in her study table before going out of her room. And made a mental note of composing the perfect response to Rugged Jock's ad after dinner.

* * *

The weekend rolled by very quickly for Connie. She had spent almost all afternoon locked in her room planning for her response to Rugged Jock's ad. It had taken her ten drafts to produce the perfect letter.

Connie signed the letter Sporty Brunette, carefully put it into a clean envelope and neatly sealed it shut. Across the front, she wrote "Box #31" and underlined it with a flourish. She tucked the envelope into her backpack and crawled into bed.