"Hey, Max!" Tess called, skipping from the library. I whirled around to meet her.

"Yeah, Tess?"

"Have you seen Nick?" I blinked; now that she mentioned it, Nick had been AWOL for the past few days. Ever since the project started, he started drifting away from our group and into Lissa's.

My fists clenched fortuitously; this arrangement was not quite one I was happy with.

"Not recently. Why?"

"I need to ask him something." She smiled at me slyly from behind her braided black hair. She was sort of exotic-loking, with her tanned skin, prominent cheekbones, and brown eyes.

"Somehow, I'm guessing I don't want you to ask him this." I said, already coming up with a thousand things she could ask.

She brushed a stray hair from her forehead. "I just wanted to know why he's blowing us off all of a sudden." I nodded slowly.

"I'll find him for you. I think he's just leaving Social Studies now," I said, already leaving. The last thing I needed was to get Tess all worked up about our recent... I don't even know what you'd call it.

I stuck my head around the corner, scanning the room. Upon seeing no Nick, I moved on to the next door. This one was his Mr. Fabiano's; maybe he was asking him about the project?

I allowed myself an almost imperceptible smile. Maybe he was asking, no, begging to switch partners?

I peered through the little glass window on the door. If he was talking to Mr. Fab, I didn't want to just barge in. I glanced vaguely around the room, my gaze locking on a large, misshapen silhouette by the window.

I froze, my mouth dropping open.

Lissa was curled into him, clutching his shirt like it was her lifeline. Nick's head was cocked to the side for maximum kissing capacity, his strong, powerful arms wrapped tightly around her slender waist. They were kissing fervently, like she was the only girl in the world and he was the only one good enough to love her.

I think that last part was from some movie.

Anyway, I was totally appalled, but I couldn't figure out why for the life of me. Seriously, I should've seen this coming.

And there was this really nasty feeling that had taken up seemingly permanent residence in my chest. I didn't have a clue what that was, but under that was one I recognized, had almost grown fond of:

Rip-everything-within-a-five-mile-radius-apart, really-demented-anger-on-steriods. Ah, my old friend.

I took deep breaths, trying to calm myself. Strong Max. Sarcastic Max. Who's Nick?

I turned to start purposefully down the hall, but ended up fleeing to the girl's bathroom, last stall to the right, crying my heart out.

Well, okay.

THE THING YOU ARE READING RIGHT NOW IS A PAGE BREAK

I collapsed at my desk, closing my eyes and taking deep yoga breaths like in Mom's workout videos. Except this wasn't Yoga Booty Ballet, this was Try and Stop and Impending Emotional Breakdown. The real secret to weight loss, if you ask me.

I had always considered myself a pretty simple girl. I mean, just give me a Snickers and a kneeboard and I'm happy. But now, I was like some super complicated, even more cliche teenage girl. I was hurt, and angry, and shocked, and there was a weird little bit of giddiness that was just sort of there.

Ella slid into the seat next to me, Tess next to her.

"I've been waiting for study hour all day," Ella said, grabbing her science book. "I've got a test on occluded and stationary fronts I'm totally not ready for."

"Ohmigod, that's TODAY?" Tess yelped, frantically reaching for her own science book.

I made a nondescript groaning noise.

Ella pounced on me (not literally, okay? It's just a figure of speech), looking at me firmly. I was reminded of how she had looked when giving me that horrendous makeover five hundred million years ago.

"What's wrong? You sound like somethings wrong. Is it about NIck?I bet it's about Nick, he's been bailing on you lately." She said, staring me down even more powerfully with very word.

"Nthninz rawn," I mumbled, burying my face in my knees.

Tess looked at me quizzically. "Nothing's wrong," I repeated loudly, daring them to disagree. Tess dared, apparently. "Something is totally wrong. Either you're PMSing, or you found Nick, and he was/did saying/doing something rather unsavory for you."

I stared at her, shocked. "How do you know everything that goes on in the universe, ever?" I said, shaking my head slowly.

"Just another benefit of playing the clarinet," she replied smugly, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "But seriously, what was he doing? Five bucks says it has something to do with Lissa."

I thought hard. If I told them, they'd have some kind of outrageous theory, then come up with some kind of outrageous plan, that would probably end up with me in a dress at one point or another. After a moment's contemplation, I decided it was worth it.

"He was totally snogging her." I said indignantly, using the British word for making out because it sounded so much cooler. "In Mr. Fab's room. Like, full-out, no-hands-barred snogging. And I don't even know why I care."

"Why would you bar your hands to make out?" Tess wondered aloud, but Ella slapped her wrist.

"I know why you care," she said knowingly, patting my troubled little noggin. "You're jealous."

My mouth dropped open. "No way, Ella; in case you haven't noticed, my life isn't the overused plot line of a made-for-TV chick flick."

"Oh, no. I can tell." she said, dead serious. "You're absolutely green with envy. It's obvious, really. Why else would you be so mad?"

"Well," I said, struggling to find a snappy response, "maybe I'm just angry and disappointed with Nick for falling into her trap!" I finished triumphantly.

Tess nodded. "Yeah, I thought he would see what a skank she was. I mean, in fifth grade she already had a flock of guys wrapped around her fingers. She's, like, a professional now."

"It runs in the family. I remember my mom used to call her mom 'promiscuous'," Ella remembered, doing air quotes. "I looked it up in the dictionary after she said that. It was my first synonym for 'slut', soon followed by 'skank', 'sleazy', and, most recently, 'wanton'."

"Wanton?" I questioned, desperate to turn the topic from my apparent envy. "That sounds like Chinese food."

"I see what you're doing," Ella said, wagging her finger at me. "You're trying to distract us from your Nick problem."

"This is like a soap opera!" Tess yelped excitedly. "Like, Days of Our Lives or something! DRAMA!"

I rolled my eyes. "It would be," I told her, "if I was actually jealous. But I'm not."

She looked at me skeptically, Biology test forgotten. "Uh-huh. SO you just randomly run into the girl's bathroom sobbing."

"How did you know that?" I said disbelievingly.

"Oh, I have my ways," she said mysteriously, grinning. I scowled.

"Okay, maybe I was the most minute amount of jealous as is scientifically possible, but I'm already over it. Just...let me be, okay?"

This was obviously not on Ella's, or Tess's, for that matter, agenda.

"No." Tess said bluntly. Ella butted in.

"You have to play the jealous game! Let him find you kissing someone or something!" She said.

I scoffed. "Oh yeah, I'll just randomly pick from the abundance of guys anxious to kiss me. Let me get to that."

Ella smiled mischievously.

"No makeover," I added instinctively. That smirk was really unnerving.

She sighed melodramatically. "Whatever. But next time Dylan flirts with you, please don't throw a pencil at him."

My mouth dropped open. "But he's the perfect target for my graphite-based projectile!"

"I don't care," she said firmly. "You will date him, before Nick starts dating Lissa."

"Dating to the death," Tess chimed in. "I like it."

I turned away, irritated with my crazy friends. "I don't," I mumbled.

Sorry it took me so long to update! The Jazz Band had a concert tonight, and I've been practicing like crazy. PLEASE FORGIVE ME!