“Bex, what are you saying?” I asked.
But my best friend just pouted, raised her hand to her mouth, and said, “Oops.”
And then Rebecca Baxter, the most highly coordinated girl at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women (which, believe me, includes some really coordinated girls), tumbled onto the ice.
Well, it turns out that pretending to fall down is an excellent way to make boys stop staring and start moving. Of course, our other roommate, Liz, would no doubt require a lot more evidence before citing that as a scientific certainty, but considering the fact that eight boys had been staring and seven boys rushed to Bex’s rescue, I’d say our results were pretty statistically sound.
But, honestly, at that moment statistics were the last thing on my mind, because fluffy white snowflakes were floating through the night sky that stood between me and the one boy who didn’t move, the boy who didn’t swoon, the boy who just stood by the rails with his hands in his pockets, staring at me, saying, “Happy New Yea, Gallagher Girl.”
