Never Bite a Boy on the First Date Read online

  And then finally, at the end of the day, I saw him.

  I had just left Daniel at his locker, which was on the first floor because all the regular junior lockers on the top floor were taken. I was on my way toward the school’s back exit, hoping that if I snuck out that way and headed through the cemetery, I’d make it home before Zach did. He was always trying to walk home with me, but I usually managed to give him the slip.

  Between the main body of the school and the cafeteria and gym buildings, there’s a little courtyard with benches and trees and tables where the upperclassmen usually eat lunch. Luckily for me, Vivi prefers to eat inside because of her delicate, easily sunburned skin—yet another reason I’m friends with her.

  I happened to glance out there as I went by, and there he was: Mr. Smiley, sitting on one of the tables and joking around with a couple of muscular blond guys.

  I stopped by the door to the courtyard and reapplied my lip gloss, watching him surreptitiously. This was a bad sign—or a good sign, I suppose, depending on whether I wanted him to turn out to be a murdering vampire or not. He was sitting right out in the sunshine, which seemed like a very un-vampire-y thing to do, unless his supercharged vampire sunscreen was a lot more powerful than mine. His sunglasses were pushed up on his head, holding back his curly mop of dark hair, and I could see gold flecks in his brown eyes. The sleeves of his faded blue shirt were rolled up, revealing toned arms.

  How was I going to meet him? I could just saunter out there and say hi, but (a) sunshine, and (b) would that make him suspicious? Like, Why is a random girl talking to me? Oh, and also, gee, the sunlight sure seems to make her dizzy…. Hmmmm.

  What I really wanted was some way for us to “meet cute”—you know, like in a movie, where the hero and heroine accidentally run into each other and it’s hilarious, and then of course they fall in love. Except, of course, we’d skip the “falling in love” part if it turned out that Mr. Smiley liked to savagely bite people and throw them out of windows.

  I listened with my vampire hearing, hoping that something would give me an idea.

  “All right, I’m heading home,” said one of the blond guys. “Need a lift?”

  “Sure,” said the other blond guy.

  “Nah. Thanks, though. I brought my car today,” said my guy. He had an accent! A cute accent, kind of British-sounding—maybe Australian or South African. “I think I’ll do a few more laps before I go.”

  Laps? Like around the track? That wasn’t going to help me. There was even more sunshine out there.

  “You’re a machine,” the first blond guy laughed. “My arms are way too sore after this morning.”

  Arms? Who ran around the track on their arms?

  “Yeah, but that’s ’cause you’re a wuss,” my guy said kindly. He cracked up as the first guy pushed him off the table.

  “One day I’m going to put ants in your swimsuit, and then you’ll finally lose a meet,” the second blond guy teased.

  Aha.

  They were on the swim team!

  Something poked at my memory. Tex had mentioned the swim team in his last blog post. Something about how he’d quit swimming—which meant these guys probably knew him. Now I had even more reason to meet Mr. Smiley.

  And I knew just how to do it.

  Chapter 8

  I’d heard that Luna High had an indoor pool somewhere (an outdoor pool in Massachusetts wouldn’t be the most useful thing), but I hadn’t seen it yet. My plan was only going to work if there were no mirrors there and nobody else was around, so I had to get there before Mr. Smiley did.

  I left him as he said goodbye to his friends, and I hurried down the long hallway to the gym, passing the boys’ and girls’ locker rooms. Luna High is much too big, if you ask me, but Olympia likes to live in places where we fade into the crowd. The gym is enormous, with a fitness center and a climbing wall and tennis courts and all kinds of nonsense that would have just added to my suffering when I was a regular teenager. Having vampire strength does make P.E. a lot more bearable.

  Apparently most of the after-school sports today had been canceled in honor of Tex. There were a few students in the gym, but nobody paid any attention to me as I slipped by and headed down the stairs to the pool area. Big windows overlooked the pool from the gym, but it seemed unlikely that anyone would be looking down at it today. A sign on the door said that regular pool hours were canceled as well.

  I was relieved to find the pool deserted. Perfect turquoise-blue water stretched out in front of me, divided into six lanes. Clean white equipment was stacked around the pool, and the bleachers waited blankly. It was very quiet, with only a few noises filtering down from the cars and people outside.

  No mirrors, and the only windows were high in the ceiling, so the room was bright but no direct sunshine hit the pool or the ground around it. A perfect place for athletic vampires. I should tell Zach about this, I thought. He missed being a high school jock, and most sports were kind of out due to the high sunshine factor. Maybe he could join the swim team. If he ever stops being a jerk, I’ll mention it.

  Two doors on either side of the stairwell led to the changing rooms. I dropped my book bag by the stairs and pressed my ear to the door that said BOYS.

  After a while, I heard footsteps inside. As I’d hoped, Mr. Smiley had gone through the boys’ locker room…assuming it was him. I really hoped it was him. I didn’t want to waste this extremely cute meeting on some random guy.

  Somewhere inside, a locker slammed. He’d be coming out soon.

  I hurried over to the pool, finger-combing my hair. Alas, my poor outfit. This had better be worth it. I started walking along the edge of the pool, glancing down at the clear blue water. I could see straight down to the gleaming white tiles at the bottom.

  The changing room door creaked open behind me.

  “Oh, excuse me—hello?” It was exactly the cute accent I’d been waiting for.

  I whirled around with a little yelp of surprise, saw him standing in the doorway, and promptly toppled into the pool.

  It was much colder than I’d expected. I completely forgot about the guy for a minute as my entire body shrieked, “OH, MY GOD! FREEZING!” I flailed my arms and went under as water flooded up my nose. Vampires can’t drown—we don’t even need to breathe, although most of us still do, instinctively. But we can still, apparently, get water up our noses. Somehow this was not as romantic as I’d been hoping.

  Until suddenly…there was another splash, and then a pair of strong brown arms wrapped around me. I felt myself pressed to his warm, bare chest as he kicked up to the surface. I put my arms around his neck and held on, my face thisclose to the curve of his collarbone.

  We bobbed to the surface next to the wall. He kept one arm around my waist and grabbed the wall with his other hand. Reluctantly, I let go with one hand and did the same. Now we were facing each other, hanging on to the wall with our other arms still around each other. His lips were only a few inches from mine, and now he was giving me the adorable smile I’d had in my head since yesterday.

  Apart from the fact that I was now freezing and my clothes were all wet, this was exactly what I’d been hoping for.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  I nodded. “J-j-just b-b-b-brrrrr—” Okay, maybe the teeth chattering wasn’t precisely part of the plan.

  “There’s a ladder over here,” he said, taking my hand and towing me a few feet down the wall. He guided me onto the rungs and I climbed out, shivering. He hopped out right behind me and ran over to a stack of red and gold towels by the wall. Grabbing a few of them, he ran back to me. I was trying to smooth my wet hair back into something presentable when he came up behind me and wrapped a towel around my shoulders. Somehow he still felt warm. I wished he’d keep his arms around me, but he moved his hands to my arms and rubbed them through the towel…which was okay, too.

  “You’ll feel better in a minute,” he said. “That was absolutely spectacular.”

  “Oh, g
ood,” I said, returning his smile. “Spectacular is what I was going for.” He guided me over to a bench and we sat down, but he kept rubbing my arms. It was, frankly, the nicest feeling I’d had since the early days with Zach.

  “Yeah, I’d give you a nine-point-five,” he said. “I have to deduct half a point for missing the diving board completely, of course.”

  “Well, I owe it all to my great coach,” I said with a pointed look. “His method involves scaring the living daylights out of me.”

  “Sorry,” he said, looking guilty. “I didn’t think there’d be anyone else in here. You’re not supposed to swim without a lifeguard, you know.”

  “I wasn’t going to swim,” I said. “That was most definitely not on my agenda.” I waved a hand at my sad, dripping clothes. “You look like you were about to break that rule, though.”

  He was wearing dark red swimming trunks and nothing else. This was definitely a good way to meet him…and his arms…and his shoulders…and his pecs….

  “Busted,” he said, toweling off his hair with a sheepish grin. “I figured a few laps wouldn’t hurt, even though the regular lifeguard wouldn’t be here. On a day like today, the coaches have bigger things to worry about.”

  “I’m Kira,” I said.

  “Milo,” he said, offering me his hand. He wasn’t very tall—only a few inches taller than me—but his hands were surprisingly big and very strong. Milo, I thought as his fingers wrapped around mine. Finally a name to go with the smile.

  “Are you new here?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “We just moved up from Florida this summer. I figured I’d check out the pool while there was no one around, but I didn’t intend to give it quite such a close inspection.”

  He grinned. “Well, next time remember to wear your water wings.”

  “Hey!” I said indignantly. “I’ll have you know I’m actually a very good swimmer.”

  “Oh, clearly,” he teased.

  “Hello, boots!” I said, pointing to them. “Also, I was startled!” He started laughing and I smacked his shoulder. “You should be begging my forgiveness, not making fun of me.”

  “I do beg your forgiveness,” Milo said. “How will you ever forgive me?”

  “Well, the heroic rescue helped,” I said, pulling off my boots and pouring the water out of them. “If there’s any way you can get me dry so I can head home, that’d give you some brownie points, too.”

  “I have an extra shirt in my locker,” Milo said. “I wore it yesterday, though—do you mind?”

  “Not if it’s drier than this one,” I said, lifting the bottom of my shirt and squeezing it out. Rivulets of water streamed to the ground. I totally spotted him noticing my belly button ring. “I can probably squeak home in these,” I said, nudging my boots. “It’s only a twenty-minute walk,” I added with a forlorn sigh.

  “No way!” Milo said, just as I’d hoped. “Let me drive you. I have a car.”

  “You have a car?” I said, pretending to swoon. “And a dry shirt? Where have you been hiding all my life?”

  He laughed. “Probably in the pool. Let’s get my shirt. There’s no one in the guys’ changing room, don’t worry.” He stood up and offered me his hand. I took it, feeling warm and fuzzy, and not just from the fluffy towel wrapped around my shoulders. We walked down the length of the pool to the changing room doors. I wondered if he could feel my smile radiating throughout my whole body. This was silly. I’d only just met the guy. And I had Daniel and Rowan to think about. So why did I think Milo was so very cute? Just because he made me laugh?

  As we pushed through the door into the changing room, something made me glance back at the windows overlooking the pool, and a shiver ran down my spine.

  I couldn’t be sure—but for a moment I thought I caught a glimpse of someone standing up in the windows, watching the pool.

  Watching us.

  Chapter 9

  The door swung shut behind us before I could tell who had been standing above the pool, or even if I’d really seen what I thought I had. If I was right, it was someone tall—a guy, I was pretty sure. I hoped it wasn’t Zach stalking me around school again. On the other hand, at least I was used to that…. Someone else stalking me would be way more creepy.

  “Welcome to our secret lair,” Milo said with a grin, waving at the green-tiled walls around us. “I promise not to tell anyone you were in here if you promise not to reveal our nefarious secrets.”

  “Such as the fact that your changing room looks exactly like ours?” I joked. “Except our lockers are yellow.” The lockers in here were red. I could see the door at the other end, leading to the main guys’ locker room. I did an instinctive check—no mirrors. There was a mirror in the girls’ changing room, but apparently boys didn’t need to check their bathing suits obsessively the way we did. At least, whoever had built the place thought so.

  Milo spun the combination on his locker and pulled out a pale orange T-shirt. It was as soft as a teddy bear and it smelled like him—cinnamon and sunshine and tangerines and clean laundry.

  “There are these, too, if you’re not too horrified to wear them,” he said, pulling out a pair of giant red flip-flops bearing the school’s LHS logo in gold.

  “I think being able to walk is worth a little fashion crisis,” I said.

  Milo chivalrously turned around and covered his eyes while I wiggled out of my wet tights and shirt. The flip-flops were enormous on my feet, but better than going barefoot. The shirt was also really big on me, but cozy and comfortable.

  “Okay,” I said when it was safe for him to turn around again. He hid a smile and I wrinkled my nose at him. “You can’t laugh at me; these are your clothes.”

  “That shirt looks much better on you than it does on me,” he said gallantly (and, I’m sure, inaccurately). He reached to brush my hair back off my shoulder and then stopped. He picked up a lock of my hair and squinted at it. “Is your hair green?”

  “No!” I said, sounding shocked. “Wow, the chlorine in your pool must be really strong!”

  He looked so worried, I nearly fell over laughing.

  “You goof,” he said, poking my arm. “I’ve never met anyone with green hair before.”

  I shrugged. “I figured, new school, new me.” I gathered my wet clothes and boots into a plastic bag while Milo got dressed.

  “I know what you mean,” he said. “Last time I moved was when I decided to go out for swimming. Before that I was really into playing the guitar, and before that, tae kwon do.” We headed for the exit, back through the pool room.

  “Wow, really?” I said. “And you just left those behind each time you moved?” Is that a vampire thing? I could do that, too…at the next school, try out for the school play…at the one after that, become an ice skater…. I could try out a whole bunch of different lives and see which one I like best. Although, if it means reliving high school over and over again, then never mind.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “I kept the really important things, like my comic book collection.” He winced and slapped his forehead. “Now that’s on the top ten things not to tell a cute girl when you first meet her, isn’t it?”

  I beamed. “You can if you tell her she’s cute at the same time.”

  He looked like he couldn’t stop smiling any more than I could. I grabbed my book bag as we went up the stairs and out through the empty gym into the parking lot. If someone really had been watching us earlier, he was gone now.

  Milo’s car was this tiny, beat-up black thing with stuff scattered all over the seats. In the backseat I spied crumpled papers and several science fiction books, including one with a pair of fangs on the cover. Research on his own kind, or just one of the recent wave of vampire novels?

  Milo dove into the passenger seat and started tossing things into the back. I noticed there weren’t any food wrappers, which was nice—Zach’s car used to be full of crumpled McDonald’s bags. Milo just had a lot of water bottles, most of them half full. He flung a
pair of goggles and a beach towel in the back and stood aside.

  “Sorry about the mess,” he said ruefully.

  “That’s okay,” I said. “Maybe I should sit on that towel, actually—my skirt’s still pretty wet.”

  “What care I for upholstery,” he declared, “when milady is beside me?”

  I giggled. “All right, I’ll get it.” I leaned over the seat and grabbed the towel, giving Milo a very intentional view of my legs as I did. I hoped it wasn’t my imagination that he looked a little more bedazzled when I turned around.

  He closed the door gently behind me and hurried around to the driver’s side. I told him my address as he started the car.

  “Ooo, the spooky part of town,” he said.

  “There’s a spooky part?” I said.

  “What’s more important, there’s a non-spooky part,” he said. “Can I buy you an ice cream before I take you home? I feel like it’s the least I can do after scaring your shirt off.” He paused. “That came out wrong.”

  “I will never say no to ice cream,” I said with a grin. “If you really don’t mind being seen with me like this.”

  “Not at all,” he said. “Hang on a minute.” He leaned into the back and grabbed a notebook and pen. Turning to a blank page, he put on a studious look and wrote, murmuring: Never says no to ice cream.

  “Oh, we’re taking notes on me now?” I said, laughing. “Here, let me help.” I took the pen and notebook out of his hand and added Likes very expensive jewelry to the list as he pulled out of the parking lot.

  “Let me guess,” he said. “Jade and emerald especially?”

  “Oh, no, am I totally predictable?” I said.

  “Hardly,” he said. “I can just tell that green is your color.”

  “What tipped you off?” I asked. “The toenail polish?”