Read A Match Made in High School for Free Online

rules. Let’s get on with it. When I call your name, come up on the stage, join hands with your partner, and I solemnly declare you united for the purpose of marriage education for the year. The end, goodbye. Mr. Evans? Music, please. Carla Adams and Peter Hauser.”
    Pachelbel’s Canon in D started blaring over the sound system as Carla and Peter climbed the stage steps. They joined hands, walked under the arch, and stepped down the risers at the front of the stage. As they strolled up the aisle, the underclassmen started clapping and hooting. 38 Kristin Walker
    Now I understood why they were there. It was a gauntlet of humiliation.
    Two by two we climbed the gallows. Two by two we descended into hell. Okay, maybe I’m overdramatizing it a bit, but I can tell you this much: I used to like Canon in D. It used to sound like hope and beauty and purity and joy all rolled into one. But suddenly, and from that moment on, Canon in D sounded like a death march. A dirge. A slow, inevitable spiral toward the grave. Without a doubt, I would never, ever like Pachelbel again.
    I watched Marcie and Johnny cross the stage toward each other. Marcie was wearing these wedge heels, so she walked kind of slowly. Johnny waited for her with his hand outstretched. She took it and they walked forward through the arch. When they stepped down onto the aluminum risers, the metal groaned under Johnny’s weight a bit louder than usual. Some of the underclassmen laughed, but Johnny kept on going without missing a beat. I thought I saw Marcie give his hand a little squeeze, which was likely, because she’s that type of person.
    I inched forward in the line, trying to keep a sideways eye on Todd. I didn’t know what he had planned, but it couldn’t be good. When Gabe and Amanda got onstage, I looked back and forth between Gabe and Todd to see if Todd had any reaction to his girlfriend getting cozy with a totally smokin’ hot guy. But Todd didn’t seem to care. I was more jealous than he seemed to be. Even when Gabe offered not only his hand, but his muscled arm, which Amanda took, giggling. She was a pro at being coy; I’d give her that. She

CHAPTER 5
39
    made flirting a religion, and right now she was worshipping at the altar of Gabe. But Todd didn’t bat a lash. I, on the other hand, was not so cool. In fact, I had started to sweat like a beauty queen at the last minute of a pregnancy test. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine ice cubes in my armpits, and cool water dripping down my neck and arms. I had almost gotten my heart rate slowed from frantic to merely anxious when Principal Miller called out,
    “Fiona Sheehan and Todd Harding.”
    Oh God. Up I went.
    I climbed the steps and turned to face Todd. We walked toward one another, glaring into each other’s eyes. I didn’t want to trip, but I didn’t want to break his stare, either. When we got within arm’s reach, I held out my hand, trying to be dignified. But Todd broke my gaze and walked right past me to the curtain at the side of the stage. He reached into the velvet drape and pulled out . . . a doll. A blow-up doll. A blow-up sex doll with a black wig and brown glasses like mine, and a silver plastic tiara taped to its head with duct tape. The doll did have pants on—cargos, like I wear. Only, the crotch of the cargos was soaking wet. Dripping down the inside of the legs. As for the top—there was none. The boobs had been smashed in and taped over with duct tape so that the doll was flat-chested. But there were a pair of very attractive black Magic Marker nipples drawn on the duct tape. In the interest of maintaining anatomical correctness, I’m sure. The auditorium exploded in hysterics. Todd grabbed the doll, straddled it, and galloped around the stage like it 40 Kristin Walker
    was a horse—whip action, and all. Then he ran through the arch to the front of the stage (dodging Principal Miller, who seemed shocked into immobility anyway). He held the doll as high as he could